Chapter 1466 — With Face Concealed, None Can Tell Your Countenance

Above Shen Mu's head the sea of qi and blood boiled open; the demonic qi of the Netherworld dyed that sea of blood a pitchy black, and the skin of his fleshly body cracked and burst with sharp pops, scarcely able to hold in his own primordial spirit.

The two bowed down once more, and each took the heavier wound for it!

"Take my salute!"

"Take my salute!"

...

BOOM!

A roar that shook heaven and earth came rolling out, and Shen Mu was blasted so hard that the Heaven-and-Earth Mystic Gate behind him burst apart; his fleshly body could bear it no longer, and from his eyes, ears, mouth and nose spurted stream after stream of the black sand of souls.

Lord Yin, facing him across the formations, had his own fleshly body suddenly explode, bowed into a mass of chaos qi, and the Nether Capital's Heavenly Gate behind him was bowed into fine dust along with him; great shards of a divine artifact, trailing threads of chaos qi, plunged into the Nether Sea.

Shen Mu's body swayed and tottered, yet he stood and did not fall; of a sudden he stirred the Soul-Pulling Lure, reining in the black sand of souls that had scattered from him, and his divine ability turned, reshaping his soul!

Zaifu was just about to steady him when he saw that he had already recovered; his aura was spent, but no great harm remained, and so Zaifu drew back his hand.

"Is Lord Yin dead?"

Zaifu raised his Heavenly Blade and turned its face this way and that, searching out Lord Yin's whereabouts.

Tian Shu also raised his Emperor's Gate Divine Blade, staring at its face to seek Lord Yin's primordial spirit.

Luo Wushuang likewise raised his divine blade and swept the four quarters.

Zhe Huali raised the demon blade Dragon Fang; but Dragon Fang was a tooth of the Eastern Emperor, the Azure Dragon, and its face was not bright, so it could not shine into the depths of the void.

The hilt of Dragon Fang, however, bore a demon eye, and that demon eye rolled and rolled about, hunting Lord Yin as well.

Though Lord Yin was no Heavenly Venerable, his skills were truly uncanny beyond measure, sublime past the reach of the divine, impossible to guard against.

They had thought the killing of Lord Yin a trifling matter, and indeed to cut him down was trifling enough; but to take Lord Yin's life was a hard thing.

Nor was that all: Lord Yin's Netherworld divine ability and his Great Dao of Reincarnation left a lingering dread in their hearts.

"Is he dead, or gone?" Zaifu searched a long while, found no trace of Lord Yin, and could not help asking.

Shen Mu opened the vertical eye between his brows and swept his gaze around; suddenly his sight pierced clean through the void and the dark, and far away he saw the Nether Sea heaving and surging, with a head drifting upon its waters, rushing toward the Nether Capital. He said, "He is not dead; he has gone back to the Nether Capital. He is a being who cultivates the Dao of Heavenly Yin, and he has mastered the Great Dao of the Netherworld besides, so killing him is no easy thing. Pay him no mind. Lord Yin was nothing more than a whetstone for us to try our blades upon, no more than that; he is not fit to stand at the table."

He lifted his head, and there before him stood the army of gods and demons of the Northern Heaven Nether Capital, arrayed as though against a mortal foe; countless mighty gods and demons stood upon the prows, silent as crows at dusk, watching them in desperate alarm.

Zaifu, Tian Shu, Luo Wushuang and the others each stepped forward; Luo Wushuang gave his one-armed divine blade a shake and said coolly, "Shall we kill them all?"

The several divine generals at the head of the Northern Heaven Nether Capital changed countenance greatly, each stirring his divine weapon to shield himself first.

"No need."

Shen Mu suddenly smiled, and waved a hand at the tens of thousands of troops of the Northern Heaven Nether Capital: "Disperse, all of you, disperse. Your Lord Yin has already returned to the Nether Sea, so scatter, every man to his own home."

Those generals were as men granted amnesty, and Zhe Huali frowned: "They have seen our faces. If word of it is reported upward..."

Shen Mu, all smiles, took out a black silk kerchief and covered his face: "And now they cannot see our faces at all, can they?"

Luo Wushuang and Zhe Huali were struck dumb.

Not to mask before the deed, and to mask after it, was that not to steal a bell while stopping one's own ears?

Zaifu also produced a black cloth and covered his face, plainly a practiced hand, for Shen Mu had come from a famous sect, and he was that famous sect: "So long as we are not caught in the act, we deny it to the death. Who can do a thing to us then?"

"Masking one's face is nothing but a fig leaf; worn or not, it makes no difference. Who does it fool?"

Shen Mu, prepared against every mischance, took out three black cloths and handed them to Tian Shu, Zhe Huali and Luo Wushuang: "So long as we are not caught in the act, we deny everything to the death; and once it comes to a quarrel, there is no end of things to be said. Black can be argued into white, the dead into the living. Put them on first, and we shall see."

The three took the black cloths in silence and covered their faces.

Shen Mu suddenly recalled something, pulled the black cloth from his face, and called to the troops of the Northern Heaven Nether Capital, who were just then withdrawing: "I am the Heavenly Venerable Mu. I am bound for Xuandu to oversee the war, and on the road brigands wrecked my treasure ship. I requisition one of your swift vessels."

The generals of the Northern Heaven Nether Capital were stunned senseless. The sight of them masking their faces so brazenly after the fact had already left them dumbstruck; now Shen Mu would not even cover his face, but requisitioned their ships outright in the name of the Heavenly Venerable Mu, and such thickness of hide, it seemed, not even the Heavenly Emperor's sword could pierce!

The generals looked at one another; of a sudden one came to his senses and hastily ordered a swift vessel cleared and brought over himself, the several of them trembling and not daring to speak.

Shen Mu glanced at them with a half-smile and said mildly, "Still not going? I am about to mask my face; once it is masked, I am no longer the Heavenly Venerable Mu, but a brigand who dares do away even with Lord Yin."

Those generals scrambled and rolled away.

The five boarded the swift vessel. Zaifu watched the withdrawing army of the Northern Heaven Nether Capital; though the host retreated, its formation was utterly unbroken, its order measured, and even in retreat it showed the shifting postures of attack and defense. He could not help frowning.

"Lord Yin has plumbed the true essence of the art of war and of formation."

His face was grave, and he said in a low voice, "Had Lord Yin not been provoked, had he come at us in full fury, mustering the Nether Capital's host and setting his formations to trap us, I fear we would have been lambs led to the slaughter."

Tian Shu, Zhe Huali and Luo Wushuang were all commanders of great armies: Luo Wushuang had once led the Lingxiu Army; Zhe Huali had been trusted and employed by Emperor Yanxiu, Ling Yuxiu, and served as a general in the Western Frontier; and Tian Shu was one of the four Great Heavenly Kings beneath Kaihuang, holding command of the armies of Kaihuang's age.

They too could see the formidable discipline with which Lord Yin governed his troops, and each of them frowned.

A single god or demon of the Nether Capital counted for nothing against them in fighting strength; even its commanding generals had reached no higher than the Yujing and Lingxiao realms.

But when such gods and demons gathered into a great army and were unified by formations, the power they could bring forth was terrifying!

Sand heaped into a tower, one blow of united force: even a being of the Imperial Throne realm would not dare meet its edge head-on.