Chapter 302 — Truly Shabby
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu's Taotie Pouch had always held a miscellany of herbs, kept for emergencies, so that a wound would never find him unable to tend himself. As a peerless physician, of course, it was only natural that he also kept a few poisons in the pouch. And even without poison, he could brew something deadly from spirit medicines alone.
The two white bats rose onto their hind legs; Shen Mu went up to examine their injuries, and his brow knit slightly — the damage to their bodies was not so grave; it was their souls that had taken the Witch King's grievous blow.
The great shamans of Loulan's Golden Palace cultivated themselves on the souls of other living things, human beings among them; their arts were all-encompassing, yet their mastery was greatest in the workings of the soul, and in martial arts they fell somewhat short. When Bango Tso fought Shen Mu, he had not brought out his finest soul arts at all, but contended with Shen Mu using Daoist swords and the techniques of holy lands like Lesser Jade Capital — and so lost the initiative and was beaten into a sorry rout. Had he used his soul arts, the outcome would have been hard to call; Shen Mu could not be certain whether the Creation Heaven-Demon Art could withstand them.
The soul arts of Loulan's Golden Palace were called the Shamanic Arts, and in the cultivation of shamanism they had reached the absolute summit; that was why they were named a holy land of the grasslands. The two white bats had been struck several times by the Witch King's shamanic arts. The Witch King's cultivation was, at the very lowest reckoning, of the Heaven-Man realm, and yet those several shamanic strikes had failed to take the lives of the two white bats — proof enough that these descendants of gods were no ordinary beings.
"So fierce — a strong medicine is called for. . .
" Shen Mu murmured. At once the two white bats grew wary.
"What did you say? " "I said your injuries are severe, and you will need a strong medicine.
How shall I address you two, fellow Daoists? " To deal with Bango Tso and the shamanic arts of Loulan's Golden Palace, Shen Mu had studied pharmacology and the nourishing of the soul. The pharmacology the Alchemist had passed down to him held little on soul-poisons of the shamanic kind, and nothing profound.
For though the Alchemist was a king of poisons, he plied his trade mostly in the Central Plains and rarely ventured onto the grasslands, and so knew little of shamanic poisons and soul-wounds.
But Shen Mu had dealt with Loulan's Golden Palace often enough, and gradually formed ideas of his own.
Combining them with the Seven Chapters of Creation from the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture, he devised a method of healing that worked cultivation and medicine as one.
"My name is Fu Yuqiu, and this is my elder brother, Fu Yuchun," said the white bat with the longer ears. Watching him refine pills and medicines — using no cauldron at all, but drawing the potency from the herbs by sheer technique and primordial energy, accomplishing the whole pharmacology of sovereign, minister, assistant and envoy, of generation and restraint, by the movements of his hands alone — the two white bats could not help but marvel: "The Ox-Head physician is truly remarkable. He has our eyes dazzled. " Before long, Shen Mu finished the first batch of spirit pills. Fu Yuchun, the one with the shorter ears, did not take his at once.
Wary, he said, "Alchemist Niu, you taste one first!
" Shen Mu laughed.
"Wary brothers, are you not.
My surname is not Niu but Shen — the single name Mu. " With that, he pinched up a spirit pill and swallowed it. Only then did the two white bats relax and take their pills. Shen Mu then used the Creation Ghost-God Art and the Creation Earth-Primal Art to pat and strike the two bats, hastening the medicine's power and shoring up their souls; both felt greatly eased, and their injuries were indeed much lightened.