Chapter 34 — At the Ancient Temple of the Waste God, Paying Homage to the Merciful Venerable
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
That was precisely why it was called a sword-hiding pouch. The Lanjiang Sect was a sword sect of the Southern Wastes, and the swords it refined were highly distinctive.
Within this sword-hiding pouch was concealed a mother sword, which could not be moved, for it had already fused with the hide of the little crocodile. All the swords drawn from the pouch were daughter swords. Shen Mu tried it, and in all he could draw twenty-eight daughter swords; adding the seven he had severed with the Beast-Slaying Blade, there were as many as thirty-five swords.
As for how the Lanjiang Sword Sect managed to hide thirty-five swords within so small a pouch, he had no idea of the trick.
Twenty-eight swords were not heavy for Shen Mu.
He carried many iron ingots on his person, wore iron shoes on his feet, and hid more ingots about his chest and waist—the total weight came to over a hundred catties, which was much the same as the weight of the sword-hiding pouch. Shen Mu treated carrying the pouch on his back as a form of cultivation; it let him set aside the iron shoes and other heavy objects and move more freely.
But as for driving flying swords with his qi, that he could not do. The Chengjiang Sword Art was delicate and venomous, and his sword-controlling skill was nowhere near that level.
"If only I could learn the Chengjiang Sword Art! " Shen Mu sighed to himself.
The Chengjiang Sword Art was wonderfully subtle, and above all its linked-sword technique was superb beyond compare. Among the villagers, Huo Ye, the Butcher, the Lame Elder, the Pill Master, and the Blind Elder were all unversed in swordsmanship.
The Silent Artisan possessed a chest full of things like sword pills, and Granny Zhu likewise had similar silver pills; if those silver pills were sword pills, then they too must be masters of the sword. But when Shen Mu asked Granny Zhu, she was unwilling to teach him, and the Silent Artisan also waved his hands again and again, as though held back by some misgiving. The Silent Artisan quietly told him in sign language: if he did not learn now, a finer sword art would be waiting for him; once he learned it, that would be the end of it, and that person would not teach him anymore.
Shen Mu did not know who "that person" was, and so he had no choice but to drop the matter. He had not yet fully mastered the marvel of circulating primal qi. For instance, with Huo Ye's fist art, he had not yet fully succeeded in sending primal qi through his whole body at the moment of attack.
When primal qi flows through the whole body, it can enhance every aspect of one's physique to the utmost—strength, agility, speed, and reaction alike all reach their limit!
If the Eight Secrets of Thunderclap were cultivated to a profound realm, one could send thunder from the palm and strike with thunderbolts in the fist. He could only manage thunder at the palm through the Demon God's Divine Power Seal; with the Eight Secrets of Thunderclap he was not yet capable. Were he able to reach that step, then if he met a martial artist like Yan Qing again, he could catch the sword with his bare hands and his palm would not be sliced open! "You lack actual combat.
" Huo Ye came to Shen Mu's side and said calmly: "Your cultivation surpasses that disciple of the Lanjiang Sect. The fist art, leg art, saber art, and staff art you have learned are all stronger than his Chengjiang Sword Art. Yet when you crossed blows with him, you were hampered at every turn and could not spread out your techniques.
" Shen Mu nodded again and again.
He had sensed it himself: Yan Qing's swordsmanship was consummate and his linked-sword technique caught one unawares, but his own reactions had been somewhat inadequate—he had actually grabbed at the sword directly. Thinking back on it now, Yan Qing's strength was not really so great.