Chapter 302 — Truly Shabby

Shen Mu's Taotie Pouch had always held a miscellany of herbs, kept for emergencies, so that a wound would never find him unable to tend himself. As a peerless physician, of course, it was only natural that he also kept a few poisons in the pouch. And even without poison, he could brew something deadly from spirit medicines alone.

The two white bats rose onto their hind legs; Shen Mu went up to examine their injuries, and his brow knit slightly — the damage to their bodies was not so grave; it was their souls that had taken the Witch King's grievous blow.

The great shamans of Loulan's Golden Palace cultivated themselves on the souls of other living things, human beings among them; their arts were all-encompassing, yet their mastery was greatest in the workings of the soul, and in martial arts they fell somewhat short. When Bango Tso fought Shen Mu, he had not brought out his finest soul arts at all, but contended with Shen Mu using Daoist swords and the techniques of holy lands like Lesser Jade Capital — and so lost the initiative and was beaten into a sorry rout. Had he used his soul arts, the outcome would have been hard to call; Shen Mu could not be certain whether the Creation Heaven-Demon Art could withstand them.

The soul arts of Loulan's Golden Palace were called the Shamanic Arts, and in the cultivation of shamanism they had reached the absolute summit; that was why they were named a holy land of the grasslands. The two white bats had been struck several times by the Witch King's shamanic arts. The Witch King's cultivation was, at the very lowest reckoning, of the Heaven-Man realm, and yet those several shamanic strikes had failed to take the lives of the two white bats — proof enough that these descendants of gods were no ordinary beings.

"So fierce — a strong medicine is called for. . .

" Shen Mu murmured. At once the two white bats grew wary.

"What did you say? " "I said your injuries are severe, and you will need a strong medicine.

How shall I address you two, fellow Daoists? " To deal with Bango Tso and the shamanic arts of Loulan's Golden Palace, Shen Mu had studied pharmacology and the nourishing of the soul. The pharmacology the Alchemist had passed down to him held little on soul-poisons of the shamanic kind, and nothing profound.

For though the Alchemist was a king of poisons, he plied his trade mostly in the Central Plains and rarely ventured onto the grasslands, and so knew little of shamanic poisons and soul-wounds.

But Shen Mu had dealt with Loulan's Golden Palace often enough, and gradually formed ideas of his own.

Combining them with the Seven Chapters of Creation from the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture, he devised a method of healing that worked cultivation and medicine as one.

"My name is Fu Yuqiu, and this is my elder brother, Fu Yuchun," said the white bat with the longer ears. Watching him refine pills and medicines — using no cauldron at all, but drawing the potency from the herbs by sheer technique and primordial energy, accomplishing the whole pharmacology of sovereign, minister, assistant and envoy, of generation and restraint, by the movements of his hands alone — the two white bats could not help but marvel: "The Ox-Head physician is truly remarkable. He has our eyes dazzled. " Before long, Shen Mu finished the first batch of spirit pills. Fu Yuchun, the one with the shorter ears, did not take his at once.

Wary, he said, "Alchemist Niu, you taste one first!

" Shen Mu laughed.

"Wary brothers, are you not.

My surname is not Niu but Shen — the single name Mu. " With that, he pinched up a spirit pill and swallowed it. Only then did the two white bats relax and take their pills. Shen Mu then used the Creation Ghost-God Art and the Creation Earth-Primal Art to pat and strike the two bats, hastening the medicine's power and shoring up their souls; both felt greatly eased, and their injuries were indeed much lightened.

Shen Mu refined another batch, and Fu Yuchun again made him eat one first — this white bat was far more cautious than his younger brother Fu Yuqiu.

Shen Mu did as he was told and swallowed a pill; only then did the two bats eat, and their injuries mended a few degrees further. Just then, several great shamans tracked them there and, without a word, came straight on to kill.

The two white bats were still badly hurt, their external wounds not yet healed. Shen Mu pointed a finger and thrust out a sword; the Carefree Sword flew at the shamans.

Seeing their advantage, the shamans burst out laughing. "So the Dark Demon Cult's Cult Master Shen is a pauper indeed — at the Six Harmonies realm and still only a single primordial spirit sword! Good, let us brothers win ourselves a great merit! " Before the words had died, behind Shen Mu rose a blinding white rain of swords — eight thousand blades leaping skyward from the Taotie Pouch, then wheeling and plunging down, and with a single shriek they drowned those great shamans.

Shen Mu crooked his index finger upward; the Carefree Sword flew back into its sheath, and the other seven thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine swords flew swiftly back into the Taotie Pouch as well. And where the blades had filled the earth, no whole corpse remained in sight.

The two white bats stared, eyes wide, speechless.

That the soldiers of the Man-Di kingdom drove their blade-pills, countless curved sabers cleaving the air at their foes, was a splendid thing to see — but this Ox-Head physician was an army of a hundred men all by himself: thousands of swords flying over at once, and each of those shamans struck by swords beyond counting, dying wronged beyond measure. "Those shamans found us here; the Witch King will likely find us soon. We must not linger!

" Shen Mu's eyes flickered. To the two white bats he said, "Fellow Daoists, let us press on at once. " The two white bats followed him.

They exchanged a glance, and Fu Yuqiu said with a smile, "Those men just now called you the Dark Demon Cult's Cult Master Shen? " Shen Mu sat on the dragon qilin's back, still refining spirit pills, and answered carelessly, "That's right. Though we call ourselves the Heavenly Sage Cult.

" Fu Yuqiu said, "We once met people who called themselves the Heavenly Sage Cult, and they came into this place as well; another bunch, all glittering gold, called them the Heavenly Sage Cult. You are a human cult master — surely you are not of the Yinghuo clan?

" Shen Mu dismissed the Yinghuo Star Lord form and returned to his true appearance.

"That's right.

I was human to begin with; I merely used the Heavenly Sage Cult's deified state to take the Yinghuo form. " The two white bats drooled mightily, their minds as one: "Once our wounds heal, let us eat him! " "Roast him rare! " .

.

.

Shen Mu finished refining the spirit pills, but did not give them to the two white bats; he swallowed them himself, and afterwards did not hand over the two remaining pills either. Fu Yuchun asked doubtfully, "Cult Master Shen, why do you not give us the pills?

" Shen Mu smiled. "This batch was for my own antidote.

No need to give it to you two. " "Antidote? " Fu Yuchun shuddered and stammered, "For.

. . for what poison?

" Shen Mu said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world, "Why, the poison of those two batches of spirit pills you just took, of course.

" The faces of the two white bats went black.

They were about to lunge at him when their souls suddenly went numb, their bodies convulsing with pain, and with two thuds they collapsed to the ground, twitching violently.

The dragon qilin snickered, heh heh heh: "Two silly birds, daring to eat the cult master's pills. Truly they do not know death when they see it. " Enraged, the two white bats, lying on the ground, said in one voice, "Fat bastard, you are the silly bird!

" "Dragon Fat, not everything with wings is a bird.

They are not birds.

" Shen Mu picked the two white bats up and set them on the dragon qilin's back.