Chapter 989 — That Venerable One Must Die
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
The ancient gods Shen Mu had visualized had only just taken shape when the consciousness arts of those nine Creators came crashing in.
The nine Creators sat motionless, yet their consciousnesses turned into dragons and phoenixes, hills and rivers, clouds and mist, and all manner of strange apparitions that surged toward the altar; at a single stir of Shen Mu's consciousness, the ancient gods upon the altar each went forth to meet the arts that swept at them, and the slaughter was savage. A divine dragon was torn apart by the Heavenly Lord he had visualized, but no sooner had the dragon disintegrated than it turned back into consciousness, and that consciousness rushed surging into the Heavenly Lord's body; the next moment a great sword split the Heavenly Lord he had visualized open from the inside out.
After the Heavenly Lord was cut open, the great sword became a dou vessel that turned mouth-downward and spun madly, and the Heavenly Lord Shen Mu had visualized was refined to ash, his consciousness refined away with him. Shen Mu was shaken to the core; before he could devise any countermeasure, the ancient gods he had visualized were slain one by one by those nine Creators.
Tubo had his ox-horns hewn off and his eyes put out, the Earth Mother was beaten until her bones snapped and her sinews broke and then burned to ash, and the other ancient gods likewise died miserably, holding out at most a blow or two before they could not escape being refined. Cold sweat started on Shen Mu's brow.
His visualized ancient gods were formidable in battle, true, but he had underestimated the Creators' consciousness arts, and Shujun had never taught him consciousness arts either, so that his array of ancient gods had been broken at the very first moment.
The Creators' consciousness arts were endlessly strange and impossible to guard against, for those arts had no fixed form: a dragon or phoenix might be visualized, and the next instant the dragon and phoenix would dissolve into other shapes, coming straight at the weaknesses of the ancient gods he had visualized. This was utterly unlike the arts transformed out of primal-energy runes.
He could command these visualized ancient gods, could even use them to deploy arts of his own, yet the ancient gods he visualized simply did not possess the strength to withstand the Creators' consciousness arts. The battle power of his visualized ancient gods did not even match that of deities who had attained the realm of Venerable Gods. He visualized madly, and one ancient god after another was born into being to hold the altar and block the consciousness-art attacks of the nine Creators.
Yet the arts the nine Creators visualized grew ever more numerous; it was only a matter of time before they broke his defense. "Are consciousness arts really so hard to deal with? " A thousand thoughts flashed through Shen Mu's mind in succession, and like sparks struck from flint he devised one counter after another, but to comprehend, in so short a time, the techniques for answering consciousness arts was still extraordinarily difficult.
Especially when he must fight one against nine, holding off nine full-grown Creators at once, the difficulty was compounded beyond measure. "Divine King Shujun, one of the Three Kings of the Ancient Age — are his arts really this crude and pitiful?
" Divine King Langwan glanced at the huge head upon the throne and said with a half-smile, "The Holy Infant inherited from you, and he is almost like a child who knows nothing of consciousness arts; the way he uses his consciousness is laughable.
That Shujun, one of the Ancient Age's Three Kings, should be of such a standard — that is beyond what I expected.
" Shujun gave a cold snort, thoroughly displeased.
"I never taught him my consciousness arts.