Chapter 93 — Deceiving Heaven, Swapping the Sun
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"I yield.
"
Elder Huo let out a turbid breath and smiled with contentment. "One force subdues ten techniques. Shen'er, your strength is now great enough to make up for any lack in your moves. You have passed.
By the way, how did your cultivation rise so much all at once?
Even I had no time to deflect the force of your blow.
"
Shen Mu breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "The Village Head and I went out, and on the way back my Spirit Fetus.
.
. "
The Village Head coughed again and again. Shen Mu asked, puzzled, "Village Head, what is it?
"
"I was startled by that move of yours just now. "
The Village Head coughed twice more and said, "You have already passed the first trial.
And the second? "
The Lame Elder pulled the pig's trotter from his mouth and came limping over, chuckling.
"Shen'er, let us not compete in fist techniques, but in leg techniques.
Raise your head and look up — do you see that cloud?
"
Shen Mu looked up and saw a white cloud drifting slowly past.
The Lame Elder said with a grin, "Race me on foot, and let us see who reaches that cloud first.
"
Shen Mu hesitated, then nodded. The Lame Elder smiled with an artless look. "You are young, and I cherish the young.
I will let you take the first step. "
Shen Mu, an artless smile on his face, said, "I respect my elders. The elder goes first. "
"You are young, you go first.
"
"Your old bones are not what they once were. You had best go first.
"
For a long while the two stood there with artless, feigned smiles, courteously yielding the honor back and forth, until the Butcher snatched up two great cleavers and roared, "Enough of your drivel!
That cloud is already drifting far off! If you do not run now, I will chop you both into mincemeat!
"
Shen Mu and the Lame Elder shot off at almost the same instant. Shen Mu's feet trod again and again, wind rising beneath his soles, and all at once he trod upon the gale and soared into the air; but just then the Lame Elder had already run into the sky a step ahead of him. Shen Mu pressed his palm downward, and the wind beneath the Lame Elder's feet blew straight down toward the ground; the old man tumbled out of the air, arms and legs flailing.
Shen Mu rushed forward at once and overtook the Lame Elder. Even as he trod the wind onward, his legs suddenly tightened — both legs bound fast — and he was upended, head down, falling. The Lame Elder laughed aloud.
A lash of vital energy appeared in his hand and bound Shen Mu's legs.
Shen Mu fell. The old man who was missing a leg stepped on him and was about to leap into the air.
But at that moment Shen Mu's vital energy burst forth, snapping the lash of energy; he seized the Lame Elder's leg, and drove his own leg at the old man's face. The two crashed to the ground with a great boom, raising dust and smoke on every side. The Lame Elder set his crutch against the ground and unleashed his Heaven-Stealing Leg Technique, so exquisite it seemed divine, attacking Shen Mu.
Shen Mu lay flat and struck only at the crutch, kicking out more times than could be counted; he took more than a dozen kicks from the Lame Elder, but at last kicked the crutch to splinters.
The Lame Elder stood on one leg and said angrily, "You little wretch, who taught you such a vicious trick? "
Shen Mu slapped the ground hard with both palms and shot up into the sky, head down, feet up, spinning as he rose. The Lame Elder snorted coldly, crouched on his single leg, then sprang and leaped into the air.
Scarcely had he leaped up when Shen Mu, above his head, struck down at him with both palms. His vital energy turned straight into Black Tortoise vital energy; ripples of water appeared in the air, then took the form of a water dragon charging straight at the Lame Elder. "Mere trickery!
"