Chapter 11 — The Divine Sound Cracks the Wall and Opens the Spirit Treasury

Had Granny Zhu or the village headman been here, they would have raged at him for his folly, for gambling with his own life. After all, the divine sound that came when the wall was broken was not the same as the divine sound the maidens in the ruins gave forth. To use the demonic sound that countered the maidens' divine sound against the divine sound of the wall-breaking—that the medicine did not match the illness was the least of it; the true peril was that if divine sound and demonic sound should shift into some other uncanny transformation, then it would be no mere loss of his life, but perhaps the scattering of his very soul to the four winds. But Shen Mu had no one to guide him and no clear understanding of the dangers within, and the moment he had learned the demonic sound he set about testing it. When his qi came to the point between his brows, that divine sound—faint and far, as though it drifted down from beyond the ninth heaven—rose again as if by appointment. His qi fell back of itself at the touch of it; Shen Mu silently recited the demonic sound, and at once the two locked together, clashing and warring, each assaulting the other. Shen Mu seized the moment to drive his qi at the Spirit Fetus Wall, but now and again the divine sound broke through his demonic sound and forced his qi back. He failed again and again, yet never once lost heart, rousing his qi to strike without cease, and after several hundred failures his qi at last smote the Spirit Fetus Wall. Yet the wall remained; it did not break. "I was harried by the divine sound and could not gather the whole of my qi for one full-strength blow, and so I could not break the wall." Shen Mu took brief stock of his mistake and straightway made the next attempt. After failure upon failure, he at last brought his qi against the Spirit Fetus Wall a second time. That time, too, the wall held. Before long he struck a third time, then a fourth, a fifth... In the days when he had learned pill-refining under Master Dan, he had already cultivated patience of a high order. Refining pills tested patience, wisdom, discernment, and technique, and of these patience was the most essential of all; without it, no good pill could ever be made. After countless failures, at last Shen Mu suddenly heard a faint crack from between his brows. That small sound was as sweet and lovely as immortal music, and though Shen Mu's composure was strong, he could not keep down the excitement in his heart. A crack had appeared in the Spirit Fetus Wall, a crack shaped like a lightning bolt. The Spirit Fetus Wall was a formless wall, an invisible wall, known only by feeling; yet when that crack appeared, Shen Mu felt a light shining out from between his brows, like the symbol of a lightning bolt. The sensation was wondrous. When you close your eyes, all that lies before you is a dim darkness without any light at all; you cannot see the point between your brows, you cannot see the Spirit-Soul Divine Palace, and you cannot see the Spirit Fetus Wall. But when qi has broken a crack in the Spirit Fetus Wall, you can see a lightning-shaped radiance piercing out of the gloom. Then, and only then, can you see the Spirit Fetus Wall. Shen Mu saw not only the Spirit Fetus Wall but, through that lightning-shaped crack in it, the Spirit-Soul Divine Palace as well. Within the Spirit-Soul Divine Palace light hung thick and swirling, a splendid golden light, and abundant, rich qi was spilling out through the lightning-shaped crack to merge unceasingly with his own qi. The qi within that divine store was purer and more powerful; yet like the qi he himself had cultivated, it had no attribute at all. Shen Mu was firmly convinced that the qi he had cultivated was the qi unique to the Overlord Body—Overlord Body qi—and so he gave the matter no further thought. The Spirit-Soul Divine Palace held not only qi but stranger things besides, hidden within; yet he had blasted open only a single lightning-shaped crack and had not wholly broken the wall, so he could not see what else lay inside. That lightning-shaped crack was slowly closing. Shen Mu's heart sank a little. Plainly the Spirit Fetus Wall was not so simple a thing as he had imagined: it had form but no substance, like a thick, viscous fluid—pierce a hole in it, and the hole would heal. Only by mustering everything in one unbroken breath and shattering the Spirit Fetus Wall utterly could the Spirit-Soul Divine Palace be opened. "My qi cultivation is not yet strong enough, but striking out a crack lets my qi rise by leaps and bounds! It will not be long before my qi can break the Spirit Fetus Wall open!" Shen Mu's spirits soared—and then all at once the crow of a cock came to his ears. His heart stirred, and he hastened to open his eyes. Among the strange beasts that had entered the ruins for shelter were several bald-necked roosters, monstrously tall and imposing, a full man's height, with magnificent plumage—save that their necks were bare of feathers. The crowing just now had come from those bald-necked roosters. "Day is breaking." Shen Mu's heart stirred. A dim glow had already appeared in the eastern sky, and soon the sun would rise; there was no longer time for him to break fully through the Spirit Fetus Wall. Fortunately he now understood how the wall was to be broken. If only he could escape this place from the hands of Senior Brother Qu and Senior Sister Qing, he would have all the time he needed to make his breakthrough. Though he had not fully broken the wall, that single crack had raised his cultivation considerably, and he was confident enough that he could escape the two of them. "Day is breaking," Senior Brother Qu said, with meaning in his voice. Senior Sister Qing said icily: "Three of our junior brothers died to rid the world of demons. If this little devil-king slips away, would we not have failed their spirits in heaven?" Shen Mu turned a deaf ear, rose to his feet, and worked the stiffness from his limbs. In the plaza the maidens still contended with the darkness, thrust and counter-thrust, neither giving way, light and gloom locked in savage slaughter. Before long another crow rang out. The darkness grew restless, its voice becoming incomparably loud and heavy, while the divine sound the maidens gave forth grew fierce and shrill. Divine light and darkness clashed violently, point against point, a sight to shake the heart. Then suddenly a third crow came, and a thread of sunlight pierced the gloom in the east, falling upon the highest peak nearby. At that touch of sunlight the ink-black darkness ebbed away like a tide, retreating swiftly into the distance, as swift as it had come, faster and faster, until at last it vanished beyond the horizon. The morning sun shone down upon the canyon; before its light had yet fallen into the ruins within, that Rosy-Cloud Soul Pearl was seen slowly sinking, and the riot of rosy radiance that filled the plaza poured into the bright pearl. The radiance vanished, and the maidens in the plaza were once more skeletons sitting cross-legged, motionless, as though this night of maidens battling the darkness had been only a gorgeous dream. Shen Mu had long since heard the villagers speak of the strange happenings in the wild ruins; the things that occurred here were bizarre and beyond all reason. But hearing was one thing; to live through such wonders himself was far more staggering. Whenever night fell and the darkness came creeping, the faces in the darkness, the mysterious demonic sound, the rouged skeletons that turned into maidens here in these ruins each night, the war between light and darkness—each was a wonder beyond comprehension. These secrets waited for someone to uncover them. Shen Mu hid himself among the moving beasts and quietly made his way out. The herd plainly had its unwritten rule: no one raised a hand inside the ruins. But once outside, the beasts themselves would surely turn deadly. Elsewhere, Senior Brother Qu threw a gla