Chapter 276 — Departing in Peace

And then Shen Mu heard Libationer Bashan's yawn, as though from a great way off: "I waited the whole night, and Ban Gongcuo never came in person. What a disappointment. The fellow is careful to a fault; he did not work the spell himself to kill Junior Brother Shen, but set another great shaman to it.

" Shen Mu started a little.

"Senior Brother Bashan knew I was trapped? " "A pity I hooked only one great shaman of the Seven Star realm. " Shen Mu heard Libationer Bashan draw his blade; the Tyrant Blade left its sheath.

"Golden inlaid blade in white jade dressed, by night it pierces the casement, shining free!

A man of fifty with no deed to his name, blade in hand he stands alone and scans the eight wastes!

" In that song a surging radiance of a sudden cleft the darkness, coming from beyond the sky; a single blade descended and struck hard upon the altar, and heaven and earth roared, and quaked, and collapsed, and crumbled.

That stroke seemed to cut two lines apart; the two lines slowly parted to left and right: they were Shen Mu's eyes, slowly opening. Strange to tell, when he opened his eyes he felt his eyelids part leftward and rightward.

"This is the Yansheng art of Loulan's Golden Palace.

I have just undone it for you.

That art turned your eyeballs half about, and so all you see comes left-right reversed. " Libationer Bashan, seeming to stand upon the wall, appeared before Shen Mu and said, "First work the muscles of your eyes, and bring the pupils back little by little. " Shen Mu obeyed, slowly rolling his eyes; after a while they were themselves again, and he said in haste, "Senior Brother, I have been struck by a trick!

" Libationer Bashan nodded and pointed before him.

"This is the thing that did it to you.

" Shen Mu looked down and gave a start.

The altar that had trapped him was no true altar but a silver plate; about the plate stood four puppets the size of a palm; the little men who had borne him here were grains of yellow bean, and the horses they rode were bean sprouts.

And the single eyes adrift in the air were the eyes of one great spider, strange eyes grown in a row; beneath the plate there was also a weasel. Spider and weasel alike had been cut in two by that one stroke and lay dead.

"I had thought it would be Ban Gongcuo who struck; I never looked for a great shaman of the Seven Star realm. " Libationer Bashan shook his head.

"Ban Gongcuo does not strike, but sends a great shaman of the Seven Star realm; no doubt he feared I was at your side. He is careful indeed.

" Shen Mu rose and craned out of the window: the heads he had cut off with his sword-light were scarecrows, each muffled in white cloth.

Shen Mu asked, "Senior Brother, what became of that great shaman of the Seven Star realm?

" "Dead," said Libationer Bashan.

"He worked his spell in a dream, using the Yansheng art to harm you. My one stroke broke his spell, and the intent of the blade followed his sorcery into his dream and cut him down there. He went in peace.

" Shen Mu was half persuaded. "Can blade-craft be trained to such a height?

" Libationer Bashan laughed.

"Master Heavenblade's blade-craft, that is what you may call a myth.

He can split the void open; I cannot.

" When morning came, the Imperial College buzzed with talk: another envoy of the Mandi Kingdom had died.

At the fifth watch, they said, he had dropped dead on the instant, blood flowing from all seven orifices, a death too ghastly to look upon; and before he died he had cried out three times.

Shen Mu grumbled inwardly, "Did not Senior Brother Bashan say he went in peace?

" At noon a shaman came and bowed. "The prince asks that Sect Master Shen attend a banquet.

"