Chapter 844 — The Steward of the Heavenly Tower Library

The disciple of the Northern Emperor had already had his fleshly body cut away by Dao Lord Lin Xuan's sword, leaving only his primordial spirit to flee; the disciples of the Eastern and Western Emperors had likewise been gravely wounded under Lin Xuan's blade. Now none of the three could evade the divine light shot from Shen Mu's third sacred eye.

Within Shen Mu's third sacred eye, layer after layer of heavens opened up, nine heavens in all.

This was the Ninefold Heaven Eye-Gazing Art the Blind Old Man had passed down to him.

In the past Shen Mu could only open the Jade Empyrean Eye, but now he could fling all nine heavens open at once. These nine heavens turned into ring upon ring of array patterns within his third sacred eye, while at the center of the eye stars swirled into a River of Stars, and in the very heart of that river a great sun rose and sank, never still.

The Blind Old Man's Ninefold Heaven Eye-Gazing Art had absorbed the Sun-Moon Twin Pupils of Ziqing, the deity of the First Sacred Eye in the Kaihuang era, and improved on them; because the Blind Old Man had obtained only the Sun Pupil formation at that time, what he transmitted to Shen Mu also contained only the Sun Pupil. He later added the Moon Pupil, but Shen Mu was always running around and had never had the chance to learn the Sacred Eye of the Moon Pupil. If the sun and moon had joined as one, its power would have been far greater.

But now Shen Mu was driving the Ninefold Heaven Eye-Gazing Art with his third sacred eye, so it was different from what the Blind Old Man had taught him. In his eye, surrounded by the circling stars, hung a black sun. The third eye in his brow was not an ordinary eye.

It was the mark of the Prince of Youdu, the same as the vertical eye in Tu Bo's brow—a demonic eye born of the Great Dao of Youdu, an Eye of Perdition, one that drives away ghosts and gods and beheads ghosts and gods. Originally this eye of Shen Mu's had always been sealed by Tu Bo.

Only later, when he inadvertently released his elder brother Shen Fengqing, did the third eye awaken. At this moment he assumed a three-headed, six-armed form.

Three beams of light shot out, carving three straight lines through the air—black, heavy straight lines. The disciples of the Eastern and Western Emperors were not far from him and had no time to dodge; the black lines pierced the centers of their brows. The Northern Emperor's disciple had been killed by Lin Xuan, leaving only his primordial spirit, which had kept away from the battlefield and was therefore farther off.

But the black light was extremely fast, and before he could react, it passed straight through his body. His primordial spirit was a Black Tortoise spirit.

The black light went through the dark tortoise's hard shell and then pierced the Flying Serpent.

Where the black light struck, darkness spread with terrifying speed and soon stained the entire spirit, tortoise and serpent alike, jet black. Bang. His primordial spirit exploded into countless black soul-sands.

Blown by the wind of Qingyun Heaven, they went wherever the wind carried them and quickly vanished, invisible to the naked eye.

Meanwhile, the disciples of the Eastern and Western Emperors each fell from the sky, landing near the Daoist palace. One lay prone and turned into an azure dragon stretching for a hundred zhang; the other became a white tiger blazing with light all over. The two giant beasts struggled to rise, roared twice, and then their breath suddenly ceased.

Their bodies rapidly petrified into two lifelike stone statues, and the shapes of their desperate struggle could still be seen.

On the other side, the Southern Emperor's disciple let out a shriek, shook himself, and transformed into a Vermilion Bird, fleeing headlong and leaving a trail of fire across the sky. Below, Lin Xuan called out, "Young lady, Cult Master Shen has said that he has an old connection with your master; he will not kill you!

" The woman in red turned a deaf ear. The Vermilion Bird she had become was extremely fast, flying straight for the gateway of Qingyun Heaven.

When she reached the green light, she plunged into it. But the green light churned—she had run into a great net and been caught in it.

The Vermilion Bird struggled desperately against the net but could not break free. Around the net stood four old Daoists, each pulling a corner, trapping her.

Dao Lord Lin Xuan opened his Yin-Yang Dao Eye to look.

The net's construction was extraordinarily subtle, containing a supremely profound mastery of the arts of number, and he could not stop praising it. "Qingyun Heaven works in the macro branch of the arts of number; its accomplishment on that macro scale surpasses the Jingping Dao school by who knows how much. " He was delighted and said to Daoist Zha beside him, "Our own school, on the other hand, has attainments in the Taiwei Calculation Canon that they cannot hope to match.

If the two are combined, it will be a great blessing for Jingping's Dao arts! " Daoist Zha hesitated, then tested, "Dao Lord, it is still hard to say whether Qingyun Heaven is friend or foe.

How can you be so certain that Qingyun Heaven will help our Dao school? After all, our Jingping Dao school was founded by outcast disciples of the Heavenly Court's Dao school.

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. " "Cult Master Shen can definitely handle it! " Lin Xuan said with full confidence.

Daoist Zha scratched his black-and-white-streaked hair and thought, "Are you the Dao Lord, or is he? Your faith in that Cult Master of the Dark Demon is a little too high. .

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" In the sky, the figures of Shen Mu and Xiao Chunfeng rose higher and higher. Xiao Chunfeng's strength was not to be underestimated, and his attainment in the arts of number was frighteningly high.

After all, he was a disciple of the Dao Ancestor and a true heir of the Heavenly Court's Dao school. Even though he had never received the Dao Ancestor's personal instruction, his achievements were still extraordinary.

What he used was not swordplay. The Jingping Dao school's signature art was the Fourteen Chapters of the Dao Sword, the sect-guarding sword art that every generation of Dao Lords had to study and comprehend.

Its cultivation method was the Innate Grand Mystery Art, which had originally been incomplete until Daoist Zha brought back a Daoist cultivation method from the Kaihuang era and completed it.

But both the Fourteen Chapters of the Dao Sword and the Innate Grand Mystery Art were only two among the thousand arts and ten thousand methods of the Heavenly Court Dao school. The Dao Ancestor founded the Dao school with the purpose of explaining all things in the universe and the great Dao of heaven and earth through the arts of number. The Dao Sword was only one of these arts, and the Grand Mystery Art was only one technique, not even among the highest Emperor's Seat arts. Even so, Dao Lord Lin Xuan could be called the most outstanding genius of Jingping.

In his younger generation, only a handful could match his strength. What Xiao Chunfeng had learned, however, was the most orthodox practice of the Heavenly Court Dao school—the complete arts of number—and with the best teacher, and being himself the son of the Lunar Star Lord, a demigod of extremely high blood, his strength stood out among his peers in the Heavenly Court and surpassed even the Four Emperors' disciples.

The two maneuvered through the sky. The arts Xiao Chunfeng used were of great interest to Shen Mu. Behind this young Daoist, a divine bridge floated in the air, reaching into the void, and his primordial spirit stood upon that bridge.