Chapter 208 — Tubo's Nine Oaths

If one could grasp forty or fifty percent of a language, then every part one did not grasp became a cipher, and from the words before and after, the meaning of each cipher could be guessed.

This was precisely what Shen Mu did.

He had known nothing at all of the demon tongue to begin with. It was only by a chance turn of fate that he had heard it at Xuane Pass in the Wilderness Ruins, and so he memorized it. Later, in the Palace of Averting Calamity, he met a demon god sealed within the wall, who taught him the Seal of Great Perfection, and thereby he came to understand a portion of the demon tongue's meaning.

Once he understood part of it, he could infer yet more of the demon tongue from his meager store of knowledge alone, as though cracking a code.

The Demon King of Dutian's thrice-sworn oath had contained a great deal of the demon tongue, in its purest form. Shen Mu had long known that the language of gods and demons concealed a fearsome power within it, and this time the Demon King's thrice-sworn oath had driven his command of the demon tongue's vocabulary to a terrifying level.

If the Demon King of Dutian would swear yet another oath with him in the human tongue, then Shen Mu could set it against the demon words he had failed to understand just now, and master their meaning completely!

The Demon King had not wronged him in saying that he had seized the chance to steal learning.

By now, conversing with the Demon King in the demon tongue was no longer difficult, but for the sake of prudence he judged it better to use the human tongue, so that he might fully command the meaning of every word and phrase, and not be led into some snare.

Shen Mu's gaze flickered: "Then will the Demon King swear the oath or not?"

The Demon King of Dutian sneered: "I will, of course I will!"

He knew Shen Mu meant to use this chance to master the demon tongue completely, but there was nothing to be done about it, for otherwise only one path remained: to kill Shen Mu.

And even if he killed Shen Mu, he was no more than a sliver of consciousness and magic power, and would perish with Shen Mu's death.

"Souls, return! Tubo of the Nine Bends, Fuqi, behold my body!"

The Demon King of Dutian's voice rang out, calling upon Tubo's true name, rousing the attention of this ruler of Youdu. This time he used the human tongue, so naturally he could not play tricks or tamper with it.

Shen Mu attended closely to the meaning of every word, most cautious and careful, weighing each again and again.

Gradually, Shen Mu sensed an inexplicable force surging in from the deep spaces. With the Demon King's voice, this force grew stronger and stronger, and then took shape in his mind as half a gateway.

The Demon King of Dutian finished reciting the oath and looked at Shen Mu.

Having set the demon tongue against the human tongue, Shen Mu's grasp of the former was now more complete. Only then did he recite the oath in turn. Scarcely had he uttered the words "Fuqi, behold my body" when he felt a pair of eyes fall upon him, or rather, not upon his body, but upon his very soul!

His soul shuddered, and he felt the vast, boundless might of the master of souls.

That was a being who ruled over all souls, possessed of limitless power. He had not the slightest interest in flesh, only in souls.

If one broke the oath, he would descend and take away the oath-breaker's soul!

Shen Mu went on reciting the oath, and gradually another half-gateway appeared before his eyes. This half-gateway joined with the Demon King's half to form a single complete gateway.

And beyond the gateway, he saw only endless darkness.

Yet beneath the gateway, Shen Mu "saw" yellow springs, or rather, what could not quite be called the Yellow Springs. It was a golden, glittering current winding through nine bends and eighteen turns, growing ever thicker toward its depths, like a celestial river.

And at the bottom of the endless Yellow Springs, he "saw" a pair of utterly emotionless eyes.

This golden shimmer was not the Yellow Springs at all. It was horns. The two horns atop the head of Tubo, that master of souls!

In Tubo's Nine Bends, the word yue means a bend. Nine bends: nine curves. His horns were the Nine-Curve Yellow Springs.

Shen Mu and the Demon King of Dutian had sworn their oath, and this oath was bound upon the long Nine-Curve horns of that vast, primordial deity!

Why is the breaking of a vow called a violation of the yue? Most likely it is bound up with Tubo's Nine Bends. An oath founded upon the Nine-Curve Yellow Springs: break it, and Tubo will take the oath-breaker's soul. That is what it means to violate the yue.

The oath ended, the gateway closed, and the vision before Shen Mu's eyes vanished.

"Heh, heh heh..."

The Demon King's laughter drifted over. Shen Mu asked doubtfully: "What is the Demon King laughing at?"

"Nothing!"

The Demon King laughed without cease, but could not help himself in the end. Chuckling, he said: "Boy, though you are as cunning as a ghost, you have still fallen into my snare! The oath you swore was not sworn with my true body, but with a single thread of my consciousness! Now you had best serve me honestly! And as for the script of Youdu, do not dream that I will tell you a single word of it! This thread of consciousness of mine can be snuffed out and that is that, and I do not care!"

Shen Mu was struck dumb, and for a long while could not recover his wits.

The Demon King of Dutian roared with laughter, immensely pleased with himself, comfortably savoring Shen Mu's flustered helplessness.

After a moment, Shen Mu let out a breath of stale air and murmured: "No wonder Crippled Grandpa always told me: always smile at others, and always keep a knife ready for their backs... Demon King, you are truly an old hand at it. Fortunately, I am not bad myself."

The Demon King's heart tightened.

Shen Mu said to himself: "I held something back too. I was just now scheming to summon your subjects a batch at a time and slay them a batch at a time. That way it would not count as breaking the oath."

The Demon King of Dutian was taken aback.

The two fell silent.

After a while, the Demon King said: "We are doing each other harm here. Since you do not trust me, there is no need for me to remain in your body any longer. I choose the second path. You fashion a divine-image mechanism, and I will leave your body and take up residence within it. Rest assured, once you have made the divine-image mechanism, I will pass the language of Youdu on to you."

"Done!"

Shen Mu was in high spirits. Master Huo often crafted all manner of furniture, and Shen Mu had learned no small amount of craftwork alongside him. Add to that the arts of calligraphy and painting the Lame Old Man had taught him, and the craft of smelting the Lame Old Man had passed on, and making a divine-image mechanism was no great trouble.

Shen Mu was just about to begin when he suddenly shuddered with dread, cold sweat pouring down his brow: "I nearly fell into his snare! Before I make him the divine-image mechanism, I must first summon the demon and complete the oath. Otherwise, while I am busy making the mechanism, he will pass the language of Youdu on to me, yet I will not have summoned the demon, and that would count as breaking the oath, and Tubo would take away my soul!"

The Demon King of Dutian praised him: "You are quite good. If you came to my Dutian, with that quick wit of yours, you might well survive."

Shen Mu let out a breath of stale air. In a bargain with an existence like the Demon King of Dutian, without the utmost care one would surely be devoured down to the marrow, sucked and savored two or three times over!

He went to the west room for some money, meaning to buy dark iron, cold crystal, and fine wood from the storehouse to carve the divine image, when he saw Snow Fox standing at the doorway, peering about. Shen Mu smiled: "Ling'er, why are you loitering here instead of cultivating?"