Chapter 680 — Why the Arts of Calculation Enchant
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
Among the villagers, the most flamboyant had always been the Blind Elder, who loved to dabble in brush and ink and show off his charms; but ever since the Butcher emerged from his madness and regained his former elegance, once this pork-slaughtering, meat-selling butcher began to flaunt his own charms, there was practically nothing left for the Blind Elder to do. United wills make a fortress. Though almost none of the divine cities of Taihuang Heaven could survive this impact, every heart was stirred by the bold singing of the Butcher and Shen Mu, and the divine abilities around them now seemed an impregnable divine city.
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign's Heaven-and-Earth Seal became this city's sky and earth, its four walls; the other gods and demons were the generals who reinforced the walls, while Shen Mu and tens of thousands of divine-ability practitioners were soldiers standing upon the walls to fend off the enemy's assault. Their qi and blood were joined, their divine abilities linked, as they held back the terrifying might unleashed by the destruction of heaven and earth. In a single instant, everyone felt an unimaginably dreadful pressure.
Some had the blood vessels of their entire bodies burst under that dreadful force, blood gushing like a fountain, until they were men of blood; some had their sinews torn and their skin split open; some had their garments shredded; some had their bones broken. Yet no one fell back—even those whose arms were severed did not retreat in the least, for they still had their primordial spirits and could still wield their divine abilities.
At last, the most terrifying first wave of impact passed.
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign's legs suddenly gave way, and he collapsed to his knees in a faint. A multitude of arms caught him, keeping him from falling flat, and laid him gently upon the ground. Though the divine-ability practitioners and gods and demons present were many, the First Ancestor Human Sovereign, for their safety, had borne more than nine-tenths of the pressure. He was a powerhouse of the God-Slaying Platform realm, surpassing the other gods and demons by more than words could tell; even bound together, all of them were far beneath him.
Shen Mu and the Alchemist stepped forward to examine and heal him, while the other gods and demons stood in a ring around them, holding back the aftershocks.
Taihuang Heaven was now like a hell of magma. What fell from the sky was a rain of lava, laden with black ash and mixed with fire-stones the size of mountain ranges plunging from on high.
The hot winds blew with a frenzy a hundred times the speed of sound or more, turning the magma into towering waves that rolled on, swallowing all in their path. And the quaking of the earth caused volcano after volcano to erupt from the seabed of the magma sea, pillars of fire shooting hundreds, even thousands of li into the sky. The sky had long since shattered.
Shards of space in a riot of colors, without any thickness at all, drifted through the air giving off a strange radiance; some flew at furious speed, like the sharpest blades, slicing apart all that they passed.
The breathable air was all but exhausted. With every breath of the foul atmosphere, they drew in no telling how many poisonous gases that corroded their lungs.
Even holding their breath, the toxins still ate into their skin. Xing An opened his box, took out a handful of seeds, and breathed softly upon them.
At once, green grass spread all around them, and willows and trees grew into shade. The stretch of land, six or seven li across, that they guarded remained tranquil—one of the few pure lands left in Taihuang Heaven.
Here had not become a world of magma, and so Xing An could use his creation divine ability to make plants grow and purify the air. Ma Rulai gently opened his palm.