Qin Mu steadied himself. A map of the Great Ruins before the Cataclysm was enormously useful, marking many ruins scattered across the wastes. Were he out hunting and caught too far from the Village of Broken Elders, he could follow the map into these ruins to shelter from the invading dark.
"With this map, I can steer clear of dangers." He committed it to heart, and found where this valley lay: the map named it the Suppressing Calamity Palace.
"Suppressing Calamity Palace? 'Calamity'—that means disaster, misfortune." Qin Mu had studied writing and painting under the Deaf, learning much, and murmured: "It is a palace that suppresses misfortune. But what catastrophe was it meant to hold down?"
The demon ape had slipped out; fearing its presence might disturb him, it had gone off to wait. "That big fellow has a good head on his shoulders."
Qin Mu walked out, called it over, and asked: "Big fellow, is there anywhere strange around here?" The ape scratched its head, thought a moment, then hurried for the side hall. Qin Mu followed at a quick step, that foolish roe deer trailing along too.
"There!" The ape entered the side hall and pointed at a white wall on which was drawn a figure—a tiny thing, no bigger than a thumb. Qin Mu looked the wall up and down; besides the little figure there was nothing else.
The foolish roe deer sidled up, sniffed at the painted figure, and was about to lick the wall when a hand shot out—and the roe deer vanished! Qin Mu started in fright; the ape beat its chest in fury and roared at the wall, yet dared not come near. Beside the little figure there now appeared the painting of a roe deer, vivid and lifelike. Then the painted figure began to stir, opened its mouth—growing larger, larger, filled with teeth like nails—and swallowed the roe deer in one gulp!
Qin Mu recoiled in terror. Having eaten, the figure took a step and began to walk toward them! Then he watched in horror as it—though never leaving the wall—grew taller and taller, until it filled the entire wall, and even the roof sprouted its shadow: a head with a gaping maw. Then its hands spread from this wall onto the two beside it.
"Little runt, go!" The ape seized Qin Mu and sprang away, and the shadow did not catch them. From the wall came a thunderous roar; then the black shadow crept outward and swallowed the whole side hall! It strained to wrench itself free from the walls but could not break loose.
"So this is a demon."
Qin Mu halted, blinking, and tested: "Qikedo Samo-ye, Prajna-prajna Samo-ye, Qikedo-prajna Samo-ye." The shadow quieted at once. Then the lattice windows gaped open like two pitch-black eyes, and Qin Mu felt a dreadful gaze upon him, raising the hair on his skin. The great doors boomed shut, then opened again of their own accord. In between, a hoarse voice came forth: "The Great Freedom mantra. A junior of my race? Poor child—your mantra was never taught in its true transmission. Has my race truly fallen so far?"
"Senior, do you understand the true Great Freedom mantra?"
"Of course!" The voice brimmed with pride. "My race's mantra harbors boundless power—the strength that hewed open the world, the strength that wins Great Freedom! But see what it has become in your hands: no power at all! Make this ape stand back, and I will pass on to you the true mantra."
Qin Mu looked at the ape. It shook its head and rumbled: "Believe, ghost!" "This senior is of my race and will not harm me. Go out and wait." Qin Mu soothed it, then pushed the uneasy ape out.
The doors opened and closed, and the bewitching voice spoke: "The mantra is the subtlety of working one's art; it harbors the power of gods and demons. You took only its syllables, not its divine bearing, nor the method to unleash it. That method is the Great Freedom Seal, the core secret art of my race! My power is sealed within this hall and cannot last—watch closely. I will teach you only once!"
The black figure on the wall shrank to a modest shadow about Qin Mu's own height. Within it rose line after line in motion: the tracks of his qi. "The Great Freedom Seal holds four seals: the Demon God's Mighty Strength Seal, the Demon Celestial Freedom Seal, the Great Wisdom Seal, and the last, the three fused into one, the Great Freedom Demon Celestial Seal! This is the first—the Demon God's Mighty Strength Seal! School your mouth in demon speech to ignite its power: Qikedo!"
Qin Mu watched without blinking, committing the path to memory, his own qi coursing along the same tracks. "Qikedo!" The demon words burst out, and a dreadful power surged within him, knotting his fingers into a strange seal that thrust forward beyond his control!
Boom! A dull report rang out—this palm had struck the thunderclap he had so long dreamed of: thunder in the palm center! Qin Mu stood stunned. The Demon God's Mighty Strength Seal was singularly mighty; in variations it fell short of Old Ma's Eight Thunder Moves, but in raw force outstripped them by a wide margin. Yet it spent several times as much qi as the Eight Thunder Moves!
The shadow on the wall squirmed, as though snagged, and slipped back into the hall, panting: "This side hall is too strong; it presses me down. I have little time left. Watch closely: this is the second seal—the Demon Celestial Freedom Seal! Samo-ye!" On the inner wall the qi's course shifted once more, but the dim hall hid it at a distance. Qin Mu bucked up his spirits and, without meaning to, stepped a pace forward, until he could see the shadow's qi and its changing well enough.
"Samo-ye!" He recited the demon speech, let his qi run, and another wondrous power swelled within him, driving his body into another stance. His face broke into a smile unbidden; his fingers made the gesture of plucking a flower, and he thrust out a single seal.
This seal seemed to hold no power at all. Yet Qin Mu felt one of the Eight Thunder Moves worked to much the same effect—the fifth, Tempering the Yang Soul in the Sunlight! Old Ma's move seemed at first none too fierce, but its essence lay in striking at a practitioner's soul: the fist like the sun hanging high, the yang thunder in the palm smelting the soul itself!
The Demon Celestial Freedom Seal likewise targeted the soul, sharing the same principle. The only difference: Old Ma shattered the enemy's soul with blazing yang thunder, resolute and fierce to the utmost; the Demon Celestial Freedom Seal drew the enemy's soul into one's palm—the palm a heaven of freedom—and ground it to nothing within, far more sinister and far harder to guard against. What is fierce can be warded off; this seal takes a man unawares.
Qin Mu grew puzzled. The figure's seals and Old Ma's boxing mirrored one another, plainly sharing one principle, yet each expounded it utterly differently: one the straight and just, the other the crooked path of demons. Which was better he could not say. Old Ma's Eight Thunder Moves suited facing an enemy head-on; the Great Freedom Seals served better used suddenly, to catch a man off guard.
The figure shrank a little more, struggling under the palace's crushing weight, and panted: "Watch closely: this is the third seal—the Great Wisdom Seal..." The shadow grew blurred. Without meaning to, Qin Mu stepped forward two more paces until on the verge of the doors. Then he stopped. He did not go in. Instead he set the Nine-Layer Heaven Eye Art the Blind One had taught him coursing, a second ring of pupil appearing in his eyes; dim as the shadow was, to his eyes it became clear.
"You will not come in—can you even see clearly?" asked the figure on the wall.