荒墟牧神 - 第129章 神劍隱芒 - 簡牘書房

Around him stood a crowd of scholars frozen in shock, and the one who had spoken of the stench of rot a moment before was the most aghast of all—he had never dreamed that the young man and girl who had been dancing so tenderly, so gracefully, only moments earlier would turn and strike to kill; that the youth in brocade would slam the girl so hard she was embedded in a brass pillar. Savage beyond words, and it left a shadow on a man's mind!

Before long Shen Wanyun came over and slapped his palm against the brass pillar. The pillar shuddered violently, and Yue Qinghong, wedged inside it, tumbled out as though jolted by lightning, then covered her face and fled.

The girl's face was bruised and swollen, and her dignity had taken a beating as well. She could have freed herself from the pillar, but the crowd of scholars gathered outside meant she would lose all face; so she stayed hidden inside, meaning to wait until the onlookers thinned before coming out. Instead, they only grew more numerous.

Shen Wanyun then went to the boulder where Lang Nu hung pinned by the blades, drew out the two demon swords, and set him free. Then he leapt down from the jade cliff, stripped off his outer robe, and draped it over Monk Yun Que to cover him, and only then woke him.

Seeing himself left in nothing but a pair of short white trousers, Yun Que understood at once that after he had been knocked senseless, the youth called Shen Mu had stripped him bare, and he was overcome with shame and fury.

That white monk's robe of his was worth a fortune, worth more than an ordinary yuan soldier's kit. Yun Que had sold off every possession he owned to scrape together the money for that one robe, and now Shen Mu had peeled it off him.

Before long Shen Wanyun, Yun Que, Lang Nu, and Yue Qinghong gathered together again. Shen Wanyun said with a smile, "Junior Brother, Junior Sister, what do you make of this Shen Mu's abilities?"

Yue Qinghong gave a cold snort. "You were not sure you could beat him yourself, so you sent us out ahead to sound out his depths? Eldest Senior Brother, isn't that a touch devious?"

Shen Wanyun said calmly, "In war there is no such thing as too much deception—that is a lesson I learned on the battlefield. I also learned there that he who knows himself and knows his enemy will never be beaten in a hundred battles. Until I have observed his weakness, I will not strike rashly. The two of you are not much weaker than I am; if you cannot beat him, neither can I. So the only way left is to hunt for his weakness. If even I were defeated, then he would be the Eldest Senior Brother of our Scholars' Lodge, and its pride and face."

Yun Que was won over and then some. He said, "Eldest Senior Brother, what did you see?"

"His dharma power, his cultivation, his moves, his fighting instinct, his technique, his scheming—all of them first-rate!"

Shen Wanyun said, "You traded palm strikes with him. You cultivate the Buddhist dharma, your cultivation is deep and mighty, and the defense of Buddhist divine powers is fearsome—yet he broke you down with the force of his palm. His dharma power and cultivation are above yours! Lang Nu's cultivation is mighty as well, and his blade art is a killing art honed on the battlefield, yet he could not land a single blow on the man; instead he lost in three moves. That shows his fighting instinct and his moves are top-notch too! And when he beat Junior Sister Yue, he relied on technique and cunning. She was examining Lang Nu's wounds; he slipped up behind her without a sound, so that she lost the initiative and had to press body to body with him in that dance, and so fell into his trap."

Yue Qinghong thought of how tightly she had been pressed against Shen Mu, and her cheeks reddened a little; she gave a cold snort.