Chapter 843 — One Sword Breaks the Heavenly Dipper
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 5
In midair, the Northern Emperor Xuanwu's disciple drove the great river with his Xuanwu primordial spirit. The long river surged, and from it rose five great cloud-thunders — five layers of cloud, five layers of thunder, wind and cloud, thunder and lightning, the long river like a dragon — a tremendous display of force bearing down on Lin Xuan!
The Northern Emperor Xuanwu was one of the Four Emperors, an ancient god-king whose Dao was formed by nature; even Di Yiyue had once entered his school to study.
And this disciple of the Northern Emperor's cultivation was immeasurably deep and mighty. He stood upon the head of the soaring serpent, which flew in winding, elusive arcs; he worked his divine powers from atop the serpent's head, while below the black tortoise roared with a dragon's cry, its sharp teeth and claws tearing at the sky until it darkened and then blazed bright with thunder!
The Northern Emperor's line was famed for the depth and power of its cultivation and for its terrifying defense; this man's strength was not to be taken lightly!
"The first thing I changed was the Daoist school's Fourteen Chapters of the Dao Sword. I have perfected only seven of them, but even so they are far beyond anything the bumpkins of the Heavenly Court could match!"
Dao Master Lin Xuan gave a long whistle, drew his sword and went to meet the Northern Emperor's disciple, every word and gesture brimming with matchless confidence. He laughed aloud: "Sect Master Shen, when you see my true sword, you will know what you have missed these past years!"
Chapter One of the Dao Sword: a single point pierces through the vast motion; within the two poles, yin and yang turn back upon each other!
In the sky a black-and-white taiji diagram a hundred zhang across appeared, its yin and yang grown infinitely fine, its inner structure utterly unlike the Dao Sword of old.
The old Chapter One had been famed for its grandeur and its transformations; the Dao Sword now was grand and microscopic at once, its calculative transformations grown so complex as to be beyond measure!
This was the fruit of Lin Xuan's painstaking study of the Taiwei Calculation Canon.
It was while contemplating heavenly fire that Shen Mu had grasped the Taiwei Calculation Canon, using it to deconstruct the fine inner structure of that fire.
Yet though he knew full well what boundless prospects the canon held, he would not bend over it until his hair turned white, spending his whole life perfecting it; so Shen Mu had handed the Taiwei Calculation Canon to Lin Xuan and Xu Shenghua.
Xu Shenghua was busy founding the Shangcang Academy of the Heavens in the Western Lands, and had also to study geomagnetic force with Granny Zhu; he seldom found time to visit the Daoist school.
Dao Master Lin Xuan, however, poured all his energy into the Taiwei Calculation Canon, and in these few years had at last brought earth-shaking changes to his Dao Sword.
Shen Mu raised his head. As the pioneer of the Taiwei Calculation Canon, he could see the true marvel of the Dao Sword, and he marveled inwardly: "Jingping's Imperial Preceptor was right. In only a few years, Jingping's Daoist arts and divine powers have been turned upside down. I have been wandering abroad all this time and have indeed missed many changes in our arts. But it is not too late. Once the matter of Qingyun Heaven is settled, I must go study again at the great academies and the Grand Academy. If I do not learn, Lin Xuan and the others will truly surpass me."
In the sky, the Northern Emperor's disciple's divine power was vast and matchless — and the next moment Lin Xuan shattered it with a single sword stroke!
Throughout the Qingyun Sect, disciples and elders searching for the thieving old Daoist were startled by that sword; one after another they raised their heads to the sky, their eyes entranced.