Chapter 24 — A Single Thought Shatters the God Within the Heart

The things of this world are not so shallow as mortal eyes perceive them. What ordinary people see and what a martial artist with opened eyes sees are two entirely different worlds! The Zhenye Divine Statue looks ordinary, but a martial artist with opened eyes can see the god within the stone statue. Ruins left by gods and demons are everywhere, and a martial artist with opened eyes can see fearsome gods and demons. There are also the Buddha statues in temples: ordinary mortals see Buddha statues, while a martial artist with opened eyes can see the peerless Great Buddha, the peerless Great Buddha that crushes the mind! If a martial artist does not possess a powerful mind, sooner or later he will be frightened to death by the sights he beholds. That is why when the Blind Elder taught Shen Mu to temper his eyes, he first taught him to temper his mind. Only by shattering the god within his heart would he cease to be frightened, and only then could he achieve anything in the future. The Buddhist order says that one who holds a Buddha in his heart will find it hard to become a Buddha. The National Preceptor of Yanning said that it is easy to shatter the gods in a temple but hard to shatter the god in the heart. Both sayings convey the same truth as the Blind Elder urinating on the stone statue. The first two require tempering the mind, step by step shattering the gods and Buddhas within the heart, whereas the Blind Elder's method is crude and simple, even somewhat extreme and mad, yet it is effective. When the Village Headman first met the Blind Elder, the aura the old man carried was immensely powerful, still like a raging dragon sweeping the eight directions. But at that time the Blind Elder's eyes had both been gouged out, and the Blind Elder had collapsed. And now, that Spear Sage had returned. This could not but be credited to Shen Mu. Ever since this little boy, sound in both hands and feet, appeared in the village, the resentment clinging to the villagers had gradually been dispersed. To teach Shen Mu the Nine Heavens Far-Seeing Art, the Blind Elder had first to awaken his own "Sage Pupil," but his Sage Pupil had already been gouged out, leaving him only the heart's eye. It was while the Blind Elder was instructing Shen Mu that the Village Headman sensed the awakening of the Blind Elder's "Sage Pupil" — a heart Sage Pupil! He had no eyes; his heart had taken their place! The Village Headman slowly closed his eyes, basking leisurely in the sun, and said silently in his heart: "The heart Sage Pupil will surpass the Sage Pupil, and the Spear Sage will surpass the Spear Sage of old. Blind Elder, when you walk out of the wasteland, your enemies will tremble..." After Shen Mu finished urinating, he shivered, feeling both body and mind at ease. The stone statue could no longer suppress his mind. When he looked at it again, he saw many things he had never seen before. It was as if a veil had previously covered his eyes, so that all he saw was hazy, and now that the veil had been stripped away, the true colors of the world revealed themselves. He gazed greedily at the colors around him; this beauty he had never discovered before moved him almost to tears. He came before the other stone statues in the village, and his mind was shaken once more. The other three stone statues in the village, like this dragon-headed elder statue, burst forth with intense divine light, exuding an otherworldly charm and possessing a sacred, extraordinary aura! But he could look at them with a calm mind; these statues could no longer affect his spirit. He had cultivated only the first heaven of the Nine Heavens Far-Seeing Art, and already it sent him into raptures. To what heights would the later heavens raise his eyes, and what wonders would he behold? Shen Mu took out a bronze mirror and looked into it. His eyes in the mirror were different from usual: deep in his pupils a ring had appeared, and within the ring were strange patterns like interwoven lightning. The ring slowly dimmed and gradually vanished. Shen Mu closed his eyes, urged his primordial qi, and carefully constructed the Shenxiao Heavenly Dipper Array Pattern within his pupils. Opening his eyes again, he saw that another ring had appeared in his eyes in the mirror. This ring was the projection of the Shenxiao Heaven. "If I master the Nine Heavens Far-Seeing Art, then my eyes should contain nine rings nested one within another, like ten pupils layered together," Shen Mu thought. The Blind Elder continued to instruct him on how to cultivate the complete Shenxiao Heavenly Dipper Array Pattern, and after a long while Shen Mu finally mastered the complete Dipper Array Pattern. "Mu'er, are you rested?" The Butcher "leaped down" from the stone mill, seized his two pig-slaughtering knives, and shouted: "If you're rested, then it's time to practice the blade!" Shen Mu answered and, taking up his pig-slaughtering knife, charged at the Butcher. Before long, Grandpa Ma and the Lame Elder returned from hunting and at once relieved the Butcher, continuing Shen Mu's training. Only when Shen Mu was too exhausted to move did they let him go. In the afternoon, Shen Mu went to the mute blacksmith to work the forge. The mute gestured with his hands, saying "ah ah" for a while, and Shen Mu nodded, lost in thought. What the mute spoke of were the techniques of cultivation. He said that cultivation was like forging iron: one must pay attention to the gentle fire and the fierce fire, and besides these there was quenching, which required water. This was one civil and one martial, one hard and one soft, one dragon and one tiger. Shen Mu pondered it carefully, and the more he savored it the more sense it made. He could not help but admire the mute deeply; the mute's words had saved him many detours. While forging, the mute also taught him to observe the fire, watching the flames in the furnace and gesturing for a while. Shen Mu's eyes lit up. Following what the mute had taught, he observed the fire while mobilizing his primordial qi, activating the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art. His primordial qi circulated like a small furnace hidden in his chest, then was transported throughout his body. He felt as though his primordial qi had caught fire — a most wondrous sensation. Meanwhile, in his spirit soul divine mansion, the spirit embryo drew energy from the sea of light, breathing in and out primordial qi. His spirit embryo was actually changing as well; the primordial qi it exhaled was ignited, and firelight coiled around the spirit embryo, bathing it as though in a furnace. Shen Mu was astonished. His spirit embryo was actually tempering its body too. Watching the furnace fire had produced this wondrous change in his spirit embryo, entirely beyond his expectations! The mute was astonished as well, studying Shen Mu curiously. After a while, Shen Mu felt that his spirit embryo had reached the limit of fire it could endure, and he hastily stopped watching the furnace fire. "Ah ah!" The mute gestured twice, then placed the red-hot iron bar into the water. With a sizzle, a wisp of white smoke rose, and he gestured twice more. Shen Mu's eyes lit up. He watched the water vat, lost in thought. From his chest came the sound of flowing water, murmuring softly. Then the murmuring primordial qi flowed into his spirit soul divine mansion and became a trickling stream. When it touched the spirit embryo, something wondrous happened: his primordial qi was actually tempering the spirit embryo! His spirit embryo, tempered by water and fire, was in bliss! Early the next morning, Shen Mu rose feeling full of vigor, his whole body brimming with abundant energy. Cultivating by the method the mute had taught him truly yielded twice the result with half the effort! "Time to go fight that Nether Ape again!" He was in high spirits. He took a Qi Condensation Pill, and the powerful medicinal force surged through him so violently that he had to rush out of the village to