Chapter 51 — The Sect Master's Bedmate

"How did I come to be here?" Granny Zhu came out of the thatched hut, her voice choked with tears: "I raised you with such bitter hardship, brought you up to this size, and you slipped off without a word after a vixen, leaving your granny all alone. And you ask me how I come to be here? Your wings have grown stiff; with a vixen in hand, you want your granny no more! Little vixen, how would you like to die?" Shen Mu hastened to smile. "Granny, you have misunderstood. I came upon Snow Fox by chance, and hearing her speak of the Xiongjiang Dragon Palace, I went to take a look. Because in the dragon palace I was comprehending the true dragon and forgot myself for a time, I stayed there two days longer." "Not two days, four! Wait, you say you were comprehending the true dragon?" Granny Zhu said in astonishment, "That little vixen did not plunder you and draw off your vital energy?" Snow Fox, bashful and a little frightened, hid behind Shen Mu. Shen Mu stirred his vital energy and laughed. "Granny, look!" A low dragon cry came forth; Shen Mu's vital energy surged out and became a great dragon coiled about his body, its two claws fused with his arms. Shen Mu shifted his stance, struck out with a punch, and with a thunderous crack the thunder sound burst forth. He punched again and again, and the sonorous thunder sound rolled back and forth through the valley, boom upon boom, quivering without cease! "Azure Dragon vital energy!" Granny Zhu was deeply shaken. She knew Lord Huo had never taught Shen Mu the Thunder Cry Mahayana Sutra; lacking a cultivation method suited to the Eight Thunder Cry Arts, no matter how mighty Shen Mu's vital energy might be, his attainment in the Eight Thunder Cry Arts could never be high. Yet now Shen Mu had struck out the thunder sound, his fists like rushing thunder, only short of a true thunderbolt! In the Spirit Embryo realm, without the corresponding heart formula, to achieve such a thing was all but impossible! And the crucial matter was not even this, but the Azure Dragon vital energy! That Shen Mu had just now been encircled by an Azure Dragon was precisely the Azure Dragon vital energy unique to the Azure Dragon spirit body among the four great spirit bodies! This was already the third attribute that the vital energy of his Overlord Body possessed! Shen Mu had contemplated water and contemplated fire, and his Overlord Body vital energy had gained the water and fire attributes, answering to the Black Tortoise vital energy and the Vermilion Bird vital energy; and now he possessed the lightning attribute of the Azure Dragon vital energy as well! "Can it be that Shen'er has plundered the little vixen and greatly advanced his cultivation? No, I never taught him the demonic plunder arts... He said just now that he saw a true dragon; what is the meaning of that?" Granny Zhu was full of doubt. Shen Mu reined in his stance, and the Azure Dragon formed of his vital energy slipped into his body with a zip, from dragon head to dragon tail lively and vivid, as though it were a true god-dragon. His own heart was both startled and delighted; he had never expected to be able to strike out the thunder sound! When the little monk Chenghuai employed the Eight Thunder Cry Arts and struck out the thunder sound, Shen Mu had envied him without end. If Shen Mu used the Demon God's Divine Power Seal, he too could strike out the thunder sound, but the Demon God's Divine Power Seal consumed a great deal. The Eight Thunder Cry Arts consumed little, and moreover the Dark Body Three Elixir Art was better suited to cultivation in the midst of battle, raising one's cultivation; one could say that his vital energy was almost not consumed at all in combat. To strike out the thunder sound would let his strength advance by one great stride! He recounted his encounters in the dragon palace, and Granny Zhu listened as though enchanted; when she heard Shen Mu speak of the skeleton in official robes and the dried corpses, her gaze flickered, and she said, "Two different manners of death; there is something strange in that. You must be careful when you go in." Shen Mu went on to tell of the Dark Dragon's young one sealed in the dark ice of the Dark Water Dragon Pearl, and of Pei Wujiu; Granny Zhu clapped her hands and laughed. "That old fellow Pei Wujiu is a strange one; those skeletons in official robes must surely have died at his hands and been eaten by him! Men of the officialdom have always devoured people without spitting out the bones. How did you trick him?" Snow Fox listened in admiration. This old granny had not seen any of it with her own eyes, yet merely from hearing the tale she had reached the very judgment Shen Mu had; could she too be a fox turned spirit? Shen Mu told of how he had been taught the Crimson Heart Formula, and produced the Chubao Sword. Granny Zhu took it and examined it, praised it, and said, "The Chubao Sword is indeed one of the rarest treasures under heaven. The Kingdom of Jingping spent the strength of the whole realm to forge sixteen first-rank swords, among them the Chubao Sword, the Taibao Sword, the Taifu Sword, the Shaofu Sword, the Taishi Sword, the Shaoshi Sword, the Sansi Sword, the Piaoqi Sword, the Siwang Sword, the Junwang Sword, the Guogong Sword, the Taiwei Sword, the Sikong Sword, and the Tiance Sword, bestowed respectively upon the Junior Guardian of the Crown Prince, the Grand Guardian, the Grand Tutor, the Junior Tutor of the Crown Prince, the Grand Preceptor, the Junior Preceptor of the Crown Prince, the Chancellor with the Ceremonial of the Three Excellencies, the General of Agile Cavalry, the Prince Heir, the Prince of a Commandery, the Duke of a State, the Grand Commandant, the Minister of Works, and the General of Heavenly Strategy. Though the Chubao Sword is not the equal of a sword of the true first rank, brought out as another sect's treasure of the sect it is more than sufficient." "So valuable?" Shen Mu was startled and said, "How does this sword compare with the Fanji Twelve-Ring Zen Staff?" Granny Zhu said, "Much the same, not much higher. The Fanji Twelve-Ring Zen Staff has the blessing of the Tathagata upon it; the Chubao Sword, being the sword worn by an officer of the first rank, inherits the fortune of the Kingdom of Jingping, and its power is exceedingly strong." Shen Mu asked, "He said the swordsmanship of Jingping is the finest swordsmanship under heaven. I did not learn it, only the sword-controlling art of the Crimson Heart Formula. Was it right of me to do so?" "It was right not to learn it. The swordsmanship of the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping is naturally good, but Pei Wujiu was in those years one of our own demonic kind; his swordsmanship may well not have been trained to the Imperial Preceptor's level. Swordsmanship depends upon the man; however fine the art, if the master teaches it poorly, it will instead be riddled with flaws. Look at the little monk Chenghuai: he too cultivated the Eight Thunder Cry Arts, but because his master taught him poorly, he was left with that flaw at his throat." Granny Zhu spoke with earnest heart: "Therefore, in learning swordsmanship, one must choose the very best of masters; a master who is but half a bucket of water must absolutely be refused." Shen Mu was doubtful. Pei Wujiu was an officer of the secondary first rank of the Kingdom of Jingping, Junior Guardian of the Crown Prince; could he too be half a bucket of water? "Little fox, I shall not kill you." Granny Zhu laughed. "Shen'er, let us go home. The villagers must be frantic by now, thinking that on your first trip out to hunt you were eaten by some strange beast. Only your granny was clever, and knowing you had been lured away by the little fox, waited here all along. By the way, little fox, I leafed through those ancient books of yours and wrote annotations in them for you; read them yourself, and they may spare you some detours." Snow Fox was ashamed, and said dejectedly, "I do not know h