When Shen Mu ran at full tilt he stirred up wind, and Granny Zhu and the blind elder simply sat upon its crest, borrowing its force to carry them along. This so-called wind's edge is like the crest of a wave: waves are made by flowing water, wind by flowing air, and the wave-crest of wind Shen Mu had just raised was the wind's edge.

The young man on Shen Mu's back slid down at once and led the three of them at a quick pace toward his own house, calling out, "You three, you three, hurry!"

Shen Mu set the matter of the wind's edge aside and walked up to the house. Looking around, he saw that this village was far larger than Yincan Village, home to a hundred-odd families, its houses plain and old and rough.

In this family's yard stood a great tree, its crown covering half the house, and the woman in labor lay in the room beneath that crown.

A village woman poked her head out of the room. "Her waters have broken. Boil some hot water, quickly! Eh? It's the old midwife from Yincan Village. Good, then mother and child will surely be safe!"

Granny Zhu cast a glance around her and understood at once. "Mu'er, open your eye and look about for anything strange. If there is something, deal with it yourself; I'll go in to deliver the child. Blind Elder, you be careful too. Don't let yourself be taken by surprise."

"Lingxiao Heaven Eye, open!"

Shen Mu opened the Lingxiao Heaven Eye and looked all around. Suddenly his gaze came to rest upon the dense crown of that great tree, and his hair stood on end; he nearly cried out aloud.

He saw that the trunk within the crown was very thick -- a trunk at a glance, but on a closer look, a great snake as thick as a water bucket!

The serpent hid within the crown, half its body sunk inside the tree itself; the lumps that now and then bulged from the trunk were the stretches of the serpent's body left bare.

Judging by what he could see of it, the snake's length must be beyond anything he had ever known. The other half was surely coiled among the roots beneath the tree, buried in the earth -- bigger even than the green flood-dragon snake Uncle Ma and the others had caught!

The whole tree, crown and all, gave off a dense black vapor that shrouded the house!

Just then the serpent was flicking its scarlet tongue, lowering its head toward the room where the woman lay in labor, drawing breath in and blowing it out again -- doing something Shen Mu could not name!

Fearing he had seen amiss, Shen Mu dispelled the Lingxiao Heaven Eye and looked with his naked eyes: the great tree was still a great tree, and no serpent. He opened the eye again, and there the snake still coiled in the crown, waiting to devour the soul of the child the woman would bear!

Clearly, in the years past the mistress of this house had conceived and given birth, and every infant born had had its soul eaten by this serpent!

Rage flared in his heart. "Blind Grandfather..." he said, low.

The blind elder remained utterly unruffled. "The granny said to leave it to you," he said serenely. "So handle it. This will be your first hunt. Be quick -- the child is about to be born."

Shen Mu steadied himself, walked straight to the foot of the great tree, and breathed in and out, slow and even.

His primal qi stirred from stillness into motion; with the fury in his heart it circulated faster and faster, grew more and more vast!

The primal qi within him surged and crashed, and the fire of his rage burned hotter still!

Zheng --

Suddenly the pig-butcher's knife on his back resonated with the quaking qi in his body; ringing, it leaped from his back and flew up above his head!

Shen Mu raised his hand and gripped the knife. His qi went berserk, pouring madly into the blade. He swung!

Swung with every last ounce of his strength!

Let the qi erupt, let the fury erupt -- a full and glorious eruption in a single stroke!

Cut!

The pig-butcher's knife in his hand clanged and rang; the blade tore the air, shrieking as it split the wind, and came down upon the trunk of the great tree like a storm breaking rotten wood!

Clang --

A great crash rang out. Shen Mu's stroke bit into the trunk, cut into the serpent hidden within -- but sank only halfway. The snake's hide, flesh, and bone had been tempered to a toughness beyond compare; though the pig-butcher's knife was forged by the mute's own hand and surpassed any common primal-spirit weapon, one stroke could not yet cleave the serpent in two!

Shen Mu's other hand seized the back of the blade; he drove power into both feet and brought out the lame elder's leg technique.

The lame elder said the legs are the wind, are the earth, are the root of all strength!

His legs and feet now took root in the earth, and he loosed his power all at once; the ground around his feet boomed and sank. Every scrap of his strength erupted. One hand pushed the back of the blade, the other gripped the hilt tight -- and he pushed the knife!

A harsh, grating shriek rose, and the great tree, serpent and all, was cut clean through at the waist!

Shen Mu steadied his stance, the pig-butcher's knife held across his body, blood streaming endlessly down the blade; the muscles of his back stood out one by one, still twitching.

And behind him, the towering tree toppled askew.

Boom --

The tree crashed down into the yard, raising a cloud of dust -- and suddenly the fallen tree came alive!

The serpent, cut in two at the waist, had still not died. Its severed half writhed, and a ceaseless crack-crack-crack of bursting rang out as the body hidden in the trunk burst the tree apart; bark and wood flew everywhere, even driving into the walls!

The bark and splinters it flung off were more frightful than spears, shrieking through the air with immense force!

Night Raid upon the City -- Storm and Rain!

The pig-butcher's knife whirled and danced in Shen Mu's hand, its blade-light flickering. His first stroke had released blade-qi, a heavy and mighty move that gathered the whole body's strength into one cut; now his blade technique had turned extraordinarily fast!

The butcher's blade technique had but one essential: fast, faster, fastest!

Clang clang clang clang --

A rain of impacts burst forth; countless pieces of bark and wood struck Shen Mu's knife and numbed his arm.

This serpent's strength was far above his own; only, its attention had been fixed upon the woman in labor in the room, waiting for the instant of the child's birth to draw in its soul and vital essence.

When an infant is born, the umbilical cord joins it to the mother's purple placenta, and its vital essence is all of the prenatal kind; after birth the prenatal turns postnatal. Before birth that essence is not yet complete -- and so the serpent chose to seize it in the very instant of delivery.

How it had slipped into this village, no one knew; it had hidden itself in the tree to cultivate, deceiving every soul in the little village. All the years it hid inside the tree it was never found; having devoured the souls of several infants, its cultivation had grown greatly. This time it had believed it would seize the child's essence and soul as smoothly as before, and had paid Shen Mu no heed -- so that his single stroke found its mark.

But though Shen Mu had cut it in two at the waist, it would not die in a moment or an instant.

Now the serpent fell into a blind fury. Knowing its body was severed and that it could scarcely live on, it burst the tree apart, opened its blood-bowl of a mouth, and lunged to bite Shen Mu!

A gale struck his face, shaking the skin of Shen Mu's cheeks violently, so that he could hardly keep his eyes open.

Without a thought, Shen Mu chopped forward with a gale-and-cloudburst of strokes; then a force beyond imagining struck him. The youth gave a stifled grunt and was hurled back; with a crash, a man-shaped hole was smashed through the courtyard wall!