Chapter 664 — Invincible Under Heaven

A deity beside him announced in a ringing voice: "All disciples, hear the order: seal your own cultivation.

" Across the vast plaza came at once the sound of Divine Treasuries closing, one after another.

Shen Mu thought a while longer, then peeled the golden willow leaf from the center of his brows and put it carefully away. The First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, frowned: "Shen'er, there is no need for that. " Shen Mu smiled: "I only want to make it quick.

We have tarried here too long, after all.

Sister Xiu, in a moment simply follow behind me. " Ling Yuxiu nodded. Shen Mu looked at Hu Kang and said with a smile, "Brother Hu, I may give some offense in a moment.

" Suddenly a crackling and popping burst from within his body; flesh and blood seethed and burgeoned, and soon a head grew out from his neck, then another from the right side, and then the bones beneath his armpits pressed against the skin and grew outward, arm after arm thrusting forth!

Three heads, six arms!

Ling Yuxiu was startled, and only then did she notice that Shen Mu had at some point altered his official robes: the collar loosened, slits cut beneath the arms wide enough to accommodate four more arms, and even trimmed with piping.

"So the cowherd is a fine tailor too! " she thought.

"Only, this three-headed, six-armed form is dreadful. . . " When Shen Mu's three heads and six arms appeared, each of the three faces bore a vertical eye in the center of its brow, and the three vertical eyes were half open, half closed.

Hu Kang, six arms holding blades, came charging with a shriek, elated: "You have cultivated our Xuankong Realm's arts as well? Then we are a match well met! " Though he had sealed his own cultivation, his strength was still exceedingly great, exceedingly terrible; nor was his blade art mere blade art, for dharma and divine arts lay hidden within it.

Plainly Bangongcuo had made use of Ling Yuxiu's method of merging battle and art, the Divine Son Chiming had learned it, and the Divine Son had passed that method on to all of them!

Ling Yuxiu's heart gave a leap.

At that very moment Shen Mu's six hands came together, stacked palms bursting forth; the force of three stacked strikes of the Yin-Yang Heaven-Overturning Hand gathered into one. With a thunderous boom, before Hu Kang could come near he was sent flying backward faster than he had come! Shocked and furious, he drove his six blades into the ground; their edges cut furrows in the earth, trailing fire the whole way!

Hum. Three beams of light shot from Shen Mu's eyes and, with a humming note, nailed him to the ground; the immense pressure bore his body forward across the earth, smashing into the crowd and bowling over everyone on the plaza, throwing the whole scene into brief confusion!

Shen Mu laughed aloud. His feet spread three feet apart and his body suddenly crouched; the muscles of his thighs were like springs holding inexhaustible power, and in an instant every sinew was compressed to the utmost. A battle intent vast as a flood tide erupted from Shen Mu, so terrible that it formed whirling currents of air, visible to the naked eye, spinning madly about him; behind him, Ling Yuxiu's skirts and sleeves were lifted and her hair bun blown loose!

Thud!

The earth burst apart; where Shen Mu had stood there was now an enormous crater ringed with horrifying cracks, and in the crater there was no Shen Mu. Ling Yuxiu looked up and saw only a small black speck. With a great booming crash, Shen Mu smashed down into the crowd ahead like a comet, and at that moment Hu Kang's sliding body had not yet come to rest.

His laughter had not died away when the sword core in his hand suddenly split into six; swish, swish, swish, sword light gushed out on every side, and in a moment it became towering mountains and rivers, drowning countless divine-power users within them. Shen Mu's six hands shook, and the six swords turned and re-formed like countless scales, becoming six long sabers.

Whither do the long sabers turn? A fierce tiger into a flock of sheep!

Once the flock is in disorder it can pose no threat to the tiger.

He cut his way into the crowded ranks; only six could truly reach him with their blows, and against six divine-power users of the same realm he was utterly invincible!

In an instant the saber light became a great globe of radiance whirling in every direction, sweeping in the countless divine-power users who surged toward him; then the light vanished, and Shen Mu, six arms sweeping wide, his feet flying, charged into the crowd. Wherever his hurtling figure passed, strings of thunderclaps burst out; for a time the air was full of three-headed, six-armed divine-power users tumbling aloft, and bang, bang, bang came one heavy blow after another, the snap of breaking bone, screams, cries of pain, wails of anguish, and the bleating of sheep.

What was flung into the air was not only men: there were sheep as well, one after another. The First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, said bleakly, "The Creation Divine Art, the Creation Divine Art he comprehended from the Creation Divine Wheel, fused with the Creation Divine Art the Celestial Master taught him. He still has not used the Heaven-and-Earth Seal Art I taught him.

. . " He had barely thought this when his eyes suddenly brightened: Shen Mu had finally used his seal art. Amid the countless divine-power users Shen Mu's steps crossed and wove, flashing again and again like a phantom; the Heaven-and-Earth Seal Art, between heaven and earth I am sovereign.

The air there all but burst apart, and one after another the strong were stamped deep into the earth, or struck flying hundreds of yards into the air. The First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, smiled with satisfaction. Shen Mu's three heads and nine eyes shot forth rays of divine light; hum, hum, hum, beam after beam blasted the charging Xuankong divine-power users away, and from their chests came the sound of ribs cracking.

His sacred pupils made up precisely for what his techniques lacked. Ling Yuxiu's gaze went blank; staring at the battlefield hundreds of yards ahead, she murmured, "Did he not tell me to follow behind him? How is anyone supposed to keep up when he runs so fast? " The First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, set off, saying slowly, "We shall walk over, one step at a time.

" Ling Yuxiu stepped after him, and the two walked straight toward the palace where the Divine Son Chiming sat.

Bang. A three-headed, six-armed divine-power user plummeted from the sky and crashed at Ling Yuxiu's feet. Ling Yuxiu kept her composure and tried not to look up.

Bang, bang, bang, the sound came without cease, as though a rain of human shapes were falling; the Xuankong divine-power users dropped from the sky like raindrops, and with them came a hundred-odd sheep, bleating as they fell.

All around them the ground was already a shambles, strewn with who knew how many fallen divine-power users, some rolling and howling, some staring wide-eyed at the sky with all six eyes vacant, others buried beneath heaps of bodies. Ling Yuxiu kept as calm as she could and came at last to the foot of the steps.

Just then Shen Mu appeared before them, dissolved his three-headed, six-armed form and returned to his former self; his manner respectful, he climbed the steps with them.

People kept falling and crashing down around them; with each one that fell, Ling Yuxiu's heart gave a twinge.

She thought, "That must hurt terribly, landing on the stone steps.

" On the steps, beside Chixi, Bangongcuo saw Shen Mu pass before him and hastily ducked his head in respect.

Shen Mu nodded to him and to Chixi with a smile. Chixi's face was ashen. The other gods and demons of the Xuankong Realm were dark of face and silent, every pair of eyes fixed upon him.