Chapter 1119 — True Meaning Seen Within the Blade's Edge
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
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!