Chapter 245 — Quelling the King of the Vast Sea

Shen Mu, Lord Huo and the Blind Elder all nodded. Granny Zhu was beautiful, but she did not wield her beauty as a weapon; on the contrary, knowing that her beauty struck too deadly a blow, she took care to hide it, and went about in ugly guise.

The Grand Hierarch Li, however, was a different creature.

This former hierarch of the Nether Demon Cult was warped in mind. He loved Granny Zhu too much, envied Granny Zhu too much, so much that he wished to become Granny Zhu; and his comprehension of the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra differed from Shen Mu's. For Shen Mu, though he too had obtained the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra, had received the scripture the woodcutter passed down upon the stone, and had comprehended the Great Unification Art, had been molded since childhood by the folk of the village, and so, though his conduct might be somewhat odd, he stood straight and walked true.

Shen Mu's Great Unification Art took the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art as its root, and was most orthodox. Among its arts were many spells and divine powers that others would reckon demonic, yet in Shen Mu's hands they were open and upright.

The Grand Hierarch Li's Great Unification Art, by contrast, was thoroughly sinister, with all the feel of the demonic path.

The Grand Hierarch Li would never let "himself" suffer the least grievance and show the world an ugly face; on the contrary, "she" would flaunt her beauty and bring ruin upon the common folk.

A single smile overturns a city, a second overturns a kingdom — the Grand Hierarch Li did not care in the least.

Shen Mu went into Granny Zhu's room to tidy up, took the various beast hides she had collected over the years, and put them into the Taotie Pouch, ready against a time of need.

Lord Huo and the Blind Elder also packed their gear. The Blind Elder's kit was simple: a bamboo staff, and a fortune-teller's banner hung with a copper bagua mirror. Lord Huo put away the spirit tablets of his wife and children, kissed each tablet, and stowed them in his bundle.

He wore a dark-blue monk's robe, like a mendicant monk who had passed through great bitterness and great calamity.

Granny Zhu's Dao-heart was still somewhat unsteady and often relapsed. Lord Huo could help her hold down the Grand Hierarch Li, while the Blind Elder was there in case Lord Huo proved unable; in that event he would strike the Grand Hierarch Li and wound him, and then Shen Mu could readily heal him.

They walked out of the village, and Granny Zhu mocked herself: "And now I need you all to protect me — even Little Shen must protect me. But I am a former Holy Maiden of the demon cult, and Old Tathagata is a Buddha. Will he lend a hand?"

Lord Huo's face showed no emotion at all. "Old Tathagata will help you. The Grand Hierarch Li is a former hierarch of the Nether Demon Cult, an existence of the same generation as Old Tathagata, and Old Tathagata counts the subduing of demons as merit; to bring down a great devil like the Grand Hierarch Li will aid the advance of his cultivation. Besides, a Buddha giving up his body to feed a demon is a common enough thing."

Shen Mu said with worry, "I fear that once they have subdued the Grand Hierarch Li, they will subdue Granny along with him."

"Old Tathagata will not do that."

Lord Huo shook his head. "He has his own principles, and his principles are his Dao, his rules. At his level of cultivation he need not think about the rules; his every word and every deed never oversteps them — he is the rule."

Shen Mu could not help but feel curious. Lord Huo and Old Tathagata were locked in deep enmity, yet by Lord Huo's way of speaking he still rather admired and respected Old Tathagata.

It was not simply that Old Tathagata had once been Lord Huo's master; Old Tathagata must truly have something in him worthy of respect.

"What I doubt now is Old Tathagata's ability."

The Blind Elder raised his head. "Does Old Tathagata have the strength, can he hold down the Grand Hierarch Li? The Grand Hierarch Li is an existence that runs neck and neck with him."

No one spoke further.

Among the three great holy lands of the jianghu — the Daoist sect, the Great Thunderpeal Monastery, and the Nether Demon Cult — the Grand Hierarch Li, as former hierarch of the Nether Demon Cult, was a figure at the very summit of the jianghu, an existence that could stand on equal footing with Old Tathagata.

For Old Tathagata to refine and absorb him would, I fear, be exceedingly difficult.

"The Great Thunderpeal Monastery stands on the border line between the Desolate Ruins and Jingping Kingdom."

Lord Huo said, "It is said that the God-Severed Mountains are the range a god cut apart, hewing out a chasm to sunder the Desolate Ruins from Jingping. There is a legend in the Great Thunderpeal Monastery: when the god came cutting as far as Mount Sumeru, the monks upon the mountain sat upright, filling the whole summit, sworn to live or die with Mount Sumeru. The god was moved by the monks' sincerity, and so went around Mount Sumeru; every other range was cut in two down the middle, and only Mount Sumeru was preserved whole."

The Blind Elder laughed. "I say there must have been someone of consequence up on Mount Sumeru. Otherwise the god would never have bothered whether the monks up there lived or died."

Mount Sumeru stands at the junction of the Desolate Ruins and Jingping — Jingping on one side, the Desolate Ruins on the other. This holy mountain lies far from Yanbian and Mishui, but not far from Qingmen Pass in the Northern Frontier, only four or five thousand li away.

From Yincan Village to Mount Sumeru is a little under thirty thousand li. Shen Mu's stride was slower than Granny Zhu's, Lord Huo's and the others', and walking the whole way would take six or seven days.

The nights in the Desolate Ruins are too perilous, so they could travel only by day, which added more time.

Had they flown, two days would have sufficed; but Shen Mu's cultivation was not high, and running at full stretch through the air, he would have to stop and rest and recover his primal breath after a hundred li or so — so better to walk.

Shen Mu brought out the dragon-qilin to serve as a mount; the dragon-qilin could just barely keep pace with Lord Huo and the rest, and would not slow them down on his account.

Toward evening they came to an old temple. It was a desolate, uninhabited place, and within the old temple were only a few strange beasts, which paid them no heed when they arrived, but lay sprawled lazily beside the Heavenly King statue.

"Little Shen, come and pray." The Blind Elder took out several sticks of incense and beckoned to Shen Mu.

Old and young hurried to the Heavenly King statue, stuck the incense into the battered censer, stepped back three paces, and prayed with one voice: "This humble one is a man of Yincan Village, his home beside the river; passing by your precious temple, he begs to borrow this treasured ground to rest his feet, and is uneasy in his heart at having disturbed the master of this place. This humble one has from childhood suffered weak kidneys and a frail body, his primal yang leaking away too soon..."

"Bah!"

Granny Zhu said angrily, "Blind Elder, you have taught Little Shen nothing but wickedness!"

The Blind Elder laughed. "Old Mother Zhu, you are not afraid of being harvested, but we are. If you do not believe me, ask Little Shen whether the prayer I taught him works."

Shen Mu nodded again and again. "It works! When Qixia heard the prayer, she did not harvest me."

Granny Zhu did not know whether to laugh or to cry. She called Shen Mu over: "Come, lend a hand with the cooking." Shen Mu came over, and Granny Zhu said in a low voice, "The Blind Elder is full of wickedness. Do not always learn from him."

Night fell. The Heavenly King Temple was very still; no sound could be heard all around but the snoring of the dragon-qilin.