Chapter 413 — The Cultivation Perfected
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Shen Mu set the lid back on the steamer and muttered, "A moment ago you were putting on such airs about granting a reward, and you will not part with even two palace maids. Skinflint..."
"What did you say? Say that again!"
Inside the steamer Emperor Yanfeng stamped and raged. "We will have your head!"
Then Emperor Yanfeng heard Shen Mu's voice outside, lodging his complaint: "Yuxiu, you have come at just the right moment. Your father said he would reward me, and then he would not, and now he wants my head."
Ling Yuxiu's voice came back. "Why do you pay him any mind? He has been manic these years, forever wanting this one's head and that one's head. The court affairs have broken him. And after all the heads he has ordered off in words, he has actually taken very few. Ignore him. He will carry on a while and then stop."
"You came to find me. For dual cultivation?"
"Yes. Our method is nearly finished, and these last days you have been busy healing them and have fallen behind. We must strike while the iron is hot and finish it as soon as we can. Otherwise, in a few days, when Father's wounds are healed, he will drag me back to the capital, and who knows when we might finish the method then..."
...
The two of them walked off into the distance. Emperor Yanfeng slumped in the steamer and thought, "Xiu'er, this is as far as your father can help you. The boy will not take the hint. It all comes down to you now."
Some days later, Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu at last set out the Six Harmonies Primordial Spirit method in full. Both of them were somewhat uneasy, not knowing whether the method could truly bring others to forge a primordial spirit at the Six Harmonies realm.
"Let me try it! I happen to be at the Six Harmonies realm!" Si Yunxiang said, skipping with eagerness.
Shen Mu shook his head. "This method is in truth two methods joined into one set, one for men and one for women, and the men's differs from the women's in subtle ways. What is more, it must be cultivated by two people together, and each must hold nothing back from the other and harbor no crooked thoughts; only then can the two forge a primordial spirit. If it succeeds, it succeeds for the pair."
Si Yunxiang said hastily, "Sect Master, cultivate it with me."
Shen Mu spoke with heavier emphasis. "Holy Maiden, there must be perfect intimacy and mutual trust, and no crooked thoughts!"
Si Yunxiang giggled. "You are the Sect Master. What crooked designs could I possibly have on you?"
Shen Mu gave her a flat look. No crooked designs? This little woman took Granny Zhu for her model at every hour of the day, forever dreaming of the Sect Master's fall from virtue so that she might take his place, and yet she had somehow never learned a single one of Granny Zhu's virtues.
Still, there was a side of Si Yunxiang that did resemble Granny Zhu: whenever danger came, she was always the first to dash out and save people without a moment's thought. Plainly she had merely been badly brought up, and was not bad at heart.
"If she had been raised as well as I was, she would never have gone astray."
Shen Mu sighed inwardly. Crooked though some of Si Yunxiang's thoughts might be, he still needed to test whether the method he and Ling Yuxiu had devised would work. He nodded. "Even if you do play some trick, it will avail you nothing. I will trust you once. But I will work with you only once. If it fails, you must find someone else you can put your trust in."
Si Yunxiang, all excitement, asked Ling Yuxiu for the women's half of the method, and Ling Yuxiu taught her everything she knew. Yan Jingjing drifted over as well. Ling Yuxiu smiled. "Little sister Jing, do you want to cultivate a primordial spirit with the cowherd too?"
Yan Jingjing shook her head. "I forged my primordial spirit long ago. You cultivate. I will watch."
"Dual cultivation of the primordial spirit is very pleasant!" Ling Yuxiu said, perfectly earnest.