荒墟牧神 - 第36章 雷音古剎驚塵世 - 錦書坊

"Shen'er, the temple fair is in truth an excellent place to see the world."

Huo Ye set the finished pair of crutches down before the furniture and said to Shen Mu with earnest weight: "There are many villages in the Desolate Ruins, and no few masters who could not make a place for themselves in the outer world and were driven into the Ruins against their will. They settle here and take disciples too, but only at the time of the temple fair can these men and their disciples be gathered together. Here you may see, one might almost say, the martial arts and the crafts of every school under heaven!"

Shen Mu, half understanding, mused: "I have never been tempered by real combat, so my cultivation is hard to turn into true strength. Is that why you, Huo Ye, would have me seize this chance—to cross arms with fighters of every school while the temple fair lasts?"

Huo Ye's face showed expectation: "That is the reasoning."

"But what is all this about selling crutches?"

Shen Mu asked, bewildered: "And why has Blind Elder set up a betting stall besides? And Grandpa Tu is selling exotic beasts that plainly are not dragons—why does he shout that what he sells is the precious blood of dragons? And why has the Alchemist already prepared wound medicine?"

Huo Ye coughed twice, dryly: "The doings of grown men are not for a child to ask after. Aren't you going up?"

Shen Mu had no choice but to mount the fighting platform and paste the scroll the Deaf Elder had written onto the platform's post.

Before long, more and more villagers from every village gathered below the platform, a great hubbub of voices. Shen Mu too felt that what the Deaf Elder had written was not quite seemly, but that in so short a while it should have drawn so many people still left him stunned.

"Kicks unrivaled by any hand in the Surging River; sweeps clean eight hundred villages of the Desolate Ruins! What a boast! Young man, by the look of you you are no more than eleven or twelve; even if you began cultivating in your mother's womb, your cultivation can be no great matter!"

A voice spoke with righteous indignation: "You hang up such an arrogant scroll—is it a challenge to the villages of our Desolate Ruins? Who gave you such nerve?"

Shen Mu's face flushed slightly; inwardly ashamed, he then came to himself and glared furiously at the Blind Elder—that voice was very familiar, and was it not the Blind Elder's own?

The Blind Elder grew more righteous still, his voice thick with seduction: "Has the Desolate Ruins no true men left, that this boy should swagger up there? A little brat of eleven or twelve—can you stomach it? Where is the blood of the men of the Desolate Ruins?"

At these words, no small matter, a dozen or so young men at once leaped onto the platform, and Shen Mu's face went green.

"But the good men of the Desolate Ruins must not be held cheap by him either."

The Blind Elder's voice was like a great bell, making everyone's eardrums hum: "Since he has set up a platform, we must keep the rules. He has come to challenge, not to brawl in a crowd, so we go up one by one. This youth is of the Spirit Fetus stage; whoever goes up to challenge must likewise be of the Spirit Fetus stage, and not lose face for his own village."

Scarcely had his words fallen than the dozen or so young men each stepped down from the platform, leaving but one young man upon it.

Shen Mu let out a breath and said: "How may I address you, brother..."

"If you want to fight, fight! Who is making nice with you?"

The young man suddenly dropped low, his vital essence bursting forth, and upon the surface of his body there formed line after line of tiger stripes, like a striped fierce tiger!

On his palms and soles his vital essence sharpened into claws like knives. He sprang suddenly, so swift he was a blur of light and shadow, and pounced at Shen Mu!