Chapter 24 — A Single Thought Cleaves the God Within the Heart
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
Shen Mu closed his eyes, roused his vital essence, and with great care built the Divine Empyrean Heavenly Dipper array pattern within his pupils; then he opened his eyes again and saw in the mirror that another ring had appeared in them.
That ring was the projection of the Divine Empyrean Heaven. "If I master the Nine Heavens Eye-Gazing Art, then my eyes ought to hold nine rings nested one inside another, like ten pupils stacked atop one another," Shen Mu thought.
The Blind Elder went on instructing him in cultivating the complete Divine Empyrean Heavenly Dipper array pattern, and after a long while Shen Mu had mastered the full Dipper array pattern. "Shen'er, are you rested?
" The Butcher "leapt down" from the stone mill, seized his two beast-slaughtering blades, and cried: "If you're rested, then it's time to practice the blade!
" Shen Mu answered, took up his beast-slaughtering blade, and charged at the Butcher. Before long Old Huo and the Lame Elder came back from the hunt, straightway relieved the Butcher, and went on training Shen Mu.
Only when Shen Mu was too exhausted to move did they let him be.
In the afternoon Shen Mu went to the blacksmith, the Silent Smith, to work the forge.
The Silent Smith gestured with his hands, grunting ah-ah for a while; Shen Mu nodded, thoughtful.
What the Silent Smith spoke of were the arts of cultivation: cultivation, he said, is like working iron—mind the gentle fire and the roaring fire, and beyond gentle fire and roaring fire there is the quenching, which must be done with water.
This is one civil and one martial, one hard and one soft, one dragon and one tiger.
Shen Mu pondered it deeply, and the more he savored it the more sense it made; he could not help but admire the Silent Smith, for the man's words spared him many a crooked road.
As he worked the iron, the Silent Smith taught him to watch the fire, and gazing at the fire in the furnace, gestured for a while.
Shen Mu's eyes lit up.
Following what the Silent Smith taught, he watched the fire while stirring his vital essence, driving the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art; his vital essence moved like a small furnace hidden in his chest, then was carried to every part of his body. He felt as though his vital essence were burning—most wondrous.
At the same time, in his Primal Fetus Divine Treasury, the Spirit Fetus drew energy from the sea of light, breathing vital essence in and out, and his Spirit Fetus too began to change, for the vital essence it exhaled was set alight, firelight coiling about the Spirit Fetus and bathing it as in a furnace.
Shen Mu was astonished: his Spirit Fetus was tempering its body as well!
Watching the furnace fire had brought about this strange change in the Spirit Fetus, beyond anything he had expected.
The Silent Smith was astonished too, and studied Shen Mu with curiosity. After a long while Shen Mu felt that the fire his Spirit Fetus could endure had reached its limit, and hurriedly looked away from the furnace fire.
"Ah-ah!
" The Silent Smith gestured twice, thrust the red-hot iron bar into the water—hiss, and a puff of white smoke—then gestured twice more. Shen Mu's eyes lit up; he watched the water vat, thoughtful.
In his chest a sound of flowing water gradually arose, a murmuring of water, and then the murmuring vital essence flowed into the Primal Fetus Divine Treasury and became a thin trickle of water; touching the Spirit Fetus, a wondrous thing happened—his vital essence was tempering the Spirit Fetus!
Tempered by water and fire, his Spirit Fetus reveled in it!
The next day at dawn Shen Mu rose feeling brisk and radiant, filled from head to foot with exuberant vigor; cultivating by the Silent Smith's method truly did yield twice the result for half the effort!
"Time to go fight that Dark-Fanged Demon Ape again!