Chapter 706 — Reflections in the Blade

Just then the sixteen nine-phoenixes pounced all together, drowning Shen Mu! How ferocious was the assault of sixteen nine-phoenixes? In an instant, phoenix feathers were swords, wings were blades, claws were hooks, beaks were spears, as though ten thousand primal weapons struck Shen Mu at once, and with them the incomparably blazing phoenix fire burned all before it.

The place where Shen Mu stood became a sea of fire, and also the center of a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering explosion!

A dreadful shock wave swept in all directions.

Where it passed, mountain rocks were flung into the air, shattered, melted, vaporized; the flames formed a ring like a snare, giving off an incomparably brilliant light, surging outward, sweeping up everything, expanding fifty li before their force finally abated. In the explosion, streaks of incomparably brilliant sword light suddenly appeared, piercing phoenix heads, shearing through phoenix necks, shaving off wings, cutting through feathers, striking down claws!

"Brother Shen, your great divine ability is already spent.

You are no match for me now!

" Qi Jiuyi laughed aloud, and his palm force pierced the heart of the explosion, driving straight for Shen Mu's back.

Shen Mu turned and struck with a palm. Before the two palms met, still thirty zhang apart, each one's palm force burst forth! Qi Jiuyi's palm force was a bridge of linked phoenix feathers, countless feathers like swords joined into a bridge, thrusting forward so fast that the vision of a flying bridge took shape.

And Shen Mu's palm strike formed a road of crystal. Meeting Qi Jiuyi's palm force, his power poured out; countless crystals sprouted and swelled in every direction, their structures wildly different from one another, and suddenly fire burst from within the crystals! That was heaven-fire, the divine ability of the Great Dao of Heaven-Fire, a flame more terrible than phoenix fire.

It melted away the dreadful power hidden in Qi Jiuyi's countless feathers and drove straight at him. Qi Jiuyi's face changed greatly.

The Cangwu tree behind him drifted forward; he gripped it in both hands and roared, using the Cangwu tree as a weapon, and brought it smashing down at the Great Dao of Heaven-Fire!

Boom— Their palms and the ancient tree collided.

Though it could not match the fearsome power of the last blow, the force erupted within a confined space, making it all the more threatening!

The mountain rock beneath their feet melted completely. The power of their divine abilities acted on each other at the same moment, pressing them down until their bodies were immeasurably heavy.

The Dragon Qilin stood at a distance watching the battle, a huge sword core on his back. He thought, "The Sect Master has no primal weapon in hand. I fear he will be at a disadvantage.

. .

this sword core is too heavy. Should I set it down first?

" He had only just thought this when a deafening roar like the sky splitting and the earth cracking came, the ground shook without cease, and then the forms of Shen Mu and Qi Jiuyi vanished.

When the aftermath of their battle had dispersed, the Dragon Qilin at once saw that a deep pit had appeared there, a great opening some hundred zhang across, bottomless. The Dragon Qilin hurried over and poked his head into the opening, looking down.

He saw that the great hole did not look like it had been blasted out by their divine abilities; rather, the ground beneath had been hollow, and they had trampled it through.

"It seems this is the underground space of the Shenduan Mountains. There are chains down there too, sealing a long saber.

.

. " The Dragon Qilin thought it over, somewhat unwilling to enter the depths.

During the battle to intercept Heaven Above, Shen Mu and the others had already discovered the many wonders beneath the Shenduan Mountains.

The underground space of the Shenduan Mountains was exceedingly strange.

Not only was there a long saber running from north to south, there was also a divine hall, and chain after chain sealing that saber.

Stranger still, one of the statues of Jingping had crawled in here, and its head had wedged beneath the long saber. And this place had had its space shattered by the state preceptor's Shattering Cauldron, so that a bizarre phenomenon linking it to another world had appeared.

Strangest of all, this long saber was also the boundary line between Jingping and the Desolate Ruins. "This concerns my rations; I cannot not go, lest the Sect Master run into danger.

" The Dragon Qilin jumped down, qilin fire welling up beneath his feet to hold up his body, and flew into the underground space. The ground below was hollow.

Chain after chain, unbelievably thick, bound a long saber of horrifying length; the blade faced downward, and the head of a great and mighty stone statue was wedged on the edge.

Not far off, a great hall stood beneath the blade.

The Dragon Qilin looked this way and that, and at last found Shen Mu and Qi Jiuyi.

The two of them were now perpendicular to the underground space, standing on the blade's surface, running and fighting. The blade's surface was as bright as a mirror, without a single flaw, reflecting the two figures with utter clarity, as though two Shen Mus and two Qi Jiuyis were fighting.

The blade was so smooth that their reflections seemed like the moon in water.

Though the two fought until heaven and earth were overturned, no ripple appeared on the blade. Qi Jiuyi revealed his nine-phoenix body: nine heads upon a human trunk, nine phoenix heads.

Shen Mu had three heads and six arms, each with its own merits. Now they fought at close quarters; unlike the clash of divine abilities before, fist met flesh, and they beat each other until both were bloody and mangled.

Suddenly the Dragon Qilin noticed something strange: the saber no longer reflected the two figures, but rather a nine-headed phoenix and Shen Mu's primordial spirit! Shen Mu's primordial spirit and Qi Jiuyi's primordial spirit had, at some unknown moment, been drawn into that divine saber, and were fighting in the space within the blade!

"I said long ago that this place was exceedingly strange. " The Dragon Qilin rushed forward, about to rescue Shen Mu, when suddenly he looked down and saw the mirror-bright blade. He froze slightly: in the mirror was another Dragon Qilin, majestic and spirited, very powerful in bearing.

The Dragon Qilin trembled with fear, for at this moment, through his own primordial spirit, he saw his own fleshly body! "My primordial spirit has been dragged into the mirror too!

" The Dragon Qilin kicked wildly with all four legs, feeling as though he trod on the mirror's surface, yet also as though he trod on nothing at all.

Fear filled his heart.

"A ghost—" Before the words were out, two Qi Jiuyis, spitting blood, came tumbling and rolling this way. They rolled a dozen times and landed at the Dragon Qilin's feet—one at the feet of the Dragon Qilin's true body, one at the feet of the Dragon Qilin's primordial spirit.

The Dragon Qilin looked up and saw two Shen Mus walking toward him, mirroring each other, their steps halting before the fallen, unmoving Qi Jiuyi.