Chapter 686 — The Old Angler by the Cold Pool
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Shen Mu said, "I have been to the Other Shore Ark. I once thought that place was the Land of No Sorrow, but when I got there I found it was not. The Other Shore Ark had been sealed, trapping the remnant of the Heavenly Artisan God Clan inside. Those Heavenly Artisans spent nearly twenty thousand years breaking through the seal, and only one child of a few years old walked out alive."
The Woodcutter Sage took up his words. "And that was Li Youran's failing — he did not look into it closely before he went off with Great Brahma. Later, the child who left the Other Shore Ark grew up, and after much struggle, after being cheated more times than one could count, he let slip a great many secrets. He was so grieved that he steeled his heart and cut out his own tongue, lest he talk too much."
Shen Mu was silent.
The Woodcutter Sage went on: "He was the last of the Heavenly Artisans. Though he cut out his tongue, he was cheated still, and so he hid himself in the Desolate Ruins and became a blacksmith."
Shen Mu was silent for a while, then said with a smile, "He cultivates the Profound Scripture of Flawless Creation now, and his tongue has grown back."
The Woodcutter Sage led them over mountains and ridges at great speed. "I hope he can keep himself from speaking. Otherwise, sooner or later he will cut his own tongue out again."
Shen Mu said, "He speaks very little now, but he curses in hand signs at tremendous speed — much faster than speech."
Yan Jingjing laughed. "I know who you are talking about — that blacksmith grandpa. His two hands really do move very fast when he gestures. Only he still needs an Iron-Ear grandpa to translate what he says."
Shen Mu said, "Most of what he signs is curses."
They came to a canyon rarely trodden by human feet, surrounded by dense, verdant trees. In the canyon lay a pool of water whose bottom could not be seen, and Shen Mu and Yan Jingjing saw that beside this deep pool there stood a stone statue — the statue of an old man in a bamboo hat, seated at the water's edge, a fishing rod in his hand, its line hanging down into the pool.
The old man's other hand propped up his chin, and at his feet lay a fish basket.
The old man had turned wholly to stone; and strangest of all, his rod and line had turned to stone with him — even the fish basket had become stone.
Shen Mu looked into the basket and saw something stranger still: there were two stone fish inside it!
"Even the fish have turned to stone! Can these two fish be gods as well? And if they were gods, how could they have taken the hook?"
He was greatly puzzled.
The Woodcutter Sage came to the side of the stone angler, took out a stick of incense, lit it, and planted it beside him. "Senior Brother, it is time to wake."
The incense smoke curled upward like a spirit snake and bored into the stone statue's nostrils.
After a moment, the nostrils changed from stone to flesh and blood, and from about the nostrils the change spread; soon the stone receded from the old angler's body, and flesh and skin, garments and all, grew living again.
The rod in his hand shed its stone little by little, and from the rod the change passed on to the line, and the fishing line uncoiled and stretched out!
Then the fish basket at his feet, set in the pool, also shed its stone, and with two flapping sounds the two fish inside came back to life, bright red, rolling about twice in the basket.
Shen Mu and Yan Jingjing watched, spellbound, as the old angler stretched his waist, shifted on the little folding stool beneath him, and said, "That was a good, full sleep. Woodcutter, what have you woken me for?"
The Woodcutter Sage said with a smile, "To fish for the sun, and to fish for the moon."
The old angler took off his bamboo hat, blew the dust from it, put it back on his head, and said, "The suns of the Dawn Spring? The moons of the Soul Spring? With your skill, you could fish them up without much trouble — why wake me?"