Chapter 1129 — Walk Shoulder to Shoulder with Me

Seeing this, the blind old man and the Silent Smith set their minds at ease; they exchanged a glance and each nodded.

Shen Mu, as they had hoped, stirred his own insights amid the hammering; he not only mastered the knowledge the two had passed down in the course of their forging, but grew thoroughly deft in it besides. More than that, he entered a mysterious state, fusing his own insights, his understanding of the Dao, his spirit, and even his Dao-heart into the forging itself!

As he forged, halos of light surfaced around his body, and shadowy figures of ancient gods emerged from every part of him, great halos and small encircling those ancient deities, emblems of the Great Dao of primordial chaos. Resplendent Dao-notes rang out; his insights, his Dao-heart, his perseverance, his striving, all were hammered blow after blow into the divine weapon taking shape.

He reduced his Great Dao runes and his divine arts to the microscopic, and as the great hammer fell, branded them deep into every microscopic particle of the divine weapon, branded with utter earnestness. Whenever his yuan-qi and spirit-consciousness ran dry, he would take up the Primordial Essence Liquid and drink a mouthful; when the divine weapon grew too fierce, he would even steep and temper it in the Primordial Essence Liquid, sparing no cost.

After the Silent Smith and the blind old man finished forging the Butcher's divine blade, they saw that Shen Mu was still hammering away, without sleep or rest, and could not help but be astonished.

Yet neither of them gave it much thought; after all, what Shen Mu had learned was broad and miscellaneous, and microscopic forging must surely be time-consuming and laborious. The two elders rested for a good while, then opened the furnace again to forge boots and gloves for the Lame Elder.

Forging treasures for the Lame Elder took longer even than the Butcher's divine blade; the Lame Elder's cultivation method was peculiar, demanding treasures that could pass with him through all manner of seals and prohibitions, treasures to sharpen his art of thievery. This was a mighty trial for the Silent Smith and the blind old man.

By the time the two finished the Lame Elder's treasures, more than twenty days had passed; they breathed a sigh of relief and looked back, only to find Shen Mu still refining his divine weapon.

By now it could be seen that what Shen Mu was forging was also a sword, a most ordinary divine sword, with nothing remarkable about it.

Yet Shen Mu had already brought out the Heavenly Palaces one after another from his Yuan Embryo Divine Treasury, using those palaces to force the brand upon it!

The two exchanged a glance, and in their hearts they thought: the might of this divine weapon of Shen'er's must be terrifying indeed! They could tell that Shen Mu's divine weapon had only the outward form of a sword; in truth it bore Shen Mu's Great Dao and his aspirations, not merely a sword but a thing that could change its shape at will, and that was why the forging was so intricate.

The strange phenomena around Shen Mu drew inward; as the last hammer blow fell, there came a ding, and that blow struck the divine sword, and all at once the sword shattered with a clatter.

The Silent Smith and the blind old man were startled to the heart, and flew swiftly to his side, only to see that the divine sword Shen Mu had toiled over all these days lay in pieces on the ground!

The sword had shattered into countless motes of powder; because it was microscopic forging, the divine metals and divine materials had become the tiniest particles, well-nigh imperceptible.

Shen Mu snatched up a handful of the flying ash and stared dumbly, lost in thought.

The blind old man hurriedly opened his Sage Pupil to examine those particles, frowned slightly, and said softly, "Silent Smith, he means to fuse fifteen Imperial Throne cultivation methods into one and forge them into this sword.

But this sword cannot bear such tremendous power. " The Silent Smith examined the particles on the ground minutely, distinguishing one material after another, and said, "In the proportioning of the materials, I could not have done better than he.

And yet.

.

.

this sword may be counted as forged!

" The blind old man was slightly taken aback. The Silent Smith brushed aside the dust and drew from beneath it a sword hilt; at the hilt there remained a broken blade, only six inches long.

He laughed: "This is the sword! " Shen Mu had thought he had failed in forging the treasure, and his heart was bleak; at these words he hurried to look, and saw that though the broken blade had only six inches of steel left, it was still keen, its light undiminished!

The Silent Smith flicked the blade and laughed: "Shen'er, you thought too perfectly; you wished to forge a flawless divine sword in accord with your own Great Dao. But how could such a thing be done at a single stroke?

The way of man is to take from the insufficient and serve the surplus. Just now, in forging your treasure, you forged too full, and without meaning to you entered the way of man.

" Shen Mu half understood, and fell to pondering. "Just now you forged too full, but your cultivation method is not yet full; you forced the forging of the divine sword, so that the sword came to harm and could not bear it, and therefore it shattered. As the saying goes, the proud dragon has regrets; fullness cannot endure.

" The Silent Smith said, "But the way of heaven is to take from the surplus and supply the insufficient.

The broken sword still remains; use your own surplus to make up the sword's insufficiency, and this shall be your Dao-sword. There is no need to demand perfection of it.

This Dao-sword still requires you to keep grasping and comprehending, to perfect your cultivation method and your own Great Dao, before it can be made whole. On the day your work is accomplished, the sword too will be accomplished. " Shen Mu received the broken sword, and at the slightest stir of his thought a blade-light burst from the broken steel, brimming like water, mirroring his face.

The Silent Smith had said he had forged too full, and truly the words were not wrong.

In forging this sword, what he had in mind was a divine artifact that could bear his fifteen Heavenly Palaces, branding his Great Dao runes into the sword and sealing his insights into the Dao within it as well.

Among the fifteen Heavenly Palaces, six were still not complete; the deficiencies in his cultivation method left his divine sword gravely deficient too, yet Shen Mu had insisted on perfecting it in every particular, so that the divine sword shattered. The Silent Smith laughed: "This sword will grow together with you.

Broken as it is, when it is grown its might will surpass other divine weapons and sharp blades by who knows how much! " Shen Mu roused the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art, and the broken sword suddenly dissolved, becoming countless tiny particles that gathered like flowing water into a long saber; then he passed a hand lightly over the blade, and the saber became a dragon spear.

The broken sword changed with his will, yet each time it took the form of a different weapon, he had to summon his own runes to complete the missing portion of the divine weapon.

And in each form the missing portion was different, and the Great Dao runes required were different as well. Shen Mu put away the broken sword, still somewhat downcast; the deficiencies in his cultivation method had left the divine sword incomplete, and yet in his heart he still wished to forge a flawless divine weapon.

"Haste does not bring success.

Those like Grandpa Silent Smith and the Village Head, who cultivate a single Heavenly Palace, can instead forge divine weapons suited to themselves.

I strove for a Great Heavenly Court, and instead cannot forge one. " He steadied himself, and from outside came the voice of the Demon King Dutian.