Chapter 40 — The Wind's Edge First Shows, Piercing the Vast Sky

Shen Mu's eyes went wide. This unremarkable Zen staff could buy all of Crimson Dragon City?

"This staff is called Ximilo — four prongs and twelve rings. It was forged by the Tathagata of the Great Thunderclap Temple. It can be used to strike a man, yes, but its worth should be enough to match Crimson Dragon City."

Uncle Ma explained, "Yet the staff's greater purpose is cultivation. Grip it, and when your heart stirs, the rings stir. Once a ring moves, the stray thoughts in your mind vanish. It is a treasure for slaying inner demons. Twelve rings can sever twelve kinds of stray thought, purge twelve kinds of inner demon. When an inner demon is born, the ring sounds, and the demon is caught in the ring and refined to ash. The staff is divided into four prongs: severing the four births, contemplating the four truths, cultivating the four immeasurables, entering the four dhyanas. Hold this staff in cultivation, and you will achieve twice the result with half the effort."

Granny Zhu's eyes lit up at once, shining bright as she fixed her gaze on the staff in Shen Mu's hand. She laughed. "Mu'er, lend the staff to your granny for a moment. There lives a great inner demon in your granny's heart, and it has plagued me a long while!"

Shen Mu handed Ximilo to Granny Zhu and asked, curious, "Granny, what inner demon lives in your heart?"

"An old bastard."

Granny Zhu sighed, her brows knit with worry. "An old bastard no refining can kill. I have slain him a thousand hundred times, and still he lives, dwelling in my heart and making trouble for me! If this time I can refine him to death with the staff, then I can finally be at ease."

Shen Mu still did not know what this old demon in her heart truly was, and Granny Zhu said no more. The staff fell into her hand and at once clattered and rang, all twelve rings shaking together, deafening to the ear.

Granny Zhu's demonic nature surged forth, and a dreadful, heart-stopping aura spread from her body. This aura did not resemble her at all — it was like another person entirely!

Shen Mu could not help but feel his hair stand on end. Another person was living inside Granny Zhu!

The blind elder, Uncle Ma, the lame elder, the alchemist, the mute, and the rest all felt their hairs rise too, and each hastily stepped back. This dreadful aura made even them feel incomparable peril!

After a moment, Granny Zhu slumped, returned the staff to Shen Mu, and said, "This thing is useless. It cannot touch the old demon. Damn it all, why can't he be killed!"

Shen Mu took the staff and wanted to thrust it behind his back alongside the bamboo cane, but the staff was too long; placed at his back, he could not walk. He had no choice but to carry it in his hand.

"Throw the thing on the ox cart. You're no monk."

Uncle Ma said, "Today is the market fair, and you have passed. You have cleared the trial. There is no need to fight further. To defeat a disciple of the Great Thunderclap Temple is itself a tremendous achievement. But that Mingxing was no disciple of the Tathagata — far from it. Do you understand?"

Shen Mu casually tossed the incomparably precious staff onto the ox cart and asked, curious, "How strong are the Tathagata's disciples?"

Uncle Ma said mildly, "I was once a disciple of the Tathagata. When you can defeat me, only then will you truly be a Hegemon Body."

Shen Mu's heart gave a slight jolt. When he and Uncle Ma practiced boxing each day, Uncle Ma used only the cultivation of the Spirit Fetus realm — and even so, Shen Mu was still beaten black and blue.

Consider: Uncle Ma had only one arm. If both his arms were whole, how terrifying would his strength be?

Shen Mu knew that in the Spirit Fetus realm, he still had a long road ahead.

The market at Granny Zhu's Temple would not end for another two days. By evening, many people began packing up their goods and moving into the temple. This temple was vast, guarded by stone statues, and altogether extraordinary. Hidden here, the Gloom could not invade — it was a place of safety.

Shen Mu drove the ox cart into Granny Zhu's Temple and looked up. The setting sun hung on the mountain ridge, shining over this Canglang Palace.

Only after entering the temple did he understand why the Canglang Palace on the map was called Granny Zhu's Temple — for the main hall enshrined a kindly-faced old woman.

The old woman had benevolent features and kindly eyes, like a little old granny from a neighboring village, yet there was a sly glint in her eyes. She was carved with great spirit, lifelike and vivid.

Shen Mu actually thought she resembled Granny Zhu, and looked twice. But when he used the Lingxiao Heavenly Eye to observe her, he got a great fright.

This kindly old woman was suffused with a towering, sky-flooding aura. Her divine light formed an incomparably tall, incomparably colossal giant wolf, head raised to the heavens in a roar, as if it meant to devour the very sky!

Besides the main hall, there was a front hall and two side halls, and beyond these a vast garden and a pond. But the garden held no flowers or grass now, and the pond had run dry. Beneath the pond lay several skeletons.

Shen Mu went closer for a look. They should be fish bones, but very large — some six or seven zhang long. Strangely, these fish bones had skulls shaped like dragons' heads!

The alchemist called him back and brought wound medicine to dress his injuries. Meanwhile the blind elder and the mute were frying eggs. The pheasant dragon had laid an egg the size of a coconut and was clucking, "cluck-cluck-cluck."

In Granny Zhu's Temple, the other villagers also began lighting fires and cooking. The sun was sinking in the west; after supper, it would be time to sleep.

Just then, a young man came running in from outside the temple, his face full of anxiety. He cried out loudly, "A midwife! Is there a midwife here? My wife is about to give birth!"

Everyone in the temple rose and looked at him, but no one spoke.

Granny Zhu stood, trembling, and said, "This old body has delivered babies before. My hands are practiced. Can your wife wait a while? It is nearly dark. If she can hold until tomorrow, I can make the trip..."

The young man threw himself to his knees with a thud, knocking his head again and again, and cried, "She cannot wait! I beg the midwife to lend her skilled hands and save her! The child is stuck in birth, and the village midwife cannot deliver it!"

Granny Zhu glanced at the setting sun and showed a look of difficulty.

"Help! Help!"

The young man knocked his forehead until it bled and wept, "My wife has carried several children these past years, and all of them were lost at the moment of birth — born dead! If this one is lost too, my family line will end!"

Granny Zhu was startled. "All lost in childbirth?"

The young man nodded again and again. Granny Zhu said, suspicious, "If she can conceive and come to term, it is impossible that the child should die at birth. There must be something strange in this. Is your village far from here?"

"Not far! Less than twenty li from Granny Zhu's Temple!"

Granny Zhu glanced at the setting sun, let out a breath, and said, "Less than twenty li? You are from Zhang Family Stockade. Zhang Family Stockade is not far; we can make it before dark. Blind elder, Mu'er, come with me. There is something fishy in this."

Shen Mu was astonished. Granny Zhu was usually odd-tempered; he had not expected her to be such a warmhearted person.

The man scrambled to his feet and ran off at full speed toward Zhang Family Stockade. He must have been a martial artist, for his speed was great. Fearing he would be too late, he was about to turn back and urge Granny Zhu and the others on, when he saw that Granny Zhu and the blind elder were still following steadily behind him — and even that boy of eleven or twelve had kept up.

"Your steps are too slow."

The blind elder said serenely, "Mu'er, carry him on your back. Faster, so the sun does not set on us."