Chapter 596 — A Graceful Young Lord Comes from Afar
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Qi Jiuyi's eyebrows rose slightly. He did not repeat his earlier words as Shen Mu had wished. His mind was exceedingly keen, and he understood perfectly the hidden barb beneath Shen Mu's words.
Shen Mu was a master of combat on the spiritual plane, skilled in spiritual suppression. When he encountered the strong, he cowered when cowering was called for and fled when fleeing was called for. But when he met a worthy opponent, from the very first glance they exchanged, he would unleash a spiritual assault.
He would begin by attacking his opponent's mind and psyche, suppressing them. Every seemingly careless gesture and word was calculated to bring pressure to bear upon the opponent's mind and psyche. That pressure would cause the opponent to place himself on the weaker side, and imperceptibly his momentum would be pressed down a notch.
And once one's momentum was pressed down a notch, one would enter his rhythm; when blows were exchanged, the subtle balance of offense and defense between the two would shift.
By then, that sliver of advantage would gradually expand, until at last it became the decisive factor in victory or defeat.
Whether it was Ban Gongcuo or Xu Shenghua, both had experienced this style of Shen Mu's.
Those who had endured it—some would develop spiritual and psychological scars, and Shen Mu would become a shadow upon their Dao heart. Others would take this shadow in their lives and turn it into the driving force that compelled them forward, making themselves braver and more ferocious, scaling one peak after another.
The representative of the former was Ban Gongcuo; the representatives of the latter were Xu Shenghua and Zhe Huali.
After Ban Gongcuo was defeated by Shen Mu a single time, he essentially lost all courage to face Shen Mu in direct combat. Whenever he encountered Shen Mu, he would involuntarily place himself in the position of the loser, retreating before a battle was even fought.
Xu Shenghua, however, though defeated by Shen Mu, grew braver the more he fought. He even went so far as to create a method that unified the Six Realms Divine Treasury and the Seven Stars Divine Treasury into one. Shen Mu had humbly sought to learn from him, and thus Xu Shenghua held a slight upper hand.
As for Zhe Huali, after his setback at Shen Mu's hands, he had walked ever farther along the path of entering the Dao through his blade. He had even actively rescued Shen Mu when Shen Mu was in danger. His Dao heart had clearly made tremendous progress, and he made Shen Mu feel considerable pressure. Thus it was that after Shen Mu felt this pressure, he set foot upon the path of entering the Dao through cultivation methods.
Combat on the spiritual plane, though unspectacular, was an immense trial of the Dao heart.
"His spiritual assault—he learned it from this blade master."
Qi Jiuyi looked toward the Butcher and thought: "This Blade God is about to do battle with Lord Yangxing, yet he voluntarily returned Lord Yangxing's hand bones to him. This is an exceedingly brilliant blade technique for striking at the opponent's Dao heart. It looks like returning bones, but in truth it is severing his Dao heart. Lord Yangxing appears to be inquiring about the flesh and blood on the hand bones, but in truth he is countering the blade technique. This Shen Mu—it is from him that he learned it."
The next stage after learning in order to apply it is the unity of knowledge and action, and clearly Shen Mu had already achieved this.