Chapter 1121 — Knocking on the Southern Heaven's Gate

Dragon Qilin took out the Gourd-Sky Bottle and used the Primordial Chaos Essence Fluid to treat the Butcher's wounds, while the Silent Craftsman and the Blind Elder kept cackling. The Silent Craftsman gestured: "Your Emperor-Seat cultivation art is already finished. Why not simply pass it on to him directly, instead of pushing him all along to enter the Dao through the blade?

" The Butcher took out the pills the Alchemist had refined for him, swallowed them to steady his scattered vital qi and nourish his divine treasury and heavenly palace, and shook his head: "What the hell do you know? I created that art; it suits me, but it may not suit him at all. The best teacher is not one who hands down his own art, but one who lets his student comprehend a road of his own.

" He looked up at Shen Mu, who was in the sky pondering the name of the First Heaven of the Blade Dao, and said: "My eldest disciple, Bashan, isn't good enough. He's a little lacking on the Blade Dao and can only go by the side door, merging battle with technique—even so he can become a grand master. That's why I could pass my art on to him. But Shen'er is different.

He can go much farther, so he must comprehend it himself. " He stretched his frame, the corner of his eye twitching, and grunted: "It's just that this boy's mana is too strong! His essence, qi, and spirit had been accumulating for too long, and this journey did him tremendous good.

When his Blade Dao burst forth, I nearly thought I couldn't take it. " The Blind Elder's eyes flickered: "His sword dao started from the tenth heaven of Li Zheng's Sword Dao, taking that as its foundation to develop a sword dao of his own. His blade dao likewise takes your Nine Arts of the Heavenly Blade as its foundation, and from the very outset it was the ninth heaven of the Blade Dao. For a lad of forty to have such achievements.

.

.

" Yan'er reminded them: "The young master says he has just turned ten.

" "Shameless!

Utterly shameless! Brazen beyond all measure! " The Blind Elder, the Silent Craftsman, and the Butcher burst into abuse and went at it with great gusto, and all of them felt considerably better for it. "How high one's cultivation reaches really depends on the breadth of one's vision and the strength of one's Dao heart," the Butcher said with feeling.

"Take an old farmer who tills his land all his life—what his eyes see and his heart dwells on is nothing but the soil, and so he can hardly leap beyond that plot, remaining a farmer for the rest of his days. But if his gaze rests on more than this one field, he may discover that a far wider world lies beyond it, and there is no need to confine himself to a single patch of land. Once he steps out of that field, he can achieve far greater things!

" The Blind Elder nodded: "Broadening one's vision is important, and so is tempering one's Dao heart. A man confined to his own trade can at best become a master craftsman of that trade; to become a grand master, he must look broader and farther, and only thus can he elevate himself.

" The Silent Craftsman nodded repeatedly: "Only by not confining yourself to what is at hand can you take a step further.

Shen'er's Blade Dao is conceived on a far higher plane than the Pig-Slayer's, and so its First Heaven is already like the ninth heaven of the Pig-Slayer's Blade Dao.

" The Butcher was quite put out, yet that was precisely his own meaning.

Shen Mu had tempered his Dao heart first, his vision higher and broader, and only therefore could he open a road of his own upon the foundation of the Butcher's Blade Dao; this manner of inheritance filled the Butcher with deep satisfaction.

Yan'er was startled and said to Dragon Qilin: "Are all the young master's elders so far-sighted?

" Dragon Qilin nodded: "That is why the Sect Master often comes back to learn from them.

" Yan'er stuck out her tongue.

The Butcher glanced at the Blind Elder and the Silent Craftsman: "I've passed on my Dao. What about you two?

" The Blind Elder hesitated: "The Formation Heavenly Palace is easy enough, but how to make him comprehend the way of formations and realize a Formation Heavenly Palace of his own—that is what gives me a headache.

" The Silent Craftsman gestured: "The Forging Heavenly Palace is not difficult either.

The difficulty lies in how to make him comprehend a road of his own. " The two each sank into their own worries.

Yan'er asked suspiciously: "Fat Dragon, is it really that easy for them to realize their own Emperor-Seat arts?

From what I've seen in the histories, everyone who realized an Emperor-Seat art found it harder than hard. " "The people of history found it hard because they started from nothing, and, keeping their own arts jealously, rarely exchanged Emperor-Seat arts with one another," Dragon Qilin explained. "But Jingping is different.

In Jingping, go to any academy or school, and you can learn three or four Emperor-Seat arts. Across all of Jingping there are a dozen or so Emperor-Seat arts, and no one forbids others from studying them. As for other arts, there are even more. " He hesitated, then said: "By now there may be even more Emperor-Seat arts.

If you have the ability, you could study a dozen or more. But while creating a new art is difficult, cultivating to the Emperor-Seat realm is difficult beyond measure.

Techniques alone will not see you to the Emperor-Seat realm. The Heavenly Court has so many Emperor-Seat arts, and yet only a handful have ever cultivated to the Emperor-Seat realm.

" Yan'er stuck out her tongue. There seemed to be an indescribable atmosphere in Jingping, filled with surging vitality, a scene of thriving prosperity and blazing fervor, utterly unlike the scheming and backbiting of the Heavenly Court. Of course, Jingping's rapid development was in truth bound up with the Heavenly Masters such as the Woodcutter and Yan Yunxi, and with the inheritance of the Kaihuang Era.

Before the Jingping Calamity broke out, the four great Heavenly Masters of the Kaihuang Era had taken up residence in Jingping and imparted the achievements of the Kaihuang reforms to the great academies and schools of Jingping—medicine, calligraphy and painting, forging, formations, sword dao, blade dao, architecture, design, agriculture, animal husbandry, and achievements in every other field—all of which Jingping absorbed.

That was the period of Jingping's swiftest growth. Afterward, when the Jingping Calamity erupted, Shen Mu shouldered that great catastrophe, preserving Jingping's foundations and keeping the fruits of reform intact, and so the land could continue to develop.

Another rather intriguing phenomenon was that Yan Yunxi had carried the fruits of Jingping's reforms to Wuyou Township, hoping that Wuyou Township would absorb them and open a road of its own. Yet what she never expected was that Wuyou Township did not absorb Jingping's reforms at all, remaining sunk in lifeless stagnation, until Shen Mu's arrival roused it to vigor once more.

Most thought-provoking of all, the first to absorb Jingping's reform achievements and push forth the new from the old was none other than Kaihuang, the very man the people of Wuyou Township had never ceased to resent. He created the Twenty Sword Forms, and his sword dao rose yet another heaven, drawing one step closer to the ultimate realm of the sword.

"Ten years I've set aside book and blade, and roamed west to Dragon Han City. " Shen Mu's resounding chant came down from the sky.

Everyone looked up to see him dancing with his blade in midair, blade-light interwoven like chains, like lightning flashes, like thunderclaps!

"Knocking at the gate beyond the southern door, my long blade claims lords and ministers!