Chapter 1351 — The Healing Art

Shen Mu lowered his head and took out several more Taishu divine stones, redoubling his refining of them as he sought to comprehend the Way of Taishu within.

The Alchemist paid him no mind; rather, he cheerfully set up his furnace aboard the boat and began refining spirit pills, and each time a batch of pills came out of the furnace, he opened his own mouth and swallowed them down.

Shen Mu and he left each other alone — you cultivate yours, I cultivate mine — and after two days had passed, a Heavenly Palace of Medicine suddenly rose behind the Alchemist, and his primordial spirit actually passed beneath the Southern Heavenly Gate: he had cultivated into a True God. Shen Mu glanced over and thought nothing of it.

The Alchemist made no fuss either, but went on refining pills and eating pills; another three to five days, and the Heavenly Palace of Medicine rose behind him once more — his primordial spirit had actually come to the edge of the Jade Pool and stepped up onto the Jade Terrace!

At last Shen Mu was startled by him, and stared wide-eyed and dumbstruck at the sight. The Alchemist withdrew the heavenly palace and went on with single-minded devotion refining spirit pills; six or seven days more, and Shen Mu was appalled to discover that the Alchemist's primordial spirit had surged in cultivation strength, and had actually come to the God-Slaying Terrace of the heavenly palace!

Beneath his heart-thumping gaze, the Alchemist's primordial spirit actually stood upon the God-Slaying Terrace, endured the tempering of two baleful auras, and survived!

This was a thing all but impossible to accomplish, yet it had happened before his very eyes! In but a short span, the Alchemist had successively crossed the three realms of True God, Jade Pool, and God-Slaying Terrace!

One must know that the highest cultivators in Yincan Village were the village headman and the Steward — and even they might well not have cultivated to the God-Slaying Terrace realm!

Yet as the very bottom of Yincan Village's cultivation ladder, the Alchemist had always been famed for his atrocious cultivation, the most vicious of the village's folk in his methods and the easiest of them to be killed off.

And now, his cultivation realm had in all likelihood leapt to first in all of Yincan Village!

After the Alchemist attained the God-Slaying Terrace realm, he did not go on refining spirit pills, but calmed his heart and pondered for a moment, then said, "Little Shen, how many kinds of Imperial Throne arts do you know?

" Shen Mu, giving no further thought to refining the Taishu primordial liquid, at once manifested his eighteen heavenly palaces and expounded them to him one by one, while the Alchemist sat in the cabin and listened closely. Shen Mu was a great master of cultivation, and he held uncommon insight into each of the Imperial Throne arts he practiced; he personally demonstrated the techniques, so that it was, so to speak, as though a Celestial Venerable himself were expounding his own comprehension to the Alchemist — a dazzling display in every particular, and a rare and splendid occasion!

The Alchemist questioned him without cease, voicing the doubts in his heart, and Shen Mu answered each one.

After a long while, the Alchemist came to understand the Heavenly Palace of the Sword, and had Shen Mu describe to him in finest detail the dao patterns of that palace and its architecture; Shen Mu explained them meticulously. The Alchemist pondered in silence for a long time, then buried himself again in refining spirit pills — and when the pills were nearly done, he took a thread of Taishu primordial liquid and cast it into the pill furnace.

When the furnace opened, a spirit pill flew out; the Alchemist's palm rotated gently, and the pill alighted in his hand. His fingertip brushed the pill, and abruptly there came the cry of a sword: from within the pill burst thousands upon thousands of sword lights, which around him took the form of a Heavenly Palace of the Sword, shrouding the entire swift boat!

Then the medicinal power withdrew, and the Palace of the Sword sank back into the pill. Watching this, Shen Mu felt a strange and dizzying sensation rise in his heart, and he asked with the salute of a disciple, "Grandpa Alchemist, why does the Way of Medicine show itself in such a way? What is the Way of Medicine?

" The Alchemist put away that spirit pill and said joyfully, "It was only after I came to the Ancestral Court that I comprehended the Heavenly Palace of Medicine, and then, not long ago, I obtained this Taishu primordial liquid from you, and at last I have thought the Way of Medicine through.

Mojang said: the way of man is to take from the insufficient and serve the surplus; the way of heaven is to take from the surplus and make up the insufficient. There is sense in those words — but the Way of Medicine is not the same.

" His eyes grew brighter and brighter.

"The Way of Medicine is also the way of man: to take from the surplus and make up the insufficient.

Man has birth, aging, sickness, death, injury, and pain. Man cannot be born — so medicine aids birth; man grows old — so medicine slows aging; man falls ill — so medicine cures illness; man nears death — so medicine delivers death; man is wounded — so medicine heals the wound; man suffers pain — so medicine treats the pain.

Birth, aging, sickness, and death are nature — and man must walk against nature, seeking out from every principle of nature a road that runs counter to nature.

Little Shen, this is the Way of Medicine. " He manifested his own Heavenly Palace of Medicine and said with a smile, "My cultivation is insufficient, so I treat it with medicine; I use spirit pills and wondrous drugs to raise my own cultivation realm.

I have no skill in swordsmanship, no understanding of sword arts, no comprehension of the Way of the Sword — and so I use the Way of Medicine to refine the pill of the Heavenly Palace of the Sword. In this way, taking a spirit pill lets me temporarily possess a Heavenly Palace of the Sword, and my strength surges. " "It is said that when one method is mastered, a hundred methods are mastered; when one way is accomplished, a hundred ways are accomplished.

So it is with the Way of Medicine. Little Shen, though you surpass me in cultivation strength beyond all measure, though you surpass me greatly in wit and talent, there are still two things in which I have always surpassed you. " He held up two fingers. "The first is my looks. The second is the Way of Medicine.

Your Way of Medicine is only the entry; you must go on cultivating it! " Shen Mu bowed and said, "I naturally agree with the second point, Grandpa Alchemist. But as to the first, I must respectfully disagree.

" The two of them laughed heartily. "Then how confident is Grandpa Alchemist now of curing Celestial Venerable Yue?

" Shen Mu asked again.

"Three parts in ten.

" The Alchemist raised another finger and said calmly, "I cannot read a Celestial Venerable's great Way; I do not have a Celestial Venerable's attainments.

If you can perceive Celestial Venerable Yue's dao wound, then I shall have ten parts in ten!

Though it is I who will treat Celestial Venerable Yue, the key still lies in your eye!

" Shen Mu's brows lifted. The swift boat came to the outside of the Ancestral Court and sailed into the bridge of spiritual-energy translocation. Before long the boat arrived at Jingping, flying over the Yuan World and making for the peach grove beside the Gate of the Dao.