Chapter 43: The Demon Rushing Home
The next day, Qin Mu was startled awake by the commotion of the villagers. Getting up to inquire, he learned that the night watchman had suddenly died the previous night, giving the villagers quite a fright.
Last night, Qin Mu had felled a tree, and a massive serpent had burst forth from within it—already terrifying enough. Now, with the night watchman's sudden death in the dead of night, the villagers were restless and fearful, buzzing with discussion.
The couple carried a tray covered with red cloth, on which lay some gifts of thanks. They said, "Old midwife, young brother, we are poor folk and have nothing of value. Please, you must accept these."
Qin Mu was about to decline when Blind said, "Mu'er, take them. Don't let people dwell on owing you a favor."
Qin Mu accepted the few items on the red cloth and bid the couple farewell. The man laughed and said, "Young brother, with your extraordinary skills, you are sure to become a dragon or phoenix among men!"
"What's so good about dragons and phoenixes?"
Granny Si said, "Dragon liver and phoenix gallbladder are nothing more than dishes on the dining table. Don't become a dragon or phoenix—become something that eats dragons and phoenixes."
The couple exchanged bewildered glances. Granny Si waved her hand: "Go on back. Mu'er, Blind, let's continue our market trip!"
Qin Mu caught up with the little old woman, curiosity burning. "Grandma, what happened last night? Was the night watchman the one performing the ritual? How did he die? And what about that silver pellet floating on my brow? Last time you said everyone in our village was ordinary, but I feel the ordinary people from other villages are a bit different from our village's ordinary people."
"So many questions?"
Granny Si's head felt like it was about to split. She looked to Blind for help, but he was happily walking forward, only to *thump* into a tree and collapse unconscious.
Granny Si stomped on Blind's face a few times, but he refused to wake up.
Qin Mu quickly hoisted Blind onto his back and looked at Granny Si with hopeful eyes. She pulled a needle from her basket and jabbed it into Blind's backside. Blood spurted from the wound, yet he remained unconscious.
Granny Si had no choice. Blinking her eyes, she said, "The night watchman was indeed that demonic cultivator who raised snakes. His skills were not weak. He used the Demon Shadow Illusion Art, a technique from the Heavenly Demon Sect. It's quite formidable and catches people off guard. I used the Shadow-Embedded Strike to injure his shadow, harming his true body through it. But a demon of my heart once made me promise someone that I would never harm a disciple of the Heavenly Demon Sect in my life, so I only made him retreat. The one who killed him was Blind."
Qin Mu blinked. "What about the silver pellet? Was that a sword pellet? Grandma, are you skilled in swordsmanship?"
Granny Si blinked back. The old and young blinked at each other until their eyes grew sore. Granny Si gritted her teeth and jabbed Blind's backside again, but he still didn't wake.
"Silver pellet? Ahem, are you talking about this?"
Granny Si turned her palm over, and a silver pellet appeared in her hand. Qin Mu nodded eagerly. "Grandma, teach me swordsmanship!"
Granny Si sighed. "It's not that I don't want to teach you, but I can't. My swordsmanship might rank somewhere, but it can't claim to be the best in the world. If you learn my style, others won't be willing to teach you. So I absolutely cannot pass it on to you."
Qin Mu was disappointed, but then his spirits lifted. "The best swordsmanship in the world? Is it in our village?"
"Don't overthink it."
Granny Si warned, "If you go begging him, he'll be even less likely to teach. He'll only teach when he's ready! You're now carrying several supreme techniques, but you're not proficient in any of them. Wait until you can, at the same cultivation level, punch Ma Ye, slash Butcher, spear Blind, and outrun Cripple—then think about honing your swordplay! At that point, if he won't teach, we'll force him to!"
Blind yawned and said leisurely, "He has the highest insight and the deepest cultivation. He's grown more terrifying over the years. Even if we all teamed up, we might not be able to beat him."
"So you finally decided to wake up?" Granny Si fumed and jabbed him in the backside again.
Blind got down from Qin Mu's back, leaning on his cane. "It's better for you to explain that matter. I can't. As for killing the night watchman, I can explain that. His Demon Shadow Illusion Art was quite advanced—he could swap his true body with his shadow. The shadow was his real body, not the physical form. If you attacked his body, his shadow would kill you. When he tried to kill me, I used my bamboo staff to nail his shadow to the ground."
Qin Mu thought for a moment. "So, he raised snakes and used the innate essence and souls of infants to cultivate?"
Blind said, "Grandma, you're the expert on demonic techniques. You explain."
"That technique is called the Innate Freedom Art."
Granny Si said, "It's a Heavenly Demon Sect method for turning from the acquired state to the innate. But he must have gotten a fragmentary version from somewhere and practiced it wrong, using unborn infants to train. The real Innate Freedom Art, though demonic, is upright and dignified. It scorns such underhanded methods, instead absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and the essence of the sun and moon."
A hint of worry crept into her expression. She lowered her voice. "For a Heavenly Demon Sect member to appear nearby... it means the Great Wasteland can't stay peaceful anymore. These people usually swarm in like a nest of hornets..."
The three returned to the Granny Temple. The market was still going on. By afternoon, people from various villages began to leave, heading back to their own settlements. Qin Mu once again drove the oxcart back to Crippled Elderly Village.
"Mu'er, from now on, you can go out hunting on your own."
Ma Ye sat on the oxcart, his body rising and falling with the bumpy road. Suddenly he said, "You've grown up."
Qin Mu's heart warmed. He turned back and smiled, the cowherd boy of Crippled Elderly Village beaming as brightly as the early spring sunshine.
"But you're only allowed to hunt exotic beasts. Don't challenge any exotic beast lords."
Granny Si added, "And you must come back every evening to let the oxen graze."
The cowherd's face immediately darkened. The two sturdy oxen pulling the cart let out indignant bellows, tears glistening in their eyes, looking utterly wronged.
Seeing this, Qin Mu grew suspicious. "Grandma, are these two oxen actually people?"
"Guess." Granny Si snickered.
Qin Mu decided not to guess.
A gust of wind blew from behind. The youth's heart stirred with the breeze. Suddenly he leaped up from the oxcart, chasing the wind. He wanted to catch up to it, to walk on the crest of the wind in the sky!
He moved with incredible speed, bursting out of the pine forest, racing across the treetops. Faster and faster, he finally caught up to the wind's leading edge, leaped into the air, and though he was suspended in midair, a strange upward force lifted his feet.
The youth cheered, his feet tapping rapidly through the air as he ran on the wind's crest.
The few on the oxcart looked up. Blind said calmly, "Will he fall?"
Pharmacist grabbed a handful of wind and sniffed it, laughing. "He will fall. This is a demon wind. There's a demon rushing home inside it. When it notices him, it will stop. Who's going to catch him?"
Qin Mu's feet moved swiftly, and the wind was just as fast. Before he knew it, he had run over ten li. Just as the youth was getting excited, he suddenly saw a pure white fox sitting on a large banana leaf, flying up beside him. Its front legs were stretched straight out, and it sat on its hind legs.
He froze in shock. The white fox froze too.
Both of them screamed at the same time. Then Qin Mu felt the howling wind suddenly stop. He flailed and fell from the sky, while the fox, still sitting on its banana leaf, pointed a front paw at him and shrieked, clearly astonished.
"Damn it!"
Qin Mu's feet shifted rapidly, executing the Heaven-Stealing Footwork. "If I run fast enough, I can walk in the sky..."
He realized he wasn't running fast enough. His feet couldn't grip the air, and he was plummeting downward with a roar!
Qin Mu looked down and his scalp tingled. Below was a rocky mountain area, not a single tree in sight—just scattered boulders. If he hit those rocks, he'd be smashed to pieces!
Just then, the white fox, still shrieking in the air, came to its senses. The banana leaf zipped over in a flash. Qin Mu immediately felt wind beneath his feet again, able to step on the wind's crest. He tapped rapidly, halting his descent, and just before hitting the ground, he leaped up on the wind's crest and ran through the air!
He breathed a sigh of relief, but saw the fox catching up on its banana leaf. Their eyes met. The white fox spoke in human language, its voice very pleasant, though it reeked of alcohol and seemed tipsy. It asked curiously, "What are you doing? How did you get into my wind?"
Qin Mu was amazed. "I wanted to see if I could chase the wind's crest and walk on it. I didn't know it was your wind. You can fly? And talk?"
"I use a spell to command the wind, so I can ride it."
The white fox said, "I'm returning from a banquet. It's getting dark, and I'm in a hurry. I can't take you along. I'll be off now. If fate allows, we'll meet again another day!" With that, it rolled up a whirlwind and vanished.
Qin Mu felt the wind beneath his feet gradually weaken. He quickly ran diagonally down from the sky and landed. Crippled Elderly Village was just ahead. He looked up, but the fox was already gone.
"Returning from a banquet?"
Qin Mu was full of confusion. "A talking fox that knows spells and goes to banquets? How fun is that? Next time I meet it, I have to ask clearly..."
Two days later, an old and a young wandering Daoist arrived at Zhang Village Stockade, travel-worn and dusty. They walked into the village. The old man said, "Good people of the village, could you spare a bowl of water? We monks often travel and have weak stomachs. We'd appreciate some hot water."
The villagers poured two bowls of water for them. The old man and the youth drank and thanked them. The old man, with a kindly face, smiled and said, "We master and disciple wander the four directions and know a bit of magic. I sense demonic energy in your village. Do you need us to exorcise it?"
The villager laughed. "The demon has already been dealt with. It was a great serpent hiding inside a tree. A young man from a neighboring village cut it down!"
The old man looked surprised. "Then why do I still feel demonic energy here? Has anyone died in your village recently?"