Chapter 1129 — Walk With Me (Third Update!)

Seeing this, the Blind Elder and the Silent Craftsman set their hearts at ease; they exchanged a glance, and each gave a small nod. Shen Mu, just as they had hoped, was rousing his own insights amid the hammering; not only had he learned the knowledge the two of them had imparted during their forging, he had made it wholly his own. More than that, he had entered a wondrous state, melting his insights, his comprehension of the Dao, his spirit, and even his very heart of the Dao into the casting. As he forged, halos of light surfaced around his body, and one after another phantom figure of the ancient gods rose from every part of him; halos great and small coiled about those elder deities, emblems of the Great Dao of the primordial cosmos. A resonant Dao-voice rang out, and his insights, his heart of the Dao, his perseverance, his striving, poured with each hammer stroke into the divine weapon taking shape. His Great Dao runes and his divine powers he reduced to the microscopic, and as the great hammer fell they were branded deep into every microscopic particle of the divine weapon, branded with the utmost care. Whenever his vital essence and spirit-consciousness ran dry, he would fetch a mouthful of Primal Elemental Liquid and drink it; and when the divine weapon grew too fierce, he would steep and quench it in that same liquid as well, sparing no expense. When the Silent Craftsman and the Blind Elder had finished forging the Butcher's divine saber, they found Shen Mu still hammering away, neither sleeping nor resting, and could not help but be astonished. Yet the two of them did not read much into it; Shen Mu's studies were, after all, wide and varied, and microscopic forging was bound to be time-consuming and taxing. The two elders rested a good while, then fired the furnace once more to forge boots and gloves for the Lame Elder. Forging treasures for the Lame Elder took even longer than making the Butcher's divine saber; the Lame Elder's cultivation method was unlike any other, and it demanded treasures that could pass with him through every kind of seal and ward, treasures to sharpen his art of thievery. This was a tremendous trial for the Silent Craftsman and the Blind Elder. By the time the two of them had finished the Lame Elder's treasures, more than twenty days had gone by; they let out a breath of relief, turned to look back, and saw that Shen Mu was still refining his divine weapon. Still, by now it was plain that what Shen Mu was forging was also a sword, a very ordinary divine sword, with nothing remarkable to be seen about it. And yet Shen Mu had already brought forth the heavenly palaces of his Divine Treasury of the Primal Fetus, using those palaces to force the branding upon it! "The might of this divine weapon of Shen'er's is likely to be terrifying!" The two exchanged a glance and murmured inwardly. They could see that Shen Mu's divine weapon wore only the outward shape of a sword; in truth it bore his Great Dao and his aspirations, and was not merely a sword but a thing that could change form as it pleased, which was why the forging of it was so complicated. The strange phenomena around Shen Mu drew in; as the last hammer stroke fell, there came a ding, and that blow struck the divine sword, whereupon the sword abruptly shattered with a clatter. The Silent Craftsman and the Blind Elder were startled and rushed to his side, only to see the divine sword that Shen Mu had labored over all these days broken across the ground! It had crumbled into countless motes of dust; because it was microscopically forged, the divine metals and materials had been reduced to the finest particles, all but imperceptible. Shen Mu scooped up a handful of the drifting ash and stared blankly, lost in thought. The Blind Elder hurriedly opened his Holy Pupil to examine those particles, frowned slightly, and said in a low voice, "Silent Craftsman, he means to fuse fifteen kinds of Imperial Throne cultivation methods into one and forge them into this sword. But this sword cannot bear such tremendous power." The Silent Craftsman examined the particles on the ground in fine detail, distinguishing one material from another, and said, "In the proportions of the materials, I could not have done better than he. But... this sword may also be counted as forged!" The Blind Elder was slightly taken aback. The Silent Craftsman brushed aside the dust and drew out a sword hilt from beneath it; a broken length of blade still clung to the hilt, only six inches long. He laughed, "This is the sword!" Shen Mu had thought his forging had failed, and his heart had gone dim; hearing this, he hurried to look, and saw that though only six inches of blade remained, it was still keen, its radiance undiminished! The Silent Craftsman flicked the blade and said with a smile, "Shen'er, you thought too perfectly. You wanted to forge a flawless divine sword that would match your own Great Dao. But how could such a thing be done in a single step? The way of man is to take from the lacking and serve the abundant. Just now, when you forged your treasure, you forged too full, and without meaning to you entered the way of man." Shen Mu half understood, and fell to pondering. "You forged too full, but your cultivation method was not yet full; forcing the divine sword into being left it damaged, unable to bear the burden, and so it shattered. As the saying goes, the dragon that flies too high has cause to repent; fullness cannot long endure." The Silent Craftsman said, "But the way of heaven is to take from the abundant and make up the lacking. The broken sword still remains; take your own abundance and make up what the broken sword lacks, and this shall be your Dao sword. There is no need to insist upon perfection. This Dao sword still requires you to keep comprehending, to perfect your cultivation method and your Great Dao, before it can be made whole. On the day your work is complete will be the day the sword is complete." Shen Mu took the broken sword, and at a stir of his thought a shaft of sword light leapt from the broken blade, brimming like water, mirroring his face. The Silent Craftsman had said he forged too full, and those words were indeed not wrong. When he forged this sword, what he had in mind was a divine artifact that could bear his fifteen heavenly palaces, one into which he would brand his Great Dao runes and brand his comprehension of the Dao as well. Among those fifteen heavenly palaces, six were not yet perfected; the deficiency in his cultivation method left his divine sword greatly lacking as well, and yet Shen Mu had insisted on making it flawless, so that the divine sword shattered. The Silent Craftsman laughed, "This sword will grow together with you. Though it is a broken sword, when it is grown its power will surpass other divine weapons and keen blades by I know not how much!" Shen Mu roused the Mystic Body Three Cores Art, and the broken sword suddenly dissolved into countless tiny particles that flowed like water and shaped themselves into a long saber; then he wiped his hand lightly along the blade, and the saber became a dragon spear. The broken sword changed with his will, but each time it took the form of a different weapon, he had to call upon his own runes to make whole the parts the divine weapon lacked. And in each form, the missing parts were different, and the Great Dao runes required were different as well. Shen Mu put away the broken sword, yet some disappointment lingered in his heart; the deficiency in his cultivation method had left the divine sword broken, and still he longed to forge a flawless divine weapon. "Haste makes waste. Those like Grandpa Silent Craftsman and the Village Chief, who cultivate a single heavenly palace, can instead forge divine weapons suited to themselves. I tried to cultivate a Great Heavenly Court, and instead could not forge one at all." He steadied himself, and from outside came the voice of Dutian the Devil King. Shen