Chapter 1525 — Remembrance and Keepsakes

Then she laughed again. "And when I beat him, you never stopped me either. There, there, all of you disperse. Now that the crisis has passed, we have all the more to do. I am going to find the Dutian Demon King. That fellow ran fast last night, hid himself far away; I must go seek him and make him move the people of Jingping back... That lame old man..."

She shook her head, turned, and departed, looking thoroughly displeased with him.

Granny Zhu walked off briskly, her steps quickening; but once she was far from Shen Mu and the others, her pace gradually slowed.

She hid herself in a corner of the mountain hollow, sat down, and all at once wept like rain.

She wept a long while, then roused her spirits and went to find the Dutian Demon King.

She knew Shen Mu did not want her to grieve, and so had invented the lie that the lame old man had gone to the past universe; but she did not want Shen Mu to know that she grieved either, and so she followed his lie onward — deceiving Shen Mu, deceiving the Blind Elder and the Silent Craftsman, and deceiving herself as well.

Only where no one was by did she dare to face her own lie and let herself weep aloud.

Yet she was one who knew what mattered and what could wait. She had always been the backbone of Yincan Village, and she must keep up the appearance of that backbone; she could not show her grief before the people of Yincan Village.

The folk of Yincan Village looked, every one of them, like sacred beings of unmatched talent, proud in spirit, each with his own specialty; but in truth they were all pitiable creatures whose Dao-hearts were scarred beyond number.

So it was with the village head; so it was with the Blind Elder and the Silent Craftsman.

They had all been failures once, huddling together for warmth.

They were frailer than others, and prized the bonds of friendship between them all the more. If she broke down before them, they would break down faster and more utterly still.

Beside Shen Mu, the Blind Elder and the Silent Craftsman did not know what to say at such a moment either. They patted Shen Mu's shoulder and took the damaged Lapis Azure Heaven Banner away.

"The Lapis Azure Heaven Banner is damaged — we will go and mend it," they said.

The two old men carried the Lapis Azure Heaven Banner to the World Tree, planted it in the ground, unfolded the twenty-eight heavens, and toiled in silence, repairing the damaged heaven-treasures.

From the degree of damage to those treasures, one could see how savage and perilous the battle of the night before had been.

It was hard to imagine that Shen Mu could have withstood such ferocious attacks.

The two old men forged treasures and repaired the array diagrams until they were tired; then the Silent Craftsman suggested, "Let us rest a while."

The Blind Elder stopped. The two sat on the ground beneath the tree. The Silent Craftsman took out his pipe, filled it, and lit it.

He put the water pipe to his lips, thought a moment, and stopped; then he set the water pipe down on the empty space beside him.

The Blind Elder said nothing at the sight.

When the pipe had burned itself out, the Silent Craftsman said in a low voice, "He has finished smoking it..."

The Blind Elder nodded in silence.

A few days later, the people who had moved out of the hundred thousand Black Mountains came back one after another, and the Black Mountains slowly grew lively again.

Xu Shenghua, as always, took over Shen Mu's duties — receiving the Dao dew, repairing the Black Mountain. He was the steadiest man in the Great Black Mountains; no matter what great events befell the outside world, he still had the breadth of heart and the spirit to finish what was his.

Lan Yutian went on comprehending the Dao beneath the tree, and expounded what he had grasped to the people of the Black Mountain. When Xu Shenghua had finished his work, he too would come to comprehend and listen to the teaching.

Shen Mu came by now and then to hear them expound the Dao and pass on the law, though his mind always wandered somewhat.

Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun frowned to see it, but did not ask.

Time, though it does not exist, is often what soothes a wound — this nonexistent time.

Yan'er, the Southern Emperor, and Emperor Ming did not return; each had gone about his own affairs.

One day, Jiang Yunjian came hurrying over and said to them all, "The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping has gone to the mines on the outskirts of the Black Mountain!"

The hearts of all present lurched, and they rose to their feet.