Chapter 1560 — One Finger Comes and Goes, Shattering the Firmament
The Herdsman of the Wasteland Page 1 of 2
Shen Mu stood at the bow, his excitement beyond words. The golden ship was still repairing itself, its broken bricks and shattered tiles floating in the air and reassembling of their own accord; the collapsed halls seemed to flow backward through time, fallen pillars rising upright, palace walls piling up anew, and swiftly the ruin added brick upon tile until it was restored as good as new. The ship was like a giant beast waking from slumber, possessed of its own wisdom, its own thoughts, long feeling that its talents went unused, and now at last was the hour for it to display its full ability.
It drove into the Long River of Chaos, cleaving wind and wave like a colossal beast, pressing the chaos apart on every side. "This ship is good in every way, except that it seems slow to get going.
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" Shen Mu was somewhat anxious. The Golden Ship of Deliverance was still unhurriedly picking up speed, and as it accelerated it perfected itself; yet the ship's present speed was no match for a Tianzun's.
He flew swiftly to the stern and looked toward the shore, and saw that even the slowest of them, the Divine Emperor Langxuan, had by now reached the bank, while the Fire Tianzun and the others had raced back to their original spot, hoisted the Dao Tree onto their shoulders, set it down in the Long River of Chaos, and come chasing after the golden ship. All the while, the golden ship was still unhurriedly picking up speed. The Dao Tree drew nearer and nearer to the golden ship.
The five Tianzuns stood upon it, and the Palace Tianzun stepped forward first, his divine consciousness erupting as he hurled it at Shen Mu aboard the ship!
Shen Mu's divine consciousness erupted, transforming into the Daluo Heaven of Divine Consciousness to withstand the Palace Tianzun's assault. The two men's consciousnesses shifted through a thousand transformations, attack and defense each with its own method; and though the Palace Tianzun's consciousness was far more powerful than Shen Mu's, for a time he could not break through the Daluo Heaven of Divine Consciousness that Shen Mu had learned from the Great Emperor.
But the Dao Tree drew ever closer to the Golden Ship of Deliverance, and before long they would be able to board it. "Tianzun Mu, aren't you rather formidable? " Suddenly the Ancestral God King soared into the air and leaped toward the golden ship.
Behind him layer upon layer of heavenly palaces formed a great heavenly court whose divine light pierced the heavens; his primordial spirit was seated within that great heavenly court, his body vast, and at his first move came a surging tide of heavenly might!
His primordial spirit's great hand crashed down and shattered Shen Mu's Daluo Heaven of Divine Consciousness, and he pressed in toward Shen Mu on the golden ship, laughing: "Did you not, by your own strength alone, hold off seven Tianzuns?
The tiger fallen to the flatlands is bullied by dogs. You took advantage of our growing old to humiliate us — did you ever think this day would come?
" Shen Mu smiled faintly and pointed one finger. The Ancestral God King's face changed drastically, for in that instant he felt the power of that finger to be unmatched, and in his haste he hurried to block it! "Myriad-Worlds Heavenly Seal!
" Though he had employed the divine power in haste to defend himself, the Dao of Heaven was vast and boundless, and in an instant there formed before him a great seal wrought of the resonant trembling of the heavenly Dao of myriad worlds, gathered and converged into one! This divine power was the proud work of his entry into the Dao after he became the Lord of Heaven, and could be called his strongest defense!
Boom!
A dreadful surge of force blasted him, man and primordial spirit and heavenly court together, flying backward. The Ancestral God King's body shook violently; the Myriad-Worlds Heavenly Seal collapsed and shattered on the spot, and the incomparably violent impact left every limb and bone of his body in agony.
His skin burst open, his flesh evaporating into wisps and threads of chaotic qi.
Behind him the heavenly court rumbled and quaked, and was in fact shaken apart, splitting from a single whole directly into thirty-five heavenly palaces and twenty-nine treasure halls!
Behind, the Fire Tianzun reached out and caught the Ancestral God King as he flew backward, setting him down upon the Dao Tree. The Ancestral God King gave a muffled groan and raised his arms, trembling. The skin on his arms had been utterly annihilated, exposing blood and flesh and white bone, and his heart could not but fill with terror.
What terrified him was not that he had been wounded, but the power of Shen Mu's single move! For all this time, the Divine Emperor Langxuan's One Finger of Divine Origin had always been the most powerful divine power among the ten Tianzuns, one of the few great Taichu divine powers; and though the One Finger of Divine Origin was no longer the Divine Emperor Langxuan's strongest divine power, the might of that finger still left men uneasy in recollection.
Yet the power of Shen Mu's move was far above even that finger of the Divine Emperor Langxuan's!
Though it too was a single finger, though Shen Mu's cultivation was far inferior to the Divine Emperor Langxuan's, the profundity of the divine power contained in Shen Mu's finger was immeasurably deeper than such a great Taichu divine power as the One Finger of Divine Origin! On the other side, the Palace Tianzun blew his horn to swell the blood and qi of the others.
The sound of the horn suppressed Shen Mu's blood and qi, and at once Shen Mu's vitality flagged.
One after another they soared into the air; even the aged and failing Divine Emperor Langxuan now surged with blood and qi, an old man's shout coming from his mouth as he leaped toward the golden ship! Shen Mu's eyes showed a fierce light. He pointed from afar, and the Palace Tianzun's horn flew from his hand at once.
Shen Mu pointed again and again in quick succession.
The Fire Tianzun dodged in panic, the Void Tianzun bled from the corner of his mouth, the Ancestral God King tumbled and rolled out of the way; only the Divine Emperor Langxuan leaped onto the golden ship, and was immediately kicked off it by Shen Mu! The Palace Tianzun hastily released his divine consciousness and caught the Divine Emperor Langxuan, while the others landed one after another upon the Dao Tree, their hearts still pounding.
"What a formidable finger! " The Void Tianzun sighed in admiration, then suddenly said with suspicion: "But it seems this fellow has only the one finger, come and go as he pleases.
And that finger has no variation at all. .
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" The Fire Tianzun, the Palace Tianzun, and the Ancestral God King also wore strange expressions, each turning to look at the Divine Emperor Langxuan. In his day the Divine Emperor Langxuan too had had only the one finger, come and go as he pleased, and had scraped by among the Tianzuns for many years on the strength of the One Finger of Divine Origin, until he obtained a dao fruit and only then comprehended other great Taichu divine powers.
Shen Mu's present situation was rather similar to the Divine Emperor Langxuan's of those years.
The Divine Emperor Langxuan, kicked in the face by Shen Mu, had not a tooth left in his mouth, and panted: "If this is the only move he knows, then we need not fear him in the slightest.
. .
" Shen Mu stood at the stern with his hands on his hips and laughed aloud: "Who says I know only one finger? What I struck with just now was my index finger, called the Shangyang Finger. I also have the Guanchong Finger, the Shaoze Finger, the Shaochong Finger, and the Shaoshang Finger!
If you don't believe me, come and try!
" But the others already knew his true measure. The Divine Emperor Langxuan sneered and said in a muffled voice: "He makes it sound frightening, but it is only the same move performed with different fingers.