Chapter 101 — The Immortal Corpse Lineage

In the county office a heavy voice rang out with a cold laugh: "The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping holds the Son of Heaven hostage and commands the sects by his word; the great sects have long chafed under him! Gao Judé, magistrate of Dijiang County, plays jackal to the tiger, and is glad to serve as the Imperial Preceptor's eyes and ears — death is too good for him!

" In the inn, Shen Mu frowned. "The Dijiang magistrate, dead so soon? My first time out of the Ruins, and this is what I walk into — what rotten luck!

Granny was right. The people outside really are far more vicious than the folk of the Ruins; it's our own kind who are honest and kind. By the way, what rank was the Dijiang magistrate, and how would his ability compare with a Prefect of the lower second grade?

" The offices of Jingping are divided into nine grades and eighteen classes, all conferred according to station and cultivation.

Some sect masters or patriarchs of surpassing cultivation were enfeoffed as great officials, those of lesser cultivation were made lords, and others were given charge of the commanderies and counties of the realm. Take Ling Hanchuan of the Lanjiang Sword Sect: the foremost powerhouse of the Southern Wastes, and therefore enfeoffed as a Prefect of the lower second grade — a man of no small consequence. Xue Hu'er came to her senses and hurriedly worked her art; a demon wind spun out through the window lattice.

Shen Mu lifted the pillow from the bed and flung it into the air; the wind caught it, and Xue Hu'er straightway sprang up and landed on the pillow, asking uneasily, "Young Master, surely they wouldn't slaughter every soul in the city just to rebel? They shouldn't threaten us. " Shen Mu leaped from the window, and before his feet touched ground a demon wind blew under them; the youth hastily stepped onto the wind and raced for the edge of the city, saying swiftly, "My sword is the Chubao Sword, the court blade of a lower first-grade official. If these rebels find it, I am dead beyond question! And a gentleman does not stand beneath a toppling wall.

These men are in revolt; they will never let the townsfolk leave.

If we stay, we will only be penned inside the city.

Once Jingping's armies arrive, how many in this city will still draw breath? The Corpse Immortal Sect — I hear they cultivate their arts with corpses.

" Xue Hu'er could not help but shiver. Shen Mu's last words were truly too horrible.

The Corpse Immortal Sect cultivated with corpses — which meant that if Jingping's army marched to put down the rebellion, every commoner in the city, whatever his station, would most likely be refined by the Corpse Immortal Sect into a flying stiff.

By now Dijiang County was in utter chaos, cries of killing on every side.

The Corpse Immortal Sect had come prepared this time: first they cast the flying stiffs they had refined into the upper reaches of the Yong River, choking the county dam, and then split into small bands to slip into the city. When night fell, the sect master, shepherding his corpses, was first to cut his way into the county office and kill the magistrate.

The magistrate of Dijiang was himself a master whose divine powers were nothing ordinary, and yet, taken by surprise, he could only yield up his head. At the same time the sect's other masters hastened to the four city gates to cut down the soldiers and officers of the county town, while the sect master led the rest to slaughter the deputy magistrate, the county commandant, the registrar, and the other officials, leaving the troops without a head.

There were still masters in Dijiang, but with no one to command them they fought each for himself; and the Corpse Immortal Sect, forming arrays of yellow talisman paper, laid out a network of roads in midair that ran in every direction, so that each point could come to another's aid — in this slaughter the sect's victory was beyond doubt.

"By order of the sect master: seal the whole city! Let no one escape!

" a shout came from within the town. Shen Mu had seen the moment early.

Xue Hu'er roused the demon wind and he rode upon it, and man and fox were about to fly clear of the county town when suddenly came the ring of a sword; Shen Mu did not turn his head — the Fish-Dragon spat its sword, and the Chubao Sword left its sheath to stab backward! Ding — a sharp note rang out, and the flying sword that had thrust at Shen Mu's back split clean down the middle.

The Chubao Sword, unchecked, shattered layer upon layer of the vital-essence threads that fed that sword, and plunged into the man's chest, nailing the black-robed Daoist — he who trod the yellow talisman paper — to a flagpole. The Corpse Immortal Sect disciple had struck at him from behind; but from childhood Shen Mu had followed Blind Grandpa, learning to read position by the sound of the wind, and the direction a sword came from, the place its wielder stood, could not escape his ears.

The man had struck to kill; Shen Mu struck back.

At the first interplay of vital currents the Chubao Sword killed his foe — it was almost a reflex, a habit bred in him since he was a child.

The demon wind bore man and fox out of the city, and a voice was heard: "Senior Brother He Yin, someone has escaped the city — and killed our little junior brother! " "Little junior brother?

" From the city came a voice both startled and furious: "What are you men good for?

How could you let our little junior brother risk himself?

How am I to answer to the sect master?

Hold the city — I will go kill him! " Shen Mu faltered in his stride and the demon wind shattered at once; Xue Hu'er dropped the pillow, sprang from the air onto the bundle on Shen Mu's back, and burrowed inside it.

"Little junior brother? Can he be the son of the Corpse Immortal Sect's master?

" Shen Mu landed and at once raced on, thinking, "Or he may be nothing but an ordinary disciple.

.

.

" Xue Hu'er's demon wind was convenient, but for sheer speed it could not match Shen Mu's running; and in the air it was hard to hide one's tracks. Running on the ground, they could use mountain and forest to mask their passage, making it hard for the enemy to overtake them.

Suddenly gouts of fire rose drifting into the sky, each becoming a fire bird that flew through the air and lit it to a dazzling white — the divine powers of a divine-power master. Shen Mu looked up: fire birds flew one after another, and behind them came flapping sheets of yellow talisman paper, spreading across the heavens. Those papers were long rectangles, about the size of a foot, and a man could walk upon them. "Lingxiao Heavenly Eye, open!

" In Shen Mu's pupils the array-patterns of vital essence revolved; the Lingxiao Heavenly Eye opened, and looking back he saw flying stiffs one after another treading the flying papers, hopping and bounding along in midair. The papers divided into two columns and the flying stiffs into two columns likewise; the papers in the air grew ever more numerous and split again into four columns, and the stiffs split into four in turn, searching in every direction.

And behind the papers was a young Daoist bearing a long sword case on his back, its lid open, from which sheet after sheet of yellow paper flew out, spreading ever onward through the air ahead — this, surely, was the Senior Brother He Yin the Corpse Immortal disciple had spoken of. His steps trod the yellow papers as he walked through the air; as he raised a foot, that paper flew of itself back into the sword case, and fresh papers flew from the case to appear before him, receiving precisely the foot he set down.

The reason every slip had to return to the case was surely that once used, the vital essence within it was spent, and it must return to be replenished.

He walked forward, and yet his pace was slow.

Shen Mu's heart sank a little: this was a divine-power master who had opened the Six-Sphere Treasury, and it would be hard indeed to shake off his pursuit.