Chapter 734 — A Battle Body Unrivaled Since Antiquity
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Not only had he forged a martial soul; ten years later he was the first of all his peers to forge a martial-dao primordial spirit. And now he would surpass them all, comprehending the Dao through martial arts.
Such talent, such gifts, and such diligence were truly unmatched in a generation. Shen Mu and Hu Bugui fought their way out of that hall, its rear gate smashed to powder.
Husband and wife were both rather speechless for a moment; then the woman laughed.
"My rear hall has been beaten into a fine mess as well.
Let us go on to the next great hall.
That is where Senior Brother Tian keeps watch.
Senior Brother Tian has a fiery temper, and I fear he will strike at Hu Bugui and cut short his comprehension of the Dao. " The husband and wife hurried on to the next great hall. Shen Mu and Hu Bugui fought their way there, yet the deity on guard did not strike directly; he only watched quietly as the two of them blasted their way straight through his shrine.
"It has been many years since the Dou Niu Realm produced a youth who comprehended the Dao through martial arts. " That deity surnamed Tian was visibly stirred.
He followed the husband and wife out of the palace, walking on in the wake of Shen Mu and Hu Bugui, and said in a low voice, "Comprehending the Dao through martial arts is too hard, harder by I know not how many times than any other way of entering the Dao.
And now, at last, we have waited for such a youth. " They could all see that Shen Mu's fighting Hu Bugui was in truth a kindness, meant to keep Hu Bugui in his state of comprehending the Dao, and so none of them interfered. By degrees Shen Mu and Hu Bugui came near to blasting through all thirty-six halls of the Jade Capital, and more and more deities trailed behind them, all watching this battle of theirs intently.
Suddenly Hu Bugui's aura surged violently.
Every eye lit up, and every face turned anxious. This was Hu Bugui's most critical moment.
Whether he could take this step hung upon this single stroke.
Just then, all of Hu Bugui's afterimages vanished, and in the instant before they vanished each afterimage had been executing a different bodily divine ability, every move utterly unlike the rest.
Then those phantoms merged and overlapped with Hu Bugui's body.
Every hair on the bodies of the gods watching this battle stood on end, each strand bristling upright; it was an involuntary response of the body, the instinctive reaction of one who practices the martial arts toward the martial Dao. In bodily divine abilities each of them had attainments that shook heaven and earth, yet though they cultivated profound arts, they had never been able to take the step of comprehending the Dao through martial arts.
Their aptitude and insight were limited, their potential dug clean through; though they sensed the martial Dao right before them, needing only a final kick at the door, they could never step through that gate.
Hu Bugui in that instant entered the portal of the martial Dao, and the resonance of qi stirred in them all despite themselves. Hu Bugui crouched slightly, and his qi burst forth.
Across from him Shen Mu could not help but shiver with dread; in a single instant that terrible qi made him feel death drawing near.
Without pausing to think he would have used the first form of his Tribulation Sword, Opening the Tribulation, to block it, but he forced himself to hold back. The power of the Opening the Tribulation sword was too great; it was a strike that must kill.
His purpose in coming was to pass the Martial Combat Heavenly Master's trial of the martial Dao and to bring the Woodcutter Sage back, openly and honorably.
"I am Master Woodcutter's disciple. The Martial Combat Heavenly Master has always looked down on Master Woodcutter.
So this face, this honor, I will win back for him.
" Scarcely had the thought crossed his mind when the force of Hu Bugui's blow erupted.