Chapter 200 — Lurking Dutian
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Suddenly he remembered: when he had summoned the demon at Tianbo City and called forth the Dutian Demon King, the Demon King's consciousness and mana had entered the demon-god statue through his body, bursting open the center of his brow. Lightning had flowed like a stream from his brow into the statue, and at that moment he had been driving the Mystic Body Three-Cinnabar Art.
As the art circulated, he had felt something enter his body along with the turning of his vital essence.
Then the disciples of the Hongshan Sect had arrived and unleashed the Demon-Repelling Token. Though the token failed to drive the Dutian Demon King back, when its light shone upon him, Shen Mu felt the demon-summoning cut short—the mana and consciousness flowing from his body into the demon-god statue severed.
In other words, a portion of the Dutian Demon King's consciousness and mana had been trapped within Shen Mu's body!
"Then the one inside me now, watching the battle through my eyes—that is the Dutian Demon King!"
Shen Mu was seized with dread. This Demon King's consciousness lurked within his body—where exactly was it hiding? Why had he never sensed the slightest abnormality in all this time cultivating the Mystic Body Three-Cinnabar Art?
The Dutian Demon King—what was he scheming?
Granny Zhu had a demon cult master, Fan Xuanshu, inside her; if he himself had a Dutian Demon King inside him, the fun would be considerable.
Shen Mu betrayed nothing. That the Dutian Demon King watched the battle through his eyes was, for him, a good thing too—it let him see clearly what happened on the battlefield, and the Daoist arts and divine powers unleashed in the duels of masters could greatly broaden his horizons.
"What I trapped is only a single strand of the Dutian Demon King's consciousness and mana. However strong, it cannot be strong beyond measure. So long as I can find it, I will surely be able to deal with it! For now I must not startle the snake in the grass—best to pretend I know nothing."
Now at last he could see the battle clearly.
Imperial Teacher Jingping's sword was no true sword, but sword-qi transformed from his vital essence, ever-changing, gathering and scattering at will.
His body blazed with light, like a god's; Shen Mu had once seen such radiance upon the village headman.
When the sword art was executed in his hands, even the most basic sword forms took on a state of incomparable complexity and profundity.
And his sword art was not merely basic forms; it held still more complex calculations and transformations.
"The Dao Sword of the Daoist orders?"
Shen Mu was startled. In Imperial Teacher Jingping's sword art he saw the shadow of the Daoist Dao Sword—those incomparably complex techniques of calculation. Take the taiji diagram, the circle: anyone can draw a circle, but no one can calculate the ratio between the circle and the arc that cuts it.
And this touched upon the first form of the Dao Sword, the secret of reversing yin and yang within the Two Modes. How to achieve that reversal—the Taixuan Calculation Classic was crucial to the reckoning.
To bring the power of reversing yin and yang within the Two Modes to its utmost, one had to calculate to the hazy digits beyond the point of indivisibility; and to rise a level higher still, one had to calculate to the digits of emptiness and purity.
"Imperial Teacher Jingping's attainments in mathematics are exceedingly deep!"
Shen Mu thought: "Had I known, when we traveled south together, I should have asked him about the Taixuan Calculation Classic!"
Those crossing swords with Imperial Teacher Jingping were the three old men and the old woman—Master Qiong, Li the Wanderer, and True Lord Tian. Worthy of the finest powerhouses of the old era, the radiance they gave off made them like three aged gods, and each had his or her own means.