荒墟牧神 - 第23章 荒村少年觸神威 - 雲海書庫

l essence was all but spent, he finally drew the staff away from Shen Mu's solar plexus. "How much did you memorize?" the Blind Elder asked. "Six or seven parts in ten." The Blind Elder looked gratified. "In so short a time, six or seven parts in ten is no small feat. Restore your vital essence." Shen Mu broke into a run, urging on the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art to recover his vital essence swiftly. When his cultivation had climbed back to its peak, the Blind Elder said, "Stir the Heavenly Dipper array patterns I taught you, then look upon the stone statue again. See whether it differs from before." Shen Mu at once roused his vital essence into his eyes; his vital essence built the Divine Empyrean Heaven's Heavenly Dipper array patterns. He had learned only six or seven parts in ten, and they were incomplete — but with his vital essence coursing through his eyes, that cool comfort which could see through all things came over him once more. He raised his eyes to the statue of the dragon-headed elder before him, and his spirit quaked. The statue that had once seemed so ordinary in his eyes had in an instant blazed into dazzling color! As though it had come alive, as though it had become a deity towering over heaven and earth! He even saw faint halos bursting out all around it, thread upon thread of radiance setting off its sacred solemnity! In that instant his spirit was crushed beneath the statue. In his eyes the statue was no longer a statue, but a living god! That god's divinity, bearing, aura, grace, and momentum shattered his spirit, and next they would shatter his body, until his knees could not help but long to bow to the ground! "Keep looking. Do not close your eyes, and do not kneel." The Blind Elder said coldly, "When you were small you climbed up on that statue to shit and piss. As a child you dared such things — why, now that you are grown, should you kneel? Mu'er, the Nine Heavens Eye-Gazing Art does not merely open the eyes; it opens your spirit as well, that you may face the world's power and its malice head-on! A martial artist's strength lies not only in the might of his techniques — the strength of his spirit matters more! If your spirit is defeated by a heap of broken stones, then however mighty your martial power, you will accomplish nothing!" The Blind Elder stamped his bamboo staff on the ground and shouted, "If you contend with the statue, if you withstand the oppression it brings to bear, then your spirit too will grow strong! To make your strength great, first make your spirit great — be your own god, and fear nothing!" Cold sweat rolled down Shen Mu's forehead. He fought with all his might against the urge to kneel; the pressure the statue brought to bear was simply too strong, impossible to withstand. The Blind Elder spoke of fearing nothing, but fear nothing he could not. To have opened the eyes and not to have opened them were two wholly different things. Without opened eyes, the statue was an ordinary thing of stone; climbing up to shit and piss on it troubled him not at all. With opened eyes, the statue was a deity — and any act at all, even gazing upon it, was blasphemy! The Blind Elder said, "To break the gods in a ruined temple is easy; to break the god in your heart is hard. Do you know who said that?" Shen Mu's spirit was so shaken by the statue that he could not answer. "The man who uttered those seemingly treasonous words was none other than the State Preceptor of the Kingdom of Yanning beyond the Ruins, a being hailed as the foremost man beneath the gods!" The Blind Elder, awe-inspiring, shouted, "Mu'er, the gods that dwell within your heart are all alien gods, false gods. Smash them, and only then can you raise up your own idol! Never mind a stone statue — even if a true god stood before you, you must never kneel!" He planted his bamboo staff to one side, undid his belt, and laughed aloud. "Not only must you not kneel — you should piss on it!" "Piss on it?" Shen Mu was dumbstruck. "Piss