Chapter 829 — Master of the Divine Blade

"My lord, the road ahead... you must walk alone..."

Huanlong Jun vanished completely.

Shen Mu stood there dazed, and only after a while did he come to himself. There was no one beside him; only he and his own shadow remained.

"You are still beside me, aren't you? I know Li Zheng and you are both here, not far away."

He sat down, looked at the poem on the pillar, and said in a low voice, "Rest assured, I will find a way to break it. Ling Tianzun believed there is no such thing as time in this world, that it is only an illusion caused by the change of matter. If matter neither alters nor increases nor decreases, then time does not exist. Her divine power is founded on this. When she used it, she had not perfected it, and left a flaw; when she returned to this place and left words on this pillar, she added matter..."

Far off, in the ghost ship's armory, divine weapons lay upon the weapon racks, one after another. Though countless ages had passed, no one knew how many, these divine weapons were still as bright as new.

The armory hall was vast and empty, save that corpses now lay upon the floor. A saber dripping blood hung slantwise, and from its tip blood pattered down drop by drop.

The hand that gripped the saber was very steady. Its owner, like the corpses on the floor, was a one-armed youth.

"Junior brother Zhe Huali, Master Luo has already become void, and there are fewer and fewer people on the ship. We of the Lingxiu Army were chosen from among the most outstanding disciples of the Heavenly Court's divine peoples, and only after the harshest selection and elimination could one enter the Lingxiu Army."

The one-armed youth looked at Zhe Huali on the other side of the weapon rack and said calmly, "In every selection, hundreds, even a thousand, had to die before a single Lingxiu Army disciple could be chosen. And to receive Master Luo's true teaching, the great majority chose to cut off one of their own arms, for only thus could they grasp the way of the saber from Master Luo's saber technique and enter the Dao through the saber. But our master was partial to you; he thought your talent the finest, and sent you down into the world to follow Fu Riluo and learn his art, hoping you could walk another road."

The demonic saber on Zhe Huali's back quivered slightly. He said in a low voice, "Eldest senior brother, of Master Luo's saber technique, you learned it best; I am not your match. But in entering the Dao through the saber, you are not mine. You only follow behind Master Luo. Why must you kill so many junior brothers and sisters? They can become void; they pose no threat to you."

"They must die, because they are weaker than I am, and I will become void before they do."

The one-armed youth said coldly, "I must make certain that the one who survives to the end is me. For the sake of entering the Dao through the saber, I did not hesitate to cut off an arm, let alone kill them. As for you, junior brother, I want even more to know what Master Luo saw in you, that he thought you better than me, that you would go farther than I. So I saved you for last."

Zheng—

Saber light blazed up, and in an instant the armory hall was filled with it. The two youths clashed, and their terrible power roused every divine weapon in the hall. The weapons burst with might and blasted the entire hall to fragments!

When the terrible divine might had swept out in all directions, Zhe Huali raised a hand, sheathed his twin sabers at his back, and walked out of the ruins without a glance at the one-armed youth's corpse.

Every step he took seemed measured out beforehand, neither long nor short.

"My saber technique, tempered against Shen's Overlord Body, long ago surpassed Master Luo's. Master Luo did not know it, and neither did you. And in entering the Dao through the saber, I have comprehended the two heavens of the saber path. This is my own Dao, my own law. You used Master Luo's saber technique and Master Luo's saber path, and so you died."

He walked toward the barracks, and from afar saw Shen Mu sitting before the great hall. His pupils suddenly contracted.

Shen Mu felt something and turned his head, giving him a faint smile.

Zhe Huali could not help but smile in return, then grew wary in his heart: "This villain is using a smile to lower my guard. I must not fall for his trick! He is an enemy, and he must be killed!"

Just then another figure appeared not far away. It was Prince Qiuming.

"Of the group who boarded together, only the three of us remain."

Prince Qiuming flicked the sword in his hand, and beads of blood flew from the blade. He said calmly, "I have killed several more groups of those who boarded later. I have discovered a secret, and I wish to tell you two."

He smiled and said, "It turns out that even the unchanging constants on this ship can die. I killed one just now."