Chapter 28 — A Nameless Shadow Emerges from the Ancient Wall
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
Shen Mu steadied his mind. A map from before the Wasteland Cataclysm was a precious thing indeed: it marked many of the ruins scattered through the Wasteland, so that if one went out hunting and could not return to Hidden Remnant Village in time, one could follow the map into these ruins and take shelter there from the encroaching dark.
"With this map in hand, I can avoid a great many dangers."
He set himself to memorizing it, fixing the whole of it in his mind, and after a while he found where this valley lay. On the map, the valley was named Zhenyang Palace.
"Zhenyang Palace? Yang sounds the same as the word for calamity."
Shen Mu had learned to read and write at the side of the Hard-of-Hearing Elder. He could not claim to have read the books of the sages through, but he had stuffed his belly full of learning all the same, and he murmured: "Zhenyang Palace — a palace to suppress calamity. And what calamity is this palace meant to suppress?"
He looked about him, and saw that the Dark Ape had gone off at some point; it was not in the hall. Likely the beast had feared that staying here would disturb him, and so had run outside.
"Big Fellow is a considerate one, after all."
Shen Mu walked out of the hall, called the Dark Ape to him, and asked, "Big Fellow, is there anything strange about this place?"
The Dark Ape scratched its head, thought for a moment, then hurried off toward the side hall of Zhenyang Palace. Shen Mu followed at a quick pace, and the silly roe deer came trailing after them.
"This—!"
The Dark Ape entered the side hall and stretched out a hand, pointing. Shen Mu followed the line of its finger and saw that it pointed at a white wall, on which was painted the figure of a man — very small, no bigger than a thumb.
Shen Mu studied the white wall up and down, and found nothing in it besides that tiny painted figure.
The silly roe deer had sniffed its way along; it came up to the wall, sniffed at the little figure painted there, and was just about to lick the wall when a hand suddenly seized it — and the roe deer vanished!
Shen Mu jumped in fright. The Dark Ape too flew into a rage, pounding its chest and roaring at the wall, yet not daring to step forward.
On the wall, beside the tiny human figure, there now appeared the painting of a roe deer, vivid and lifelike. Then Shen Mu saw the painted man begin, little by little, to move; it opened its mouth, and the mouth grew larger and larger, until it was studded with nail-like teeth — and then it swallowed the roe deer in a single bite!
Shen Mu was horrified. Having eaten the roe deer, the painted figure suddenly strode forward, walking toward them!
And then Shen Mu discovered, to his terror, that although the man did not step out of the wall, his body grew taller and taller, larger and larger; soon he was the size of a normal man, and still he did not stop, still he walked on.
Before long the figure filled the entire wall; even the roof of the side hall was covered in his shadow — a single head, a head with its great mouth open — and then his palms spread from this wall onto the other two.
"Little One, run!" The Dark Ape dragged Shen Mu and leaped outside, and they were not caught by the shadow on the wall.
A furious roar came from the wall; the wall shook without cease, dust filling the air, and then the black shadow spread out from within the side hall, and in the blink of an eye the whole side hall was shrouded in that shadow from the wall!
The shadow tried to tear itself free of the side hall's walls, but it could never break loose.
"So this is a demon?"
Shen Mu halted, blinked, and turned his head to test: "Kikota samaya, prajna prajna samaya, kikota prajna samaya."
The shadow shrouding the side hall suddenly fell still and silent. Then the lattice windows of the hall flew open, like two dark sunken eyes, and Shen Mu felt himself pinned by a pair of dreadful gazes, and a chill crawled over his skin.