Chapter 332 — Peering in Secret

Shen Mu's gaze fell upon the dewdrop at his fingertip, and the dewdrop left him somewhat dazed. Could swordsmanship truly reach such a level?

The swordsmanship Lizheng had displayed this time was not the same as what he had shown when he taught Shen Mu in the past. In the old days, when Lizheng taught him "Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers," he had laid out the whole execution of the technique before him in exhaustive detail, so that he might know how the sword art was performed.

But this time, though the "Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers" Lizheng performed was the very same move he had passed on to him, there was something different within it.

It was as though he had enacted the creation of heaven and earth, bringing forth all things.

The Dao Sword of the Dao Sect used exhaustive analysis of the arts of number to dissect all natural things; the Fourteen Chapters of the Dao Sword used those arts to reproduce nature and all its creatures, and possessed immense power.

Lizheng's swordsmanship, however, seemed to walk an opposite road: he was creating heaven and earth and all things, using his sword art to expound them.

It was hard to say which of the two approaches was the more brilliant, but judged by their fundamental intent, the Dao Sword explained the Dao that follows nature, while Lizheng's sword diagram created nature — and so the sword diagram's intent should be the higher.

For to explain nature is still a form of learning, a learning from nature; but to create is to make something from nothing. Even by the Dao Sect's own supreme doctrine — that the Dao produces the One, the One the Two, the Two the Three, and the Three all things — Lizheng's sword diagram had grasped the Dao, and the Dao gives birth to all things. The Dao Sect's Dao Sword, by contrast, exhausted every possibility merely to expound all things.

Shen Mu stared at the dewdrop. It was crystalline, flawless, incomparably smooth, and upon its surface he could actually see the vast world refracted within it, every hair and thread revealed.

"Azure Empyrean Heaven Eye, open!"

Layer upon layer of array patterns spun in Shen Mu's pupils. Gazing with the Azure Empyrean Heaven Eye, he tried to see the finest threads of sword-light that composed the dewdrop, but to his disappointment the Heaven Eye could not make them out.

Yet he saw another wonder: the dewdrop refracted external things, and looking closely, he found that from the refracting surface he could see still finer detail.

Through the dewdrop's refraction he looked at Imperial Preceptor Jingping. The Imperial Preceptor had entered a wondrous state, his eyes seemingly vacant, but viewing his eyes through the dewdrop, Shen Mu saw that within them were countless shifting arrays.

Looking yet more closely, he saw that within these shifting arrays a world seemed to be taking shape.

Shen Mu roused his spirits and sustained the Azure Empyrean Heaven Eye, peering closer, seeing more distinctly: within the shifting arrays in Imperial Preceptor Jingping's eyes it was as though heaven and earth were being split apart, a demonstration of the marvel of creation!

He felt as though he were there in person, as though he stood within the world being born in the Imperial Preceptor's eyes, undergoing the Imperial Preceptor's process of enlightenment.

Imperial Preceptor Jingping was comprehending the Dao of the sword. The man was truly brilliant — no wonder Ancestor Mingmo, the Old Dao Master, and the Old Tathagata, upon first setting eyes on him, had been moved to cherish his talent and had poured out to him all the secret teachings of their holy lands.

Shen Mu was inferior to him in both insight and natural endowment. At his first glimpse of Lizheng's sword Dao, the man had grasped an analogous truth and comprehended a sword Dao of his own; such heaven-defying endowment and talent, Shen Mu admitted, he could never match.

And yet now, by means of this dewdrop, Shen Mu had entered Imperial Preceptor Jingping's state of enlightenment, and was using his enlightenment to elevate himself.

"Truly wondrous—"

Seeing this, Lizheng said to the Lame Old Man with a sigh, "Though Shen'er's endowment and insight are not those of a sage born once in five hundred years, that quick wit and that burrowing persistence of his are beyond any sage's reach."

The Lame Old Man was smug. "I taught him!"

Lizheng added, "We taught him!"

The Lame Old Man said, "What do you make of Imperial Preceptor Jingping? Can he be the Human Emperor?"

Lizheng was silent a moment, then said softly, "He is no worse than I. In the future he may be even better."

The Lame Old Man looked at him doubtfully. "I know you never finish what you mean to say. Why not say it all at once?"

Lizheng sighed. "I am already very strong. I have reached the utmost limit of swordsmanship. But you have seen how my hands and feet were severed — cut off by a sword."

The Lame Old Man said no more. Lizheng went on: "My hands and feet were cut off, severed by another's sword. Imperial Preceptor Jingping, this sage born once in five hundred years, may in the future be stronger than I. But if he meets with no other fortune, he too will be trapped at the Divine Bridge realm, as I am; without crossing the Divine Bridge one cannot reach the next realm directly, and he will face the same end as I."

The Lame Old Man's body trembled slightly. He looked at Imperial Preceptor Jingping, then his gaze fell on Shen Mu, and a questioning look came over him. He said in a low voice, "When you and I are gone, if Imperial Preceptor Jingping also dies, what of Shen'er?"

Lizheng said blankly, "I had hoped he would be only an ordinary man, a common man, living out an ordinary life. Yet again and again he has surpassed my expectations, shattering them one after another. I dare not be certain of his future. I once thought him ordinary, but the search for the Land of No Sorrow showed me that there may be something extraordinary in him."

The Lame Old Man grinned. "Ordinary? Lizheng, you have gone senile in your old age. Is there such a thing as an ordinary Overlord Body? Shen'er has an Overlord Body — how is that ordinary?"

Lizheng's expression froze. He gave two dry laughs and continued, "Yes, I forgot he has an Overlord Body; naturally he will do extraordinary things. This time too he exceeded my expectations. I thought he could not comprehend anything profound from my sword Dao, yet from that dewdrop he saw Imperial Preceptor Jingping's process of enlightenment. That is too... too..."

He did not know how to put it. The Lame Old Man laughed. "Too unbelievable!"

He smiled bitterly. "I thought I would never acknowledge him, never pass on my mantle to him. Yet I did acknowledge him; not only did I pass on my mantle, I passed on my burdens and my responsibilities as well."

Recalling the past, he felt a mingled amusement and exasperation. "I did not trust him at first. I did not think he could accomplish anything extraordinary. But in the end he made me expect more and more of him, and at last I found that the one I trusted most was still him. True, we raised him — but as he grew, we too grew in the raising of him."

The Lame Old Man asked with a smile, "And what do you mean by that?"

The wrinkles on Lizheng's face gathered together, and a smile of genuine happiness appeared. "I mean that, compared with Imperial Preceptor Jingping, I have greater hopes for Shen'er, whom we raised. Fifteen years ago, in the darkness of the Wasteland Ruins, the child who came down the Yong River — he was born extraordinary! His endowment is not as dazzling as Imperial Preceptor Jingping's, his insight is not as heaven-defying, but there is something in him that I cannot see through..."

"The Overlord Body!" the Lame Old Man said excitedly.