"The oasis a hundred li downriver?"
Qin Mu returned to the Village of Broken Elders as dusk fell. He carried the treasures off the bamboo raft and brought them back into the village, and the villagers crowded around in amazement to question him.
Qin Mu told them his story. The Blind One went pale and cried out: "The shrine in that oasis holds a lord-rank yao beast—a demon, good at transformation and formidable, called Wu Nu. You went into that shrine? And you robbed her of all her treasures?"
Grandma Si cried out too: "That Wu Nu? Once I passed that broken shrine and gave her a beating for eating too many people. But she hid behind the Buddha image, and seeing how strange it was and fearing it would subdue me, I did not finish her off. That statue is most peculiar..."
"I have seen her too. She is formidable, a great demon on par with a master of the Seven Stars Realm."
The Cripple asked: "Mu'er, how did you steal Wu Nu's things and escape her grasp?"
Unable to hide it, Qin Mu told them of the demon words he had learned from the ruins of the gorge, then told in full how he had stirred the divine, demonic, and Buddhist sounds together to refine Wu Nu.
The villagers listened, struck dumb. Old Ma exhaled at last: "Vigorous youth. Vigorous youth indeed."
The Cripple and the Deaf and the rest nodded too, raising their thumbs in praise. This great demon Wu Nu, with the strength of a Seven Stars master, had been extorted and robbed by Qin Mu—truly a vigorous youth, one who did not betray their teaching, and they all felt honored.
The Mute picked up a few of the weapons, weighed them, shook his head, and gestured "ah, ah," meaning these spirit weapons were of poor quality and little use.
"Come tomorrow, I'll take them to Xianglong City, sell them off, and pick up some oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar, along with cloth and wine."
Grandma Si laughed: "Those beasts of mine should be sold too."
Qin Mu's spirits soared. Xianglong City? He had grown up in the Village of Broken Elders and only recently been allowed out; he had only ever heard of Xianglong City, never set foot there!
"We can't take you; you're still too young." Grandma Si shook her head.
Qin Mu said: "Grandma, Grandpa Ma... one more thing. My Supreme Body has awakened."
Silence fell all around. After a moment, Old Ma, the Cripple, the Blind One, and Grandma Si burst into cheers, and the Mute babbled without stop. Only the Deaf had not seen what Qin Mu said and could not think why the old fools had gone wild, until he saw Qin Mu repeat it, understood, and roared with laughter.
The Blind One bellowed: "Village Chief! Herbalist! Come quickly! The Supreme Body has awakened!"
The Butcher howled in excitement: "Village Chief, Herbalist, the Supreme Body has at last awakened!"
When Qin Mu had returned, the Village Chief had been standing before his house while the Herbalist, seated beside him, had brewed tea and was raising a cup to the chief's lips—for the chief had no hands. The two often drank tea this way, idling at ease.
The chief was halfway through his cup when he heard the racket of the Blind One and Old Ma, and the tea sprayed from his nose, eyes, and mouth at once, while from the small holes beneath his lower eyelids two thin jets shot high with a hiss.
Crack.
The cup in the Herbalist's hand was crushed too, splashing tea across the chief's face. The two stared at each other, wide-eyed and dumbstruck, mouths falling open on their own.
Coming to himself, the Herbalist stammered: "The Sup-Supreme Body... has it awakened?"
The chief too looked utterly dazed, not yet recovered from the shock.
The Cripple limped up, nodding heavily: "That's right, it has awakened! I just checked—his primal qi is more than three times more abundant than this morning's and far purer, and in his brow the Spirit Womb has stirred with a strange pulse, fused with his consciousness! These are the very signs of its awakening!"
Qin Mu came over and saw the Herbalist's mouth hanging wider still, as if stuffed with two duck eggs, while the chief's lower eyelids still spouted water. He thought: "Grandpa Chief and Grandpa Herbalist are certainly delighted—just a little *too* much so."
The Herbalist closed his mouth and asked hurriedly: "Mu'er, has your Supreme Body truly awakened?"
Qin Mu nodded: "I awakened it without quite noticing."
The Herbalist nearly choked: "Without quite noticing..."
The chief finally came around and chuckled: "Mu'er being the Supreme Body is now beyond all doubt. My knowledge is deep and wide, so of course I could not err; his awakening was only to be expected... cough-cough-cough!"
The Herbalist's face twisted strangely, and he covered it with a cough or two, then laughed: "The Supreme Body awakening—a splendid thing! But Mu'er, now that you've just awakened it, you must not grow proud. Your road of cultivation has only begun. Do you understand?"
Qin Mu nodded.
The chief laughed: "The Herbalist is right. The path of the Supreme Body is hard beyond measure; you must by no means slacken. Herbalist, I'm a little weary. Help me back to my room."
The Herbalist understood and brought him inside.
In the room, the two old men stared at each other. At length the Herbalist lowered his voice: "Village Chief, is Mu'er truly the Supreme Body?"
"Of course not!" the chief cut in.
"Then how did he awaken..."
"How should I know?"
They stared at each other, at a loss to explain it. After a while the Herbalist ventured: "Can an ordinary body break through the wall of the Spirit Womb?"
"An ordinary body breaching the wall? I have never heard of such a thing. Mu'er would be the first."
The chief suddenly smiled: "Herbalist, perhaps Mu'er will truly become the Supreme Body and walk a road beyond the ordinary. Was that not our aim from the very beginning?"
The Herbalist smiled too: "The ordinary body *is* the Supreme Body. Mu'er has made his ordinary body awaken; his road as the Supreme Body is about to begin. I can almost see him punching a dragon dead!"
The chief nodded: "Exactly so. Perhaps, with this spirit and will, he may walk farther than we ever did."
The two old foxes exchanged knowing smiles and stepped outside again.
The chief coughed, called Qin Mu over, and asked how he had awakened the Spirit Womb. Qin Mu described how, in the instant the divine, demonic, and Buddhist sounds clashed, his primal qi had surged and smashed through the Spirit Womb's wall to complete the breach.
The chief stared blankly: "There's even a trick like this?"
He could not help marveling. Qin Mu's fortune was one others could hardly relive—the threefold clash of sounds, a stroke of luck, and on top of it the boy's audacity to learn the demon words and pit them against the divine sound! It defied all heaven, a lad who did not know the meaning of death!
Even with the same fortune, another would most likely fail to break the wall and be killed by the might latent in those sounds! Others might not see the peril, but the chief knew it well—those were powers of gods and demons; what mortal could covet them? A mortal who did had only one road: death!
And yet Qin Mu succeeded, so inexplicably that it bemused him. What he did not know was that Qin Mu had nearly been killed by the clash, saved only by the jade pendant on his chest.
The chief probed Qin Mu's cultivation closely, a flash of shock crossing his face before he masked it: "Mu'er, cultivate well and do not betray our hopes. Now that your Supreme Body has awakened, you are a martial artist, no longer a child."
Qin Mu nodded solemnly.
By then night had fallen and bonfires blazed. Old Ma and the others roasted the yao beasts they had caught to celebrate, and Grandma Si came running on her toes to fetch Qin Mu: "Village Chief, Herbalist, come join us!"
"You go ahead; we'll be right along."
Watching them walk off, the chief said low: "Herbalist, Mu'er's primal qi is thick. At the Spirit Womb realm he is almost the deepest-cultivated martial artist I have ever seen."
"How deep?" asked the Herbalist, watching the gaiety by the fire.
"When I was at the Spirit Womb realm, my cultivation was about his, perhaps even a little less."
The chief added calmly: "And I speak of the peak of that realm, while he has only just entered it and will grow."
The Herbalist was deeply shaken: "On par with you at the Spirit Womb realm? What manner of being are you? How could he possibly..."
"But he did it all the same."