"The first layer, sensing, is called Divine Perception; the second, speed, is named Dust-Outrunning; the third, recovery, is styled Soul-Firming… Master, you really have worked hard…"
Liu Xiu sighed inwardly as he looked over the descriptions of the three layers of the Three-Light Primordial Magnetism Body-Refining Art. This was also the main reason he had said last night that Shi Jian truly had it hard.
Because this whole art was built around one thing: staying alive!
Take the first layer he had entered, Divine Perception. The moment he grasped it, within three paces every stir of wind and every twitch of grass flowed into his mind. Even if someone closed in behind him, eyes watched him from the dark, or something fell from overhead, he knew without turning his head. On top of that, blindfolded at night he could walk as though it were broad daylight, making out objects clearly within five paces, and the primordial magnetism's body-refining gave him a first hardening of skin and flesh, so ordinary fists and kicks could hardly hurt him—along with plenty of other traits.
As for the Hegemon Body Three-Light Primordial Magnetism Art, it was in fact the same as the Three-Light Primordial Magnetism Body-Refining Art. The only difference was that his Three-Light Body-Refining Art borrowed thunder arts to generate primordial magnetism, while the Hegemon Body version borrowed the primordial magnetism of the three lights of sun, moon, and stars to make magnetism generate electricity.
The cultivation results of the two were basically no different. Only the wording had changed, from life-preserving, fleeing-for-your-life vocabulary to combat vocabulary.
For instance, the Hegemon Body version's first layer was called Thunder-Sound Piercing the Subtle, the second Flying Gang Malignance Body, and the third Magnetic Gang Golden Body.
The names were different,
but the effects were exactly the same!
Liu Xiu could well imagine the look on his master's face as he cooked up the Hegemon Body version so that Shi Shaojian would devote himself to cultivating this life-preserving method.
Probably something like this!
Shi Jian: (。ớ_ờ)ھ
His imagination ran out. Beyond that, Liu Xiu even suspected the Hegemon Body version's magnetism-generating-electricity was actually a bit weaker, though he didn't think that was much of a problem. With Shi Jian's heaven-defying talent, he would sooner or later refine that flaw out of existence. He might even turn around and toss over a Three-Light Primordial Magnetism Body-Refining Art, version 2.0.
Looking at himself—cultivating the Three-Light Primordial Magnetism Body-Refining Art had driven out some of his elixir toxin, and his skin had turned a little more normal—Liu Xiu sucked in a sharp breath and sighed to himself.
"Hiss, my master is truly terrifying!"
With that, he put away the umbrella beaded with dew, took the medicinal herbs needed for cultivating the three immortal aspects out of his storage thumb ring, and began taking them.
"Train the body till it takes a crane's form— / fear not the mercury's cancer at your throat. / Swallow lead frost as your daily rice, / and the crane's form turns out to be aching bones…"
Bottle after bottle of herbs he had prepared in advance went straight into his mouth, washed down with water, and then all of it entered his belly, where his modified Celestial Circuit Mercury-Cooking and Stone-Refining Formula refined it into pure medicinal power.
It was the two bottles marked arsenic and mercury that made the four beside him—Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei—go wide-eyed.
All four wore the faces of men who had seen a ghost, gulping desperately, and then, as one, they instinctively turned to look at Daoist Qianhe.
They saw that Daoist Qianhe's expression was much the same as theirs—but the moment they looked his way, he immediately recovered his composure and said,
"Don't be afraid. Your junior brother is most likely just taking metals-and-minerals elixirs…" Daoist Qianhe's tone was a little weak.
He didn't understand the elixir path, and he hadn't taken many elixir pills himself, but he had never seen anyone gnaw down raw herbs before.
Especially when those herbs included arsenic!
He knew that in the elixir path arsenic was called couch-furnace frost, but that didn't help when he had just watched Liu Xiu knock it back in one gulp!
Besides, arsenic had another name—crane's crest red. At that thought, a question rose unbidden in Daoist Qianhe's mind.
If Liu Xiu ate himself to death right in front of him, would senior brother Shi Jian beat him to death?
He thought it over, and decided that he probably, possibly, perhaps might not be. At worst he'd be charred black, and afterward be left unable to walk on his own two feet!
"Hiss!"
At the image of his own future misery, Daoist Qianhe sucked in a sharp breath and hurried over to Liu Xiu, quick and careful, watching tensely as Liu Xiu sat cross-legged with his eyes shut in cultivation after taking the medicine.
Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei didn't know what was going on, but they were nervous too—especially after seeing Daoist Qianhe nervous.
Unlike those tense four, over by the other campfire, Vice Minister Wu and his people had expectation in their eyes.
The ten soldiers too,
and they were even smiling!
But the smiles and the expectation lasted only a few seconds before vanishing. As Liu Xiu exhaled a breath of turbid air and opened his eyes—square-pupiled eyes glinting ever more with green light—their smiles disappeared.
Liu Xiu raised his head and looked at the anxious Daoist Qianhe before him. "Martial Uncle, don't worry. This is just the normal cultivation process. You know I've been cultivating immortal aspects lately!"
"……"
Are you sure this counts as normal!
Are you sure this is normal?
Daoist Qianhe, who knew that immortal aspects required the consumption of metals-and-minerals elixirs, twitched at the corner of his mouth, feeling his Dao heart ache so much that he didn't want to speak.
As for Liu Xiu, he flicked a glance at Vice Minister Wu and the others—who had stopped looking at him when he looked their way, though disappointment flickered faintly in their eyes. The little man in his heart pursed his lips and muttered,
"Laughing? Soon it'll be my turn to laugh!"
Liu Xiu drew his gaze back from the faces of the three imperial palace experts, paler than they had been yesterday, and began on breakfast!
After breakfast,
the group continued on the road.
Vice Minister Wu's party and the bronze-cornered golden coffin walked at the front of the column, while Daoist Qianhe's party walked at the rear.
Liu Xiu took the chance to ask about matters concerning the Maoshan Main Altar—for example, whether his master had any enemies.
Naturally, he asked tactfully!
"You're asking which of your martial uncles have bad relations with your master?" Daoist Qianhe said, his expression strange, feeling that Liu Xiu really did talk like senior martial brother.
"Yes!"
"…Actually they're all… pretty… fine. Quite good, actually…" Daoist Qianhe's words came in fits and starts, and then he laughed awkwardly. "I don't mean that we juniors have bad relations with senior martial brother. Mainly it's that, as you know, your master's usual manner is rather stern, so we juniors…"
Daoist Qianhe gave a couple of sheepish laughs. Seeing Liu Xiu nod slightly in understanding, he hesitated, then went on.
"But there are indeed some who don't get along. For instance, your second martial uncle, Lin Jiu, doesn't have a good relationship with your master. Of course, I don't mean there's any feud between them—it's just that the two of them… are somewhat… somewhat…"
"At daggers drawn?"
"Yes, yes, yes, that's about what I mean. Actually… senior brother and second senior brother weren't exactly at daggers drawn… Back in the day, up on the mountain, Master was very busy, so it was basically senior brother who taught us…"
Daoist Qianhe began to reminisce and explain. Liu Xiu listened, and summed it up simply: the story was a simple one.
Senior brother was taught by Master, and the juniors were taught by senior brother. But later, a fellow who had taken a master long before, yet only came up the mountain as a half-grown boy, revealed terrifying talent.
After that there was one more substitute teacher, and senior brother's standing was nearly toppled by the newly arrived teaching junior brother.
Yes, that man was Lin Jiu—
known in the cultivation world as Ninth Uncle, Lin Jiu, Lin Fengjiao.
"That name really does take advantage…"
I'll have to pick a similar one later!
Liu Xiu muttered inwardly, then asked curiously, "Knowing my master's temperament, he should have been happy about it rather than at daggers drawn, no?"
"That…"
Daoist Qianhe hesitated. He turned and looked at the four disciples poking their heads out behind him, glared at them expressionlessly, and once the four had gone, lowered his voice and continued.
"Actually, this matter… is very complicated…"
"Oh?"
"What you said isn't wrong. Second senior brother's arrival did make senior brother happy—after all, in senior brother's eyes, he finally had a rival. Hm, of course, we juniors weren't bad either!"
Daoist Qianhe stressed that last line. Liu Xiu slanted a glance at this man who loved to smile, and nodded, mm-hmming.
"Yes, yes, yes, Martial Uncle is right!"
"……"
I'll have you know, I do hit people!
Daoist Qianhe glared wide-eyed at Liu Xiu, but years of good temper let him go on expressionlessly.
"But then something happened later…"
"Hm?"
Liu Xiu looked at the deliberately pausing Daoist Qianhe and played straight man for him. Only then did Daoist Qianhe sigh and say,
"Second senior brother couldn't learn thunder arts!"
"???"
Hm? Could it be that Ninth Uncle is also shock-resistant?
Liu Xiu thought instinctively—but Daoist Qianhe's next words proved his guess both right and wrong!
Um, whether Ninth Uncle was shock-resistant or not remained unknown.
"Second senior brother was like senior brother: a genius who picked up any art at a glance. Corpse driving, spirit summoning, feng shui, divination… the two of them were at daggers drawn the whole way…"
Daoist Qianhe said with feeling, then his tone abruptly changed as he poured out his grievances: "Martial Nephew, you have no idea. Back then, our homework was made impossible to finish by those two! Every day we got up and it was either learn this or write that—simply endless…"
"Uh…"
So the rat race started back then!
Liu Xiu was silent for a breath, then reached out and patted Daoist Qianhe's shoulder in sympathy. Daoist Qianhe sighed and continued.
"The two of them were at daggers drawn the whole way. But when it came time to test themselves by learning thunder arts, to decide who would get the Lightning-Rushing Thunder Hand, second senior brother couldn't learn even a single palm thunder. Senior brother, about this matter…"
"Got it. My master didn't believe it."
"Hm? That's right, senior brother didn't believe it!"
Daoist Qianhe looked at Liu Xiu in surprise, then said quietly, "Honestly, it wasn't just senior brother who didn't believe it—none of us believed it. After all, second senior brother was somewhat…"
"Careful… dark-bellied?"
"Yes, yes, yes, dark-bellied! That's exactly what your martial uncle meant—cough, cough, you said it, I never said anything bad about second senior brother!"
Daoist Qianhe shrank his neck and glanced left and right like a thief with a guilty conscience, plainly a man who had been beaten into fear by second senior brother. Liu Xiu curled his lip. "So it's because of that, that the two of them don't get along?"
"There were some other things too…"
Daoist Qianhe didn't continue this time, and Liu Xiu didn't press. He simply changed the subject. "Martial Uncle, you said last night that we'd pass by Martial Uncle Simu's house today. Is Simu's house really that close to Fengling Town?"
"Over seventy li—not really close. His house is right beside that little hill with the waterfall. He has a disciple named Jiale, and a monk lives next door, though I've never met the monk…" Daoist Qianhe said.
"……"
"What? Have you been there?"
"No, but I passed by that waterfall, and I saw a big boy who seemed to be my senior brother Jiale!"
"???"
What do you mean, "seemed to be"?
Either he is or he isn't.
How can there be a "seemed to be"? Daoist Qianhe looked baffled. Seeing this, Liu Xiu's expression turned odd. "The night before last, when I was on the road—it was still the midnight hour…"
"…I happened to pass near that little waterfall, and then I saw a fool who wasn't sleeping in the middle of the night, swimming in the pool. So I didn't dare stop…"
"……"
Did Simu offend you too?
Daoist Qianhe thought instinctively, but then considered: if it had been him, he probably wouldn't have dared stop either.
What normal person bathes in a pool at midnight!
But think it he did, and Daoist Qianhe coughed into his fist. "Cough, cough, that should be your senior brother Jiale. Hm, your Martial Uncle Simu has probably gone out corpse driving again. Alone at home, he inevitably gets… a little bored!"
"Hm, I could tell he really is quite bored!"
"……"
Confirmed:
Simu had offended him too!
So Daoist Qianhe thought. Liu Xiu didn't continue the topic of whether senior brother Jiale was bored, and instead began asking about parts of the Seven Yuan Corpse-Summoning Return-to-Mountain Secret Manual's corpse-driving art that he hadn't understood.
"Hm? Senior brother didn't teach you corpse driving? Right, right—in senior brother's eyes, I suppose only thunder arts count as the great road to Heaven…"
Daoist Qianhe spoke in a complicated tone, and only Liu Xiu caught the sour note in it. He said in surprise,
"Eh? Martial Uncle, don't tell me you don't know thunder arts?"
"……"
"Martial Uncle, don't tell me you can't even do palm thunder?"
"……"
Yes, yes, yes, I can't!
But I'm going to learn it right now, all right!
Daoist Qianhe stared expressionlessly at Liu Xiu, who talked more like senior martial brother than senior martial brother himself, and decided that once he got back he would learn that dust-covered Startling Thunder Finger of his—no, he would learn it right now!
He had thunder arts talent too!
Though not much of it…
Chapter 40