Chapter 15 — A Reed Treads the Waves Across the Yangtze

hen his body and qi, but it cannot raise them so quickly." The Alchemist fell into thought. "Could Shen-er be a born prodigy? Was he born with the makings of a cultivator?" The Village Head frowned. "If he were a born prodigy, why would he have the constitution of an ordinary man? A born prodigy ought to possess a spirit body. And this resonance of gods and demons... What prodigy could accomplish such a thing?" The Alchemist asked, "Is the resonance of gods and demons within his howl a good thing or a bad thing?" "I do not know." The Village Head said, "I heard the resonance of gods and demons within his howl. The divine and demonic notes were locked in fierce battle, slaughtering one another with terrible violence. But whether that is good or bad, I cannot say." The Alchemist's eyes flickered. "The resonance of gods and demons in his howl. Where did those divine and demonic notes come from?" "I do not know!" The Alchemist developed a headache, and so did the Village Head. It had been a very long time since either of them had suffered from trying to understand something. But ever since they had taken in Shen Mu, the little boy who had drifted down from the upper reaches of the river, there had been more and more things they could not make sense of. Night fell, and Hidden Remnant Village soon sank into darkness. Shen Mu slept in the outer room while Granny Zhu slept in the inner room. In the middle of the night, the dim demonic music from the Hidden Valley began to echo through Shen Mu's mind of its own accord. Then the divine music rose as well. The divine and demonic notes attacked one another, and before long the sounds grew noisier and louder. The resonance of gods and demons gradually transformed in his mind into a contest between darkness and light, a savage and bloody war. Shen Mu felt as though he had lost his physical form and become a soul floating above the struggle between gods and demons, staring blankly down at the darkness and light locked in battle below. The place where darkness and light clashed resembled the scene he had witnessed in the ruins of the Hidden Valley the night before, only far grander and vaster. The night stretched out like countless tentacles, piercing the light again and again, while the light suddenly erupted and swept the darkness away. After a while, Shen Mu finally saw what the light and darkness truly were. Within the darkness were endless demon gods, surging toward the light like a flood, and the demonic music was not merely demonic music at all, but the cries of billions upon billions of demon gods. The light was the same. An ocean of gods clad in golden armor was battling the demon gods pouring toward them. He was standing too high above them. The gods and demons were like tiny drops of water, too distant to make out clearly. That was why he had initially believed it to be a struggle between light and darkness. Now that he could see clearly, he felt only shock and terror. Shen Mu suddenly awoke, drenched in sweat. He opened his eyes, only to find his mind filled everywhere with the divine and demonic music, clamoring so loudly that it felt as though his head were about to split apart. At that moment, the jade pendant on his chest floated gently upward, drifting to the center of his brow before settling softly against it. Shen Mu felt a clear current flow through him, and the divine and demonic music in his mind vanished at once. He abruptly sat up, gasping for breath, bewildered and uncertain of what had happened. After a while he left the house and stepped outside, using the ghostly light radiating from the village's stone statues to examine the jade pendant. Beyond the village lay only darkness, while the pendant too gave off a ghostly glow. Shen Mu stared at it in a daze, his gaze as dim and distant as its light, unable for a long while to tear his eyes away from the tiny piece of jade. Behind him, Granny Zhu had arrived without his noticing and happened to witness the scene. Her heart tightened. "Though we raised him, Shen-er has never truly belonged to Hidden Remnant Village. He is only a child raised by Hidden Remnant Village, and in the end he will have to leave..." Her spirits suddenly lifted, and a sharp light gleamed in her eyes. "The world outside is far more dangerous than the Wasteland. He still does not possess enough strength."