Chapter 1305 — A Peerless Arrow

Silent Craftsman, Blind Elder and the Alchemist were beside themselves with pride, glancing again and again at Shen Mu and the rest. Blind Elder laughed.

"What good is a high cultivation realm, I ask you?

Facing something this uncanny, you still have to rely on us!

" Silent Craftsman nodded and babbled his agreement without pause. The Alchemist could hardly hide his self-satisfaction either, stroking the beard on his chin.

The First Ancestor's face reddened slightly.

He had once despised these three for the lowliness of their cultivation, counting them useless, a mere drag on the others; never had he imagined that in the end it would be these three who came to their rescue. The withered-bone hand had been struck off, and at once the radiance around the divine bow subsided, gradually revealing its true form. Shen Mu put strength into his palm and plucked the divine bow off.

The bow shrank little by little, yet even so it measured a full zhang and two, and its surface was crowded with strange patterns.

These patterns looked like runes and seals, yet he could make neither head nor tail of them.

The others gathered round, but they knew nothing of the runes and seals upon it either. Shen Mu asked Taiyi within the egg, and Taiyi did not recognize them either.

Shen Mu tried to draw the divine bow; it came open with the greatest of ease, but the longer he drew the string, the more he felt his vital essence and mana howling as they were dragged into the bow.

At that same moment, divine light blazed within the bow, and countless billions of fine rays gathered together and became a single arrow.

Everyone felt a chill run through them. The power of this divine bow was immense; set among the treasures of the Emperor's Throne, it would still rank as a treasure of no small account.

Shen Mu slowly released the force, and the bowstring eased back by degrees; the arrow broke apart once more into threads of fine light and returned into the bow, and the power within the bow turned back into vital essence and flowed back into Shen Mu's body.

He had drawn the bow and released it without spending a single drop of mana.

Shen Mu handed the divine bow to the First Ancestor, who tried it in his turn, clicking his tongue in wonder.

Each of them tried it, and all were lost in amazement. Silent Craftsman's eyes lit up.

"If a method this strange could be folded into artificing, then divine weapons would drain far less mana, and a man could fight far longer!

" Shen Mu gave him the bow, then studied the severed arm in the tree roots and said doubtfully, "Where did this hand come from?

" Silent Craftsman shook his great hammer; the hammer head became a great axe, and with a ringing clang it bit into the dark, heavy root.

Sparks flew up as the axe struck the root; Silent Craftsman's face went black as he lifted the axe, and the blade was broken.

Shen Mu roused his broken sword and struck down with it; the shock left his arm numb and tingling, and even so he failed to cut the root open.

"This person grew inside the tree root. " The First Ancestor Human Sovereign tried as well and could not split the root.

He said, "A moment ago, when I touched the divine bow, that man spoke to me. He must still be alive!

" They all tried their own methods, wanting to split the root and see whether the man truly grew inside it, yet no matter what divine powers they wielded, no matter what divine weapons they summoned, they could not split the root.

Silent Craftsman laughed suddenly.

"We're fools, all of us.

We have the divine bow right here and we're still using our own treasures!

" He brought out the divine bow and strained to draw the string, but he could draw it only halfway before his mana gave out.

Shen Mu took the bow and, with every ounce of his strength, drew it into a full moon; almost all of his vital essence was pulled into the bow. A divine arrow swiftly took shape, arrow-light gathering madly and massing upon the arrowhead.

Just then, all at once, light filled the heavens, scattering and howling toward him, swishing one after another to cling to the blade-light at the arrow's head. That light was the starlight of the Ancestral Court; one star after another seemed about to be dragged over by the divine bow, drawing ever nearer to the Ancestral Court!

Shen Mu felt at once the power within the bow growing stronger and stronger, more than his two arms could bear, and his thick, powerful arms could not keep from trembling.

"Damnation, the power is a little too great! " He was about to release the force, but the starlight was still gathering, and the power of heaven and earth within the Ancestral Court seemed about to be drawn in as well, forming vortexes great and small in the sky above the valley.

"Go, all of you, go quickly!

" Cold sweat sprang out on Shen Mu's forehead; he found that he could not withdraw his vital essence at all, and could only clench his teeth and hold on desperately, his voice hoarse: "When the divine bow's power is let loose, I can't control the direction the blast will take! " Hearing this, the First Ancestor's expression changed drastically. He was about to speak, to offer to shield Shen Mu, when he saw the three elders of Yincan Village turn and flee with no loyalty whatsoever; Blind Elder even called out as he ran, "Shen boy, hold on a little longer, just until we're clear of this valley!

" Silent Craftsman's voice rolled like thunder: "First Ancestor, Yan'er, things are bad, let's scram—" The First Ancestor hesitated an instant, but Yan'er had already vanished far away with her lantern in hand, so he had no choice but to set down the egg of Taiyi and say, "Shen boy, look to yourself, and use this egg to protect you! " They all rushed pell-mell for the mouth of the valley, while the vortexes great and small above it spun frantically and wave upon wave of heaven-and-earth spiritual power came surging in to hammer down at the divine bow in Shen Mu's hands at the valley's bottom! By now Shen Mu's body had grown to more than two hundred zhang, a giant like a mountain, divine light blazing all around him so bright that men could scarcely look at him.

And yet this giant was trembling.

The bow in his hands grew stronger and stronger, until its power surpassed his command! When this arrow was loosed, its head would meet the roots of the great black tree, and the might within the arrow would surely burst out in every direction; he stood at the very heart of that burst, and the peril of it needed no imagining.

Now the arrow was on the string and had to fly; it was no longer his to choose! An instant before the others flew clear of the valley, at the very center of the valley floor, an incomparably dazzling light exploded.

A massive sphere of light spun at the valley's bottom, swelling, and quickly filled the valley to the brim. The others, just flown from the valley, were in a blink thrown head over heels, swept up by that dreadful force and flung in every direction.

Though the Alchemist had cultivated the Heavenly Palace of Medicine, his cultivation was still the weakest among them; in an instant that dreadful power riddled him with a thousand holes, as though there were countless arrow-feathers within the light!

Fortunately the marvels of the Heavenly Palace of Medicine were beyond comprehension; his wounds healed as swiftly as falling rain, only for yet more wounds to appear upon him straight after.

At last the storm subsided, and each of them came down to the ground, bedraggled and wretched. Long Qilin came running swiftly, and finding that Yan'er was unharmed, he let out a breath of relief.

"The Hierarch is still down there!

" Long Qilin had found no trace of Shen Mu, and could not keep the alarm from his voice.

At the bottom of the valley.

The cliff face was everywhere studded with arrows made of light, driven deep into the indestructible rock, save for one patch in the shape of a man, where there was no arrow at all.