Chapter 1826 — Your Excellency Is Unwell and Must Be Treated

The obelisks here leaned every which way, the damage wrought when Shen Mu had rammed them with the Golden Ship of Salvation on his last visit. Later, when Young Master Taishang descended and laid out the stakes for Shen Mu, Shen Mu had abandoned the notion of "healing" Tai Yi and the paralytic.

When Young Master Taishang and Shen Mu left, they had not restored the Obelisk Forest either.

"Young Master Taishang and Young Master Shen Mu are two great villains. In past universes they suppressed many of our fellow Daoists."

The Smiling Man and the rest of the Heaven-Opening Host escorted Tai Yi into the Obelisk Forest. So mighty were they that they forcibly withstood the suppression of the Obelisk Forest. The Smiling Man said, "Young Master Taishang took the ideals of Miluo Palace as his own; he is too bound by rules, and cannot be used. Young Master Chaos is a great villain too, but he acts without rules or principles, and so can be used. A pity that in the end Young Master Taishang talked him round. So it was that we had to risk coming over from the Ruins of Return and heal the leader with our own hands."

Tai Yi said, "Young Master Taishang and Young Master Chaos both suppressed those mighty ones who did evil in the world; there is nothing excessive in that."

"The leader truly is ill."

The thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host were each filled with worry, then set their minds at ease: "Fortunately, the leader can be healed at once."

Seeing this, Tai Yi had nothing to say.

Suddenly, something stirred in his heart. By rights, once he entered this Obelisk Forest, he should at once have sensed the paralytic within it, and in the end he would vanish, merging with the paralytic.

Yet they had already gone deep into the Obelisk Forest, and still no change had come over him!

Tai Yi betrayed nothing, and escorted by the crowd, went deeper still.

After a long while, they came at last to the core of the Obelisk Forest, where a small village appeared. The Obelisk Forest ringed the village about. At the village entrance stood a tree, and from the tree hung a pig, trussed upside down; the pig grunted and squealed, wanting to come down but unable to free itself.

On a stone at the village entrance, an old man sat with narrowed eyes, puffing at a water pipe, ba-ba, ba-ba.

In the village were a few dilapidated houses; a woman was beating clothes by the well, the mallet rising and falling, thwack, thwack.

A little girl with two horn-like braids was struggling to climb the tree, trying to pick the fruit; and under the eaves, an old woman leaned against the wall with narrowed eyes, dozing.

The thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host escorted Tai Yi to the front of the village and looked around. The Smiling Man bowed to the old man: "Daoist Brother Dongyang, third-strongest of Heaven Capital City in those days — you vanished for so long, and who would have thought you were suppressed here! Brother, today is the day of your deliverance, and the day the leader's illness is cured. A cause for rejoicing."

The old man Dongyang glanced at him and said mildly, "So it is Daoist Brother Shijing. I wondered who it was, with a face made so ugly. I am quite well here. I was not suppressed by Taishang; I came here of my own accord. As for the leader, he is not ill — he is merely wounded."

The Smiling Man said, "Daoist Brother Dongyang, whether the leader is wounded or ill, it must be treated. Where is the leader's physical body? Bring it out at once."

The old man Dongyang's brows rose. His gaze swept over the faces of the other Heaven-Opening Host, and he knocked out his pipe, rose to his feet, and said with a chuckle, "Ever since the leader died, you have grown more and more worthless, neither man nor ghost, a frightful sight. Go back. The leader has no need of you."

The Smiling Man sighed: "It seems Daoist Brother Dongyang is ill too, and needs treatment."

The other Heaven-Opening Host chimed in: "Daoist Brother Dongyang is ill. Lie down quickly, and we will treat you!"

The old man Dongyang flew into a rage. His Dao shout rang out like thunder: "Will you not heed my words?"

The thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host turned a deaf ear to his Dao shout. One by one they raised their heads and looked at him with uncanny faces.

The old man Dongyang was startled. His Dao shout could sway the mind and will of those he questioned, questioning their heart of the Dao; even the Hall Masters and Young Masters of Miluo Palace, faced with his Dao shout, must answer, awakening what lay hidden deep in their heart of the Dao.

The Heaven-Opening Host all the more should have been awakened to the memories of those years — yet his Dao shout had not the slightest effect on these thirty-five!

"You have, through one heaven-opening experiment after another, become monsters through and through."

The old man Dongyang sighed and said bleakly, "Seventh Young Master, I am at my wit's end. It is up to you now."

No sooner had he spoken than Shen Mu walked out from the house behind the old woman, a huge Dao-Burying Divine Coffin shouldered across his back.

Thud.

He set the coffin down and said mildly, "What lies in this coffin is the paralytic you seek."