Chapter 168 — The Old Men
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The Headman glared at him, then said to the young Patriarch: "You're free of cares now; staying a few days to quiet your mind would be a fine thing."
The young Patriarch said: "I hold you in great admiration, Daoist brother. The Holy Sect Master, having received the nurture of all of you, is truly peerless and extraordinary, and so I've come to seek instruction. The Holy Sect Master was born with an Overlord Body, and he cultivates the Mystic Body Three-Elixir Art — his abilities are truly uncommon. My own experience is shallow; I never knew there was such a thing as an Overlord Body in this world. These few days will be just the time to ask your guidance..."
"Overlord Body!"
The Headman and Master Dan exchanged a look, then suddenly burst out laughing. Both old men were well on in years, yet they laughed with their mouths wide open, laughed until tears and snot ran down together, laughed until they could not catch their breath.
"Overlord Body... hahahaha!"
The Headman laughed so hard he toppled, rolling off the recliner; Master Dan laughed so hard he fell off his own recliner too, pounding the ground with both hands, unable to get up.
The young Patriarch and Elder Dianxing were baffled by the two of them. Elder Dianxing felt a chill in his heart: "How bored must these two be, day in and day out? There's nothing remotely funny, yet they laugh as if they're about to expire. If the Patriarch and I lodge here long, will we end up as mad as this too?"
The Headman settled for a moment, lying on the ground and wheezing. Master Dan pointed at the young Patriarch and laughed: "We fooled even the Demon Sect's Patriarch! Hahahaha!"
The Headman went off into wild laughter again, and Master Dan pounded the ground again.
After a long while, the Headman floated up and settled back into his recliner, his primal essence coiling around the comb to tidy his tangled hair. Master Dan walked a little way off, patted the dust from his clothes, went and washed his face, then fished another small comb from his breast, put himself in order, and only then came back, sat down properly, and said apologetically: "Daoist brothers, only the two of us are left in this village, and we're bored to death every day. Even the Crested Fire Pheasant Dragon has run off and taken up with a male, and hatched a nest of little Crested Fire Pheasant Dragons. It's rare that anyone tells us a joke, so we couldn't help but lose our composure."
The young Patriarch looked behind them and saw a Crested Fire Pheasant Dragon more than a man's height striding about the village with a flock of little ones. The hen flapped her wings and raised a gust of wind.
"So what exactly is this Overlord Body?"
The young Patriarch asked humbly: "I beg you two to spare no instruction. My horizons truly are a little narrow..."
"Say no more."
The Headman held back his laughter: "I'll tell you."
A moment later, the young Patriarch and Elder Dianxing, having learned the truth, were dumbstruck — as if they had been struck by heavenly thunder a hundred times and then trampled by a herd of wild bulls a hundred times. For a long while they could not collect themselves.
The mightiest Overlord Body had turned out to be an ordinary man's body; the mightiest Mystic Body Three-Elixir Art had turned out to be the Essence-Drawing Art, so common that ordinary people used it to keep fit!
And yet Shen Mu had cultivated exactly this art, and believed himself to possess an Overlord Body.
That was not the crux of it. The crux was that Shen Mu, utterly convinced, had used a mortal body and the Essence-Drawing Art to beat the piss out of other people's talents, geniuses, and prodigies — a veritable Overlord Body in the flesh!
The Headman and Master Dan looked at each other, smug. The Headman said quietly: "Look at their faces. Exactly as I imagined."