Chapter 731 — Possessed by the Martial Soul
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 5
And yet warriors this formidable, facing this farmer, could only be strung up and beaten by his fist-intent spirit.
Of those who could truly pass this trial, probably not one in ten remained.
Shen Mu frowned. How was he to pass this trial?
And this was only the first gate; those after it would surely be harder. Was he to leave the Woodcutter Sage lying in a ditch to rot?
If he could fight without restraint, ignoring the martial Dao and the sword arts alike, then passing this gate would be no trouble at all; he might even fight his way to Lingxiao Hall without much difficulty. But that would rob the trial of all meaning.
"If Long Pang were smart enough, he would run out of the Bull-Fighting Realm right now, drag Master Woodcutter out of the ditch at the village mouth, and take to his heels."
Shen Mu blinked. "Long Pang is smart, all right. But knowing him, right now he's probably napping outside the Southern Heavenly Gate."
Hu Bugui suddenly halted, feet set in a stance neither square nor splayed. His blood-and-qi churned like a tide, and he too burst forth with fist-intent spirit!
His blood-and-qi became a figure that met the fist-intent spirit charging at the farmer. The two blood-and-qi figures collided; the fist-intent of both men rolled vast and mighty, and there was even a strong tendency toward returning to primal simplicity!
Shen Mu was astonished. To reach such a level, Hu Bugui was truly no ordinary man!
But there was still a gap between him and the farmer, and soon his fist-intent spirit was blasted apart by a single punch from the farmer!
Hu Bugui moved, entering the fray in his own body. He used his flesh as a weapon, fists and feet crisp and distinct; every muscle in his body could erupt in an instant with the power to move mountains and fill seas. Even the twitch of a single muscle burst out with a thunderous roar!
He threw a punch, and dragons coiled and tigers crouched, a myriad of strange visions. Even his hair could rival the sharpest sword; any part of his body could become a weapon of attack!
Shen Mu shifted his feet but did not step into the hall. His gaze locked onto Hu Bugui, layer upon layer of array patterns rotating in his pupils as he pushed the Nine Heavens Gazing Eye Art to its utmost, observing the way Hu Bugui's muscles moved, dissecting his technique for issuing force.
"No, it isn't the technique. It's his soul that's issuing the force!"
The vertical eye at Shen Mu's brow opened, observing Hu Bugui's bodily divine treasury and his Primordial Spirit. He saw that the Primordial Spirit and the body were joined in tight unity. Strand after strand of vital essence, like dragons, ran from the Spirit Fetus treasury through to the sun and moon, from the sun and moon through to the Five Luminaries and stars, from the Five Luminaries radiating into the coiling river of stars; in that river the vital essence rose like pillars, crashing into the earth of the Spirit Terrace and rousing the power of the Six Harmonies!
His Primordial Spirit stood upon the continent of the Six Harmonies like the root of heaven and earth, its tendrils sunk into Youdu.
Just so, his vital essence and Primordial Spirit were fused into one.
His body was like an incomparably intricate primordial weapon, converting that sky-flooding spirit of his into bodily energy and erupting with it!
"The Martial Soul, so that's what it is!"
Shen Mu's eyes lit up. At the entrance of the hall he began to move through his forms, executing with the utmost seriousness, one stance after another, the combat arts and divine abilities he had learned long ago: from Old Huo's boxing to the Butcher's blade art, from the Blind Elder's spear art to the divine ability of three heads and six arms, to the Ancestral Dragon's art of slaughter.
He was tempering his spirit, tempering his will.
How long passed, he did not know. Shen Mu suddenly came to himself and saw that the great hall was empty; there was no one there but him.