Chapter 59 — The Third Awakening
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
"One straw cloak, one bamboo hat, one little boat; one ten-foot silk line, one inch-long hook; one song sung high, one cup of wine; one man alone fishing a river of autumn! Patriarch of the Demonic Cult, you and I have grown old, and who knows whether we shall meet again.
Farewell!
" Out in mid-river, the young Patriarch halted, turned back, and waved to the crowd. "Everyone, farewell! Haha!
" He sang aloud: "An old man of eight hundred writes his idle sorrows; his heart's ambition fulfilled, his heart at rest; after death he soars triumphant beyond the clouds; the clouds fly high, the waters flow! " Blind Grandpa praised him.
"Worthy of the Demonic Cult's Patriarch — he has seen through life and death, deems his own life complete, and after death will look down laughing on the shifting fortunes of the mortal world! " The village head said unhurriedly, "That is what a Great Grandmaster is.
Blind Grandpa, you are not far from that state of mind. " "Still so sentimental.
" Deaf Grandpa laughed.
"Blind Grandpa just drags out poems at random — utter nonsense, fitting neither the mood nor the scene.
The Demonic Cult Patriarch's verse, now, fits both mood and scene, and lacks no heroic spirit either. " Blind Grandpa stammered, "You don't understand poetry — all you understand is getting by!
" Everyone roared with laughter.
Shen Mu smiled too, gazing at these cheerful people.
Though each of them was crippled in one way or another, their spirits were incomparably strong and whole. "My kin.
.
. " Suddenly he felt a surging power welling out from between his brows.
Startled, Shen Mu hurried to look inward at the primal-embryo divine treasury, and could not help but start. "My spirit embryo has awakened again!
" His spirit embryo had awakened three times already. The first was when it merged with his consciousness and awakened; the second was when he watched fire and water in the smithy, and the spirit embryo sank into silence and then awakened a second time.
This time, after three hundred and sixty chambers of tempering, his spirit embryo had once more absorbed the golden light within the divine treasury and fallen silent again.
Only this silence had lasted a long while, and only now had it finally awakened.
What changes would this awakening bring him?
"Awakened again? " The faces of the crowd turned strange. Shen Mu told them of his spirit embryo's third awakening, and the village head, the alchemist, Old Master Huo and the rest all began to look very odd indeed.
Other people's spirit embryos awakened only once — why did Shen Mu's fall silent and awaken again at the drop of a hat?
"Do the Four Great Spirit Bodies also awaken three times?
" Shen Mu asked. The others exchanged glances, each shook his head, then all turned in unison to the village head.
The village head's head ached.
He muttered inwardly that Shen Mu awakening once was one thing, but awakening again and again, and now a third time, left even him baffled. "It is the Overlord Body. " The village head coughed, and pinned squarely upon the Overlord Body a thing he himself did not understand. "You people are too lacking in knowledge," he said mildly. "What is the Overlord Body's cultivation art called? The Mystic Body Three-Cinnabar Art!
What are the Three Cinnabars?
The first awakening is the First Cinnabar, the second awakening is the Second Cinnabar, the third awakening is the Third Cinnabar.
Now that Shen'er has awakened a third time, it shows that his Mystic Body Three-Cinnabar Art has achieved something.
Shen'er, no pride allowed!
" Shen Mu hastily nodded.
"I will surely not be proud. " The alchemist said with a half-smile, "And if Shen'er awakens a fourth time?
Would that be a fourth cinnabar? " The village head, furious with embarrassment, wished he could fling himself on the man and stick a pair of knives in his ribs.