Chapter 49 — A Crimson Heart Shines Through Ten Thousand Veils of Mist
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Had he not been sealed in the dark ice, he would long since have sprung out and given the brat a sound beating. "Granny said someone would come to teach me a better swordsmanship, and if I learned another's swordsmanship, that person would not teach me.
" Pei Wujiu choked with fury, then laughed aloud. "A better swordsmanship? Do you know that the finest swordsmanship under heaven is the swordsmanship of the Kingdom of Jingping! The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping gathered up the sword arts of the whole world, brought them together in one place, summoned the great masters of swordsmanship from every land, and created a sword art with them! A sword art founded on the pooled wisdom of the world's great masters—is that not the finest swordsmanship? Does it not surpass the sword arts that those so-called sect founders groped out each for himself? Those so-called sword sects do nothing but live off the shade of their ancestors, shutting themselves away and fancying themselves unmatched under heaven, never knowing they were left behind ten thousand leagues ago! " Shen Mu was dazed. He felt that the man's words were profoundly right, impossible to refute.
Because of the affair of the Lanjiang Sword Sect, he had in truth little fondness for the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping; yet the man's breadth of spirit compelled his admiration.
To have such boldness of vision—to set aside the prejudices of faction, to ignore the divisions between sects, to pool the wisdom of all, to gather the sword masters of the world in the Kingdom of Jingping to create a sword art together—such a man could not but command respect. "No," Shen Mu said, shaking his head.
Pei Wujiu longed to smash the dark ice and drag him out to be hung up and whipped soundly. He had pleaded and reasoned as best he could, and still the boy would not learn. He truly deserved a beating.
After a moment, Pei Wujiu suddenly laughed.
"Fine. I will not teach you swordsmanship; I will teach you the art of sword control.
The art of sword control is not swordsmanship. Once you have learned it, it will not hinder you from learning another's swordsmanship. " Shen Mu was moved.
With some reluctance, he nodded.
"So you are not yet wood too rotten to be carved—you know good from bad. This art of sword control is called the Crimson Heart Formula.
It teaches you how to control a sword; it does not pass on swordsmanship. " Pei Wujiu's spirits lifted. "What is the cinnabar heart? Cinnabar is red; it is flawless fine jade; it is the nine-cycle elixir. The cinnabar heart is a heart of pure crimson sincerity, a heart flawless, bright, and translucent, a heart refined nine times over and clean of the least stray thought. This art of sword control calls for purity of heart, for the heart of a newborn child. Control your sword with the heart of a newborn child, and where the heart goes the sword goes, and nothing can stand before it! Under heaven there is no art of sword control to surpass it!
The first step in refining the cinnabar heart: the heart like fire, the furnace in the field; the heart's fire refines the true essence; the furnace-field plows the furrows; the fire-seed is planted between the ridges! Dare to make ten suns of the yang spirit rise; the blazing holy fire of the proud sun shines in the heart's furnace. .
. " Shen Mu hurried to commit it to memory. The Crimson Heart Formula was terse and profound; even with the mnemonic verses, without a master to explain its mysteries one could never understand how to cultivate it.