Chapter 482 — The Register of Life and Death

Little Tathagata and the assembled demon-clan monks who had attained the Way went pale, and every one of them reached out a hand to snatch at that scroll of scripture. That scroll was a precious volume the monks of the mountain had come upon by chance; not knowing what treasure it was, nor how it was used, they had presented it to the temple.

Little Tathagata and the others knew nothing of its purpose either — they knew only that its power was immense and that countless wronged souls writhed about it, and so they had sealed it away beneath the pagoda. Who would have thought that the scroll was in fact the property of the shaman-god Kuiwu, and that it had a name: the Register of Life and Death. No sooner had one monk's palm brushed the Register than he saw his hand begin to rot, and in an instant it was bare white bone. He snatched his hand back at once. Seeing this, the other monks each unleashed their divine powers to hem the thing in and cut it off, yet not one of them could block it; it burst through layer upon layer of their arts and flew toward the golden alms bowl.

Little Tathagata shifted his stance, scooped up the golden bowl, and with his other hand formed a seal.

The moment the mudra took shape, his five fingers became a mountain — peaks wrought of thunderbolt after thunderbolt — which came crashing down over the bowl. He meant to refine Kuiwu to death first. But just then the Register came flying at him, and before it had even drawn near his palm, that palm withered with astonishing speed. Startled, Little Tathagata swept his sleeve and flung the golden bowl away. The Register chased after it.

"Brother Xu! " Shen Mu stepped out, fast enough to overtake the golden bowl, and there in midair he pointed a finger forward. Runes streamed from his fingertip; the runes his vital essence had shaped blazed with splendor in the air, flickering in and out before him.

At the same moment Xu Shenghua darted out too, no slower than Shen Mu, his hands flying, vital essence bursting forth and turning to runes as well — but his were god-glyphs, one after another.

Though these god-glyphs were all the same character, no two were written alike. Shen Mu stepped out again, and pointed with his other hand.

Four strides, four points of the finger — and the teleportation runes joined as perfectly as paired jades, becoming a teleportation art that sealed the mouth of the golden bowl.

The Register hummed and plunged into the bowl, where the teleportation art caught it up and hurled it more than twenty li away. Meanwhile Xu Shenghua's hands flew, and several hundred god-glyphs stamped down one after another upon the golden bowl. Every one of them was the character 'seal'. The 'seal' of the god-glyphs was utterly unlike human writing, and carried a strange power in its very nature.

Xu Shenghua was, after all, the heir of the Jade Lord, and the Jade Lord was a deity; small wonder that he had come by many a subtle formula no one in the lower realm could ever obtain. Several hundred seals in succession fell upon the golden bowl, and at once the connection between Kuiwu inside it and the scroll of the Register was severed.

Shen Mu dug brush and ink from his Taotie pouch, drew out a scroll of painting silk, and tossed it to Xu Shenghua, who with a single flick unrolled it — a sheet of blank white paper.

Shen Mu took up the brush and painted, the tip flying, and swiftly produced a painting of wind and thunder. Then he seized the golden bowl and slapped it into the painting. The bowl drifted, unsteady, amid the wind and thunder of the picture.

Then, holding the scroll, he handed brush and ink to Xu Shenghua, who wrote upon the painting of wind and thunder, tracing a ring of square, upright sealing god-glyphs around its border. Shen Mu took his own seal from the Taotie pouch and stamped it in the lower corner of the painting.

Xu Shenghua likewise produced a seal and stamped it beside the first. Shen Mu rolled up the scroll, and the two of them breathed a sigh of relief.

Over on the other side the demon ape Xuanliao had already flown across to retrieve the precious scroll called the Register of Life and Death. On the golden summit, Little Tathagata and the assembled monks who had attained the Way looked at one another. Neither Shen Mu nor Xu Shenghua was much to speak of in cultivation, yet together they worked as flawlessly as a seamless garment.

One had teleported the Register away; the other had sealed the golden bowl and cut the connection. Shen Mu had painted; Xu Shenghua had helped unroll the scroll.

Then Xu Shenghua had sealed, Shen Mu had unrolled, and at the last each had stamped his own seal. The whole performance was as though they had rehearsed it a thousand times — a thing of perfect, flowing grace. "Shen, do you dare speak your true name?

" came Kuiwu's voice from within the scroll. Shen Mu turned a deaf ear and said to Little Tathagata and the rest, "Kuiwu's powers are beyond the reckoning of gods and ghosts.

Know a man's name, and he can pray his soul away.

The Tathagata did not know how formidable he is, and that is why he suffered. I went to Mount Yin in the first place to be rid of him. This time he very nearly escaped the Tathagata's suppression.

In my view we should destroy him at once and root out the trouble for good.

To destroy him is a great merit!

" Little Tathagata hesitated. "Kuiwu is bound about with countless wronged souls.

If he could be delivered, it would surely be merit beyond measure. To simply strike him dead, I fear.

. . " Shen Mu frowned. "Only today do I learn that there are great Tathagatas and small.

" Little Tathagata raised an eyebrow.

"Sect Master Shen, kindly return the golden bowl.

This old monk will lead the monks of the mountain and deliver him. I do not believe he is so stubborn that he cannot be saved. " Shen Mu handed him the scroll. Xu Shenghua coughed once, and Shen Mu shook his head. They had no strength at all to fight their way out of Little Leiyin Temple with the scroll; to force their way out would be to invite humiliation. Xu Shenghua had no choice but to let it go.

"Brother Zhankong, bring me the Register. Let me have a look.

" The demon ape Xuanliao handed it to him.

Xu Shenghua unrolled the Register and started slightly: the Register was no book at all, but a sheet of paper impossibly thin. The paper was strange, like metal, sheened with a metallic luster, dazzlingly bright, so polished that a man could see his own reflection in it. Stranger still, there was not a single character on the Register, nor any pattern at all.

His gaze fell upon it, and through that mirror-like paper he could actually see the person on the other side. "What manner of uncanny book is this. .

. " Xu Shenghua's heart gave a sudden jolt.

Behind the Register stood Jing Yan, and upon the mirror-like paper Jing Yan's figure surfaced, and then a line of characters welled up: "Jing Yan. " Xu Shenghua's blood ran cold. He turned quickly to Shen Mu — and saw Jing Yan vanish from the Register, replaced by Shen Mu's figure. Yet the name that surfaced was not Shen Mu, but three characters: Shen Fengqing!

"Sect Master Shen!

" His face grave, Xu Shenghua handed the Register to Shen Mu.

Shen Mu too quickly discovered what the Register could do, and his heart was shaken.

This Register could not only mirror his name; every demon-monk on the mountain and in the fields, so long as they had a title, could be mirrored in it as well. "Against a thing like this, who could stand? " A chill ran through him.

This treasure reflected the original name — the true name! Most of the monks of Little Leiyin Temple were demons. Before they were born into sentience and their minds awakened, they had no names; once sentience came and their minds awakened, they became monks and took dharma names.

Thus their dharma names were their names.