Chapter 1452 — The Wicked Dragon's Baleful Breath Enters the Body

Zhe Huali raised his head and studied the God-Slaying Platform. The two strands of baleful aura had devoured Fang Ziyan's qi and blood, and had grown all the more savage for it. "My dao heart can hold," he said, "but my cultivation is insufficient. The first to be wounded upon setting foot on the God-Slaying Platform would be me. With my cultivation, in the space of a single breath the platform would strip me of every drop of qi and blood, behead my primordial spirit, and leave me dead with my dao extinguished! And yet, when it comes to the wickedness of the blade dao, the divine sabers of the God-Slaying Platform are no match for mine!"

Zai Fu likewise formed his own judgment. "By my attainments in the blade dao, I can climb this platform and keep the saber aura from wounding me. But once I am up there, the moment those two divine sabers stir, my head comes off. My strength is insufficient; had I strength enough, perhaps I could give battle!"

Luo Wushuang said gravely, "I have but one arm, and my defense is gravely flawed. Before I could even mount the God-Slaying Platform my flesh would be damaged. I could preserve my dao heart, but my strength would ebb swiftly. Yet once on the platform, I might hold off one of the two divine sabers."

Tian Shu said, "Judging by how fast Fang Ziyan's aura is failing, I too would be wounded facing both divine sabers. Within a single breath I would die on that platform. But so long as I can hold, I can gain firm footing there."

The five of them were all old hands of the martial world. From the moment Tian Shu feigned drunkenness and lewdly teased Qiang Tianfei, the other four understood his purpose; they grasped it in their hearts and let Tian Shu provoke Fang Ziyan as he pleased.

Fang Ziyan's attainments of the dao heart were not their equal. She fell for the trick, and the protective jade talisman Qiang Tianfei had bestowed upon her was destroyed. When the God-Slaying Platform attacked her, the five seized the chance to gauge the platform's striking power and the manner of its attacks, and to reckon up their own weaknesses and strengths.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and in a hundred battles you will never be defeated.

The more they understood the God-Slaying Platform, the greater their odds of passing it.

Though Fang Ziyan was an existence at the Imperial Throne realm, and though she was Qiang Tianfei's disciple, she had weathered little of the martial world. Compared with these five old hands who had rolled in the mud, she was far inferior. Especially with her dao heart suppressed by the God-Slaying Platform, she fell into Tian Shu's scheme with the greatest of ease.

The four each weighed their own advantages and disadvantages, then turned as one to look at Shen Mu.

Shen Mu's gaze flickered. "With the four of you to aid me, passing the God-Slaying Platform and obtaining its great dao is certain."

Hum—

His divine treasury domain unfurled in an instant. Standing within it, the four suddenly found that their eyes could see before and behind, above and below, in every direction at once — every angle was their front!

At the same time, Shen Mu, with the Heavenly Palace of the Blade Dao as his core and the other heavenly palaces as auxiliaries, gathered qi into a saber, held fast to his dao heart, and unleashed the Saber of Protection. Their wills united as one city, their auras linked, their mana flowing as one!

Zhe Huali, Zai Fu, and Luo Wushuang immediately felt their cultivation and mana surge layer upon layer, until in a single instant it was as though they possessed the mana of an Imperial Throne!

As for Tian Shu the Heavenly King, he felt his mana dip slightly, but not by much — it still kept him at the Imperial Throne realm.

The four were aghast. This mana was plainly not Tian Shu's; it came from Shen Mu!

That Shen Mu's mana should run so deep was truly inconceivable!

The one most shaken was Zhe Huali. He had thought Shen Mu's cultivation and mana were not far from his own; he had never imagined the gulf was so vast — vast beyond any hope of catching up!

And this was only natural. The path he walked was still Jing Ping's ordinary path of cultivation. Though his seven divine treasuries had been unified into one and forged into the Heavenly River Divine Treasury, Shen Mu had long since leapt beyond that: he had but a single Primal Embryo Divine Treasury, and within it were stored the Ancestral Court, the Mystic Capital, the Primal Capital, the Nether Capital, the Four Extremes Heavens, and indeed all the heavens and myriad worlds!

The mana contained in that Primal Embryo Divine Treasury alone surpassed his own by an unknowable measure. Add to that Shen Mu's nineteen heavenly palaces — the four great heavenly gates within them all built according to the great dao of the Ancestral Court, as were the Jade Pool and the Jade Terrace — and the new realm he had created, the Nine Hells Platform.

Beyond that, the four great daos of Taichu, Taishi, Taisu, and Taiji had been refined into four great ore veins. Such was the surging might of his mana that even Lan Yutian at the same realm would fall far short of him, and as for the likes of the Ten Heavenly Venerables, they were further still.

Judged purely by mana, Shen Mu had long since surpassed ordinary Imperial Throne powerhouses.

"Fortunately, the boy is still a hair behind me in the blade dao." Zhe Huali was well satisfied.

"Certain," Luo Wushuang said gravely.

Zai Fu nodded. "Certain."

Zhe Huali smiled with confidence. "We will most certainly pass the God-Slaying Platform!"

Tian Shu's eyes flashed with keen light. "We can give battle!"

The five each roused their mana and raised their dao hearts, and roared in unison: "Dao realm, twenty-fifth heaven!"

The five voices overlapped, heavy and powerful. The twenty-fifth heaven of each one's blade dao burst forth and overlapped, transforming into five grand blade dao domains, each different, each making up for the others' shortcomings, together sheltering Shen Mu's divine treasury domain!

Shen Mu stepped forward, walking toward the God-Slaying Platform.

When he set foot on the first stair, the five felt the pressure surge at once. The pressure of the God-Slaying Platform came invading, colliding with their twenty-fifth heaven of the dao realm, as though they had entered a terrifying battlefield where countless divine sabers came striking from every direction, crashing against their blade dao domains!

Beyond the twenty-fifth heaven, countless saber lights surfaced — the collision of the blade dao wills of Shen Mu, Zai Fu, and the rest with the baleful aura of the God-Slaying Platform. The saber lights were dense beyond measure, clanging and ringing without cease.

Even so, Zai Fu, Zhe Huali, Tian Shu, and Luo Wushuang kept their hands upon their sabers and did not move, meeting the baleful aura of the God-Slaying Platform with their own spirit and will.

Shen Mu climbed the second stair, and the pressure grew by another measure. The five still kept their hands upon their sabers and did not move.

Stair by stair Shen Mu ascended; one stair, one heaven. By the time they reached the ninth stair, the baleful aura of the God-Slaying Platform began to invade the ninth heaven of their dao realm, its might terrifying!

The God-Slaying Platform had twenty-five stairs in all. When Shen Mu reached the last stair, the baleful aura had already breached their twenty-fifth heaven blade dao domains — the baleful aura was upon their bodies!

The five abruptly drew their sabers, their figures weaving, their saber lights crossing, blocking the two baleful divine sabers that came striking from the air!

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang — five great booms rang out in succession. The five were shaken to their core, their feet moving of their own accord, each retreating in a different direction.