Chapter 258 — How Could Anyone Blame You?

As Shen Mu traveled on, he looked about him and saw devastation everywhere: starving refugees fleeing this way and that, disasters breaking out on every side, plague running wild; set beside the still passably peaceful domains of Great Thunderclap Temple, this place was simply hell. Luckily, many great-academy scholars and lesser-academy scholars went everywhere practicing medicine and holding the plague in check; otherwise the calamity would have been far heavier.

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had built a great many lesser academies and great academies to replace the old private schools, and now they proved their worth.

Each of these scholars was very weak on his own, but joined together they were fearsome indeed, each of them like a small sect unto himself. Shen Mu saw soldiers and officers clearing out the demon-spirits and monsters that took advantage of the chaos; saw county magistrates personally guarding the farmland, protecting the seedlings, urging the refugees to return to their villages; and the relief grain the Emperor had sent would soon be carted here. He also saw Daoist disciples and Buddhist disciples taking part in the relief; only, they were somewhat free-spirited, their power limited compared with the strength of the state, saving wherever they happened to go.

And some, taking advantage of the nation's calamity to preach, had spawned many a heretical sect, but none of them amounted to anything. "Such a heavenly disaster cannot wipe out a nation like this," Shen Mu thought to himself.

New crops had already been sown; once the harvest season came, the common folk could be settled again. The timing of the State of Jingping's disaster was exceedingly strange: it had come right after a great upheaval that swept the whole nation, for years of constant war had consumed grain and fodder enormously, and on top of that this snow disaster, enough to break its very bones. "I wonder whether the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping has returned to court, and whether the Emperor is still distributing relief.

And where did this heavenly disaster come from?

This is not a disaster that holy lands like the Daoist sects or Great Thunderclap Temple could have created; it can only be a god. " He lifted his head and looked at the sky, doubt in his heart. Why? Why should Heaven send disaster upon Jingping?

For the sake of the gods' orthodoxy in the mortal world? Before Jingping, it was sect after sect that ruled the world, forming kingdoms great and small; some sects had ancient lineages, and legend said there were sects the gods had left behind. Was it, then, that the gods' orthodoxy in the mortal world had been destroyed by the State of Jingping, and the gods were angered, and so sent down this heavenly disaster?

Or was there something still deeper in it?

"The Emperor was enraged and killed a batch of them; then he uncovered many officials who took bribes and perverted the law, who embezzled the relief money, and killed a batch; and more who traded in offices and titles, and killed a batch.

" A disciple of the Dark Demon Cult who had followed the Emperor's relief efforts and seen a good deal of the world said, his face alight with excitement, "The Emperor has also been assassinated again and again, mostly by Hierarch-level beings; fortunately the civil and military ministers of the court went with him, and the Emperor fought with his own hands; he is truly ferocious to the extreme.

It is a great pity that our Hierarch did not go. " Shen Mu asked, "Just which experts were it that assassinated the Emperor? " "I hear it was the Poor Master, Perfected Lord Tian, and people of that sort, and some experts from beyond the frontier as well.

" Shen Mu's expression shifted slightly.

"They have joined hands with Hierarch-level experts from beyond the frontier? Has the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping returned?

" "I have not seen him. " Shen Mu pondered a moment and asked, "Where has the Emperor gotten to? " "He is at Bazhou Prefecture, five thousand li from here. " The Dark Demon Cult disciple said, "The Emperor went south first and rooted out those great clans in the south that refused to release or sell grain, and only then went north; he has just now reached Bazhou.

Bazhou is still more or less at peace.

" Shen Mu steadied himself and asked, "And the capital?

How many first-rank officials were left behind?

" "The Crown Prince was left to hold the regency, along with the officials of the Crown Prince's faction.

" Shen Mu's face turned grave: the capital had the Crown Prince as regent, yet the Crown Prince had run off to Great Thunderclap Temple; the Poor Master, Perfected Lord Tian and the rest had nearly died by the hand of the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping and were saved by the Old Tathagata, who said they had entered the Buddhist order and would no longer concern themselves with worldly affairs; and now the Poor Master and his companions had come out again.

Add to that the Crown Prince's going to see the Old Tathagata, and the matter grew very great indeed.

"They all say the imperial court is the greatest holy land under heaven; I wonder, if it truly came to blows with Great Thunderclap Temple, which of the two would come out the better? " "Right now the various halls are all doing relief work in different places and are hard to reach; to gather all the halls together, I fear it would take a month or two.

" Shen Mu waved a hand and went off on his own, riding on the Dragon Qilin's back toward Bazhou.

Bazhou was still five thousand li from here, a long road; at the Dragon Qilin's pace, even without rest it would take until the next day, and adding rest along the way, he reckoned they would not reach Bazhou until the following night.

"If only that treasure ship of mine were still here, this would be much easier. A pity it was destroyed. " Shen Mu ordered the Dragon Qilin to travel at full speed and promised it a dou of rations a day; the Dragon Qilin roused its spirits and went racing toward Bazhou on clouds of fire. Before anyone knew it, night had fallen.

Shen Mu looked up at the stars, made out their direction, and ordered the Dragon Qilin to keep going.

When the sun rose, even the Dragon Qilin could bear no more; exhausted, foam at its mouth, it could not run, its steps slower and slower. Shen Mu made it stop, looked all around, fixed their position, took out a geographical map of Jingping and studied it closely: less than a thousand li remained to Bazhou.

Shen Mu let out a breath of relief, fed the Dragon Qilin, and walked on without hurry or delay, letting the Dragon Qilin rest its legs. They had not gone far when a house appeared in that poor mountain backwater; it must have been newly built, everything about it new.

Shen Mu walked over and was just about to knock when the door opened and a woman stepped out and came face to face with him; both were startled.

"Shen'er? " The woman's face was peerless beyond compare; seeing him, she started violently, looked all around, and said doubtfully, "How did you find your way here? I went to such trouble to shake off the Blind Elder and Master Huo, and you found me all the same.

" Shen Mu was startled and delighted at once: "Granny, how come you are here?

" Then he grew wary: "Are you Granny, or are you Fan Xuanshu? " Granny Zhu turned sideways to let him into the house and said, "I have the old demon suppressed for the time being.

Though the Old Tathagata could not do away with him, he wounded him badly; we are now evenly matched, so I made a pact with him. At night he comes out; in the daytime I come out. " Shen Mu said suspiciously, "If you really are Granny, why go out of your way to avoid Master Huo and Grandpa Blind?

Why hide here? " Granny Zhu shot him a glare.

"You little wretch, you dare suspect even your granny?