Chapter 1232 — Making One Utterly Despair

Xu Shenghua changed his approach at once. His divine powers and Dao arts were all aimed at Shen Mu's Divine Treasury Domain: first he imitated Shen Mu's Divine Treasury and rebuilt it with Dao arts of his own.

Then he transmuted Shen Mu's Divine Treasury into a divine power to match himself.

Yet that was not the crux of it.

The crux was his formidable power of deduction: once Shen Mu broke one of his divine powers, he would immediately deduce, from Shen Mu's own power, the way to break it. He was like a mighty calculating engine—even when Shen Mu's divine powers far surpassed his in might, even when Shen Mu's mana was more vigorous than his own, he could still preserve himself and unravel Shen Mu's powers. He had even perceived the weakness of Shen Mu's Divine Treasury Domain: that domain was Shen Mu's own Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury, and every source of Shen Mu's strength lay in that Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury.

Destroy the Primordial Fetus Divine Treasury, and Shen Mu's strength would ebb lower and lower, until at last he was defeated. But the man he faced was Shen Mu.

When Shen Mu's Divine Treasury Domain unfurled in full, he finally understood, as Shen Mu had said he would, what despair meant.

Above his head came the assault of the forty-nine Daos of Xuan Capital; all around him the great Daos of Four Extremes Heaven slew and struck; on the ground the thirty-six great Daos of Yuan Capital cut and strangled; there were also the stealth attacks of the sixty-four great Daos of You Capital; and most despairing of all, the formation of the true gods of the stars of all heavens, interweaving and shifting without cease.

Yet this was not the cruelest part.

The cruelest were Shen Mu's primordial spirits within the sixteen Heavenly Palaces. Those primordial spirits were no projections, but spirits divided out from the undying consciousness of the Three Primeval Spirits. The primordial spirit of the Sword Heavenly Palace excelled in the Dao of the sword; the primordial spirit of the Formation Heavenly Palace excelled in formations; the primordial spirit of the Medicine Heavenly Palace was versed in the Dao of poison; and the primordial spirit of the Foundry Heavenly Palace took him for a lump of stubborn iron, to be flattened and hammered until he was round and lustrous as a pearl.

And the primordial spirit in the Consciousness Heavenly Palace struck in the manner hardest of all to guard against: with an incomparably overbearing consciousness it attacked his own, leaving his mind now muddled and dull, now plunged into illusory realms.

Most formidable of all, Shen Mu had unified the powers of all sixteen Heavenly Palaces—and not only those: he had even brought under his command the powers of Xuan Capital, Yuan Capital, You Capital, and even such worlds as Tianyin.

Xu Shenghua knew that Shen Mu had not used his full strength; even against him, Shen Mu still held something back. Only, Xu Shenghua did not know how much. He knew only that the gulf between him and Shen Mu had once been exceedingly narrow, but after Shen Mu left the Yuan Realm and set foot in the Heavenly Court, that narrow gulf had begun to widen, step by step.

Even so, Xu Shenghua wanted to prove himself—to prove that he had the strength and the means to contend with Shen Mu! He pressed forward with all his might, exhausting every scrap of his wisdom to unravel the divine powers that might come at him from any direction at any moment, and slew his way toward Shen Mu in the Ancestral Court.

He felt his essence, energy and spirit attain a height never reached before; for the first time he felt his mind so lucid, running at high speed in a state of utter clarity. He was like a lake of perfect stillness, mirroring every ripple that came from all around.

Or rather, his thought was a strange structure woven from such still lakes laid crisscross; from whatever dimension Shen Mu's attacks came, he could respond in time and produce the finest countermeasure.

More than that, his consciousness stood on high, surveying the whole field in utter calm and making the best adjustments, keeping himself from falling into defeat.

This battle with Shen Mu brought him yet another tremendous elevation! An elevation he had never known in his duels with Lin Xuan, with Wang Muran, with Zhankong Rulai and the rest.

Even Lan Yutian could not bring him to such a perfect state.

Xu Shenghua, the Young Master Xu of Upper Heaven, needed a fellow Daoist to spur him on.

Lin Xuan, Wang Muran, Zhe Huali were not such men; Lan Yutian was not such a man either. The only fellow Daoist who could spur him on was Shen Mu!

He strove to maintain his domain; his Great Divine-Power Dao Domain transformed endlessly—like drifting clouds, like the vast ocean, like a great desert.

The Dao is formless, and divine power is formless too. He broke Shen Mu's divine powers and destroyed Shen Mu's Divine Treasury; from whatever angle, he always faced Shen Mu's front, and none of it could dishearten him.

As Shen Mu's Divine Treasury Domain was ceaselessly broken by him, the pressure on him grew lighter and lighter, until at last he cut his way into the Ancestral Court, beneath the Divine Tree, and stood face to face with Shen Mu, and finally had the wherewithal to clash with him head-on. Shen Mu withdrew his hand and laughed.

"Xu Shenghua, you have come to my side at last.

" Xu Shenghua likewise stopped fighting and bowed.

"Thank you for your guidance.

Sect Master Shen, I am deeply sorry to have destroyed your Divine Treasury.

But you have already lost. Your Divine Treasury has been broken by me; fight on, and you will certainly be defeated.

You are the female. " "Not so.

" Shen Mu smiled faintly. "Turn around and look.

" Xu Shenghua turned and looked, and could not help but be dumbfounded. The Divine Treasury he had destroyed was now wholly restored, without the slightest blemish.

He distinctly remembered shattering Xuan Capital, piercing through You Capital, wrecking Yuan Capital, slaying one true star god after another, annihilating the starry sky—yet all of it was there.

Even the Heavenly Palaces he had smashed were all present, just as before, not damaged in the least! The reason he had been able to fight his way here was that he believed Shen Mu's Divine Treasury, once destroyed, could not be restored, so that Shen Mu's battle strength sank ever lower. And now it seemed that Shen Mu's battle strength had not weakened in the slightest; the semblance of weakening had been only to seize this chance to rouse his latent potential!

"The Immutable Divine Power?

" Xu Shenghua murmured.

Shen Mu nodded.

"I have comprehended it thoroughly, and I have comprehended something better still: I can break the Immutable Divine Power.

" Xu Shenghua's gaze went somewhat vacant. He murmured, "Just how far have you cultivated?

Just how strong is your full strength?

" "I have never tested it, so I do not know where my full strength stands against the gods of the traditional cultivation systems. " Shen Mu mused, "But it is utterly impossible for a strong one of the Lingxiao Realm to kill me.

If a strong one of the Emperor Throne Realm comes to kill me, I can guarantee that I will not die. " Xu Shenghua's gaze settled on his face, as though he would read truth or falsehood from his expression.

Shen Mu showed a sincere smile, which made Xu Shenghua feel that he badly deserved a beating.

Xu Shenghua exhaled a breath of turbid air, suppressed the urge to beat him, and said, "As things stand now, it seems I am the female.

" The smile on Shen Mu's face deepened.

Xu Shenghua clenched his fist, then slowly loosened it, and mused, "I fear that only Lan Yutian can vie with you at the same realm—though which of you is stronger and which weaker, I cannot say. Lan Yutian may be somewhat the stronger.