Chapter 1668 — Gnawing to Prove the Dao
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Shen Mu smiled. "In principle it could, but I have found something better!"
The Woodcutter Sage's beard quivered, and he reached for the axe at his back. Shen Mu hastily laughed, "Master, I was only joking; see how you fret. Even if all four of you Heavenly Masters came at me together, you could not last a single move against me now, so do not lose your temper."
At those words, Yan Yunxi, Zhuo Cha, and Han Tang could not help but seethe.
Shen Mu said hurriedly, "It is rare for the four Heavenly Masters to come together, and it happens that I have a problem I cannot solve. Your four minds are lofty and far-seeing; help me resolve it."
He cast out the problem he had met upon ascending the Chaos Hall, speaking in the language of the Dao the riddle of the evolution of the Dao of Taiji, which turned on the transformation of yin and yang, profound and obscure.
Though Shen Mu's attainments in the Dao of Taiji were exceedingly high, for a time he could not unravel it either.
Hearing this Dao-question, the four Heavenly Masters frowned, and the old farmer Zhuo Cha murmured, "What is he saying?"
"He has posed a question in the language of the Dao." The fisherman Han Tang hesitated, then said, "It concerns the evolution of Taiji."
The old farmer Zhuo Cha flushed slightly. "What is the use of all these strange and curious things? The martial Dao is simpler!"
Yan Yunxi, the Woodcutter Sage, and Han Tang each fell into thought, and after a while began to confer among themselves. They too had absorbed the fruits of Jingping's reforms, and each had made no small achievements.
Han Tang cultivated the Dao of Yin-Yang and Taiji, and this was why there were two little red fish in his creel, standing for his Dao of yin and yang.
Yan Yunxi was deeply versed in formation arts and all manner of miscellaneous studies, and her attainments were likewise exceedingly high; she had also studied yin and yang, Taiji, the four images, and the eight trigrams.
The Woodcutter Sage's learning was even more miscellaneous.
The three pondered long and hard but still could not solve it. Disappointment showed on Shen Mu's face; this problem even he could scarcely solve, and the four Heavenly Masters of Carefree Land would likely fare no better.
Suddenly the Woodcutter Sage said quietly, "Zixi, could the yang lines and yin lines of the eight trigrams be used in place of zeros and ones? In that way the evolution of yin and yang could be solved by the arts of number. I have the idea for the solution, but my skill in those arts is no match for yours..."
Yan Yunxi's eyes lit up. She swiftly bent her mind to calculation, and after a while clapped her hands and laughed, "I have solved it!"
Shen Mu was astonished and delighted. Yan Yunxi displayed her solution in primal energy and explained it again. Everywhere in the air yin lines and yang lines shifted ceaselessly, forming any number at all from zeros and ones, evolving without end!
Shen Mu saw it all in a flash and clapped his hands in admiration.
He at once sank into meditative absorption, and his primordial spirit took a step toward the Chaos Hall. A Dao-question came from within the hall; Shen Mu's primordial spirit answered it in the language of the Dao and passed through without a hitch!
His primordial spirit stepped forward again, and a new Dao-question came from the Chaos Hall.
This question concerned the three-state changes of form, substance, and body in the Dao of Taisu, and it too was formidably difficult.
Shen Mu pondered long but still could not solve it, and so he withdrew again.
The Woodcutter and the other three Heavenly Masters watched him enter absorption and, in but a short while, make no small advance in cultivation and strength, and they were astonished beyond measure.