Chapter 1119 — True Meaning Seen Within the Blade's Edge

Startled by him, the Silent Craftsman was half dead with fury; he shot the man a glare and flung his hands through gesture after gesture.

The Blind Elder closed his eyes, "watched" the clash between Shen Mu and Zai Fu, and said unhurriedly, "Silent Craftsman, you have two eyes and see nothing at all. Let me lend you a hand.

" He pressed his palm to the Silent Craftsman's face and covered both his eyes.

The Silent Craftsman was about to knock the hand away when his body gave a sudden faint shudder—he truly "saw" it!

He "saw" Shen Mu and Zai Fu standing there, their bodies motionless, yet their "spirits" transforming without cease, like streams of flowing light, ten thousand blade arts charging at one another in frenzy. That blade-light was so brilliant, so dazzling: a great saber with the momentum to cleave the heavens, a slender blade as fine and delicate as flowing water—their "spirits" so manifold that countless moves had passed in an instant, the combat fiercely pitched, too much for the "eye" to take in!

They were like two towering Blade Gods, each confirming to the other, through the utmost of blade arts, all he had learned and comprehended. The Silent Craftsman was struck dumb.

Just then, war drums seemed to sound at his ear, like rolling thunder, and like the unyielding cries of countless millions—that was the spirit surging from within Shen Mu!

In his daze, he seemed to pass through ancient history, and in the endless darkness he saw blade-light cleave the dark; he seemed to see the history of the struggles of the most ancient forebears!

Blades gleamed and shadows flew, mighty thewed bodies leaping up out of the darkness, resisting tyranny, fending off foreign foes, battling monstrous floods and savage beasts, fighting the injustice of that age! They took the night upon their shoulders and hewed a way through the wilds; batch after batch fell, and out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, batch after batch rose again!

They walked from darkness into light, from the past into the present. The spine of this people had, in truth, never been broken!

The Silent Craftsman watched until his blood seethed; he could not help but shout in a great voice, "Good blade work! " The Blind Elder lowered his hand and said unhurriedly, "Did you see?

" The Silent Craftsman nodded again and again; only then did he find his cheeks wet—while "watching" Shen Mu's blade arts, he had actually wept without knowing it.

He blinked his old eyes and laughed, "The hookah choked me; that water-pipe is harsh on the throat.

" Dragon Qilin cautiously edged forward and said in a low voice, "My lords, how goes this contest?

Why can I make nothing of it?

" The Blind Elder and the Silent Craftsman glanced at him, and the Blind Elder said in surprise, "This fellow has not yet come to the table?

" "Not yet.

" Dragon Qilin smiled ingratiatingly again and again and said, "My lords, the contest between the Hierarch and Lord Tu—I cannot understand it, yet I hear you both say it is good.

I beg you two lords to instruct me.

" The Silent Craftsman took from his box a silver pellet the size of a fingertip and tossed it to him, saying, "Throw it between them.

" Dragon Qilin tossed the silver pellet out.

The pellet was a divine weapon, and no sooner had it flown between Shen Mu and Zai Fu than it underwent a sudden transformation! As though provoked, it split outward with ringing clangs, and in an instant became thousands upon thousands of divine spears!

This was Jingping's art of artifact-forging: a spear-pellet designed by Jingping's Bazhou Heavenly Sage Academy, its countless spear shafts jammed together to form precisely a sphere!

Jingping's present standard of artifact-forging, in both design and precision of manufacture, had reached the very pinnacle of the myriad heavens and worlds, second only to the Celestial Court's Zaofu Heavenly Palace!

Scarcely had the thousands of divine spears split free than they seemed to be hewn by an invisible divine blade: the spearhead of every spear snapped off and fell to the ground!

Then countless great spears turned into roaming dragons, dancing in the air as they attacked Shen Mu and Zai Fu!

The divine spears were sentient, branded with runes of Jiangling Academy's design, able to strike back of their own accord when ambushed. In large-scale war such divine spears could save their master's life, and so they were greatly favored by the Celestial Court, which spared no expense to buy them!

Yet before the thousands upon thousands of divine spears could fall, they suddenly became countless fragments raining down!

Dragon Qilin was startled: Jingping's standard of artifact-forging had actually reached such a height—it truly widened his eyes.

Having crossed back to ancient times at Shen Mu's side, he had seen only crude divine weapons and sharp tools; returning abruptly to Jingping, he felt at once that the earlier time had been a savage, benighted age.

Still, Jingping's development over these five years had indeed advanced by leaps and bounds, far beyond what it had been five years before; small wonder Dragon Qilin was astonished.

But what astonished him more was that Shen Mu and Zai Fu, with eyes shut, were unleashing invisible blade arts of such deadly keenness!

They stood there seeming free of all peril, yet should anyone step between them, he would be shredded into countless pieces in an instant! "The Hierarch has grown ever more formidable. " Dragon Qilin blinked.

"After we stole the Glazed Azure Heaven Banner and returned to the Ghost Ship, we left him behind in the Longhan Era.

What has he been through in Longhan all this while?

" He could tell that it must have been during this time that Shen Mu's Heart of the Dao had leapt upward.

That elevation of the Heart of the Dao had sublimated his spirit, and his bearing, his vision, his depths had grown by leaps and bounds!

This too was why Shen Mu did not fall short when their blade-dao spirits collided! The layman watches the clamor; the expert sees the inner way.

Shen Mu and Zai Fu merely stood there, with no clamor to watch, and the only one who could see the inner way was the Blind Elder.

Under the gaze of his Heart-Sage Pupil, Shen Mu's spirit grew ever more intense, and in but a brief moment it actually pressed past Zai Fu's!

This was the doing of experience.

Without the experience of crossing into Longhan, without the stirring that came of living through a great historical upheaval, Shen Mu could hardly have nurtured this undefeated, undying spirit that spanned past and present! "Zai Fu cannot hold his ground; he will surely strike!

" No sooner had this thought crossed his mind than the divine blade planted before Zai Fu suddenly leapt up like a soaring dragon; Zai Fu snatched it into his hand and struck with savage resolve!

Shen Mu's spirit was too strong; were this to continue, he could not crush Shen Mu's Heart of the Dao at all—instead he would be suppressed by Shen Mu and defeated without a fight!

This was something a peerless one who had entered the Dao through the blade could absolutely not tolerate. And more than that, Zai Fu sensed that Shen Mu was using his hand to nurture his blade.

To nurture the blade is to nurture the Dao: first nurture the qi; when the qi is full the blade turns swift, and so one nurtures the blade art; when the blade art is fine, one's battle strength is great.

Then one nurtures the blade method; gaining the method, one comes to understand the spirit.

Nurture the spirit, and one gains the blade-dao!

For long years, what Shen Mu lacked was neither insight nor blade art, but the understanding of the spirit enshrined within the blade-dao.

Now his spirit had come, yet for the spirit merely to touch the blade-dao was not enough.

To enter the Dao through the blade, comprehension alone would not serve; the blade must be drawn.