Chapter 231 — Slaying the Monk
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"Vajra Unconquerable!
" The Half-Fool Monk blazed with Buddha-light, his sinews and frame swelling until he stood some three zhang six chi tall, and the nine-ringed Zen staff in his hand grew and lengthened with him, so that he seemed a great Buddha with a sun standing behind his head. This was the Vajra Unconquerable Art of the Buddhist school, a cultivation method famed for the divine powers of the flesh.
Buddhist arts came in many kinds: some excelled in the realm of the mind, cultivating spells and divine powers; some excelled in wisdom and sudden awakening, cultivating blade and sword arts; and some belonged to the school of combat technique, famed for the divine powers of the body.
The Vajra Unconquerable Art walked the path of combat technique, yet unlike other combat schools it was laced with spells as well; though unlike the Libationer of Mount Ba's fusion of war and law, the spells of the Vajra Unconquerable Art were hidden within the Zen staff or the prayer beads. In daily cultivation one carried the staff and the beads and ceaselessly chanted the sutras, refining one's evil thoughts into the beads and refining the sutras' divine powers into the staff.
Then, when battle came, one could release the evil thoughts from the beads and transform them into a fighting posture of utmost ferocity, while the spells within the staff were their means of taking a foe unawares and striking where he was unprepared. The Half-Fool Monk came charging in; though the Buddha-light blazed bright, this Buddha wore a face as fierce and hideous as the vajra-yakshas of a temple, and the Zen staff smashed down savagely at Shen Mu! Shen Mu had already felt the power of his Vajra Unconquerable Art; once this art brought forth the body of the vajra-yaksha, it was hard beyond measure, able even to withstand the attacks of the Chubao Sword. And its strength was beyond all reason, for it had even pressed Shen Mu's treasure ship down into the cloud layer.
Shen Mu roused the Mystic Body Three Cinnabar Art. His body shook, and of a sudden a golden light shot down from the sky and poured into him, transforming his flesh into a golden god: tiger claws and white fur, feet treading twin dragons, a tiger's head with bulging eyes and a white brow, the golden qi in his hand congealing into a bronze battle-axe shaped like a great cleaver.
From Shen Mu's left ear hung a golden serpent, hissing, swallowing and spitting golden qi.
What he had used was the True Art of the Metal Marquis, the Great White Star Lord, his spirit transformed into the form of the Great White Star Lord, master of all the metal qi under heaven. The Five Luminaries Realm held many secrets.
Shen Mu's attainments in that realm were already exceedingly high, and with the guidance of the Imperial Preceptor Jingping he had cultivated the divine transformation forms of five great star lords, long since surpassing the other powers of the Five Luminaries Realm by a measure beyond counting.
"So it is indeed a demon's sorcery! " Seeing his body change, the Half-Fool Monk gave a cold laugh. The nine rings of his staff flew and danced, buzzing as the staff swelled like a great hammer hung with nine golden rings, and came crashing down!
There was a violent shock; Shen Mu's bronze axe clashed with the nine-ringed Zen staff, and the two burst out with a terrifying force.
Shen Mu was shaken back again and again; the twin dragons beneath his feet flew out, clambered onto the Half-Fool Monk, and wound themselves about his legs, while the nine golden rings on the staff came whistling off, battering one after another against Shen Mu's crown, striking sparks of fire and knocking him head over heels a dozen times.
The Half-Fool Monk was, after all, of that realm, a man of divine powers with means aplenty. He strained with both feet and burst the two golden dragons apart, snatched up his staff and leaped, and in midair the nine golden rings came shrieking back to settle once more upon the staff.