Chapter 27 — The Spirit Embryo's Secret Art First Attained
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 3
Shen Mu was stunned, then overjoyed: "Doesn't this mean it's as if two of me were cultivating together?"
But he soon discovered that the spirit embryo's driving of the Mystic Body Three Cores Art did not increase his cultivation of primordial energy — rather, it ground and refined it. His primordial energy traveled through the array pattern beneath the spirit embryo's feet, absorbed the golden light of the golden sea, then entered the spirit embryo's body and was breathed out again; fused with the golden light, the energy became tougher and purer.
Before, his spirit embryo had also absorbed the golden light, faintly and uncertainly, but not with the speed granted by the array pattern recorded in the third panel.
"Could this be the cultivation method of the Mystic Body Three Cores Art's Spirit Embryo realm?"
Shen Mu's heart pounded. The Village Head had said he did not know the later cultivation methods of the Tyrant Body, and now here he had found the Tyrant Body method of the Spirit Embryo realm!
He looked to the fourth panel and frowned slightly: it had already fallen away, leaving only half, and what it recorded should be the method of the Five Elements realm. The panel bore the claw marks of animals; it must have been destroyed by the creatures living here.
The fifth panel was likewise badly damaged, the sixth had lost more than half of itself, and the panels after that were so battered as to be unreadable.
"This palace has fallen into such ruin — who knows how much longer the murals can last."
Shen Mu sighed. That even a few panels had survived to the present was remarkable enough. He committed the second and third panels fully to memory, silently recited them several more times, and only then set his mind at ease.
Even if the murals in the palace were utterly destroyed, they would live on in him, to be passed down to the next Tyrant Body!
Of the murals on the palace wall, few remained whole. Besides the Mystic Body Three Cores Art, one other panel was relatively intact.
It was a map. Shen Mu studied it closely and found the position of the Surging River, and his heart stirred: "Could this be a map of the Ruins?"
He traced his way along the Surging River bit by bit, following the flow of the waters and the bends of the channel, and at last found the position of Hidden Remnant Village.
"Eh? Why is a dragon drawn here?"
His gaze fell on the map a hundred-odd li upstream from Hidden Remnant Village, where a dragon's shape had actually been drawn upon the Surging River. It was baffling.
"The Dragon King of the Surging River!"
Shen Mu's heart gave a small jolt. Beside the dragon were written the four words "Dragon King of the Surging River," though what they meant he could not tell.
Nor was this the only strange thing on the map. Thirty li east of Hidden Remnant Village a well had been drawn, and beside the well were four more words: "Dragon King of the Sky Well." In another place there was also a well, marked "Dragon King of the Sea Eye."
He also saw that in a far more distant part of the Ruins map there was a ship, with a sun painted upon it and three words beside it: "Sun Boat." Not far from the Sun Boat was a place called the Sun Well, and far from the Sun Boat was another ship, the Moon Boat, with a moon drawn beside it. Next to the Moon Boat was another strange place called the Moon Well.
Shen Mu searched with his eyes but could not find on the map the ancient temple at the river's heart that suppressed the Wu Maiden, nor Crimson Dragon City, a thousand li downstream.
"This map — could it be a map of the Ruins before the catastrophe?"
After searching a while, Shen Mu's heart leaped: he had found the canyon ruin where he had hidden from the Gloom and made his discovery. But on the map it was not marked as a ruin; it was called Goddess Pass.
"So it is indeed a map of the Ruins before the catastrophe!"