Chapter 530 — Descending from Heaven
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
The Asura whirled his hands; the saber pellet rang with a metallic shriek and became a long saber double-edged front and back, while the other curved sabers within it shrank to the size of grains of sand, streaming out from between his fingers and orbiting his body.
The Asura swung the curved saber high and came at Shen Mu like a whirlwind.
Clang. The two clashed once. Shen Mu shifted his stance and shed the force: "Such strength! " The Asura was shaken back by him as well, then of a sudden he steadied himself and came at him faster still.
Shen Mu stepped forward and thrust out a single palm.
Light wavered before him, and primal energy took the form of the character for "freeze". The Asura's body stiffened for a breath; the instant he could move again, Shen Mu's sword swept past and a head leapt into the sky. "Strong, certainly, but a shade or two beneath me.
" Shen Mu narrowed his eyes. More of the Heavenly Demon Host had reached his side, none of them inferior to the Asura just now, and his scalp prickled. And then, of a sudden, a world-shaking roar came from the battlefield.
It was the sound of the two battle lines colliding, and in a single instant flesh and blood flew through the air in every direction.
The sky abruptly darkened.
At the center of the battlefield, an altar rose slowly, shouldering aside the flying gore, and the upheaved earth flung Shen Mu and the Heavenly Demon Host who had come to kill him into the air.
Shen Mu turned to look in his haste, and his heart jumped.
That altar was a sacrificial altar, an altar for offering up flesh and blood, somewhat like the one he had built to send himself into this world, but its chief purpose was to use a blood sacrifice to summon a mighty being from another world! "This altar is several hundred times larger than the one I built. Who buried it here?
" He had barely landed when, before he could think further, the Heavenly Demon Host engulfed him.
And at that moment, the altar lit up. Countless runes spun, light blazed in all directions, and streaks of blood-light shot across the sky, straight up to the heavens, smashing a hole in the firmament.
Rumble! A great axe fell from the sky, and then a colossal striped tiger emerged from the blood-light, its body wound about with gorgeous divine markings of every hue.
"My lord! " The tiger roared.
Upon its back, within the blood-light, a familiar figure appeared. Shen Mu looked hurriedly, and his expression went slack, so that he nearly had his belly ripped open by one of the Heavenly Demon Host. Upon the altar, the man who had appeared riding the divine tiger carried a great axe, and Shen Mu had seen that face long ago.
The Woodcutter Sage who had passed the scriptures upon the stone.