Chapter 1120 — Proving the Dao Through the Saber

Zai Fu had once been a wielder of divine powers in the army, a man who had crawled out from mountains of corpses and seas of blood; only later did he become a grandmaster of the saber arts of his generation, and, his saberplay nurturing a boundless ardor, a literary giant of his age.

He was the most dazzling figure of that era.

When his saber art unfurled, it forced Shen Mu to raise his own blade and fight!

Night Slays a Thousand Cities Amid Wind and Rain!

The sabers of the two men were like lightning in the night, so swift that the drift of their blades could not be made out; one could see only the two figures, their footwork shifting like phantoms, while to the ear the cries of their sabers joined into a single unbroken line.

Whoosh—

Their sabers were truly too fast; the friction of the air made the divine blades blazing hot, and roaring divine fire kindled within the saber light. Saber struck against saber to form two fiery tornadoes, and within those whirls countless streams of saber light crisscrossed!

Treading the void, the two rose higher and higher. The two fiery tornadoes coiled about each other, flames blazing, rising a thousand fathoms high, while the long sabers in their hands swept forward and back, left and right, appearing and vanishing like ghosts.

"Slow! Slow! Slow! You are still too slow!"

Zai Fu's voice came down from the sky, drifting and uncertain, now to the left, now to the right. He roared in fury: "Faster! Faster still! Forget your divine powers, forget that you are Mu Tianzun, forget your other primal weapons and divine weapons. You have only the saber in your hand, and the saber is all you believe in!"

"What brush and ink cannot paint is the spirit! Since you have spirit, then turn that spirit into your saber, into your Dao! The saber is the fire in your heart!"

"Whenever there is injustice, one slash!"

"Whenever one blocks your Dao, one slash!"

"If gods or demons bar your way, one slash!"

"If Heaven is unjust, one slash!"

"If Earth is without Dao, one slash!"

"A grandmaster of combat never lets his saber leave his hand, and scorns every divine power!"

Before the gates of the Directorate Forge below, the Blind Elder and the Silent Craftsman's faces shifted slightly. The Blind Elder whispered, "That pig-slaughtering fellow looks about ready to go mad again, doesn't he?"

The Silent Craftsman nodded again and again: "He has not gone mad for many a year. When he does, he will even slash at himself... If he truly strikes to kill, can you hold him off?"

The Blind Elder's face was troubled: "Hard to say. His strength has always been just a sliver greater than mine. True, I have comprehended something better this time, but that fellow seems to have comprehended something formidable as well. It would be very hard for me to block his blow before he hacks Shen'er to death."

Dragon Qilin whispered from the side, "My two lords, the Sect Master's strength is formidable. In ancient times he slew a Five Luminary Ancient God in single combat."

The Silent Craftsman and the Blind Elder showed surprise. The two old men, eyes narrowed, one seated and one leaning, chuckled: "Then there is nothing to fear. Heh heh. Shen'er is suppressing his cultivation to fight the pig-slaughterer. I am rather looking forward to the moment Shen'er enters the Dao through the saber. What will he hack that pig-slaughterer into?"

"Heh heh." They wore wicked grins.

Yan'er blinked and whispered, "Are all the young master's elders like this?"

Dragon Qilin hesitated, then leaned to her ear and said, "More or less all of them. Not many are proper; only Granny Zhu is somewhat proper, but she is wicked in her own way too..."

Even as they spoke, the saber arts of Shen Mu and Zai Fu in the sky changed again and again, the power stored within their blades growing ever stronger: Sun Shines on the Eastern Sea, a Thousandfold Waves; Saber in Hand, Forth from the Palace Gates; Vast and Boundless, a Single Line of Sky; then The Long Saber Hangs Like the Moon's Soul, the Swift Horse Startles the Star Spirit; then The Saber Opens the Ring of the Bright Moon — one Heaven Saber after another unfolded, and the might of their saber arts grew ever greater!

Looking up from below, one could see only sudden black lines appearing in the sky — rifts in space, torn open by the divine sabers' speed!

In the sky, starlight flashed without cease. One after another, deities of the Heavenly Court poked their heads out from the star chart that enshrouded Jingping; they maintained the working of the Yuan Realm's star chart formation, and had been startled by the two men's battle.

These deities wore worried looks, fearing that the two men, their eyes red with slaughter, might charge up onto the star chart and finish them off.

What was more terrifying still was that one of the two fighting below was plainly a madman, his saber art sweeping wide and closing grand, its power monstrous — a wholly reckless, death-courting manner of fighting.

"It seems the last star chart was split open by this very man," they remarked among themselves.

Zai Fu, unleashing his saber in frenzy, bellowed and shouted, his voice like thunder, making the deities' eardrums ring.

"You have boundless spirit and boundless power, yet none of it is released through your saber!"

He grew ever more frenzied, hacking until Shen Mu was hard-pressed on every side, retreating step by step, his body stained with blood.

It seemed less that he meant to help Shen Mu comprehend the Dao of the Saber than that he meant to hack him to death, bearing him down until his essence, qi, and spirit kept contracting, kept compressing — a tiny sprout crushed inside its shell, unable to lift its head!

Zai Fu's eyes were red with killing; his saber art grew more dreadful still. He shouted sternly: "Release it! Release it! Release it!"

"Your Dao, the things you would protect, the convictions you would hold fast to — release them!"

"Have no scruples! Have no worries! Carry no burden! Release!"

"Release it, damn you!"

Shen Mu's sinews swelled, his hair burst loose, and of a sudden he opened his mouth and roared: "Yaaah—"

His vital essence erupted, his blood and qi surged, and his spirit turned into a surging tide. Spirit, blood and qi, vital essence — all poured madly into the saber. The tribulations of the human race through the ancient ages, the bitter toil of forebears who blazed a trail through the wilds, the tragic songs and the generous hot blood of brave men — all of it burst forth, poured out through this one strike!

The saber light blazed across the sky and, with a hiss, split the star chart above. The long saber bore down upon all things and broke through all things, chopping toward Zai Fu with a vast and majestic momentum!

At that moment, within the Directorate Forges one after another along the banks of the Tu River, the divine sabers that had been forged suddenly rattled with a clatter; countless divine sabers jerked upright, and each gave off ray upon ray of divine light that rushed into the clouds, incomparably brilliant!

Zai Fu laughed heartily, raised his saber crosswise to meet it, and shouted sternly: "Heaven Saber Domain—"

Hummm—

His saber domain swelled outward. The first heaven of the saber Dao, the second heaven, the third heaven bloomed in succession, and in an instant became the fourteen heavens of the saber Dao, forming a Domain of the Heavenly Dao.

Unlike Luo Wushuang's calculated Firmament Domain of the Saber Dao, his Heaven Saber Domain was grand and boundless; it held none of those exquisite calculations, only the long saber like a song!

Shen Mu's strike fell, cleaving the Heaven Saber Domain open, cutting into the first heaven, the second heaven, the third heaven...

The long saber broke the waves; one heaven of the saber Dao after another was split apart. So fierce and so swift was this strike that it sliced through the fourteenth heaven in one blow and punched straight through the Heaven Saber Domain!