Chapter 790 — The Crown of a Million Years of Sword Dao
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
The radish raged, "If you got bitten, you'd be howling too! I'm not a radish—I'm a ginseng!"
It struggled on the fishing rod, trying to get down, and shouted, "Let me go! I'll beat that idiot who insulted me to death and open his eyes for him!"
Shen Mu stared at the radish, astonished, and laughed. "Not even Kaihuang."
The scholar's eyes flickered. "I too cultivate the sword. Through all the ages, those who could surpass me number only two or three. I entered the dao through the sword, and deduced my sword dao into the Thirteen Chapters of the Sword Dao. In swordsmanship, I would say my attainments are not weak either. I would very much like to meet the finest swordsman of the past million years."
He set down his feather fan and his fishing rod. The radish stood on the donkey's head, fishing line wound about its own head, hopping about on the donkey's skull, fists clenched, shouting at Water Qilin, "Come on then, let's have a bout!"
The scholar's eyes flickered. "You and I shall make swords of vital essence and trade a few moves. Rest assured—I will not use my cultivation to bully you, nor will I crush you with my sword dao."
Shen Mu shook his head. "Seated on a donkey's back, you cannot fight freely. I would rather not bully you."
"A scholar wears his sword and roams the world, sings with his sword in hand; killing men from donkey-back is common enough. Besides, you too sit on Dragon Qilin's head, and you are just as cramped."
The scholar laughed. "When I unleash my first sword move, you will leap down from Dragon Qilin's head. My second move will drive you ten li from this place; my third, a hundred li; my fourth, and you will be hiding a thousand li away."
Shen Mu said, with something between a smile and no smile at all, "After you!"
Vital essence surged around the scholar, and in an instant it became a sword formation; countless slender swords flew in confusion like a vast and misty drizzle, and within the sword light faint mountains loomed.
His swordsmanship was exquisite; compared with the Village Head's sword diagrams, it had a marvel all its own.
Shen Mu raised his hand and pointed one finger; a streak of sword light tore through the air and stabbed into his drizzling mountains.
That sword light was the second form of his Tribulation Sword—Lifting Tribulation. The light leapt and wavered, and in a single instant it split open the drizzling mountains, leaving the scholar's countless sword lights falling wholly on empty air, unable to block this one streak.
Startled, the scholar saw the sword light arrive at his chest and hastily flung himself down from the donkey's back!
The sword light followed him like a shadow, close behind!
At once he used his second sword move: sword light surging like a tide, jade seas and clear skies, ten thousand li washed clean—yet still it could not block that single streak of sword light!
The scholar retreated at speed, his body like a blue butterfly fluttering, or like a hare darting this way and that across open fields, his movements utterly bewildering.
Yet that sword light still followed close behind, leaving him nowhere to evade.
He unleashed his third sword move; still he could not block the light. When he looked up, he had already fled a hundred li away.
On he retreated, unleashing his fourth sword move, then the fifth, the sixth, the seventh—each move pushed to the utmost of refinement, endlessly varied, dazzling to the eye—and still not one could block that single sword light!
In the blink of an eye he had arrived a thousand li away, and his sword moves were exhausted; he could use them no more!
Shen Mu's sword light stabbed like lightning at his chest with a ringing ding, and a halo of light burst from his chest, blocking the strike.
The scholar, his soul scarcely settled, wiped the cold sweat from his brow and hurried back, only to find Shen Mu still seated on Dragon Qilin's forehead, explaining the mysteries of this move to Yutian Zun.