Man and ape grappled savagely in the valley beneath the cliff, their blows crashing together in a roar that rolled between the slopes. Qin Mu's arms went thick and numb with the shocks, and the demon ape pressed him onto the back foot. Before long his face was a lump of bruises, yet the ape never struck to kill—it kept matching him, holding back some of its strength.
"Eat! Strong!" it grunted, and sent its fist flying. That single blow stirred a gale and brimmed with ninefold power—the third of the Eight Thunder Moves, the Nine Dragons Reining Wind and Thunder. Even as it struck it urged Qin Mu to eat well and grow as strong as itself.
"Shenxiao Heavenly Eye, open!"
Qin Mu's qi surged up into his eyes, and in his pupils he wove the Shenxiao Celestial Array Pattern, the first layer of the Nine-Layer Heaven Eye Art, until another pupil seemed to float within each of his own. When the Shenxiao Heavenly Eye awakened, the world before him turned limpid, deep, and orderly. Even the fist hurtling at his face grew wondrous in his sight. He could see every hair on that huge fist swaying in the air, every great tendon and muscle sliding beneath the skin, and the very flow of the ape's power.
The Nine-Layer Heaven Eye Art the Blind One had passed to him let his eyes find the reality behind appearance, and his command of his own strength and his enemy's climbed to a height he had never dreamed of.
Qin Mu's fist rose to meet the ape's. The instant they were about to collide, his five fingers sprang out one after another, breaking the air with the ear-splitting shriek of a mighty bowstring—the second of the Eight Thunder Moves, Sending Thunder through the Pipa Hand. Old Ma's boxing was not all fists; there were finger arts among it too, and this was the finest. His first snap-flick struck the ape's enormous fist, and the beast found at once that all the force in that fist was gone. The second flick sent its great tendons shuddering; the third convulsed the very muscles of its arm, and a stab of panic knifed through it. The fourth flick raised its arm helplessly high, exposing the hollow beneath its ribs. The fifth flick struck its chest, and the demon ape felt as though it had been rammed by several hundred wild bulls of the Great Ruins at once—it flew backward and crashed to the earth.
Qin Mu stood stunned. Was the Nine-Layer Heaven Eye Art really this powerful? The strength lay not in his moves but in his eyes: with the Shenxiao Heavenly Eye he had seen through the ape's power, found the weakness in that one blow, and the first flick had dissolved the terrifying punch in a single gesture.
Whoosh—In the moment he lost himself, the ape sprang up, a single punch sent him flying, then hurled itself into the air and crashed its fists down. The ground shuddered and drove a deep pit into the earth where he fell. The ape landed with a thud and hammered its fist into the pit—but before the blow could reach the bottom, Qin Mu's fingers flicked out and struck its fist again. The next instant the great body sprang high, and Qin Mu vaulted from the pit, giving chase above.
Nine Dragons Reining Wind and Thunder! Bang, bang, bang! The demon ape was beaten down like a shooting star, tumbling through more than a dozen great trees before it spilled to the ground.
It was a long while before the two fought their way to the cliff's top, where they lay down to gasp for breath, drained of all strength. Powerful as it was, the Shenxiao Heavenly Eye drained his qi enormously, and even Qin Mu with his deep cultivation found it hard to bear.
After a spell, the ape sat up, raised a thumb, and pointed at itself: "I, big brother!"
Qin Mu sat up too, shaking his head: "I, big brother. You, little brother."
The ape was enraged, thrusting out its sinewy fist: "I, strong!"
Qin Mu seized one of its fingers, swung it around, and dashed it hard against the ground: "I, stronger!"
The ape rolled over and bounded up, and man and ape threw themselves into battle again—until both ran out of breath once more and lay down to puff and pant.
When Qin Mu had mustered a little strength, he rose and spread out the Eight Thunder Moves on the cliff's brow. The ape watched without blinking. Yesterday he had taught it only once, and it had learned the barest framework; now he showed it every detail, explaining the secret of each strike's power. The ape learned at a frightening pace. Within a few hours it had mastered the full Eight Thunder Moves, and Qin Mu's scalp crawled, wondering whether he could ever beat the great brute again.
"This fellow's a martial genius. Can beasts really be so full of spirit? And if so, can it cultivate?"
He pondered, then sat down and taught the ape how to breathe, passing on his own Supreme Body Three-Dan Art. The ape imitated him in earnest. That art was at heart only the simplest Guidance Art—ferrying qi and guiding it along its course—and the ape caught it quickly, its breathing calm and true. This owed something to its temper too: it ate only vegetables and its heart was simple and single.
"This fellow truly is a martial genius." Seeing how fast it had learned, Qin Mu praised it from the heart. "Big fellow, keep training. Tomorrow I'll come find you and we'll fight again." He leapt from the cliff and made for the village.
The ape watched him go, then sat down and murmured to itself: "Little runt..."
For more than ten days afterward, Qin Mu came every day to spar. After each bout the ape offered him fruit, and Qin Mu guided it in cultivation, even teaching it the Cripple's Heaven-Thieving Leg Arts. The ape had been adept at boxing, but its legwork was poor; with the Heaven-Thieving Leg Arts its kicks grew impossibly tricky. Both grew fast, and soon the ape's qi had come to something: unless Qin Mu called on the Shenxiao Heavenly Eye, he gained no edge at all—indeed he was forced onto the back foot.
One afternoon, after his bout, Qin Mu went as usual to lend a hand in the Mute's forge and watched the flame by the furnace. In his Spirit Womb Divine Treasury his qi burned like fire, tempering his Spirit Womb—until his Spirit Womb suddenly began to drink in the golden light of the sea of gold in his treasury with furious hunger, and countless streams of radiance poured into it. Qin Mu stood helpless. The Mute could not see within that treasury, and knew nothing of the change inside him.
The Spirit Womb drank more and more—and then, all at once, the little figure stopped absorbing, stopped breathing qi, and fell silent. Qin Mu tried to stir it, but it would not move. "Has the Spirit Womb died?" The boy grew uneasy. Yet after a long while it slowly revived and woke again.
He breathed a sigh of relief and went back to watching the flame. At that moment he felt his qi turn scorching hot; the Spirit Womb had been kindled as it breathed, and the qi streaming out of his treasury stayed alight, burning and unextinguished! A fright seized him. He hurriedly stopped watching, but it was too late—his clothes burst into flame on their own!
The Mute snatched up the great water vat and clapped it over Qin Mu's head, dousing the fire. When he lifted it, Qin Mu stood there soaked to the bone. The Mute gaped, examined the scorched traces on his clothes, then dropped his hammer and iron bar and flew like the wind to the Village Chief, gesturing urgently at length.
The Village Chief was astonished and had the Deaf and the Mute carry him over at once. "Mu'er, try watching the fire again!"
Qin Mu, puzzled, watched the flame once more. In his treasury the qi again became a blazing furnace coiling about his Spirit Womb. Then a wave of heat poured out of him, and the temperature at his skin shot upward.
The Chief's eyes lit up. Gently he drew it out: "Mu'er, keep your heart still. Let your spirit hold fast to one point. Take your palm as a knife, and hack one stroke for me to see!"
Qin Mu's mind went empty, his eyes fixed on the furnace flame. His qi surged and burst forth naturally; with his hand as a knife he hacked forward.
Whoosh—his palm blazed with light, and fell like a burning fire-knife!