荒墟牧神 - 第84章 暗夜中的邪祟 - 文瀾書苑

When they came to the city gate, facing the boundless dark, Shen Mu could not keep his heart from quailing. The dark that killed whoever touched it lay right before him, heaving gently as though it had life of its own, held back by the radiance cast off by the dragon pillars and the temples within the city. Now he was about to step into that dark himself. Behind him, Granny Zhu, Old Master Huo, the Lame Elder, and the rest were even more frantic than he; the city gate creaked and groaned as it swung open, and their hearts clenched tight. From within the Village Head came seven concussions, as though seven treasure vaults had burst open inside him at once, and in an instant his aura turned savage beyond measure, majestic beyond measure, holy beyond measure. He drifted toward the dark: "Shen'er, let us go." Shen Mu hurried after him, and looked upon the Village Head with his Ninefold Heaven Sacred Pupil; his heart and spirit were deeply shaken. What he saw was not a Village Head with severed hands and feet, but a majestic god. The Village Head before him now appeared to his eyes as a deity whole in hand and foot, much like the gods he had seen in the temples; the only difference, perhaps, was that the Village Head was a living god, while those in the temples were gods carved from stone. "I knew it. The old man is still the old man." The Blind Elder leaned on his bamboo cane and said with feeling: "The old man is still a notch fiercer than the rest of us." The Silent Craftsman nodded again and again in heartfelt agreement: "Ah ah, ah ah ah." "The Silent Craftsman speaks truly." The Deaf Elder agreed deeply: "I only wonder how long the old man can hold out. If he can't, then the two of them are both done for." Granny Zhu spat twice in quick succession: "Peh, peh! You jinx of a mouth. Great fortune, great fortune." Within the dark, the jade pendant at Shen Mu's chest lit up. The youth cautiously followed the Village Head, who floated on ahead through the darkness, and looked back. In the dark, Crimson Dragon City was like a city of a hundred gods: giant dragons coiled upon its walls, giant gods standing within it, guarding that land so that the darkness could not draw near. "Village Head." A matter suddenly came to mind, and he said in haste: "My spirit fetus has fallen dormant again." The Village Head staggered, and the flaming radiance that burned around him nearly guttered out. He hastily steadied his mind and said: "Shen'er, you haven't told the other old fellows, have you?" In that fleeting instant when his mind wavered, a strange demonic sound came from the darkness, as though the demon lords within it were whispering among themselves, trying to rush in the moment the flame died. Shen Mu looked warily around him, then shook his head: "I haven't had the chance to tell Granny and the others yet. Village Head, did you not say that in the Mystic Body Three Cores Art, each awakening is one core? I have already awakened three times, three cores awakened. Now the spirit fetus has gone dormant again, and when it awakens once more, that will be a fourth awakening. Has something gone wrong with my cultivation...?" The Village Head let out a breath and smiled: "This is a good thing. The three of the Mystic Body Three Cores Art is not the three of one, two, three, four. As it is said, the Dao gives birth to the One, the One to the Two, the Two to the Three, and the Three to the myriad things. The three of the Mystic Body Three Cores Art is the three that gives birth to the myriad things. It may awaken any number of times." Shen Mu suddenly understood, and praised him: "The Village Head is learned and full of knowledge." Cold sweat slid from the Village Head's brow past his temples, and he silently commended himself: I really am clever. Now that I have explained it this way, no matter how many more times Shen'er awakens, I can explain it calmly. The little one is easy to fool; it is those old fellows in the village who are hard to fool. L