Chapter 144 — Brothers of the Same Lineage
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The two sat down, and the Bashan Libationer again asked after the Butcher's health. Shen Mu said, "All is well.
His lower half is gone, but his cultivation is very high; his hands scurry about swift as flight. " The Bashan Libationer was puzzled.
"Since you and I share one master, why did you also study medicine under the Jade-Faced Poison King?
Is the Jade-Faced Poison King your master as well? " Shen Mu nodded, and did not tell him that besides the Alchemist and the Butcher, he had other masters too. The Bashan Libationer was stunned, then said suddenly, "I think I know where our master's lower half is! Back then, when he raised his blade to the heavens, his body fell from the sky, and his lower half seems to have been snatched away by the disciples of a certain sect. Junior Brother, you studied medicine under the Jade-Faced Poison King and your skill is great.
I want to ask you: if we find our master's lower half, can it be reattached? " Shen Mu hesitated a moment. "If it had only just been cut off, yes. One need only rouse the body's vitality and use medicines that grow flesh and generate essence, and severed flesh can be rejoined, severed tendons reconnected, severed bone remolded.
But so much time has passed—I fear his lower half has long since died.
. .
" The Bashan Libationer slumped, then rallied. "Even so, we must get our master's lower half back! " Shen Mu nodded.
"Senior Brother had best first find out clearly which sect took it, lest we go looking at the wrong one. " The Bashan Libationer rose, and before long returned.
"Our master's lower half was picked up by someone more than two hundred years ago, and there is no telling whether it is still with that sect. I have already sent men to investigate; when we learn where it is, we will go and bring it back.
" Shen Mu let out a breath.
If the Butcher's lower half could be found, then whether or not it could be reattached, it would be a good thing in the end. The Butcher had only his upper half left, and little of his strength remained; if his lower half had been carried off by someone, it ought to have been preserved. After all, his power was exceedingly great.
As a mighty one of the combat-technique school, attaining the state of an incorruptible body should not have been difficult.
Many eminent monks of the Buddhist faith had achieved incorruptible bodies; after death their flesh neither rotted nor decayed, and they were enshrined in temples as flesh-body bodhisattvas. Yet the hard thing was an undying body. Those flesh-body bodhisattvas in the temples had in truth already died.
An undying body was a notch above an incorruptible one: blood that does not congeal, flesh that does not stiffen, a heart that beats, nerves that run true—that was an undying body.
"Senior Brother Bashan, do you know Grandpa Tu's given name? " Shen Mu asked, recalling something. The Bashan Libationer shook his head.
"I do not. I only know that others called him the Heavenly Blade; what his worldly name was, no one knows.
Our master said he had an enemy who could learn a man's name and work sorcery to harm him, so he seldom breathed his name to anyone. " Shen Mu was startled. This was somewhat like the arts of the Great Shaman of the Man-Di Kingdom.
Could the Butcher have once offended the Great Shaman of the Man-Di Kingdom? He calmed his mind and went on practicing the three sword forms the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had passed down.