Chapter 1227 — The High Wave Will Finally Shatter

Shen Mu raised his tea, blew gently at the leaves floating on the surface, and said with a smile, "I roamed wild through the Heavenly Court for all those years and never once got myself killed. Do you really think I'll die here, in your little Dao Sect? " Dao Lord Lin Xuan drained his cup in one gulp; Shen Mu drained his as well.

The two set their cups down at the same instant, and the cups sank deep into the stone table, their rims flush with its surface. This was the divine ability of Creation!

Both had used it at once, altering the substance of the stone table and the teacups, fusing cup and stone into a single whole.

In the distance, several Daoists watched from afar, heads together, voices buzzing with speculation. "The Dao Lord has always been calm as a light breeze and distant as high clouds.

Young as he is, his cultivation is unfathomable, his manner as untroubled as a wild crane among clouds.

But ever since the Dao Ancestor came here, the Dao Lord has grown more unfathomable still, his cultivation and strength like a vast ocean, like a bottomless abyss. " A young Daoist asked, puzzled, "Then why has he lost his temper today? " An older Daoist beside him laughed.

"That's because you don't know who's come.

This guest is the famous Heavenly Venerable Mu, a walking calamity, a scourge upon the world. Back in the day, the Dao Lord suffered more than a little at his hands. " The young Daoist was baffled.

"Heavenly Venerable Mu? Why would a Heavenly Venerable be mixed up with our Dao Lord?

And how could he make the Dao Lord lose his composure and his temper? " "There's plenty you don't know. Those old-timers are a filthy lot.

In those years Heavenly Venerable Mu was called Sect Master Shen, a great demon lord, the Master of the Dark Demon Sect. The Dao Lord's first defeat was at his hands; he broke the Dao Lord's Dao Sword. " The other Daoists chimed in from every side, laying bare Dao Lord Lin Xuan's history to the last detail. "Apart from Immortal Wang of the Little Jade Capital, Xu Shenghua of the Western Land, Zhe Huali of the Central Land, and the Tathagata of Mount Sumeru, there are truly few in this world who can stand beside the Dao Lord. That fellow Qi Jiuyi is no small figure either, though he hasn't been around much lately. But the one the Dao Lord has always most wanted to fight is this Heavenly Venerable Mu.

Now that he's delivered himself to our door, there's bound to be a clash! " At the stone table, Shen Mu twirled his teacup; it spun back out of the stone, leaving the tabletop flawless. "It's been a long time since I beat you people," he said mildly.

"Seems you've come to think of yourselves as Hegemon Bodies. " Lin Xuan likewise twirled his cup.

"Cock or hen, doesn't the Sect Master know in his own heart?

" His cup too floated up, leaving no trace on the stone. "These years I've used micro arts of calculation to reconstruct the Dao runes of the gods and sages of every heaven, and I've learned the great macro arts of calculation from the Dao Ancestor. In attainments of calculation, you and I are as cloud to mud.

I am the cloud, you are the mud. " Lin Xuan drew his sword and stabbed it into the stone table with a ring. "Emperor Kai came to the Dao Sect as well, and taught me the way of the sword, letting me glimpse the ultimate mystery of the Dao Realm. Lizheng came here too, and spoke of you with great disappointment, but of me he could not praise enough.

They believe you've gone lame, that your path has gone crooked. " Shen Mu stared at his sword, waved a hand, and drove his own broken blade into the tabletop. "The lame one isn't me, it's Lizheng and Emperor Kai who went lame!

I am the true path! Those two crippled old men, I've beaten them both!

" Lin Xuan's eyes blazed, yet his aura only drew further inward. "That's what every heretic says.

All these years, and you haven't changed a bit. " Shen Mu laughed aloud.

"If I don't give you a beating, you'll go on thinking you're really the cock of the walk. You think you can seize the fortune of my Hegemon Body? " Lin Xuan rose to his feet, his Dao robe snapping in the wind as though he meant to ride it away. "Words are useless.

Cock or hen, let our hands decide!

" Shen Mu stood as well, unhurried. "You underestimate me.

Reform on with your Jingping Reforms if you like, I'm no lesser. In cultivation, I am still the strongest.

In the way of the sword, I am still the strongest. In battle strength, the strongest is still me.

And in the arts of calculation, I am still the one standing on the summit.

" Lin Xuan's sleeve swept; sword light filled the heavens, and in the next instant it vanished. In its place rose a vast cosmos of stars and planets, each orb appearing within the little Dao Sect, displaying a magnificent beauty.

And if one looked closely, every grain of sand, every blade of grass, every drop of water within those stars revealed an endless microscopic structure, displaying to the full the beauty of the infinitesimal.

Shen Mu's expression shifted slightly, and inwardly he muttered, "Seems in the arts of calculation I really can't call myself the strongest.

.

. " Lin Xuan's great macro arts and great micro arts of calculation had both reached the level of the Dao! His sword art fused micro and macro in perfect harmony; he even deconstructed the various great Daos by means of calculation, the shifts in calculation producing shifts in the Dao, and these in turn producing shifts in his sword Dao.

In the arts of calculation, Shen Mu knew he was far behind him.

And Lin Xuan's sword Dao bore, besides the Dao Sword of the Dao Sect, the shadows of Emperor Kai and Lizheng. Emperor Kai and Lizheng had both forged sword domains, and their attainments in the sword were exceedingly high; Dao Lord Lin Xuan had been supremely gifted in the sword to begin with, and guided by two masters of the sword, his accomplishments in the sword had reached a staggering height!

Only, no one knew whether Lin Xuan had learned the twentieth sword form.

"Xu Shenghua came to see him several times, and Lin Xuan lost every time. Does that mean that bastard Xu Shenghua is stronger still?

" At this thought, Shen Mu pulled his broken sword from the stone. "In any case, you're all hens!

" His broken sword came free; his sword domain surged forth. The Great Arts-of-Calculation Dao Domain and the Calamity Sword Domain crashed together, and the enormous planets encircling the Dao Sect collapsed within his Calamity Sword Domain!

Lin Xuan let out a long whistle, driving his arts to reverse the tide.

The collapsing stars began to contract, then swiftly swelled and ignited, becoming suns wrought of heavenly fire!

From those suns, great Sun Star Lords flew out on wings, becoming three-legged golden crows that pounced upon Shen Mu from every direction, bearing the innate might of the Dao! The stars turned and shifted; the host of suns formed a sword array, and each Sun Star Lord was a pivot of the formation!

This was the sword array of the Great Sun Divine Sword!

Lin Xuan had originally cultivated the Innate Taixuan Art, which had been handed down by a cast-off disciple of the Heavenly Court's Dao Sect and was part of the Taixuan Dao Art of that sect's Dao Ancestor. When the Dao Ancestor came to visit, he had transmitted the complete Taixuan Dao Art to him.

His cultivation was truly formidable, and with the Great Arts-of-Calculation Dao Domain, the ultimate beauty of calculation he displayed was enough to intoxicate the senses. The scene seemed as though he used the innate great Dao to lay a formation, yet in truth it was sword art; it seemed to be sword art, yet in truth it was formation; it seemed to be formation, yet in truth it was calculation!

Layer upon layer, everything came down in the end to calculation, for this was the very essence of the Dao Sect's Dao arts and divine abilities!