Chapter 5 — The Five Elders of Lan River Come Treading the Barrens

The voice came with startling abruptness, full and resonant, brimming with qi. It issued from far away, yet it seemed to ring out at their very ears, shaking the ears of Shen Mu—already turned into a deer—until they buzzed.

He turned to look. Several figures stood on a distant cliff. From the mountain foot to that cliff the ground ran some six or seven li, and Shen Mu could no longer make out faces clearly; but to carry a voice so far and keep it so distinct was no ordinary feat, and those who had done it were no ordinary men.

Granny Zhu, a basket on her arm, smiled: "Heavenly Demon? What Heavenly Demon? This old body is only an ordinary person from the riverside, and this little deer is an ordinary deer I raised myself..."

"Mu'er, run!"

Shen Mu's heart jolted at Granny Zhu's voice. He wanted to speak but could not make a sound. He did not want to go—he was afraid Granny Zhu would run into danger.

"An ordinary person from the riverside? With a voice so full and vigorous, reaching our ears with such clarity—no ordinary old woman could do that."

From the cliff an aged yet sonorous voice sneered: "And as for the Nether Demon Transmutation, the Five Elders of Lan River could never mistake it. Flaying hides into clothing, changing by a thousand forms and ten thousand shapes—we have seen such vicious methods with our own eyes, and you still try to argue?"

Another elder on the cliff said in a deep voice: "The Nether Demon Transmutation turns men and women into oxen and sheep, to be dragged to market, slaughtered, and sold. Have you not done plenty of that? Many seniors of our orthodox schools have been turned by fiends like you into cattle, plowing fields and eating grass all their lives! Your tricks cannot deceive us!"

Yet another elder spoke with pity in his voice: "A deer is also a life. You have refined its hide and its very soul into a thing of evil. If you are not destroyed, how many more lives will be lost to your hands? If we are to kill, whom should we kill but you?"

Granny Zhu twisted her fingers at the brow of the deer that was Shen Mu, drew out a silver needle, and said in a low voice: "These mangy old coots can do nothing to your granny, but if you stay beside me, I'll have to split my attention to look after you. Run—run back to the village!"

Shen Mu hesitated no longer. He turned at once and ran for his life. Turned into a deer, he had thought he would be awkward on four legs; only once he ran did he realize he had been worrying over nothing. The change from man to beast had brought him no discomfort whatsoever; on the contrary, he ran like the wind, as if he had been born a deer.

"Little fiend, you would still flee? If we let you slip away, will you not bring disaster upon the world? Scions of Lan River—this time I have brought you out to be tempered. That deer is your trial. Cut him down and bring me his head!"

"Yes!" Five crisp voices, male and female, answered in unison.

The figures on the cliff flickered, then leaped from the crag and raced down the cliff face, swifter than galloping horses. At the cliff foot, where a waterfall and mountain streams had scoured out a deep pool, the five actually crossed the water on foot, their feet treading the surface as they sped toward the deer Shen Mu had become.

Granny Zhu's heart sank. "Spirit bodies! Their attainments in the Spirit-Soul Mansion are no mean thing. Mu'er cannot match their speed—he is certain to be caught!"

She was about to stop them when four figures came treading through the air from the cliff, and in the space of an instant landed all around her. One man still stood upon the cliff, proud and solitary, and did not descend.

"The Five Elders of Lan River are celebrated figures of the southern borderlands. What business have you in the Barrens?"

Granny Zhu's eyes darted here and there. Seeing the four elders had surrounded her on every side, she cackled: "The Barrens are fraught with danger. Are you not afraid of losing your lives here?"

The black-bearded elder among the five said coldly: "We are told the Barrens are a sink of iniquity, that demons and monsters who cannot survive elsewhere all hide here. Hence we Five Elders have brought our disciples to vanquish demons and wipe out monsters."

"Who is the demon and who the monster; who vanquishes and who is vanquished—that has yet to be decided."

Granny Zhu carried her basket on one arm and drew a pair of scissors out of it with the other. With a bleary, half-blind look on her face, she said with a smile: "This old body has not moved its bones in a long while, but at least the skills of my younger days have not all gone to waste. You five old ghosts—surely you don't want to be made into clothes by me as well?"

"You fiend! Before us you dare to be insolent? Are you worthy of insolence?"

The four elders of Lan River bellowed, shifted their bodies, crossed past one another, and hurled themselves at Granny Zhu.

At that very moment Shen Mu, straining every sinew toward Hidden Cripple Village, heard thunder rolling from behind—rumble upon rumble—and with it lightning, streaks of snow-white radiance that lit up the mountains and fields many times more dazzlingly than the sun!

He looked back. Where Granny Zhu had stood, a surging wave of qi was erupting, flinging up turf and scattered stones; even boulders of a thousand jin were caught in the sudden blast, whirled aloft, and sent howling outward with incredible speed!

"Will Granny be all right..."

Shen Mu's heart sank. Then, suddenly, he heard the water of the river splash, splash, splash, and looked up to see two vigorous young people, a man and a woman, racing across its surface at a dead run!

The man and woman trod upon the river and did not sink. Their feet fell and lifted so swiftly—far faster than Shen Mu himself could run—that the water had no time to cover their insteps before the pair had already sped far into the distance.

"Those two have reached the wave-treading that the Lame Elder spoke of. I cannot do that yet. They are stronger than I am!"

At mid-river, the pair trod onward, soon overtaking Shen Mu, and then turned from the river toward the bank, plainly intending to head him off.

Shen Mu looked back. One more was pursuing him from behind; the other two were darting swiftly among the ridges to his left. Their figures leapt up from the dense forest from time to time, running with a whistle over the treetops. But they could not keep it up for long; before long they had to land and catch their breath.

Even so, they would soon overtake Shen Mu and dash ahead of him.

"I must not let them cut me off! I have to get back to the village one step ahead of them and let the Lame Elder, Old Ma, and the others go rescue Granny!"

Shen Mu clenched his teeth. He swerved away from the riverside and, at an oblique angle, plunged into the forest.

To keep running along the riverbank would certainly mean being blocked; the two at mid-river were too fast, while the two in the forest were slower by a little. The forest was his only way out.

"Little fiend! You and that fiend killed a deer to refine an evil thing. Don't think you can escape!"

No sooner had Shen Mu plunged into the forest than one of the two men who had been waiting to intercept him suddenly surged ahead of the other. But he was a step too late: the deer of Shen Mu's transformation dashed past before him.

"No need to worry—he cannot get away!"

Ahead, the young man and young woman wore calm faces. The woman laughed lightly, her robes fluttering, and her speed abruptly redoubled; she flew from treetop to treetop after the deer in the forest. The young man, unhurried, directed the other three to close in from the flanks and press toward Shen Mu.

Shen Mu ran like a mad thing, but he could never shake off these five. Not only could he not be rid of them—they drove him farther and farther from Hidden Cripple Village, deeper and deeper into the Barrens.