Chapter 74 — Crimson Dragon City Changes Its Surname

Shen Mu was puzzled: "Why isn't Granny's back hunched anymore? She seems so excited she's rolling around on the bed..." The next day Shen Mu rose and found that Granny Zhu was not in the room, though breakfast had already been set out on the table. The youth washed and dressed, ate his breakfast, went downstairs and sought out Granny Zhu and the Blind Elder; the two had the ox cart ready, and had loaded onto it the oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar, the silks and satins they had purchased. What puzzled Shen Mu, though, was that the Blind Elder was harnessing the cart, putting three oxen in front, while three more great bullocks followed behind it. The moment those six great oxen caught sight of Shen Mu, terror came into their eyes and they trembled all over. "Granny, weren't all six of our oxen sold?" Shen Mu asked. Granny Zhu yawned and said carelessly, "I truly couldn't sleep last night, so Granny went out and bought six oxen." Shen Mu was half convinced; he saw the six great bullocks shaking their heads again and again, as if they wanted to say something, yet all they could do was low. The ox cart rolled out of the city. It was still early morning, and there were already several carts and horses on the road, country folk who had come into the city to buy goods and were taking advantage of the early hour to return to their villages, hoping to get home before dark. Shen Mu drove to the dockyard. The river water rolled and surged, swift and violent; along the bank many villagers were already making offerings to the River God and summoning the great river-bearer beasts. One after another, the big-snouted river-bearers on the shore savored the incense the villagers offered, puffing out great rings of smoke, and some, laden with villagers returning home, had already begun the voyage back. The Blind Elder burned incense at the riverside and summoned a river-bearer, then fed it; Shen Mu drove the ox cart onto the beast's back, and the giant set off upstream. The river ran vast and mighty, rushing from west to east. When they had come, they had drifted down with the current; now they were going against it from the lower reaches, and the resistance would surely be great. Yet the river-bearer's speed was in no way slower than before, and at this rate they need only rest one night at the Granny Temple and they would reach Hidden Remnant Village the following day. Before they knew it they had traveled more than fifty li by water. Granny Zhu's expression shifted slightly; she rose, took up her little basket, and said with a smile, "My work has come. Blind Elder, the two of you go on ahead." The Blind Elder nodded. "Take care." Granny Zhu leaped, and in an instant sprang into the blue void and vanished. Shen Mu looked up and saw Granny Zhu leap into the air and not come down for a long while. To the Blind Elder this was commonplace, nothing worth a thought; he stood with both hands on his staff, facing the wind. Before long, Shen Mu suddenly saw a cloud in the sky behind them turn blood-red; then blood rain fell from the heavens, pouring down in torrents, and in no time it had dyed the Surging River crimson! "What is happening in the sky?" No sooner had the thought crossed Shen Mu's mind than a head dropped out of the blood cloud and plunged into the river. Shen Mu shuddered with cold. In the instant the head struck the water he caught sight of its face: it was the sallow-faced woman from the City Lord's mansion, the one he had met once, and only once, before! Shen Mu raised his head. What was happening inside that cloud? The rain came quickly and went quickly; soon the downpour ceased, and the crimson rain that had dyed the great river seemed only an illusion, for the waters rushed on, clear once more. Shen Mu washed the bloodstains from his body and waited a long time, yet Granny Zhu still did not appear, while the Blind Elder remained as serene as ever, not in the least worried. Just then Shen Mu suddenly sensed a dread fluctuation coming from downstream of the Surging River, earth-shaking and utterly terrifying; even the giant river-bearer beneath their feet grew restless, abruptly speeding up, racing upstream. The Blind Elder's ears twitched. "Shen'er, stand firm! Don't fall in!" Shen Mu hastily steadied himself, his feet seeming to take root in the river-bearer's back. Then he heard a strange howling come from behind him; he turned in alarm and was struck with horror. The great river behind them was rising at furious speed, rising ever higher, until the water was actually flowing backward, from the lower reaches toward the upper! Now the river's surface downstream stood more than ten zhang above the banks, and snow-white waves surged sky-high, slamming viciously toward them. The waves came closer and closer, spray flying madly to either side, drowning the dense forests on both banks, and that dreadful surge, roaring and raging, turned from a howl into an earth-shaking boom, as if several hundred thunderclaps had burst in the valley! Shen Mu went numb with dread. The superfluous spray of the wave dispersed, and it became a gigantic palm, a palm nearly as wide as the river itself, thrusting with terrible force from downstream toward upstream! The Blind Elder remained calm and composed, as if he had not noticed the ghastly sight at his back. The giant palm formed of river water soon came up behind them; it was still some hundred zhang away when it abruptly collapsed, the great water roaring and surging, scattering in all directions; the swell lifted the river-bearer beneath their feet more than ten zhang into the air, then let it fall. Shen Mu, his soul still settling after the fright, hastily seized the ox cart on the beast's back lest he slide into the water. The Blind Elder nudged the river-bearer's head with his bamboo staff; the beast turned at once and headed downstream again. "Shen'er, we are going back to Crimson Dragon City." Thirty li down the river, the City Lord of Crimson Dragon City, Fu Yundi, descended from the sky and landed briskly upon the water's surface; he took two swift strides forward before stopping, his face grim, and looked about. "Which senior brother broke my art?" "Not a senior brother. A senior sister." Granny Zhu, little basket in hand, came mincing across the river on her small bound feet, her wrinkles bunched together, smiling. "City Lord, wreaking havoc on the river like this, aren't you afraid of harming those Wasteland villagers? Had that strike of yours truly landed, the people of a hundred li along this river would all have died at your hands. That would be no small sin." "You are the old woman who stays beside that Forsaken?" Fu Yundi said coldly. "You are the one who taught him the secret arts of a combat school and made him kill my son? A father cannot but avenge his son's murder. You bar my way, you die!" Granny Zhu sighed, fished a ball of thread from her basket, and said quietly, "City Lord, this is the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra you have longed for so long. A pity. This is the last time you will ever lay eyes on it. You will still live, but sealed by me inside your own human skin. I will wear your skin, take charge of Crimson Dragon City, and go to meet the Imperial Preceptor Jingping..." Fu Yundi's pupils contracted sharply. The ball of thread in Granny Zhu's hand spun, the silk stretching out at furious speed; in an instant it shuttled back and forth across the river's surface and wove itself into a net, and Fu Yundi was inside that net. "Last night, when your son died, he gave me the chance to strike you unawares, and you were badly wounded then. Had you settled down to heal your wounds, you might still have had a chance to escape today." Granny Zhu smiled. "But you were too greedy. You chased after me, wanting to seize the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra. So your fate today was decided." "You think you can kill me? Dream on! How many years have you been cultivating?" Fu Yundi's body shook; a wild, v