Chapter 716 — The Youth's Demonic Fall

Shen Mu fended off Lou Yunqu's attacks and shot several more beams of divine light from his eyes, driving Lou Yunqu out of the Dark Capital; then he seized Fu Yanqi's primordial spirit and sent it toward his mouth.

Just then he suddenly sensed a shadow above his head and hastily dodged aside. With a thunderous boom, the Heaven-Watching Terrace shuddered violently, and an incomparably towering god-demon crouched in its midst.

This demon-god was colossal and mighty, and slowly rose to its feet. "With the corpses of two junior brothers, the Calamity God is revived at last!

" Lou Yunqu was overjoyed, and was about to join forces with the Calamity God to besiege Shen Mu, when the Calamity God suddenly brought down a fist; caught off guard, Lou Yunqu was smashed into the earth by that enormous fist!

The ground caved in, forming a vast crater.

The Calamity God lifted its fist, and blood plasma dripped ceaselessly from beneath it. Lou Yunqu's bones were broken and his tendons snapped; he lay spread-eagled there, filled with regret: "I forgot—these Calamity Gods recognize no kin.

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" In bitter misery, his fleshly body all but ruined by that one punch, he had no choice but to abandon it; his primordial spirit left its shell, and he thought, "A Dark Capital disciple without a fleshly body loses little in fighting strength.

" His primordial spirit emerged, and at once he saw the Calamity God and Shen Mu had flown into the air and were locked in savage battle. By now Shen Mu was all but berserk; every manner of divine art came to his hand with ease—whether the Buddhist primordial spirit from the Heavenly King Sutra of the Heavenly King Buddha Shakra, or the Heaven-Earth Seal Art of the First Ancestor Human Emperor, or the Ancestral Dragon Supreme Mystery Art of the True Dragon Lair, or the arts of the elders of Yincan Village, the arts of the Human Emperors through the ages, or the arts of the Crimson Emperor and the Bright Emperor—whether or not he had once been able to master them, now he wielded them all!

He had not fully possessed the Nether Capital Divine Child's power, yet he had borrowed a small portion of it, his cultivation deepened until he pressed close upon Lou Yunqu.

With magic power so boundless, commanding these arts was effortless; even against the Calamity God he did not yield a step, and attacked more than he defended. He had neither primordial weapon nor divine weapon in hand, and fought the Calamity God bare-handed; in close combat and at range alike, he was wild and brutal, simply crushing with divine arts. Lou Yunqu's cultivation was deeper, but in the transformations of divine arts he was far inferior, and most of the Dark Capital's arts were aimed at the soul; in sheer means of attack he could not compare with Shen Mu at all. "How many divine arts and dharma methods does this fellow actually command?

" Lou Yunqu watched the battle in the sky from afar, his heart quaking with dread: "Is this the full strength of the Nether Capital Divine Child?

Truly formidable!

No wonder the Master would have him by any means! " Little did he know that the power Shen Mu had borrowed had not even reached one percent of the Nether Capital Divine Child's strength before Tian Shu and the Crimson Emperor cut it off, lest it grow beyond control.

The Calamity God's might was boundless; a single divine art could force Shen Mu back, could wound him—but Shen Mu had cultivated the Creation Art of the Crimson Emperor and the Bright Emperor, and the recovery of flesh and primordial spirit alike had reached an outrageous degree; any wound healed swiftly, and he simply could not be killed. Shen Mu's divine arts were short and explosive, erupting within the shortest distance, their dreadful might compressed into a tiny space and span; he had no primordial weapon, but his essence qi became countless exceedingly tiny flying swords that shuttled and flew around his body, coming and going in a flash, their menace all the more horrifying!

This technique he had learned from his father, Qin Hanzhen.

Qin Hanzhen's divine arts could gather infinite power into one ordinary sword, so that the destruction of an art's eruption lay only within a foot's breadth and a square inch, yet its power was unthinkably great. Shen Mu had trained under Qin Hanzhen for a time, and though he learned some of his father's arts, because Qin Hanzhen followed the path of the Kaihuang lineage, Shen Mu had never been able to grasp how to confine the power of a divine art to a foot's breadth and a square inch.

And now, he had unexpectedly mastered this combat technique with ease!

"Beat you to death and eat you! " Shen Mu leaped high, frenzied and exultant, spinning madly around the Calamity God, a tempest of countless divine arts crashing upon it. The Calamity God defended at incredible speed, yet still took blow after blow, until suddenly a muffled roar rose from its throat; and the Five Thunders Pot that Shen Mu had placed in Yongjiang Academy rumbled at once, thunder and lightning mingling.

The Five Thunders Pot soared into the air, its lid opened, and five great cloud-thunders gushed from within, mingled with countless fire-bell divine weapons—these were fire-bells the size of fists, and when they rolled they gave forth not a bell's chime but thunder like great bells and mighty chimes! The Calamity God stirred the Five Thunders Pot, and the cloud-thunders within flew straight at Shen Mu, cloud and thunder mingled, their power fearsome beyond compare. "Eat!

" Shen Mu opened his great mouth wide to meet the cloud-thunders, and like a whale swallowing a long rainbow he drew them, together with the fire-bell divine weapons, into his belly. "He even eats the Northern Emperor's arts?

" Lou Yunqu was startled; he had been about to ambush Shen Mu from the Dark Capital, and at this sight his heart pounded with fright. In the next moment Shen Mu cradled the Five Thunders Pot, opened his mouth, and actually used it as a wine pot, raising it high to drink deep!

"This.

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" Lou Yunqu's heart filled with dread; to drink down five great cloud-thunders and fire-bell divine weapons as fine wine—such a being he absolutely could not provoke. "To hell with it!

" He suddenly shook his body, and a portal emerged behind him. He shouted fiercely, "Dark Capital Heaven Gate!

Demon-gods of every realm of the Dark Capital, heed my command—come forth and slay the enemy!

" Behind him the darkness surged; a passage to another space was opened, and a demon-god riding a bone horse, its whole body burning with dark fire, stepped out from the portal.

Then a vast, black mass of Dark Capital demon-gods surged out and pounced toward Shen Mu!

Shen Mu was drinking deep from the Five Thunders Pot, and in an instant was submerged by those Dark Capital demon-gods.

In the Shen-Character Continent, Tian Shu and the Crimson Emperor watched the battle outside with anxious concern; seeing this, Tian Shu hesitated.

"He borrowed less than one percent of the power, and it looks as though he cannot win.

Should we give him more?

" The Crimson Emperor said coldly, "How much?

And if it all goes wrong, how do we clean it up? "