Chapter 42 — At Dead of Night a Wild Shadow Nears the Village Gate

The instant the great serpent moved, Shen Mu shot up as well, the Beast-Slaughtering Saber falling like wind and rain, hacking madly at the tender joint between the serpent's head and its body! The Beast-Slaughtering Saber Art: Sun Blazing Over the Eastern Sea, a Thousand Layers of Waves! This stroke of the Butcher demanded the momentum of the great sun at its first rising and a thousand waves of the Eastern Sea heaped one upon another—an unmatched saber-force to cleave through all things! Shen Mu's mind held nothing but a single thought: strike—cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! That head must come off! Ssss—serpent blood sprayed out; the serpent's triangular head, large as a tabletop, parted from its body, yet the head still gaped its blood-flooded maw and snapped down at the family of three ahead, as though wholly unaware that it was already dead. Just as that massive head was about to crash down before the family of three, Shen Mu suddenly leaped and landed atop the head hanging in midair; planting both feet, coiling his body into a crouch, he forced the serpent's jaws shut. The head, with the youth atop it, dropped straight as a great lump of lead and, with a thunderous crash, smashed into the ground before the family of three, who stood frozen with terror. The three stared dumbly at the youth before them. Shen Mu bent down and grinned at the little girl, showing a mouthful of white teeth. "There, little sister—it's all over now." Just then came the wail of an infant, and a woman burst from the house the great serpent had smashed through, laughing: "Congratulations, congratulations—mother and child are both safe!" Shen Mu hurriedly thrust the Beast-Slaughtering Saber back into the oxhide scabbard on his back and ran back into the courtyard, where he saw the man had already rushed excitedly into the house, while Granny Zhu stepped out of it, washed her hands, and looked back at the loving couple and their children within. "Shen'er, quite satisfying, is it not?" Granny Zhu said with a smile. Watching the tender scene of the family of three, Shen Mu nodded slightly; his hand rose unbidden and closed around the jade pendant at his chest. Granny Zhu saw his hand and sighed inwardly. The Blind Elder came shambling up and yawned. "The business here is done; time for bed. Granny, their house has few rooms—why not let the two of us squeeze in together..." Granny Zhu turned her head, her gaze grim as frost. The Blind Elder shuddered in spite of himself, jabbed his bamboo staff at the ground, and turned to go. "These days even a blind old man gets snarled at. The hearts of men are not what they were. I shall sleep in the street..." "Granny, why did the people of this village never discover this great serpent?" Shen Mu asked, beset by doubt, as he watched villagers pouring into the courtyard, laboriously dragging the serpent's tail out of the hollow of the tree. He had grown up in Hidden Cripples Village, where every villager bore some disability—even Granny Zhu was hunchbacked—yet in his heart the elders of his village could do anything at all, ascend to the heavens or burrow into the earth. But the villagers here were for the most part ordinary folk; though there were martial artists among them, their cultivation was not very high. Hence the doubt in his mind. "In all the Desolate Ruins there is only one Hidden Cripples Village." Granny Zhu's gaze was deep and distant. "Most here are ordinary people—those who had no time to flee when the calamity of the Ruins struck, and others who could no longer survive in the outside world and fled here to escape ruinous taxes and the oppression of landlords, hoping to keep body and soul together in this place." "The outside world?" Shen Mu's eyes lit up. "The outside world is more perilous than the Desolate Ruins by far!" Granny Zhu gave a cold snort. "Otherwise, why would Granny and the Blind Elder and the rest have been hounded into hiding in the Ruins? Stop dreaming about the outside world!" Shen Mu scratched his head, at a loss as to why Granny Zhu, always so kindly and genial, should fly into a temper all at once. Granny Zhu lowered her voice. "There is something uncanny about this serpent. At any ordinary time strange beasts cannot enter the village at all, yet this one hid itself inside the village, and hid there for years on end. I fear someone let it in deliberately... and this manner of rearing serpents smells of the craft of the Demonic Cult. Heh heh. Tonight, perhaps, there may be some fine sport..." "The serpent was put into the village deliberately, to work harm?" Shen Mu's heart went cold. Surely such a deed would squander one's store of hidden virtue? That serpent had plainly already devoured several newborn infants. What good could feeding infants to a serpent do him? "Shen'er, strange things may come looking for you tonight. If you see them, do not move, do not make a sound. When day breaks, the matter will resolve itself." Granny Zhu chuckled, showing the sparse teeth in her mouth. "He uses the serpent to drain the essence and souls of infants, then draws in the serpent's essence to reverse his nature back to the Innate. He must have refined this art for many years; his powers are extraordinary. But were he to do this in the outside world, those who slay demons and defend the Way would surely hunt him down—so he has slipped into the Desolate Ruins to whip up his storms. Shen'er, whoever comes tonight is beyond your strength to withstand. Just watch, and do nothing." Shen Mu nodded, his heart uneasy. The household clamored for a long while, the family weeping and laughing by turns, and only after a good long time did they remember to arrange lodging for Granny Zhu and Shen Mu. The couple gave up their own main hall and inner chamber and begged the two to sleep there. Shen Mu felt it somewhat improper, but Granny Zhu did not stand on refusal: she had Shen Mu sleep in the main hall, and herself in the inner room. Before long the two had lain down. Shen Mu at first forced his eyes to stay open, but as the night wore on his eyelids sank shut all the same. At midnight, in the third watch, when every sound had died away, he suddenly shivered uncontrollably and hurriedly opened his eyes—only to find that he could not move a limb! The door of the main hall creaked suddenly open; a dim light slanted in through the crack, and upon the floor lay a long shadow. Shen Mu opened his mouth, but no sound would come; he could not warn Granny Zhu at all! The shadow on the floor swayed once and began to move—it climbed from the floor up onto the wall, and there upon the wall it twisted, baring fangs and spreading claws, grown doubly hideous. Cold sweat beaded on Shen Mu's forehead as he watched the shadow on the wall crawl and crawl, up to the ceiling, where it hung inverted and stared fixedly down at him. Shen Mu's eyes went round. What hung down was a shadow—a true shadow, utterly flat—and yet impossibly nimble, like a martial artist versed in the art of pliant bones! But this was plainly nothing more than a shadow. How could a shadow move freely of itself? And where was the shadow's master? Whoo—a breath of wind slipped in through the crack of the door, and on the wind drifted a small Netherworld Soul-Seizing Banner. The shadow caught it in its hand and waved it at Shen Mu. At that very moment the door of the inner room where Granny Zhu slept creaked open a crack, and from within drifted out a silver-gleaming bead, like the silver pellet Shen Mu had once seen in Granny Zhu's room. It came to rest between Shen Mu's brows, motionless; the bead spun nimbly round and round without the faintest sound, while from it shot forth, one after another, hair-fine sword lights all but invisible to the eye. The black shadow on the ceiling waved its white banner, drifting to and fro about the room; the banner came and went like lightning, striking again and again at Shen Mu where he lay upon the bed, and the bead suddenly stirred as well, c