Chapter 450 — Of Uncommon Appearance

Though these girls had cultivated a few of the Western Lands' arts, and knew that such a place as the True Heaven Palace existed, where in the Western Lands the True Heaven Palace actually stood was more than they knew. The Western Lands were vast, no smaller than Jingping or the Desolate Ruins, and though most of those who dwelt in the Desolate Ruins knew of the Daoist sect, most of them had no notion where that sect was to be found.

So it was with the people of the Western Lands as well. Shen Mu rather regretted having killed that woman disciple of the True Heaven Palace.

Ahead, a splendid city came into view; the girls upon the wooden chest had come to this city for its market fair.

The city was called Fangxiu, and it was blooming with flowers on every side: green vines crept up the city walls, great blossoms opened along the battlements, and the gate towers too were hung all over with flowers, a riot of purple and red, dazzling to the eye.

Drawing near, one saw that those flowers were like flower-sprites: from each blossom emerged a girl of delicate and graceful form, softly singing ballads no one could understand; they were spirits within the flowers, awakened by the city folk through their arts and made into the adornment of Fangxiu. There were pothos maidens in green skirts and crabapple maidens bearing bright red blooms, flitting among the high towers and great halls. A giant wrought of stone beat upon a great drum; in the air floated flowers whose names he could not call, and flower-spirits stood within them, blowing flutes and plucking lutes, flying round the stone giant to accompany him.

When Shen Mu came into the city he felt like a country bumpkin come to town: in the streets walked colossal beings, house-giants that had sprouted legs and feet, and boys and girls stood at the window lattices looking all about, gazing at the sights on every side, their laughter ringing clear. Long ribbons came fluttering out from the window lattice of one house-giant and drifted across into the window of another, forming a bridge, and girls in every kind of finery trod those ribbons from one house into the next for trysts with their sweethearts. "It's the Flower Mountain Festival!

" Xiong Qi'er cried, thrilled.

"My mother took me to one before! The Flower Mountain Festival at the True Heaven Palace is even more uproarious than this!

" Shen Mu took Xiong Qi'er up in his arms and parted from the girls upon the chest; the Dragon Qilin bore the two of them along these splendid, wondrous streets. The prosperity of the Western Lands was beyond imagining, utterly unlike Jingping, possessed of a singular charm. Walking through this city so full of outlandish delights, he had sachets tossed to him by any number of girls, and one bold girl came stepping along a ribbon and took his hand, wanting to fly back with him into one of the tower-giants for a tryst. Shen Mu released the hand of the girl who had lifted into the air, and she flew back among the buildings like a fairy treading the waves, off to seek out other handsome men. Since coming to the Western Lands he had met that woman disciple of the True Heaven Palace, who was truly vicious, and he had formed no very good opinion of the women of the Western Lands; yet here in Fangxiu he found himself drawn in by the local manners.

The Flower Mountain Festival came once a year, and it was uproarious beyond measure.

Shen Mu threaded his way through the crowds and the tower-giants and the house-giants, and came at last to the center of the city, where it was quieter, not so clamorous as before.

"Those who live here must be the likes of Fangxiu's landlords; from them I should be able to learn news of the True Heaven Palace. " Just then a green vine grew with astonishing speed and drifted up before Shen Mu; at its tip was a great flower, which opened at its leisure, and from the blossom emerged a woman in pink, who said with a sweet smile, "Might you be Young Master Shen?

" Shen Mu nodded. The woman stepped out of the flower, joined behind by the flower's stamens, and said with a smile, "Young Master, my mistress bids you come.

Please follow me.

" "Someone here knows me? " Shen Mu was startled; he jumped down from the Dragon Qilin's back and said, "Please, miss, lead the way.

" The woman too came down to the ground and led him to the gate of a great mansion.

The place was like a manor, very grand, and the two stone lions at the gate stood up and turned their heads to glance at Shen Mu and the Dragon Qilin, then crouched back down upon their stone pedestals.

Shen Mu followed the woman from the flower into the manor, where a great many youths and maidens came and went in a bustling throng, noisy enough, though most of them were wrought from flowers and grasses and trees and jade, and some from dark gold and dark copper.

"This manor is not in the style of the Western Lands — it is more like the style of Jingping. .

.

Wait.

These dark gold, dark copper.

.

. " Shen Mu started slightly, his gaze falling upon a great cauldron that was walking about; the cauldron held food, and it ran up onto the head of a man of fire and cooked the food itself.

"This great cauldron is a primal soldier! Primal soldiers can take spirit-form as well?

" A sudden clarity opened in Shen Mu's mind, and he could not help slowing his steps, staring blankly, lost in thought.

He had perceived another path of transformation! That was to carry the notion that all things possess spirit, all things possess divinity, into Jingping, and set off another wave of transformation!

If the primal soldiers of Jingping's adepts could also possess spirit, every man's strength would rise greatly!

Not only that: the union of the two systems would give birth to yet more arts and divine powers, more varied still!

Formerly, the "primal soldiers" spoken of by the adepts of Jingping were no true primal soldiers at all, but merely bred out of the spirit storehouse; yet if one took in the ideas of the Western Lands, one could make primal soldiers in the truest sense!

"Jingping's arts put their weight on destructive power, and its wonders and marvels are strange and varied; the arts of the Western Lands are somewhat inferior in attack, and lacking in means of attack as well — but this way of all things possessing spirit can make primal soldiers into true primal soldiers!

The two systems can complement each other!

The difficulty now is how to fuse the Western Lands' art of all things possessing spirit with the cultivation methods of Jingping, so that Jingping's adepts may sense the spirit and awaken the spirit within their primal soldiers.

" He bent his mind to reckoning how the all-things-possessing-spirit might be fused with Jingping's system of cultivation, when of a sudden he heard a voice laugh aloud and say, "The Hierarch Shen of Jingping has come from afar, and I did not go out to welcome him; I beg you will forgive me! " "A man!

" Shen Mu was rather puzzled. This Fangxiu City was plainly a most prosperous city of the Western Lands, and by rights women should hold sway here; how was it that a man occupied high station? He looked toward the voice, and saw a youth of handsome countenance leading a crowd to welcome him. The youth gave him a vaguely familiar feeling, as though he had seen him somewhere, though in truth he never had. The Dragon Qilin stirred abruptly and said in a low voice, "Hierarch, look — does he not resemble the Patriarch somewhat?

" Shen Mu was taken aback, and indeed found a certain likeness, and could not help feeling a touch of goodwill toward him; he made his salute and said, "Shen Mu, Hierarch of the Heaven-Sacred Sect, pays his respects to the master of this place. " The youth returned the salute, and his forms of courtesy were those of Jingping, as he said, "Hierarch Shen, Ge Ke is at your service.