Chapter 608 — The Old Woman's Little Shoes

That demon god was locked in combat with the Wilderness Deity who guarded the altar. Though his eyes watched six roads and his ears heard eight quarters, the enemy was simply too strong, forcing him to give the fight his whole mind. The garment came flying at him; he sensed no breath of threat from it, and so took no guard. Only when it settled upon his body did he realize — and by then it was too late. Once Granny Zhu's garment was on him it shrank at once, cinching his chest, squeezing it so that it contracted sharply, and rib after rib creaked and cracked under the pressure.

The garment seemed to bristle with needles that pierced into his flesh; a fierce stinging pain came, past all enduring. The demon god could not draw breath, and hurriedly shrank his body — as a demon god, controlling his own size was of course effortless.

Just then his opponent swept a sword at him, and it happened that his shrinking let him dodge the blow. But as he shrank, the garment shrank with him, and still bound him tight as death.

"Break! " His body swelled — but the garment did not swell with it, and in that instant the demon god heard his own ribs snap. Not only his ribs: the five viscera and six bowels within him were crushed almost in the same breath.

His chest was squeezed to the thickness of a thumb; the garment was lined with silver needles that pierced him all over, wrecking the workings of his mortal flesh.

To swell one's body in such a state was to court death outright.

The Wilderness Deity he fought, in the very instant his flesh swelled, ran a sword through his skull and pinned his primordial spirit dead. The demon god's eyes went wide, blood bubbling from his mouth, and he rasped, "Had I not been dressed in a little garment, you could not have beaten me.

.

. " With that, he breathed his last.

The garment slipped of itself from his corpse and flew back to Granny Zhu; there it came apart of itself into strips of ragged cloth and returned to the basket. Shen Mu looked at the cloth strips in the basket and ventured, "Granny, your skill at tailoring grows finer by the day.

Where do these strips come from, that they can bind a demon god's flesh? " "The strips are woven from the sinews of gods and demons, and a few dragon sinews too, picked up in the Wilderness.

There was so little of it that I could only weave it into strips. " Granny Zhu smiled.

"The real key is the Great Nurturing Nether-Demon Sutra — it can stitch these rags together so the demon god cannot struggle free. " Shen Mu blinked. "Granny, besides clothes, what else can you make?

" "I can make two pairs of little shoes. I still have thousand-layer soles stitched from demon god hide here; more than enough for two pairs of cloth shoes.

" Granny Zhu dug out two pairs of soles, blinked, and said with a smile, "Put on my little shoes and you will be neither able to live nor to die, guaranteed — and you will not be able to take them off. Does Shen'er want to wear the little shoes Granny made?

" "No!

When I was small you put me in little shoes far too often — you squeezed my feet small! " Even as the two of them were talking, the Wilderness Deity guarding the altar called to them from afar: "Friends, come up and join me!

" Shen Mu and Granny Zhu climbed the altar. The deity stood like jade in the wind, exceedingly handsome; at the sight of Granny Zhu's face his Dao-heart wavered a little, and he hastily steadied himself and bowed in thanks. "So it is Cult Master Shen.

And is this a friend from Taihuang Heaven?

My thanks for your help! " "Senior, you know me?

" Shen Mu was startled. The deity smiled. "The Heavenly Master has spoken of you, Cult Master. " Shen Mu said hastily, "Where is the Heavenly Master?

" "Over there!

" The deity raised a hand toward the distance.

"The sixth altar from here is where the Heavenly Master keeps his watch.

I must stay and guard this altar, and cannot escort you two there.

Forgive me! " Shen Mu and Granny Zhu took their leave and set off in the direction he pointed. Along the way they saw other altars under attack as well — now a demon army surging toward an altar like the tide, now a demon god fighting alone, contending for mastery of an altar.

Where they could help, Shen Mu and Granny Zhu helped; where they could not, they went around. One altar had already fallen into the demon race's hands, and the deities upon it had surely been slain — that could not be helped. This time the Woodcutter Sage had the demon race by the throat, threatening Luofu Heaven, and the demons had no choice but to fight with all they had, hoping to win back some bargaining chips.

"Luofu Heaven is so perilous, and yet the demon race still dwells here!

" Shen Mu and Granny Zhu saw the bones of many demon gods standing tall within certain forbidden zones, where stone steles rose and fell in ridges all around, carved with the demon race's script — no doubt meant to ward off the calamities of this place. The demon race folk, meanwhile, lived within the divine treasuries of those demon god bones. Likely, after the calamity struck, certain demon gods had given up their own flesh so that their people might survive.

"Granny, why does calamity fall on this demon world?

Where do these calamities come from? " Puzzled, Shen Mu looked up at the shattered planets in the sky — vast beyond measure, and moving, stirring up yet more calamity, rousing earth, water, wind, and fire. Star fragments still fell from the sky like fiery serpents, striking no one knew where.

Granny Zhu shook her head. "How should I know?

Perhaps these are true natural calamities. Or perhaps gods and demons used great dharma-power to shift these planets here, to bring down tribulation. As to how it truly is — perhaps only a being like the Vajra could know the reason.

" At last they came to the sixth altar.

Looking from afar, Shen Mu and Granny Zhu saw the divine and demonic auras of that altar divide into black and white, intertwining above it like two great fish joined head to tail, swimming slowly. "The Vajra is here! " Shen Mu's heart went cold. "I wonder whether Lu Li has come.

If Lu Li is here too, then the Woodcutter Sage is in grave danger!

" He looked up at the altar and could see many different divine treasuries; but atop the altar, apart from the treasuries of the Woodcutter Sage and the Vajra, he saw none belonging to anyone who had entered the Heavenly Palace or the Demon God Palace. Those who had climbed the altar with the Vajra did not include Lu Li, but only some disciples who had not yet cultivated into demon gods — hardly any threat.

Below the altar, however, stood several divine treasuries of gods and demons.

No doubt the Vajra feared that the Woodcutter Sage might turn vicious and truly offer Luofu Heaven in blood sacrifice, and so had the demon gods who came with him remain below the altar. Shen Mu's heart eased, and he walked with Granny Zhu toward the sixth altar.

At the foot of the altar Shen Mu saw the Black Tiger God and was overjoyed, waving to him. The Black Tiger God looked right through him, both hammers in hand, staring in a fluster at the two demon gods opposite. The Woodcutter Sage's voice came down: "Shen Mu, deities may not ascend the altar.

Ask the woman beside you to remain below; you may come up. " Shen Mu assented.

Granny Zhu could not hold back: "Sage Master, I am a former Holy Maiden of the Heaven Sage Cult. I have long admired you, and beg you to let me see you once!

" On the altar the Woodcutter Sage leaned out and looked down, and could not help starting slightly, his eyes dazzled.

Slowly he said, "A fine woman — you nearly unsettled my Dao-heart.

The Heaven Sage Cult is nothing to me, and you have seen me once.

Do not come up, or my mind will not hold steady. " Granny Zhu had no choice but to assent.

Staying beside the Black Tiger God, she said in a low voice, "Shen'er, once you are up there, do not rouse the Mystic Body Three-Cinnabar Art.