Chapter 732 — Swift as a Flying Star
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu's qi and blood surged, streaming and drifting like a long rainbow as he followed the man onward. His martial spirit was not a simple matter of entering the Dao through the martial arts. Had it been so, he would have been no different from any other warrior of the Bull-Fighting Realm.
He did not seek to leap straight across the Divine Bridge and soar to the Heavenly Palace while still in the Life-and-Death Realm; his Divine Bridge was whole, and there was no need for it.
What he sought was the transformation of this world, the advancement of the Dao and its divine powers. And so his martial spirit was not confined to the martial arts alone; he had bound the spirit of the Jingping era, the spirit of reform and change, to the spirit of the martial way.
The Jingping era: the old cast off, the new raised up, like a roaring fire fed with oil, like sparks setting the prairie ablaze, blazing and furious!
If such a spirit were transmuted into the martial way, it would surpass the mere pursuit of martial arts by a measure beyond counting!
And now Shen Mu, seizing upon the martial spirit as his pivot, was transmuting the spirit of the Jingping era into his own martial soul!
He came to the second shrine. Before it stood several wounded, who must have been struck down by the god or demon guarding the hall.
Shen Mu walked in. Within the hall was a peasant woman; Hu Bugui and the others were still nowhere to be seen.
"How long did I spend comprehending the martial spirit?" Shen Mu looked at the ground. There were bloodstains on the floor of the great hall, but they had already dried.
"The woodcutter's disciple — you took ten days to pass the first hall?"
The woman, thick-limbed and broad-shouldered, laughed. "My strength is greater than his. So how long do you mean to spend on my gate?"
Shen Mu smiled. "Ten—"
The peasant woman frowned. "That is spirit."
"Nine. Eight. Seven..."
On the God-Slaying Platform, two bloody killing auras intertwined, coiling like twin crimson tornadoes. Hu Bugui had already arrived here. Those who had crossed the Southern Heavenly Gate with him had included Wu Shiyuren, and now only two remained at his side.
The God-Slaying Platform had no god or man to guard it.
The platform itself was a pass of unimaginable difficulty. In the twenty thousand years before, no one knew how many warriors of the Bull-Fighting Realm had come here and been cut down dead.
In truth, this pass had already been suppressed in its power; it was not as terrible as the true God-Slaying Platform. The Martial Heavenly Master had bound the platform's might within the Life-and-Death Realm.
And yet this pass had still become the one with the highest death rate.
"Are you sure of yourselves?"
Hu Bugui regulated his breath and said in a low voice, "Junior brothers, junior sister, if you are not sure, then go back. Go back and you still have five hundred years of life. Living is better than anything."
The woman shook her head. "All my life I have cultivated for the sake of today. Senior Brother Hu, before this trial I was already married and had borne two children. They are well. I have left descendants behind, and that has settled one wish of mine; now I mean to settle another with my life. This time, if I do not succeed, I will give up my body for benevolence!"
The other man smiled. "I too have married and had children of my own. My surname, the blood of my forebears, will carry on. Now I have nothing to hold me back. I am ready to stake my life, to seek a future for my race! My Wuluo clan needs hope. My descendants shall one day stand tall in the forest of the gods!"
"You... first heal your wounds, and restore your qi and blood to their peak. The God-Slaying Platform cannot stop me, but I have no means to shield you."
Hu Bugui sighed and turned to look back at the Jade Pool behind them, where hall after hall stood in ranks and the road ran through them — the places they had passed on their way.