Chapter 1129 — Walk Shoulder to Shoulder with Me
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
But this sword cannot bear such tremendous power. " The Silent Smith examined the particles on the ground minutely, distinguishing one material after another, and said, "In the proportioning of the materials, I could not have done better than he.
And yet.
.
.
this sword may be counted as forged!
" The blind old man was slightly taken aback. The Silent Smith brushed aside the dust and drew from beneath it a sword hilt; at the hilt there remained a broken blade, only six inches long.
He laughed: "This is the sword! " Shen Mu had thought he had failed in forging the treasure, and his heart was bleak; at these words he hurried to look, and saw that though the broken blade had only six inches of steel left, it was still keen, its light undiminished!
The Silent Smith flicked the blade and laughed: "Shen'er, you thought too perfectly; you wished to forge a flawless divine sword in accord with your own Great Dao. But how could such a thing be done at a single stroke?
The way of man is to take from the insufficient and serve the surplus. Just now, in forging your treasure, you forged too full, and without meaning to you entered the way of man.
" Shen Mu half understood, and fell to pondering. "Just now you forged too full, but your cultivation method is not yet full; you forced the forging of the divine sword, so that the sword came to harm and could not bear it, and therefore it shattered. As the saying goes, the proud dragon has regrets; fullness cannot endure.
" The Silent Smith said, "But the way of heaven is to take from the surplus and supply the insufficient.
The broken sword still remains; use your own surplus to make up the sword's insufficiency, and this shall be your Dao-sword. There is no need to demand perfection of it.
This Dao-sword still requires you to keep grasping and comprehending, to perfect your cultivation method and your own Great Dao, before it can be made whole. On the day your work is accomplished, the sword too will be accomplished. " Shen Mu received the broken sword, and at the slightest stir of his thought a blade-light burst from the broken steel, brimming like water, mirroring his face.
The Silent Smith had said he had forged too full, and truly the words were not wrong.
In forging this sword, what he had in mind was a divine artifact that could bear his fifteen Heavenly Palaces, branding his Great Dao runes into the sword and sealing his insights into the Dao within it as well.
Among the fifteen Heavenly Palaces, six were still not complete; the deficiencies in his cultivation method left his divine sword gravely deficient too, yet Shen Mu had insisted on perfecting it in every particular, so that the divine sword shattered. The Silent Smith laughed: "This sword will grow together with you.
Broken as it is, when it is grown its might will surpass other divine weapons and sharp blades by who knows how much! " Shen Mu roused the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art, and the broken sword suddenly dissolved, becoming countless tiny particles that gathered like flowing water into a long saber; then he passed a hand lightly over the blade, and the saber became a dragon spear.
The broken sword changed with his will, yet each time it took the form of a different weapon, he had to summon his own runes to complete the missing portion of the divine weapon.
And in each form the missing portion was different, and the Great Dao runes required were different as well. Shen Mu put away the broken sword, still somewhat downcast; the deficiencies in his cultivation method had left the divine sword incomplete, and yet in his heart he still wished to forge a flawless divine weapon.
"Haste does not bring success.
Those like Grandpa Silent Smith and the Village Head, who cultivate a single Heavenly Palace, can instead forge divine weapons suited to themselves.
I strove for a Great Heavenly Court, and instead cannot forge one. " He steadied himself, and from outside came the voice of the Demon King Dutian.