Chapter 27 — The Spirit Embryo's Secret Art First Attained

Whoosh —

In the woods outside Hidden Remnant Village, Shen Mu struck out with his palm. Primordial energy surged from his arm like a fire dragon coiled about it, and the air before him turned scorching hot in an instant, as though it had been set alight!

His feet moved; his palms struck again and again. The air grew hotter and hotter, until it was like a vast desert of yellow sand beneath ten suns hung high, blisteringly hot!

What he used was Old Master Ma's fist art, the fourth form of the Thunder Roar Eight Arts: Kuafu Chases the Sun, Wind and Thunder Swift.

Suddenly Shen Mu's footwork shifted, and his moves shifted with it, each stance and each strike pouring on like a great river rushing to the sea. His primordial energy turned straight from the fire attribute to the water attribute; a water dragon woven of vapor coiled around his arm, and between one move and the next the roar of waves surged, as though a great flood swirled around him.

His art changed again: both hands closed on emptiness, and the vapor became a spear, a long dragon churning rivers and overturning seas.

These past days he had been in the village tempering his energy-riding flying sword, devoting himself to refining his primordial energy — only he still had to observe fire first before his energy could take on the fire attribute, and only then could he employ the flying sword. As he tempered it again and again, the time he needed to observe the fire grew shorter and shorter, and now he no longer needed to look at the forge at all: so long as he pictured the flames in the furnace in his mind, his primordial energy turned scorching of itself.

Yet the Butcher's Livestock-Slaying Saber Art belonged to the school of battle techniques, and Shen Mu's use of it to temper his energy-riding flying sword had never yielded much. It was his cultivation of Old Master Ma's Thunder Roar Eight Arts and the Blind Elder's spear art that had brought him great gains and swift progress.

Now, when he unleashed the fourth form of the Thunder Roar Eight Arts, Kuafu Chases the Sun, Wind and Thunder Swift, it was like a giant striding forth; his palm shook, and the air burst and exploded — such was the might of primordial energy!

Of course, fire-attribute Vermilion Bird primordial energy could not perfectly bring out the power of Old Master Ma's Thunder Roar Eight Arts; the energy best suited to the Thunder Roar Eight Arts was Azure Dragon primordial energy. Water-attribute Black Tortoise primordial energy, by contrast, could bring the Blind Elder's spear art to its fullest.

After a long while Shen Mu stopped, swallowed two Origin-Condensing Pills to replenish his sharply depleted primordial energy, and pondered in detail the shortcomings in his use of it.

He had once been able to take only one Origin-Condensing Pill before it swelled him to the point of madness; but ever since his spirit embryo had slept and awakened, two pills did him no great harm — only a stuffed, bloated feeling.

"Origin-Condensing Pills — can a Nether Ape eat them? Probably not. Grandpa Alchemist says the pills hold four attributes, and to anyone who is not a Tyrant Body they are poison. Another day, then, I'll refine a whole vat of Origin-Condensing Pills for the Nether Ape."

Thinking of the big fellow who had traded blows with him, Shen Mu felt a stir in his heart. He had not gone to see the Nether Ape these past days, and did not know how the beast was coming along with the Mystic Body Three Cores Art.

He leaped up and went flying toward the Nether Ape's territory, his steps swift as flight. He was a youth after all, and the village held only elders, no friends; he and the Nether Ape had come to know each other through a fight, and after several days apart he found he missed it.

Before long Shen Mu arrived outside the valley where the Nether Ape dwelt, and suddenly a hill-like figure rose up from the mountain forest — it was the Nether Ape. After days apart it had grown even more magnificent, and when it saw Shen Mu it was overjoyed; it pounded its chest, signaling him to jump onto its shoulder.

Shen Mu sprang onto its shoulder, and the Nether Ape bounded like the wind, carrying him into the valley and running deeper in.

This was the first time Shen Mu had entered the Nether Ape's lair. Wild deer and wild horses were everywhere in the valley, along with some river deer and dull-witted roe deer; in the heart of it stood an ancient ruin, broken walls and crumbling ramparts, utterly desolate.

The Nether Ape's dwelling was a palace half collapsed, and before the palace stood a ruined stone statue, half beast and half man. Shen Mu opened his Heaven-Reaching Eye, and his heart gave a small jolt.

This statue was the same as the one in Hidden Remnant Village: caught in the Heaven-Reaching Eye, the divine essence within it seemed a beast god propping up heaven and earth, savage and ferocious, its aura blotting the sky.

No doubt the Nether Ape relied on this statue every night to fend off the Gloom and preserve its life.

"Such extraordinary divine essence — could this too be a statue carved by a god?"

Shen Mu jumped down from the Nether Ape's shoulder. A foolish roe deer came up to him, sniffed the hem of his clothes, and chewed on it twice as though it were food. The Nether Ape picked the roe deer up, set it carefully aside, then waved a hand, signaling Shen Mu to follow.

It was the ruler of this valley and also its protector, guarding these animals and turning fierce only toward intruders.

Shen Mu followed it into the tumbledown palace, and at once frowned: the smell of wild beasts lay everywhere, and it must be that the valley's animals came into the palace at night to hide from the Gloom.

"Little one, look!" the Nether Ape said, pointing at a wall.

Shen Mu looked up. On the palace wall were broken murals, mottled and peeling, some places fallen away, others faded to nothing, with only a few panels still more or less intact.

These murals depicted people in cultivation, with arrows inside their bodies marking the courses of primordial energy.

Shen Mu looked for a few moments, and his heart suddenly leaped: he saw the primordial energy guidance paths of the Mystic Body Three Cores Art!

The Nether Ape must have practiced the Mystic Body Three Cores Art, found the patterns on the murals somewhat similar, and so brought him here!

But Shen Mu soon noticed something amiss. The first panel was indeed the guidance diagram of the Mystic Body Three Cores Art, while the second was different: it still followed the paths of the Mystic Body Three Cores Art, but was somewhat more complex.

The energy guidance path of the second panel entered the spirit palace at the center of his brow!

Energy entering the spirit palace led to the third panel, which showed the guidance path of primordial energy within the spirit palace: the energy was not directly breathed in and out by the spirit embryo, but instead formed a wondrous primordial energy array pattern beneath the spirit embryo's feet.

This array pattern was exceedingly complex, no less than the Shenxiao Tiangang array pattern the Blind Elder had taught him. Shen Mu studied it closely, committing it to memory with all his heart, and all the while simulated it with his own primordial energy, forming the array pattern beneath his spirit embryo's feet.

When he had completed the spirit embryo array pattern, his body gave a slight shudder, and at once he felt an inexplicable connection linking him to the spirit embryo!

He breathed, and the spirit embryo breathed with him; he moved, and the spirit embryo made the same movement; he drove the Mystic Body Three Cores Art, and the spirit embryo drove the Mystic Body Three Cores Art as well!

Shen Mu was stunned, then overjoyed: "Doesn't this mean it's as if two of me were cultivating together?"