Chapter 57 — The Mistress of the Flower Lane
Shen Mu blinked. "Elder Sister, I'm only eleven, and I won't be twelve until this autumn.
I don't understand a word you're saying. " She took out a rouge box and opened it gently; a fragrance that stole into the heart and lungs drifted out. She smiled. "This is my favorite cardamom rouge. You and I will stain our fingertips red with it, and then try our body techniques in this room.
We may only smear it on each other's faces.
Whoever's face bears the most rouge marks loses.
What do you say? " Shen Mu nodded and smiled sweetly. "All right. Elder Sister must go easy on me. " "Sweet-tongued little thing!
" Shen Mu was taken aback for a moment. He had seen this kind of body technique before — on the arena stage at Granny Temple, when he had faced a young girl who used it. The girl's primal qi had turned into a great serpent that coiled around him, and the girl had roamed up and down his body, until he used the Myriad-Armed Vajra to beat her black and blue.
Her arms, too, were like spirit serpents, able to bend at will, her ten fingers like ten spirit serpents; and what was strangest of all, her slender jade fingers could grow long and shrink short, and her arms could lengthen and shorten as well! In that little room the two of them came and went like wind and lightning, high and low, left and right, running over wall and ceiling as though on flat ground, as if a dragon and a serpent were slaughtering, coiling, dancing — an eerie sight indeed. By the time she came back to her senses, her face was smeared all over with rouge.
"No more!
No more!
" Shen Mu slid down too, and laughed.
"Elder Sister, you gave way to me.
" Shen Mu's cheeks flushed at once, a little deer capering in his heart, and he walked out of that room half drunk. He stood quietly at the door of the next room for a moment before his heart settled back to normal. The youth wiped the lip mark from his face and stepped inside, thinking, "No wonder Blind Grandpa says women are all spirits in disguise. One kiss from her and she nearly sucked the heart right out of me.
. . " In this room was a woman who sold meat.
Her face was fierce, a few degrees fiercer than the Butcher himself. She held a slaughtering knife and was sharpening it with a hiss, a bone splinter for picking teeth clamped in her mouth. The moment Shen Mu entered, the woman butcher said not a word but came straight at him with her blade; the blade-light poured down, a wild wind rose in the little room, and every cut was a vicious stroke aimed at opening the belly and spilling the guts, showing no mercy at all.
Shen Mu hurriedly drew his blade to block — ding, ding, ding, ding — a storm of blows rang out like pearls falling on a jade plate!
The two crossed steps and parted, each turning; the woman butcher spun the two knives in her hands half a circle and reversed her grip, and excitement showed in her eyes. "Good blade work! " she praised.
Shen Mu turned the slaughtering knife in his hand and likewise took a reverse grip. "Elder Sister, with us both holding our blades reversed, the next move for each of us should be a killing stroke. A blade is merciless, after all. How about this: you and I use our hands as blades, and stop at the first touch.
" The woman butcher flung her slaughtering knife from her hand; it stuck in the wall. She laughed. "True enough. A reversed grip means it is time to kill.
If I killed you, the Cult Leader's widow would surely fly into a rage and kill me. We will fight blade to blade with bare hands, then!
" Shen Mu's primal qi whirled, swept up the slaughtering knife, and planted it back in the sheath at his back. His hands shook, flames blazed up, and two fire blades appeared. The woman butcher's palms quivered, and blade edges emerged along the sides of her hands — keen beyond measure, the White Tiger primal qi. Her hands flurried, slicing the air with a hiss as she lunged at Shen Mu.
"Young Master, your fire blades will come off the worse. The White Tiger qi is sharper!
" Shen Mu's eyes flickered; the flowing firelight of his palms streamed down and spread over his forearms, as though he too held reversed blades.
Third form of the Slaughtering Blade Art — Draw the Blade Beyond the Forbidden Gate! The two were almost body against body, their feet shifting without pause, closing on each other to strike, hardly using their eyes, sensing the opponent's movements only from the force passed through the opponent's body, and then responding — parrying, or striking out. To hold a blade reversed is to be close: tight, close-quarters knife work, small arcs, high speed, vicious angles! This was the highest level of combat arts, the manner of a decisive battle.
Whether one belonged to the spell schools or the divine-ability schools, let an expert of the combat-technique school close to this distance and death was certain! Every muscle in Shen Mu's body quivered without cease; six hundred and forty muscles leapt beneath his skin, giving him the greatest explosive force at the shortest distance!
In but a brief moment, both he and the woman butcher were drenched in sweat. To muster so many muscles in so short a time, to calculate the trajectories of the opponent's muscles, to guard against the opponent's most vicious attacks, and still to cut down the opponent — for them a brief moment was no less than a fierce battle, an enormous expenditure! Suddenly Shen Mu used his hand as a blade; his palm slipped into the woman butcher's opening, and with a bow stance he raised the blade and cut clean through the greasy apron across her chest.
The woman butcher stepped back a pace, dispersed the White Tiger qi from both hands, took off the apron now reduced to two flaps and threw it aside, and laughed heartily. "I lose, you win.
Your blade work isn't bad. If you can't get through all three hundred and sixty rooms, why not come out with me? Killing pigs can keep a family too. " Shen Mu had rather taken to this plump elder sister. He smiled.
"I can also refine medicines. I needn't necessarily kill pigs; I could be a physician who hangs up his gourd to heal the world.
" The woman butcher spat out the bone splinter she used for picking teeth and sneered. "A physician? Treat someone and kill them, and when the grieving family raises a hue and cry they'll sue you into beggary! Killing pigs is better — steady gain, no loss. Come kill pigs with me and I'll see you eat and drink your fill!
" Shen Mu's head swelled. He hurried to the door, stammering, "Well and good, well and good.
I'm still young. . . " "Young Master!
" The woman butcher raised her hand, pulled the two slaughtering knives from the wall, and called him back. Quite seriously she said, "When you go back, tell the Cult Leader's widow that I, Biyao, miss her a good deal, and often think of her kindness.
" Shen Mu nodded.
Bang —