Chapter 166 — The Woodcutter Bestows the Secret

The old monk said, "That woman is named Si Yunxiang. She only entered the Grand Academy this year; the Academy had no time at all to teach her anything. How could she have the ability to defeat the Buddha-son? This woman comes from the Si family, the same family as Si Youyou, widow of the former Cult Master. The Si family is a great entrenched house in the state of Jingping as well."

The Tathagata said, "Then might the Dark Demon Cult's new Cult Master also come from the Si family?"

"Unknown. No word has yet come."

The Tathagata nodded. "The Grand Academy used the Dark Demon Cult's Holy Maiden to defeat our Great Thunderclap Temple's Holy Son. This matter cannot be allowed to rest. Go now, and continue having the various temples gather information."

The old monk received the order, and said, "There is one more thing — the Horse King God has emerged from the ruins." With that, he turned and went down the mountain.

The old Tathagata was stunned for a moment.

Sacred Approach Mountain. Mysterious and wondrous sounds reached Shen Mu's ears, strange beyond measure. Suddenly his vision blurred, and he found himself a passing traveler, walking among the mountains, when the sound of chopping came from afar.

He followed the sound and went forward, and saw a woodcutter hewing wood beneath a pine and cypress. The woodcutter's axe carried mysterious traces, falling upon the pine and cypress — once, and again — and he watched, entranced, feeling as though he might comprehend something from it.

He stood to one side, staring blankly at the woodcutter's axe. The axe fell upon the pine and cypress, cutting a deep gash, but when the axe was lifted, the wound on the tree closed smooth again, leaving not a trace of a scar.

Each stroke of the woodcutter's felling left a different impression on him.

"Traveler, you have watched here so long — what have you seen?"

The woodcutter put away his axe and turned to look at him. "The people in your household have long since become dry bones buried in yellow-earth graves. Your children are older than you. Your grandchildren are now grown and have children of their own. Traveler, you have watched here for a hundred years."

......

"Teacher, I beg you to teach me."

......

Shen Mu saw this woodcutter seated on a stone beneath the pine and cypress, expounding the Dao and imparting teachings to him.

He listened as if drunk, as if entranced, and ten thousand wondrous principles came crowding in upon him. Shen Mu stood by the stone and listened for decades on end, and the Grand Unification Art of the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture was imparted to him within that wondrous discourse.

The woodcutter reached out a hand and brushed the crown of his head. Shen Mu opened his eyes and saw Granny Zhu stepping back.

He was still on Sacred Approach Mountain, still in the present — he had not returned to the past.

This was the empowerment of the Dark Demon Cult's former Cult Master, pouring the founding patriarch's encounter of that year into the next Cult Master, passed down generation after generation, the flame never extinguished.

Shen Mu sat blankly on the stone. The sage strokes my crown, and I am bound to receive long life. The Grand Unification Art of the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture had taken no form of writing, no form of diagram; it could only be passed down through the empowerment of each successive Holy Cult Master.

A great mass of intricate information had appeared in his mind, not yet organized into a system.

This empowerment, though it had not raised his cultivation, had brought him far too much — and it still required him to sort through it and comprehend it.

Only now did he understand why the patriarch had said that the Grand Unification Art could be passed only from Cult Master to Cult Master.

It was because the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture possessed no finished Grand Unification Art at all!

Or rather, the Grand Unification Art had never been fixed in form.

The Grand Unification Art of the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture was hidden within the woodcutter's discourse upon the stone — but this required each successive Cult Master to comprehend it himself from that discourse. How much he could comprehend, and what he comprehended, depended on each Holy Cult Master's own insight, his own chosen direction, his own wisdom, his own fortune.

It could well be said that the Grand Unification Art comprehended by each Holy Cult Master of the Dark Demon Cult was different. Some principles might be similar, but the Grand Unification Art cultivated by each Holy Cult Master was absolutely not the same as any other's!

Three hundred and sixty Cult Masters would yield three hundred and sixty ways of practice; ten thousand Cult Masters would yield ten thousand ways of practice.

Shen Mu's first thought was: what a swindle.

What a colossal swindle — the legendary Grand Unification Art could not simply be taken and used; one had to comprehend it oneself.

His second thought was: this is what true transmission of the Dao and imparting of teachings means. This is what a true sage-teacher is.

What one comprehends is one's own; what one learns is another's. The transmission of arts in the Dark Demon Cult had something that no other sect — the Grand Academy included — could match.

The young patriarch let out a breath and looked toward Granny Zhu. From Granny Zhu's mouth came Cult Master Li's voice: "Teacher, I am no longer the Holy Cult Master. This is my chance to break through my inner demon. Please, Teacher, do not stop me!"