Chapter 1231 — Peerless Talent
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 3
For in Shen Mu's eyes, beyond beings like the Ten Heavenly Lords, few at the same level were worth his attacking first.
Xu Shenghua, however, was an absolute exception.
In the instant the Thirty-Three Heavens Sword Domain exploded, Xu Shenghua moved as well. He had little skill with the sword, yet in that moment he resembled a grand master of sword Dao, his bladeplay severe and imposing.
But as Shen Mu watched, he saw at once that Xu Shenghua was deconstructing sword technique with Dao arts; this was not the true sword Dao. The deeper runes composing his swordplay were still Dao arts!
Even so, this stroke of his carried every variation of swordsmanship to its extreme, and even bore the faintest aura of the sword Dao.
That was no minor feat.
Sword technique and sword Dao are as far apart as clouds and mud. Since creating the Tiji Sword, Shen Mu had been without peer in swordsmanship for a million years; whether Yan Yunxi, Lizheng, or even Kaihuang, all were far inferior to him on the sword Dao.
And yet even on the sword Dao, the Tiji Sword was but a first step through the gate.
Kaihuang's Thirty-Four Heavens Sword Domain was the true summit.
But Xu Shenghua had actually simulated the sword Dao with Dao arts and divine powers, using his abilities to express the profound resonance of the sword Dao—truly an eye-opener! His sword Dao collided with the Thirty-Three Heavens Sword Domain Shen Mu had unleashed and immediately gave way. After all, he was only imitating with divine power, not wielding true sword Dao—yet he had still blocked Shen Mu's stroke, and Shen Mu was secretly alarmed.
Xu Shenghua changed his move at once.
His sword-Dao Thirty-Three Heavens vanished entirely, replaced by a divine-power Thirty-Three Heavens, as if thirty-three majestic skies came crashing down upon Shen Mu at once.
Layer upon layer: one power for one heaven, thirty-three heavens crushed together, their might vast and surging!
His earlier sword-Dao Thirty-Three Heavens had not been his own skill but mere imitation; this divine-power Thirty-Three Heavens, by contrast, was a genuine great power, born from the foundations of that sword-Dao Thirty-Three Heavens.
This was his true skill!
Shen Mu wished he could crack open Xu Shenghua's skull to see exactly how his wisdom worked, how in such a short span he had deconstructed the Thirty-Three Heavens and converted sword technique into divine power.
After all, when Shen Mu had learned the sword-Dao Thirty-Three Heavens in his own day, he had advanced step by step, fighting from Taihuang Heaven at the very bottom of Wuyou Village all the way to the top, and had only mastered the full art through Yan Yunxi. Yet Xu Shenghua had in an instant reconstructed the Thirty-Three Heavens with divine powers and evolved it into a power of his own.
Such talent, Shen Mu privately admitted, he could not match even at a full gallop. Naturally, every craft has its specialist.
From the moment Xu Shenghua emerged from Upper Heaven, he had walked the path of breaking ten thousand methods with divine power.
Every power he wielded was improvised on the spot, a lightning response, using mighty wisdom to shatter every divine power, every sword technique, every formation array the enemy could field. Immersed in this path for decades, passing through the most resplendent years of the Jingping Reforms, he entered the Dao through divine powers and read their essence directly.
What others, even Shen Mu, considered impossible, he could accomplish. This was the reason he could remain forever ascendant and undefeated.
Shen Mu was always improving, and so was he.
Shen Mu unfurled his Divine Treasury Domain, sending it thundering against the Great Divine-Power Dao Domain, and laughed.