The headman raised his eyebrows. "If it comes to mutual destruction, the Nether Demon Cult will surely leave countless dead and wounded too, won't it? Why press us so relentlessly? If a pack of cripples and old folk like us costs your cult so dearly, the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping will be only too glad to reap the profit and swallow the Nether Demon Cult whole. What do you say? " The young Patriarch nodded.

"The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping has indeed been searching for a chance to subdue our cult and make it submit to the court. But our holy scriptures are lost and our Holy Cult Leader is slain — we are all but wiped out already. If you insist on going your own way, brother, then the little village you protect will have to try conclusions with our Holy Cult. Unfurl the banners! " The Elder of Punishments at his side bowed. "Yes, Patriarch.

Unfurl the banners!

" Shen Mu looked out and saw the three hundred and sixty great banners growing wider and larger, each one now a full acre or more across. "Roll up the banners," said the youth.

The Elder of Punishments called out in a loud voice, "Roll up the banners!

" One after another the great banners were furled, their surfaces vanishing — and behind them Shen Mu saw tens of thousands of Adepts, every one of them imposing, standing straight as spears, not making the slightest sound, striking a chill of utter desolation into the heart.

The headman sighed. "The Nether Demon Cult's teleportation banners truly live up to their name. One unfurling and one furling, and tens of thousands of Adepts march straight into the Barren Ruins — no wonder the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping is so eager to bring the Nether Demon Cult to heel. If he possessed that divine power of theirs, the armies of Jingping would sweep the world and unite all the nations!

" The young Patriarch sighed. "Without a Cult Leader, our Holy Cult is now a heap of loose sand. These forty years, the Nether Demon Cult's circumstances have grown harder and harder. I reckon the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping can scarcely hold himself back any longer; he will soon strike at us. Like you, I am old, with not many days left to look forward to. Now all I hope for is to find a new Cult Leader of dazzling brilliance.

" The headman's eyes flickered. "So the widow who killed the old Cult Leader on their wedding night — she is your best candidate? " The young Patriarch nodded and smiled bitterly. "Brother, you know as well as I how rare it is to find a Cult Leader of dazzling brilliance and wisdom. Our Nether Demon Cult has many followers, but those capable of bearing the title are very few, and those who could match the Cult Leader's widow are fewer still. With no other way open to us, we had to seek her out, bring her back to the cult, and let her serve as Cult Leader. " The headman glanced at Grandmother Zhu, somewhat pained.

"I hear it was this widow who killed your Cult Leader Fan Xuanshu. Why let her become the new Cult Leader instead of avenging the old one?

Is the murder of a Cult Leader not a monstrous disgrace to your cult? " The young Patriarch's eyes were bright as snow. He laughed. "Brother, have you forgotten? We are a demon cult — we cannot be judged by common sense. The new Cult Leader killed the old one; that proves the new one is the more capable, so of course she must be enthroned! " The headman's expression turned strange, and beside him Shen Mu and the Alchemist wore expressions stranger still.

The Nether Demon Cult actually had such a rule? "Grandmother, is there really such a rule? " the Alchemist asked. Grandmother Zhu nodded woodenly. The Alchemist could not help saying, "If there is such a rule, then after you killed the old Cult Leader, why did you not stay in the Nether Demon Cult and become the new one?

" Grandmother Zhu said bitterly, "I killed him. I had no face to stay in the Nether Demon Cult. To remain there would only have deepened my inner demon. " The Alchemist still could not quite understand.

To him, it was already hard enough to grasp that the Nether Demon Cult had spent forty years waiting and searching for the murderer of their Cult Leader to make her their new leader; that Grandmother Zhu should actually hide from it and avoid it was harder still. The headman smiled slightly and said to the young Patriarch, "If the old woman is unwilling to go with you, you cannot take her.

" The young Patriarch frowned.

"I mean to take both the Cult Leader's widow and the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra.

" The two men looked at each other. The headman raised his tea to see off his guest. "If the guest will not leave, then the guest must be destroyed.

The Nether Demon Cult has too many people — we shall not trouble ourselves with coffins. Of the men of our generation, fewer and fewer remain.

It truly pains me. " The young Patriarch raised his cup, drained it in one tilt, set it down, and rose to his feet. "As it pains me. But your village has few people.

I can arrange coffins. " "Wait!

" Grandmother Zhu spoke suddenly, smiling. "Headman, Alchemist, take the boy back to the village first.

I will have a talk with the Patriarch.

If we cannot agree, then we shall fight to the death. If we can agree, everyone is happy — surely that is a fine thing? " The headman shot her a glance. Grandmother Zhu smiled.

"Rest easy. At worst they carry me off. " The headman nodded.

"Alchemist, boy, let us return to the village first.

" Only after they had gone back to the village did Grandmother Zhu sit down before the young Patriarch and say, "Withdraw, enforcer. " "Yes, Madam. " The Elder of Punishments bowed and slowly withdrew. Grandmother Zhu's eyes shone brilliantly as she looked at the young Patriarch across from her.

He sighed. "You were once our Holy Maiden; in talent and grace you were peerless.

When Fan Xuanshu wished to marry you, I was in fact opposed to it.

" "Yet you did not stop him. " Grandmother Zhu smiled.

"Fan Xuanshu was my master.

A master taking his disciple as wife violates all human decency.

Our Holy Cult calls itself holy — are we to cast aside human decency as well? " The young Patriarch frowned. "When Fan Xuanshu took you as a disciple, I knew it was wrong. Day and night in your company, I feared he would be utterly bewitched by you and lose his reason.

And bewitched he was — he even cast off his old wife of several hundred years of marriage to take you as his new wife.

" Grandmother Zhu ground the few remaining teeth in her mouth and cackled. "You knew he would be bewitched by me — so why let him take me as a disciple? Patriarch, you should have taken me as your disciple!

Had I been your disciple, none of what followed would ever have happened! " "I feared that in your daily company I would be bewitched by you. " The young Patriarch smiled bitterly. "The first time I saw you, you were only thirteen, yet my heart gave a few violent throbs. Even then I knew I could not take you as a disciple.

I was already old; I did not want a lifetime's fame ruined in your hands. A master falling in love with his disciple — I would be laughed at by all. " He sighed. "Few who have seen your true face escape being bewitched by you.

The longer they stay near you, the deeper the enchantment.

" Grandmother Zhu kept grinding her teeth, half smiling, half not. "That being so, why did you still make me Cult Leader? Were you not afraid I would ruin the Holy Cult? " The young Patriarch said, "You were the best candidate. I too thought you rather a beauty who brings calamity, and that as Cult Leader you would only set our Holy Cult to flying into chaos.

But in forty years of wandering we found a few boys and girls of outstanding talent, and not one matched you. To become Cult Leader, they always fell a hair short.

" He sighed, dispirited. "Once you have seen the best, all other good things ever after seem a little lacking.