Chapter 414 — The Storm Approaches

The Primal Spirit Guide had in fact been deduced by Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu from the ideas behind the most elementary arts of the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art. The most basic art of the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art is the Yuan-Guiding Art, a method for guiding the vital essence, and the simplest of them all. The Primal Spirit Guide, by contrast, guides the spirit fetus and the hun and po souls: the spirit and soul of each mingle, then fly free of the body, then are exchanged back for one's own spirit and soul, and by this means one's own spirit and soul are made to merge into a primal spirit.

Hence the art must needs bear the word 'guide' in its name. That Shen Mu could bring his own primal spirit into resonance with Si Yunxiang's was on account of his spirit fetus.

His spirit fetus had no attribute at all, unlike spirit bodies such as those of Si Yunxiang and Ling Yuxiu, each of which possessed attributes of its own.

Primal-spirit resonance is the natural frequency born when the intent of two primal spirits merges; because every person's circumstances differ, every person's primal spirit differs more or less as well, and so the resonant frequency of each primal spirit is different. When a pair cultivate the primal spirit in tandem, their resonant frequencies attune to one another and form a frequency that is unique; if either then cultivates the primal spirit in tandem with another, they are no longer on the same frequency, and resonance cannot be attained. Shen Mu's primal spirit and spirit fetus happened to possess no spirit-body attribute whatsoever, blank as a sheet of paper; when that blank sheet cultivated in tandem with Ling Yuxiu, the resonant frequency was Ling Yuxiu's, and when it cultivated in tandem with Si Yunxiang, it was Si Yunxiang's.

It was likewise because Emperor Yanfeng had never met an 'Overlord Body' as bizarre as Shen Mu's that he had paid it no particular heed, and so had never warned Ling Yuxiu of the taboos of primal-spirit resonance; at this moment the emperor's regret was beyond measure. Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu sorted out the men's and women's sections of the Primal Spirit Guide, setting down in detail the methods of cultivation and the art of substituting spirit and soul, and both were delighted at heart. All at once they seemed to be seized by an inexplicable realization, a realization that came not only in the comprehension of the Dao but in the Dao heart as well.

Through this one joint creation of a cultivation art, their Dao hearts underwent a sudden leap, a leap in kind. Sudden as it was called, it was not truly sudden. Creation is in itself the hardest of things.

To conjure a cultivation art out of nothing, to alter the entire system of cultivation after the Six Harmonies realm, to push the primal spirit forward into the Six Harmonies realm, the change wrought was far greater than the three basic sword forms created by Imperial Preceptor Jingping. It could even be said outright that if Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu could develop the mysteries of the Six Harmonies primal spirit to their utmost, this change might well bring the Heaven-Man realm forward, merging it with the Seven Stars realm and making of two realms one. And such a change would affect countless divine-power wielders of ages to come.

The spirit fetus realm and the Five Luminaries realm are the realms of martial artists and martial masters; they have not yet stepped through the gate of divine power. Only at the Six Harmonies realm may one be called a divine-power wielder, having formally entered the gate of divine power. Beyond the Six Harmonies realm lie the Seven Stars, the Heaven-Man, the Life-and-Death, and the Spirit Bridge, each one a step by which a divine-power wielder advances toward the legendary realm of the gods.

These four realms are four steps, and every step is hard, and the time each step takes to cross is exceedingly long. This creation of Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu might well turn four steps into three, letting divine-power wielders press straight to the divine realm in far less time.

This was merit vast enough to stand on par with creation itself. There is no road in this world; when enough people walk it, a road appears.

A change in the system of cultivation brings changes in the arts and divine powers, and the great Dao of heaven and earth changes with it. How vast the upheaval their Primal Spirit Guide would set off, these two youths could not have foreseen.

Because the creation of a cultivation art is so hard, the realization it brings is profound; their Dao hearts had reached the level of grandmasters, and at this moment each had fallen into a sudden enlightenment of their own.

Imperial Preceptor Jingping's creation of the three basic sword forms had likewise made him a grandmaster in that instant, lifting his state of mind from technique to the level of method.

It was precisely such a transformation that Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu were undergoing. They could only be said to have completed the art of the Primal Spirit Guide; how one might strengthen one's own primal spirit at the Six Harmonies realm remained a blank. Cultivating and strengthening the primal spirit was in truth a matter of the Seven Stars realm, and no art possessed a method for strengthening the primal spirit at the Six Harmonies realm, which meant that these two pioneers could take a step ahead of all others, comprehend for themselves the cultivation methods of the Six Harmonies primal spirit, and open up yet more methods besides.

"Emperor! " The Blind Elder suddenly kicked Emperor Yanfeng in the shin, all trace of jest gone from him, his face grave. "Have you sensed what change has appeared between heaven and earth?

" Emperor Yanfeng was about to fly into a rage; at these words he started slightly, sensed with care, and said in astonishment, "There is indeed a change, faint as though it were and were not, and very strange.

.

.

" "Deaf Elder, Lame Elder, wake up, both of you, and sense the great Dao between heaven and earth with care! " The Blind Elder called over the Deaf Elder and the Lame Elder, and these two old men too sensed a faint fluctuation, like spring rain stealing in on the night wind, moistening things in silence, very light, very slow. "What has happened?

" the Deaf Elder asked in amazement. "The moment Shen and Princess Xiu created that art of the Primal Spirit Guide, this change came on all at once.

It is most uncanny.

" The Blind Elder said, "Sense it with care, both of you. The great Dao of heaven and earth seems to be undergoing a wondrous change in the unseen; the tremor is very faint, but it cannot escape my Dao heart.

" Lame Elder and Deaf Elder alike, and Emperor Yanfeng too, were grandmasters of the highest order. Lame Elder had comprehended the mystery of the divine leg on his own, bringing speed to the level of the divine through an art he had created himself, and his Dao heart was exceedingly strong.

Deaf Elder, for his part, had brought the Dao of painting to its utmost, until his painting could be called divine, could be called sage. And Emperor Yanfeng, relying on the Nine Dragons Emperor's Art, which was not reckoned especially outstanding, had at one stroke deduced that art to the very highest level, ranking it alongside the peerless lore of the three great holy lands; and the Nine Dragons Emperor's Art he relied upon was no more than a few primitive dragon-language characters from the Jade Register of the Heavenly Emperor.

The others in the mountain villa, even such great masters as Granny Zhu, Yu Zhaoqing, and the Empress Dowager, had not attained a grandmaster's state of mind, and naturally could not sense this tremor and uncanny change in the great Dao between heaven and earth. "Your Majesty, your daughter's future achievements may far surpass your own," the Deaf Elder said suddenly.

"Have you ever thought of naming her crown prince?