Chapter 609 — A Pair of Embroidered Shoes
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The Woodcutter Sage likewise wrote his oath, and they exchanged papers. Each pondered the other's oath, searching for loopholes, then took up the brush to amend it, exchanged the oaths back again, and examined them once more in fine detail, altering whatever they could not accept. So it went again and again, until at last they settled each other's oaths. The two rose to their feet and each swore his oath — Vajra in the demon tongue, the Woodcutter Sage in the divine tongue.
The divine tongue and the demon tongue sounded at once, each carrying its own hidden mysteries and subtleties, even clashing and warring with the other! Shen Mu was master of both tongues; whether divine or demon, he understood all, and he could not help but listen entranced.
Suddenly space quivered, and the altar beneath their feet, tall as a mountain, swayed and rocked; the people upon it hurried to steady themselves. Below the altar, Granny Zhu and the Black Tiger God were facing two other demon gods, and the earth beneath their feet too began to heave of itself; the four gods and demons hastened to steady their stances lest their foes seize the advantage. Granny Zhu swayed east and lurched west, as though her cultivation realm were insufficient; she fell back several steps, and one of her embroidered shoes slipped off unawares, so that she had to steady herself on one bare foot.
The demon sage confronting her brightened his pupils; giving her no time to react, he reached out and picked up that embroidered shoe.
Shoe in hand, the demon god stared at Granny Zhu's fair, delicate bare foot, chuckled, and held the shoe to his nose to sniff it. Granny Zhu flushed with anger, stretched out her hand, and said with a half-smile, "Give me back my shoe!
" The demon god laughed heartily and tucked the shoe into his bosom. "Little beauty, I pity you at first sight.
Your shoe — I will keep it. " Granny Zhu was furious. She pulled off the other shoe as well and flung it at him with a flick of her wrist. "You are a demon god, a being of lofty station — how can you be so frivolous?
" The demon god raised his hand and caught the other embroidered shoe, then stared at her pair of fair, small feet and chuckled, "Good! Now I have a pair! Little beauty, you are made so white and dainty — I have a few human concubines too.
If you will have me, I can make you the principal wife. Only say yes, and when I go back I will eat my own plain-faced wife! " Granny Zhu giggled.
"You eat your plain-faced wife, and then I must worry that one day, when I have become a plain-faced wife, you will eat me! My little shoes — you cannot wear them anyway.
I make you a gift of them.
" The Black Tiger God frowned deeply and thought, "What manner of woman is this? Her talk runs every which way, and here she is flirting with this demon god — a character as unreliable as Brother Shen!
" All around was shrouded in thick darkness, when suddenly firelight came out of the dark, and a pair of enormous horns rose slowly from the darkness beneath the altar. About the altar there was no light of sun or sky; that pair of horns twisted through nine bends and eighteen turns, towering as high as the clouds, far above the altar.
The Black Tiger God was greatly alarmed; the two hammer-heads in his hands fell to the ground unawares, and he hurriedly picked them up and raised his head to look at those horns still rising out of the darkness. After a moment, the shadowy form of Tu Bo revealed its head, and the two pairs of horns had thrust up to a height level with the stars beyond the sky. Tu Bo's tiger-like face was hidden in the darkness, the fire in his eyes lighting his face now bright, now dim, and the tall, towering altar too grew bright and dim beneath his gaze.
Tu Bo waited quietly for their oaths.