Chapter 315 — The Ancestral Secret Art
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
The primal spirit was what the spirit fetus grew into when, along the path of cultivation, it drew in the vital essence of the soul and body; upon reaching the Six Harmonies realm it matured into the primal spirit.
Once the primal spirit left the body, one was basically at the Heaven-Man realm. In his former cultivation Shen Mu had never felt that there was anything wrong with his Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art; but now, cultivating according to the diagrams painted by the man in the painting, he realized that certain things had been missing. The spirit fetus was meant to grow into the primal spirit; to be unable to bear heaven and touch earth within the primal fetus sacred treasury meant that one's cultivation was not complete.
What he had lacked before was perhaps precisely this.
He looked again at the third diagram. The third diagram painted by the man in the painting was the Five Elements realm.
By the Five Elements realm, the circulation diagram Shen Mu had obtained had not been complete; he had relied on the young Patriarch and on his own intelligence to fill in the routes of circulation, but a flaw had been left on his left shoulder. Although later Shen Mu had patched that flaw by means of the Grand Unification Art of the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture, the circulation was still somewhat unsmooth — only the effect was not great, and Shen Mu was truly outstanding, sweeping through the martial masters of the Five Elements realm without meeting a match, and even certain Six Harmonies realm adepts of somewhat lower cultivation could not defeat him, so he had not looked deeply into the problem.
The Five Elements realm circulation diagram painted by the man in the painting was a complete one.
Shen Mu studied it closely and let out a breath of relief: this diagram could complete the missing portion of his method and leave no flaw behind! And the fourth diagram differed from what he currently cultivated as well — more complex.
Shen Mu was startled. Beginning from the first guiding diagram, he discovered something interesting: compared with the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art he cultivated, the one painted by the man in the painting showed a trend of gradual complexity — like first painting a sapling breaking through the soil with only two buds and leaves, then gradually growing until it was thick with branches and leaves.
Whereas the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art he had pieced together from here and there had gaps and omissions, like a small tree growing one branch to the east and another to the west; though it too could grow into a great tree, it leaned this way and that. Moreover, the method painted by the man in the painting had no divine powers either; it merely painted the circulation diagrams. Yet when he circulated other divine powers, there was a feeling of plucking them at will.
Suddenly his heart gave a great shock. In his mind sounded the voice of the woodcutter transmitting the scripture upon the stone. The chanting of the scripture and the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art painted by the man in the painting joined together, and Shen Mu's mouth fell open in astonishment. The Grand Unification Art had actually overlapped with the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art painted by the man in the painting!
Not merged — overlapped! The Grand Unification Art was the general outline of the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture, just like the sacred tree by which the woodcutter had transmitted the scripture to the founding patriarch of the Dark Demon Cult.
The Grand Unification Art was the trunk of the tree, and the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture its countless roots and branches.