Chapter 608 — The Old Woman's Little Shoes
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
That demon god was locked in combat with the Wilderness Deity who guarded the altar. Though his eyes watched six roads and his ears heard eight quarters, the enemy was simply too strong, forcing him to give the fight his whole mind. The garment came flying at him; he sensed no breath of threat from it, and so took no guard. Only when it settled upon his body did he realize — and by then it was too late. Once Granny Zhu's garment was on him it shrank at once, cinching his chest, squeezing it so that it contracted sharply, and rib after rib creaked and cracked under the pressure.
The garment seemed to bristle with needles that pierced into his flesh; a fierce stinging pain came, past all enduring. The demon god could not draw breath, and hurriedly shrank his body — as a demon god, controlling his own size was of course effortless.
Just then his opponent swept a sword at him, and it happened that his shrinking let him dodge the blow. But as he shrank, the garment shrank with him, and still bound him tight as death.
"Break! " His body swelled — but the garment did not swell with it, and in that instant the demon god heard his own ribs snap. Not only his ribs: the five viscera and six bowels within him were crushed almost in the same breath.
His chest was squeezed to the thickness of a thumb; the garment was lined with silver needles that pierced him all over, wrecking the workings of his mortal flesh.
To swell one's body in such a state was to court death outright.
The Wilderness Deity he fought, in the very instant his flesh swelled, ran a sword through his skull and pinned his primordial spirit dead. The demon god's eyes went wide, blood bubbling from his mouth, and he rasped, "Had I not been dressed in a little garment, you could not have beaten me.
.
. " With that, he breathed his last.
The garment slipped of itself from his corpse and flew back to Granny Zhu; there it came apart of itself into strips of ragged cloth and returned to the basket. Shen Mu looked at the cloth strips in the basket and ventured, "Granny, your skill at tailoring grows finer by the day.
Where do these strips come from, that they can bind a demon god's flesh? " "The strips are woven from the sinews of gods and demons, and a few dragon sinews too, picked up in the Wilderness.
There was so little of it that I could only weave it into strips. " Granny Zhu smiled.
"The real key is the Great Nurturing Nether-Demon Sutra — it can stitch these rags together so the demon god cannot struggle free. " Shen Mu blinked. "Granny, besides clothes, what else can you make?
" "I can make two pairs of little shoes. I still have thousand-layer soles stitched from demon god hide here; more than enough for two pairs of cloth shoes.
" Granny Zhu dug out two pairs of soles, blinked, and said with a smile, "Put on my little shoes and you will be neither able to live nor to die, guaranteed — and you will not be able to take them off. Does Shen'er want to wear the little shoes Granny made?
" "No!
When I was small you put me in little shoes far too often — you squeezed my feet small! " Even as the two of them were talking, the Wilderness Deity guarding the altar called to them from afar: "Friends, come up and join me!
" Shen Mu and Granny Zhu climbed the altar. The deity stood like jade in the wind, exceedingly handsome; at the sight of Granny Zhu's face his Dao-heart wavered a little, and he hastily steadied himself and bowed in thanks. "So it is Cult Master Shen.
And is this a friend from Taihuang Heaven?
My thanks for your help! " "Senior, you know me?
" Shen Mu was startled. The deity smiled. "The Heavenly Master has spoken of you, Cult Master. " Shen Mu said hastily, "Where is the Heavenly Master?
" "Over there!
" The deity raised a hand toward the distance.
"The sixth altar from here is where the Heavenly Master keeps his watch.
I must stay and guard this altar, and cannot escort you two there.