Chapter 279 — Warm a Pot of Wine
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Thus the Daoists created the circular Wuji diagram, the Taiji diagram separating the Two Modes, and the Four Symbols diagram, the Eight Trigrams diagram, and the Sixty-Four Hexagrams diagram, to calculate the great Dao and the myriad things.
And when these principles became sword techniques—using swords to form diagrams, endlessly calculating and evolving into the myriad beings—they bore the majestic power of the Dao! In the Daoist school's Fourteen Chapters of the Dao Sword, each chapter is an ideal world: pure numerical art transmuted into exquisite patterns, explaining the marvelous principles of heaven and earth.
This was the greatest difference between Daoism and Buddhism: Daoism is a study of numbers, Buddhism a study of the mind. There was a joke among Daoist disciples: "Bad at the art of numbers?
Then why cultivate the Dao? Go home early and hold your baby.
" When the two divine powers collided—one a sword-art divine power, the other a bodily and spell-art divine power—the meeting of dharma-power-wrought abilities was simply dreadful. The terrifying force shook the river, making the great waters hang suspended; it shook the ground, making the earth tremble.
In the burst of shock waves, thin jets of water pierced through willow after willow along the bank with thudding sounds, and sword qi stabbed into the riverside rocks; in a moment, the reefs along the shore were pocked with a thousand holes!
The earth-shattering blow Shen Mu had hurled charged into the Daoist ideal world built from Ban Gongcuo's sword light, and even its overwhelming force was broken down by the number-logic hidden in the light!
In Ban Gongcuo's sword technique, that dry, boring thing called the art of numbers became utterly fascinating, utterly dazzling.
In that fascinating light, the nine water dragons and the water Buddha collapsed in mere moments—truly no match for the Dao Sword's second move! Countless streaks of sword light flowed out and struck the great bell formed by the Buddha light and Buddhist scriptures around Shen Mu; ripples rose over the bell's face, and the next moment, the great bell was shattered!
Shen Mu's expression did not change. The sword core flew up into his hand; in a flash, the sword light within it erupted.
He did not use Sword Treading Mountains and Rivers, but executed the second move of the Sword Diagram! Crash—the edge of the Yong River turned crimson; blood-red sword light surged like a boundless ocean, and in the blood light, as if an emperor of the gods rose from the sea of blood, pointing his sword at the enemy, despising all!
One Sword Opens the Imperial Blood-Ocean!
The Dao Sword and the Sword Diagram collided.
Ban Gongcuo gave a muffled grunt; the Five Qi and Three Primordials broke at once, and matchless sword light and peerless killing intent rushed at his face. He soared into the air, coiling like a dragon, working a body technique of exquisite subtlety, shifting again and again—like a startled swan, a swimming fish, a flying sparrow, a nine-headed phoenix—but he still could not avoid all the sword light.
With a series of sizzling sounds, bloody flashes burst from his body. He bounded and landed on the river, smashing the water outward in all directions!
With a whoosh, Shen Mu leapt up; the sword light in his hand vanished, and the sword core, catching the wind, turned into a great saber.
With a hiss, it split the river open! Ban Gongcuo swung his own sword core to meet the strike; a string of booming clashes rang out, and like a pebble thrown by a child, he skimmed across the river—sixty-seven skips—before he finally stopped.
Meanwhile, Shen Mu came running over the river, every footfall making the water explode; spray flew in all directions, and before the airborne spray could fall, Shen Mu had already covered several hundred zhang.
The great saber made from the sword core suddenly shrank, wrapping his fist like flowing water.