Chapter 39 — The Crimson Sun Soars Through the Void, Tempering the Yang Soul

The white-browed monk's brows twitched, and at once he knew what flaw the man had meant. In his early years of training he had once slept too long and missed the Tathagata's lecture—and that lecture had been on none other than the Myriad-Armed Vajra.

The Buddhist path sets great store by the word "fate," and the white-browed monk had missed that fate; he could not ask the Tathagata for the essence of the Myriad-Armed Vajra, and could only learn it from his fellow disciples. After all, it was not the Tathagata's true transmission.

His Myriad-Armed Vajra did indeed conceal a flaw no one could perceive; the white-browed monk had found it himself, and wished to mend it—yet the more he mended, the more it leaked, the more holes he patched, the more holes appeared. To solve a problem, one must first find where the problem lies.

This Myriad-Armed Vajra was exceedingly complex, demanding the cooperation of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind in every quarter; its variations were beyond counting, and no petty flaw could possibly spring from a single cause—most likely it arose from several, even a dozen, causes that seemed to have no connection at all. From his youth the white-browed monk had searched for the cause of that flaw, and to this day he had not found it. Since the flaw had appeared in his Myriad-Armed Vajra, then as his disciple, Chenghuai's Myriad-Armed Vajra would naturally show the same flaw. The flaw was too subtle; only when an attack came with incomparable speed could that thread of weakness be made to show itself.

The flaw lay in this: when the arm rose and passed one inch below the throat, the vital essence grew slightly thin. Struck by a fast attack, the arm would rise a hair's breadth slower for that thinness of vital essence, and that single hair would open a fleeting gap at the throat.

The white-browed monk's cultivation was too deep; few could ever force out that hair's-breadth flaw. But Chenghuai was different.

In sheer abundance of cultivation, Shen Mu stood above Chenghuai, and Shen Mu used his hand as a blade, incredibly swift. In but a brief while he had already struck Chenghuai's throat a hundred times in succession! By the sixty-eighth strike, the Golden Radiance Body-Protecting Bell around Chenghuai had already shattered once; though Chenghuai gathered his vital essence again and the bell reappeared, Shen Mu's blade had already cut into his throat!

Blood poured without cease from Chenghuai's throat, and soon dyed his pure white monk's robe crimson. The white-browed monk sighed and said, "Silly child, your Myriad-Armed Vajra cannot hold off his blade.

Could you not change your move? " Chenghuai came to his senses: in his single-mindedness to receive Shen Mu's blade, he had forgotten that in guarding only, he would sink into a state of taking blows—while his Golden Radiance Body-Protecting Bell could hold off Shen Mu's blade for a short while and give him the chance to defeat his foe.

It was Shen Mu's madness that had frightened him witless, so that he forgot his own strengths!

He abruptly changed his move, his palm closing into a fist, and shook it in the air; the fist was like the golden light of the great sun, dazzling beyond compare!

Sun-Shine Yang Spirit Tempered in the Void! In that moment, Buddhist sound came forth from his seal-form, the Buddhist tones far-ranging and lofty, accompanied by the thunder of his palm—a single peal of thunderclap loud enough to temper and slay souls! His Sun-Shine Yang Spirit Tempered in the Void differed in power from Shen Mu's use of the move; its might surpassed the one Shen Mu had cultivated several times over!

Struck by this blow, Shen Mu was at once muddled and dazed, his three souls stirred together, his seven spirits all shaken.

Tut!

Tut!

Tut! Shen Mu raised his fingers, and a dazzling succession of finger-movements struck his brow, his tailbone, his navel, his crown, his Adam's apple, the pit of his heart, his perineum, his lungs, locking down his three souls and seven spirits!

Hidden Demon Metamorphosis Art! The Hidden Demon Metamorphosis Art that Granny Zhu had taught him had originally been a demonic art for fixing the souls, locking the vital blood, and flaying skin to make garments; now he used it to seal his own souls, so that Chenghuai's move could not temper them away!

"Samaya!

" A hurried demonic note came; Shen Mu smiled the flower-twirling smile, shook his palm, and the Hidden Demon Sovereign Seal burst forth.

Chenghuai's soul fled its house, nearly dragged from his body. Yet just then Shen Mu changed his move again, turning from demonic art to Buddhist art: Sun-Shine Yang Spirit Tempered in the Void!

Chenghuai's Sun-Shine Yang Spirit Tempered in the Void took the fist as the great sun, thunder-sound scattering the soul and golden light tempering it; Shen Mu's Sun-Shine Yang Spirit Tempered in the Void likewise took the fist as the great sun, but blazing Vermilion Bird vital essence set the fist afire—the firelight was primordial fire, dreadfully fierce, enough to melt steel.

Shen Mu's fist spread its five fingers, the air in his palm exploded at once, and a massive shock rushed at his opponent's face, blasting his souls into disarray. The white-browed monk's Sun-Shine Yang Spirit Tempered in the Void and Huo Ye's were not the same; plainly the white-browed monk's was the orthodox version, while Huo Ye's had been improved, with the emphasis on power.

Only, Shen Mu did not have the Tingming Mahayana Sutra, and could not draw out its full might.

Chenghuai had just been shaken to the soul, nearly driven from his body, when he heard a low shout: "Samaya! " Shen Mu had changed moves yet again, from palm to seal, smiling the flower-twirling smile as the Hidden Demon Sovereign Seal burst out once more. He switched back and forth between the Buddhist and demonic seal-arts without the slightest obstruction, without a trace of friction—a sight that left Granny Zhu, the white-browed monk, and the rest profoundly shaken, stunned beyond words.

Buddha and demon clashing is inevitable; to work a demonic art and then drive a Buddhist art must be incomparably difficult, absolutely impossible to switch as freely as Shen Mu did. "It is Overlord Body vital essence," the Deaf Elder said with a smile, in a low voice. Granny Zhu heard it, and her heart quivered: "The Deaf Elder is right.

Only Overlord Body vital essence, which has no attribute at all, can switch between Buddhist and demonic arts without hindrance!

Shen'er is indeed an Overlord Body; the village headman was not mistaken! " The white-browed monk rose abruptly, chanted a Buddha's name, and Shen Mu's Hidden Demon Sovereign Seal lost its power at once; an invisible force parted him from Chenghuai.

Chenghuai was about to gather his spirit and contend with Shen Mu once more when his vision suddenly went black and his body swayed.

His throat had nearly been cut through by Shen Mu; he had lost too much blood.

"I have lost. " The white-browed monk glanced at Huo Ye, beckoned Chenghuai over, and said, "Junior brother, this time it is I who have lost, but next time may not be so. Chenghuai, master and disciple have wandered the four directions with nowhere to settle; better to seek a karmic bond nearby and find a village to stay in.

" Chenghuai's throat still bled. He came forward; the white-browed monk bound his wound and applied medicine, then said with deep meaning, "Junior brother, a monk's staff may be remade if lost, but a head is lost only once.

You lost once, and so you have lost the whole game.

And this young benefactor—you practice demonic arts, treacherous and venomous; you have entered the demonic path. Beware lest you sink into hell and never be reborn!