Chapter 1663 — Summoning the Soul of That Old Man
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" "They're a flock of chickens, nothing more. " Granny Zhu waved it off. "When you're with child, have the Blind Elder kill one a day to build you up. The chickens raised outside the Heavenly Palace aren't enough, but luckily there are flocks of them down in Yincan Village.
That ginseng can be sliced thin and stewed with them in the pot. What has the boy been doing these days? " "Cultivating," Ling Yuxiu said.
"He seems to have run into some difficulty, though he hasn't spoken of it to me.
But I can guess. He has cultivated to the Jade Capital realm, yet he has only fifty-eight treasure halls and not seventy-two, and it troubles him endlessly. He feels he cannot enter the next realm. " Granny Zhu set down her needle and thread and sank into thought. "Fifty-eight treasure halls?
Seventy-two treasure halls. . . couldn't he simply ask Imperial Teacher Jingping? Doesn't Imperial Teacher Jingping possess the complete seventy-two treasure halls?
" The Imperial Teacher Jingping she spoke of was Jiang Baigui, who had already cultivated the thirty-six heavenly palaces and seventy-two treasure halls. Ling Yuxiu knew this as well. "My husband says the seventy-two treasure halls Imperial Teacher Jingping cultivated belong to the innate Dao, and his thirty-six heavenly palaces to the acquired Dao; they are not the same as the seventy-two treasure halls of Jade Capital City.
The seventy-two treasure halls of Jade Capital City are in truth transformations of the great Daos of seventy-two prehistoric Dao-achievers, embodying the attainments of those seventy-two in the great Dao. " Granny Zhu was unimpressed.
"The boy likes to split hairs. There's a path ready to hand, yet he insists on seeking one that looks finer. The seventy-two treasure halls of Jade Capital City are borrowed power; cultivate them as well as you please, and they remain flowers in a mirror and the moon on water. Didn't Sage Woodcutter give him three hundred and sixty kinds of acquired Dao? Let him pick out seventy-two and forge them into treasure halls, that's all. " Ling Yuxiu smiled.
"Granny speaks good sense. It is only that my husband is proud, and cannot bring himself to cultivate the arts of his teacher, the Woodcutter. " Granny Zhu spat. "He has gnawed his way through the whole world, hasn't he? Who has not been gnawed by him? Even the dragon qilin had its Human-Rearing Scripture gnawed by him!
What is so wrong with gnawing on his own teacher? It is only natural and right!
" "I'll go and speak with him. " As Ling Yuxiu rose to go find Shen Mu, Granny Zhu hastily stuffed several baby garments into her arms. "You're a good girl.
I used to worry you'd still carry imperial airs about you and wouldn't be able to adjust, but it seems I fretted for nothing.
Show these clothes to the cowherd! Hang them at the head of his bed every day! " Ling Yuxiu took the clothes and hurried off. She found Shen Mu and repeated Granny Zhu's words. "Granny makes a great deal of sense.
Why not consider it, husband?
" Shen Mu smiled. "My lady, what worries me is not only that.
The acquired Dao is time-consuming and laborious to study; it is creation from nothing. How hard it is to raise it to a profound realm! The war between Jingping and the Heavenly Court cannot be dragged out many more years. To cultivate the acquired Dao now would cost far too much time. " Ling Yuxiu thought a moment, then smiled.
"Imperial Teacher Jiang Jingping's realm is already very high. Could his thirty-six heavenly palaces be converted into treasure halls? Since you have already gnawed on Xing An and Emperor Haotian, why not gnaw on him too?
" She produced a branch that Jiang Baigui had sent as a wedding gift and smiled. "Husband, you ought to be able to infer from this just what realm Imperial Teacher Jiang Jingping has cultivated to, surely? " Shen Mu took the branch and flicked it with a finger.