Chapter 215 — Slaughter Beneath the Lanterns
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
When the Duke of Wei saw Shen Mu return to his normal form, a misgiving stirred in him. He cast a glance toward the mansion of the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping and thought: "That cold-blooded fellow has cultivated an art much like this one, I think. I once saw him put on such a form. . . Strange, though.
The old devil never came out to join the commotion.
The emperor gave him so many palace maids — surely they have not drained the old bastard dry? " "Is Ban Gongcuo truly a disciple of the Loulan Golden Palace? " Sun Nantuo hesitated.
The Loulan Golden Palace was the foremost holy ground beyond the frontier, its people naming themselves shamans and practicing depraved arts; they cultivated with souls and spirits, remaking their bodies into forms that were neither god nor man nor demon.
What Shen Mu had just displayed was the deified state. Within the Five Luminaries realm, those who ever refined the deified state were exceedingly few. That freak the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had even grumbled that the Imperial Academy did not teach profound principles; but the truth was not that the Academy was unwilling to teach — it was that among the Directorate of Education's own students, scarcely a one had ever refined the deified state of the Five Luminaries realm. And Shen Mu's deified state was unlike any other.
Even the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had once been startled to find that Shen Mu's deification seemed to be a deification of the flesh, a deification of the vital breath, together with other signs of the deification of the soul and spirit; his very aura shifted, extraordinary beyond measure. Take the Fire God form he had just shown: a third, ox-like eye grew from the center of his brow, and a shaft of fire shot from that eye to strike off Chan Master Yuanyue's head. This was a deified divine power formed by the union of three — the deification of the flesh-god, the deification of the vital breath, and the deification of the soul and spirit. An ordinary martial master of the Five Luminaries realm, even one who had refined the deified state, would differ greatly from Shen Mu's, and could never deploy such arts as his.
Even the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping could not quite make sense of it; naturally Sun Nantuo, the Crown Prince of Jingping, and the rest failed to recognize it either. They took it merely for the demonized state of the Sorcerer Sovereign Louluo Sutra, and marveled at that sutra's power and strangeness. "Lord Sun, a good many of your disciples have been beaten to death. Will you not take the field yourself?
" The Duke of Wei shook his head. "You ought to take the field yourself and defeat this barbarian, if you would salvage the fearsome name of your Nantuo Temple!
Your Nantuo Temple's disciples are past all shame — they had already brought out divine powers of the Six Directions realm, and still had their heads hewn off by a man of the Five Luminaries realm. You could not be more thoroughly disgraced. " Sun Nantuo's eyes flickered; he paid it no mind.
He knew the Duke of Wei had a mouth that could swallow the heavens, and that if he took up that thread, the man would surely find a way to force him into challenging Shen Mu.
He would never, under any circumstances, challenge Shen Mu; at equal cultivation, he had no assurance of victory. He had already refined all thousand seal-mudras of the Numinous Treasure Immovable Chan Art to consummate mastery, yet that art alone, he feared, could not overcome this barbarian at the same realm. And if he unleashed the Six Directions realm, he could never hide it from the Duke of Wei; and if the Duke of Wei began to shout it abroad, that would be disgrace indeed. The Duke of Wei would most certainly shout it abroad. The Crown Prince of Jingping said in a low voice, "Grand Preceptor, I have a few skilled hands here who might help you defeat this barbarian.
. . " Sun Nantuo shook his head.