Chapter 27 — The Spirit Fetus Secret Art First Takes Form
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Whoosh— In the woods beyond Hidden Remnant Village, Shen Mu struck out with his palm, and vital essence came surging from his arm like a fire dragon coiled about it; the air before him turned scorchingly hot in an instant, as though it had been set alight!
He shifted his feet, his palms striking again and again, and the air grew hotter and hotter, like a vast desert of yellow sand beneath ten suns hung high, blistering beyond bearing! What he used was Old Master Huo's fist art, the fourth stance of the Thunderclap Eight Formulas: Kuafu Pursues the Sun, Wind and Thunder Swift.
Then of a sudden Shen Mu's footwork shifted, and his moves shifted with it, each stance and each form like a great river rushing onward to the sea; his vital essence turned straight from the fire attribute to the water attribute, a water dragon woven of vapor coiling about his arm, and between one move and the next the boom of waves rolled out, as though a great flood circled and flowed around him.
His moves changed again: both hands closed upon emptiness, the vapor like a spear, like a long dragon, churning rivers and overturning seas.
These past days he had been in the village honing his vital-essence-driven flying sword, devoting himself to tempering his vital essence; only he still had first to contemplate the fire before his vital essence could take on the fire attribute, and only then could he wield the flying sword. As he tempered it again and again, the time he needed to contemplate the fire grew shorter and shorter, and now he no longer needed to look at the forge at all — so long as he pictured the flames in the furnace within his heart, his vital essence turned scorching of itself. Yet the Butcher's Slaughtering Saber Art belonged to the school of combat technique, and Shen Mu's use of it to temper his vital-essence-driven flying sword had never yielded much.
It was in practicing Old Master Huo's Thunderclap Eight Formulas and the Blind Elder's spear art that he reaped the most, advancing with astonishing speed.
Now, as he executed the fourth stance of the Thunderclap Eight Formulas, Kuafu Pursues the Sun, Wind and Thunder Swift, he was like a giant running; his palm shook, and the air burst and exploded — such was the power of vital essence! Of course, the fire-attribute Vermilion Bird vital essence could not bring out the full might of Old Master Huo's Thunderclap Eight Formulas; the vital essence best suited to the Thunderclap Eight Formulas was the Azure Dragon's.
It was rather the water-attribute Black Tortoise vital essence that could bring the Blind Elder's spear art to its fullest. After a long while Shen Mu stopped, swallowed two Essence-Condensing Pills to replenish his sharply depleted vital essence, and pondered in detail the shortcomings in his use of vital essence.
He had once been able to take only a single Essence-Condensing Pill before it swelled him to the point of frenzy; but ever since his spirit fetus had slept and awakened, two pills did him no great harm — only a stuffed, bloated feeling.
"An Essence-Condensing Pill — could the Darkfang Demon Ape eat one?
It shouldn't be able to. Grandpa Alchemist says there are four attributes in an Essence-Condensing Pill, and to anyone who is not an Overlord Body they are poison.
Another day, why don't I refine a whole vat of Essence-Condensing Pills for the Darkfang Demon Ape?
" Thinking of the big fellow who traded blows with him, Shen Mu felt a stir in his heart.
These past days he had not gone to seek the Darkfang Demon Ape, and he did not know how the strange beast was coming along in its practice of the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art.
He sprang up, his steps flying, and headed for the Darkfang Demon Ape's territory. He was a youth after all; in the village there were only elders and no friends, and he and the Darkfang Demon Ape had come to know each other through fighting — after several days apart, he found he missed it rather a lot.