Chapter 278 — The Rhythm of Attack and Defense
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Shipbuilding, for instance: to master the principles of shipbuilding utterly, to use sound materials, so that wind and wave cannot sink it.
This is the investigation of things and the extension of knowledge: to study a thing or an affair to its limit and comprehend every principle within it.
Only by achieving that can one achieve the unity of knowledge and action. Ban Gongcuo was such a man.
Reincarnating again and again, he had studied every art and method to its utmost; all the knowledge he had ever acquired had become his foundation, part of every word and gesture he made.
His every movement, every word, carried deep intent; from the very first time Shen Mu met him, Shen Mu had entered his rhythm.
From Shen Mu's provocation outside Six Harmonies Hall to Ban Gongcuo's talk in the Jade Fragrance Pavilion, all of it was him weaving a web, methodically spinning out a great net to enmesh Shen Mu. And now, as they walked toward the outskirts, this great spider was drawing in its web, spitting silk over Shen Mu, winding him, binding him tight, leaving him less and less room to move; when they reached the outskirts, it would be time for the spider to inject its venom and kill its prey.
So terrible an opponent Shen Mu had never seen.
Neither the Dao Child nor the Buddha Child, nor even those great masters of the Heaven-Man and Life-Death realms who had hunted him down, could match Ban Gongcuo; they all fell far short.
Now Shen Mu had already been driven to limp and stagger as he walked, while Ban Gongcuo walked steadily, ever more steadily. He was forcing Shen Mu to bring out every variation he possessed lest a flaw show; when Shen Mu's variations were exhausted, that would be the hour of his death.
"To cross blades with a being so powerful and terrible — what a tremendous fortune!
" Shen Mu's steps halted abruptly, and in that instant of stopping, flaws opened all over him; you could say his whole body was one gaping flaw.
Ban Gongcuo was slightly startled and stopped as well.
In that instant he had the urge to strike; Shen Mu was riddled with openings, and in his eyes every part of Shen Mu was a flaw that could be ended with a single blow — only he hesitated for one instant.
Shen Mu was the master of the Nether Demon Cult, and the Nether Demon Cult was enormously powerful, the foremost sect of the mundane world; to strike here, even if he killed Shen Mu, he would scarcely escape its vengeance.
In the very instant of his hesitation, the flaws on Shen Mu vanished; his momentum burst forth with a roar, his killing intent blazing out, overpowering Ban Gongcuo by a notch, and he lifted his foot and walked on.
Ban Gongcuo's face darkened slightly; he had no choice but to follow, and sank into passivity.
That Shen Mu should use his hesitation to escape his disadvantage truly exceeded his expectations; plainly the youth's experience fell short of his own, yet he possessed a keen edge that had long since been worn away in Ban Gongcuo. Through so many reincarnations, the enterprising spirit of his first life had been ground down through life after life of long years; now he saw that very spirit in Shen Mu.
This time it was his turn to be gripped by Shen Mu, forced to walk to Shen Mu's rhythm.
The two men's stances and auras shifted without cease, the shifts exceedingly subtle; but as the road grew longer, Ban Gongcuo's swaying grew wider, like a drunken man lurching this way and that, drawing no small amount of notice.
The situation now was like Shen Mu leading a drunk thirteen- or fourteen-year-old child down the street on an invisible rope.
So it is when masters trade blows; above all when the two are closely matched, one careless moment and the situation reverses.
Shen Mu had used his reluctance to strike openly within the city to turn the tables.