Chapter 278 — The Rhythm of Attack and Defense

Shen Mu and Ban Gongcuo walked side by side, leaving the Jade Fragrance Pavilion behind, following the street toward the city gate.

Early spring in the capital still carried a chill; even at high noon the sun did not ride high but hung halfway up the southern sky, its light mild rather than piercing.

The spring capital was as bustling as ever, crowds flowing to and fro; young gentlemen and young ladies of wealthy houses went out in company, most of them in sable furs, the girls bundled up until they seemed soft and furry, which only set off the whiteness of their skin. In seasons past, many of the capital's richest houses would already have taken flying ships south to winter over, returning only at the turn of spring into summer.

This year was different: natural calamity had made the south as cold as the north, colder even, and so most people had stayed in the north. With disaster and disorder abroad, after all, it was steadier to remain in the capital. Shen Mu and Ban Gongcuo walked slowly, each adjusting his own condition.

It had to be granted that Ban Gongcuo, a man of lofty attainment who had lived twenty lives through nineteen reincarnations, swiftly brought his essence, energy and spirit to their peak, while Shen Mu was still adjusting by degrees. Killing intent welled from Ban Gongcuo, aimed at Shen Mu, and he began to quicken his pace by degrees.

His killing aura was bent on Shen Mu precisely to force a response, to make him alter his walking stance against his will lest a flaw show.

In the Imperial College, Shen Mu had once used this same tactic on him, forcing him to limp along, using shifts of posture to keep every movement flawless and give Shen Mu no opening.

Now he repaid Shen Mu in his own coin, pressing him with the peak of his state and momentum, compelling him to follow his rhythm, to shift with every change in his aura.

So long as Shen Mu had to keep to his rhythm, Ban Gongcuo would hold the initiative and leave him passive, scrambling to cope. And to keep from exposing a flaw, Shen Mu would have to keep altering his path, altering his momentum; the longer they walked, the more changes he would be forced to make, until at last he outran this youth's experience and insight and left him nothing left to change, nothing left to transform.

Once they reached the outskirts, cutting Shen Mu down would be a matter of one move, two moves. "Old fox! " Shen Mu's face was grave; this was a truly terrifying being.

Ban Gongcuo was that kind of terrifying man: even when he stood above his opponent, if there was an advantage to be seized he seized it at once and magnified it, magnified it as far as it could go.

Tempered by ten thousand years, he was seldom moved by anything outside himself; every word and deed advanced along the experience he had accumulated over those ten thousand years, experience like runes, like principles, branded deep into his speech and bearing.

The Imperial Preceptor Jingping and the Blind Elder had both spoken of the unity of knowledge and action; Master Huo had spoken of never overstepping the rules; with ten thousand years gathered behind him, Ban Gongcuo had reached that step as well.

And Shen Mu had his own understanding of the unity of knowledge and action.

To know and not to act is called insincerity. To act and not to achieve is called incapacity.

To know and to act is a heart of pure sincerity; to act and to achieve is to carry through to the very end, and by then one is hard to sway with other people or other affairs.

But the premise of the unity of knowledge and action is the investigation of things and the extension of knowledge: to study a thing to its utmost extreme until it becomes one's own knowledge.

Cooking, for instance: to bring the craft to perfection, flawless in color, aroma and taste.

Building, for instance: to raise towers and pavilions strong and beautiful and useful, magnificent, standing against wind and rain, unbroken by earthquake.

Shipbuilding, for instance: to master the principles of shipbuilding utterly, to use sound materials, so that wind and wave cannot sink it.

This is the investigation of things and the extension of knowledge: to study a thing or an affair to its limit and comprehend every principle within it.

Only by achieving that can one achieve the unity of knowledge and action. Ban Gongcuo was such a man.

Reincarnating again and again, he had studied every art and method to its utmost; all the knowledge he had ever acquired had become his foundation, part of every word and gesture he made.

His every movement, every word, carried deep intent; from the very first time Shen Mu met him, Shen Mu had entered his rhythm.

From Shen Mu's provocation outside Six Harmonies Hall to Ban Gongcuo's talk in the Jade Fragrance Pavilion, all of it was him weaving a web, methodically spinning out a great net to enmesh Shen Mu. And now, as they walked toward the outskirts, this great spider was drawing in its web, spitting silk over Shen Mu, winding him, binding him tight, leaving him less and less room to move; when they reached the outskirts, it would be time for the spider to inject its venom and kill its prey.

So terrible an opponent Shen Mu had never seen.

Neither the Dao Child nor the Buddha Child, nor even those great masters of the Heaven-Man and Life-Death realms who had hunted him down, could match Ban Gongcuo; they all fell far short.

Now Shen Mu had already been driven to limp and stagger as he walked, while Ban Gongcuo walked steadily, ever more steadily. He was forcing Shen Mu to bring out every variation he possessed lest a flaw show; when Shen Mu's variations were exhausted, that would be the hour of his death.

"To cross blades with a being so powerful and terrible — what a tremendous fortune!

" Shen Mu's steps halted abruptly, and in that instant of stopping, flaws opened all over him; you could say his whole body was one gaping flaw.

Ban Gongcuo was slightly startled and stopped as well.

In that instant he had the urge to strike; Shen Mu was riddled with openings, and in his eyes every part of Shen Mu was a flaw that could be ended with a single blow — only he hesitated for one instant.

Shen Mu was the master of the Nether Demon Cult, and the Nether Demon Cult was enormously powerful, the foremost sect of the mundane world; to strike here, even if he killed Shen Mu, he would scarcely escape its vengeance.

In the very instant of his hesitation, the flaws on Shen Mu vanished; his momentum burst forth with a roar, his killing intent blazing out, overpowering Ban Gongcuo by a notch, and he lifted his foot and walked on.

Ban Gongcuo's face darkened slightly; he had no choice but to follow, and sank into passivity.

That Shen Mu should use his hesitation to escape his disadvantage truly exceeded his expectations; plainly the youth's experience fell short of his own, yet he possessed a keen edge that had long since been worn away in Ban Gongcuo. Through so many reincarnations, the enterprising spirit of his first life had been ground down through life after life of long years; now he saw that very spirit in Shen Mu.

This time it was his turn to be gripped by Shen Mu, forced to walk to Shen Mu's rhythm.

The two men's stances and auras shifted without cease, the shifts exceedingly subtle; but as the road grew longer, Ban Gongcuo's swaying grew wider, like a drunken man lurching this way and that, drawing no small amount of notice.

The situation now was like Shen Mu leading a drunk thirteen- or fourteen-year-old child down the street on an invisible rope.

So it is when masters trade blows; above all when the two are closely matched, one careless moment and the situation reverses.

Shen Mu had used his reluctance to strike openly within the city to turn the tables.