Chapter 415: Peerless in Poetry and Painting
The butcher back then was a madman—domineering, invincible, lonely, and also deeply learned, not like the crude man he was now. Not only was his blade technique superb, but his scholarship was equally impressive. The poems he wrote were bold and unrestrained, and he became a famous literary giant of his time.
His blade technique was called the Heavenly Blade, and he himself was known as the Heavenly Blade. Every one of his moves was imbued with poetic meaning, expressing his feelings directly and with exhilarating freedom.
If the Village of the Crippled Elders were to hold a literary ranking, the deaf man would be first, and the butcher would be second. Although he had become deranged and foul-mouthed, he was still the most renowned literary master of his era.
At that time, he had already challenged nearly every expert. Even Ban Gongcuo, the Great Venerable of the Golden Palace of Loulan, could only hide in the Golden Palace, not daring to show his face.
He was brimming with ambition. Apart from having an annoying disciple, his life was already complete. Of course, his disciple was also remarkable, named Bashan, known as the Overlord Blade.
"Forty or fifty years, the stormy days never return. Fleeting clouds pass by, a single line stretches across the vast sky!"
"Don't boast—after the heroes' calamity comes the people's will. Gazing around the sea and sky, smoke trails behind every step!"
The butcher created the technique "A Single Line Stretches Across the Vast Sky," pushing the combat technique school to unprecedented heights. At that time, many in the martial world practiced the blade, and the combat technique school became the mainstream, surpassing magical arts and sword techniques.
It was then that the butcher could no longer resist drawing his blade against the heavens. He was not like the Imperial Preceptor of Yankang, who sought reform and change. What the butcher sought was satisfaction!
"After I created this move, I immediately tested the blade technique. That single slash cut open the sky."
The butcher wielded his blade, executing the technique "A Single Line Stretches Across the Vast Sky." He did not unleash any of its power, merely going through the motions.
He sheathed his blade and stood upright, his expression strange. He steadied himself, as if recalling his mad period. "Then I saw a bizarre sight. The sky split open, and beyond it, there were no stars. I was cautious and did not immediately ascend to look. Instead, I found a few like-minded friends, all skilled in calculations."
Qin Mu's heart stirred. The butcher had actually been cautious? He had always been the most hot-tempered, charging headfirst into trouble and swinging his blade at anything.
"This personality is just a facade Grandfather Butcher deliberately creates. Anyone who believes he is a reckless brute is probably already dead," Qin Mu thought to himself.
"So I slashed at the sky a second time, and my calculation friends measured the sky's thickness and height. But this time, something went wrong."
The butcher fell silent. After a moment, he said gloomily, "Those friends of mine died. In the crack I cut in the sky, an eye appeared—a massive eye, a strange eye. When that eye looked at me, I felt my soul tremble, as if it were being pulled out of my body. But my physical body was extremely strong, and my heartbeat suppressed my primordial spirit. My friends, however, could not suppress theirs. They..."
His eyelids twitched, and he fell silent again.
"I did not immediately charge into the sky to find the owner of that eye. I took my friends' bodies to their homes, settled their families, and gave them a grand burial."
The butcher stared blankly into space. "I knelt and begged their families for forgiveness. One of my friends was my sworn brother. His wife was a good woman, but she slapped me. Then she said to me, 'Get lost. Go as far as you can. Don't seek revenge.' I knew what she meant. If I went for revenge, I would surely die. But I still went."
He smiled and said to Qin Mu, "My friend, my brother, died for no reason, died because of me. How could I not seek revenge? A man stands eight feet tall, with muscles of steel, courage in his heart, and a great blade in his hand. Why not take revenge, why not express his feelings directly? My sister-in-law cared for me and didn't want me to die, but my blade and my heart are upright and just—I must repay a grievance! So I took my blade and ascended to the heavens alone. Heh heh, many people say I'm a madman, right?"
Qin Mu nodded silently.
Too many people said that the Heavenly Blade, who slashed at the sky, was a madman. The Heavenly Blade ascended to fight the gods, the sky darkening, clouds gathering, thunder roaring.
That battle was described by contemporaries as the strongest combat practitioner, the Heavenly Blade, falling into demonic obsession and challenging the heavens. It was almost mythologized by later generations.
The Heavenly Blade was cut in half, his blood spilling over the mortal world. The combat technique school lost its strongest figure but still flourished. When the Imperial Preceptor of Yankang rose to power, because the combat technique school was fond of violence and killing at will, the Imperial Preceptor challenged the entire school, killing many veterans, and the school declined from then on.
"I ascended to the sky. The sky was only this thick..."
The butcher pinched his thumb and forefinger together, indicating at most three inches thick.
Qin Mu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The sky was a hundred thousand miles high and three hundred zhang thick—he had calculated this with Xu Shenghua, Wang Muran, Lin Xuan, and the others. The butcher was often careless and, being a poet, liked to exaggerate. Three inches was just his metaphor.
"I reached the sky and saw many strange formations."
The butcher stared blankly at the sky. "The sky was only a line wide, filled with automatically operating formations, incredibly complex, taking the forms of sun, moon, stars, and galaxies. I was furious at the time. I thought this damned sky was all fake. Those poor Daoist priests spent their days calculating the celestial stars, only to find that everything they calculated was false. The common people worshipped the sun and moon every day, only to worship these things. I wanted to cut them all down, smash them, and see how they could keep fooling people. And then..."
And then, the Heavenly Blade encountered the gods, the gods who guarded these false celestial phenomena.
The Heavenly Blade fought the gods and was cut in half, falling down.
His lower body was snatched by the Witch Venerable, along with a severed hand of a god, which Qin Mu later stole back and was still in the butcher's hands.
"I never met the owner of that eye, nor did I avenge my friends. I was crippled, ruined."
The butcher's eyes showed madness, but his spirit remained stable. "I had no face to return to my friends' families, no face to see my sister-in-law, and no face to die. Those friends were watching me..."
He seemed on the verge of tears and laughter. "I couldn't let them support a cripple like me, nor could I let Bashan see me disabled. In this world, there is only the Heavenly Blade who died in battle, not the Heavenly Blade who drags out an ignoble existence. It was raining and snowing then. I crawled and crawled until I reached the Great Ruins, covered in cold mud. It was the blind man who picked me up and brought me back to the village. That damned blind man still brings it up..."
The butcher's face darkened. "Last year, when I left the Great Ruins with the blind man, I couldn't help but go see my sister-in-law. She was old, her eyesight failing, her mind not what it used to be. She didn't recognize me. Her grandson was with her. She could no longer walk and could only sit in a recliner. Her grandson said the old lady's most frequent words were, 'I shouldn't have let Second Brother leave back then.'"
The butcher's tiger-like eyes shed tears, but his voice remained calm. "I accompanied her through her final days. On her deathbed, she was still muttering about me. She never knew I was by her side. She said she had harmed me..."
Qin Mu fell silent.
The butcher perked up and said, "Although I didn't spend long in the sky, I saw many things. The sun, moon, and stars in the sky were actually formations in a narrow space. They looked like, looked like..."
He glanced at the deaf man, who had been turned into a bull, and said, "Like a painting. But those sun, moon, and stars weren't painted things—they were real, operating on their own, hidden within the painting, running in the world inside the painting. I've also seen the deaf man's paintings, very skillful, but not yet reaching that level."
Qin Mu was startled. "Formations within a painting, presenting the magnificent scene of sun, moon, and stars?"
"Moo!" A big black bull beside Qin Mu bellowed angrily, while several female deer demons were flirting with it.
The butcher drove away the deer demons, placed his butcher knife on the bull's head, and made a gesture. The black bull trembled in fear.
The butcher plunged the knife into the bull's neck, carefully peeling off the hide. The deer demons fled in panic.
The deaf man rolled out from the bull's hide, complaining, "Butcher, you almost hurt me."
"The sky is like a painting, but not entirely a painting. The sun, moon, and stars inside are like refined treasures. This painting completely covers the real sky, maintaining the formations of the sun, moon, and stars for tens of thousands of years. You can't do it—your cultivation is too shallow."
The butcher sheathed his knife and said, "Those gods in the sky should be the dogs guarding the celestial map, not real gods. They are strong, no weaker than the fellows from the Upper Firmament. But the owner of that divine eye—I never saw him. He shouldn't be in this realm. When I was probing the celestial phenomena, he sensed me and looked at me."
A painting covering the entire world, with the sun, moon, stars, and galaxies inside as formations operating on their own, three hundred zhang thick and a hundred thousand miles high.
Qin Mu's head ached. Was this something a human could create?
"At that time, I didn't see beyond the sky."
The butcher's face darkened. "That slash of mine only cut open the celestial map, not the back. My physical body was terrifyingly strong back then, and I didn't die, but I went mad."
In fact, even now, the butcher occasionally had fits of madness, often cursing the damned sky and being somewhat cynical.
The people of the Village of the Crippled Elders were all beaten down, both in spirit and body, and were somewhat cynical.
"I can also paint. I can draw what I saw in the sky."
The butcher said, "But my paintings aren't as good as the deaf man's. Mu'er, give me a few days, and I'll draw those formations for you."
Qin Mu was astonished.
The butcher was burly and strong, as powerful as a reincarnated bull demon, with a thick, robust beard that sparked when he shaved it with his butcher knife!
Such a rough man was actually peerless in both poetry and painting, and was even revered as the Heavenly Blade!
The deaf man wasn't surprised. "In our village, the blind man has the least cultural foundation. The butcher's poetry and painting are top-notch. He just didn't put all his heart into them, or he would have gone down in history."
Qin Mu looked at the blind man, who was staring fiercely at the deaf man.
For the next two days, the butcher holed up in his room, constantly painting. Qin Mu didn't disturb him. Si Yunxiang contacted the Young Patriarch, who said, "The Patriarch went to the Western Lands and is on his way back."
Qin Mu was surprised. "The Patriarch went to the Western Lands? Could it be to visit an old flame?"
Just then, a voice came: "The Imperial Preceptor of Yankang requests an audience with the Human Sovereign!"
Qin Mu turned around, looking in the direction of the voice, and laughed heartily. "Heavenly King, why be so formal? Just say you're here to see the Sect Leader! Calling me Human Sovereign is too distant!"
Si Yunxiang was deeply impressed. "The Sect Leader's thick skin—I can't even catch up to it."