Chapter 747 — Clash of the Youth and the Sovereign

The next moment, countless thunderbolts crossed and clashed, crack-crack crashing down through midair, lightning falling like rain! "Your divine arts are not bad.

" Below, Kaihuang suddenly put forth his strength and charged at Shen Mu, sneering: "But your understanding of divine arts is far from enough!

" His palms turned and flew; his divine arts drew inward and hid within a single palm, drifting as his sleeves fluttered, while countless tiny divine arts spun ceaselessly around him. He was the founder of an age.

Though he was still in the youth of his life, his great talent and overbearing strategy were displayed without reserve; the grandest and most fascinating divine arts of the Kaihuang era were of his creation, and they propped up an entire age! He was the creator of the most original version of the "Mystic Body Three Elixirs Art" that Shen Mu cultivated; the countless divine arts within the Great Nurturing Nether-Demon Scripture had myriad ways of ordering, and all of them were sorted out by the Woodcutter from Kaihuang's divine arts.

In the long gallery of his father Qin Hanzhen's treasure ship, Shen Mu had learned the method of highly condensing the power of divine arts — and that method began with Kaihuang.

The power a divine art released could destroy all within ten li and more; to gather such magnificent force into a tiny space, and then let it burst forth, wrought damage upon a foe beyond all reckoning! Shen Mu gave a long whistle.

Other men had seven divine treasuries; his own numbered as many as fourteen, divided into the two great kinds, god and demon.

Apart from the Life-and-Death treasury and the Divine Bridge treasury, which remained unopened, all his other treasuries had been opened, ten in all.

And those ten treasuries he had already refined into one. His vital essence hung like a waterfall turned upside down, coursing through that one magnificent treasury like so many pillars of qi or surging floods, a thousand strands and a hundred channels, roaring as they ran, threading through the heaven and earth of the treasury. Because his treasuries were one, his vital essence ran faster than Kaihuang's, fiercer, its bursting power stronger, its might greater!

Though he was inferior to Kaihuang in divine arts, in a head-on clash he feared nothing at all! The two crashed together with a roar; the power of their divine arts burst forth in the instant of collision.

Beneath their feet the white jade flagstones floated up in that instant, and with the two as the center, block by block, ring upon ring, they were heaved aloft; the divine art practitioners standing far off were lifted on the flagstones beneath their own feet and, unable to help themselves, tumbled outward! Bang, bang, bang — countless violent blows burst out in an instant like linked thunder; amid the roaring of that storm two figures were flung away, swift as comets striking the earth, and crashed thunderously into the walls of two great halls a hundred li apart.

And in the sky, the two towering primordial spirits moved swift as light, swift as lightning, hurling every kind of divine art at each other as though they cared nothing for their lives, tracing dazzling streaks of light and shadow across the heavens. In the sky, light and shadow interlaced and every kind of wonder burst forth: galloping dragons, soaring phoenixes, tens of thousands of flying swords, sabers that clove the sky, fist seals like mountains, vast long rivers, spinning great bells.

.

. And with those wonders came wondrous sounds of every kind — the Dao-sounds that issue when divine arts burst forth!

Then the roofs of those two great halls blew apart with a crash; Shen Mu and Kaihuang shot up into the sky, each landing with a swish upon a hall, facing each other across a hundred li.

Their gazes met.

"Yi-ya-ya-ya-ya —" Shen Mu roared, his qi surging to the Ox and Dipper, and suddenly left the hall to come treading the void; a single step carried him half a li, his feet treading air, and the ground below at once bore a huge footprint! He ran through the air, a fleeting gleam and shadow, and in each stride countless fists struck out; ahead of him the fist seals pressed the air into solid substance, and one huge fist after another hurtled at Kaihuang at terrifying speed, the seals multiplying until they formed a wall growing ever thicker!

Old Ox was frightened out of his wits, and hastily called out loud: "Shen Ye. . .

Shen Kai, do not match strength with him! His martial skill has already reached the very summit!

" On the great hall on the other side, Kaihuang turned a deaf ear to Old Ox's voice; he shifted his feet and went straight for Shen Mu, his two hands turning and flying like butterflies in wild dance, and countless tiny divine arts flew up in profusion from between his fingers, from his fingertips, from his palms, from beneath his robes; at once there appeared before him towers and cauldrons, bells and pagodas, sabers, spears, swords and halberds, dragons and tigers, the Dark Warrior and the Vermilion Bird, wonders of every hue, bearing terrifying might, glinting with light that flickered on and off! Those were waves of aura beyond all terror, harboring power beyond all dread. Old Ox shuddered with cold, and cried aloud: "Mu Qing, do not match strength with him! Shen Kai's skill in divine arts has been cultivated to the very summit!

" In midair, waves of unspeakable terror rolled out; fists and divine arts collided, and in one instant the two young figures crashed together.

A dazzling white light burst from the center of their collision, like a blade of incomparable keenness, and with a swish it cut straight along the center of the Yaochi treasure island, to either side.

The earth shook, mountains and halls swayed; a chasm split the Yaochi treasure island apart, and its fissure ran neat and even, growing ever greater, ever longer, ever wider! Whoosh — a gale swept to the four quarters; in an instant the glazed tiles of hall after hall were torn away, baring the dragon bones, and countless emerald tiles formed a cloud of jade that flew in every direction. "Primordial spirits, into your apertures!

" Two voices rang out at once; in the sky the mad tide of blood essence came roaring back down, and the two great primordial spirits of Shen Mu and Kaihuang returned to their bodies almost in the same moment. Their auras were proud and unbending.

Shen Mu's body swelled joint by joint, taller and taller, until it stood twelve zhang high, standing like a god or a demon.

His six arms put forth their strength, his muscles crackling as they swelled; his three heads gave a great shout, and six palms came down upon the ground. "Refine treasures into weapons!

" The earth shook; hall after hall split apart in the quaking of earth and mountains; copper pillars one after another shrieked up into the sky and melted in the firelight, turning into primal weapons that flew, into flying swords that darted swiftly on their way!

On the other side, Kaihuang suddenly brought his hands together before his chest; his aura burst forth, other great halls crumbled and floated aloft, the halls dissolved, and divine metals and divine materials took on every shape in flight — those thousand dragons and ten thousand phoenixes, wonders of every kind, came howling.

Those were the primal weapon forms his divine arts took once fixed in shape.

The two had fought themselves into a fury; the means they employed in this moment had long since passed beyond the notion of a friendly bout.

Old Ox's head ached; shielding Ling Tianzun, he cried aloud: "Shen Kai, do not fight him!

He has the Overlord Body — you cannot match him! " Kaihuang turned a deaf ear; Old Ox shouted: "Mu Qing, still you will not stop?

His divine arts are measureless — show him the slightest flaw and he will finish you! Do not forget, his strongest is his swordsmanship! The divine arts are only a blind!