Chapter 457 — Blossoms Dazzle the Eyes

She had said she did not care whether she ranked first or third, yet she could not help her curiosity. In the Western Lands she was called an Array Master, first in the Western Lands in the array arts; but when she looked at the whole world, whether she was first she dared not claim. Still, having held first place for so many years, she had in her a competitive heart.

Shen Mu was the cult master of the Nether Demon Cult, a man of wide experience and broad knowledge, and she was rather eager to see who the world's first and second, as named by Shen Mu, might be.

"In truth, Sister Yiyi does not know this, but I too come from Huangxu's foremost family in the array arts."

Shen Mu's face was earnest. "The one who is first under heaven in arrays is my family's Blind Grandfather."

He Yiyi's dark, glossy eyes went wide. Huangxu's foremost family of the array arts? The one first under heaven in arrays is a blind old man?

"Has Cult Master Shen perhaps misunderstood something about the array arts?"

He Yiyi said calmly, "Arrays are the way of calculation. The simplest, such as the Nine Palaces Array, with Kan, Kun, Zhen, Xun, the center, Qian, Dui, Gen, and Li, stands for nine numbers, none repeated, which together make forty-five. Somewhat harder is the Eight Trigrams Array, advancing from base eight to base sixty-four, its transformations endless. Harder still are the Five Elements Array and the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams Array: base five, base eight, base sixty-four. Harder yet are the Taiji Array and the Wuji Array, where the circle can never be exhausted; the array's workings are calculated with the utmost refinement, and still they have flaws. A blind old man—how much attainment can he have in the arts of calculation?"

Shen Mu said gravely, "Sister, look into my eyes."

He Yiyi, puzzled at his meaning, studied his eyes closely, and could not help but be shaken to the heart.

In the eyes of this big boy, ring upon ring of array patterns were slowly taking shape, evolving into the first heaven; the numerical transformations hidden within those patterns left her unwittingly intoxicated, lost in the boy's eyes.

Before she could fathom the numerical transformations in Shen Mu's pupils, a second heaven was already forming, and the numerical transformations this heaven involved were more complex still, more profound.

Then came the third heaven, the fourth heaven; and when it reached the fifth heaven, Jingxiao Heaven, the array transformations in Shen Mu's eyes finally ceased.

One heaven to a layer of the eye—the attainment in calculation contained in this was enough to make one gasp in wonder!

At Shen Mu's present cultivation, he could drive the Nine Heavens Eye-Gazing Art only as far as Jingxiao Heaven; yet the changes in his eyes had not stopped. A great sun, point of light upon point of light, star upon star, was born within his eyes: the great sun hidden deep within, the host of stars blazing forth, turned into a river of stars revolving around that sun.

In the main hall, the hundred-odd heads of Juncheng's great clans and mighty houses looked at one another.

By now He Yiyi had all but pressed her face to Shen Mu's; the two gazed into each other's eyes, and Array Master He Yiyi looked into Shen Mu's eyes as a sweetheart gazes deep into her lover's, her heart in sweet confusion.

"Ahem, ahem!" An old woman, her hair white with age, coughed again and again, meaning to remind their city lord.

Only then did He Yiyi come to herself, and her pretty face flushed crimson; she hastily stepped back, composed her features, and said, "This Blind Grandfather is indeed worthy to be called the world's foremost master of arrays. I am ashamed to think myself his equal."

Shen Mu's face too reddened somewhat; He Yiyi had pressed so close that his heart beat faster. He said hurriedly, "I once studied the eye-opening art with Blind Grandfather, but I sought no deep understanding and did not grasp the array transformations within it. Blind Grandfather's Sacred Pupil can see through all falsehood—through the transformations of space, of arrays, of techniques. Later, when I learned the Daoist arts of calculation, only then did I understand the numerical transformations involved. The Daoist sect uses the arts of calculation to explain the ten thousand things of heaven and earth and the workings of the cosmos; and the reason Blind Grandfather's Sacred Pupil can see through all things is precisely that calculation is the truth of this cosmos. Only then did I understand that Blind Grandfather is the first of all in the array arts."

He Yiyi suppressed the strange feeling in her heart and said soberly, "If he wished to break the arrays of my Juncheng, it would be easy as lifting a hand. First place is his by right. Then who is this second master of arrays under heaven?"

Shen Mu showed an embarrassed smile.

He Yiyi's dark, glossy eyes went wide again, and she blurted out, "You are the second in arrays under heaven?"

Shen Mu said, abashed, "I would not originally have dared to call myself second, but having seen Sister Yiyi's arrays, I think I can still be second."

He Yiyi's anger rose from her heart, her pearly teeth grinding with a creak, and she said with a smile, "First place—I dare not contest it. But I am not content to sit in third. Cult Master Shen calls himself third in the art of poison, defeated Mu Yingxue, and made that girl Yingxue admit that her poison arts are fourth under heaven; and now you also name yourself second under heaven in arrays. Your studies are rather too miscellaneous. That being so, let us have another contest."

Shen Mu asked curiously, "How shall we compete?"

He Yiyi mused a moment, then smiled. "Still Juncheng. You outside the city, I within it, and here I shall not stir. If you can enter the city and find me, I will admit you are my better and resign myself to third. Not only that: from this day the He family and all the He family's power will follow your lead. If you wish to support Naikui's return to the palace mistress's seat, my He family will aid you with all its strength!"

Shen Mu laughed heartily, rose to his full height, and strode toward the city gates.

In the hall, the hundred-odd powerful figures of Juncheng looked at one another. An old woman was about to speak when He Yiyi waved a hand. "There is no need for you to say anything. I mean to take this chance to observe Jingping Kingdom's attainments in arrays. If my arrays are broken by Cult Master Shen, then when Jingping comes to attack, Juncheng will surely be broken as well; better to simply submit to Jingping. If Cult Master Shen cannot break my arrays, then we shall still have the strength to fight another day. Withdraw, all of you. Cult Master Shen and I shall play out a single game—a game that decides the fate of Juncheng, the fate of the Western Lands!"

The others had no choice but to leave Juncheng.

The city gates opened wide.

Shen Mu bade Long Qilin keep Xiong Qi'er company outside the city, then strode in. Juncheng changed at once: every building sank into the earth and vanished without a trace, and boulder after boulder floated into the air, evolving into arrays.

Juncheng's whole appearance was transformed. In the eyes of others this was merely stones shifting and taking various forms, a spectacle—hard indeed to read the array transformations in each movement of the stones; but in Shen Mu's eyes it became at once a riot of color and splendor.

Each movement of those stones brought him a pleasure beyond words; the interlocking of the various runes, the crisscrossing structures, delighted his eye and his heart.

Whether ramparts a thousand fathoms high or killing arrays grim and dense, all of it was calculation.