Chapter 859 — Soaring to the Azure Clouds

The Crimson Radiance Divine Son smiled faintly and said nothing, his smile tinged with arrogance; plainly he did not agree with Xing'an's words. "He did not understand—that 'not inferior to me' was only my own modesty. .

.

And yet the difficulty before him is one I truly cannot resolve; only the Divine Son of Youdu can help him.

" In the sky, Shen Mu was still in retreat. Libationer Bashan grew smoother and smoother as he fought, and could not help loosing long whistles again and again, unleashing all that he had learned in his life. As Grand Libationer of the Lanjiang Academy, every gain of the Academy's reforms passed through his hands; and because Bashan was pent in by his own divine arts and could make little progress, he too threw himself desperately into studying the divine arts of others, hoping to borrow stones from other mountains to break through.

Yet a worthy opponent was hard to come by.

He stood in a rather awkward position: the Fusion of Combat and Dharma made his attacks too powerful, and few could receive his overbearing strike at the same cultivation realm; yet because he had not entered the Dao, when facing men like Zaifu and Xing'an he always lost within a move or two, with no chance to test himself and display what he had. Libationer Bashan was in the early phase of his transformation, the most stifling and most helpless stretch of it; capable as he was, his gifts were not enough to bring the transformation about. He needed pressure, and yet few could give him that pressure.

Only when he faced the Black Tiger God did he have room to unleash himself, but the Black Tiger God followed the Woodcutter roving everywhere and had come only once. This time, when Shen Mu arrived at the Lanjiang Academy, Shen Mu, thick of hide and tough of flesh, could take a beating, and at last gave him the chance to pour out all he had learned and comprehended, to his heart's content.

Shen Mu had come to study the fruits of the Lanjiang Academy's reforms, yet in this moment he had become the whetstone for Bashan's blade, taking whatever divine art the man unleashed, and more than that, Shen Mu's adaptability was terrifying: though he was in retreat, his moves were exquisite beyond measure, learning Lanjiang's divine arts from him and then turning them back in counterattack.

Shen Mu could even master his divine arts within a move or two, and see the flaws in them, forcing him to keep changing, keep improving. Shen Mu was a whetstone that polished him brighter, keener.

Such an opponent was truly hard to come by. "This is not a senior brother feeding moves to a junior brother, but a junior brother instructing his senior," the old farmer said to Zaifu, shaking his head. "That son of the Shen family knows better than you how to teach a disciple.

" Zaifu nodded. "Bashan lacks the bold spirit; he could never learn my blade arts, yet he always wanted to learn from me.

Lacking in cleverness, he could not grasp the peerless art of entering the Dao.

Fortunately I died once, and only then did he step out of my shadow and create the skill of the Fusion of Combat and Dharma.

Only, I can no longer point him the way.

" The old farmer thought for a moment, then said, "Knowing when to let go—that makes you a good teacher.

" Zaifu laughed. "Has the Heavenly Master of Martial Combat opened the Heavenly River divine storehouse? " The old farmer sighed and shook his head.

"Because the Martial Great Emperor had no seventh divine storehouse, he crossed straight over to the Heavenly Palace, and that is how he became the Martial Great Emperor.

But precisely because he lacked the seventh divine storehouse, he is a notch weaker than the other powerhouses of the Imperial Throne," Zaifu said, unhurried.

"Only when the seventh divine storehouse is complete and the Heavenly River is opened will the Martial Great Emperor be truly the Martial Great Emperor.

Once you open the Heavenly River divine storehouse, the Heavenly River will thread through all your divine storehouses, and you will become one of the mightiest of the Imperial Throne under heaven; your achievement will shine down the ages! " The old farmer's face creased into wrinkles, and he said dryly, "I am rather dull.

I sat by the Yongjiang for many days and still could not sense the power of the Heavenly River. The woodcutter was probably right—I have trained my muscles into my brains. " Zaifu did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Just then, thunder and lightning intertwined in the sky, and countless blades of light passed through the thunder; the lightning was drawn along by the blade light, crackling as it bored into the Overlord Blade, and the blade light split again in midair, more and more of it, gathering into a tide that surged toward Shen Mu! Zaifu, the old farmer, and the others all brightened, praising him inwardly.

Zaifu said, "Bashan's Fusion of Combat and Dharma has advanced again, yet he still cannot enter the Dao through the blade, nor through thunder arts, nor through the martial way.

He is still lacking in many respects. " The old farmer said in surprise, "But this power is dreadfully great—there is something strange about it.

. .

" Even as he spoke, countless phantoms suddenly surged up around Shen Mu, as though countless Shen Mus were displaying the peerless arts of the martial way; the sky split apart amid a myriad of strange phenomena and became a single palm strike of magnificent grandeur!

A Thousand Palms Return from the Wondrous Peaks Beyond Heaven! His palm force clashed with Bashan's thunder arts and Overlord Blade; the dazzling blade light burst in all directions, spreading out flat, cleaving the clouds for a hundred li around into two, one above, one below.

The instant Shen Mu executed this move, his figure suddenly stirred, and a sword pellet appeared in his hand; the pellet became an Overlord Blade.

Shen Mu circled Bashan in the air, and the moves he displayed were precisely the Fusion of Combat and Dharma that Libationer Bashan had just used, each form and stance distinct and clear—yet the deficiencies that had marked Bashan's execution were now made whole, and the flaws repaired. Bashan stood motionless in the air, watching him perform his own peerless art around him; though it fell short in power, it was exquisite in its utmost subtlety.

After a while, Shen Mu had run through all seven forms of the Overlord Blade, and when he came to the eighth form he used only half of it, and the blade light suddenly halted.

He halted the blade light, and Libationer Bashan's chest tightened; he was so miserable he wanted to spit blood, and his hair bristled with fury. The Overlord Blade in his hand took up Shen Mu's blade light and carried the move onward, and he shouted, "This is how you use it! " The two blade lights met; Bashan used his own Overlord Blade to draw Shen Mu's blade along, carrying the eighth form through to its end.

Originally, Libationer Bashan had created the seven forms of the Overlord Blade upon the foundation of Zaifu's Nine Arts of the Heavenly Blade, and later, as Grand Libationer of the Lanjiang Academy, he had created an eighth form upon the basis of the seventh. Shen Mu had performed only half a move of his eighth form; to others it meant nothing, but to him it was suffocating, an urge he could not keep down.

Shen Mu smiled faintly and let his blade and his divine art follow where Bashan's Overlord Blade led. Libationer Bashan executed the eighth form and was about to close the move, when suddenly Shen Mu's blade drew his Overlord Blade onward, carrying him into an entirely new domain.

In Libationer Bashan's mind there was a thunderous crash; it was as if his magic power, his divine arts, his blade, his martial way, had in a single instant found the sluice gate through which to pour! His blade moved with Shen Mu's blade, as though he had in one stroke toppled the gate that penned him in, and could now vent his ambitions to his heart's content!