Chapter 94 — One Stroke Dots the Dragon's Eye
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
When he had gathered the twenty-ninth ingredient, Shen Mu stopped picking and, with even greater care, caught a five-spotted blister beetle from the leaf of a poisonous plant. He pinched off the insect's head and removed its wings, and took it as the thirtieth highly toxic ingredient. Back in the village, Shen Mu baked the roots and stems of some of the herbs with vital energy to draw out their excess potency; he steamed others in water; and he roasted yet others with the vital energy of the Vermilion Bird to drive off their moisture.
After a long spell of work, he began at last to refine the medicine.
The Alchemist stood not far off, watching his every step and every technique, and the subtlety with which he wielded his vital energy, and nodded to himself. To refine the medicine, Shen Mu brought out a great vat and held it aloft in the air with his vital energy. One after another he cast the thirty ingredients into the vat, but added no water at all; instead he steeped the herbs in his own vast and mighty vital energy, using vital energy that had no attribute whatsoever to extract the medicinal power from them.
The Alchemist's expression stirred slightly. This was Shen Mu's own unique technique; even he could not learn it.
His vital energy had an attribute, and the herbs had attributes too, and his vital energy would ruin their medicinal nature.
Only Shen Mu's attribute-less vital energy could extract their power in this way. Shen Mu grew more careful still.
He divided his vital energy into thirty strands, each steeping one ingredient, while from the palm that held up the vat burst the vital energy of the Vermilion Bird, becoming a blazing fire, so that the medicinal powers in the vat began to merge with one another. From his other hand welled the vital energy of the Black Tortoise, moistening the medicinal power with watery vapor and slowing the process of fusion, while at the same time he drew the dregs out of the vat. After a long while, Shen Mu suddenly set the vat spinning. A clinking, ringing sound came from within; and when the vat stopped turning, there lay in it a host of white pills, turning without cease, crystalline and translucent, like beads of mutton-fat white jade.
Shen Mu reached in and pinched out one spirit pill. Grandmother Zhu said in alarm, "Alchemist, is it poisonous? "
The Alchemist said with a smile, "Once Shen'er has swallowed it, we will know whether it is poisonous.
"
Shen Mu opened his mouth and swallowed the spirit pill, saying, "Granny, rest easy. This spirit pill is not poisonous. .
. "
Bang —
His hair suddenly exploded outward, growing wildly in every direction.
Grandmother Zhu and the others were startled, and Shen Mu said hastily, "No one need panic. There was one poison among them I did not balance properly, and it has affected my kidney water. Kidney water stimulates hair growth — it has merely made my hair a little thick.
"
Grandmother Zhu said angrily, "A little thick, is it?
"
Shen Mu's hair was still growing madly, longer and longer.
The hairs were like bamboo shoots, growing straight and stiff, and before long they had reached twenty or thirty feet in length, every strand standing upright and hard as could be.
Shen Mu felt his head growing heavy and said, "Granny, the greatest virtue of this spirit pill lies in healing wounds.
It can make rotted flesh regrow swiftly, torn muscle knit, broken bone grow anew, severed sinew rejoin. Stimulating hair growth through the kidney water is a trifling side effect. . .
"
His hair was still growing, weighing his head down more and more; he could scarcely hold up that whole head of exploding hair.
The Alchemist, holding back his laughter, said, "You have passed this trial. Butcher, cut his hair for him.
If it grows any more, his neck will break under the weight. "