Chapter 716 — The Youth's Demonic Fall
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
And in that same moment Shen Mu's other five arms—five fists, five thumbs—pressed down in turn upon his brow, his heart-chamber, his dantian, his tailbone, and his qi sea. Fu Yanqi spat blood, and felt his primordial spirit go numb: Shen Mu had sealed it with a divine art of the Nether Capital.
Cold dread ran through him, terror rising in his heart: "He did not borrow the power of the seven soul deities, yet his mastery of souls far exceeds mine! " Shen Mu's six arms and three heads unleashed divine arts with a speed beyond measure, like a tempest; amid the arts were countless fists and kicks—spell-arts, sword-arts, and fleshly-body arts all at once!
Three heads and six arms, the utmost art of the Crimson Bright Era, had once borne grave flaws because of the rupture between the Crimson Emperor and the Bright Emperor; but Shen Mu cultivated both their arts, and mended the breach.
With no flaw left, the three heads and six arms were truly like three men—nay, stronger—so that Fu Yanqi could find no weakness at all, and Lou Yunqu no opening to wound him gravely.
Fu Yanqi's cultivation was the lesser; he was still of the Jade Pool realm, and once his primordial spirit was sealed he was gravely wounded in an instant, struck by countless divine arts and fists and kicks, his fleshly body pierced by a hundred-odd sword-lights and blade-lights, a blur of blood and flesh.
Even so, he was decisive to the extreme: his body suddenly withdrew, vanished from Jingping, and was swallowed by the darkness.
He was, after all, a disciple of the Dark Capital's Black Emperor; in that moment he employed the Dark Capital's signature art, his body hidden within the Dark Capital, impervious to all arts.
Yet in the next moment, Shen Mu actually stormed into the Dark Capital as well!
The two clashed in the darkness; by the time Lou Yunqu charged in, Fu Yanqi's primordial spirit had already been blasted from his body.
Shen Mu reached out and seized it, clamped a hand on its throat, while his other five arms held off Lou Yunqu's assault. Fu Yanqi's fleshly body fell to the ground, not yet dead; just as it lunged forward, one of Shen Mu's heads shot divine light from its eyes, and three beams of it nailed him fast.
Shen Mu twisted his neck; another head shot light from its eyes and blasted Lou Yunqu away. Lou Yunqu, being mighty, forcibly withstood the blow; but Shen Mu twisted his neck again, the third head turned, and three more beams shot forth and blasted him away once more.
Lou Yunqu was thrown into a frenzy of alarm.
It would have been one thing had Shen Mu merely killed Fu Yanqi and Kui Qingpei—those two were disciples of the Dark Capital's Black Emperor, and the Dark Capital would draw them back, their primordial spirits returning home.
The Black Emperor ruled the Dark Capital, and could soon send them into reincarnation; in the future they would still be his disciples.
Through the ages they had been reborn many times, and so they did not fear death and the dissolution of their path—at worst they would be reborn and start again. But this time was different.
Shen Mu was the Nether Capital Divine Child, and the infamy of that title they had long heard: at birth he had entered the Nether Capital, devoured untold fierce ghosts, swallowed untold titans, and even routed the ghost upon the imperial throne in miserable disorder.
Should Shen Mu devour them, then they would be utterly and finally dead, with no possibility of reincarnation.
Shen Mu drove Lou Yunqu back and at once opened his mouth, sending Fu Yanqi's primordial spirit toward it, a look of frenzy on his face. Lou Yunqu gritted his teeth; his figure flickered in and out of sight, shuttling endlessly between the Dark Capital and reality, dodging the divine light of Shen Mu's eyes, attacking with all his strength, denying Shen Mu any chance to swallow Fu Yanqi.