Chapter 144 — Brothers of the Same Lineage

The two sat down, and the Bashan Libationer again asked after the Butcher's health. Shen Mu said, "All is well.

His lower half is gone, but his cultivation is very high; his hands scurry about swift as flight. " The Bashan Libationer was puzzled.

"Since you and I share one master, why did you also study medicine under the Jade-Faced Poison King?

Is the Jade-Faced Poison King your master as well? " Shen Mu nodded, and did not tell him that besides the Alchemist and the Butcher, he had other masters too. The Bashan Libationer was stunned, then said suddenly, "I think I know where our master's lower half is! Back then, when he raised his blade to the heavens, his body fell from the sky, and his lower half seems to have been snatched away by the disciples of a certain sect. Junior Brother, you studied medicine under the Jade-Faced Poison King and your skill is great.

I want to ask you: if we find our master's lower half, can it be reattached? " Shen Mu hesitated a moment. "If it had only just been cut off, yes. One need only rouse the body's vitality and use medicines that grow flesh and generate essence, and severed flesh can be rejoined, severed tendons reconnected, severed bone remolded.

But so much time has passed—I fear his lower half has long since died.

. .

" The Bashan Libationer slumped, then rallied. "Even so, we must get our master's lower half back! " Shen Mu nodded.

"Senior Brother had best first find out clearly which sect took it, lest we go looking at the wrong one. " The Bashan Libationer rose, and before long returned.

"Our master's lower half was picked up by someone more than two hundred years ago, and there is no telling whether it is still with that sect. I have already sent men to investigate; when we learn where it is, we will go and bring it back.

" Shen Mu let out a breath.

If the Butcher's lower half could be found, then whether or not it could be reattached, it would be a good thing in the end. The Butcher had only his upper half left, and little of his strength remained; if his lower half had been carried off by someone, it ought to have been preserved. After all, his power was exceedingly great.

As a mighty one of the combat-technique school, attaining the state of an incorruptible body should not have been difficult.

Many eminent monks of the Buddhist faith had achieved incorruptible bodies; after death their flesh neither rotted nor decayed, and they were enshrined in temples as flesh-body bodhisattvas. Yet the hard thing was an undying body. Those flesh-body bodhisattvas in the temples had in truth already died.

An undying body was a notch above an incorruptible one: blood that does not congeal, flesh that does not stiffen, a heart that beats, nerves that run true—that was an undying body.

"Senior Brother Bashan, do you know Grandpa Tu's given name? " Shen Mu asked, recalling something. The Bashan Libationer shook his head.

"I do not. I only know that others called him the Heavenly Blade; what his worldly name was, no one knows.

Our master said he had an enemy who could learn a man's name and work sorcery to harm him, so he seldom breathed his name to anyone. " Shen Mu was startled. This was somewhat like the arts of the Great Shaman of the Man-Di Kingdom.

Could the Butcher have once offended the Great Shaman of the Man-Di Kingdom? He calmed his mind and went on practicing the three sword forms the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had passed down.

Of the Imperial Preceptor's three forms, he had already mastered the Circling Sword, and could hardly improve further; now he began to practice the other two. The Bashan Libationer drank as he watched from the side, minded to offer him some guidance on his cultivation, but after watching a while he could not get out a single word. He had seen other scholars practice the Roaming Sword as well—some clumsy, some deft—but in Shen Mu's hands the hundreds and thousands of strands of sword-qi of the Roaming Sword were now like darting fish, now like a startled swan, now like a roaming dragon; the sword-qi had no fixed form, but changed in a thousand ways. In the whole Imperial Academy, only Shen Mu had such solid fundamentals and such variety besides!

The single move of the Roaming Sword Shen Mu practiced countless times, striving to burst all the strength of his body forth in one strike.

His Roaming Sword grew mightier and mightier, and the Bashan Libationer watched until he forgot to drink. After a thousand repetitions Shen Mu turned to the Drilling Sword, grinding at his fundamentals just as hard, striving to gather all his strength into the blade and unleash every ounce of his potential.

His potential lay not only in sword moves: the Lame Elder's footwork, the Butcher's blade arts, Old Master Huo's boxing, the Blind Elder's sacred pupils, the Deaf Elder's painting skill, the Silent Craftsman's hammering—all of them he took as means of bringing forth power.

After a long while Shen Mu stopped, drenched in sweat, and took out the Heavenly Fragrance Kerchief to wipe himself. The Bashan Libationer said suddenly, "Junior Brother, was it you who drove off the Daoist Son and the Buddhist Child?

" Shen Mu evened his breath and did not hide it from him. "The Daoist Son lost to me by half a move. As for the Buddhist Child, I never crossed swords with him.

" The Bashan Libationer let out a foul breath and muttered, "When I saw your swordplay I guessed it was you.

Strange as it sounds—were you the one who bellowed 'I have finally refined qi into threads!

' while the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping was lecturing on the sword? " Shen Mu's face reddened slightly.

The Bashan Libationer's expression turned odd. "Was that when you managed to refine qi into threads? If you had not mastered it, how did you defeat Lin Xuan the Daoist Son?

" Shen Mu thought for a moment.

"I thrust out one sword, and he was defeated. " The Bashan Libationer was speechless.

"What do you mean, you thrust out one sword and he was defeated?

" Shen Mu scratched his head.

"How about this, Senior Brother: use the Five Luminaries realm to block my sword.

" The Bashan Libationer sealed off his other spirit-treasuries, his fighting spirit blazing, and shouted, "I am ready!

" Beside them, Snow Fox and the green ox, drunk and bleary-eyed, were quarreling about swearing brotherhood as siblings of different surnames, when the little fox caught sight of Shen Mu and the Bashan Libationer and burst out laughing. "Big Ox, your master is in for it. " The green ox wheezed, "My master will not be in for anything—" Shen Mu picked up a stick of firewood, used it as a sword, and thrust.

The Bashan Libationer raised a hand to block, and with a thunderous boom the gate of the Scholars' Quarter where Shen Mu lodged shattered into countless pieces, and a great stretch of the wall came down with it!

The green ox had not finished its sentence, and shut its mouth at once. Shen Mu withdrew his sword and hurried out. The Bashan Libationer, face covered in dust, rose from the broken bricks and tiles, unsealed his other spirit-treasuries, and laughed.

"I thought Lin Xuan the Daoist Son had taken a bribe!

No wonder—had it been me, caught off guard, I could not have blocked it either. " He was not hurt; the firewood that Shen Mu had thrust at his chest was blasted by his vital essence into splinters of wood fiber, and could not wound him. Many scholars of the Scholars' Quarter hurried out, and seeing the gate of Shen Mu's courtyard torn down, could not help gloating inwardly: "That cast-off Shen dared to write words on his door insulting the scholars of our Jingping—now he has come to grief, has he not?

The Bashan Libationer himself has come to tear down their gate; let us see where he can put his face now! " The Bashan Libationer swept his gaze over them and waved a hand.