Chapter 308 — The Height of Baseness
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
" What he did not know was that the master of this ship bore the surname Shen — the Shen clan of the Land of No Sorrow — and the colossus keeping watch here, its two eyes set two hundred and sixty-four zhang apart, had been waiting precisely for someone from the Land of No Sorrow! Shen Mu had struggled hard to deceive that dreadful being, posing as an adventurer who had wandered into this place in a daze; he had been on the very point of leaving this trap behind when Ban Gongcuo, of all things, must needs call him "Sect Master Shen" — plainly shoving him into a pit of fire! So Shen Mu simply shared the misfortune with him: if a slop bucket was to be clapped over a head, it would be clapped over every head at once — and he deliberately called him Shen Gongcuo, on the principle that if one was going to die, they would all die together.
Yet Shen Mu had not been in the wrong; Ban Gongcuo's magic power was, in fact, somewhat stretched.
His Myriad-Locust Banner made no great demands on cultivation, true, but a sect-suppressing treasure was, after all, a sect-suppressing treasure; though it consumed less to drive, he was, when all was said and done, only at the Six Harmonies realm, and urging a treasure of the Divine Bridge realm was an effort he could barely sustain.
The earlier clash of the Dao Sword's Third Chapter against the Dao Sword's Third Chapter had already drained seven or eight parts in ten of his vital essence; otherwise he would not have turned the Myriad-Locust Banner into a great shield to fend off Shen Mu's moves. But Shen Mu's losses were likewise appalling; otherwise he would not have fallen back on such basic moves as the Drilling, Cleaving, and Coiling Sword forms, instead of matching a great technique like the Dao Sword head-on.
Each of the two was commanding his prime weapons with desperate effort, and each man's prime weapons were appallingly mighty, transcending the bounds of the Six Harmonies realm; the slightest carelessness, the least failure to block the other's weapons, and death would follow, hideous beyond words. Thus both were riding a tiger from which there was no dismounting; they could only strain their vital essence to the last drop and struggle against each other.
"Shen Gongcuo, would you kindly step out of my way? " Shen Mu gritted his teeth.
His vital essence could barely command so many swords; several thousand came clattering down, stabbing into the deck and walls of the bridge. Yet even as he attacked, several hundred flying swords kept rising, executing every manner of sword move, pressing their assault with keen ferocity. Ban Gongcuo could no longer control so many locusts either; several thousand locusts dropped to the floor, and though they would have flown up again, he had not the vital essence to command them, and could only direct a few hundred to clash against Shen Mu with force against force.
"If Sect Master Shen will but take the helmet from his head, I will let you live! " Ban Gongcuo sneered.
The prime weapons the two could command dwindled further and further, when suddenly Shen Mu performed the Thundering Mahayana Sutra, transforming his body into a great Buddha and closing with Ban Gongcuo in melee; a great hand-seal stamped down, and behind him appeared eight tiers of heavenly Buddhas and gods, the Buddha voices ringing out in sonorous chorus. "The first stance of the Eight Thundering Arts — Alone on the Eastern Sea, Bearing the Spring Thunder!
" "Vajra Unconquerable! " Ban Gongcuo sneered, and he, too, performed the Thundering Mahayana Sutra, driving the Unconquerable Vajra Art within it; his whole body was suffused with gold, and he stood like a vajra guardian of the Dharma as he clashed head-on with Shen Mu. He had learned both the cultivation methods and the divine powers of the Thundering Mahayana Sutra, while Shen Mu had learned only the methods — in divine powers, he must surely outstrip the man.