Chapter 663 — Contesting Wits Across the Void

Ling Yuxiu's heart gave a small jolt. She lowered her voice: "The Great Venerable has lived for ten thousand years. He has all but mastered every divine art of every holy land! And he has been to the Western Land — he must have learned its arts as well; he has been to Taihuang Heaven, and Taihuang Heaven's arts and dharma could never have escaped him either. If the Divine Son Chiming starts from him, he can more or less survey the whole range of Jingping's principal arts and divine powers!"

Shen Mu was still scrutinizing the stone statue. Slowly, unhurriedly, he said, "When he looks at an art, he looks at its form. From the Great Venerable he cannot see Jingping's essence, spirit, and vitality. There is no such thing in the Great Venerable; his character is too soft. If he wants to see Jingping's essence, spirit, and vitality..."

He raised his head, pressed his lips together, and smiled a smile that was not quite a smile. "He should look at me!"

Ling Yuxiu laughed. "Boasting!"

The First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, laughed too. "Girl of the Ling family, Shen'er is not boasting. I can let you see his essence, spirit, and vitality."

With that he touched the center of Ling Yuxiu's brows, lightly. Her eyes went dim at once, yet the point between her brows gradually brightened, and in a hazy blur she could make out a figure ahead.

"Look at Shen'er," said the First Ancestor.

She looked at Shen Mu, and at once she saw essence, spirit, and vitality like a roaring blaze — fearing neither heaven nor earth, daring to act and to answer for it, daring to break through and to fight!

Her heart quivered. After a moment her sight slowly returned, and only then did the aura about Shen Mu fade from view.

"If you were to look at your Imperial Father, Emperor Yanfeng, you would see the same sight — even more intense than Shen'er's."

The First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, spoke with deep meaning: "He who founds a dynasty is not necessarily the strongest in power, but he is always the one with the greatest spirit and the greatest breadth of mind. Emperor Yanfeng is such a man. He has great perseverance and a great spirit, greater even than Shen'er's. I once saw the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping from afar; even he did not possess such a blazing essence, spirit, and vitality. Emperor Yanfeng stands for the spirit of an age!"

Ling Yuxiu was startled. Never had she imagined that a being like the First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, would hold her father in such esteem!

In cultivation and strength, Emperor Yanfeng was no match for the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping; in aptitude and comprehension, no match for the Imperial Preceptor or for Shen Mu. He stood out among men, but he was not of the very highest rank.

Yet Emperor Yanfeng had been the central figure in the Imperial Preceptor's reforms — it was Yanfeng who pushed the reforms through with all his strength, shattering the gods in the temples of the heart, making the divine arts serve the common people, making the gods serve the common people. Only his radiance had been eclipsed by the Imperial Preceptor's.

"I will be a person like Father — no, better than he!" she vowed silently.

Ten days later, Bangong Cuo was again invited into the imperial palace to contend once more with these practitioners of the divine arts from the Xuankong Realm. This time it was not only those of the Life-and-Death Realm; several thousand of the Heaven-and-Man Realm and the Seven Stars Realm had come as well, a dark swarming mass of adepts with three heads and six arms.

Once again it was a Life-and-Death Realm practitioner who challenged Bangong Cuo. In ten days these practitioners' cultivation and strength had actually surged enormously. Nor that alone: they even brought out the very divine arts and dharma Bangong Cuo had used before, executed with consummate skill, as though they had steeped in them for decades!

Bangong Cuo was startled. He did his utmost to fight these practitioners head-on, bringing nearly every means he had to bear; he was still a notch above them and defeated most of the Xuankong Realm practitioners, but he lost a few bouts as well.

This time the Divine Son Chiming gave him ample time to rest, waiting each time until he stood at his peak before matching him against the next opponent, so the fighting was exceptionally fierce.

The Divine Son Chiming sat high above, looking down upon the battle. He turned his head and asked, "What has the envoy of Jingping been doing these days?"

A deity beside him bent low and said softly, "The envoy of Jingping has nothing to do and wanders about the city. These envoys are very curious, as though they have never seen much of the world; they keep staring at the stone statues in the city, studying each one for a long while. The one surnamed Shen in particular lies prone upon the statues to look at them. These last two days he has been less curious, and has taken to drawing the statues instead."

The Divine Son Chiming's brow twitched. His eyebrows were very handsome, the ridges arched high, the tips sharp as curved blades. He said, "A formidable opponent. That Jingping should have such a talent — it is troublesome."

The deity was puzzled at his meaning.

The Divine Son Chiming fetched a mirror and covered its face with black cloth. "Take this mirror and find him. Point the mirror's face at him from a distance, remove the black cloth, shine it upon him, then cover it again and bring it back to me."

The deity was doubtful, but took the mirror and flew off swiftly. The Divine Son Chiming went on watching the battle.

After a while the deity returned with the black-cloth-covered mirror and said, "This servant shone it on the envoy of Jingping and hurried straight back."

The Divine Son Chiming took the mirror and gently drew off the black cloth. His two eyes fixed upon its surface, while the vertical eye at the center of his brow watched Bangong Cuo's every move and stance below, ceaselessly analyzing, ceaselessly deducing.

Suddenly the Divine Son Chiming gave a slight start; all three of his eyes were fixed upon the mirror's surface.

In the mirror, Shen Mu had his back to him, appraising the city's god statues. Beside him was a young girl, and near them two great eyeballs, each taller than a man. The First Ancestor had turned his head; his face loomed large, somewhat pale, as though he stood very close to the mirror, peering through it.

What shocked the Divine Son Chiming was not the First Ancestor but Shen Mu. He had used this mirror to shine upon Shen Mu, and what it showed was not wholly Shen Mu: the Shen Mu with his back turned had, ordinarily, one head and two arms — yet in the mirror there was a savage ferocity and a battle lust.

That ferocity and battle lust had faintly taken the shape of two heads, standing in a tripod with Shen Mu's own head!

Nor was that all. The Divine Son Chiming vaguely saw phantom arms beneath Shen Mu's armpits — four other arms!

These four arms and the other two heads were formed of essence, spirit, and vitality; they were not substance!

The Divine Son Chiming narrowed his eyes, and the scene in the mirror gradually vanished.

"Chixi, did you pass the Flawless Battle-Divine Art to the envoy of Jingping?" The Divine Son Chiming summoned Chixi and asked.

Chixi shook his head. "That brat stole my God-Slaying Mystic Saber, poisoned me, and swindled me out of my treasures. How could I teach him a cultivation art?"

The Divine Son Chiming sighed. "He has very nearly learned it... no, he is very nearly at the point of creating his own Flawless Battle-Divine Art."

Chixi was startled, mouth agape, unable to utter a word.

"We are studying Jingping's arts and divine powers, and this man has not been idle either. He is pondering the spirit-rhyme of the stone statues, deducing the arts and divine powers of my Chiming era. He may not be able to grasp all the subtleties of those arts — yet he has captured the fearless spirit of the Chiming era."