荒墟牧神 - 第250章 言靈誅心 - 簡牘書房

Seeing a familiar face, Shen Mu could not help but feel a certain warmth. From childhood he had run wild with the Blind Elder and the Lame Elder, and from the age he could first remember things he had studied every kind of knowledge under the nine elders of Yincan Village. He had not had so much as a playmate in his boyhood; it had been dry as dust.

Yet he had crossed blades with Monk Chenghuai only once, and they were of an age — a little warmth between them was only natural.

Monk Chenghuai chanted the Buddha's name, pressed down the anger that had risen in him, and smiled. "You beat me then, but you may not beat me now. After I lost to you I brooded long over the pain and mended the flaw I had. Shall we have another bout?"

Shen Mu was startled. "You mended the flaw at your throat?"

Chenghuai was pleased with himself. "Last time you cut me at the throat and I lost. This time I will never let you land the blow!"

Shen Mu blurted out, "Little Monk Chenghuai, you are how old, and you go tinkering at the Tingming Mahayana Sutra? With the eye and the understanding you have now, every change you make will only add more errors, more flaws! Rather than tinker blindly, you should go straight to the Tathagata and let the Tathagata teach you... Hmm. I tinker with my own arts too, and my arts have been altered by my own hand past all recognition, so I have no right to scold you."

Shen Mu flushed with embarrassment. He too had changed his arts: the Profound Body Three-Elixir Art he had altered more than once, and the Great Nourishing Dark Demon Sutra he had fused with the Profound Body Three-Elixir Art, thereby mending the flaw in that art's left shoulder.

To accuse Chenghuai of tampering with his art — that was the great fool laughing at the lesser fool. And who was to say Chenghuai had not truly wiped away the flaw at his throat?

Chenghuai was itching for it. "Then may I have the honor of your instruction?"

Shen Mu was about to answer when an old monk said suddenly, "Disciple, no insolence. This is Cult Master Shen of the Dark Demon Cult!"

Chenghuai started, and cried out, "Since when did you turn into the old demon chief of the Dark Demon Cult?"

Shen Mu sighed. "The details are hard to explain. I did not want it either, but I was shoved onto the cult master's seat by main force and have no choice but to sit in it."

He looked toward the old monk who had spoken: none other than the White-Browed Monk Jingming. This white-browed monk was Chenghuai's master, and he lived up to his name — a shrewd one to the bone. His loud announcement that Shen Mu was the demon cult master of the Dark Demon Cult had not been meant to warn Chenghuai at all, but to inform every monk present.

At that one shout, the many monks who had been poring over the Hundred Dragons Diagram all turned their eyes on Shen Mu, each murmuring the Buddha's name under his breath, plainly hard-pressed to keep himself in hand, unable to press down the urge to subdue demons and destroy devils.

Chenghuai said in alarm, "Then quit it, quick — don't be a demon cult master, people die for that! Our temple has many eminent monks who hate evil as their own enemy and are used to beating and killing demon chiefs. Every time they go out they must subdue a few demon chiefs to pile up merit. You will be beaten to death! I won't spar with you. Get down the mountain and go on the run, quickly."

Shen Mu shook his head. "I thank you for your kindness, but I am a guest here now. The Old Tathagata is my senior brother, and he has said I am to stay in the temple. Will they still subdue the demon, then?"

Chenghuai hesitated. "That I cannot say. Most likely they will come and debate with you, urge you to turn from evil and return to the right; and if you get the better of them in debate, most likely they will still beat you to death."

Shen Mu was speechless — and indeed, several monks were already walking his way.

"Amitabha!"