荒墟牧神 - 第276章 忽起殺心 - 簡牘書房

"Last night Ban Gongcuo ordered a great shaman to work sorcery and kill me, and today he dares invite me to a banquet?

" Shen Mu was briefly taken aback. "Can he imagine that because it is sacred ground as well, the Golden Palace of Loulan might overbear the Celestial Sage Sect?

Or has he some other design?

" Libationer Bashan walked over and asked, "Shall I go with you? " Shen Mu shook his head.

"It will not come to that. If Ban Gongcuo dared to kill me in the open, he would not have used sorcery against me last night. I will go to the banquet alone and meet him. " The Jade Fragrance Tower was the largest tavern in the capital, laid out in garden fashion: one court, one courtyard, and in the courtyards rockeries, running water and fountains, and maidservants with strings and flutes and dancing.

Each courtyard stood apart from the rest, quiet and refined. Nor did those who came here to eat and drink come for the eating and drinking; they came only seeking a place where they might talk. Before the year of calamity came, its business had been fierce; even great officials and nobles had to reserve their banquet in advance.

But when the natural disaster broke out and the emperor himself took charge of the relief, the great officials and nobles of the capital were obliged to donate as well, and only then did the Jade Fragrance Tower's trade grow lean.

One supposed that once the effects of the calamity had passed, this tavern's business would surely flourish again. In the Green Bamboo Garden of the Jade Fragrance Tower, Ban Gongcuo came out to welcome him and said, "Sect Master Shen, my retainers gave great offense; now they are dead, and with death all accounts are settled. I beg the Sect Master's forbearance.

" Shen Mu walked into the Green Bamboo Garden and looked about him.

"The prince is too courteous. " This courtyard was named the Green Bamboo Garden; its gate was round as a full moon, and passing within it one entered the shade of slender bamboos that screened both sides of the path. The ear caught a murmuring of water; after two turns one saw clear water running down from a rockery heaped with strange stones. It was a thin stream, yet it carried the sense of a waterfall plunging headlong.

That waterfall fell into the jade vase held in the hand of a Bodhisattva image; the vase tilted, the water turned once within it and ran out again, falling into the pond to the south. Shen Mu glanced at it.

In the southern pond were sand islets like islands in the sea, spread out like stars, most diverting. On the pond were written the words: "Guanyin of the Southern Sea, whose great vow is deep as the sea. " The Bodhisattva was carved as one with the rockery, and some small spell had surely been laid on it so that the water never ceased.

The pond was not large, but it was wrought with such fineness that, gazing closely, one truly felt as though one hung in the sky above the Southern Sea, looking down over a boundless ocean. "After you, Sect Master Shen. " Ban Gongcuo raised a hand and invited Shen Mu along the long corridor to a private room beside the pond.

The windows were already open, and seated by the window one could see just the whole prospect of the garden.

At the banquet there were also two great shamans in yellow robes, expressionless, standing left and right inside the door. Ban Gongcuo waved a hand.

"You may withdraw.

Have them serve the dishes and the wine.

" The two great shamans of the Golden Palace of Loulan left the room, and after a moment maidservants brought in dishes and wine; into the courtyard came girls of graceful figure dressed in the garb of foreign tribes, blowing ox horns, striking the yangqin and beating the damaru drum, and other instruments besides, which sounded rather distinctive. "Last night it was not by my order that men were sent to kill you. " Ban Gongcuo gave Shen Mu a deep look. "When I want a man dead, I have no need of another's hand.