Chapter 167 — The Patriarch Departs
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
The young Patriarch's eyes flickered. He shook his head. "You turned yourself into a heart-demon and planted it in her dao-heart.
You must know that if she refines you, you will have made her a bridal gown.
" "Whether she refines me, or I take possession of her, the two of us will become one. " Sect Master Li's voice came through: "Good or ill, it is my choice. When I decided to marry her, I knew deep in my bones that she was my heart-demon, a heart-demon I had no choice but to remove. Only with her removed could I give myself wholly to the dao and advance another step.
I beg Master to grant me this.
" Shen Mu's heart jumped, and he looked at the young Patriarch. He had long known that a great heart-demon was hidden within Granny Zhu's body, a heart-demon of extraordinary power, one that even Ximiro of the Great Thunderclap Temple's meditation staff could not refine away.
Only now did he learn that this heart-demon was none other than the former Sect Master, Fan Xuanshu.
Granny Zhu had killed Fan Xuanshu, and Fan Xuanshu had become a heart-demon planted in Granny Zhu's dao-heart; the two of them now fought over a single body. In his own heart, of course, he wished to help Granny Zhu refine Fan Xuanshu.
But the young Patriarch clearly held the scales even, and would not think that way. Whether Granny Zhu refined Fan Xuanshu, or Fan Xuanshu played the dove and seized the magpie's nest, taking Granny Zhu's body for his own, either outcome was a good thing for him.
There was no need for him to intervene. After a moment, Granny Zhu returned to normal, still smiling as before, as though nothing had happened. Her purpose in coming to attend the ceremony of the Holy Sect Master's enthronement was, in the end, Shen Mu.
She feared the sect's people would bully her, and so, even at the cost of enduring their scornful looks, she had come to lend him her support.
As for whether the Great Unity cultivation method would be passed on, she did not care; she cared only for Shen Mu.
The young Patriarch sighed. Beauty is a curse, and that saying was made for women like Granny Zhu. She was too beautiful; even if she did no evil, others would do evil on her account.
This world could hardly bear such beauty. Fan Xuanshu was worldly; the young Patriarch was worldly; and no one else could escape worldliness either.
If she wished to survive in this world, she could only be Granny Zhu.
She could not reveal her true face, nor even her true voice.
After the enthronement ceremony, the young Patriarch summoned Shen Mu and walked shoulder to shoulder with him, pointing out the sights of Saint's Descent Mountain: here was the Terrace of Forgotten Feeling, there the Phoenix-Descending Pavilion, elsewhere the Tower Under Heaven, and further on the Fish-Watching Pool. He spoke a great deal, recounting much of the Dark Demon Sect's past.
Some of that history was very ancient; if he did not speak of it, then once he died, no one would ever know it. "Patriarch, why is our Heaven Saint Sect's leader called 'enthroned'? " Shen Mu asked.
"Is not 'enthronement' a word only emperors may use? " The young Patriarch glanced at him and shook his head. "In the days of my Heaven Saint Sect's greatest glory, it ruled six nations, and the emperors of all six were subjects of my Heaven Saint Sect.
That the Holy Sect Master uses the same word as an emperor, that is already doing the emperor great honor.
Times have changed.
Today the nation is the greatest sect of all. A sect can hardly make everyone its disciple, but a nation can make everyone within its borders its subject. " Shen Mu fell into thought. Shen Mu followed him, and the young Patriarch led him into a great hall in the mountain. In form the hall was merely ordinary, with none of the luxury and grandeur of Loulan's Golden Palace; it was built of plain blue bricks and red tiles. Inside, the furnishings were equally plain: only a single statue of a sage.