Chapter 6 — A Lad Treads the Wind and Escapes the Ape's Jaws

Was she using this thread to control the sword? With a thread so fine, how could she make the sword turn? Shen Mu had no time to unravel the mystery. He turned and fled at once. With a sharp *duo*, the sword grazed past him and drove deep into the trunk of a great tree. The sword, as if alive, twitched twice in the wood, failed to pull itself free, and then the woman drifted over, closed her slender hand about the hilt, and drew the blade from the trunk, saying in vexation: "My White Tiger true vitality still is not strong enough. I cannot yet make the sword an extension of my arm..."

"Junior Sister Qing, being able to turn your true vitality into a fine thread and drive a flying sword against the enemy is already quite an accomplishment."

The man who had been treading the waves at her side came over and said with a gentle smile: "What you lack is not cultivation but tempering. This time Master has brought us to the Barrens to temper ourselves, precisely to make up this weakness. In the past each of us cultivated on our own, bereft of actual combat. Now this little fiend provides our chance for actual combat. You will soon master the qi-guided flying sword."

The other three youths caught up, and one of them laughed: "The little fiend transformed himself into a deer, and deer are by nature very swift, so it was only natural he could dodge Senior Sister's flying sword."

Much heartened, Senior Sister Qing once again drove her flying sword at Shen Mu, and said with a silvery laugh: "Senior Brother Qu, do not act for the moment. Leave this little fiend to your junior sister for a little sword practice."

Senior Brother Qu was the young and stalwart man who had been treading the waves with her. Hearing this, he nodded and smiled: "Junior brothers, shall we watch Junior Sister Qing's swordplay together?"

Shen Mu threw all his strength into dodging the sword-light flying at his back, and puzzled: "Qi-guided flying sword? Could the thread in that woman's hand be no real thread but her vital qi? Can vital qi reach such a level that it controls a precious sword? Could I do it?"

He had learned the butcher's cleaver from the butcher, who had only taught him to wield the blade with both hands, never to control it with vital qi. Of such arts he knew nothing whatsoever.

But seeing Senior Sister Qing drive a flying sword with qi had set his mind turning: since qi could drive a flying sword, could vital qi also be used to drive other things?

Yet Senior Sister Qing set her sword on him again, leaving him no time to mull it over. Besides, Granny Zhu had turned him into a deer; his limbs were clumsy, and the vital qi within him had sunk into a dead stillness, far less lively than it was in ordinary times.

*Chi—*

The sword-light flashed, came up from behind, and slashed across Shen Mu's back. He felt a chill on his back, then a fiery pain. He knew that Senior Sister Qing's sword had wounded him.

"Damn it. A deer is fast, but after all it is not as agile as my true body. Granny turned me into a deer, and now on top of that I am wounded—I fear there is no escaping doom this time..."

No sooner had he thought this than he suddenly felt his mouth split open.

This was not a real split: the mouth of the deer hide was coming away from his body!

Shen Mu remembered at once that when Granny Zhu told him to run, she had quietly taken a needle from 'his' brow—the very needle that had been pinning down his heavenly soul!

Soon his head parted from the deer hide.

Behind him, sword-qi tore through the air with hissing *chi chi* sounds and chopped down at him. Shen Mu hurled himself forward with all his might, burst out of the deer hide completely, tumbled and rolled, and landed more than ten zhang away, then sprang to his feet and fled at a full run.

Behind him, the deer hide was chopped to shreds by Senior Sister Qing's qi-guided flying sword. The sword was like drifting petals, coming and going like lightning—clearly this woman's swordcraft had advanced by leaps and bounds during her pursuit of Shen Mu!

All the same, casting off the deer hide had delayed him for a moment. A youth, treading the leaves across the treetops, descended from on high and landed directly in front of him, barring the way.

The distance between them was a mere two or three zhang—a distance crossed in an instant, and the next instant they would be face to face!

Shen Mu had no time to change direction. No other thought remained in his head. His body of its own accord brought out the leg technique the Lame Old Man had taught him. Head down, feet up, his legs swept out like a whirlwind!

"Azure Dragon Arms!"

The youth, a few years older than Shen Mu, wore a mocking smile and crossed both arms to block. Layer after layer of hazy azure light radiated from his arms, and dragon claws covered with dragon scales surfaced through the skin of his hands. The next moment Shen Mu's legs slammed into his arms, and two ringing clangs like striking iron rang out. Before the smile could fade from the youth's face, he gave a muffled groan, lost his footing, and was forced to fall back.

The cloth of both his sleeves burst apart with a bang, the sleeves fluttering like paper butterflies as shredded fabric filled the air. His two arms were tattooed with dragon claws entwined around the limbs.

And yet, having met Shen Mu's two kicks head-on, his arms instantly became red and swollen.

"Do you have iron ingots hidden in your legs?"

The youth's hands trembled with pain, shock and rage mingled on his face, and his gaze dropped once more to Shen Mu's feet: "Are your shoes iron too?"

Shen Mu pushed himself up with both hands, landed on his feet, and fled madly away.

But the youth's words had reminded him: there were indeed iron ingots bound to his legs. When the Lame Old Man taught him leg techniques, he had required Shen Mu to bind iron ingots to both legs and never remove them—whether lying down, rising, or walking, he was to keep them on at all times.

In recent days, seeing Shen Mu's body growing ever more solid and his strength ever greater, the Lame Old Man had made the ingots heavier and heavier. That was not all: he had also had the mute blacksmith forge Shen Mu a pair of iron shoes to add yet more weight.

A pair of thick-soled iron shoes weighed ten jin, and the ingots on one leg weighed twenty jin. On his two legs Shen Mu carried fifty jin of iron!

The Lame Old Man had told him to train until he could not feel the weight of the iron shoes and ingots; only then could the ingots come off and the shoes be taken off. These days Shen Mu had long grown used to them. Just now, sprinting for his life, it had never dawned on him that he was running weighted down.

But to stop and remove his shoes and straps would surely mean being caught. He simply could not stop.

"Trampling Mount Sumeru!"

As he ran, Shen Mu suddenly stamped down with his right foot and unleashed the move known as Trampling Mount Sumeru. The thick soles of the iron shoes he wore burst apart like mud, the shoes shattering into pieces that flew in all directions.

At the same time, his calf muscles clenched, the muscles of his legs bunching into knots and swelling outward, bursting the iron ingots free, and like sharp arrows they shot, *duo duo*, into the surrounding trees.

Shen Mu stepped forward with his other foot and stamped again, likewise smashing that iron shoe and bursting those ingots.

*Whoosh—*

His body suddenly grew light; he took one step and found himself atop the treetops, startling himself.

Barefoot, Shen Mu stood on tiptoe upon a crown of leaves, his body beginning to sink.

And below, sword-light glittered, thrusting upward. Filling his vision were dozens of sharp sword points!

Senior Sister Qing's skill with the qi-guided flying sword was becoming more formidable by the moment—not that she was controlling dozens of swords; she was making a single sword flicker out dozens of sword flowers!