Chapter 723 — The Most Charismatic

"Heavenly King, we can travel by stages and take in the present customs and life of Jingping along the way."

The Woodcutter suggested, "The Jingping Reforms are not mere words; they were truly put into practice. What you see along the road will surely change your view."

Di Yiyue said lightly, "You are the Heavenly Master of the Kaihuang Reforms. You presided over them, and in merely twenty thousand years you pushed the Kaihuang Era to the point where the Outer Heaven Court could not rest until it destroyed that era. Surely you don't mean to take part in these Jingping Reforms as well? How many years do you intend to spend pushing Jingping to the point the Outer Heaven Court cannot bear?"

Hearing her raise the Kaihuang Era, the Woodcutter Sage's face darkened with sorrow, and he said with difficulty, "I did indeed lead the Kaihuang Reforms, but I have had no hand in the Jingping Reforms. Those were truly led by my three disciples."

He held up one finger. "My eldest disciple passed down that the sage's way lies in the people's daily use."

They walked as they talked, and Di Yiyue observed the daily life of the people along the way. The Woodcutter raised a second finger. "My third disciple applied that very saying in Jingping, and that is why Jingping has the appearance it does today. I taught my eldest disciple for a hundred years; I taught my third disciple for only two. As for the Jingping Reforms, I had a hand in none of it. I only ran errands for my third disciple."

Di Yiyue glanced at Shen Mu and smiled. "You just said it was your three disciples who led the reforms, but you've only mentioned the eldest and the youngest. You haven't mentioned the second."

The Woodcutter Sage looked at Shen Mu, and at once felt his head about to burst. He shook his head. "The second disciple, I never taught him for a single day. I don't even know how it happened. Somehow, in a muddle, I had such a disciple."

Di Yiyue asked curiously, "What did he do?"

The Woodcutter Sage wanted to rouse his spirits but could not. He said listlessly, "He is the man behind my third disciple."

Di Yiyue was puzzled.

The Woodcutter Sage said in a voice drained of strength, "When Jingping and my third disciple were in the gravest peril, it was his full support that preserved Jingping and saved the emperor and Old Three. When Jingping met peril again, once more it was he who preserved Jingping and Old Three. And when peril came yet again..."

"Great Heavenly Master, say no more. I understand the rest."

Caught between laughter and tears, Di Yiyue said, "Surely it was he who preserved Jingping and Old Three again, wasn't it?"

"I cannot make out this disciple of mine."

The Woodcutter Sage's expression was strange. He quietly sized up Shen Mu and said in a low voice, "He is far too hard to understand. I have never seen a temperament so peculiar. He has the boldness to reform and transform, and an almost indelible ambition and confidence, and he is clever and odd, curious about everything, curious like a silly roe deer. And yet..."

He thought a moment and went on. "And yet he has a strange charm. When he is focused, he researches all sorts of bizarre things. He actually went alone to the Tianyin Realm and revived Lady Tianyin, and created arts that can reunite shattered souls, remake souls, and bring the dead back to life!"

"He also created the Primordial Spirit Guiding Art at the Liuhe Realm, letting one cultivate the primordial spirit even at the Liuhe Realm, and in one stroke changed a cultivation system that had been passed down for untold tens of thousands of years!"

"He also, in a muddle, created the Eighteen Sword Forms, pushing swordsmanship forward by a great leap at once. His understanding of dao-arts and divine powers seems never to be bound by rules. What others cannot imagine, he often can. What others think impossible, he somehow accomplishes. The Spiritual Energy Transfer Bridge that links two worlds, for instance, was something this boy made by accident, and it solved the problem of the world barrier."

"And he is never stingy. Whatever he learns, whatever he comprehends, he always spreads throughout the whole nation and hides nothing. The Throne Techniques are very rare, aren't they? The Outer Heaven Court went to enormous pains to collect Throne Techniques, and he obtained three of them, and just passed them on like that."

"Even outright enemies are won over by him and become his friends, while friends are provoked by him till their teeth itch and they wish they could lay him over their knee and give his bottom a good spanking!"

The Woodcutter Sage sighed. "Just when I was almost ready to think him a perfect man, I found all sorts of small flaws in him. One is that he never focuses. He is always curiously studying this and that. He creates the Primordial Spirit Guiding Art, then runs off to do something else. He creates the Eighteen Sword Forms, then drops it and will not strike while the iron is hot to research the Nineteenth Sword Form. It makes one want to hold a sword to his neck and force him to see one thing through."

"The second flaw is that he is bold, and boldness makes him a bit foolish. He will dare to do anything dangerous. This Li Zhou affair is plainly bait, and yet he came running like a fool."

"The third is arrogance. You think he is modest, but he is not modest at all. Inside he is brimming with pride. Heaven is first and I am second; Tu Bo is first and I am second; the emperor is first and I am second; the Heavenly Emperor is first and I am second..."

The Woodcutter's brows were knit with worry, and he sighed. "I cannot understand him. I truly, truly cannot understand him."

Di Yiyue looked at Shen Mu. He was refining pills for the dragon qilin, and after feeding the dragon qilin its fill, he ran off to look at windmills, discussing with the scholars of the countryside whether there were still ways to improve them.

"Truly an interesting creature."

Di Yiyue smiled. "He lives more freely and joyfully than anyone!"

"No!"

The Woodcutter Sage shook his head. "In truth the burden on his shoulders is too heavy. It is only that he is extremely optimistic, which makes people think he lives freely and joyfully, but the bitterness in his heart is known only to himself. He has simply chosen an optimistic, enterprising attitude with which to face life, and face peril."

"He cannot choose his birth, but he can choose the road he will walk hereafter, and the state of mind with which he walks it. He is the most charismatic person I have ever met."