荒墟牧神 - 第847章 青雲直上 - 簡牘書房

The Crimson Radiance Divine Son smiled faintly and said nothing, his smile tinged with arrogance; plainly he did not agree with Xing'an's words. "He did not understand—that 'not inferior to me' was only my own modesty. .

.

And yet the difficulty before him is one I truly cannot resolve; only the Divine Son of Youdu can help him.

" In the sky, Shen Mu was still in retreat. Libationer Bashan grew smoother and smoother as he fought, and could not help loosing long whistles again and again, unleashing all that he had learned in his life. As Grand Libationer of the Lanjiang Academy, every gain of the Academy's reforms passed through his hands; and because Bashan was pent in by his own divine arts and could make little progress, he too threw himself desperately into studying the divine arts of others, hoping to borrow stones from other mountains to break through.

Yet a worthy opponent was hard to come by.

He stood in a rather awkward position: the Fusion of Combat and Dharma made his attacks too powerful, and few could receive his overbearing strike at the same cultivation realm; yet because he had not entered the Dao, when facing men like Zaifu and Xing'an he always lost within a move or two, with no chance to test himself and display what he had. Libationer Bashan was in the early phase of his transformation, the most stifling and most helpless stretch of it; capable as he was, his gifts were not enough to bring the transformation about. He needed pressure, and yet few could give him that pressure.

Only when he faced the Black Tiger God did he have room to unleash himself, but the Black Tiger God followed the Woodcutter roving everywhere and had come only once. This time, when Shen Mu arrived at the Lanjiang Academy, Shen Mu, thick of hide and tough of flesh, could take a beating, and at last gave him the chance to pour out all he had learned and comprehended, to his heart's content.

Shen Mu had come to study the fruits of the Lanjiang Academy's reforms, yet in this moment he had become the whetstone for Bashan's blade, taking whatever divine art the man unleashed, and more than that, Shen Mu's adaptability was terrifying: though he was in retreat, his moves were exquisite beyond measure, learning Lanjiang's divine arts from him and then turning them back in counterattack.

Shen Mu could even master his divine arts within a move or two, and see the flaws in them, forcing him to keep changing, keep improving. Shen Mu was a whetstone that polished him brighter, keener.

Such an opponent was truly hard to come by. "This is not a senior brother feeding moves to a junior brother, but a junior brother instructing his senior," the old farmer said to Zaifu, shaking his head. "That son of the Shen family knows better than you how to teach a disciple.

" Zaifu nodded. "Bashan lacks the bold spirit; he could never learn my blade arts, yet he always wanted to learn from me.

Lacking in cleverness, he could not grasp the peerless art of entering the Dao.

Fortunately I died once, and only then did he step out of my shadow and create the skill of the Fusion of Combat and Dharma.

Only, I can no longer point him the way.

" The old farmer thought for a moment, then said, "Knowing when to let go—that makes you a good teacher.

" Zaifu laughed. "Has the Heavenly Master of Martial Combat opened the Heavenly River divine storehouse? " The old farmer sighed and shook his head.

"Because the Martial Great Emperor had no seventh divine storehouse, he crossed straight over to the Heavenly Palace, and that is how he became the Martial Great Emperor.

But precisely because he lacked the seventh divine storehouse, he is a notch weaker than the other powerhouses of the Imperial Throne," Zaifu said, unhurried.

"Only when the seventh divine storehouse is complete and the Heavenly River is opened will the Martial Great Emperor be truly the Martial Great Emperor.