Chapter 509 — The Petty Old Thieves Fall at a Single Stroke
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 5
Shen Mu gently pushed his hand aside and smiled. "The Human Sovereigns in that hall were all men who outshone their age, and beating them was arduous. As for you former Cult Masters, if we contend at the same realm..."
He said calmly, "You may all come at once."
Sweat fell from the Young Ancestor's brow like rain.
The faces of the successive Cult Masters changed drastically. Cult Master Yulian snickered. "Cult Master Shen is in fine spirits, but to have us all come at once is a rather large tone. Let me first try Cult Master Shen's skill."
Shen Mu shook his head. "It seems your realm is insufficient. One realm, one heaven; one state of mind, one pass. From above the pass I watch you below the pass, as one reads a text in the palm, as clearly as one watches fire. Telling you all to come at once is my way of respecting the aged. For Cult Master Yulian to wish to fight alone is to overrate yourself."
The Young Ancestor sighed, then drew a long breath and said gravely, "Honored Cult Masters and Sage Masters, as Sage Cult Masters you must keep your word. Please seal the three great divine treasuries—Heaven-Man, Life-Death, and Spirit Bridge. Whether you fight singly or all together, I leave it to your pleasure; I am not a Sage Cult Master even so. Do as you like."
Cult Master Yulian was the first to seal the three great divine treasuries. He stepped forward, bellowed, and erupted with demonic power. His cultivation of the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Sutra walked the demonic path, a true grandmaster of the demonic school, having fathomed its arts and divine powers to the uttermost of that path; with one step he left a chain of demonic shadows!
"The Great Nurturing Dark Demon Sutra is only a fragment of my Mysterious Body Three Elixirs Art, and you have refined even it into a demonic practice."
Shen Mu narrowed his eyes and struck out with a palm, quick as lightning, landing dead upon the demonic shadow: "Daluo Heaven Star Palm Force!"
Boom!
Cult Master Yulian flew backward, smashing a man-shaped hole in Zuyang's Zuyang Hall. Then came a string of crashing thuds within the hall, as he burst through a dozen palace walls without stopping, until at last, more than ten li away, a mushroom cloud rose—no one knew what he had struck—and only then he came to rest.
Before the crowd could recover, Shen Mu sidestepped and was already behind Cult Master Zuyang. Zuyang reacted swiftly: he lunged forward and turned into a black shadow that plastered itself to the ground.
Shen Mu stamped the ground, and the earth split apart with crack after crack, opening into gullies. Zuyang was shaken out of his shadow back into his true form, and a blade came cleaving down before him. He roared in fury, manifested his Black Tortoise body; his great shield split before the blade, and he was sent flying with the two broken halves of the shield.
Shen Mu charged into the midst of the successive Cult Masters, his body flashing and flickering like a ghost. Every heart jolted, each man feeling that the blow was aimed at himself, and so all flung themselves into resistance.
Bang, bang, bang—a burst of explosions rang out. Cult Master Yueguang's divine power collided with Feng Qiangu's body; Feng Qiangu's demonic sword pierced Si Yuanwei's breast; in that instant all was chaos.
The Young Ancestor hastily fell back to avoid being caught in it, and saw the earth split apart in the blink of an eye. The whole Zuyang Hall shattered under the onslaught of so many divine powers, and the dissolving hall rose into the air, its fragments flying midair while the figures sprang and darted among the broken walls—now head-up, now head-down, now clinging to a pillar, now turning into birds and beasts!
"You are using the Daoist sword—you traitor!" a former Cult Master roared in fury, stabbed by hundreds of swords, and pitched down headfirst.
"Damn you, that is an art of the Great Thunder Roar Monastery!"
"A divine power of Little Jade Capital!"
"What sword art is this?"