Chapter 403 — The Old Man's Sudden Change

Shen Mu hastily bent down, and Granny Zhu stroked his head, sighing. "You are nearly as tall as that pig-slaughtering Butcher. How did you grow so fast? Already dallying with women, and bringing a pack of girls back to see me..."

Her eyes reddened despite herself, and she was on the verge of tears again. "A year or two away from home, and already you are about to take a wife..."

Shen Mu said hurriedly, "Granny, I am not taking a wife — Grandpa Blind forced it on me! You have met Yuxiu. This one is the Sun Guardian of the Muri, the one who once sailed the Xi Boat and drove off the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping — her name is Yan Jingjing! And this is Yu Zhaoqing, chieftain of the Tianyu clan of the Tianyu World. I said I was coming here for the New Year, and so they all came along."

Granny Zhu's tears turned to laughter. "It is no bad thing for you girls to meet the elders of the family. Come in, come in and sit!"

The girls all blushed. Yu Zhaoqing, after all, was chieftain of a clan, mighty in cultivation, one of the foremost beings of the Tianyu World, and she said with easy composure, "Senior Sister is mistaken. I am not His Highness's concubine."

Granny Zhu saw that her looks were clear and lovely, and the more she looked the fonder she grew. She smiled. "Just call me Granny. There is no need to say Senior Sister — that is far too distant."

Yu Zhaoqing hesitated. Not knowing the proper form of address in this world, she had no choice but to say "Granny."

"Ah!" Granny Zhu answered sweetly, her heart blooming with delight.

Si Yunxiang came up to her. "Granny..."

Granny Zhu's face went stern at once. "Call me Auntie!"

Thoroughly aggrieved, Si Yunxiang could only bow her head and say "Auntie." Granny Zhu led them to the palace hall where she lodged, shooed Shen Mu out, and said, "Go to the great hall next door and find the Lame Elder. The old fellow has come off badly — he is weeping and wailing to heaven and earth."

Shen Mu asked hurriedly, "Which great hall?"

"The layout here is the same as the village. It is the room where the Lame Elder usually stays."

Shen Mu hurried off to find it. Granny Zhu looked at the girls, more pleased with every glance, and said to Yan Jingjing, "The Sun Guardian is a little thin — she must eat more. Yuxiu's constitution, though, is quite sound, very sturdy. I have met your father, though I never spoke with him. Sometime we must invite your good father over, and our two houses be properly acquainted..."

Shen Mu found the great hall where the Lame Elder was, and saw that the Blind Elder, the Mute Craftsman, the Deaf Elder, the Butcher, and the others were all there, along with two headmen. Then he noticed that it was not two headmen after all: one, lying on a lounge chair, was the Headman, who had neither hands nor feet, and the other, seated in a wheelchair, was the Lame Elder, who had lost both his legs!

Shen Mu rushed over, his voice breaking. "Grandpa Lame, what has become of you..."

The Lame Elder's face crumpled as he wept out, "Shen'er, you've come back? Your Grandpa Lame has been ruined!"

Shen Mu steadied himself, glanced around, and looked a question. The Blind Elder said flatly, "The man who gouged out my eyes has appeared again, and he took the Lame Elder's divine legs. The Mute Craftsman went to the Great Thunderclap Temple and warned Old Master Huo to be on his guard. That man will most likely go looking for him — for his divine fists."

Shen Mu was badly shaken. He drew a long breath and said in a low voice, "Headman, who is this man?"

Before the Headman could answer, the burly Pill Master walked in. "While I was fleeing for my life, I met the Daoist Lingjing. He said that a godlike being was hunting him, wanting to take the divine blood from his body, and he begged me to dissolve that divine blood so that he might escape death. I questioned the Daoist Lingjing, and he said the man was in his day a being of the same renown as the Headman, and called himself a god."

The Headman let out a turbid breath. "His name is a single character: An. His surname is a strange one — Xing. A wildly arrogant man. And yet by rights he should be about my age, and his span of life should run out within the next year or two."

"And yet the Daoist Lingjing said he looks very young, like a youth."

The Pill Master's face showed worry. He asked, "From what you know of him, will he go looking for Old Master Huo? Old Master Huo is the Tathagata now, the four elements all void within him, and he did not come for the New Year. If he stays alone on Mount Sumeru, I fear he is in grave danger!"

Shen Mu could not help saying, "Is this Xing An really so strong? Strong enough to storm the Great Thunderclap Temple?"

The Headman's face was calm. "How strong he is now, I do not know. But this I do know: if a man spends his whole life and can train a single part of the human body to the divine realm, he can already rival a false god. If he trains every part to the divine realm, then he is not far from a true god. He will surely go to find Master Huo."