Chapter 546 — The Peerless Art of Face-Changing

Zhe Huali, carrying Jiang Yi's corpse in his arms, followed hard on Fu Riluo's heels; as he passed this way, he turned his head and looked at Shen Mu. Shen Mu was in the midst of refining pills; hurriedly he smiled and nodded in acknowledgment.

"Senior Brother Zhe Huali — let us meet again when there is a chance.

" Zhe Huali's face showed no expression at all, and he followed Fu Riluo away.

The Black Tiger God leaped down from the great hall, glanced at Shen Mu, then glanced at the Woodcutter Sage, who had turned around. The Woodcutter Sage — his great axe stowed away somewhere nobody could tell — was studying Shen Mu's pill-refining technique closely. The other deities likewise came leaping down one after another and gathered in a ring around them; every one of them had something to say and many questions to ask, yet all of them swallowed their words.

Until the Woodcutter Sage spoke, not one of them dared to be the first to open his mouth. The Venerable Deity Sang Ye hastily drew Sang Wan aside, meaning to give his daughter a savage scolding, but since no one else was speaking, he could hardly be the one to start.

Shen Mu was refining a spirit pill, and had reached the critical stage: wholly absorbed, his mind on nothing else, he paid them no heed.

Yet ringed around by these deities, their divine eyes fixed on him with piercing glare, even he felt the pressure, and bead after bead of sweat broke out upon his brow, spread quite evenly across it. After a while, Shen Mu finished the spirit pill, crushed it gently, took a little water to dissolve it, and dripped it into Yu He's and Shu You's eyes and ear canals.

He observed closely how the membranes of their eyes and ears were growing, frowned faintly, then rummaged in his Taotie pouch, took out several medicinal ingredients, refined a little ointment, and carefully applied it to their eyes and ear canals. "Why did you apply the medicine twice? " asked the Woodcutter Sage, puzzled. "The first medicine was to make their eye and ear membranes grow; the second seems to carry a certain toxicity.

Why is that? " Shen Mu studied Yu He's and Shu You's eyes and glanced at their ear canals.

"This ointment is no poison, but a spirit medicine used to restrain growth. The first pill I refined was meant to make their damaged eye and ear membranes grow, but that was my first time compounding and refining such a medicine, and I could not judge its potency, so it came out rather too fierce. If they kept growing, their ear and eye membranes would thicken and impair their hearing and their sight.

That is why I needed a second medicine, to hold back the growth of the membranes.

" He stretched his waist in a long, easy movement and smiled. "By now they are nearly recovered; their sight and hearing will be no worse than before.

" The deities of Taihuang Heaven standing around all breathed out in relief. Yu He and Shu You were the mightiest of Taihuang Heaven's Seven-Star-realm adepts, and among the younger generation the ones with hope of becoming deities; had they gone blind and deaf, it would have been a loss beyond measure to Taihuang Heaven. Huang Yue and the others had died in the sand-table world; Taihuang Heaven's losses were grievous enough already. Shen Mu bowed to the Woodcutter Sage. "Disciple Shen Mu pays his respects to the Patriarch. " The Woodcutter Sage reached out both hands and raised him up, saying with a smile, "You must have received my transmission of doctrine and of the Way. Since you are my direct heir, you are my disciple; there is no need to call me Patriarch.

" Shen Mu was startled and delighted at once. If he became the Woodcutter Sage's disciple, his standing in the hierarchy would shoot up steeply; even if he met the successive Sect Masters of the Nether Demon Sect again, those old ghosts would never be able to press him down with seniority!

He hesitated a moment, then ventured, "Sage Master, have you ever heard of the Heavenly Sage Sect? " "The Heavenly Sage Sect? " The Woodcutter Sage looked astonished and shook his head. "Never heard of it.

" Shen Mu's face turned ashen, and he wilted where he stood.

So the Woodcutter Sage truly had never heard of the Heavenly Sage Sect!

Still unwilling to let it go, he probed further. "Then, Sage Master, that sacred tree you left behind, and the sacred stone, and the axe marks — was there some deeper meaning in them?

" "That old locust tree still isn't dead? " The Woodcutter Sage was surprised, made a quick reckoning, and said, "That tree must be close on twenty thousand years old. I gave the old locust so many axe blows, and it lives to this day — I fear it has turned into a spirit by now.

" Shen Mu stammered, "Sage Master, that — that sacred stone.

.

.

" "What sacred stone?

Oh, you mean the stone I sat on when I transmitted the Way?

What of it? " Shen Mu felt as though five thunderbolts had struck his crown; his mind was a chaos, and he faltered out, "At every grand sacrifice, our Heavenly Sage Sect kowtows to that sacred stone, and kowtows to the sacred tree as well.

Only Sect Masters and sect elders who have won splendid merit are entitled, after death, to have their ashes buried beneath the sacred tree.

. .

" The Woodcutter Sage shook his head.

"So many rites?

Rites are the very thing I detest most. Could this Heavenly Sage Sect have been founded by that disciple of mine? Your Senior Brother never mastered the whole of my arts, but he made no end of rules; fixated on the rules, he lost the very meaning of what I transmitted to him. A hopeless disappointment, hopeless!

" The "disciple" and "Senior Brother" he spoke of was the founding patriarch of the Heavenly Sage Sect — and that founding patriarch was a figure elusive as a dragon that shows its head but never its tail; Shen Mu had not seen him in Fengdu. He had never gone to Fengdu; where he had gone, no one knew. If this truth ever got out, everyone in the Heavenly Sage Sect, high and low — the young patriarch included, and the successive Sect Masters in Fengdu included — would surely go mad! Seeing his dazed, addled look, the Black Tiger God opened his mouth, then swallowed it back, thinking, "My Lord is forever berating me at the least provocation and would never believe this brat's mind is unwell.

In the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, the boy's face has run through a dozen expressions. . .

" The True Deity Pang Yu came forward, examined Yu He's eyes and ears, and checked Shu You as well; seeing that neither was in any danger, he lowered his voice and said, "Young friend Shen Mu saved the two of you — will you not come forward and give thanks?

That you could walk alive out of the sand-table world is owed in no small part to his risking himself to draw off the enemy and being the first to take out three masters. " Yu He and Shu You were shaken to the core, and blurted out, "He alone killed three demon masters?

" "Counting Jiang Yi, four. " Pang Yu sighed. "Ten demon masters entered the field; four died at his hands — nearly half at a single stroke. Add the demon master the girl of the Sang Ye house killed, and the two of them between them took the greater part of the battle honors.

The rest of us, you two included, fought to the death, lost six, and killed only four. The demon race is not to be made light of — their strength is still greater than yours. . .

" He shook his head and said no more.

Yu He and Shu You each fell silent, exchanged a glance, and both tasted bitterness on their tongues.