Chapter 577 — The Ancestral Dragon's Grand Mystery Art

In the lair of the True Dragon, Shen Mu at last had his wish: he comprehended every last scrap of the dragon tongue the lair contained.

Elder Qinghuang was himself a divine dragon, and knew virtually every word of that tongue. His strength was immense beyond measure; just what realm he had reached was more than Shen Mu could know.

Yet to be the master of the Azure Dragon Palace, one of the four great Heavenly Palaces of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court, his powers must surely stand above those of the Woodcutter Sage and of Yama himself. The stars of the heavens are divided into five great Heavenly Palaces, which together are called the Heavenly Court: the Azure Dragon Heavenly Palace, ruling the sixty stars of the eastern heaven; the White Tiger Heavenly Palace, ruling the twenty-seven stars of the western heaven; the Vermilion Bird Heavenly Palace, ruling the thirty-nine stars of the southern heaven; and the Black Tortoise Heavenly Palace, ruling the forty stars of the northern heaven.

At the center stands the Heavenly Emperor's Palace, ruling the stars of the Heavenly Emperor. Apart from that central palace, the Azure Dragon Heavenly Palace ranks first among the four, and so Elder Qinghuang's powers may well be imagined. He did not decipher the art of the Lord of the True Dragons word by word, as the little dragon Jiang Miao did; instead he turned every character in the dragon lair directly into a cultivation art, and from the shallow to the deep, taught it straight into the two of them.

The art was called the Ancestral Dragon's Grand Mystery Art, and it made use of the whole of the dragon tongue; within the dragon's roar the body and the primordial spirit were shaken, and its methods for cultivating vital essence, for cultivating divine abilities, and for tempering the flesh were all hidden in that tongue.

For a cultivator, this art raised every aspect of him at once: the sheer abundance of its vital essence, the subtlety of its divine abilities, the toughness of its flesh, all of them were arts of the highest order, worthy to be called a Dao Realm art!

Were one to comprehend it wholly and thoroughly, entering the Dao through this mystery would be no difficult thing. This was the first art Shen Mu had ever seen that reached such a level, and it was a complete art.

The Dao Sect's Fourteen Chapters of the Dao Sword had its road cut off because the stars in the heavens were false, so that the fourteenth chapter could never be comprehended, and the fourteenth sword could never reach the Dao Realm. The Thunderclap Mahayana Sutra of the Great Thunderclap Monastery could cultivate the mind to the Dao Realm, but cultivation itself could reach only the twentieth heaven realm, and once one had cultivated to the Great Brahma Heaven realm, the art went no further. The arts of Little Jade Capital could carry a man only to the realm of the deities, and beyond that there was no road.

The Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra of the Heaven Sage Sect stood higher in its attainments in divine abilities, but it too had no continuation for becoming a god. The arts of the Kingdom of Jingping had gaps in their transmission and so were flawed by nature, and the arts of every sacred ground were gravely deficient.

Yet even in Taihuang Heaven, where the inheritance was complete, and where Shen Mu had seen many deities and demon gods, he had never seen an art that could carry a man straight to the Dao Realm, nor had he ever heard of one.

Even the true gods of Taihuang Heaven had arts that could bring a man to the Dao Realm in at most one aspect; to cultivate every aspect of oneself to the Dao Realm required one's own comprehension and polishing.

The arts of Taihuang Heaven could not carry a man directly to the Dao Realm. The only art that could reach the Dao Realm directly was the Ancestral Dragon's Grand Mystery Art.

Cultivating it, one could form the Ancestral Dragon's primordial spirit; one's comprehension of the dragon race's divine abilities could be raised to the Dao Realm, and one's comprehension of the flesh could reach that level as well. It was an art that defied heaven itself!

"It even surpasses my Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art!

" Shen Mu could not help but sigh.

After taking leave of Zhe Huali in Taihuang Heaven, he had fallen into the state of entering the Dao through his art, and had reordered every art and divine ability within the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art, bringing it to its most perfect state; unfortunately a crowd of demon experts had interrupted his fusion with the Sacred Pupil. Even so, he had taken his first step into entering the Dao through his art.

Yet entering the Dao through one's art was not the same as a Dao Realm art: his entering the Dao through his art could bring his flesh, his primordial spirit, and his divine abilities all to the state of a youthful true god. A Dao Realm art was a notch higher still: it could bring divine abilities to the Dao Realm, the flesh to the Dao Realm, the primordial spirit to the Dao Realm, and it held arts for what came after entering the realm of the gods.

"This art is fine, but it suits the dragon race better. If I were to cultivate the Ancestral Dragon's Grand Mystery Art, my achievements would surely be less than Jiang Miao's.

For me, only what suits me best is the best art.

" Shen Mu's heart eased. Fine as the Ancestral Dragon's Grand Mystery Art was, he still chose the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art. Yet the Ancestral Dragon's Grand Mystery Art was still of great benefit to him: he could borrow its methods of tempering to temper his flesh, his primordial spirit, and his divine abilities, and so perfect his own Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art.

These tempering methods were called the Ancestral Dragon's Eight Tones, an exceedingly overbearing set of methods, divided into the Adhesive Tone, the Slaying Tone, the Snatching Tone, the Captivating Tone, the Pulling Tone, the Spinning Tone, the Hammering Tone, and the Tempering Tone.

Shen Mu set about trying them at once. His vital essence moved, vibrating to a strange rhythm; the Adhesive Tone burst forth, and at once his vital essence turned unspeakably sluggish, quivering at an extreme frequency. In a single instant Shen Mu felt a wondrous change come over his flesh: his blood grew thick and sticky, and as it ran it gave off a terrifying roar, like an avalanche upon a high mountain!

Yet as his qi and blood coursed, they grew more majestic still, a mountain ten thousand fathoms high, an avalanche that shook heaven and earth.

When his qi and blood reached his palm, the palm swelled to the size of a palm-leaf fan, and the vital essence moving at its center gave out a peal like thunder. He tempered his blood vessels with the Adhesive Tone, ran one full circuit, then dispersed the tone, and at once felt clear in spirit and refreshed in body.

Then Shen Mu roused the Slaying Tone. The Slaying Tone shook his spirit, tempering it to utter purity.

He roused the Snatching Tone, and his three souls were nearly shaken apart. The Snatching Tone tempers the souls, the Captivating Tone tempers the earthly spirit, the Pulling Tone tempers the heart, the Spinning Tone tempers the spirit, the Hammering Tone tempers sinew and bone, and the Tempering Tone tempers the heart of the Dao.

Shen Mu tried each of them in turn, and came to understand the Ancestral Dragon's Eight Tones.

Then, in high spirits, he waved his vital essence about and used it to build the pathways along which his Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art ran, trying to blend the Ancestral Dragon's Eight Tones into it. Before him the various tracks of vital essence took the shape of a human body, yet look closely and one could see a far more intricate structure within.