Chapter 933 — The Sword Falls, the Immortal Bridge Breaks

Wenchang, the Emperor of Literature—the form Yun Jianli had taken—chanted the archaic tongue of the Dao, and set his brush to the scroll, drawing a single stroke.

What Wenchang decreed, the law enacted: the words of the Dao on his lips became the world's divine powers. Ask for wind and wind came; ask for rain and rain came; let him open his mouth and speak the Dao, and storm clouds, thunder and lightning were summoned.

His brush rendered whatever he painted: paint a dragon and the dragon flew; paint a rope and the rope bound fast; paint Mount Sumeru and Mount Sumeru came crushing down! And yet, though Yun Jianli had become Wenchang, he still could not hold Shen Mu back.

Shen Mu's fist-intent and spirit swept all before them like rotted wood; every divine power of Wenchang's was smashed to pieces by him. In close combat, Shen Mu was all but invincible!

Another banner flew up and wrapped itself around the retreating Yun Jianli; the banner burst, and a three-legged golden crow rose bearing a great sun on its back and pounced upon Shen Mu.

Yun Jianli shifted form again and again—from the Star Lord of the Great Sun to the Star Lord of the Five Luminaries, from the Star Lord of the Seven Slayers to the Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Sha—three hundred and sixty orthodox gods, changing at will, dazzling the eye. When Heavenly Venerable Yun fell in battle, the Purple Empyrean and Azure Vault Art could only be called newly formed; yet across the ages the art kept evolving, perfected again and again by the Yun clan.

Only today had it reached great completion, revealing a charm unlike any other art. A cultivation art that had taken several hundred thousand years to mature—Heavenly Venerable Yun might be dead, but his art was enough to set him alongside the other Heavenly Venerables.

This was precisely where the charm of Heavenly Venerable Yun lay. Shen Mu still fought Yun Jianli with his martial divine powers, fusing the spirit of the Jingping Reform into his martial spirit.

Whatever ancient god faced him, he smashed with his fist and slew with the sweep of his palm, fierce beyond measure.

However exquisite Yun Jianli's divine powers, however perfect the likeness he assumed, in Shen Mu's eyes they were riddled with flaws. As the founder of the Taiwei Book of Calculations, Yun Jianli had used the Dao Ancestor's classic arts of number to compute the runic Great Daos of the ancient gods—and to Shen Mu they fell far short of perfection.

Suddenly banners floated into the air, merging one after another, and Yun Jianli's figure soared skyward, becoming one with those banners.

The whole sky blazed bright, and there emerged the body of a towering ancient god, a god seemingly composed of pure light, with white brows, white hair, white beard, and eyes of snow-white, radiating brilliance. Heaven's Lord. Behind Yun Jianli, forty-nine Heavenly Daos took the form of forty-nine strange treasures, suspended in the sky.

The Purple Empyrean and Azure Vault Art Yun Jianli displayed had reached consummate perfection; had it not been for the Jingping Reform, no flaw whatsoever could be found in this art.

Shen Mu sighed in admiration, and at last the third eye at the center of his brow opened; a halo appeared behind his head—a wheel of dark radiance that devoured all light, like a black hole. His fleshly body transformed along with it; the third eye at his brow grew brighter and brighter, as though the raging divine fire of Youdu were burning within it.

From his forehead flame gushed forth and a pair of horns grew, nine bends and eighteen twists; his face became a tiger's face, and his body swelled joint by joint, more and more imposing. Terrible demonic qi of Youdu poured forth from the Jade Sea, turning a hundred li around into a realm of Youdu.

Before the Winding Corridor Pavilion, out of the Dragon Qilin's ear crawled Little Tubo, who glared wide-eyed at Shen Mu and cried, "Ha—! " Before the Dragon Qilin could speak, Yan'er's gaze fell on the little creature, and, delighted, she stuffed a spirit elixir into its grasp.

Little Tubo clutched the elixir with difficulty and asked Yan'er solemnly, "Ha?

" "Yes, exactly like you.

" Yan'er laughed. "Dragon Fatty, you brought this little fellow out with you?

" The Dragon Qilin nodded and said softly, "I don't know when it crawled onto me. It looked so pitiful that I kept it by my side.

If this little thing went off on its own, it would starve to death by the next day. " As they spoke, upon the Jade Sea, the Tubo that Shen Mu had become and the Heaven's Lord that Yun Jianli had become finally collided.

Heaven's Lord and Tubo had never crossed blows; no one knew which of these two leaders of the ancient gods was the stronger and which the weaker, and this was likely what many wished to know. This time, Shen Mu had taken the form of Tubo and Yun Jianli the form of Heaven's Lord; it was not truly Tubo against Heaven's Lord, and yet it was still enough to set the blood racing.

Terrible waves of force swept in every direction, and the crowd standing before the Winding Corridor Pavilion was struck by them at once.

The first was a ripple in space itself; space twisted, and the power of the two men's divine abilities was carried over in the form of those ripples. Islands and peaks were stretched—some grew more than ten times in length, while others suddenly shrank to mere nubs.

Seeing this, Yan'er spread her wings at once to shield the Winding Corridor Pavilion and protect the others. The second wave was the surge of the Jade Sea.

Waves that blotted out the sky nearly turned the Jade Sea bottom-up; the great flood drowned everything, and even the divine turtles that had been flying in the air a moment before lost their footing, flailing their limbs helplessly in the air with islands and spirit mountains on their backs.

The great golden lotuses in the sea swayed uncertainly under the impact, giving off sheet upon sheet of golden light that blocked the force—they were not destroyed.

The third wave was a hurricane, its force surpassing sound by I know not how many times, sweeping up everything, its howl utterly terrifying.

Such power was beyond the grasp of many deities, and now it was being unleashed by two men who looked sickly and frail—truly a stunning sight! Only when the wind died and the waves stilled did Yan'er fold her wings. Qi Jiuyi, the Dragon Qilin and the others looked over and saw Shen Mu and Yun Jianli standing upon the surface of the sea, no longer fighting.

Admiration rose unbidden in Qi Jiuyi's heart: "Yun Jianli is beyond question the foremost of the younger generation; he is worthy of being Heavenly Venerable Yun's descendant. Sect Master Shen is remarkable too, to fight him to a draw. If Sect Master Shen can survive, in time he may well make good on the name of Heavenly Venerable.

" The Dragon Qilin laughed. "Third Brother, you still don't understand the Sect Master.

He is a modest man; he always leaves a way out in all he does. " Qi Jiuyi was briefly taken aback, then laughed. "Modest?

When has Sect Master Shen ever been modest? Second Brother, don't joke.

" "The Sect Master has always been modest—only, his modesty is the sort that makes you want to punch him.

" The Dragon Qilin said, "Look. From first to last in this fight with Yun Jianli, he has not used his primordial spirit, nor his swordsmanship, which is what he does best. " Qi Jiuyi shook his head, unimpressed.

"Where would Sect Master Shen even get a primordial spirit? He hasn't even a soul left, so of course he cannot use one.

And his swordsmanship—in a battle of this level, where even the Heavenly Dao and the Great Dao of Youdu are being brought out, what use is swordsmanship?

" On the Jade Sea, Yun Jianli's breathing gradually steadied. He coughed violently several times, his face flushed, and said, "Heavenly Venerable Mu, how do you find my ancestor's Purple Empyrean and Azure Vault Art?