Chapter 418 — Peerless in Brush and Ink

Half weeping, half smiling, he said, "I could not let them keep a cripple, and I could not let Ba Shan see me maimed. In this world there is only a Heaven Blade who died in battle; there is no Heaven Blade dragging out a wretched existence. It was raining and snowing then; I crawled and crawled until I reached the Ruins, the ground all cold mud and water, and it was the Blind Elder who picked me up and carried me back to the village. That stinking Blind Elder still throws it in my face to this day..."

Zai Fu's face darkened, and he said, "Last year, when the Blind Elder and I left the Ruins, I still could not hold myself back from going to see my sister-in-law. She had grown old, her eyes were dim, her mind was failing, and she did not know me. Her grandson was with her; she could no longer walk and could only sit in a reclining chair. Her grandson said the thing the old lady said most often was this: 'Back then, we should never have let the second brother go.'"

Tears fell from Zai Fu's tiger eyes, yet his voice stayed calm: "I stayed with her through the last stretch of her time. To the very end she kept murmuring about me; she never knew I was right there beside her. She said it was she who had ruined me..."

Shen Mu fell silent.

Zai Fu roused his spirits and said, "I did not spend long in the heavens, but I saw a great many things. The sun, moon and stars in the sky are in truth formations within a narrow space. To my eye they looked like, like..."

He glanced at the Deaf Elder, who had been turned into a bull, and said, "Like a painting. But those sun, moon and stars are not painted things; they truly exist, turning of themselves, hidden within the painting, moving through the world inside the painting. I have seen the Deaf Elder's paintings too — most ingenious, but he cannot yet reach that step."

Shen Mu was slightly startled: "Formations within a picture, presenting the magnificent spectacle of sun, moon and stars?"

"Moo!" Beside Shen Mu, a great black bull bellowed in fury. A few doe demons nearby were making advances to the black bull.

Zai Fu drove off the doe demons, laid the Butcher's Knife against the bull's head, and made a measuring gesture; the black bull trembled.

With a single thrust Zai Fu drove the knife into the bull's neck and carefully cut away the hide; the doe demons fled in panic.

The Deaf Elder rolled out of the bull's hide and complained, "Pig-slaughterer, you nearly hurt me."

"The sky is like a painting, but not entirely a painting; the sun, moon and stars inside it are all like forged treasures. This painting covers the true sky completely, and the formations that keep the sun, moon and stars running have turned for tens of thousands of years. You could not do it — your cultivation is too shallow."

Zai Fu slid the Butcher's Knife back into its sheath and said, "Those deities in the heavens are most likely running dogs guarding the Chart of the Heavens, not true gods. They are very strong, no weaker than the fellows of the High Heavens. But the owner of that Sacred Eye I never saw; he should not be in this realm. When I was probing the heavenly bodies he sensed me, and that was why he looked at me once."

A painting that shrouds the entire world; the sun, moon, stars, constellations and rivers of stars within it are all formations that can run of themselves; the painting is three hundred zhang thick and a hundred thousand li high.

Shen Mu's head ached. Could such a thing have been made by human hands?

"At the time, I did not see beyond the sky."

Zai Fu's face darkened, and he said, "That cut of mine only opened the Chart of the Heavens; it did not cut through the back. My flesh was terrifyingly strong then, and I still did not die — but I went mad."

In fact, even now Zai Fu had fits of madness from time to time, often cursing the stinking heavens, somewhat embittered against the world.

The people of Yincan Village were a crowd battered beyond recognition, wounded in both soul and body, and all of them were more or less embittered against the world.

"I can paint as well. I can paint what I saw in the heavens."

Zai Fu said, "But my painting is not as good as the Deaf Elder's. Shen'er, give me a few days, and I will paint those formations for you to see."

Shen Mu was astonished.

Zai Fu was huge and coarse, powerful and mighty, vigorous as a bull demon reborn, his face covered in a beard so thick and flourishing that when he scraped it with the Butcher's Knife sparks flew in a string.

And such a rough fellow was peerless in both poetry and painting, and was honored as the Heaven Blade besides.

The Deaf Elder was not surprised. "In our village, the one with the least culture is the Blind Elder. Zai Fu's poetry and painting are first-rate; it is only that he did not put his whole heart into them, or he too would have gone down in history."

Shen Mu looked at the Blind Elder, and saw that the Blind Elder's eyes were glaring bright at the Deaf Elder.

For the next two days Zai Fu shut himself in his room, painting without pause. Shen Mu did not disturb him. Si Yunxiang got in touch with the Young Patriarch and reported, "The Patriarch has gone to the Western Lands and is hurrying back."

Shen Mu was surprised: "The Patriarch has gone to the Western Lands — could he be meeting an old flame?"

Just then a voice came: "Imperial Preceptor Jingping requests an audience with the Human Sovereign!"

Shen Mu turned and looked toward the voice, then laughed heartily: "Why so formal, Heavenly King? Just say you have come to see the Cult Master! Calling him Human Sovereign is far too distant!"

Si Yunxiang was filled with admiration: "That thick skin of the Cult Master's — I could never hope to match it."