The next day, Shen Mu was awakened by the clamor of villagers. He rose and asked what had happened, and only then learned that the night watchman had suddenly dropped dead the night before, giving the villagers a terrible fright. Last night Shen Mu had felled a tree, and when the tree came down a great serpent had burst from its trunk—that alone had been frightening enough. But then, late in the night, the watchman had died without warning, leaving the villagers panic-stricken and full of talk. The husband and wife came over holding a tray covered with a red cloth, on which lay some gifts in thanks, and said, "Granny Zhu, young brother, we are poor folk and have nothing fine, but you must accept these few things." Shen Mu was about to decline when the Blind Elder said, "Shen'er, take it. Don't leave them owing you a kindness." Shen Mu took the few items from the red cloth and bade the couple farewell. The man said with a smile, "Young brother, with your skills, you stand above the crowd—one day you will surely be a dragon or phoenix among men!" "What's so good about being a dragon or phoenix?" Granny Zhu said, "Dragon liver and phoenix gall are no more than delicacies on a dinner table. Don't become a dragon or phoenix—become one who eats dragons and phoenixes." The couple exchanged looks, and Granny Zhu waved her hand. "Go back now. Shen'er, Blind Elder, let us continue to the market!" Shen Mu caught up with the little old woman and asked curiously, "Granny, what happened last night? Was the watchman the one casting spells? How did he die? And what was that silver pellet floating at my brow last night? Last time you said everyone in our village was perfectly ordinary. Why do I feel that the ordinary people of other villages are somewhat different from the ordinary people of ours?" "Where do all these questions come from?" Granny Zhu's head ached as if it would split. She looked at the Blind Elder for help. The Blind Elder walked on cheerfully, banged into a tree with a dong, and passed out cold. Granny Zhu stomped several times on the Blind Elder's face, but he would not wake for life or death. Shen Mu hurriedly hoisted the Blind Elder onto his back and looked at Granny Zhu with pleading eyes. Granny Zhu drew a needle from her basket and jabbed it into the Blind Elder's backside. Blood spurted from his rear with a hiss, yet he remained unconscious. Granny Zhu had no choice but to blink and say, "The watchman was indeed that demonic expert who raised serpents. His abilities were not weak. He used the Shadow-Transforming Demonic Art, a divine power of the Nether Demon Cult, most formidable and impossible to guard against. I used the Sand-Rinsing Shadow-Reflection Art to wound his shadow and thereby injure his true body through it. My inner demon was at work: I once promised someone that I would never in my life harm a disciple of the Nether Demon Cult, so I only made him retreat in the face of difficulty. It was not I who dealt the killing blow—it was the Blind Elder." Shen Mu blinked and said, "What about the silver pellet? Is it a sword pellet? Are you skilled in swordsmanship, Granny?" Granny Zhu blinked too. Old and young blinked at each other until their eyes ached. Granny Zhu gritted her teeth and jabbed another needle into the Blind Elder's backside. Still he did not wake. "Silver pellet? Cough, cough—you mean this?" Granny Zhu turned her palm over, and a silver pellet appeared in it. Shen Mu nodded hurriedly and said, "Granny, teach me swordsmanship!" Granny Zhu sighed and said, "It is not that I do not want to teach you; it is that I cannot. My swordsmanship may rank with the named arts, but it cannot be number one under heaven. If you learn my swordsmanship, then others will not be willing to teach you. So I must not pass it on to you even if you beat me to death." Shen Mu was disappointed, then his spirits suddenly lifted. "Number one swordsmanship under heaven? Is it in our village?" "Do not let your mind run wild." Granny Zhu warned, "If you go begging him, he will be even less willing to teach you. Only when he himself has come around will he teach you! You now carry several peerless arts on your body, and you have not mastered any one of them. Wait until you can beat Lord Huo with your fists within the same realm, cleave the Butcher with your saber, challenge the Blind Elder with your spear, and outrun the Lame Elder—then come think about how to sharpen your swordsmanship! By then, if he will not teach us, we will force him to!" The Blind Elder yawned and said lazily, "He has the greatest insight and the deepest cultivation; these years he has grown ever more terrifying. Even if we tied ourselves together, we might not beat him." "So you were willing to wake?" Granny Zhu raged and jabbed another needle into his backside. The Blind Elder got down from Shen Mu's back, leaned on his cane, and said, "This matter is better explained by you in the end. I cannot explain it. The killing of the watchman, though, I can explain. That watchman's Shadow-Transforming Demonic Art was formidable; he had already achieved the interchange of man and shadow—his body was not his true body; his shadow was. In a fight with him, if you attack only his body, you will be killed by his shadow. When he tried to kill me, I nailed his shadow to the ground with my bamboo staff and pinned him dead there." Shen Mu thought for a moment and said, "Then what was he cultivating by raising serpents and using infants' innate essence and souls?" The Blind Elder said, "Granny, you are the most skilled in demonic arts. You explain." "This art is called the Perfect Innate Art." Granny Zhu said, "This art is one by which the Nether Demon Cult transforms the acquired into the innate. But he obtained only a fragmented text from somewhere and practiced it askew, going so far as to use unborn infants to cultivate. The true Perfect Innate Art, though a demonic art, is upright and honorable; it disdains such low and filthy means. Instead, it breathes in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and draws the essence of the sun and moon for cultivation." Her expression held some worry, and she lowered her voice: "For people of the Nether Demon Cult to appear nearby means the Wasteland Ruins can no longer remain quiet. These fellows often appear in swarms..." The three returned to Granny Zhu's Temple. The gathering was still going on. By afternoon, people from every village began to leave and return to their own villages. Shen Mu once again drove the ox cart back to Yincan Village. "Shen'er, from now on you may go out hunting alone." Lord Huo sat on the ox cart, his body rising and falling with the jolting road, and suddenly said, "You have grown up." Warmth rose in Shen Mu's heart. He turned and smiled. The cowherd of Yincan Village smiled as brightly as the early spring sun. "However, you are only allowed to hunt strange beasts. You are not allowed to challenge strange beast lords." Granny Zhu said, "And every evening you must come back to graze the oxen and let them eat more grass." The cowherd's face fell immediately, and the two bulls silently pulling the cart gave angry lowing cries, their ox eyes brimming with tears, looking exceedingly wronged. Seeing this, Shen Mu asked suspiciously, "Granny, are these two oxen also people?" "Guess," Granny Zhu said with a chuckle. Shen Mu did not want to guess. A gust of wind came from behind. The youth's heart rippled under the wind. He suddenly stepped forward, leaped up from the ox cart, and ran after the wind. He wanted to catch this wind, to tread its edges and walk in the sky! He was extremely fast. He leaped out of the pine forest, stepped along the tips of the pines and sped madly onward, faster and faster, until at last he caught the head of that wind. He sprang up and leaped into midair. Though he was in the air, a wondrous upward support suddenly came from beneath his feet. The youth cheered and stepped through the air as swiftly as