Chapter 159 — The Blind Man's Twin Pupils
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Those were a pair of eyes, and the owner of those eyes flew aloft, patrolling over the grasslands; the two gazes came drooping down, golden and resplendent, shining across the steppe, sweeping past the little village at the foot of the hillside and then away into the distance. Shen Mu let out a breath of relief, opened the door, and looked up into the sky, where he saw those two great stars trailing columns of light that shrouded six or seven li of country in every direction, drawing farther and farther off. "Brother Bashan.
. .
I wonder how he is faring.
.
. " He was, in truth, deeply worried. What had just passed over must have been a mighty one of Loulan's Golden Palace, a being of the Witch King's rank, come searching along this way; the Green Ox had left no trace, and this village lay hidden among mountain woods, its people all old folk who slept early and lit no lamps, and so the Witch King had not discovered it. But the fact that this Witch King flew hither and thither searching for them meant Libationer Bashan had not managed to hold him back; most likely Libationer Bashan was already wounded, or else had fallen into an encirclement.
"Sleep! " Shen Mu tossed Ling Yuxiu a small jade vial and said flatly, "Little sister, dragon's saliva works wonders on the wounds you carry.
Anoint your body with it first, and the moment you are done, sleep.
At first light we set out at once! " Ling Yuxiu nodded and went inside; after a while the girl pushed the door ajar and poked her head out, her black hair hanging down over her breast, one smooth shoulder bared while the rest of her hid behind the door, and said, a little bashfully, "Ox-boy, there are places I cannot see, and it is awkward to apply. .
. " "I will help you! " Snow Fox came running over eagerly and laughed. "I will do it for her — no need to trouble the young master!
" Of that night, nothing more need be said.
The next day, before the sky was fully light, Shen Mu was already up, limbering his limbs; the village elders were up too, and there came the sound of chickens being fed, of sheep driven out of the fold, of old men greeting one another, until Shen Mu in a daze thought himself back in Yincan Village in the Waste.
"You two little lovebirds, are you up yet?
Breakfast is ready — come eat at my house! " came the old granny's voice from beyond the door. Shen Mu answered her, roused Ling Yuxiu and the Green Ox, hauled Snow Fox out of the bedding, and stepped out of that ramshackle house. Just then a voice came from outside the village: "Here is a village.
Let us go ask the way. " "Ask what?
It is impossible for me to lose my way! " sneered another voice, full of fire.
"I went there in my day, and I laid siege there a hundred days on end.
How could I possibly lose my way?
" Shen Mu was startled, and an expression of disbelief came over him; he hurried toward the village entrance. "There is no harm in asking.
You said you remembered the road, and what came of it?
You dragged me wandering over these grasslands for the longest time — and I am no scoundrel like the Lame Elder, to run so fast. .
. " Shen Mu hastened to the village entrance, and there he saw a blind old man coming along, tapping and poking the ground with a bamboo staff, and beside him an unshaven old man with only his upper half, two butcher's knives thrust into his back, a fearsome sight. Shen Mu was both startled and overjoyed; he ran over at once, and without a word hoisted the half-bodied old man up, squeezed him hard, then flung him aside and threw his arms around the lean, withered blind elder in a tight embrace.
"Zaifu, did I not say we had taken the wrong road again? " The blind elder hastily turned his head aside to avoid Shen Mu and struggled, saying to Zaifu, who had been dumped in a corner wearing a blank look, "You brought me out beyond the frontier — and what came of it? You brought me running back to the Waste, back to our own village!
Shen'er, let go!