Chapter 824 — One Sword to Godhood

Dragon roars surged through the great hall; suddenly a terrifying tremor came, flashes of saber and shadows of sword, even the surging of imperial might. Though the great hall was vast, it could not withstand the impact of the divine abilities of so many masters — and all the more so with an imperial corpse here, and imperial-throne-level divine weapons and treasures!

"Get out quickly, it is about to reset!" the little man in the lantern said in alarm.

Li Zheng drew his sword at once, and its light flashed. In swordsmanship Shen Mu had already surpassed him, but in the Dao of the Sword he was still the foremost man of the Jingping Sword Dao — even the Jingping Imperial Preceptor was far behind!

At the Spirit Bridge realm he had already created the Nine Forms of the Sword Diagram. In the Nine Forms of the Sword Diagram, each move was a heaven of the sword dao; by then he was already a great master of the ninth heaven of the sword dao!

No matter the manner of entering the Dao, the first step is difficult; but to advance further is harder still. Even a being such as the Celestial Master Zixi, spending a lifetime, reached only the thirteenth heaven of the sword dao.

But the Celestial Master Zixi was of the Lingxiao realm; the thirteenth heaven of the sword dao was her limit, the sword dao she had created at the Lingxiao realm.

Li Zheng was different. In those years he had been trapped at the Spirit Bridge realm, unable to see any art that surpassed the Spirit Bridge, and unable to cultivate to a higher realm.

It was purely by his own talent and effort that he had created the Nine Forms of the Sword Diagram.

The Nine Forms of the Sword Diagram corresponded to the realm of the True God — that is to say, the sword dao he had comprehended at the Spirit Bridge realm had already reached the level of the True God.

Later, Shen Mu passed out arts such as the Magpie Bridge Art to mend the Spirit Bridge, and used the Between Life and Death to connect to Fengdu, and the Duiqian Bridge to connect to Taihuang Heaven; divine arts and demonic arts emerged in endless succession, and even imperial-throne arts were passed out. Li Zheng's horizons and knowledge grew by leaps and bounds.

During the time Shen Mu was roaming everywhere, he too had not been idle; the sword-dao arts in Yuming Palace he had already learned by heart, and he had made another startling breakthrough in the sword dao.

With sword in hand, Li Zheng cut through the afterwaves of the various divine abilities and, with Shen Mu and Lord Huanlong, burst his way out.

Ahead too was light, nothing visible; he could only advance by his own senses. Suddenly his sword touched a divine saber, and a clanging, ringing burst of sound rang out.

That divine saber was like quicksilver poured on the ground, entering every crevice. Li Zheng unleashed his swordsmanship and blocked the saber, saying in a low voice: "The Divine Saber of Luo?"

"The Sword God of Jingping?"

The divine saber poured over the ground; saber dao and sword dao clashed violently. Li Zheng wielded his sword to hold it off, and was startled inwardly: the power coming from the saber was not especially great, roughly equal to his own mana.

"Is the Divine Saber of Luo suppressing his realm to contend with me? He wants to see my sword dao!"

Suddenly the saber light snapped shut, and Luo Wushuang was gone. In the light a divine dragon passed through the flashes of saber and sword, flinging Li Zheng, Shen Mu, and the others into the air — whether it was a divine dragon of the Kingdom of Longbo or Patriarch Dragon King, none could tell.

More people rushed out from the hall; the thunderous crash of the great hall collapsing came; flames blazed in the light — Feng Qiuyun had opened the imperial coffin, and the imperial corpse rose to its feet within, roaring in fury, shaking the great hall down!

"Feng Qiuyun, you are mad!" The Divine Son Chi Ming turned into a streak of light and fled past Shen Mu and the others.

Just then the light suddenly dispersed, and clarity returned before their eyes.

Li Zheng shielded Shen Mu and Lord Huanlong, his sword light scattering as he cut apart the afterwaves of the various divine abilities, and landed lightly, giving a muffled grunt, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.

Shen Mu said in alarm: "Li Zheng, you are hurt?"

"I am fine."

Li Zheng said calmly: "That divine dragon grazed me as it rushed past — it will not kill me. Luo Wushuang's saber dao is indeed formidable; his saber dao is already near the thirteenth heaven. But as far as entering the Dao goes, my sword dao is in no way inferior."

Shen Mu swiftly employed his creation divine ability to heal his wounds.

Lord Huanlong said, dazed: "My lord, was that great hall not just destroyed?"

Shen Mu was stunned, and looked back: the great hall stood there perfectly intact, not collapsed at all, exactly as before, without a single spot of damage.

In the hall, the eight dragons still coiled exactly as before, guarding the Empress's coffin.

Beside the coffin there was another coffin — the stone coffin from the Imperial Tomb that Feng Qiuyun had brought. Half of it was sunk into the ground, half exposed; and the corpse of the Supreme Emperor had now, astonishingly, merged with the ground and the stone coffin, its livid, zombie-like face pressed against the stone coffin's lid, its gray-white eyeballs rolling.

Of the many demigods Patriarch Dragon King had brought, some had half their bodies grown into the walls, some into the pillars with their backsides sticking out, and some had sunk into the earth, as though faces had sprouted from the ground.

They were all still alive.

Only, when the light had burst forth just now, they seemed to have been reassembled — but reassembled wrongly, so that they and the great hall had become a single whole.