Chapter 212 — The Inevitable Parting

" Heavenly King Lu murmured amid the flames: "Life and death are unpredictable; parting is unavoidable.

I will not live to see you become a Holy Teacher.

How I long to return to Shenglin Mountain and look once more upon the Holy Teacher Tree. . . I can hear the woodcutter's axe.

.

. " The old man shivered in the fire and smiled: "Cult Master, I am so cold.

. .

" Shen Mu stretched out his hand, wanting to grasp this old man's hand, but what he touched was a handful of fully burnt bone ash.

The fierce flames gradually died down, leaving gray-white ash.

For a long while, there was only silence. Shen Mu swept up Heavenly King Lu's ashes, put them in a blue urn, and stood in a daze before the urn. He had been thrust into the role like a duck driven onto a perch, sold to the Youmo Cult by Granny Zhu and made Holy Cult Master in a muddle.

He had never felt much attachment to the Youmo Cult; if there was any feeling at all, it was toward Granny Zhu and the Young Patriarch.

Yet as his understanding of the Youmo Cult had deepened, he had gradually come to love its creed and its motley membership, to admire their character and their conduct.

He had come to see himself as a member of the cult and worked hard to be a worthy Holy Cult Master.

Heavenly King Lu had been in his company only a short time.

Perhaps he had never truly regarded Shen Mu as the Holy Cult Master, but simply as a mischievous disciple—one for whom he hurried about on Shenglin Mountain, wiping up after him and clearing away the messes and the litter of disasters the boy left behind.

He was more like an elder cherishing his juniors, his reproachful gaze tinged with fond indulgence. And now he was dead, reduced to a handful of ashes in a blue urn. .

. "Sword Hall. .

.

" A gleam of sharpness slowly entered Shen Mu's dull, wooden eyes. "Command the disciples of the cult to marshal every resource we have. I want Sun Nantuo, the Grand Preceptor of the Crown Prince, investigated thoroughly—his life, his family, his sect, his disciples, everything!

" Shen Mu continued: "Take Heavenly King Lu with you as well.

He wanted to go back beside the Holy Teacher Tree.

.

. bury him there for me. " Shen Mu walked out of Sword Hall's residence, found Si Yunxiang, who had already returned to the Scholars' Residence from the Heavenly Record Tower, asked for his book token back, and headed for the Heavenly Record Tower. There he went up to the third floor.

The classics here were few, no more than a hundred or so scrolls, and many white-haired archivists were poring over the various arts in the tower, winnowing out the old and elaborating the new. Shen Mu found the Numinous Treasure Immovable Meditation Art and read through it meticulously, without sleeping or resting for two full days.

He then left the Heavenly Record Tower, went back to his quarters, and slept a long, deep sleep. Shen Mu then read with equal care, spending half a day going through every scrap of information there was on Sun Nantuo, the Grand Preceptor of the Crown Prince, until he had seen it all.

Then he closed his eyes.