Chapter 534 — Jade Face Like a Painting, Sword Like a Rainbow

Sang Hua sat up and turned her back to him. She undid her clothing, baring a raw, blood-soaked wound beneath a neck white as jade, then took out a small jade vial, squeezed the clotted blood from the wound, and dressed it herself. "That night I said a great many things to you.

You remember none of them, I suppose.

" The tips of her ears had gone faintly pink. In truth, that night she had believed she would never escape alive, and so she had said a great deal of foolish nonsense to Shen Mu, words that would have sent even a boy red to the ears, and she had boldly spoken them all, because Shen Mu could not hear her anyway. But against all expectation she had lived.

She had thought she would never in this life lay eyes on Shen Mu again, and that night's ravings had become a strange, particular thread of feeling in her memory; and now, of all things, she had met once more the boy in the dark who had listened to all her confidences. Shen Mu lifted his head and looked at the sun in the sky, forcibly swallowing the urge to fly up and grind it smooth, then stepped around in front of her and reached out a hand to help her apply the medicine. Sang Hua hastily covered herself.

"Men and women must not touch each other's hands. . .

" "I'm an alchemist," Shen Mu said hastily. "I only meant to help you dress the wound.

A physician's heart is a parent's heart; I won't let any crooked thought cross my mind. " Sang Hua recalled that he had said earlier he was an alchemist of some small repute, and only then did she set her mind at ease. She watched, curious, as he applied the medicine for her, and his hands were indeed deft.

"Your attainments in the arts of calculation are plainly so high," she said doubtfully, "so how is it that you are also skilled in medicine? " Shen Mu studied the wound above her breast, examining it very closely. "I studied medicine for more than ten years; I studied the arts of calculation for a shorter time, only three years.

To tell the truth, I am a good deal better at medicine than at calculation.

" "How long do you mean to keep looking? " Sang Hua said in angry embarrassment, raising a hand to gather her clothing. Shen Mu hurriedly stopped her and carefully drew her clothing down to her shoulder.

"A physician's heart is a parent's heart. Mm, your skin is very white, and your shoulders are very round.

. .

don't move!

" He frowned slightly.

Sang Hua's wound had been left by a master of the demon race; it carried within it the demon's divine arts and demonic qi, eating away at flesh and vital qi. Such a wound was very hard to stanch, and very hard to draw the demonic qi out of.

The ointment he had just smeared on the wound had already turned black; plainly its medicinal power had been tainted by the demonic qi. Shen Mu squeezed out the blackened ointment from Sang Hua's wound, sniffed at it, and shook his head. This ointment was not suited to the injury.

"It stings so! This ointment draws out poison. Once it has drawn out some of the demonic poison, then the dressing must be changed. " Sang Hua cried out at the pain and took out several more vials of ointment. "A wound like this must be dressed a dozen times or more before the poison is fully drawn out. . .

Your eyes keep wandering everywhere. I had better do the dressing myself! " Shen Mu took a number of medicinal ingredients from the Taotie Pouch and refined them by his own method of elixir-making.

"Demonic poison is not truly poison," he said.

"It is that you cultivate the divine way and your opponent cultivated the demonic way; the natures of your vital qi conflict, which makes you feel it as poison. The ointment you are using is not a poison-drawing ointment either, but a variant of a spirit elixir that was never refined into its finest form, and so it takes the shape of a paste. The elixir has merely been blackened by contamination with demonic qi; using it to draw out demonic qi is a waste. " As he spoke, a pill furnace woven of vital qi appeared above his palm, and he refined the elixir directly within the vital qi, reversing water and fire, harmonizing dragon and tiger, the manifold variations of elixir-crafting dazzling Sang Hua's eyes. After a moment he dispersed the vital qi, and a dozen or so elixir pills fell into his palm.

Shen Mu crushed one and applied it to her wound. "In another world I was the Cult Master of the Heavenly Sage, and men also called me the Cult Master of the Dark Demon.

I have some understanding of the demonic way.

The demon is born of the mind; whether one is god or demon, it is a form within the mind, and the form of the mind becomes the form of the flesh. In treating wounds caused by the divine arts of the demonic way, I do have a little experience. " Very quickly, Sang Hua felt a coolness at the wound; the demonic qi within it had been wholly drawn out, and then the coolness turned to heat and to itch, which was the sign that the wound had begun to heal.

"Healing so fast? You said just now that you were of some small repute in your world? " Sang Hua's eyes went wide.

She stealthily caught up the braid on the other side to cover the other half of her breast.

"An alchemist of small repute, and he can refine a spirit medicine that subdues demonic qi that quickly?

" Shen Mu pressed the remaining elixir pills into her hand and said with a flush of embarrassment, "I was being modest just now. In fact my renown is not small at all; in my world I am very famous.

You did not notice that I was being modest, did you? " He could not help growing smug. "Most people never notice!

" "Then you will not help me dress the wound? " Sang Hua asked doubtfully. Shen Mu walked toward the others, to treat their wounds.

"Just now I was only examining the injury. You can do the dressing yourself.

There are others who need saving.

" Sang Hua gathered her clothing and watched his figure bustling to and fro. She thought, "He truly did have a physician's heart just now; there was no crooked thought in him.

This man is a rare gentleman; it is only that his eyes do like to wander.

. . " Shen Mu gave the wounded divine-arts practitioners on the altar a rough round of treatment, then looked down.

Below the altar and across the battlefield lay countless divine-arts practitioners and heaven-demons.

Some men were carrying the wounded; others were putting to death demons that had not yet breathed their last. Over that vast field of battle, everywhere were the lingering fires of divine arts, burning war chariots, fallen corpses, banners draped over flame, primordial weapons thrust slantwise into the earth.

Further off, the slaughter still went on. This world was astonishingly cruel.

Though Shen Mu had strode in and out of battlefields more times than he could count, the sight before him still shook his soul. "Medicine cannot save this world.

" Shen Mu shook his head. His healing arts could save only a few; to heal every wounded man on the battlefield would take months, and in this world there was a small battle every third day and a great battle every fifth.

He simply did not have the power to heal everyone. He looked up at the sky. The irregular suns in the heavens were gradually dimming, turning red.

These two suns must have been fixed in the air, and had never moved; at a certain hour they would go dark. "The sun-making deity who built those two suns had ideas, but his attainments in the arts of calculation were not high. .

. " Shen Mu withdrew his gaze; the suns still stung his eyes.

"So ugly! If I look any longer, I shall not be able to stop myself from running over and fixing them.

. . " he thought.

He paced slowly by the altar, marshaling his vital qi, urging on the Mystic Body Three Elixir Art. Spirit fetus and soul abruptly joined and became the primordial spirit, body and spirit as one.