Chapter 1231 — Peerless Talent

Xu Shenghua hailed from Upper Heaven, and after entering the mortal world, he was famed far and wide for his divine powers.

He possessed a talent so prodigious it defied belief, and he excelled at adapting in the heat of the moment: whenever he crossed swords with an enemy, he would improvise divine powers and techniques of every kind. The stronger his foe, the fewer moves he required, and the greater those powers became!

His wisdom towered even above his divine powers.

Since making his debut, he had rarely known defeat, losing only to Shen Mu and to a disciple of Yintianzi. His loss to Shen Mu was a matter of Dao heart and adaptability: Shen Mu had at the time been tempered by the Nine Elders of Yincan Village and outmatched Xu Shenghua in both intellect and Dao heart.

His loss to Yintianzi's disciple was his first encounter with emperor-throne-level arts and divine powers. However formidable Upper Heaven might be, its highest arts reached only the level of the Southern Heaven Gate—the True God Realm—and so, meeting emperor-throne-level arts with true-god-level techniques, defeat was only natural. After that, Xu Shenghua was almost never defeated again!

He entered the Dao through divine power, though it was less divine power than wisdom.

Entering the Dao through wisdom was more his style.

His Great Divine-Power Dao Domain was more an embodiment of his wisdom; divine power was merely one way that wisdom expressed itself.

Now his Great Divine-Power Dao Domain unfurled and stood on equal footing against Shen Mu's Divine Treasury Domain.

Shen Mu had time only to glimpse the myriad Dao principles within that domain before it abruptly changed, its scattered rules falling into perfect order in the next breath.

He saw the Ancestral Court within it: the Divine Tree, Xuan Capital, You Capital, Yuan Capital, the Heavenly River, the Four Extremes Heaven—and even the spirit fetus Xu Shenghua had formed from Dao principles. In that single fleeting moment, Xu Shenghua had nearly copied Shen Mu's Divine Treasury Domain in its entirety!

Shen Mu's face darkened. Xu Shenghua's Great Divine-Power Dao Domain had now evolved into a domain exactly like his own Divine Treasury.

Talent like this was truly not to be underestimated.

"Just now I flaunted my cultivation at him, and he read it all from start to finish—that's why he could transmute his powers into a replica of my Divine Treasury Domain in such a short time! " The corners of Shen Mu's eyes twitched.

"This is outright plagiarism! From now on, if anyone dares tell me to my face that Xu Shenghua is an honest man, I'll beat the living daylights out of him!

" Granny Zhu, Si Youyou, had likewise entered the Dao through divine powers, but compared with Xu Shenghua's, her path still seemed rather shallow. Xu Shenghua's arts surpassed Granny Zhu's by a wide margin in both depth and breadth.

Granny Zhu's treasure, called the Dao Wheel, held her arts hidden within and deserved the name Myriad Methods Dao Wheel. Xu Shenghua, having presumably received Kaihuang's guidance as well, had also cultivated a domain that contained many more arts and powers; indeed, it was quite possible he had already fathomed the very essence of arts and powers, which was why it could be called a Great Divine-Power Dao Domain.

Yet Shen Mu was supremely confident: Xu Shenghua could at best make a convincing imitation.

He had never cultivated the Ancestral Court system, and no matter how heaven-defying his gifts, he could never become as strong as Shen Mu. "Imitating me will never bring you to where I stand! " His Divine Treasury Domain erupted with might.

This time Shen Mu attacked first, launching the Thirty-Three Heavens Sword Domain with his opening move. Even when fighting Lin Xuan, even when battling the First Ancestor Human Emperor and Yan Qiling in the Ancestral Court, he had never taken the initiative; he had always won by answering his enemies' attacks.

For in Shen Mu's eyes, beyond beings like the Ten Heavenly Lords, few at the same level were worth his attacking first.

Xu Shenghua, however, was an absolute exception.

In the instant the Thirty-Three Heavens Sword Domain exploded, Xu Shenghua moved as well. He had little skill with the sword, yet in that moment he resembled a grand master of sword Dao, his bladeplay severe and imposing.

But as Shen Mu watched, he saw at once that Xu Shenghua was deconstructing sword technique with Dao arts; this was not the true sword Dao. The deeper runes composing his swordplay were still Dao arts!

Even so, this stroke of his carried every variation of swordsmanship to its extreme, and even bore the faintest aura of the sword Dao.

That was no minor feat.

Sword technique and sword Dao are as far apart as clouds and mud. Since creating the Tiji Sword, Shen Mu had been without peer in swordsmanship for a million years; whether Yan Yunxi, Lizheng, or even Kaihuang, all were far inferior to him on the sword Dao.

And yet even on the sword Dao, the Tiji Sword was but a first step through the gate.

Kaihuang's Thirty-Four Heavens Sword Domain was the true summit.

But Xu Shenghua had actually simulated the sword Dao with Dao arts and divine powers, using his abilities to express the profound resonance of the sword Dao—truly an eye-opener! His sword Dao collided with the Thirty-Three Heavens Sword Domain Shen Mu had unleashed and immediately gave way. After all, he was only imitating with divine power, not wielding true sword Dao—yet he had still blocked Shen Mu's stroke, and Shen Mu was secretly alarmed.

Xu Shenghua changed his move at once.

His sword-Dao Thirty-Three Heavens vanished entirely, replaced by a divine-power Thirty-Three Heavens, as if thirty-three majestic skies came crashing down upon Shen Mu at once.

Layer upon layer: one power for one heaven, thirty-three heavens crushed together, their might vast and surging!

His earlier sword-Dao Thirty-Three Heavens had not been his own skill but mere imitation; this divine-power Thirty-Three Heavens, by contrast, was a genuine great power, born from the foundations of that sword-Dao Thirty-Three Heavens.

This was his true skill!

Shen Mu wished he could crack open Xu Shenghua's skull to see exactly how his wisdom worked, how in such a short span he had deconstructed the Thirty-Three Heavens and converted sword technique into divine power.

After all, when Shen Mu had learned the sword-Dao Thirty-Three Heavens in his own day, he had advanced step by step, fighting from Taihuang Heaven at the very bottom of Wuyou Village all the way to the top, and had only mastered the full art through Yan Yunxi. Yet Xu Shenghua had in an instant reconstructed the Thirty-Three Heavens with divine powers and evolved it into a power of his own.

Such talent, Shen Mu privately admitted, he could not match even at a full gallop. Naturally, every craft has its specialist.

From the moment Xu Shenghua emerged from Upper Heaven, he had walked the path of breaking ten thousand methods with divine power.

Every power he wielded was improvised on the spot, a lightning response, using mighty wisdom to shatter every divine power, every sword technique, every formation array the enemy could field. Immersed in this path for decades, passing through the most resplendent years of the Jingping Reforms, he entered the Dao through divine powers and read their essence directly.

What others, even Shen Mu, considered impossible, he could accomplish. This was the reason he could remain forever ascendant and undefeated.

Shen Mu was always improving, and so was he.

Shen Mu unfurled his Divine Treasury Domain, sending it thundering against the Great Divine-Power Dao Domain, and laughed.

"Brother Xu, so formidable, so heaven-defying in talent—this pleases me greatly. But I promised Dao Master Lin Xuan that it was time you tasted despair! " Like a four-faced god he stood beneath the Divine Tree at the center of the Ancestral Court.