Chapter 561 — The Tyrant Body First Revealed

Shen Mu watched his departing back and suddenly said, "Zhe Huali, don't you want to show me your master's blade technique?"

Zhe Huali halted and turned his head. "No. I want to show you my blade technique."

Shen Mu smiled, unhurried. "Earlier you told me you wanted to show me Luo Wushuang's blade technique, and I knew then that you could not be my match—because that blade technique is Luo Wushuang's, not yours. However perfectly you cultivate it, it will always remain Luo Wushuang's. Now you want to show me your own blade technique. Only now are you qualified to be my opponent. Good. I will wait for you."

Zhe Huali departed, and his voice drifted back: "Don't die. My master Fu Riluo has issued a bounty. Many disciples of the Demon Gods are waiting for you on the road ahead."

"This fellow is far more likable than his master Luo Wushuang. His blade technique has indeed improved greatly—advancing at astonishing speed."

Shen Mu watched him go, feeling the weight of pressure. His muscles trembled, shattering the blade intent in Zhe Huali's gaze, producing even a crisp ringing like tinkling bells—as if Zhe Huali's gaze had taken physical form.

Such speed of progress was terrifying.

Zhe Huali had made tremendous strides on the path of the blade. This man possessed the body and primordial spirit of a youthful True God. If he reached the ultimate realm of blade technique, surpassing Shen Mu would be no difficult matter.

And now he had already stepped to the very edge of that ultimate realm. One more step, and he would create a blade technique of his own. Just as Shen Mu, after creating the Tribulation Sword, brought his sword technique close to the Dao, so too would Zhe Huali forge his own blade technique and bring the blade close to the Dao.

Zhe Huali's progress had been so rapid because of the pressure Shen Mu had placed on him. Now it was Shen Mu's turn to feel the pressure Zhe Huali brought.

"The greatest weakness of my body is that each part cultivates on its own—hands are hands, legs are legs, eyes are eyes, heart is heart. I cannot unify the power of my body. If I could unify my body's strength, then my body would be no weaker than these so-called youthful True Gods and youthful True Demons—it would be even stronger!"

As he advanced toward the sun, he pondered. The bodies of Zhe Huali, Yu He, and others were strong because the cultivation arts they practiced had been taught by Gods and Demons. These arts had been refined over countless years and could temper every aspect of the body to its utmost limit.

Young experts like Zhe Huali and Yu He did not need to ponder why their arts operated as they did. They only needed to cultivate step by step to raise their physical cultivation to an extremely high level.

Shen Mu was different. The Mystic Body Three Cores Art he had learned from the village head had originally contained only the first stage, and it had the method without the technique—no divine abilities. Later he had pieced together and fused a great many arts, some good and some bad. His Mystic Body Three Cores Art could be called a patchwork king, a beggar's hundred-patched robe, covered in patches and constantly in need of mending.

Later still, he learned the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture and comprehended the Great Unification Art, and from Qin Hanzhen he learned that the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture was in fact the method of the Mystic Body Three Cores Art.

Only then did Shen Mu's cultivation art barely take shape.

When Shen Mu obtained the True Dragon's Lair and fused the True Dragon Lord's art with the Mystic Body Three Cores Art, his cultivation art gained yet another large patch.

There were too many patches—fist arts were fist arts, leg arts were leg arts, the Holy Pupil was the Holy Pupil. In the end, it was the problem of his cultivation art that made his body inferior to those of Yu He, Zhe Huali, and the others, and even somewhat inferior to Sang Hua.

His mind was unconventional. He thought what others did not think, dared to think what others dared not, and was unbound by tradition. That was how he could create all manner of strange and wondrous arts and divine abilities—the Primordial Spirit Guide, the Eighteen Sword Forms, the Three Primes Divine Convergence Formula—and how he could build great metal constructs like the Spirit Energy Transference Bridge that connected two worlds.

But it was also precisely because his mind was so unconventional that his cultivation art was deficient.

"I have already solved the problem of bringing my sword technique into the Dao. If I continue to comprehend along the path of the Tribulation Sword, then what I must now solve is the problem of bringing my cultivation art into the Dao!"

Shen Mu did not stop walking, but his expression seemed somewhat vacant, dazed and lost in thought.

Suddenly, his vital essence overflowed and rapidly sketched before him his Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury, outlining the shape of the Spirit Fetus, constructing the sun and moon. Then his vital essence flowed outward, raising the five stars of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. The Spirit Platform expanded, taking the form of the earth, establishing the Six Directions. The five stars and the twin stars of sun and moon revolved around one another, forming the Seven Stars.

Using this as his foundation, Shen Mu's ten fingers danced, refining his vital essence into threads, continuously constructing the pathways of his vital essence circulation around the Spirit Platform, the Five Luminaries, and the Six Directions.

After a moment, he had built an incomparably complex network of vital essence circulation. Like blood vessels, the network formed the shape of a human body around the three great Divine Treasuries.

This was the vital essence circulation pathway of his Mystic Body Three Cores Art.

His cultivation art was extremely complex, and so the vital essence circulation network he built was also extremely complex.

Shen Mu measured it, corrected some errors, and then vital essence flew out continuously, shaping bones, heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys within the incomparably complex human network, then shaping flesh, sinews, and blood vessels.

He spread his five fingers, his vital essence swelled, and the human figure before him instantly grew to over three zhang tall, still perfectly clear.

As he advanced, Shen Mu removed redundant and repetitive minor details, merged some vital essence circulation pathways to make his Mystic Body Three Cores Art less complex, then used his divine consciousness to add places where vital essence circulation could not reach during body refinement.

He modified more and more, and removed more and more.

Shen Mu grew more and more excited. The Spirit Fetus sped through his body, examining his physical structure, while he himself continuously modified and adjusted the vital essence human figure.

After a long while, the Spirit Fetus returned to the Divine Treasury and settled upon the Spirit Platform. Shen Mu parted his hands, and the flesh and bones of the vital essence human figure all dispersed, leaving only the vital essence circulation network and the structures of the three great Divine Treasuries.

His demonic essence flew out, constructing the Demonic Path Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury, corresponding to and mirroring the Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury, and he continued to modify.

When he believed it was already perfect, Shen Mu immediately activated this new Mystic Body Three Cores Art, which had undergone drastic modification, carefully experiencing its deficiencies in operation, then modifying the vital essence human figure, constantly experimenting, striving for greater perfection.

His vital essence circulation gradually became less complex but more efficient. After the improvements, a single cycle of vital essence circulation could essentially temper every corner of his body.