Chapter 589 — The Divine Eye Between the Brows First Wakes

Shen Mu and Granny Zhu and the others continued their exploration of the ruins of Wuwang City. Granny Zhu and her companions each had their own strengths, and what they could discern from those lingering traces of divine arts differed from one to the next; as they shared their findings with one another, Shen Mu too profited greatly.

For though he had already comprehended his own art and entered the Way, when it came to achievement in any single aspect of the body, he was far outmatched by Granny Zhu, the Blind Elder, and the rest. This was chiefly because his art had entered the Way by cultivating every aspect at once—body, primordial spirit, vital essence, and all the rest—and so he could not possibly advance as swiftly as the Blind Elder or the Silent Craftsman, who each devoted themselves to a single specialty, nor could he delve as deep as they did.

Yet as the Blind Elder and the others exchanged what they knew, all of them benefited greatly; a stone from another hill may polish jade, and these were, besides, mighty ones who had each reached the utmost limit in some one field. From the divine arts left behind by the gods and demons of Taihuang Heaven, they also saw their own manifold deficiencies; comparing notes, they reaped a great harvest.

"Granny, I have already joined the cultivation systems of Taihuang Heaven to my own, and comprehended the Mystic Body Three-Core Art, which can temper the whole body! " Shen Mu displayed the course of his vital essence, and in the air before them it took the form of a human body's inner structure: the Sacred Pupil, the brain, the dantian, the four limbs and hundred bones, the spirit embryo, the Five Luminaries, the Six Harmonies, the Seven Stars—every pathway of vital essence laid bare before them without the least reservation.

Granny Zhu, the Blind Elder, Zaifu, the Silent Craftsman, and the others were at once drawn in, examining that body of vital essence in fine detail. The longer they looked, the more their hearts were shaken.

Within Shen Mu's Sacred Pupil there was another hidden space, revealing the workings of the Sacred Pupil; within his brain there was yet another configuration of vital essence, tempering the power of the mind; and whether in hands or feet or skin, or in heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys, in gall, stomach, large intestine, small intestine, bladder, and the triple burner, there were vital-essence pathways of the most exquisite subtlety.

And within each of the divine treasuries, the vital essence moved according to the mysteries of that treasury: the spirit embryo joined with the soul to temper the primordial spirit through the rushing of vital essence; the vital essence of the Five Luminaries treasury was divided according to the five phases, and the deities of the Five Luminaries sat enthroned in the temples of five stars, their vital essence likewise coursing along different paths. The Six Realms treasury was the surging of the earth's breath, transformed into geomagnetic force. The Seven Stars treasury commanded the stars of the Five Luminaries and the twin stars of sun and moon, gathering their power into one and feeding it back to the primordial spirit.

Nor was that all. Shen Mu's spirit embryo joined with his soul to become the primordial spirit, and this in turn was knit inseparably with his flesh—so that his vital essence circulated within his body, and the vital essence within his primordial spirit coursed along the very same paths; to cultivate the body was at once to cultivate the primordial spirit!

The pathways of Shen Mu's art were in themselves a three-dimensional construct, exquisite to the last degree, and within every organ of the body lay hidden mysteries, a three-dimensional system of cultivation concealed therein; take out the method for cultivating any single organ, and it could be called an art sufficient to bring a person to the divine realm in that one aspect!

Stranger still, Shen Mu had unified these exquisitely detailed arts, using the fusion of primordial spirit and body to bind them into one, discarding the dross and keeping the essence, so that cultivation systems once so complex as to be all but impossible to merge were made into a single whole. This was Shen Mu's greatest innovation of all! "Shen'er's Mystic Body Three-Core Art is truly peerless!

" Granny Zhu, the Lame Elder, and the others praised it again and again, each with the feeling of clouds parting to reveal the sun; in former days they had all cultivated some single aspect with bitter devotion, tempering that one aspect to the divine realm, and beyond that there was no road—they had not known how they might cultivate the other parts of the body as well. "The difficulty of Shen'er's art lies in this: that in practice it is still too complex. By an ordinary art, it would take dozens of different arts to accomplish what he does, and yet he has simplified them into one.

" Zaifu said in heartfelt admiration: "The crucial point is that he has joined his primordial spirit and his body into one—the Five Luminaries correspond to the five viscera and six bowels, the twin stars of sun and moon to the two eyes, the Six Harmonies Continent formed of the Spirit Terrace to the dantian.

Thus the arts can be unified.

" Granny Zhu nodded. "That is the most exquisite point of the Mystic Body Three-Core Art. Without this method of fusing primordial spirit and body into one, he could not have unified them.

Shen'er, did you learn this from the gods and demons of Taihuang Heaven? " Shen Mu's face fell, and he shook his head. "This method—I comprehended it from the First Ancestor, the Human Emperor. " "The First Ancestor, the Human Emperor?

" The people of Yincan Village were at once roused, praising him one after another. "That senior was indeed mighty beyond measure! This method of cultivation has solved the greatest problem that has plagued us for years!

" Shen Mu's heart sank all the more.

Zaifu and Granny Zhu and the others had not spoken amiss: the reason his Mystic Body Three-Core Art could reach great completion lay, at the root, in the fusion of primordial spirit and body into an inseparable whole.

And this was precisely what he had learned from the First Ancestor, the Human Emperor. He had taken the defeat of the First Ancestor, the Human Emperor, as his goal, and it was for this that he had entered Taihuang Heaven, cultivating with bitter diligence, comprehending with all his heart, learning what was strong in the gods and demons of Taihuang Heaven. Yet it had never once occurred to him that what would truly bring him his vast breakthrough was still the First Ancestor, the Human Emperor.

He wished to defeat the First Ancestor, the Human Emperor; and now it seemed that even at the same realm, it would be very, very hard indeed. Still, he had one more means!

"Granny, Grandpa Tu—this is only half the pathways of my Mystic Body Three-Core Art," Shen Mu said suddenly. Granny Zhu, Zaifu, and the others were studying that body of vital essence in fine detail, learning from it whatever might be of use to them; at these words they were slightly startled, and cried out, "This is only half of the Mystic Body Three-Core Art? " Shen Mu nodded, and the body of vital essence before him changed at once: one demon-path divine treasury after another appeared, the pathways of the art split in two, revealing the demon-path art. The hearts of all present were greatly shaken; they could not speak.

Demon-path divine treasuries. These were not treasuries that the human race could cultivate! Within Shen Mu's body there were in fact two kinds of divine treasury, and he had unified them; the two kinds corresponded to one another, their vital essence mirrored each other, coursing along the same paths!

The Blind Elder turned to look at Shen Mu, his eyes like lightning; Shen Mu, calm and unguarded, opened his demon-path treasuries and let him examine them.