Chapter 459 — The Sinister Old Ghost
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
That night, deep in the still of the night, He Yiyi heard a tap-tap at her window. Her heart fluttered in panic; she hurried to push the window open, and there was Shen Mu climbing in. He grinned: "Sister Yiyi, I made sure no one was about before I climbed up.
" He Yiyi's heart pounded wildly.
In the candlelight she looked at her sweetheart, and the more she looked the more her thoughts ran away with her, the more flustered she grew.
And so the two of them talked formation arts the whole night through. At first light the next morning, before the sun had risen, Shen Mu slipped quietly back down through the window.
This too, they said, was the custom of the Western Lands: in a walking marriage, one must not be seen by the woman's family. Before Shen Mu had even reached the ground he ran into a few women who had risen early. They hastily turned their faces away and pretended not to see, and only after Shen Mu had landed and walked some distance did low laughter drift after him.
When the sun was three poles high, He Yiyi and the others saw Shen Mu off from the Sword River Valley with great reluctance. She said, "The He family alone is not enough to bring Zhentian Palace to heel. Sect Master, you go and see the poison master; I will go and see the heads of the other great houses of the Western Lands, and we will plan the great matter together.
" Shen Mu took his leave and departed.
He Yiyi watched him go, a faint sense of loss in her heart.
A girl beside her laughed softly: "So last night you and brother-in-law Shen got together? Several people saw him climb through the window, and someone saw him come down from the upper floor at dawn.
" He Yiyi, bleary-eyed and short on vigor, snapped, "Got together how? We talked formation arts all night.
" The other girls crowded in, chattering and giggling: "Talking formation arts — is that just an excuse? The night was so long last night; surely it was mandarin ducks roosting together and butterflies flying in pairs!
" He Yiyi ground her teeth with a grating squeak.
The girls were all startled: "You really talked formation arts with brother-in-law all night?
" He Yiyi said helplessly, "He was in such high spirits — what was I supposed to do? Force him? Would the He family still have any face left? If I truly forced him, wouldn't we have fought until heaven and earth were overturned and torn Yun City apart? I had no choice but to talk formation arts with him all night. Fortunately his breadth of mind and insight are quite extraordinary; we sank into exploring the dao of formations and forgot all about the joys of love, and felt only that the spring night was too short. Only now, thinking back, do I feel we might actually have done something first, and then explored the dao of formations and exchanged formation lore.
" The girls looked at one another. A lone man and a lone woman shut up together in one room, and they had truly talked formation arts all night: "Beasts.
.
. worse than beasts!
" "Then why did you still send brother-in-law Shen to find that little slut of a poison master? " One girl dared to ask: "If Mu Yingxue isn't as reserved as you, sister, and snatches brother-in-law away, what then? " He Yiyi sneered, "Unless that girl Mu uses force, no one is going to take advantage of him. Ever since she lost to him in a fight, that girl Mu has been unable to forget him, her heart all aflutter. That girl is always competing with me.
I have been thwarted; if she knew, she would surely laugh at me.
Better to let her be thwarted once too, and stop her mouth first!
" The girls were full of admiration: "Sister sees it clearly!
" Shen Mu, with Xiong Qi'er, sat on the Dragon Qilin's back, heading for Leishan City, where the poison master Mu Yingxue dwelt. "Big brother, aren't we going to Zhentian Palace?