Chapter 723 — The Most Charismatic

Di Yiyue turned this way and that before the mirror several times, and could not help feeling her heart bloom with delight. "Truly a great master, a great hand," she praised. "Not a single flaw to be seen!"

"Wait a moment!"

Shen Mu hastily stopped her. "Don't move! When Sister smiles, there are the tiniest little wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. Let me smooth them out for you."

Di Yiyue at once held perfectly still. Shen Mu leaned in, and from his fingertips burst fine runes that roused the skin at the corners of her eyes, smoothing the wrinkles flat and leaving the skin at the corners of her phoenix eyes delicate, fair, and tender.

Di Yiyue blinked, raised the mirror, and looked several more times. She smiled at her reflection and found that the little wrinkles at the corners of her eyes were indeed gone. She was delighted.

"Sister is truly beautiful," Shen Mu praised.

Di Yiyue was beside herself with joy, and a little bashful besides.

"Fake-medicine seller, it isn't the alchemist's trade that's about to be out of work."

Kui Sou came up beside the Alchemist, twitched his ears, and said, "It's you who's about to be out of work. From now on you can only sell fake medicine. You won't be able to live off your face anymore."

The Alchemist sighed and smiled a bitter smile. "Teach a disciple and starve the master. Shen'er is about to become number one under heaven. Luckily the little fellow is muddle-headed and has no passion for romance; otherwise, with that mouth of his, who knows how many love affairs he'd stir up."

Kui Sou said with perfect composure, "It's because we taught him well. Keep your mouth sweet, but women are all fox-spirits. The boy remembers that. So although his mouth is very sweet, he's on his guard against every woman. And so he won't repeat your mistakes."

The Alchemist steadied the bronze mask on his face and said in a low voice, "Shen'er isn't young anymore. Teaching him this way, will it ruin the boy's lifelong prospects? What if he's on guard against all women and doesn't dare go further with any girl? What then?"

Kui Sou said no more.

The Alchemist asked again, and still Kui Sou said nothing.

The Alchemist laughed in exasperation. "Your ears have grown back already, so stop playing deaf and dumb! I'm asking you a question. Think of something quickly, or I'll poison you deaf!"

Helpless, Kui Sou said, "I don't know either. What I taught him was that a fair maiden is a gentleman's worthy match; what you taught him was that all women are fox-spirits. Even the books of the sages never said what to do in a case like this. How about you mix up some medicine and make him go into heat?"

The Alchemist said proudly, "As my disciple, he'd need medicine to go into heat? That would be far too great a disgrace to my face as the Jade-Faced Poison King. Besides, his medical skill is no inferior to mine. Whatever poison I gave him, he could neutralize. Had I known, I'd have held something back..."

...

When the common folk of Li Zhou woke, each was somewhat dazed, wholly unaware of what had happened that night, and could only take it that they had dozed off in a muddle. Some people of supernatural power did vaguely guess that something great had happened the night before, but as to what exactly, they had no way of guessing.

Still, many eerie things had happened among the villages and neighbors. Someone would wake from sleep with their nature utterly changed, saying they were not a woman but a man from such-and-such a place, who had woken to find himself turned into a woman.

When people of supernatural power among the neighbors questioned them, the person could describe clearly where their home was and who was in their household. They went to investigate, and in the place described there indeed was such a person, only that person kept crying out that they were not a man but a woman, that they had entered the wrong body, and so on.

Such cases numbered in the thousands, and the uproar was tremendous.

"It's most likely that when the souls returned, they entered the wrong bodies."

Hearing these rumors, Shen Mu guessed, "Teacher's Soul-Pulling Art hasn't been cultivated to mastery, so that when he sent the souls back to their own bodies, there were some slight deviations. This is because his understanding of the language of Youdu is not quite adequate."

The Woodcutter Sage's face darkened. "Aren't you capable? Why don't you do it?"

Shen Mu said honestly, "I thought Teacher could do it. I truly never expected Teacher would be off by just a hair. If you grasped the precise meaning and subtlety of the language of Youdu, the dao-arts and divine powers within it would speak for themselves, and then there would be no mistakes."

The Woodcutter choked with fury, trembling so much he could not speak.

The Alchemist and Kui Sou were smug. Kui Sou praised, "Shen'er speaks with modesty and courtesy, truly worthy of having been raised by us through such hard work. Far too modest! He says the Sage is off by only a hair, when in fact he's off by this much!"

He spread both arms to show it.

The Alchemist, too, was immensely pleased with himself. "This is the merit of our teaching. From childhood we taught him that behind every man there is another, and beyond every heaven another heaven. We told him to be modest and cautious, and that even when he met someone inferior to himself he should not tell the truth, but say, 'You're only a tiny bit below me.' That's why Shen'er hasn't yet been beaten to death by anyone."

The two elders both wore gratified smiles.

"To settle this matter, the souls have to be swapped back."

Shen Mu said, "But there are thousands of such cases, and they live in different parts of Li Zhou. Finding them all will take a great deal of time..."

He truly dreaded trouble.

The Woodcutter Sage said, "The swapping of the souls can be left to the scholars who have cultivated the Soul-Pulling Art. We needn't do it ourselves. You've already ordered those scholars to go to Yuzhi Commandery. Just have them come over."

Shen Mu nodded, sent his primordial spirit out of his body, and made contact with Si Yunxiang.

Weariness on her face, Si Yunxiang said, "Sect Master, you had us go to Yuzhi Commandery to pull the souls of Yuzhi's people back to the world of the living. At first all went well, and then trouble came. While these scholars were pulling the souls, boats suddenly appeared, one after another, and lantern light shone out from the darkness. At a single illumination, a scholar would lose his soul and become a corpse."

Shen Mu was startled. "The Prefect of Youdu has made his move!"

Si Yunxiang went on, "The Jade Heavenly King says it's because we summoned too many souls and disturbed the rules of Youdu, so the underworld runners stepped in and took away the souls of the offenders. Yet not long ago, these scholars' souls suddenly came back. Some say it was the Divine Son of Youdu who pleaded with the runners, begging them to let the souls return. Whether that is true or not, I cannot say."

Shen Mu was bewildered. "I didn't plead for them, nor did I beg the Prefect. What is going on... Still, it's a good thing these scholars' souls have returned. It saves me a trip to Youdu. I always feel Youdu doesn't quite welcome me. Every time I go there, the Prefect and Tu Bo give me no pleasant looks, as if they can't wait to drive me out."

He explained the reasons and said, "Holy Maiden Xiang, bring a hundred or so skilled scholars to Li Zhou and send these souls that entered the wrong bodies back into their own. Don't stir up any more trouble."

Si Yunxiang agreed, and forthwith gathered scholars and hurried to Li Zhou.

Shen Mu then took his leave of the Alchemist and Kui Sou, and accompanied the Woodcutter, the First Ancestor, and Di Yiyue to the capital, to meet the Woodcutter's other disciple, the Imperial Teacher of Jingping. Shen Mu had not originally meant to go, but Di Yiyue insisted that he accompany her.