Chapter 949 — The Hundred Methods of Slaying This Man

" Above the Jade Sea, wave upon wave of fearsome consciousness surged, dense and fierce beyond measure, churning the heavens until thunder rolled and rumbled without cease. The powers of the Heavenly Court had been roused. They did not come in their true bodies, but sent their consciousness ahead of them to investigate the disturbance at the Jade Pool! Shen Mu smiled. "Perhaps with the remaining eighteen arts you might kill me.

Or perhaps you will die by my hand. " The Shen Mu clone of Heavenly Venerable Hao narrowed his eyes—an habitual gesture of Shen Mu's, matched to the life.

Shen Mu frowned. Even now, he was still imitating him.

"What if I do not use the remaining eighteen arts, but the eighty-two I have already shown? " Heavenly Venerable Hao asked with a smile.

Shen Mu's face was all smiles.

"You may try.

" The Shen Mu clone of Heavenly Venerable Hao moved in a flash, and the first stance of the Hundred Methods of Slaying Mu erupted in all its power. He stabbed out a finger—a strike aimed at the flaws in Shen Mu's arts.

Though Shen Mu's sword moves were infinite in variation, in the working of his arts there were flaws, each fleeting as a white horse glimpsed through a crack.

His finger technique was aimed at those flaws, and so in the illusion a single finger had slain Shen Mu! Now the scene in the illusion recurred. Shen Mu raised his sword to block—the same Kalpa-Raising Sword, the same inconceivable variations. Yet the next moment, a flash of sword light, and the finger of his Shen Mu clone was severed, tumbling into the Jade Sea.

Heavenly Venerable Hao changed his art, becoming the eighth stance of the Hundred Methods of Slaying Mu. Radiance burst from his three eyes; beam upon beam collided and refracted, forming a net of ten thousand strands.

In the illusion it was with this move that he had broken Shen Mu's arts and cut him into countless pieces! Yet three flashes of sword light, and the three eyes of his Shen Mu clone were put out by three thrusts of Shen Mu's sword!

Heavenly Venerable Hao roared, sinews swelling, fists sweeping wide and free, his strength enough to uproot mountains and rivers. In the illusion, with this art he had beaten Shen Mu into a puddle of mud!

Suddenly both his wrists stung—his hands were severed clean at the wrist! "This is the way to break the second stance of your Hundred Methods of Slaying Mu!

" Shen Mu's sword followed his body.

Sword light wheeled about Heavenly Venerable Hao, frozen where he stood, streaks of radiance hissing, like light, like lightning, and the next moment the blade pierced flesh and thrust out through his back!

"This is the way to break the third stance! " "The fourth!

" "The fifth!

" "The sixth!

" . . .

Within the little pavilion, countless sword lights darted and leaped, swift as flight.

In an instant the Shen Mu clone of Heavenly Venerable Hao was drenched in blood, covered in wounds.

Always Shen Mu avoided his vital points by the narrowest margin, never striking him dead!

Yet those streaks of sword light seemed to pierce Heavenly Venerable Hao's very heart, showing him in bloody fact that all his toil and bitter effort over a million years had been for nothing!

The Hundred Methods of Slaying Mu, which he had labored so hard to create over all these years, were broken by Shen Mu the moment they had been used but once!

And not merely broken: from the flaws his Hundred Methods had revealed, Shen Mu revised his own Mystic Body Three Elixir Art, refined his swordsmanship, and made his arts more perfect still! More than that, Shen Mu had even cast aside his sword elixir, employing fists and feet and divine arts, and the flaws in his battle skills and divine powers grew fewer and fewer! Soon all eighty-two stances of the Hundred Methods of Slaying Mu were broken by Shen Mu.

His robes flapped in the wind; the sword elixir flew back and vanished between his brows. And in the pavilion, the Shen Mu clone of Heavenly Venerable Hao had become a man of blood.

"What is the eighty-third method? " Shen Mu asked.

The blood-soaked clone of Heavenly Venerable Hao wore a strange smile. "You will learn, Heavenly Venerable Mu. I will pass the remaining eighteen methods of Slaying Mu to my disciples, and they will kill you.

" His consciousness scattered at flying speed, leaving behind a laugh: "You still have eighteen flaws, and those eighteen flaws will bring you eighteen mortal calamities! " "A dead duck's bill stays hard!

" Shen Mu gave a cold snort, raised a finger, and the head of that Shen Mu in the pavilion burst with a bang. The corpse swayed and toppled into the Jade Sea.

In the sky, the surging consciousnesses beheld the sight and were struck with horror.

"The moment we arrived here, we saw Heavenly Venerable Mu killing Heavenly Venerable Mu.

. . " a voice whispered.