Chapter 1534 — A Single Sword Pierces the Firmament, the Heart of Dao Mirrors the Cold Frost

"Tribulation?"

Kai Huang looked at Shen Mu. He had raised the divine sword and was studying it by the light that fell from Xuan Du, and his heart could not help but surge.

The fate of tribulation lies vast and dim — who masters the rise and fall?

In the Kai Huang era, the Shang Huang era, the Chiming era, the Ten Heavenly Venerables had again and again sent down tribulation to destroy the world, reducing splendid golden ages to scattered ash.

Amid those tribulations, one radiant emperor after another, one civilization after another that carried the past and opened what came after, had at last declined and perished; even the Kai Huang era had become a bubble, a shadow, a dream.

When the tribulation comes, who can seize the oar that rides the wind and cleaves the waves, and carry all living beings across?

Kai Huang had not seized it.

Now Shen Mu had named his divine sword Tribulation. Was it because he had seen that in the future the Ten Heavenly Venerables would send down tribulation upon Jingping?

Or was it that he would send down tribulation upon the Heavenly Court?

Perhaps both.

The power of the Tribulation Sword was wholly contained. To outward appearance the blade was utterly unremarkable: no intricate dao patterns, no superfluous ornament. In Shen Mu's hand it was like holding a beam of light, save that this light had an edge and a point.

Yet everyone who had taken part in the forging knew how terrifying this sword was.

When the sword was brought to completion, it had taken the four ancient god emperors and Kai Huang and the rest to temper and suppress it together; and at the moment it was finished, its might reached beyond the heavens!

The Tribulation Sword startles the celestial palace; a flick of the fingers brings down the stars.

Even the treasures of the Heavenly Venerables had never raised such a commotion.

Shen Mu gripped the sword, thought for a moment, then casually fashioned a wooden scabbard and slid the Tribulation Sword into it.

No scabbard could any longer be worthy of this divine sword. Were its sword-might fully unleashed, even the finest scabbard in the world could not withstand it; so it was better to spare the trouble and use the plainest, most ordinary scabbard to veil the divine sword's edge.

"Back then you convinced me with a sword and made me walk out of the Carefree Land. Afterward you cast the sword aside and turned to divine powers."

Kai Huang walked up to Shen Mu and said, "Now that you have picked the sword up again, do not fail it."

Shen Mu nodded. "My sword is not the sword dao pure and simple. When I use a sword, I use it to kill."

"And are divine powers not used to kill? Walk the dao, guard the squareness within your heart, do not stray from your true heart, do not betray your original intent — then what harm if the sword in your hand becomes a sword that takes life?"

Kai Huang stepped away, saying lightly, "Mu Tianzun, you are a genius of the sword dao, but you yourself have never noticed it. You feel that the way of divine powers and the sword dao are incompatible, yet it has never occurred to you that sword-dao divine powers are divine powers, and divine powers are divine powers — the two can be joined, can contain each other."

Shen Mu's mind roared; he stood frozen where he was.

Kai Huang's words had suddenly opened a door for him, and he could not help but tremble with excitement!

That divine powers and the sword dao could be joined — this was the plainest of truths, and yet it was a truth he had never once considered!

In the past, when he comprehended divine powers, he had brought divine powers into the Dao to the twenty-third heaven. He had labored enormously over divine powers, comprehending all manner of great daos, and had grown slack in the sword dao.

Because of the Lame Elder's death he had roused a heart of slaughter, and so had turned to cultivating the sword dao; but he also knew that his sword dao had been cultivated only to the third heaven, and that to advance one step further would be incomparably difficult.

Yet a single word of guidance from Kai Huang showed him a possibility of boundless breadth: to join the dao-realm of divine powers with the dao-realm of the sword dao!

Suddenly he could not help leaping up, treading the void, drawing the Tribulation Sword; sword-light scattered, and the sword dao and the way of divine powers mingled just like that!

In his hand, sword-light scattered as he executed the Four Venerable Seals of Heaven and Earth, transforming into the round heaven and the square earth, forming joy, anger, sorrow, and delight, emotion stored within the Tribulation Sword; divine powers entering the Dao and the sword dao fused perfectly, and the might was so immense!

His sword technique shifted, becoming the Heaven and Earth Mystic Gate; sword-light swept in every direction, a heavenly gate bearing up the heavens, joining the earth, linking the mortal world!

Sword-light scattered from his hand; one thrust of the sword drew out a celestial river, and the four poles of heaven and earth emerged. With the sword dao he wrote and painted: the Azure Dragon, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird, the Black Tortoise — the four ancient god emperors stood at the four poles of the celestial river.

He executed one form after another, giving direct vent to his heart, unable to conceal his elation and excitement.

Kai Huang walked toward the outside of the Heaven Yin Realm. Yan Yunxi and Li Youran stepped forward and followed behind him. Kai Huang turned his head and saw the sword dao stretching across the long sky, spanning the void, dazzling to the eye.

There, Shen Mu had turned the whole store of his knowledge into the sword dao, advancing by leaps and bounds, his sword-dao cultivation soaring a thousand li at a bound, so that even Kai Huang could not help but marvel.

"The Shen family — the sword dao is branded into their very bones."

He smiled, turned, and walked on. Just then an old man blocked his way; the old man was timid, cringing, not daring to look him in the eye.

"Human Emperor Su Muzhe."

Kai Huang halted and sized up the old man. He saw that the village head Su Muzhe's gaze toward him kept dodging, not daring to meet his eyes. Kai Huang said, "You blocked my way, wanting to break the god in your heart, yet you do not dare to draw your sword. Can it be that you cannot even grip a sword?"

Yan Yunxi and Li Youran stopped and looked toward the village head.

The village head's hand slowly reached for the sword at his waist, yet it trembled — not at all like a hand that grips a sword.

A hand that grips a sword should be like Kai Huang's: utterly steady.

For the hand of a sword-dao powerhouse reflects the cultivation of his heart of dao; the hand that grips the sword must be as steady as the heart of dao, unruffled by any wave. To settle a kingdom with one sword, to pacify the world with one sword — all of it demands attainment in the heart of dao.

The village head Su Muzhe was the second man to comprehend the sword domain. His attainments in the sword dao were exceedingly high; that Jingping could produce so many sword-dao masters was, one might say, largely his doing. It was through his painstaking teaching and nurturing that Jingping's sword dao could advance so swiftly.

Yet after he comprehended the sword domain, he could advance no further — he could not advance a single step even in his cultivation realm!

Because his sword-dao cultivation was simply too high — so high that whenever he used the sword dao, he would see standing before him a giant of incomparable strength, like a peak that could not be climbed, could not be surpassed!

That man was Kai Huang Shen Ye!