Chapter 47 — A Third Guest Appears Unexpectedly in the Midst

Before them, a giant dragon coiled around the towering palace, ring after ring, its enormous head lifted high above the great hall, gazing toward them! It was a dragon skeleton—a colossal skeleton of bone and nothing more, and its teeth alone stood taller than Shen Mu! Though the dragon had been dead for who knows how long, its fierce and extraordinary might was still plain to see; in life it must have been an exceedingly powerful being. Shen Mu opened his Cloud-Soaring Heavenly Eye, and at once the skeleton before him seemed to come alive, divine radiance shooting into the heavens; in his eyes the dragon seemed to coil and glide. Though the dragon was plainly dead, its momentum and bearing made him feel as if it were still alive! "Yongjiang Dragon Emperor—a true dragon..." Looking at the dragon, Shen Mu's heart stirred as he remembered Grandpa Huo's fist art, the move Nine Dragons Commanding Wind and Thunder from the Eight Thunderclap Secrets. In Nine Dragons Commanding Wind and Thunder, vital energy divided into nine layers of force: the first layer was Furious Dragon Charge, the second Twin Dragon Coil, and each layer's power carried one more dragon-force than the one before. Shen Mu had practiced boxing under Grandpa Huo since childhood and had trained this move who knows how many times, but he had never been able to grasp its essence. Only recently, as his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds, had the power of Nine Dragons Commanding Wind and Thunder soared. Yet when he crossed blows with the young monk Chenghuai, he still came off the worse. Partly it was because he had not obtained the Thunderclap Mahayana Sutra of the Great Thunderclap Temple, but the greater reason was that his Nine Dragons fist-force merely resembled a dragon. To resemble a dragon without being a dragon—to have only the outward form and none of the reality—naturally it shattered at the first touch. If his fist-force were a true dragon, then even without learning the Thunderclap Mahayana Sutra, his Nine Dragons Commanding Wind and Thunder would be the true transmission! For the martial principle of Nine Dragons Commanding Wind and Thunder was precisely to imitate a true dragon's mastery of wind and thunder: thunderbolts with world-shaking might, a divine dragon swooping out of the thunder to strike and fight. If one could achieve that, learning the sutra or not made no difference! "Nine Dragons Commanding Wind and Thunder, Nine Dragons Commanding Wind and Thunder..." Shen Mu studied the dragon skeleton bit by bit, his feet moving unconsciously. His eyes held nothing but the true dragon's bones; he observed the dragon's form, examined its skeletal structure, studied its momentum, savored its rhythm, comprehended its vital breath, and meditated on its spirit. He grew more and more lost to himself, walking as he looked, all the while making strange motions with his arms and torso, unconsciously imitating the true dragon's every gesture. His vital energy, too, began without his knowing it to course through his body like a true dragon, again and again, enriching itself with ever more detail. And in the divine treasury of his primal embryo, the spirit embryo was also moving in response to his movements, inhaling and exhaling vital energy, gradually undergoing a wondrous transformation. The vital energy it breathed out did not flow back into Shen Mu's body; instead it wandered over its own form and turned into a small dragon. As more and more vital energy was breathed in and out, the small dragon slowly grew, eventually becoming taller than a man and coiling around the spirit embryo. Snow Fox had been terrified at first, but as time passed, the dread in her heart gradually faded and she became less afraid. It was only that Shen Mu, absorbed in studying the dragon skeleton, had forgotten her entirely. After quite a while, Snow Fox's stomach rumbled. She carefully climbed down from Shen Mu's back and tiptoed out of the underwater Dragon Palace. It was not that she feared disturbing Shen Mu; rather, she had a natural dread of dragons and was afraid that any noise she made might disturb the dragon skeleton. An hour later, the white fox returned, carrying a bag filled with strange dandelion-like creatures. Suppressing the dread in her heart toward the dragon skeleton, Snow Fox went into the mist, came to Shen Mu's side, climbed up his body, perched on his shoulder, and stuffed one of those creatures into his mouth. Shen Mu, oblivious, opened his mouth when food came and obediently swallowed. Snow Fox fed him more than twenty of those strange creatures before she began munching on some herself. Shen Mu still showed no sign of waking, continuing to pace, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on the dragon skeleton, sometimes even climbing onto it and roaming among the enormous bones. Around the spirit embryo, an azure dragon coiled, crackling with electric sparks, but Shen Mu, wholly concentrated on the dragon skeleton, did not notice. In this way two days passed without anyone noticing. Shen Mu ate, drank, slept, and relieved himself right where he was, and his body had long since begun to stink, yet still there was no sign of waking. Snow Fox was very patient. During those days she looked after his food and drink. When Shen Mu was thirsty, she fetched water in a leaf; when he was hungry, she caught the strange creatures in the passage. But on the way she had to pass the pool, and the monstrous fish lurked in the water; one careless slip and she would be devoured. Fortunately she was clever, and no mishap occurred. Of course, she would still hide when Shen Mu had to attend to nature. On the third day, as Snow Fox was about to fetch some water, Shen Mu's voice suddenly came: "Why am I so filthy?" Snow Fox, startled and delighted, said crisply, "You've been standing here for three days—of course you're filthy!" "Three days?" Shen Mu gave a start and blurted, "Oh no! I've been gone for three days; the villagers must be worried to death! Let's go—hurry back!" Then he stopped short again. "If I go back now, I'll definitely be scolded, and they may even refuse to let me out again. Since I've come this far, I might as well go into the Dragon Palace and have a look. Maybe I can find some treasure." Full of enthusiasm, he walked into the underwater Dragon Palace, and Snow Fox, summoning her courage, followed him into the towering palace. But she was timid and dared only to stay close by Shen Mu's leg, not venturing to move about freely. This great hall too was shrouded in mist—even thicker mist, vast and blurred, so that one could not see far. "Strange. What is giving off this mist?" Shen Mu wondered. This fog was not water vapor; even his Cloud-Soaring Heavenly Eye could not see far through it. The closer he walked toward the center of the hall, the heavier the mist became and the shorter his range of vision. Snow Fox, even more frightened, clamped her teeth on Shen Mu's trouser leg and let him pull her along. Then he heard a strange sound—soft, drawn out, and yet mournful, as though someone in the mist were singing a desolate song, though the words could not be made out. It was an ancient language, mysterious and abstruse, as old as the speech of gods and demons. As Shen Mu listened, he raised a hand and touched his cheek; before he knew it, tears were streaming down his face. The song made him feel as if a woman were drifting back and forth in the mist, singing a story that broke her heart. All at once, the golden rings on the Brahma-Silence Twelve-Ring Staff in his hand began to clang loudly, making a tremendous din. "Grandpa Huo said the golden rings of the Brahma-Silence Twelve-Ring Staff have the power to drive away stray and evil thoughts. When the heart stirs, the rings stir; for each stray or evil thought that stirs, a ring sounds once. But now the rings are ringing like beans rattling in a copper sieve, clanging on and on without stopping—do I really have that many stray and evil thoug