Behind the jade pendant lay a pair of bright, limpid eyes. Though only eleven, Qin Mu already understood many things.
Once, he had followed Grandma Si to a village where a woman was giving birth. The sight of that loving family of three deeply moved him, and he asked Grandma Si how he had been born and where his parents were. Unable to answer, she could only say he had been found, this jade pendant already about his neck.
So he cherished the pendant dearly, hoping one day to track down his parents and ask why they had cast him away. After a long while he tucked it away, hanging it once more at his chest, the jade's strangeness buried deep; behind him, Grandma Si returned to her room.
The next day, Old Ma, the Blind One, the Cripple, and the Mute went hunting again, capturing more four-spirit beasts to refine their blood into nourishment for Qin Mu. The beasts within a few hundred li had been swept clean by these four fierce men, so much so that they had to journey ever farther for their quarry.The Village Chief could barely move, the Herbalist often went gathering herbs, the Butcher was cynical and given to fits of madness, and the Deaf cared only for calligraphy and painting — so in daily practice only Grandma Si could accompany Qin Mu. Yet even she was often away, being a seamstress and midwife the nearby villages forever asked for clothes or births.
Today she had gone out early, and the Herbalist too. The Butcher and the Deaf set the Village Chief at the gate, one at his demon blade, the other at his painting.
With nothing to do, Qin Mu came alone to the riverbank. Since the cow had turned into a woman and been stabbed by the Cripple, his chores had grown far fewer.
At the river's edge he drew a long breath, his chest inflating like a bellows. He did not expel the air, but let his primal qi nourish his lungs, making them tough, compressing the air within to a tenth.
Qin Mu kept breathing in, his chest still not swelling, until he reached his limit, then shot off like an arrow loosed from its bow!
On the river's surface two walls of water parted to either side, and between them Qin Mu strode across the water!
Suddenly a blade of light flashed up. In mid-stride he drew the butcher knife, its light wheeling like a flood dragon — the Butcher's knife art, cynical and fierce, carrying a wild might that bowed to neither heaven nor earth, its blade-lights crushing their way across the river.
Then the blade-light closed. Qin Mu slung the knife across his back and switched to Old Ma's boxing, his primal qi flowing through his arms as his body went like a great river racing for the sea.
The first form of the Thunderclap Eight Forms — Alone in the Eastern Sea, Clutching the Spring Thunder!
He struck out fist after fist, and in his mind surfaced the scene of a great river surging into the sea; the same mood took shape in his boxing. His fist opened sharply, the palm shaking, the air before it compressing and exploding, blasting the river into spray.
"It's still not right. I couldn't manage palm thunder."
He felt a touch of disappointment. The very lowest level of the Thunderclap Eight Forms demanded palm thunder — a thunder-clap that seized the heart and struck with devastating force. To cultivate deeper was a divine art, controlling thunder itself, beyond his reach for now.
In mid-dash he took a bamboo staff from his back — no ordinary staff technique, but a spear art. The Blind One's staff art was a spear art, the great spear coiling like an angry dragon to churn the river, every blow bringing the water leaping after the bamboo. Then he set the staff aside and drew out a great iron hammer, the mute blacksmith's hammer art — archaic, clumsy, a weight of ten thousand jun.
After a long while his primal qi ran short, his body weary, his strength nearly spent. Only then did he look about — he had drifted over a hundred li downstream.
"Without realizing it, I've run this far?"Qin Mu spotted a green islet in mid-river, the current surging on both sides. His heart stirred, and he charged at once; a little later he climbed ashore.
The islet was small, like a hilltop rising from mid-river — a li or so in girth, looming some forty zhang above the water, lush with grass and trees. In the dense woods there was no birdsong, only the gurgle of water, and not far ahead a temple hid among the trees, its broken walls showing — long untended, cobwebs everywhere, still fine enough to rest one's feet.
He stopped before it. One door had fallen away, and the interior was dark, though a huge Buddha could still be seen, its gilded figure giving off a golden glow — yet no one had come here in a long, long while: much of the gilding had peeled away, revealing bronze bearing strange characters twisting as if formed of tadpoles. About the Buddha's body ran thick chains, stretching from the temple all the way to the islet's shore, plunging into the Surging River.
"How strange. Why would these chains bind this great Buddha? Blind Grandpa said that when one enters a temple one burns incense — that is the rule. I brought no incense, so I can only rest before the door."
He cleared his throat, bowed, and said: "This humble student is from the Village of Broken Elders, my home beside the river. Passing by your noble temple, I borrow this blessed ground to rest; I am uneasy at disturbing this place's master."
He hesitated, then recited what the Blind One had taught him: "This humble student has been kidney-weak since childhood, my yang essence spent too early. If there is a fairy sister in the temple, pray do not come to harm me."
The Blind One was a seasoned traveler, and Qin Mu trusted his words without reserve. After this prayer, he sat on the stone steps, pulled off his iron shoes, and unbuckled the iron weights about his calves, breathing slowly to recover his strength; the shoes and weights had been reforged by the Mute blacksmith, heavier than the last pair by far.
Suddenly, from the temple behind him came a girl's light laugh, crisp and bright: "What you say is rather amusing. Very well, then I won't eat you after all."
Qin Mu whirled around. On the Buddha's palm sat a little girl of an age much his own, eleven or twelve, with three braids — two slender ones over her chest and a thick one down her back — swinging her feet as she watched him with a grin, the golden rings at her ankles knocking with a clink that made her laughter seem bright as the early-spring sun.
Qin Mu hurriedly rose: "Fairy sister…"
"What fairy sister?" The girl jumped down, laughing, showing a pair of little tiger-teeth: "My name is Xian Qing'er. I live nearby and have never seen any fairy sister. What's yours?"
Seeing her bright smile, Qin Mu breathed easier: "My name is Qin Mu — a cowherd surnamed Qin. I used to have a cow, and the grandma and grandpas always made me herd it."
Xian Qing'er pushed open the second door, looked him up and down, then peered behind him and burst out laughing: "And your cow?"
"The cow turned into a woman. There's no cow now."
She was astonished and fairly hopped: "There's something so fun as that? How did it happen? Can you do it?"
"Not really, not yet. My grandma can."
A little disappointed, she said: "And here I thought you could. What other fun things do you know? Come inside and tell me!"
Qin Mu lifted his foot, about to enter, when his gaze fell on clumps of white bone behind the statue. His heart lurched: "Blind Grandpa said one must bow to the Buddha before burning incense. I brought no incense. I think I'll not go in."
"Come in!" Xian Qing'er said, her smile honey-sweet.
Qin Mu blinked, drew the hovering foot back, and smiled even more innocently than the Cripple: "I think I'll not go in. You come out, and I'll tell you some fine stories."
Xian Qing'er's eyes flickered. She bit her red lip and tittered: "I know some lovely, shameful things that boys and girls can only play at together. Come in, and I'll teach you." Her breath came like orchid-scent, her voice laced with seduction; a moment ago bright as spring, now alluring and beguiling.
Qin Mu's face swelled scarlet: "I have been kidney-weak since childhood…"
"Come in!" A roar like rolling thunder burst from the little girl's mouth.