Chapter 4 — Nether Demon Transmutation, a Change Hidden in a Deer's Hide

"Granny Lame's leg work is so swift he can run up into the sky, so who cut off his legs? Old Ma's fists are so formidable, so who cut off his right arm? And the Butcher's blade, who could break through the Butcher's blade and cut him in two at the waist?" When Shen Mu saw the true skills of the Butcher, Old Ma, and the Lame Elder, he was filled with admiration and with perplexity alike. He had finished learning the leg work from the Lame Elder and had at last digested the power of the Fourfold Spirit Marrow, and his constitution had risen a notch; only, the bout had worn him half to death, and he wished for nothing better than to flop down and sleep like a log. Yet this was only the beginning of his suffering. Almost every day the old men and women of the village would catch a few savage beasts, refine them into Fourfold Spirit Marrow, and pour it down his throat; and once it went down, the mad training began, and did not stop until he was wrung dry to the last drop. Besides the Lame Elder's leg work, the one-armed Old Ma's fists, and the Butcher's blade, he must also learn smithing from the mute, painting and calligraphy from the hard-of-hearing elder, and the reading of wind and the judging of position from the blind elder, blindfolded, matching staff against staff with the blind man. When he was truly too spent to move, the Village Head would call him over to breathe and guide the breath with him. The Village Head said the breathing method he was passing on had been made expressly for the training of a tyrant body, that it was called the Mystic Body Three-Elixir Art, and that it was a formidable thing indeed. Shen Mu, though he could detect nothing so formidable about this so-called tyrant-body Three-Elixir Art, found that breathing along with the Village Head melted the fatigue from his whole body with great speed, and that in no time at all he was glowing with vigor again; and so he thought the art quite marvelous. "Village Head, what you are teaching him seems to be the most ordinary Essence-Drawing Art, is it not?" The alchemist's eyes flickered; only after Shen Mu had walked out of earshot did he speak in a low voice. "That is right. It is the Essence-Drawing Art." The Village Head did not deny it. "The four great spirit bodies each have their own art. The Azure Dragon spirit body cultivates Azure Dragon qi, the White Tiger spirit body cultivates White Tiger qi, the Vermilion Bird spirit body cultivates Vermilion Bird qi, the Black Tortoise spirit body cultivates Black Tortoise qi. But there is no primal qi of these four natures in Mu'er's body, so he cannot cultivate the arts of the four great spirit bodies. None of our arts can he master. So I could only teach him the shallowest art of all, one that even ordinary people can cultivate: the Essence-Drawing Art. Only the Essence-Drawing Art has no nature." The alchemist said, skeptical: "But the Essence-Drawing Art is too shallow and too common. Cultivate the Essence-Drawing Art to its limit and you are a martial artist at best, with no great accomplishment to speak of." The Village Head's face turned strange. "That was what I thought too, but now I have found that we may have slighted the humblest of arts. Mu'er has cultivated the Essence-Drawing Art at my side since he was small, and his primal qi is already extremely powerful; it is only that this qi has no nature, and so can put forth no might." The alchemist's expression stirred. "How powerful?" "If his qi had the nature of your Azure Dragon qi, alchemist, then the cultivation he holds now would already be half the power of your Spirit-Soul Divine Mansion." The alchemist started, and cried out despite himself: "I have already broken through the Heaven-Man Wall and opened the Heaven-Man Divine Treasury, and over these years I have developed the Spirit Fetus, the Five Luminaries, the Six Harmonies, and the rest of the divine treasuries to their utmost! Half the cultivation of my Spirit-Soul Divine Mansion already equals a martial artist's peak! He has not yet opened his Spirit-Soul Divine Mansion, and he is already at a martial artist's peak; if he opens it, will his cultivation not be several times that of the four great spirit bodies who have opened theirs? Is this still the Essence-Drawing Art?" The Village Head was no less perplexed. "This Essence-Drawing Art, which is found everywhere, is indeed a little mysterious. Shallow it may be, but its foundation is unbelievably solid, solid beyond imagining. Mu'er has in fact been cultivating it for eight years. Eight years is no short time. At the first the Essence-Drawing Art advanced slowly, but lately I have found that Mu'er's cultivation advances faster and faster, and in these days especially, since he began taking the Fourfold Spirit Marrow, the advance has been frightening! If the Essence-Drawing Art were not to be found everywhere, I would almost take it for some extraordinary divine art..." The two of them looked at each other, their faces odd. The alchemist let out a breath of turbid air and shook his head. "However deep his cultivation grows, it is of no use. It is qi without nature, and can put forth no might at all. How far do you think he can take the Essence-Drawing Art?" The Village Head's face grew stranger still. "I do not know either." The alchemist nodded, understanding him. The Essence-Drawing Art is the lowest and most rudimentary of arts, commonly used to lay a foundation for a child in his early years. After ten or so, the child's bones have set and he can bear the shock of spirit blood; once it has been determined what manner of spirit body he has, there is no further need to cultivate the Essence-Drawing Art. After the wall is broken there are better arts, and there is no need at all to labor over the Essence-Drawing Art. And even if an ordinary person cultivates the Essence-Drawing Art all his life, he can never do as Shen Mu does and take spirit blood every day. Those with the means for that are the great clans and the powerful houses, but no great clan or powerful house would waste vast resources on a disciple of ordinary aptitude. No great clan or powerful house would do as the villagers of Hidden Maim Village do, forever catching the strange beasts of the four spirits to heap nourishment upon an ordinary man like Shen Mu. Nor had the Village Head ever heard of anyone cultivating the Essence-Drawing Art to its utmost; he had never even seen anyone who had cultivated it to Shen Mu's present level. So how far Shen Mu might cultivate in the future, he did not know either. What appalled the Village Head and the alchemist was that in the cultivation to come Shen Mu's cultivation only deepened, and this lowest of arts displayed in him something quite out of the ordinary, making his foundation unshakably, unimaginably firm. A month later he could bear several times more Fourfold Spirit Marrow than before, and his primal qi was as deep as though he had opened a Spirit-Soul Divine Mansion, deeper even. Only, though his qi was deep, it had no nature and could put forth no might, and so his cultivation did not show. There was a benefit all the same: his power to withstand blows was extremely strong, and his recovery was extremely swift. After matching blades with the Butcher he would go straight to boxing with Old Ma, then be blindfolded for a staff contest with the blind elder, then go learn leg work from the Lame Elder, then go swing a hundred-catty hammer at the blacksmith's. After training of such intensity, a little breathing and guiding of breath, a little practice of the so-called Mystic Body Three-Elixir Art, and in mere moments he was glowing with vigor again, a hundred times full of spirit! The effects of the Mystic Body Three-Elixir Art startled even the Village Head, and made the alchemist secretly examine his body, lest such excitement leave some hidden harm behind. After the examination the alchemist said, his face odd: "It is not excitement, and there is no