Chapter 960 — You Are Indeed a Somebody
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
His face suddenly turned sallow, his breath failing. Though An Qingyu had not managed to kill him, the art of Heavenly Venerable Hao had indeed been created to strike at his weakness; An Qingyu's dying blow had not destroyed his flesh, but it had scoured his primal-embryo divine treasury clean, and even his primal spirit had taken no light wound.
The only reason he had not shown his decline before An Qingyu was to preserve his dignity before a man about to die.
Luo Wushuang looked around and saw flying swords come one after another, clashing ding-ding before Shen Mu; swiftly they gathered into a sword core, refining the divine gold until the sword ran like water — no small feat of forging.
"Luo the Divine Blade, you are called the Heavenly Court's foremost divine blade. You once showed me your blade art."
Shen Mu put away the sword core and took out spirit medicines to treat his wounds, saying calmly: "When Zhe Huali and I were still foes, I meant to have him show you my sword art; a pity he had his pride and his proud bones, and wished to defeat me himself, so he did not show it to you. Now you have seen my sword art — what do you make of it?"
"The sword art is exquisite, nigh upon the subtlety of the dao."
Luo Wushuang praised him from the heart: "Your sword art is already unmatched in the world. Yet I am confident that with my blade art I can defeat your sword art. In former days I might have been defeated once more beneath your sword, but I have broken the god within my heart, and I fear nothing now."
Shen Mu swallowed a spirit pill and laughed: "Your tone is almost exactly that of Zhe Huali. But Zhe Huali broke the god within his heart earlier than you did, and even Zhe Huali was no match for me."
Luo Wushuang gave a cold hum. Shen Mu refined a few more pills and handed them to him, saying: "The silver needles in your body can be expelled now; as for the Primal Wood Core at your brow, do not take it out yet. These spirit pills are to heal the damage to your heavenly palace — first refine the medicinal power already within you, and take these pills along the road. That battle with An Qingyu just now will surely have drawn the notice of the other Heavenly Court masters. We must be on our way."
He pointed east: "Just now, from the air, I saw some majestic buildings over there — most likely raised by the Creators of the Great Void. Let us go and take a look."
Luo Wushuang pocketed the pills and could not resist asking: "Are you truly at the Spirit Embryo realm?"
"I am."
Shen Mu said with a smile: "Are you certain you wish to duel me at the same realm?"
Luo Wushuang's face shifted between light and gloom; changing the subject, he asked: "You said just now that the buildings here were raised by the Creators of the Great Void. Have you been here before?"
"No."
The vertical eye at Shen Mu's brow opened, and he visualized for a moment; in the void a divine dragon more than ten zhang long gradually took shape.
Luo Wushuang started in fright, thinking it a heart-demon, and hastily gripped his blade-hilt.
Shen Mu shook his head: "There are no heart-demons here. Heart-demons are in truth creatures fashioned by the shattered consciousness of the Creators of the Great Void, made out of our own heart-demons. This divine dragon is merely my own creation; there is no peril in it."
Luo Wushuang, startled and doubtful, said: "How do you know the master of this place is a Creator of the Great Void? Can it be that you too are a Creator of the Great Void?"
Shen Mu looked the divine dragon over, leapt onto its back, and laughed: "No. Fly —"
The divine dragon beneath him strove to bare its claws and brandish its fangs, yet could not fly; in its anxiousness it cried maha-maha without cease.
Shen Mu scratched his head: "Am I too heavy?"
He sprang down from the dragon's back and tried again: "Fly!"
The divine dragon leapt into the air, then, flailing hand and foot, tumbled down out of the sky and plunged headlong into the waterfall below.