"Maha!"

Within Shen Mu's dream layered upon dream, a great many tiny Shen Mus gathered together. Some wore grave expressions, some exuded wild auras; some were clad in short jackets and shorts of beast hide, bearded and unkempt as savages; some carried the air of gentle scholars; some went barefoot with cleavers on their shoulders, like pig-butchers; and some bore themselves with the manner of masters.

Then one Shen Mu after another in the guise of a monk came running over, like Buddhas who had attained the Way, their whole bodies blazing with Buddha-light.

These tiny figures of the dreams gathered in one place, in the dream that ringed Shen Mu's primal spirit.

Shen Mu's primal spirit was vast; his body broke through one dream after another, like a Mount Sumeru running through countless worlds.

The many diminutive Shen Mus each aired his views, wagging his tongue and racking his brains, analyzing the principles of the Mira Palace Primordial Sage's divine arts, and how they might avoid having their thoughts assimilated by the Mira Palace Primordial Sage.

The first few days passed without incident. On the third day, one tiny figure was speaking with impassioned fervor of how he would break the Primordial Sage's arts, and in the full heat of it, the maha maha in his mouth suddenly changed.

"What Heaven has conferred is called the nature; to follow the nature is called the Way; to cultivate the Way is called instruction..."

He at once became a freak among the tiny figures, and the many diminutive Shen Mus rushed him in a body and beat him to death on the spot.

Yet before long, more tiny Shen Mus were assimilated and turned into sutra-chanters; even as they were beaten and killed, new tiny Shen Mus kept falling.

"Maha!"

"Guji!"

In the dream, countless tiny Shen Mus fell into utter chaos. Then a Buddha Shen Mu rose to his feet and formed the Unmoving Mudra, and a single resonant boom of a bell rang out, filling the whole place, subduing the panicked little men and steadying their minds.

From beneath the Buddha Shen Mu's feet a golden spring welled up, and from the spring rose a lotus that bore him aloft, holy and solemn, and countless tiny Shen Mus turned their eyes to him.

"Ma! Ha!"

The Buddha Shen Mu formed seals and slowly sat down, chanting sutras that to outsiders sounded wholly unintelligible; yet the flustered tiny Shen Mus seemed able to understand them, and one and all they sat down on the ground and joined the Buddha Shen Mu in chanting.

Within Shen Mu's layered dreams there now appeared a sight of the utmost grandeur: Shen Mus by the tens of thousands, by the millions, a vast black swarming mass, seated upon a boundless plain like a forest of monks, every one of them chanting the same sutra in one voice, the sound growing louder and louder, more and more unified!

That sound was like a mighty torrent of conviction, sweeping over all the dreams—vast and far-carrying; though unintelligible, it shook the heart to its very core!

His dreams were like so many Buddha-lands, so many Buddha-realms; Buddha-light spread out from every dream, radiance without bound, the Buddha's voice rolling on, calming mind and soul.

Granny Zhu, the Silent Artisan, the Blind Old Man and the rest could not help but breathe a sigh of relief at the sight, and the Lame Old Man, after these days of nursing, was much better than before, and at this too he set his heart at ease.

Granny Zhu laid down the divine bow and said in a low voice, "The Buddhism of the Great Thunderclap Temple is a learning of the mind—not faith, but conviction, a tempering of the soul. Perhaps it can hold off that Mira Palace Primordial Sage."

The Lame Old Man's face was still somewhat sallow. "Shen'er has raised his conviction and made his mind like vajra, subduing the monkey of his mind. There should be no one left in the world who can disturb his spirit now."

The several of them kept silent watch. On the tenth day, suddenly a discordant note appeared in the torrent of Buddha's voice within Shen Mu's dream!

Granny Zhu and the others felt the corners of their eyes twitch. They saw the countless Shen Mus seated like so many great Buddhas in the heavens around Shen Mu's primal spirit, and that voice came from the lowest heaven of all.

"...Equilibrium is the great root of the world; harmony is the universal Way of the world..."

This voice threw the Buddhist dharma into disorder; its interference was not strong, but like a plague it slowly infected the other tiny Shen Mus.

Granny Zhu and the others grew graver and graver of face. They saw the second tiny Shen Mu assimilated and soon chanting the Mira Palace Primordial Sage's sutras, then the third, the fourth...

By and by, hundreds of tiny Shen Mus were assimilated, and the speed of the contagion at once increased greatly, spreading ever toward the center, ever more tiny Shen Mus falling, layer upon layer of dream polluted!

Granny Zhu's face was grim. She picked up the divine bow she had thrown aside and gripped it hard.

The Lame Old Man stared at her hand, then his gaze fell upon the divine bow in it, and his face darkened abruptly. "Granny, what are you thinking of doing?"

"None of your business!" Granny Zhu said coldly, her eyes still fixed upon Shen Mu's dream.

The Lame Old Man paced about in agitation; suddenly his body moved, and he lunged to snatch the long bow from Granny Zhu's hand!

Granny Zhu had long been on her guard. Her other palm rose, and with a series of rumbling booms the terrestrial magnetic primordial force erupted from her palm; one layer after another of the Great Art of Primordial Magnetism pressed down upon the Lame Old Man, like mountain after mountain descending in turn, pinning him prone upon the ground so that he could not deploy his speed at all!

"Lame Old Man, you were gravely wounded before; you know nothing of the whole matter!"

Granny Zhu said angrily, drawing the divine bow, her eyes still fixed upon the tiny Shen Mus being assimilated in the dream—yet the bow she drew was aimed only at Shen Mu's primal spirit at the center of the heavens of the dream.

"I don't know!"

The Lame Old Man propped himself on his four limbs, struggling to rise, but again came several thunderous booms pressing down, flattening him to the ground once more.

His eyes flooded with blood and turned crimson. He struggled with all his might and rasped, "Si Youyou, you damned woman, I don't know what reason you have that you must shoot Shen'er dead! But this I do know: Shen'er was picked up by you, yet every time it was you who gave him away! Every time you thought keeping him was too much trouble, and every time it was I who stole him back!"

He could not struggle free of the Great Art of Primordial Magnetism. Suddenly he roared, "I raised Shen'er! Primal spirit, swap the sun!"

His body did not move; his primal spirit left it, and with a swish broke through the Great Art of Primordial Magnetism, coming in an instant to Granny Zhu's side to seize the divine bow.

Granny Zhu withdrew the bow and turned, her skirts and garments swaying; her primordial magnetic divine light became countless stars, and the star-force between star and star formed chain upon chain, threading up and down, interweaving and interlacing, laying down a heaven-encompassing net!

The Lame Old Man's primal spirit plunged into the heaven-encompassing net, yet was not caught by it; instead it sped through the starry void, raging, "If not for me, Shen'er would long ago have been given away to someone else! If you would kill him, kill me first!"

His primal spirit abruptly swelled, becoming incomparably majestic; he shifted the stars and changed the constellations, throwing Granny Zhu's divine arts into disorder—the peerless art of the divine thief displayed in him to the fullest!

"Lame Old Man, don't be reckless!"