Chapter 413 — The Cultivation Perfected

In the mountain villa, great cauldrons had been set up one after another, each of them guarded by a deer demon that kept feeding the fire, and in those cauldrons masters of the arts were being boiled one by one, the fragrance of medicine drifting on the air.

Beyond the cauldrons stood steaming baskets of enormous size, and in them some of the masters were being steamed. Shen Mu came to make his rounds, inspecting the medicinal broth, changing out the ingredients several times, and adding needles to those masters whose spirit treasures had been injured, using hollow silver needles to channel the steam into their bodies.

Emperor Yanfeng lay bristling with silver needles from head to heel, watching Shen Mu with a black scowl.

Shen Mu pressed the emperor down into the steaming basket; Emperor Yanfeng sat bolt upright again and went on glaring at him.

Shen Mu smiled. "Does Your Majesty have some matter to discuss?"

Emperor Yanfeng's expression changed all at once, and with a benign and gracious face he said, "My dear Shen has labored hard and rendered great service. Would you like a promotion?"

Shen Mu was bewildered. The emperor's face grew even kinder. "You are still only of the fifth rank, and yet you have won so much merit: rebuilding the tower ships, casting the true-yuan cannon and the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon, opening waterworks and roads with the crown prince, saving Us from peril time and again, and now bringing in the Tianyu clan as well. Too many deeds by far. We cannot but reward you. Speak, then. What do you want?"

Shen Mu scratched his head, thought it over, and ventured, "Your Majesty, treating your injuries this time has cost a great deal in medicine, and buying the cauldrons, the silver needles and the steam baskets took no small sum besides. I advanced that money out of my own pocket. Might Your Majesty consider..."

Emperor Yanfeng's face went black on the instant. "That does not count as a reward! The Ministry of Revenue has money now. Go ask them for it! The reward We mean to give you is something the Ministry could never give. What do you want?"

Shen Mu weighed the question a while. Money? He had never lacked for money. Office? He had little interest in it. Reputation? The Master of the Dark Demon Sect already bore a fearsome name; what reputation did he need?

Treasure?

He had plundered so many precious things, scraped together a good deal more from Lord Huanlong, and Xue Hu'er had even brought him a hundred heavy treasures out of the Golden Palace; he had the Carefree Sword and the Sword Pill besides. He seemed to lack for nothing there either.

Heavenly materials, earthly treasures, elixirs, wonder drugs? No need for those either, for Shen Mu was himself a divine physician.

Shen Mu shook his head, and at last he understood what the Imperial Preceptor Jingping had felt: when the emperor's gifts are beneath contempt, naturally one wants none of them, every single time.

"Think again."

Emperor Yanfeng led him along, step by patient step. "There must be something here that you want. It need not be an object. It need not be an office. It might be a person..."

Light broke upon Shen Mu, and he smiled in perfect understanding. "So Your Majesty means to reward me with a few palace maids. I am forever on the road and have no need of maids to wait on me, but Granny lives here, and the ones about her are all sprites and goblins, and ugly ones at that. If Your Majesty would grant me a few palace maids to keep the villa in order, your servant would certainly not decline! I think those two girls Jianqi and Qinqi in the Empress Dowager's service are quite fine. Pretty, too, and gentle and thoughtful, quick to understand another's heart..."

Emperor Yanfeng flew into a fury, lying stiff as a board in the steaming basket. "Out!"

"By your command."

Shen Mu set the lid back on the steamer and muttered, "A moment ago you were putting on such airs about granting a reward, and you will not part with even two palace maids. Skinflint..."

"What did you say? Say that again!"

Inside the steamer Emperor Yanfeng stamped and raged. "We will have your head!"

Then Emperor Yanfeng heard Shen Mu's voice outside, lodging his complaint: "Yuxiu, you have come at just the right moment. Your father said he would reward me, and then he would not, and now he wants my head."

Ling Yuxiu's voice came back. "Why do you pay him any mind? He has been manic these years, forever wanting this one's head and that one's head. The court affairs have broken him. And after all the heads he has ordered off in words, he has actually taken very few. Ignore him. He will carry on a while and then stop."

"You came to find me. For dual cultivation?"

"Yes. Our method is nearly finished, and these last days you have been busy healing them and have fallen behind. We must strike while the iron is hot and finish it as soon as we can. Otherwise, in a few days, when Father's wounds are healed, he will drag me back to the capital, and who knows when we might finish the method then..."

...

The two of them walked off into the distance. Emperor Yanfeng slumped in the steamer and thought, "Xiu'er, this is as far as your father can help you. The boy will not take the hint. It all comes down to you now."

Some days later, Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu at last set out the Six Harmonies Primordial Spirit method in full. Both of them were somewhat uneasy, not knowing whether the method could truly bring others to forge a primordial spirit at the Six Harmonies realm.

"Let me try it! I happen to be at the Six Harmonies realm!" Si Yunxiang said, skipping with eagerness.

Shen Mu shook his head. "This method is in truth two methods joined into one set, one for men and one for women, and the men's differs from the women's in subtle ways. What is more, it must be cultivated by two people together, and each must hold nothing back from the other and harbor no crooked thoughts; only then can the two forge a primordial spirit. If it succeeds, it succeeds for the pair."

Si Yunxiang said hastily, "Sect Master, cultivate it with me."

Shen Mu spoke with heavier emphasis. "Holy Maiden, there must be perfect intimacy and mutual trust, and no crooked thoughts!"

Si Yunxiang giggled. "You are the Sect Master. What crooked designs could I possibly have on you?"

Shen Mu gave her a flat look. No crooked designs? This little woman took Granny Zhu for her model at every hour of the day, forever dreaming of the Sect Master's fall from virtue so that she might take his place, and yet she had somehow never learned a single one of Granny Zhu's virtues.

Still, there was a side of Si Yunxiang that did resemble Granny Zhu: whenever danger came, she was always the first to dash out and save people without a moment's thought. Plainly she had merely been badly brought up, and was not bad at heart.

"If she had been raised as well as I was, she would never have gone astray."

Shen Mu sighed inwardly. Crooked though some of Si Yunxiang's thoughts might be, he still needed to test whether the method he and Ling Yuxiu had devised would work. He nodded. "Even if you do play some trick, it will avail you nothing. I will trust you once. But I will work with you only once. If it fails, you must find someone else you can put your trust in."

Si Yunxiang, all excitement, asked Ling Yuxiu for the women's half of the method, and Ling Yuxiu taught her everything she knew. Yan Jingjing drifted over as well. Ling Yuxiu smiled. "Little sister Jing, do you want to cultivate a primordial spirit with the cowherd too?"

Yan Jingjing shook her head. "I forged my primordial spirit long ago. You cultivate. I will watch."

"Dual cultivation of the primordial spirit is very pleasant!" Ling Yuxiu said, perfectly earnest.

Yan Jingjing was rather tempted, and rather embarrassed besides. Si Yunxiang asked, curious, "Jingjing, what is your cultivation now? How did you forge a primordial spirit so early?"

"Spirit Bridge realm, I think."