Chapter 546 — The Peerless Art of Face-Changing
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Zhe Huali, carrying Jiang Yi's corpse in his arms, followed hard on Fu Riluo's heels; as he passed this way, he turned his head and looked at Shen Mu. Shen Mu was in the midst of refining pills; hurriedly he smiled and nodded in acknowledgment.
"Senior Brother Zhe Huali — let us meet again when there is a chance.
" Zhe Huali's face showed no expression at all, and he followed Fu Riluo away.
The Black Tiger God leaped down from the great hall, glanced at Shen Mu, then glanced at the Woodcutter Sage, who had turned around. The Woodcutter Sage — his great axe stowed away somewhere nobody could tell — was studying Shen Mu's pill-refining technique closely. The other deities likewise came leaping down one after another and gathered in a ring around them; every one of them had something to say and many questions to ask, yet all of them swallowed their words.
Until the Woodcutter Sage spoke, not one of them dared to be the first to open his mouth. The Venerable Deity Sang Ye hastily drew Sang Wan aside, meaning to give his daughter a savage scolding, but since no one else was speaking, he could hardly be the one to start.
Shen Mu was refining a spirit pill, and had reached the critical stage: wholly absorbed, his mind on nothing else, he paid them no heed.
Yet ringed around by these deities, their divine eyes fixed on him with piercing glare, even he felt the pressure, and bead after bead of sweat broke out upon his brow, spread quite evenly across it. After a while, Shen Mu finished the spirit pill, crushed it gently, took a little water to dissolve it, and dripped it into Yu He's and Shu You's eyes and ear canals.
He observed closely how the membranes of their eyes and ears were growing, frowned faintly, then rummaged in his Taotie pouch, took out several medicinal ingredients, refined a little ointment, and carefully applied it to their eyes and ear canals. "Why did you apply the medicine twice? " asked the Woodcutter Sage, puzzled. "The first medicine was to make their eye and ear membranes grow; the second seems to carry a certain toxicity.
Why is that? " Shen Mu studied Yu He's and Shu You's eyes and glanced at their ear canals.
"This ointment is no poison, but a spirit medicine used to restrain growth. The first pill I refined was meant to make their damaged eye and ear membranes grow, but that was my first time compounding and refining such a medicine, and I could not judge its potency, so it came out rather too fierce. If they kept growing, their ear and eye membranes would thicken and impair their hearing and their sight.
That is why I needed a second medicine, to hold back the growth of the membranes.
" He stretched his waist in a long, easy movement and smiled. "By now they are nearly recovered; their sight and hearing will be no worse than before.
" The deities of Taihuang Heaven standing around all breathed out in relief. Yu He and Shu You were the mightiest of Taihuang Heaven's Seven-Star-realm adepts, and among the younger generation the ones with hope of becoming deities; had they gone blind and deaf, it would have been a loss beyond measure to Taihuang Heaven. Huang Yue and the others had died in the sand-table world; Taihuang Heaven's losses were grievous enough already. Shen Mu bowed to the Woodcutter Sage. "Disciple Shen Mu pays his respects to the Patriarch. " The Woodcutter Sage reached out both hands and raised him up, saying with a smile, "You must have received my transmission of doctrine and of the Way. Since you are my direct heir, you are my disciple; there is no need to call me Patriarch.
" Shen Mu was startled and delighted at once. If he became the Woodcutter Sage's disciple, his standing in the hierarchy would shoot up steeply; even if he met the successive Sect Masters of the Nether Demon Sect again, those old ghosts would never be able to press him down with seniority!