Chapter 791 — Antecedents and Roots
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
The scholar raised his head toward the two strands of baleful aura. "My first-rate skills are qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting—those I labored at with bitter effort," he said. "My second-rate skills are saber, spear, sword, and halberd—those I merely played my way into. My first-rate skills can rank first or second in the world; as for the second-rate skills I played my way into, they are nothing to speak of. My qin has lost once—to the Crimson Emperor, Qi Xiayu."
His face darkened. "That woman's gifts are extraordinary. Her attainments in the qin surpass even mine."
Shen Mu was deeply shaken.
The Crimson Emperor Qi Xiayu's powers were transcendent and sage-like; she was a Throne-tier expert. Shen Mu had tasted her qin music. When he and the Deva King Buddha fled the Buddha Realm, Qi Xiayu had hunted them across realms with a piece called The Phoenix Seeks Its Mate, and with qin music alone she had gravely wounded the Deva King Buddha!
This scholar had once contested the qin with her—and was still alive. That told one what he was made of.
"Once I thought my qin ranked first," the scholar said. "Now I think my chess deserves first place. It should be chess, calligraphy, painting, qin."
He rode his donkey up the divine mountain, waving his feather fan. "Sect Master Shen, where would you rank your qin and chess?" he asked with a smile.
Shen Mu sighed. "I know next to nothing of such things," he said.
The scholar laughed. "I had thought the great Sect Master Shen was omniscient and almighty. To think that even you have things you do not understand."
Shen Mu took out paper and brush. "Your calligraphy ranks second," he said with a smile. "Might you write a few words for me?"
The scholar lifted the brush. "What difficulty is there in that? What shall I write?"
"Just the three characters Shen Fengqing."
The scholar wrote Shen Mu's name on the paper. Shen Mu took back the paper and brush and studied those three characters closely, his eyes flickering. "Where is the Land of No Sorrow?" he asked.
The scholar turned his head on the donkey and smiled. "Sect Master Shen's thoughts leap about so! We were speaking of qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting—why do you suddenly ask after the Land of No Sorrow? You leave me quite bewildered."
"You have been to the Land of No Sorrow—you may even have come out of it!"
Shen Mu took out the Shen clan genealogy and turned to the place where his own name was written. "On my father's boat I saw your hand," he said. "In the Shen genealogy, many of the names were written by you! And the name my father wrote on the last page—my name—his brushwork is very like yours. Clearly he learned his calligraphy and his painting from you, copied you. You come from the Land of No Sorrow!"
He grew suddenly agitated. "Master Zixi, where exactly is the Land of No Sorrow? Is Kaihuang still there? Why has he not shown himself in twenty thousand years?"
The scholar was silent, then suddenly laughed. "Kaihuang's descendants are indeed no simple characters. In the Shen genealogy I did indeed revise many names, but I never wrote yours. You had me write your name to catch me off guard—but I forgot that I once taught Qin Hanzhen calligraphy and the way of painting."
She turned to look at Shen Mu, her gaze somewhat pitying, and shook her head. "You do not want to go back to the Land of No Sorrow. Give up the thought and live well. I have seen you—you are very good, and you have not disgraced Kaihuang... Lü Zheng, let us go!"
She poked at the radish, and the donkey suddenly leapt, bounding up to the peak of the high God-Slaying Platform. The donkey brayed loudly, its body shook, and it became a god-demon with a donkey's head and a man's body, all sinew and muscle, two palms reaching out to seize the two strands of baleful aura on the God-Slaying Platform!