Chapter 441 — Entangled in Karmic Debt
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Even two Bagua Disks of the same sort differed in construction, and their lines and trigrams could be shifted at will; different constructions demanded different instruments, and so the number of them was immense. He raised these instruments aloft with his primordial energy, and at once the countless calculating tools in the air began to divide, recombine, and reorder themselves, the complexity of the operation leaving Grey Immortal and the Deaf Elder gaping, dizzy and dazzled.
After a moment there appeared in the air an unbelievably intricate calculating instrument occupying a space more than ten zhang across.
Binary, quaternary, senary, octal, nonary, decimal, hexadecimal, base sixty-four: countless strange components revolved of themselves in the air as Shen Mu's primordial energy turned, and the click-clack of their workings never ceased. Beads of calculation floated up as well, leaping and tumbling without pause. Blocks and cubical pillars, some long, some short, evolved unendingly. "Can you follow any of it? " Grey Immortal asked the Deaf Elder in a low voice.
The Deaf Elder waved a hand. "I cannot hear you. " Grey Immortal did not know whether to laugh or to cry.
All at once Shen Mu shook the Taotie Bag, and the calculating instruments in the air swept back into it with a great clatter and vanished. "It is done. Grandpa Deaf, over to you. " Shen Mu's spirit surged; he roused his primordial energy, and at once a teleportation formation appeared in the air, its various runes kindling alight.
The Deaf Elder raised his eyes to study it, then lifted his brush and painted in the air, the brush moving like dragons and snakes, swiftly rendering a formation diagram in which every rune and sigil matched Shen Mu's teleportation art exactly.
The painting art he used was the very technique of the world within the painting that Shen Mu had once described to him.
Formerly his art had worked from the inside outward: paint wind, and wind appeared; paint thunder, and thunder appeared.
Now it worked from the outside inward, and within the painting lay hidden a world.
Shen Mu dispersed the teleportation art, roused his primordial energy again, and another kind of teleportation formation appeared in the air.
The Deaf Elder painted this second formation, and Grey Immortal leaned in to look into the painting and was struck dumb: the painting the Deaf Elder had made in the air was plainly flat, yet looking into it one saw space within the plane, in no way different from the teleportation art Shen Mu had performed.
Because of the limits of his cultivation, the art Shen Mu performed covered no great area and carried no great power; the painting the Deaf Elder produced likewise looked small, yet when one leaned in and looked into it, one got a fright, for the space within that painting was vast indeed, several li across at the least.
Shen Mu performed the teleportation art once more and had the Deaf Elder paint a third picture.
When it was done, Shen Mu told him to lay the third picture beneath his own feet. The Deaf Elder was briefly startled, puzzled as to his meaning, but did as he was told.
A beam of light shot from Shen Mu's eyes toward the air above the great saber. "Grandpa Deaf, put the first picture here. " The Deaf Elder flicked his brush upward; the first picture flew out and settled where his gaze had fallen, then slowly faded and vanished.
Shen Mu calculated in silence a moment, and again a beam shot from his eyes, falling upon the belly of the divine statue.
"Put the second picture here. " The Deaf Elder swept his great brush, and the second picture flew out, not a hairsbreadth off, and vanished. Shen Mu let out a breath and smiled.
"In this way, the demon race from beyond the realm will not be able to teleport here through the blood-sacrifice altar. " Grey Immortal frowned slightly. "That will be enough?
" Shen Mu nodded. Grey Immortal was still uneasy.
"Are you certain?