荒墟牧神 - 第45章 湧江水府開龍門 - 雲海書庫

Shen Mu stepped closer and, peering through the window lattice, saw the white fox holding a bamboo tube, cheeks puffed out, blowing at the firewood beneath the cooking stove. Shen Mu coughed and said, "Is anyone home?" The white fox in the thatched hut started, hastily hid the bamboo tube, and said in an aged voice, "Who dares shout and clamor, disturbing this one's quiet cultivation? I am a demon of many years, and I shall grind your bones to powder and scatter your ashes!" Shen Mu laughed despite himself; hearing the laughter, the white fox hurriedly looked up, and seeing the youth at the window, breathed a sigh of relief. Her voice returned to normal, quite pleasing to the ear: "So it is the young man who asked me for wind the day before yesterday. I went to a banquet that day and drank too much—rather rude of me, and I neglected you. Do not stand out there; come in." Shen Mu entered the thatched hut and looked around, a little taken aback, for the hut proved to be remarkably neat and clean, furnished with a bed, a rice jar, furniture, a screen, and even a dressing table. The white fox stood on her hind legs and made a curtsy to Shen Mu. "My humble home is poor and bare, young master; pray do not laugh at me." Shen Mu returned the courtesy and asked curiously, "Are you cooking?" The white fox said, "Yesterday one of my sisters treated me to a feast, and I drank a few cups too many. This morning I woke with a headache, so I am brewing a bowl of hangover soup. Please sit, young master." Shen Mu privately marveled—this white fox was even more clever than the Nether Ape, actually knowing to brew her own soup. It was only that the fox was fond of the cup and got drunk every day. He caught sight of a bookshelf to one side and walked over. The shelf held some ancient books; he drew one out, and it treated of the arts of breathing and guiding qi, along with some magic arts, but all of them were incomplete. "Do you know how to read, young master?" The white fox, having brewed the hangover soup, noticed Shen Mu reading with absorption and said in surprise and delight, "I cannot read the characters in these books; I only cultivate by looking at the pictures. Since you can read them, would you be willing to explain them to me?" "Why not?" Shen Mu sat down. The white fox's tail stirred, and a bowl of hangover soup, borne on the wind, came to rest on the table. The white fox sat opposite him, eyes bright and keen. Shen Mu opened the first page and read: "Circulate qi at Mount Fangcun, rouse the Primal Elixir; the tiger treads beneath the lungs, the Sea of Qi trembles cold..." The white fox drank her hangover soup, listening with rapt attention, and suddenly said, "Where is Mount Fangcun?" "Mount Fangcun lies between the brows," Shen Mu said. "The spot between the brows is the Spirit Mansion of the Soul. To circulate qi at Mount Fangcun is to guide one's primordial qi to that spot. But when the primordial qi reaches it, a divine sound comes from beyond the nine heavens and severs your qi." The white fox tried it and shook her head. "I heard no divine sound." Shen Mu knit his brow. In the past, whenever he guided his primordial qi to the spot between his brows, a divine sound would always block him from breaking through the wall. He had assumed the white fox would encounter the same; he had not expected her to say there was none. "Is the Spirit Mansion of the Soul constructed differently in humans and foxes?" He did not dwell on it and continued his explanation. Before long, he had finished explaining the whole volume. The cultivation method recorded in it indeed had its unique insights, but it did not accord with Shen Mu's Overlord Body, so he could not practice it. The white fox was clever and grasped the contents of the book, and said with a smile, "I used to cultivate by the pictures, thinking I had already mastered what was recorded in this book; I never imagined I was still practicing many parts wrongly. Thank you for clearing up my