荒墟牧神 - 第7章 眉心一壁鎖靈胎 - 雲海書庫

ound Body Three Elixirs Art." Gradually Shen Mu discovered that in his body there was one place, in the fascia between bone and skin, that his vital qi could not reach: the space between his brows. The spot between his two brows, no more than a finger's width. At this place his vital qi could not reach. His vital qi could scour beneath the scalp and strengthen the skull, but whenever it came to the space between the brows it met with enormous obstruction, as though an invisible wall stood across the way, barring his vital qi's path. And when he drove his vital qi to strike that invisible wall, something stranger still happened: he heard a mysterious sound. It seemed to come from beyond the ninth heaven, high and distant, rising and falling, melodious and holy, like a god enthroned on high proclaiming a decree. And whenever the sound rang out, his vital qi slipped beyond his control, ebbing back like the tide and flowing around the space between his brows. "Could this be the spirit fetus wall?" Shen Mu did not understand. The village headman and Granny Zhu and the others had spoken to him of "walls" and "breaking walls." A wall was the seal on one of the body's many treasure houses; to break a wall was to open the seal and take the treasure. But the headman and Granny Zhu and the others had never told him where in the human body the spirit fetus wall lay, nor spoken of how to open it. What Shen Mu did not know was that it was not that the headman and Granny Zhu and the others were unwilling to tell him; it was that in all the world there was no art or method at all for breaking the spirit fetus wall. Ordinary people and spirit bodies were simply people of two different strata, two different classes. To be a spirit body was to have the spirit fetus wall open from birth, to be born a cut above. The spirit fetus wall of ordinary folk was sealed, and they were a cut below; the lofty spirit bodies seldom troubled themselves with the needs of ordinary people. Among ordinary people, martial artists were rare; as for an ordinary person who had opened the spirit fetus wall, even the headman and Granny Zhu had never heard of such a thing, and so of course they did not know how to break it. As Shen Mu ran, he roused his vital qi and hurled it again and again at that invisible wall between his brows. The mysterious sound kept ringing out, making his vital qi retreat of itself. Each time he failed to break the wall, but he had patience to spare, and he firmly believed that sooner or later he would succeed. He did not intend to tell the headman and the others of what he had discovered today about the Profound Body Three Elixirs Art. He meant to wait until he had broken the wall, and then give them a surprise. Whether it would be more of a surprise or more of a shock for the headman and the others, however, was hard to say. The more Senior Brother Qu and the other four chased, the more anxious they became. The "little fiend" ahead of them was not merely healing his wounds — his speed had actually increased beyond what it had been. That was terrifying, for it meant that Shen Mu's cultivation was growing even as he fled. Slow though the growth was, it was already frightening enough. Everyone cultivated step by step; even after breaking a wall, one's cultivation advanced gradually — no one grew fat on a single mouthful. Who did not cultivate with perseverance for tens of days, months, even years, before seeing any progress? Yet this "little fiend," even while fleeing, showed a cultivation that was plainly rising. That was truly terrifying. Fortunately, Shen Mu had been weaker than them to begin with, and though he was rising now, there was still a gap between him and them. Still, catching him was no easy matter. Ever since he had been caught out once, he had grown far more cautious, and would avoid the territories of the strange beasts as he ran. When the pill master took him out to gather herbs, he had told him that the strange beasts of the Ba