Chapter 339 — A Vast Breadth of Mind

The Lame Elder asked, wary, "What is it?

" Shen Mu stroked his chin, plucked out a single robustly growing hair of his beard, and said, "I think the art in this book may be a formula for connecting the Spirit Bridge. " The Lame Elder had not caught it clearly: "What bridge?

" "The Spirit Bridge.

" Shen Mu went on measuring, head lowered, and said, "Because the spirit storehouse is not like the meridians and channels of a human body.

The meridians and channels of a human body are simply there; one glance at a circulation diagram and you can try to set the art in motion. The spirit storehouse is an empty expanse of space. Vital essence moves through that empty expanse, and every last fraction of its movement occupies a different spatial dimension. So the precise spatial dimensions have to be measured. Coordinates in space are hard to fix; one careless slip and the whole thing goes wrong. " The Lame Elder's expression went blank; he looked dazed, staring woodenly as Shen Mu shifted his measuring scale and continued to measure the patterns on the golden book. Shen Mu fetched paper and brush, noted down his measurements, and said without lifting his head, "A mistake in spatial dimensions, and a mere haze of difference becomes a thousand miles of error.

I need exact measurements; I need to calculate down to the digits beyond the faintest blur. Besides, the human figure in the painting is not the same size as a real human body, and the spirit storehouse of the figure painted there is not the same size as the spirit storehouse of a real person.

First I work out the base values. Every person's Spirit Bridge and spirit storehouse differ in size, but with the base values one can cultivate according to spatial proportions, and so master the Magpie Bridge Art. . . " The Lame Elder blinked: "What bridge? " Shen Mu was perplexed, and laughed: "The Magpie Bridge. Grandpa Lame, you seem a little distracted. I won't talk to you anymore; the measuring here is troublesome and the calculations are hard, they will take a very long time. .

.

" Suddenly the Village Chief's head poked out from inside the carriage, and he asked, quivering with excitement, "What bridge? " Shen Mu grew more perplexed still: "Village Chief, you are distracted too? The Magpie Bridge!

" "Wrong!

" The Jingping Imperial Preceptor twisted his head around to his back and said rapidly, "Wrong!

Before the Magpie Bridge, you clearly said the Spirit Bridge!

" "Exactly! " The Lame Elder said hastily, "What I heard was the Spirit Bridge too!

" The Village Chief nodded again and again: "The Spirit Bridge!

" Light dawned on Shen Mu.

He laughed: "The Spirit Bridge of the man in the painting is broken.

The art in the painting is called the Magpie Bridge Art, and it repairs the Spirit Bridge. I was just now calculating the mathematical principles the Magpie Bridge Art requires. That art is very hard to cultivate; there is too much that must be measured. .

.

" "An art that repairs the Spirit Bridge! " The aura of the three men in the carriage surged abruptly. In an instant the treasure carriage flying in midair was shaken apart by their momentum, then shattered by their dreadful aura into finest powder!

Shen Mu hastily leapt into the air, clutching the golden book and his measurements to his chest; his clothes were stained into a sorry mess by ink. The Jingping Imperial Preceptor, the Village Chief, and the Lame Elder reached for the golden book almost at the same moment; seeing Shen Mu hugging it to his chest, they checked themselves hastily and each drew back his hand, the turmoil in their hearts beyond words.

Shen Mu complained, "Fortunately this is a golden book and need not fear being ruined by ink; otherwise your sins would be grave indeed. " The Village Chief said hurriedly, "Land first, then we talk! " The four of them descended.

Corpses lay all around; here and there fires still burned, thick smoke rolling up, the traces left by fire-type divine abilities. Ahead of them, the routed army of the Mandi Kingdom, in its confusion, was battering Helan Pass, while the pass's defending generals held the gates to the death, unwilling to open them and let the fugitives in, lest the Jingping army seize the chance and break through.

These defeated troops were actually attacking Helan Pass in a frenzy.

The tall walls crumbled again and again under the bombardment of many powerful cultivators, shards of stone flying everywhere. Luckily the wall was thick enough; what they had broken was the outer wall, and the inner wall still held. The defending soldiers, making no distinction between friend and foe, drove their divine abilities and primal weapons outward and down the wall, blasting to death the very comrades who had once fought shoulder to shoulder with them. Below the walls the curses were coarse and foul beyond measure, and the scene grew more hideous still; the corpses at the foot of the wall piled into mountains. In a moment, countless fleeing soldiers poured into the city like a tide.

Inside the city, Ban Gongcuo's hands and feet went cold as ice. The gates were broken, the defeated army rushed into the city, and Helan Pass could no longer hope to resist the enemy's assault. The routed troops crashed into the garrison, and the garrison, unable to hold formation, fled in turn. The enemy seized the moment and poured in, slaughtering with methodical calm. The grasslands were certain to be utterly ruined! "Take me away at once! " Ban Gongcuo steeled his heart and ordered the Shaman King beside him, shouting, "Abandon the city!

Withdraw from Helan Pass!

" That Shaman King hurriedly carried him off, flying out of Helan Pass.

Ban Gongcuo said in a harsh voice, "Withdraw every disciple of my Golden Palace from the battlefield! " The Shaman King's heart quailed; he said, trembling, "Great Venerable, if the disciples of the Golden Palace withdraw, the armies of every tribe on the grasslands will have no way to live! " "But the Golden Palace still has a way to live. " Ban Gongcuo was utterly calm.

"To hold on by force will only leave my Golden Palace's disciples dead in this city.

The Golden Palace's strength must be preserved. It is on the grasslands that the true battlefield lies.

The Golden Palace's fearsome name was not offered up by the tribes, nor flattered into being. If the Jingping Imperial Preceptor wants to seize the grasslands, he must pay a sufficient price!

" The Shaman King hurriedly stirred his vital essence into an earth-shaking shout that carried across the battlefield, ordering the Golden Palace disciples to retreat. At his order the scene turned even more chaotic; the army's morale collapsed utterly.

Everyone wanted to save his own life, and they surged madly toward the gates behind the pass, crowding and trampling one another, while those who had cultivated flight divine abilities rose into the air, only to be shot down at once by primal-essence cannons.

Below the tower ships, the great army of Jingping poured in, scouring the battlefield of remnants. Ban Gongcuo glanced back. Helan Pass had begun to collapse; flames blazed in the city and thick smoke billowed up into the sky. The Mandi officers and soldiers who had escaped the city were fleeing in terror in all directions, and there were those who could not get out and so clambered up Mount Helan; countless of them fell from the mountain and were smashed to pulp. Many Great Shamans and Shaman Kings flew over and gathered around Ban Gongcuo.

Terror and despair were written on every face, yet Ban Gongcuo only grew calmer. He instructed them, "Scatter at once in all directions and put shamanic poison into every water source on the grasslands; let plague run rampant.