Chapter 472 — A Thousand Men Stay Their Hands, Who Dares Go Forward?
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
In Shen Mu's hand the sword-light flashed; he sent one high god after another flying, cut off one head after another, and went straight on to Tu Bo's side, hung the head he carried upon Tu Bo's horn, and laughed aloud, "My body banished beyond the golden registers of Penglai; adorned with treasures before the jade hall of Fangzhang! " Tu Bo surged to his feet, and with one shake of his body his divine frame became ten thousand zhang tall, boundless holy fire beneath his feet. Shen Mu roused his sword-elixir, and eight thousand swords encircled Tu Bo, revolving into the Sword-Encirclement Stance, and cut this great god into countless fragments; then he rubbed his two hands together, and the numberless flying swords, like long dragons, swept the four directions and the eight quarters. Killing until his blood ran hot, he laughed clear and loud: "I must needs have a hundred-zhang dragon's body, and still the layered forests dense with phoenix wings!
" Numberless gods came surging like the tide and drowned him beneath them.
Then divine light rushed up to the heavens, and Shen Mu burst forth through severed limbs and broken arms, strummed his sword and sang, wild and unrestrained: "A thousand men stay their hands, how dare they come on; ten thousand gods turn back their heads, power cannot contain them! Jingping Imperial Preceptor, I have come to shatter the god in your heart! " The Jingping Imperial Preceptor laughed aloud, and all at once his former dejection was swept clean away; his spirit was a hundredfold, and he said in a ringing voice, "The god in my heart, why should I need you to shatter it?
" He strode forward, sword-light scattering from his hand; his battle might was greater even than Shen Mu's, and wherever he passed, gods fell.
In the Lingxiao Hall, numberless gods and demons poured in and came at them to kill. Shen Mu and the Jingping Imperial Preceptor, shoulder to shoulder and back to back, at the gate of Heaven, slaughtered to their hearts' content.
After a long while the divine corpses and demon corpses lay piled mountain-high across the land, and still endless gods came surging, their killing cries shaking the heavens. "How long are we to keep killing?
" The Imperial Preceptor shouted, "You hold the gate, I will go kill the Heavenly Emperor!
" Shen Mu answered, "Go!
" The Imperial Preceptor rushed into the Lingxiao Hall; within, divine corpses lay everywhere.
Boom, and the Imperial Preceptor came flying back, crashing into the wall of the great hall beside Shen Mu.
Shen Mu was startled.
The gods here were plainly all weak in cultivation and strength, the painter who had made this grand scene simply lacked the skill, so that even he could slaughter freely.
And yet the Imperial Preceptor had been struck back by that Heavenly Emperor!
Shen Mu blinked, and thought to himself that this was not good: "This painter's a flatterer too; I fear he poured every scrap of his art into the Heavenly Emperor, and that is why the Heavenly Emperor in the painting is so formidable.
" How much power a painter's painting held, Shen Mu had studied under Kui Sou, and he understood it deeply.
The power of a painting depended, beyond the painter's skill, upon what was painted. The stronger and deeper the art, the stronger the thing painted; and of course it depended on how much heart the painter put into it. This painter had painted the other gods and demons with little care, pouring scant heart into them, and so those gods and demons were not strong; even a being like Tu Bo was only so-so in strength.
And who the subject was mattered enormously.