The Village Chief's face was calm, and he smiled: "Even before his Spirit Womb awakened, his primal qi cultivation already outstripped that of common Spirit Womb realm martial artists, pressing close on me in my own day. Now that it has awakened, he will only grow stronger. Mu'er has labored all these years, and with the endless Four Spirits Blood you all nourished him with, such an achievement is hardly out of line."
The Herbalist was still shaken: "But deeper than yours in your day, and you are..."
"I am nothing but a broken old cripple."
The chief cut him off with a laugh: "You cannot measure today's young people against me. What worries me now is that Mu'er's primal qi has no attribute. How are we to make it display its power? Let's go; we shouldn't keep them waiting."
The Herbalist felt a tremor. It was precisely because primal qi had an attribute that it could display power; Qin Mu's had none, so it naturally could not unleash any might. Though his Spirit Womb had awakened, though his cultivation vastly surpassed the ordinary, being unable to display power made it all for naught.
They reached the bonfire, where the Deaf took out his iron ears, dipped them in wine to wash them, fitted them back, and poured the wine into the blaze, which flared higher. He laughed: "Village Chief, we tried just now. Though Mu'er has awakened his Supreme Body, it cannot make its primal qi's might manifest. You're a man of great knowledge; you must know how to unleash it, don't you?"
At that moment the Herbalist felt the old man beside him swell three sizes around the head.
The chief looked at him with a helpless, longing gaze; the Herbalist turned his head away and clinked glasses with Old Ma.
"Is Mu'er's Supreme Body primal qi strong?" the chief asked.
The Deaf read his lips and praised: "Strong! Extremely tenacious, hard to disperse."
The others felt the same and nodded. When Qin Mu had fought Senior Brother Qu of the Five of the Li River, they had already seen the wonder of his primal qi—it surged into the little wooden stick, and even Qu's treasured sword could not cut through, proving its tenacity.
"Is it abundant?" asked the chief.
"So abundant it's frightening! At his realm my own qi cannot match it!"
The others agreed; Qin Mu's primal qi was dense beyond all reason, as if he had cultivated for decades though his Spirit Womb had just awakened.
The chief drew the lesson out patiently: "If it's so tenacious and so abundant, why can't it display power?"
This time the Deaf slapped his thigh instead: "Exactly! Village Chief, why?"
The chief nearly choked, feeling as if the Deaf had stabbed two knives into his chest. Fortunately the Mute grew excited, gesticulating and babbling "ah, ah."
"The Mute is right!"
The Deaf came around: "Mu'er's primal qi is this tenacious and this abundant, yet it can't display power. That means the problem isn't his Supreme Body primal qi, but that our cultivation methods don't suit him. The problem is on our side!"
The chief breathed a sigh of relief, but the Deaf went on: "So the question is, how do we unleash it? None of us understands it. Village Chief, with your vast knowledge, what is your expert opinion?"
The chief wished he could grow two arms to strangle the fellow. As for why Qin Mu couldn't display his primal qi's power, he did know the reason.
Each of the Four Spirit Bodies' primal qi had its own attribute. White Tiger primal qi had a metallic attribute, able to become blades, tearing apart an enemy as claws or blocking attacks as a shield. Green Dragon primal qi had a thunder attribute, commanding the lightning, with some healing properties. Vermillion Bird primal qi had a fire attribute, fierce and domineering; both the Herbalist and the Mute the blacksmith were of this body, their medicine-refining and forging relying on those attributes. Black Tortoise primal qi governed defense and water, bearing a water attribute when manifested.
Because Qin Mu's primal qi lacked these attributes, its power could not manifest. Though his cultivation was mighty, it did little to raise his fighting strength.
Yet knowing the cause was not knowing the cure.
"Mu'er, what does your Spirit Womb look like?" the chief asked.
Qin Mu described the strange Spirit Womb within his Spirit Womb Divine Treasury, and all around the bonfire went blank, exchanging glances. A human-shaped Spirit Womb? It was the first time in their lives they had ever heard of such a thing!
Qin Mu was puzzled too: "Grandma, Grandpa Ma... aren't your Spirit Wombs shaped like your own childhood selves?"
Grandma Si shook her head and sighed: "No. No wonder this is the Supreme Body—even its Spirit Womb's shape differs from ours, enough to make one yearn and never attain. Your Grandma's is a White Tiger Spirit Womb, a little white tiger."
"Mine is a Green Dragon," said Old Ma.
"Mine is a Black Tortoise," said the Blind One.
The Mute gestured "ah, ah," saying his was a Vermillion Bird.
The chief narrowed his eyes and sank into thought. The Four Spirit Bodies were favored by heaven; the Spirit Womb Divine Treasury opened at birth, one need only awaken the Spirit Womb to become a martial artist, and even where their Spirit Wombs differed, they stayed within these four categories. Some spirit bodies were not any of the four, yet still fell within them. Thus their primal qi possessed four different attributes.
Qin Mu's human-shaped, attributeless Spirit Womb was hard to awaken, and its primal qi power hard to manifest.
The chief sunk into deep rumination for a way to excite the Supreme Body's primal qi, but even his great intellect found no answer on the spot.
Seeing his expression, Grandma Si understood: "So the chief knows Mu'er is the Supreme Body, but not its cultivation method?"
A faint blush rose on the chief's face; he nodded.
Disappointment crossed the villagers. The Blind One murmured: "You are the wisest among us. If even you know no Supreme Body art, won't Mu'er's Supreme Body come to nothing?"
The crowd fell silent.
The Butcher spoke up: "The Supreme Body arts were created by men, weren't they?"
They all turned to look at him.
He chuckled grimly: "Since others created them, why can't we? And even if we can't, Mu'er can create them himself! I bow to nobody, so I created my butcher-knife art alone. If you're scared off by today's difficulties, I'll look down on you too! Mu'er, don't make me despise you!"
Qin Mu felt hot blood surge and declared: "Grandpa Butcher, rest assured, I will never betray your high hopes!"
The Butcher laughed heartily and clapped his shoulder; the others laughed too, and the gravity fled.
Seeing this, the chief felt the knot in his heart loosen and burst out laughing. "I lied to them, saying Mu'er was the Supreme Body, to give them the courage to live on. I never imagined I'd corner myself, obsessed with keeping up the lie, never once noticing they'd found their motivation while I still fretted over covering my tracks."
With the knot undone, his body and mind were at ease. Qin Mu's arrival had given the villagers a reason to live, and him a reason to strive!
The Herbalist glanced at him and smiled; it had been long since the chief was this happy.
"I think we must force the Supreme Body to its limit before its primal qi's power can come to light."
In the bonfire's glow the Butcher's face looked all the more fearsome: "No madness, no life. The Supreme Body is stronger than the spirit bodies, and its primal qi stronger too—only the conditions for bringing it out must be harsher. So we must drive it to the limit to force it out!"
The Cripple nodded: "Thicken Mu'er's iron shoes, bind on more iron ingots, push him to run faster!"
The Blind One tapped his cane: "His cultivation has been too easy. From now on it must double at least, to force out his potential."
Old Ma said: "Right. Force out his potential, and we too must redouble our efforts."
The Mute gestured and babbled.
Qin Mu was deeply moved, yet sensed something amiss. Their earnestness touched him—but why did every sentence have to drag in the word "force"?
The Herbalist joined in, narrow-eyed: "Nourish! Keep nourishing him until his primal qi is tenacious enough to display power! My Great Ruins teem with rare beasts and exotic flowers and herbs. I can brew elixirs and miraculous remedies; my herb garden outside the village has every miracle herb in plenty! Enough to nourish him till a pinch of his skin would squeeze out drops of spirit-liquid!"
"Herbalist, you're really digging into your own hoard this time!" everyone laughed.