荒墟牧神 - 第22章 鎮夜神像現玄機 - 雲海書庫

oat moist and sweet. The Nether Ape cast him a contemptuous glance, annoyed that he ate so little, and slapped its chest hard. "Eat! Strong!" Shen Mu, black and blue from its blows, bore the aches all over his body, stood up, and performed the Thunderhowl Eight Arts before the Nether Ape, then slapped his own chest. "Practice! Strong!" The Nether Ape gave him two rolls of its eyes, went back to slowly chewing its leaves, and said with disdain, "Believe, ghost!" Once he had rested, Shen Mu leaped down from the crag, feet striking the cliff face as he raced away: "Tomorrow, fight!" The Nether Ape blinked. When Shen Mu was far gone, it at once jumped up and mimicked Shen Mu's earlier movements in a lifelike fashion. Crude as the rendition of the Thunderhowl Eight Arts was, the ape was boundless in strength after all, and it actually brought out a measure of the art's true spirit — one punch hurled forth rang with the sound of wind and thunder. The Nether Ape stood stunned, then broke into wild jubilation and swung again and again, the air thudding, gales howling all over the cliff, as it bellowed, "Strong! Strong! Strong!" Shen Mu returned to the village. The Alchemist immediately scurried up in a fluster to examine his body, smearing some salve on his face as he asked, "Any sign of anything unusual?" Shen Mu nodded. The Alchemist grew still more flustered. "Grandpa Alchemist, your spirit elixir is truly effective — my primordial qi is stronger," said Shen Mu. The Alchemist finally breathed a sigh of relief and laughed. "This spirit elixir really does work on Hegemonic-Body primordial qi. As long as it didn't kill you dead, that proves my path is right! Keep this vat of elixirs for now; I'm going to ponder other formulas!" And with that he bustled away in high spirits. The Blind Elder came over, leaning on his bamboo staff, and smiled. "Mu'er, are you tired? If you're tired, I'll teach you a first-rate eye art." Shen Mu coughed. "Blind Grandpa, I'm over here. Over there is the outhouse." The Blind Elder turned around and addressed the Butcher, who was sunning himself on the millstone, with a smile: "I've turned it over again and again for a long time now. Your Hegemonic-Body primordial qi has no attribute, so you can't cultivate my art — but this eye art needs no attributed qi, and Hegemonic-Body primordial qi should be able to cultivate it too. Come with me. This art of mine is called the Nine-Heavens Far-Gazing Eye Method..." Shen Mu's head ached; he had always felt that the Blind Elder was not altogether dependable, but he steeled himself and followed. He was deeply mystified. The Blind Elder said he would teach him the Nine-Heavens Far-Gazing Eye Method, yet he had not taught him any way to train his eyes at all; instead he had brought him to observe the village's Night-Guarding Divine Statues. The two sat before the stone statue at the village's eastern corner. The Blind Elder's eye sockets were hollow, yet he stared at the statue with intense concentration, as if he could make out something in it. Shen Mu knew that everyone in the village was strange; even the statues at the four corners were strange — in Hidden Remnant Village, there was nothing that was not strange. These Night-Guarding Divine Statues, though not tall, were tremendously heavy, heavy enough to be frightful, so heavy that Shen Mu could not so much as rock them. His strength was already great, and it had grown greater still since he consumed the Four Symbols Spirit Marrow; of late his primordial qi had begun tempering his body, washing his sinews and scouring his marrow, making him more and more stalwart — yet he could not budge the statues a hair's breadth. As a child, he had often climbed up onto the statues to play, only to be chased down by Granny Zhu and the others, who told him he must not be disrespectful to them. At festivals, Granny Zhu and the others would lay offerings before the statues, light a few sticks of incense, and pray that the statues wo