Chapter 41 — One Push of the Blade Reveals True Mastery

As Shen Mu ran he stirred up wind, and Granny Zhu and the blind elder simply sat upon the crest of that wind, borrowing its force to travel. A wind crest is like a wave crest: waves are made by the flowing of water, wind by the flowing of air, and the crest of the wind Shen Mu had just raised was such a wind crest. The young man on Shen Mu's back slid down at once and, leading the three of them at a brisk pace toward his own house, cried, "This way, sirs, this way, hurry!

" Shen Mu put the matter of the wind crest aside and, coming before the house and its yard, looked around; this village was much larger than Yincan Village, holding a hundred or more households, its houses very old and very plain.

In this courtyard stood a great tree whose crown shaded half the house, and the woman in labor lay in the room beneath that crown. A village woman poked her head out and said, "Her waters have broken—quick, boil some hot water!

Eh?

It's the old midwife from Yincan Village! Now we're lucky; mother and child are sure to come through!

" Granny Zhu cast a glance around, understanding dawning in her, and said, "Shen'er, open your eyes and look about for anything strange. If there is something strange, just deal with it; I'll go in and deliver the child.

Blind Elder, you be careful too—don't let anyone take you unawares.

" "Heaven-Soaring Eye, open!

" Shen Mu opened the Heaven-Soaring Eye and looked about, and all at once his gaze fell upon the dense crown of that great tree, and a chill ran through him; he nearly cried out in alarm.

The trunk within the crown was very thick—at a glance a trunk, but at a closer look a great serpent as thick as a water bucket! The serpent was hidden in the crown, half its body sunk into the trunk, and the great lumps that bulged here and there from the trunk were the portions of its body left bare!

Judging by what could be seen of it, the serpent must be longer than any he had ever set eyes on; the other half of its body was no doubt hidden among the roots beneath the tree, buried in the earth—larger even than the Azure-Scaled Serpent-dragon that Huo Ye and the others had caught! The whole tree, crown and all, gave off a thick black vapor that wrapped itself around this house!

Just then the serpent was flicking its blood-red tongue, lowering its head toward the room where the woman lay and breathing in and out—no telling what it was at!

Fearing his eyes had deceived him, Shen Mu dispersed the Heaven-Soaring Eye and looked with his naked eyes: the great tree was still a great tree, not a serpent.

He opened the eye again, and there the serpent still coiled in the crown, waiting to devour the soul of the child the pregnant woman would bear! Clearly, in the years past, whenever the mistress of this house had conceived and given birth, the children she bore had all had their souls devoured by this serpent!

Rage blazed up in his heart, and he said in a low voice, "Blind Grandpa.

.

. " The blind elder, utterly unruffled, said unhurriedly, "The old granny said to leave it to you.

Deal with it as you see fit.

This will be your first hunt.

Hurry—the child is about to be born.

" Shen Mu steadied his heart, walked straight to the foot of that great tree, and breathed slowly in and out.

His essence stirred from stillness into motion; as the rage in his heart grew, its circulation spun faster and faster, and the essence grew vaster and mightier!

The essence within him surged and churned, and the fire of his wrath burned higher and higher!

Zheng— Suddenly the Butchering Blade on his back resonated with the quaking essence in his body; with a ringing hum it leaped from his back and shot up above his head!

Shen Mu raised a hand and gripped the blade; his essence went berserk, pouring madly into the Butchering Blade as he swung!

He swung with every scrap of strength he had!

Let the essence burst, let the fury burst—a wild, glorious bursting in a single stroke!

Cut!

The Butchering Blade in his hand rang out sharply, the long blade tore the air, screaming as it went, and came down upon the trunk of that great tree like a force that shatters the withered and the rotten! Clang— A great boom rang out. His stroke bit into the trunk and into the serpent hidden within it, yet it cut only halfway through.

The serpent's hide, flesh and bone had been cultivated to an incredible toughness; even the Butchering Blade, forged by the Silent Craftsman's own hand and finer than any common essence-weapon, could not cut this serpent in two in a single stroke!

Shen Mu's other hand seized the back of the blade, power surged into his feet, and he brought out the Lame Elder's leg technique.

The Lame Elder said: the legs are the wind, the earth, the root of all strength! His legs and feet now rooted themselves in the earth; then he exerted force, and the ground around his feet sank with a boom.

All his strength burst forth—one hand pressing the back of the blade, the other gripping the hilt tight.

He pushed the blade!

A grating, ear-piercing sound followed, and the great tree, together with the serpent inside it, was cut clean through at the waist!

Shen Mu steadied his stance, the Butchering Blade held across his front, blood running endlessly down the steel; the muscles of his back stood out one by one, still twitching.

And behind him, the towering tree toppled askew.

Boom— The great tree crashed down into the courtyard, sending up clouds of dust, and the tree that had fallen suddenly came alive! The serpent, cut in two at the waist, was not dead yet; half its body writhed, and with a ceaseless bang-bang-bang of bursting wood the serpentine flesh hidden in the trunk burst the tree into four and five pieces, bark and chunks of wood flying wildly, some even driven into the walls!

The bark and wood it flung off were more fearsome than spears, shrieking as they split the air with tremendous force!

Night Slash Across a Thousand Cities of Wind and Rain!

The Butchering Blade whirled in Shen Mu's hand, its light flickering. His first stroke had loosed blade-force, heavy and mighty, gathering the whole strength of his body into one cut; now his bladework turned extraordinarily fast!

The Butcher's blade art had only one essential: fast, faster, faster still!

Clang clang clang clang— The impacts fell like rain; countless shards of bark and wood hammered against Shen Mu's Butchering Blade until his arms went numb and aching.

The serpent's strength was far above his own; but its attention had been fixed upon the woman in the room awaiting birth, ready to absorb the infant's soul and essence in the instant it was born.

When an infant is born, the umbilical cord still links it to the mother's purple river-carriage, the placenta, and all its essence is of the inborn, the prenatal; after birth the prenatal turns postnatal. Before birth, that essence is not yet whole, and so the serpent had chosen the very instant of birth to seize it.

How it had slipped into this village no one knew; it had hidden in the trunk and cultivated, deceiving everyone in this small village. All the years it hid in the tree it was never discovered, and after devouring the souls of several infants its cultivation had grown greatly; this time it had thought the taking would go as smoothly as ever—but it had not noticed Shen Mu, and Shen Mu's stroke had found its mark.

Yet though Shen Mu had cut it in two at the waist, it would not die in a moment. Now the serpent fell into a frenzy, knowing its body was severed and it could not live; at once it burst free of the trunk and, opening a maw like a blood basin, lunged to bite Shen Mu! A gale struck his face, flaying his cheeks until they quivered violently and he could scarcely keep his eyes open.

Shen Mu did not stop to think; the blade in his hand chopped forward like a tempest, and then a force beyond imagining struck him.