Chapter 29 — A Small Lie Draws Forth an Old Mystery

"Rest assured, Senior," Shen Mu said with the deepest respect. "This junior has practiced the arts since childhood; his kidney waters are abundant, his original yang is full, and his eyesight is excellent. He can see in the dark, so naturally he can make it all out clearly." The figure on the wall flickered, but made no further move; instead it went on displaying the subtleties of circulating vital qi. The third seal of the Great Perfection Seal was the Great Wisdom Illumination Seal, and its circulation was a great deal more complicated. Within the black shadow the route of the qi grew swifter and swifter; even with his Lingxiao Heavenly Eye open, Shen Mu could not fully trace it, and he could not help wanting to step into the side hall. Shen Mu hesitated, set one foot over the threshold and left the other outside the door, and only then could he barely follow the route of the qi. He memorized for all he was worth, but soon the figure on the wall had run through the Great Wisdom Illumination Seal once more. Shen Mu tried to set it going; though he succeeded in bringing the seal into play, he still felt that something was lacking. He had not committed its circulation route to memory in full. "This is the fourth seal of the Great Perfection Seal, and the most powerful of them all. The force of the three preceding seals will merge into this one." The figure on the wall looked weaker still, the shadow smaller and smaller, the voice fainter and fainter: "But this seal is more complex. I fear you will not be able to see it clearly." "Senior, worry not." Shen Mu broke into a guileless grin: "This junior's kidney waters have been plentiful and his original yang full since childhood, and his eyesight is excellent. He can still more or less make it out." The figure on the wall fell silent, its voice dwindling to a thread, and sighed: "But I cannot hold on. Come inside. At the four corners of the hall stand four long bronze nails, driven into the floor. Pull them up. Those four nails are pinned into my back; once they are out I can catch a breath, and with a single breath I can pass the complete seal art on to you." His voice was soft: "You have not yet learned the Great Wisdom Illumination Seal in full, have you? It is very complex, but its power is immense as well — unless you learn it entire, you cannot bring all of it to bear. And the mightiest seal art of all is the fourth seal, the Great Perfection Demon Seal! Pull the nails up..." "Senior, I think I had better not learn it after all." Shen Mu shook his head and drew his left foot back out of the hall. "Too much trouble. I'm stupid — I'd most likely never manage it." The figure on the wall quivered and coaxed with patient earnestness: "I can teach you a second time, if only you would pull the nails..." Shen Mu was in even more of a fix. He shook his head: "Senior said you would teach only once. If I let Senior teach me a second time, would that not make Senior break your word? This junior would feel the more ashamed. I am so stupid — I would fail Senior's expectations." "No — you are very clever." The figure on the wall grew all the softer, as though a kindly elder were instructing a youngster: "You learned the Demon-God Power Seal and the Nether Demon Freedom Seal after a single viewing, and of the Great Wisdom Illumination Seal you already have seven or eight parts of it after watching only once. Your aptitude is extraordinary. See it once more and you will certainly master it. I am fond of your quick wits; I can break my word just this once and teach you a second—" The voice stopped short. Then, threaded with a bone-deep chill, it said coldly: "You were tricking me out of my techniques?" Shen Mu started: "Why does Senior say that?" "You were tricking me out of my techniques!" The figure on the wall blazed into fury, swelling larger and larger until it covered the whole side hall, a hideous and ferocious shadow, and shrieked: "You dare cheat me out of my arts! You little brat — I set out to teach you kindly and in good faith, and you cheat me!" Shen Mu still stood outside the hall, letting the demon shadow rage before him, and shook his head: "Senior is joking. Were you not trying to trick me inside so as to set yourself free?" The door of the side hall gaped wide; the lattice windows were like eyes and the doorway like a mouth, ghastly and grim: "You knew?" "We are not of the same clan to begin with, Senior. First you told me we were, then you dangled the Great Perfection Seal before me to draw me step by step closer to you — and there can only be two purposes behind it." Shen Mu put on the guileless grin of a lame old man: "First, to get me into the hall, luring me nearer and nearer the wall, so that you could seize me and force me to pull up the bronze nails in the four corners of the hall. Second, to play on my hunger for the complete Great Perfection Seal and get me to pull the nails of my own accord. Had I pulled them, Senior would not have been content with merely drawing a breath — you would have broken free and devoured me, just as you devoured the silly roe deer. But—" His smile grew more guileless still: "I am no roe deer. I only played along, and swindled two and a half seals out of you." The whole side hall shook without cease, and through the doorway came a world-shaking roar: "Son of a whore — I'll kill you! Once I'm free, I'll tear you apart with my own hands!" The cowherd boy of Hidden Remnant Village curled his lip, turned to leave, and shook his head: "You're full of cheap tricks. Old Cripple has pulled more of them than I can count — he's swindled me from childhood right up to now, even the sugar figurine Granny bought me, time and again. And you still think you can swindle me..." "I'll kill your Old Cripple!" the figure on the wall howled. Shen Mu turned back and said with perfect gravity: "Don't provoke him. He'll swindle you right out of your breeches." The figure on the wall fell suddenly, unnaturally quiet, a quiet somehow eerie, and murmured: "Just now you said we are not of the same clan? Heh heh, you little fool, you think far too shallowly. How could you and I not be of the same clan... heh heh heh, a fine young little demon..." Shen Mu shivered. In a flash he thought of the divine voice from beyond the nine heavens that had come to him as he broke through the wall; he thought of how he had used the demon tongue to oppose that voice; and putting it together with the words of the figure on the wall, he was seized by an unpleasant conjecture. He hurriedly shook his head, drove the jumble of wild guesses from his brain, and turned away. "Heh heh heh — you and I are the same. The same, the same..." Behind him, the shadow on the wall laughed with an eerie leer. Shen Mu frowned and walked out of Zhenyang Palace. The Dark Ape hurried to meet him, stealing a glance at the side hall, where the figure on the wall had shrunk back within; only then did it relax, and it said to Shen Mu in all solemnity: "Trust? Ha!" Shen Mu nodded, in heartfelt agreement: "The Wasteland is far too dangerous. Honest, simple folk like us — unless we learn to be a bit sharp — will surely be swindled clean out of everything and eaten to the last scrap." The Dark Ape shot him a look, curled its lip, and said: "Trust. Ha." Shen Mu colored faintly and protested: "I'm no swindler. I only got the short end of the stick all my life, and turned sharp because of it. Still, I'm afraid you can't go on living here. Zhenyang Palace is half in ruins — who knows when it will collapse? If it does and that old demon gets free, he'll certainly take it out on you." The Dark Ape shook its head, looked at the wild deer and wild cattle grazing in the valley, and said nothing. Almost everywhere in the Wasteland where one could survive had already been taken — by men, or by other strange beasts. If the Dark Ape tried to move house with all these animals, it would not likely find anywhere to settle before long; when the dark cam