Chapter 343 — Visitors from Beyond the Heavens, Sentiments Like Poetry
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The dragon qilin wagged its tail and said coaxingly, "I'm more impressive than it is.
" Shen Mu was speechless.
Riding a big fleshy ball with a tail — how was that impressive? It ate better and more than anyone, and it couldn't outrun the green ox — fine, let that pass — but now it couldn't even catch a dog!
"Sect Master, have you grown tired of me?
" The dragon qilin turned its head, eyes brimming with tears.
"You've definitely grown tired of me, haven't you? " Shen Mu snorted, a thread of tenderness in his eyes. "No.
The new year is only a few months off — how could I be tired of you? How about I give you two dou of Scarlet Fire Spirit Pills every day? Eat more, get fatter. " The dragon qilin shuddered.
Xiong Qi'er scrambled clumsily onto its head, carefully gripping a tuft of mane behind its ear so she wouldn't fall, and whispered into its ear, "Don't eat it! You'll be killed at the new year!
" The dragon qilin whimpered softly, "I know! But I just can't control myself. . . " Little Jade Capital was far from the Daoist Sect, and it floated in the sky; at the dragon qilin's pace it would take some ten days to get there.
Shen Mu made a rocking chair and set it on the dragon qilin's broad back, then settled Li Zheng into the chair. The dragon qilin was fat, but that had one advantage: it ran smoothly, so there was no fear of Li Zheng falling off. Xiong Xiyu occasionally drank tea with Li Zheng, and when they passed a city, Shen Mu would go down to buy spirit medicines to continue treating her injuries.
And she did not break her word — she passed on the True Heaven Palace's Myriad Gods Natural Art to Shen Mu. The Myriad Gods Natural Art drew on the true meaning that all things possess spirit and all things possess divinity. The cultivation methods of the Western Lands' True Heaven Palace differed from those of the Central Plains; their path was somewhat akin to the Daoist Sect's, both drawing close to nature. But the Daoist Sect exhaustively studied number and principle — the Dao models itself on nature — while the True Heaven Palace emphasized the mutual resonance of all things and the manifestation of souls. The True Heaven Palace's art cultivated an incomparably powerful faculty of perception, and at the same time bestowed souls upon all things.
Shen Mu pondered it and decided that this art was indeed suited to women; a woman's mind was finer, her perception keener, naturally surpassing a man's. If he cultivated it himself, it would enhance his own perception, but it held little significance for him.
What was truly useful lay in the arts of creation concealed within it. Bestowing souls upon all things was itself a kind of creation art. Compared with the Seven Chapters of Creation in the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture, the Myriad Gods Natural Art was more direct and more exquisite; useful things could be drawn from it. "This art of the True Heaven Palace doesn't seem like something from this age. " When Xiong Xiyu taught him the Myriad Gods Natural Art, Li Zheng heard it too.
After mulling it over, he said, "Palace Master Xiong, your True Heaven Palace's art is rather ancient, and not quite the same as the arts of the Kaihuang Era. When did the True Heaven Palace begin? " Xiong Xiyu shook her head.
"That I don't know either.
I had only just become Palace Master when the Yu family rebelled and seized power; I never had the chance to examine the True Heaven Palace's records. But our True Heaven Palace is exceedingly ancient, with a long and deep lineage. I once heard my nurse Kui say that our True Heaven Palace is older even than the holy lands of the Central Plains. .