荒墟牧神 - 第19章 玄軀初醒震荒村 - 雲海書庫

ut to open. I seem to see it already — one punch, and a dragon slain!" The Village Head nodded, smiling: "Exactly so. Who is to say that, by virtue of this spirit of his, this will of his, he may not walk farther than we ever did?" The two old foxes exchanged knowing smiles and left the room once more. The Village Head coughed once, summoned Shen Mu, and asked how he had awakened the spirit embryo; Shen Mu related how, at the instant when the divine tone, the demonic tone, and the Buddhist tone had fallen to contending among themselves, his primordial energy had charged the spirit-embryo wall, toppled it, and broken through in success. A dazed look came into the Village Head's eyes, and he murmured: "There is such an operation as this?" He could not help marveling that Shen Mu's fortune was likely beyond anyone else's power to reproduce: the divine, demonic, and Buddhist tones locked in contention; a lucky coincidence of chance; and, on top of it all, Shen Mu himself truly audacious — daring to take the initiative in learning the demonic tongue and the demonic tone and pitting them against the divine tone! The very act was audacity enough to defy heaven — as if he did not know how the word "death" was written! Even if another man had enjoyed such fortune, in all likelihood he could not have broken through the spirit-embryo wall; instead, the might latent in the divine, demonic, and Buddhist tones would have done him to death! Others might not know the peril within, but he knew it with perfect clarity: those were the powers of gods and demons — how could a mortal man covet them? For a mortal to covet the powers of gods and demons, there was but one road, and it ended in death! Yet Shen Mu, against every expectation, had succeeded — succeeded inexplicably — and this left him not a little suspicious. What he did not know was that Shen Mu too had very nearly been done to death by the contention between the divine tone and the demonic tone, and that fortunately the Darklight Soul-Protecting Pendant had shielded his life; only so had he not perished. The Village Head made a searching examination of Shen Mu's progress in cultivation; a look of astonishment once again crossed his face, and he suppressed it at once, then said by way of exhortation: "Mu'er, cultivate diligently, and do not disappoint the hopes we place in you. Now that your Overlord Body has awakened, you are a martial artist — no longer a child." Shen Mu nodded emphatically. By this time the sky was wholly dark, and in the village bonfires were kindled; Grandpa Ma and the others roasted the exotic beasts they had captured to celebrate Shen Mu, while Granny Zhu came hurrying over on her little bound feet and pulled Shen Mu away, saying: "Village Head, Master Alchemist, you two come along as well — let us eat and drink together!" "You go on ahead — the Alchemist and I will be along presently." The Village Head watched Granny Zhu and Shen Mu out of sight, then said in a low voice: "Alchemist — Mu'er's primordial energy is thick and massive; of all the martial artists I have seen in the spirit-embryo realm, his cultivation is almost the deepest." The Alchemist looked at the company making merry by the bonfire and asked in a low voice: "How deep?" "The cultivation I held in my spirit-embryo days was about his equal — perhaps even somewhat short of his." The Village Head said levelly: "I speak of my cultivation at the very summit of the spirit-embryo realm; and he has only just entered that realm and will continue to grow." The Alchemist's frame shook violently; he stared at the Village Head in disbelief and blurted out: "Neck and neck with you in your spirit-embryo days? What manner of being are you? How could he possibly—" "But he did it, all the same." Some readers have been discussing samaya and treating it as though it were a pet dog, so here is a brief explanation from Zhai Zhu. What Zhai Zhu has borrowed is Sanskrit: samaya is made up of two words — sa, which carries