Chapter 26 — One Arm Holds Up the Heavens, Strength Grows Ever Mightier
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" The Headman quietly let out a breath. The dark clouds coiled in his heart had at last dispersed with the attribute Shen Mu's Overlord Body vital essence had gained. That Shen Mu could wield his vital essence and make it display its power confirmed his standing as an 'Overlord Body', and a crisis in the village was dissolved. Yet though his powers were vast, he could not help doubting and puzzling: how had Shen Mu's Overlord Body vital essence suddenly come to have an attribute? And the strangest thing was that the two attributes were water and fire!
You must understand that a spirit body possesses only a single attribute; it is absolutely impossible for it to have two.
Shen Mu plainly had the aptitude of an ordinary person, yet he possessed two attributes — and moreover water and fire, which can never coexist. That was bizarre indeed.
"When ordinary people awaken their spirit fetus, do they all become two-attribute spirit bodies? " He could not help feeling at a loss: what exactly had the Silent Smith taught him, to give his vital essence the attributes of water and fire? Could other ordinary people do the same? He knew that in these days, to make Shen Mu's Overlord Body vital essence display its power, the villagers had exhausted every means at their disposal: the Alchemist had used medicinal tonics; the Lame Elder, the Butcher and Old Master Huo had trained him madly; the Blind Elder had grudged nothing, teaching him his Sacred Pupil; the Deaf Elder had sought to lead Shen Mu into the Way through calligraphy and painting, so that he might paint forth divine powers; but as to what means the Silent Smith had used, he had no idea. Who would have thought that the one to finally draw out the power of the Overlord Body vital essence would be the Silent Smith?
He knew only that the Silent Smith had set Shen Mu to contemplate fire and contemplate water; how contemplating fire and water had given Shen Mu's vital essence the attributes of water and fire — the mystery of it baffled him. The Silent Smith was the village blacksmith and never showed his talents. In the village, the Blind Elder was the most sentimental, the Butcher the most flamboyant, the cold Old Master Huo the most warm-hearted, the ebullient Lame Elder the most sinister, the Alchemist the most dependable, the Deaf Elder the most free of desire, the hunchbacked Granny Zhu the most fickle — and the most tongue-tied of all was the Silent Smith.
Of the Silent Smith the Headman knew almost nothing, save that his tongue had been cut out, that he was a master hand at forging implements, and that in ordinary days he made kitchen knives, plowshares, hoes and the like for the villagers round about to make his living. Judging from how he had guided Shen Mu and made his vital essence display its power, the Silent Smith's cultivation and attainment were likely the highest in the village, next to his own.
"Shen'er, can you now refine your vital essence into a thread?
" Granny Zhu asked hopefully. Shen Mu tried to bind his vital essence into a fine thread, and the next moment his vital essence left his body, as thick as an arm and wreathed in flame.
This great, coarse "vital essence thread" coiled around the slaughtering saber, and at a single slash the bucket-thick wooden post before him was split clean through — a terrifying display of power! The villagers stared at this arm-thick vital essence thread, all of them speechless.
Shen Mu's vital essence thread was certainly strong enough in power, but refining vital essence into a thread meant refining it into a fine thread, which made it nimbler and more changeable, able to command a precious sword, to drive a flying sword with vital essence, and to execute many moves that could not otherwise be performed.
As for Shen Mu's, it could hardly be called a thread — "vital essence arm" would be nearer the truth. A vital essence thread this thick consumed an enormous amount. The Lame Elder scratched his head.