Shen Mu had not been sent far — less than a li from Mishui Pass, with the Wasteland at his back. For Blind Grandpa, disrupting Shen Mu's translocation was no difficult thing; at most, this was as far as he could fling him. Blind Grandpa returned to Mishui Pass in silence and sought out Shen Mu, and without a word he unsealed the Divine Treasury seals on Ling Yuxiu and Si Yunxiang; then, leaning on his bamboo staff, tapping and poking his way, he walked off alone. Shen Mu was struck dumb. "Blind Grandpa..." "Grown up. Grown up..." Out of the old blind man's hollow eye sockets, turbid tears slid down. The faster he walked, the more the tears came. The child he had raised had grown up at last, and yet in his heart there rose all at once a desolate, aching loss. Shen Mu would very likely never again follow him back to Yincan Village; he was no longer the small boy who once carried him on his back while he practiced his fists and his arts. This child he had picked up had thoughts of his own now, and the strength to protect himself. His heart had gone wild; having seen the world outside, he would no longer think of staying on in Yincan Village, a place of nothing but old men and old women. The old blind man walked very fast. Shen Mu rushed up onto the ramparts of Mishui Pass and could see only his receding back by the riverside, a little lonely, a little forlorn. Some melancholy rose in the youth's heart as well. He lifted a hand, but said nothing. The old blind man, walking away with his back to him, seemed nonetheless to see that raised hand, and raised his own in turn, and did not look back. Shen Mu watched him lower the hand and seem to wipe at his eye sockets, as though brushing away tears. Blind Grandpa hurried on along the river, and after a long while he came at last to Yincan Village. There was no one else in the village; it had become the domain of the plume-crested fire pheasant dragons. Many hens had hatched brood upon brood of the creatures, and they had moved into the rooms of the village head and of Blind Grandpa. Seeing the old blind man return, one arrogant young fire pheasant dragon charged in and attacked, meaning to drive him off its territory. A moment later, a plume-crested fire pheasant dragon, stripped bare of its feathers, was skewered on the bamboo staff and set over a campfire, while the rest of the flock hid quaking in a corner, staring at the old blind man in terror. Blind Grandpa went next to the butcher's room, dug several jars of wine from under the bed, roasted the fire pheasant dragon, and ate and drank. When he had eaten and drunk his fill, he dropped a heap of chicken bones, stood up, and reached for his bamboo staff — but the staff had already burned to ash in the campfire. Blind Grandpa was stunned for a moment. He patted the ash from his hands, strode out of the village, and made for the Yong River beyond it. "How many years now..." Walking, he murmured to himself, "Old brother, how many years have you kept me company? In the year I fell, I carried you here on my back. The village head said my heart had failed, that I was no longer worthy to possess you, and told me to lay you to rest, to bury you in the Yong River. He said that in Yincan Village I would never need you again." On the Yong River the surface began to rise in wave upon wave; from beneath the water came a faint trembling sound, and ring after ring of ripples spread outward in a regular rhythm. Blind Grandpa walked toward the river, his tattered clothes snapping and flapping. "When I abandoned you all those years ago, my heart was ash, dead as ash, without a shred of life or joy in it. In the days when you followed me, it was because of my strength, my invincibility, my contempt for all things!" He stood upon the river's surface, and from that small body of his there burst suddenly a battle-fury terrible beyond measure, an awful momentum that shot straight to the clouds; the clouds in mid-sky twisted abruptly and took shape as an enormous Xuanwu of entwined turtle and serpent — the Dark One as the Dark Turtle, dragon-headed, turtle-bodied; the Martial One as the Soaring Serpent, a thousand wings on high! Then suddenly from the riverbed came a whispering, a strange sound, like a dragon's chant and like the murmuring of the dead, and in it were dragon words and voices from other worlds. To hear that sound was to feel a long, soft body rise slowly from the river, circling and coiling about Blind Grandpa's thin little frame. "Saduo, Mobasa, Xiqu Mituo (you are defeated, your eyes are blind, you are not worthy to possess me)..." "I am defeated." Blind Grandpa stood there straight as a rod. He was short of stature — shorter than anyone else in the village save the village head and the butcher of old — and though his body was small, the impression he gave was one of extraordinary height, of grandeur, of uprightness! A bleakness came over his face, and he said in a low voice, "My Holy Pupil was dug out, and my Dao-heart was broken too. I am not worthy of you. Rather than say that I abandoned you, it would be truer to say that you abandoned me. In those days I was utterly defeated, and I was not worthy to possess you." The waves on the river grew higher and higher, the water swirling, until at the heart of the river appeared a vast whirlpool; from it came that strange voice, dread and majestic: "Xiqu Mituo, Yihe Suposuo! (Not worthy to possess me — then why have you come?)" "I have taken back my Dao-heart!" Blind Grandpa's brows and hair streamed, his clothes swelled outward, and his voice rolled like thunder, resounding to the heavens; his battle-fury turned incomparably keen, incomparably powerful, like a god come again into the world: "The me of old sought the utmost of the Holy Pupil — to see through all things, and yet I could not see through men's hearts! But the me of now has someone I must protect. For this child's sake I have taken back my fighting spirit, taken back my faith and my Dao-heart!" He stretched out a hand toward the river, his voice booming and shaking: "Long Tuo, I abandoned you once. Will you still follow me now? Do you still long for the glory of former days, for the days when you went to war at my side and bathed in blood? If you wish it, if you will it, then I shall grant it! Let you taste slaughter such as you have never known, savagery such as never was — one man, one spear, slaying gods that stand in his way, slaying demons that bar his path!" Boom — the river's surface burst apart, a dragon's chant thundered, and from the whirlpool a great black dragon rose slowly out of the depths, a dragon's body built of black bone, swimming little by little from the water, countless joints cracking and snapping without cease as it circled and coiled about Blind Grandpa's small thin frame. That bone, black as pitch, quivered unceasingly, ringing with a clang, and the ringing grew louder and louder; amid the trembling, streaks of bloody light burst forth, a momentum terrible beyond measure, spreading an overbearing murderous might across the world. Blind Grandpa's palm closed in a heavy grip; the black bone dragon suddenly drew itself together, joint striking joint, sparks flying, and became a black dragon spear in his hand! "Long Tuo, you have awakened at last! And I have awakened too!" Blind Grandpa slung the black dragon spear across his back, joy without limit in his heart, and walked off without a backward glance, leaving Yincan Village behind: "This village — I will not come back to it! Come with me, and let us relive the years we stained with blood!" At Mishui Pass, Shen Mu sensed a terrible aura erupt out in the Wasteland. He lifted his head and gazed for a moment, then withdrew his eyes. The Wasteland held all manner of strange things, erupting from time to time; it was an ordinary thing there. "I mean to make a trip to the Dawn Spring. Do you really intend to come with me?" Shen Mu looked around the circle, his gaze coming to rest on Lin