Chapter 539 — The Unyielding Stone
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
When the might of the two divine weapons clashed, the space at the plaza's center was suddenly torn and stretched. In a heaven-shaking, earth-rending roar, the faces of Shen Mu and the rest changed drastically: the level ground beneath their feet abruptly began to rise, the earth growing with mad frenzy, until two legs could not hold them and they could only stand on one, lest both be torn apart.
The plaza beneath them underwent a violent shift of geography; in an instant mountain ranges sprang up from the ground, ever higher, and the distance between them all raced ever wider. That collision of two divine weapons had stretched the space of this plaza so violently that, like a creator possessed of majestic power, it conjured mountains out of nothing. Gullies crisscrossed, ranges rose and fell in rolling waves — such majestic power made one bow in awe.
Shen Mu looked on in astonishment at the changes before him: the level plaza, as though through the vicissitudes of seas turning to mulberry fields, had in a brief moment undergone changes that should have taken hundreds of thousands, even millions, of years. This was the mighty power of gods and demons, a power mortals could never attain!
Only now did he know what formidable strength a true god commanded — a strength that even Xing Han, patching together a divine body, could never approach or rival. "Vajra can hold his own against the Woodcutter Sage; his strength is indeed extraordinary.
" His mind stirred, and at once he sensed his flying swords.
Some of them were still thrust into the Li Fire and demon fire, being tempered, and he had not yet had time to call them back. Shen Mu promptly summoned his flying swords; one after another they came flying from afar.
They were still more than twenty li from him, but in the next moment he saw a strange sight.
His flying swords were swift beyond measure, speeding toward him — yet the distance between them and him was steadily widening.
Clearly this was a work of gods and demons, a world wrought by creation, where space expanded faster than the swords could fly.
Boom! Suddenly space quaked violently; the towering mountains stopped growing and space steadied.
One after another the flying swords came shrieking in. Shen Mu raised a hand; the swords clinked and collided, and turned into a sword pellet that spun round and round.
He let out a breath of relief and looked about — Sang Hua and the others were nowhere to be seen.
Mountains abounded on every side, though none were especially tall, like the mountains of the outside world shrunk more than tenfold.
Shen Mu cut off a piece of stone and examined it closely, then crushed it to powder.
In the end the stone became fine, broken rune marks, which gave off a last faint phosphorescence and dispersed with the wind, vanishing utterly.
"So it truly is not real.
" Shen Mu straightened up and looked around.
These rolling ranges must have been manifested by Vajra and the Woodcutter Sage through runes; their strength had not yet reached the level where they could create true matter. From beyond the heavens Vajra's voice came suddenly, like thunder: "A life-and-death contest has no rules whatsoever!
This sand table shall be their field of battle.
Each of our two sides sends in ten people; whichever side's people walk out alive is the victor.
What say you to this proposal? " Shen Mu's heart stirred.
"Sand table? " He raised his head and looked toward the sound, and saw beyond the heavens the faces of Vajra, the Woodcutter Sage and the other gods and demons grown immense beyond measure, like planets beyond the sky, terrifyingly vast. "That is to say, the plaza looks as though it has grown countless times larger, yet to those looking in from outside it should still be the same size as before.
" Shen Mu was astonished.
Such a method was truly beyond imagining. The moment he arrived he had observed the plaza and reckoned its dimensions.