Chapter 878 — The Shadowed Maga Codex

Shen Mu settled into the Great Black Palace with perfect ease. Each day was given over to cultivation or to idle wandering, and he seemed wholly at his ease, as though he harbored not the slightest wariness toward Great Black Heaven or the grim, sinister palace itself.

Within the Great Black Palace, lamps burned bright, yet the moment one stepped beyond its walls, darkness swallowed everything, as though every ray of light were devoured by the dark, and one could see only a short way.

He had left the Great Black Palace several times, and no one had barred his way; yet Shen Mu would walk a little distance into the darkness and then turn back of his own accord, his face wreathed in smiles, seemingly delighted.

Only Dragon Qilin was unhappy. He treated the demoness who refined spirit pills for him with great severity, faulting her pills for their poor texture, their wrong flavor, the impurity of her elixirs, her faulty methods of refinement—finding fault with everything.

The demoness had been scolded to tears more than a dozen times. At last she could bear it no longer, and covering her face, she fled weeping.

"Sect Master, that girl has a foul temper," said Dragon Qilin, chewing on a spirit pill as he spoke to Shen Mu. "She can do anything, yet she can do nothing well—she cannot even refine a decent pill."

Shen Mu picked up a spirit pill and tasted it, then nodded. "Her technique is wrong, and she has not purified the spirit medicine. There are small flaws in the heat, the timing, the proportions—every aspect—so that the texture, the flavor, and the efficacy all deviate slightly."

Dragon Qilin felt he had found a kindred spirit. "She does it wrong, and still has the face to weep—shameless."

Just then, a voice came from outside, furious: "Who dares bully my cousin? Cousin, do not cry—I will go beat him to death to vent your anger!"

Shen Mu smiled. "Here it comes."

Dragon Qilin asked, puzzled, "Sect Master, what is coming?"

The demoness who had just been scolded to tears now returned, leading a demon-race youth. She raised a hand and pointed at Shen Mu, weeping like pear blossoms in rain, choking out, "It is him!"

The demon youth looked at Shen Mu and sneered. "You bullied my cousin? Even if you are a guest of my master, Great Black Heaven, I will not tolerate it. Today you must give me satisfaction!"

Shen Mu paid him no heed, but explained to Dragon Qilin, "These past days, Great Black Heaven has made no move. He keeps me in the Great Black Palace to gamble another round with me, yet he truly has no confidence of victory. Even with disciples he himself taught and raised, he is not certain they can defeat me. Therefore he needs to stir up trouble."

Dragon Qilin remained somewhat confused.

Shen Mu smiled. "If his disciple comes of his own accord to provoke and challenge me, then this battle falls outside the terms of our wager. Even if his disciple dies at my hand, he does not lose the bet between us. And his other disciples may take the opportunity to watch the fight, observing my Dao arts and divine powers from the shadows, so as to find a way to counter me."

Dragon Qilin suddenly understood, and even the demon youth who had come charging in with such ferocity felt a chill in his heart.

Dragon Qilin shot the youth a glance. "Then, Sect Master, what fate awaits the first of Great Black Heaven's disciples to step forward and stir up trouble?"

Shen Mu sighed. "He is pushed out by his fellow disciples to die."

The demon youth's expression changed drastically, and he clenched his fists tightly.

Shen Mu went on, unhurried. "After he dies, his fellow disciples will have seen a few of my divine powers. They will study them, and then send out a second man to die, using the methods they have devised to continue dealing with me."

Dragon Qilin asked curiously, "Sect Master, and then?"

Shen Mu said leisurely, "Then the second man will die, easily, in the very flaw I deliberately left when I killed the first troublemaker. When I kill the first, I will leave a flaw on purpose. They will study it and devise their counter. And so the second man will also die with incomparable swiftness."

The demon youth's face went pale, his gaze somewhat dazed. He turned to look helplessly behind him, unsure whether he should continue according to plan and provoke Shen Mu further.

Dragon Qilin, still chewing his spirit pill, asked, "Then will the Sect Master truly kill Great Black Heaven's disciples inside his own Great Black Palace?"

"Some people always imagine me too merciful. They think I am the Sect Master of the Heavenly Saint Sect, never realizing that the Heavenly Saint Sect is in truth also the Dark Demon Sect."

Shen Mu wore a half-smile. "I sent a single challenge letter to the Northern Heavens. To break that letter, I do not know how many divine-power wielders of the Northern Heavens have died. Can Great Black Heaven's disciples be ignorant of this? So many divine-power wielders died because of a single challenge letter of mine—then if I personally kill a few of Great Black Heaven's disciples, can that be called atrocious?"

The demon youth's face turned ashen. He looked at Shen Mu as though at a terrifying demon king who devoured whomever he chose.

He had come swaggering with menace, yet now he had no will to fight at all.

To become a disciple of Great Black Heaven, one had to be chosen from among the finest youths of all the great heavens of the North, selected for the best innate gifts, enduring countless trials of life and death, treading upon the bones of countless peers before finally earning Great Black Heaven's regard.

Therefore, each of Great Black Heaven's disciples was even more formidable than Feng Huayu!

They had their extraordinary qualities, their surpassing traits—and also boundless confidence and pride.

Yet now, this demon youth's pride and confidence had vanished into thin air, leaving only terror, bewilderment, and helplessness.

He felt like a newborn lamb, and Shen Mu, fixing his eyes upon him, was a ferocious black dragon in the darkness, amid crashing thunder and torrential rain that drenched him to the bone with cold.

At any moment he might become an appetizer in that evil dragon's maw!

Shen Mu said mildly, "Senior Brother, did you not come to stand up for someone?"

The demon youth's face twisted, his body trembling.

Shen Mu glanced at him. "Fight or do not fight, retreat or do not retreat—you put me in a difficult position."

Sweat poured down the demon youth in streams. Suddenly he raised his head and said through gritted teeth, "If I retreat, my Dao heart is finished. My master, Great Black Heaven, will expel me from the sect. I will never be able to hold my head up in the Northern Heavens. My whole life will be ruined!"

His voice was hoarse as he rasped, "So I must fight, even if it means death! Only thus can I steady my Dao heart, steady my standing in the Northern Heavens, and avoid the mockery of others. Only by withstanding your attack can I make myself walk on with resolve!"

Shen Mu showed appreciation. "What is your name?"

The demon youth said, "Mo Santong!"

Shen Mu nodded. "Mo Santong, what are you best at? By what did you enter the Dao?"

Mo Santong was taken aback, then said, "I followed Teacher Great Black Heaven in cultivating the Dark Maga Sutra, and from it comprehended the Great Black Heaven Combat Method, entering the Dao through divine power. I also followed Senior Brother Luandi to study and comprehend the fruits of Jingping's reforms, and so I have some understanding of the Jingping Reforms."

"Dark Maga Sutra, Great Black Heaven Combat Method, entering the Dao through divine power."