Chapter 445 — Dragon Soaring Over the Sand Sea
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
As a being who had been reincarnated more than a dozen times, he would not claim to be first under heaven in the honing of dharma power at a given realm, yet he was one of the rarest in the world; those who could surpass him in the sheer abundance of dharma power at the same realm were very few. Shen Mu was one of them, but he could not surpass him by much.
He had fought Shen Mu several times before. The first time, the two were of the same realm — both at the Six Harmonies realm — and their dharma power was much the same, well-nigh equal.
Shen Mu had relied on the variations of his arts and divine abilities, leading him along the whole way and forcing him to exhaust himself in response, until Shen Mu seized the initiative and he was defeated.
But in their second head-on clash, his cultivation realm had risen faster than Shen Mu's, and his dharma power already far surpassed him; Shen Mu had contended with him by relying on that monstrous great sword core of eight thousand swords, and did not come off the worse.
Yet now he was a divine-ability wielder of the Seven Stars realm, and Shen Mu was still at the Six Harmonies realm. By rights, Shen Mu should be utterly crushed by him in dharma power, and his divine abilities should be unbreakable by Shen Mu!
But now, in the very first head-on clash, Shen Mu's flying swords had still crushed his One Finger Settles the Realm divine ability. True, it was by the keenness of the flying swords, yet it showed that Shen Mu was not much inferior to him in dharma power; even if he was weaker, the gap could not be opened wide.
When the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping attacked the Loulan Golden Palace, Khan Luandi surrendered to him. Ban Gongcuo knew then that the Golden Palace was bound to fall, and so, without waiting for the Imperial Preceptor to launch his assault, he fled by night, abandoning every great shaman and shaman king in the Golden Palace, high and low alike; even the Shaman Venerable did not know he had slipped away in the dark.
The Loulan Golden Palace was destroyed, and the Shaman Venerable was slain by the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping. In the bitterness of reflection Ban Gongcuo knew the grasslands could no longer shelter him; the Imperial Preceptor would surely order the masters under his command to hunt his traces everywhere, and so he hid himself in the Blazing Desert.
He was a reincarnated body, and his cultivation advanced with astonishing speed, an advantage no other divine-ability wielder could match. Each day he hid in this oasis; at night he went to the Western Lands and seized the common folk there, bringing them back to the oasis to practice his arts. In less than half a year he broke through to the Seven Stars realm.
His original plan was that once he had restored the cultivation of his former life, he would storm back to Jingping and take his revenge. And when that time came, who could withstand a single bow of his head?
Yet this encounter with Shen Mu threw him into some confusion. He had risen to the Seven Stars realm; it should have been a crushing momentum. He had not expected Shen Mu's strength to have advanced by leaps and bounds as well, and that he still could gain no advantage!
"Ban Gongcuo, you have fallen behind the times!"
Shen Mu suddenly charged out of the oasis in the Blazing Desert, his body seeming almost to slide across the ground, crossing a distance of a li or more, as though he rode the wind. The muscles and sinews of his body shifted like coiling dragons, his fleshly body invincibly strong, and he said unhurriedly: "Hiding here, you likely do not know: since your Golden Palace was destroyed, the arts of the Dao and divine abilities have advanced at astonishing speed. At the Six Harmonies realm one can now cultivate the primordial spirit; apart from a single divine treasury, there is almost no difference from the Seven Stars realm. Speaking purely of realm, you are no higher than I!"