Chapter 450 — Of Uncommon Appearance
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Though these girls had cultivated a few of the Western Lands' arts, and knew that such a place as the True Heaven Palace existed, where in the Western Lands the True Heaven Palace actually stood was more than they knew. The Western Lands were vast, no smaller than Jingping or the Desolate Ruins, and though most of those who dwelt in the Desolate Ruins knew of the Daoist sect, most of them had no notion where that sect was to be found.
So it was with the people of the Western Lands as well. Shen Mu rather regretted having killed that woman disciple of the True Heaven Palace.
Ahead, a splendid city came into view; the girls upon the wooden chest had come to this city for its market fair.
The city was called Fangxiu, and it was blooming with flowers on every side: green vines crept up the city walls, great blossoms opened along the battlements, and the gate towers too were hung all over with flowers, a riot of purple and red, dazzling to the eye.
Drawing near, one saw that those flowers were like flower-sprites: from each blossom emerged a girl of delicate and graceful form, softly singing ballads no one could understand; they were spirits within the flowers, awakened by the city folk through their arts and made into the adornment of Fangxiu. There were pothos maidens in green skirts and crabapple maidens bearing bright red blooms, flitting among the high towers and great halls. A giant wrought of stone beat upon a great drum; in the air floated flowers whose names he could not call, and flower-spirits stood within them, blowing flutes and plucking lutes, flying round the stone giant to accompany him.
When Shen Mu came into the city he felt like a country bumpkin come to town: in the streets walked colossal beings, house-giants that had sprouted legs and feet, and boys and girls stood at the window lattices looking all about, gazing at the sights on every side, their laughter ringing clear. Long ribbons came fluttering out from the window lattice of one house-giant and drifted across into the window of another, forming a bridge, and girls in every kind of finery trod those ribbons from one house into the next for trysts with their sweethearts. "It's the Flower Mountain Festival!
" Xiong Qi'er cried, thrilled.
"My mother took me to one before! The Flower Mountain Festival at the True Heaven Palace is even more uproarious than this!
" Shen Mu took Xiong Qi'er up in his arms and parted from the girls upon the chest; the Dragon Qilin bore the two of them along these splendid, wondrous streets. The prosperity of the Western Lands was beyond imagining, utterly unlike Jingping, possessed of a singular charm. Walking through this city so full of outlandish delights, he had sachets tossed to him by any number of girls, and one bold girl came stepping along a ribbon and took his hand, wanting to fly back with him into one of the tower-giants for a tryst. Shen Mu released the hand of the girl who had lifted into the air, and she flew back among the buildings like a fairy treading the waves, off to seek out other handsome men. Since coming to the Western Lands he had met that woman disciple of the True Heaven Palace, who was truly vicious, and he had formed no very good opinion of the women of the Western Lands; yet here in Fangxiu he found himself drawn in by the local manners.
The Flower Mountain Festival came once a year, and it was uproarious beyond measure.
Shen Mu threaded his way through the crowds and the tower-giants and the house-giants, and came at last to the center of the city, where it was quieter, not so clamorous as before.
"Those who live here must be the likes of Fangxiu's landlords; from them I should be able to learn news of the True Heaven Palace. " Just then a green vine grew with astonishing speed and drifted up before Shen Mu; at its tip was a great flower, which opened at its leisure, and from the blossom emerged a woman in pink, who said with a sweet smile, "Might you be Young Master Shen?