Chapter 129 — The Divine Sword Hides Its Edge

Xue Hu'er hurriedly sat down and composed herself in proper earnest, and Shen Mu began to explain the Creation Spirit Art in detail. The Creation Spirit Art is the final chapter of the Seven Chapters of Creation within the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra. This art can be cultivated by humans and by demons alike; in recent days Shen Mu had studied the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra closely, and had come to believe that the Creation Spirit Art might suit demons even better.

His teacher had been Kui Sou, and he had read deep in the classics. What Kui Sou imparted to him was not only Confucian learning but ancient verses of every kind, full of tongue-twisting phrasing—and precisely because of that, Shen Mu found it far easier to comprehend other scriptures.

Shen Mu kept his explanations as plain and homely as he could, making the Creation Spirit Art easy to grasp, expounding the scripture to the little fox. The Seven Chapters of Creation rank among the higher arts of the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra. That sutra is an art by which one may become a god or a demon, the supreme scripture of the Nether Demon Sect; and that the Creation Spirit Art stands among its chapters tells you plainly how marvelous the art must be.

Over these two days Shen Mu kept to his rooms and rarely went out, passing the Creation Spirit Art on to Xue Hu'er. She had already gained a rudimentary grasp of it, and was trying to forge a spirit embryo.

The purpose for which this Creation Art was made is to change the spirit embryo. If one has a Black Tortoise constitution, one's spirit embryo is a Black Tortoise Spirit Embryo; through the Creation Spirit Art one can change that Black Tortoise Spirit Embryo into a White Tiger Spirit Embryo, or transform it into other embryos besides. Even the nature of one's vital essence changes with it. It could be called one of the most wondrous arts in the whole Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra.

Of course, every one of the Seven Chapters of Creation is marvelously strange in its own way, no less so than the Creation Spirit Art.

The reason Shen Mu thought the Creation Spirit Art better suited demons was chiefly that strange beasts and demons like Xue Hu'er and the Xuanliao Demon Ape have no spirit embryo, and no spirit store either.

Since they have none, they can only create one for themselves.

By cultivating the Creation Spirit Art, Xue Hu'er could come to possess a spirit embryo of her own, and could even change its form.

Two days later, the Grand Academy finally began its term.

Together with the other newly admitted scholars, Shen Mu followed the Director of Studies to the storehouse to collect his sword case, his medicines, his robes, a pill furnace, jade, brushes and ink, and a book token—along with a bag of money that was called his stipend, though Shen Mu heard the scholars say it was the monthly allowance, paid once a month. It was not much, only a dozen coins or so, but for common folk it was no small fortune.

Simply by becoming a scholar of the Grand Academy, one already ranked as an official of the eighth grade, and so the court paid out a stipend as a matter of course.

After Shen Mu had collected his things, there came the address before the Hall of the Grand Academy, where the young Patriarch gave his exhortation—nothing but encouragement to the scholars to cultivate diligently, to study hard and strive upward, and so on and so forth.

Shen Mu put his things back in his room, then went with the other new scholars to Hanguang Hall to attend the lecture. Children of the imperial house studied here too. Shen Mu glanced around and saw a girl he knew, who winked at him—but the moment another's gaze fell on her, she turned very demure again.

"Seventh Sister, what are you doing?" The girl was none other than Ling Yuxiu. A prince beside her saw her glancing again and again toward Shen Mu, frowned slightly, and asked in a low voice.

In Hanguang Hall a man in a black robe sat kneeling, a sword laid across his knees—he was the Director of Studies of Hanguang Hall himself. His gaze was keen as a sword. He swept his eyes over the assembled scholars, then let them come to rest on Shen Mu; the corner of his eye twitched, and unhurriedly he said, "Hanguang Hall is the hall of sword learning. What is hanguang—hidden light? The Sage said: I have three swords; you may choose among them, but none of them can kill a man, and first let me describe them. The first is called Hanguang, Hidden Light. Look at it and it cannot be seen; wield it and it cannot be felt; where it strikes, all is merged into boundlessness; it passes through things and the things do not know it. This is the origin of the name Hanguang. Reach this realm, and you are a Sword God."

The scholars in the hall were astonished beyond measure. Hanguang Hall of the Grand Academy did not teach profound swordsmanship at all, but only the simplest fundamentals of the sword—the barest rudiments. Did a man need to enter the Grand Academy to learn such things as these?

The hall erupted in an uproar, and one scholar murmured, "To beat the teacher with a wooden sword—is this child a Sword God?"