Chapter 599 — Nine Phoenixes Alight on Cangwu
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
The Lame Elder flew into a fury and bellowed: "Little Shen! You have thrown away every last one of your Lame Grandpa's fine traditions! You would rather go learn brawling and savagery from that pig-sticker, the Butcher—and sooner or later someone will cut you in two with a single stroke. .
.
You pig butcher, what is that expression on your face? Put the blade down. Let us talk this over properly. Everything I say, I say for Little Shen's good. . .
" He cautiously pushed the blade away from his neck.
Shen Mu laughed: "Rest easy, Lame Grandpa. I know my own measure.
The so-called Imperial Throne cultivation method was created by those who came before; it is not one's own. How much power it can unleash still depends on one's own comprehension and cultivation—and there it drops a grade. The Imperial Throne method becomes the Lingxiao method. Moreover, in the Jingping Reformation, the Heavenly Court never underwent reform, and Qi Jiuyi's Imperial Throne method could not possibly have been tempered by that Reformation, so it drops another grade still—from the Lingxiao method to the Yujing method.
" In a few words, he had demoted the Imperial Throne method by two whole grades.
"The Yujing method still stands several grades above a True God method! " the Lame Elder said coldly. "True God, Yaochi, Zhanshentai—only after that comes Yujing! " Shen Mu, brimming with confidence, said: "I created my True God method myself.
Because it is my own creation, I can draw out its full power, and that raises it a grade—enough to rival the Yaochi method. Add to that my Overlord Body, and it essentially stands level with the Zhanshentai method.
The gap is not great. " The Lame Elder choked with rage. Granny Zhu said: "Lame Elder, this is precisely why you have still not crossed the Divine Bridge into the Heavenly Palace. You are too timid.
You shrink and hesitate, terrified that you cannot make the crossing—when in truth your cultivation is more than enough to cross the Divine Bridge. It is fortunate Little Shen did not take after you. Take after you, and he would never amount to much. " The Lame Elder could not work himself into a rage at her.
"Fine, you all spoil him! " he seethed. "I wash my hands of it. We will see how soon he gets beaten to death!
" For all that, he cared for Shen Mu deeply. In those years, after Granny Zhu picked Shen Mu up by the riverbank, he was the first in the village to accept the boy.
Granny Zhu, disgusted by his bed-wetting, had given him away—and it was the Lame Elder who, again and again, patiently stole him back. When Shen Mu grew a little older and had no playmates, it was this old rascal who kept him company—usually by tormenting him, snatching the candied hawthorns Granny Zhu bought him, seizing the toys Lord Huo made for him. Every time, he reduced Shen Mu to tears and earned himself a beating from Granny Zhu, and only then was he satisfied.
In those years, every one of them was in despair.
The Blind Elder's Dao-heart had been shattered by Xing'an; Granny Zhu feared the Fan Xuanshu hidden within her Dao-heart; the Silent Craftsman bent over his forge in silence, speaking to no one; the Alchemist was mired in debts of love; the Deaf Elder would have nothing to do with anyone; at the sight of Shen Mu, Lord Huo thought only of his wife and child, dead before their time; and the Butcher, knowing the truth of the azure heavens, often went mad. At that time none of them had untied the knot in his heart. In the whole village, only the Lame Elder had been driven into Yincan Village by the Jingping Imperial Preceptor—he carried the lightest burden of all, and that was why he could give Shen Mu his whole heart. Across from them, Vajra caught sight of all this noisy quarreling and was astonished.
Among gods and demons, dealings were always courteous; even sworn enemies treated one another with respect. Gods and demons like these of Yincan Village, squabbling day in and day out, were rare indeed.