Chapter 14 — Tempering Bone in Vital Qi to Forge the True Body
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
"What should we do about this Senior Sister Qing?" Shen Mu forced himself to his feet and looked at the girl beside him, still trembling from her near brush with death.
"Or else—"
Granny Zhu's eyes lit up at once. She nudged Shen Mu's shoulder with her own, nearly knocking the boy over just as he had managed to stand, and said with a malicious grin, "Keep her to be your little wife? You were the cutest thing when you were small. Now that you've grown up, you're not as cute as you used to be. But if you and this little girl made a chubby baby, that would be cute too. Granny does love children..."
Shen Mu glanced at Senior Sister Qing, whose face was swollen like a pig's head, and hesitated. "Granny, maybe we shouldn't..."
Pfft.
The Lame Elder had appeared behind Senior Sister Qing at some point. He raised a hand and drove a blade clean through the girl, a simple, honest smile still plastered across his face. "Then kill her."
Shen Mu was struck dumb, his mouth hanging open. He stammered, "Grandpa Lame, why did you kill her?"
"You said you didn't want her, so of course she had to die." The Lame Elder withdrew his blade, his smile growing even more honest and guileless, as though he were the one who didn't understand.
Shen Mu was sullen. It wasn't that he harbored any thoughts of having children with Senior Sister Qing. It was just that he was, after all, a boy of eleven or twelve. In his daily life, the only people he saw were old monsters like Old Ma and Granny Zhu, and the folk in the neighboring villages were all vicious, murderous types. There were scarcely any boys or girls his own age.
He had no playmates, but his heart was still the heart of a boy.
"Let's go back," the Village Head said, turning to look at the ruins in the canyon behind them.
The Elixir Master smiled at Shen Mu. "We're all missing arms and legs, so no one's going to carry you. You'll have to walk back on your own. Oh, and there's still the Four Symbols Spirit Marrow here. You didn't go home last night, so we prepared it for you as well."
Shen Mu nodded. He took the four white porcelain cups and drank down the Four Symbols Spirit Marrow, then struggled forward one step at a time. As he urged the "Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art" to dissolve the power of the Spirit Marrow, he began telling them about the strange things he had encountered in the canyon ruins.
Granny Zhu's expression flickered. "Gods and demons? A vast dark face, a skeleton girl? How interesting..."
The other villagers found it interesting too, but they had no further opinions to offer.
Shen Mu could not help but say, "Granny, aren't you even curious about the stories inside those canyon ruins?"
The Elixir Master sighed. "The Divine Kingdom that once flourished so brightly is now reduced to ash and dust. Divine bones clatter and dance in the night—could it be their hearts are unwilling to rest?"
The Hard-of-Hearing Elder stared at his lips and said, "Unwilling or not, they're dead. What use is there in it? So being curious about the stories here is probably useless too."
"Hard-of-Hearing Elder, are you really the Hard-of-Hearing Elder?" The Elixir Master looked at his ears—two ears of iron, forged from snow-white metal, with even the ear canals plugged up. He asked curiously.
The Hard-of-Hearing Elder pulled the two iron ears out of his head, revealing iron pegs three inches long. These pegs had to be inserted into his ear canals for the iron ears to stay attached. He said coldly, "Stick these two ears into your own ear canals, and then you'll know whether I'm the Hard-of-Hearing Elder or not!"
The Elixir Master smiled faintly and said no more.
The Hard-of-Hearing Elder shoved the two iron ears back into his ear canals with a pfft and said to the mute, "These ears have been bothering me lately. Help me adjust them."
The mute blacksmith nodded.