Whoosh— In the woods beyond Hidden Remnant Village, Shen Mu struck out with his palm, and vital essence came surging from his arm like a fire dragon coiled about it; the air before him turned scorchingly hot in an instant, as though it had been set alight! He shifted his feet, his palms striking again and again, and the air grew hotter and hotter, like a vast desert of yellow sand beneath ten suns hung high, blistering beyond bearing! What he used was Old Master Huo's fist art, the fourth stance of the Thunderclap Eight Formulas: Kuafu Pursues the Sun, Wind and Thunder Swift. Then of a sudden Shen Mu's footwork shifted, and his moves shifted with it, each stance and each form like a great river rushing onward to the sea; his vital essence turned straight from the fire attribute to the water attribute, a water dragon woven of vapor coiling about his arm, and between one move and the next the boom of waves rolled out, as though a great flood circled and flowed around him. His moves changed again: both hands closed upon emptiness, the vapor like a spear, like a long dragon, churning rivers and overturning seas. These past days he had been in the village honing his vital-essence-driven flying sword, devoting himself to tempering his vital essence; only he still had first to contemplate the fire before his vital essence could take on the fire attribute, and only then could he wield the flying sword. As he tempered it again and again, the time he needed to contemplate the fire grew shorter and shorter, and now he no longer needed to look at the forge at all — so long as he pictured the flames in the furnace within his heart, his vital essence turned scorching of itself. Yet the Butcher's Slaughtering Saber Art belonged to the school of combat technique, and Shen Mu's use of it to temper his vital-essence-driven flying sword had never yielded much. It was in practicing Old Master Huo's Thunderclap Eight Formulas and the Blind Elder's spear art that he reaped the most, advancing with astonishing speed. Now, as he executed the fourth stance of the Thunderclap Eight Formulas, Kuafu Pursues the Sun, Wind and Thunder Swift, he was like a giant running; his palm shook, and the air burst and exploded — such was the power of vital essence! Of course, the fire-attribute Vermilion Bird vital essence could not bring out the full might of Old Master Huo's Thunderclap Eight Formulas; the vital essence best suited to the Thunderclap Eight Formulas was the Azure Dragon's. It was rather the water-attribute Black Tortoise vital essence that could bring the Blind Elder's spear art to its fullest. After a long while Shen Mu stopped, swallowed two Essence-Condensing Pills to replenish his sharply depleted vital essence, and pondered in detail the shortcomings in his use of vital essence. He had once been able to take only a single Essence-Condensing Pill before it swelled him to the point of frenzy; but ever since his spirit fetus had slept and awakened, two pills did him no great harm — only a stuffed, bloated feeling. "An Essence-Condensing Pill — could the Darkfang Demon Ape eat one? It shouldn't be able to. Grandpa Alchemist says there are four attributes in an Essence-Condensing Pill, and to anyone who is not an Overlord Body they are poison. Another day, why don't I refine a whole vat of Essence-Condensing Pills for the Darkfang Demon Ape?" Thinking of the big fellow who traded blows with him, Shen Mu felt a stir in his heart. These past days he had not gone to seek the Darkfang Demon Ape, and he did not know how the strange beast was coming along in its practice of the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art. He sprang up, his steps flying, and headed for the Darkfang Demon Ape's territory. He was a youth after all; in the village there were only elders and no friends, and he and the Darkfang Demon Ape had come to know each other through fighting — after several days apart, he found he missed it rather a lot. Before long Shen Mu arrived outside the valley where the Darkfang Demon Ape dwelt, and suddenly a hill-like figure rose slowly from the mountain forest — it was the Darkfang Demon Ape itself. After days apart it had grown even more magnificent, and when it saw Shen Mu it was overjoyed beyond measure; it pounded its chest, signaling Shen Mu to leap up onto its shoulder. Shen Mu sprang onto its shoulder, and the Darkfang Demon Ape bounded and leaped like flying, carrying him into the valley and running deeper in. This was the first time Shen Mu had entered the Darkfang Demon Ape's lair. Wild deer and wild horses were everywhere in the valley, along with some river deer and foolish-looking roe deer; in the heart of it stood an ancient ruin, broken walls and crumbling ramparts, utterly desolate. The place where the Darkfang Demon Ape lived was a palace half caved in, and before the palace stood a ruined stone statue, half beast and half man. Shen Mu opened his Heaven-Reaching Eye, and his heart gave a small jolt. This statue was the same as the one in Hidden Remnant Village: caught in the Heaven-Reaching Eye, the divine essence within it was like a beast god propping up heaven and earth, savage and ferocious, its aura flooding the skies! No doubt the Darkfang Demon Ape relied on this statue every night to fend off the assault of the darkness and preserve its life. "Such extraordinary divine essence — could this too be a statue carved by a god for a god?" Shen Mu jumped down from the Darkfang Demon Ape's shoulder. A foolish roe deer came up to him, sniffed the hem of his robe, and chewed on it twice as though it were food. The Darkfang Demon Ape picked the roe deer up, set it carefully aside, then waved a hand, signaling Shen Mu to follow. It was the ruler of this valley and its protector, guarding these animals, fierce only toward intruders. Shen Mu followed it into the tumbledown palace, and at once frowned: the smell of wild beasts lay everywhere, and it must be that the valley's beasts came into the palace at night as well to hide from the darkness. "Little Bean, look!" the Darkfang Demon Ape said, pointing at a wall. Shen Mu looked up. On the palace wall were broken murals, mottled and peeling, some places already fallen away, others faded of all color, with only a few panels still more or less whole. These murals depicted figures in cultivation, with arrows inside their bodies marking the flow of vital essence. Shen Mu looked for a few moments, and suddenly his heart leaped: he had seen the vital essence guiding pathways of the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art! The Darkfang Demon Ape must have practiced the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art, found the patterns on the murals somewhat similar, and so brought him here! Yet Shen Mu soon discovered something amiss. The first panel was indeed the guiding diagram of the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art, but the second panel was different: it still followed the pathways of the Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art, yet it was somewhat more complex. The vital essence guiding pathway of the second panel entered the Spirit Treasury of the Origin Fetus at the center of the brow. Once the vital essence entered the Spirit Treasury of the Origin Fetus, it led to the third panel, and this third panel showed the pathway by which vital essence was guided within the Spirit Treasury of the Origin Fetus: the vital essence was not directly breathed in and out by the spirit fetus, but instead formed wondrous vital essence array patterns beneath the spirit fetus's feet. These array patterns were exceedingly complex, no less than the Divine Empyrean Heavenly Dipper array pattern the Blind Elder had taught him. Shen Mu studied them closely, committing them to memory with all his heart, and all the while used his own vital essence to imitate them, forming the array patterns beneath the spirit fetus's feet with vital essence. When he had completed the spirit fetus array pattern, his body gave a slight shudder, and at once he felt a nameless connection linking him to