Chapter 817 — The Heavenly Lord Bestows Blessings
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 5
Shen Mu gave a cold snort, clearly displeased. "What true transmission? Master, when you taught my junior brother, you never once let me sit in. You have never transmitted anything to me. Where does this 'true transmission' come from?"
The Woodcutter Sage ignored him, and the two immediately set to work, circling ceaselessly around the Heavenly Venerable Yu.
The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping drew his sword, and the Woodcutter Sage took up his axe. One sent his blade forth like lightning, the other wielded his axe like the wind. Every move was exquisitely refined, breathtaking to behold.
"Jiang Bai Gui is very much like the woodcutter."
The Old Farmer watched for a while, then said quietly to the Scholar, "But his aptitude and comprehension seem even higher than the woodcutter's. His cultivation has already drawn close to the woodcutter's level."
The Scholar nodded slightly. "The Great Heavenly Master is distracted by too many other matters, which is why his cultivation realm has stalled. His energy is limited; one man propping up the Kaihuang Reforms delayed his own cultivation. But Jiang Bai Gui has already absorbed eight or nine parts of his knowledge, and he can still advance with astonishing speed. He is truly no ordinary man."
The Old Farmer glanced at Shen Mu, who stood off to the side looking thoroughly displeased, and asked quietly, "Why won't the woodcutter teach that boy Shen Mu? The boy is angry. His face is drawn longer than your donkey's."
The Scholar shook his head. "That I do not know. But Shen Mu's learning is also very miscellaneous. Though it is miscellaneous, he has mastered it all thoroughly and skillfully—not bad at all. Especially his sword art; even I cannot hold against it."
"I know why Eldest Brother won't teach him."
The Fisherman walked over and said in a low voice, "I spent some time with young Shen Mu and came to admire him greatly, so I asked Eldest Brother why he would not teach him. His expression was very strange at the time. He told me that of his three disciples, he knew what to teach the eldest and the youngest, but for this second disciple alone, he did not know what to teach, nor how to teach it. So he simply taught him nothing and let him run wild."
The Scholar was caught between laughter and tears. He asked the Old Farmer, "I observe that his martial Dao is also quite strong. Did you transmit it to him?"
The Old Farmer gave a muffled snort and shook his head. "Never transmitted a thing. Back then I had thrown the woodcutter into a ditch to soak, and the boy came looking for me, full of arrogance, saying he could solve the problem of the people of the Bullfighting Realm having no divine bridge, and that he would use this to trade for the woodcutter. So I let him go challenge the Bullfighting Heavenly Palace, and then he comprehended entering the Dao through martial arts on his own. I transmitted nothing to him. To my surprise, the boy actually solved it..."
The Scholar was stunned for a moment. She looked at Shen Mu, who was still pulling a long face, looking thoroughly unhappy.
"With a disciple like this, one cannot tell whether it is the Wen Tian Pavilion's fortune or misfortune," she thought to herself.
In but a short while, the Woodcutter and the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had dismantled the Earth Mother's blessing. The two immediately began dismantling the Heavenly Duke's blessing, also at extreme speed, and then tackled Tubo's blessing. The Heavenly Masters and Heavenly Kings all wore expressions of astonishment.
Even Di Yiyue frowned deeply. The two were dismantling at such speed that even she could not have matched it.
To achieve such speed required extraordinary intelligence and terrifying powers of deduction, and moreover a flawless, seamless coordination that permitted not the slightest error.
The Woodcutter and the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had not rehearsed beforehand; they simply began, and their coordination was truly flawless!