Chapter 59 — The Third Awakening
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Yet the alchemist was not wrong: what if the boy's spirit embryo really did awaken a fourth time? How would he patch that lie together then?
"Ahem. Shen'er, this third awakening of your spirit embryo — what is different about it? " The village head changed the subject.
Shen Mu examined his spirit embryo carefully.
It seemed no different from before, save that the ocean of golden light within the primal-embryo divine treasury was now much thinner.
The golden sea was thin now; the golden light within it no longer seemed to generate itself, and each portion the spirit embryo absorbed left less behind. Shen Mu stirred his primal qi, and his spirit embryo stirred the primal qi as well: at one moment he was wreathed in an azure dragon, at another he trod a dark tortoise with a great serpent draped over him, at another wings sprouted from his back. His primal qi changed with his every intent — no longer did he need to watch water, watch fire, watch dragons!
Shen Mu told the others, and the village head and the rest looked at one another, unable to say why such a change had come. "This is a good thing.
" The village head let out a breath of turbid air.
"When the Overlord Body's spirit embryo awakens a third time, its attributes switch at will, and in battle he can bring out the full power of every technique with ease. That is the marvelous use of the Mystic Body Three-Cinnabar Art. " The others nodded one after another.
The alchemist was about to speak, but the village head glared him into silence; he had to swallow his words and grumbled inwardly, "When Shen'er awakens a fourth time, let us see how you patch it then!
" "Breath entering and leaving the nose like smoke; body and mind illumined within; the rounded cavern of the world, wholly become void and pure, like crystal. .
.
" Beneath the waterfall of Jade Cloud Valley, a slightly callow, ringing voice came from the thatched hut. Looking through the hut's window lattice, one saw a boy of fourteen or fifteen, a scroll in one hand, pacing the room and reading aloud, while a fox with fur white as snow watched him without blinking. That boy was Shen Mu; the white fox was Snowfox, the great demon of Jade Cloud Valley.
Before long, Snowfox's breathing grew long, and two trails of white vapor like smoke passed in and out beneath the little fox's nostrils — one breath out, one breath in, the white vapor advancing and retreating. Snowfox's primal qi grew ever richer, its quality reaching an extremely high realm: breath like smoke. Two years and eight months had passed since the visit from the Nether Demon Cult.
Winter had just ended and all things were reviving; it was still the chill season of early spring, and the surface of the Surging River had not fully thawed, broken ice drifting downstream. Where the river bent, the channel was often choked with ice; the ice piled higher and higher until it formed a dam, and the water rose and rose, and when the ice wall could bear no more, a great flood burst forth and swept the lower reaches of the Surging River, drowning countless people and strange beasts.
These past days Blind Grandpa, Granny Zhu, the Lame Old Man and the others had gone downstream in search of the dammed lakes and were not in the village, so Shen Mu had come out to find Snowfox and expound the scriptures to him.
In the two years and more, his stature had caught up with Blind Grandpa's, though he was still a head shorter than the burly alchemist. Suddenly a roar came from beyond the window, shaking the mountain forest. Shen Mu closed his scroll and laid it on the shelf, and the white fox was startled awake as well.