Chapter 1570 — Forging the Original Intent into a Sword

"Worthy of the most vicious weapon under heaven!

" Kaihuang could not help but grow feverish. He drew his sword with fierce resolve; sword-light and his own fresh blood gathered together, his sword way dissolving into drop after drop of blood that flew upward.

Suddenly there came a few crisp rings, ding, ding, ding, and in the instant his blood met the God-Slaying Mystic Saber, the sword way hidden within that blood burst forth!

Kaihuang's eyes lit up: at last he saw the God-Slaying Mystic Saber within the ocean of blood. The Wuyou Sword met the God-Slaying Mystic Saber amid the blood-red tide, and his sword way erupted in that single stroke; in one instant thirty-five heavens of sword domain surged forth out of the blood-light! Boom! The sea of blood above the God-Slaying Platform exploded; mad saber-light and sword-light tangled together, and in the blink of an eye Kaihuang was drenched in blood, wounds everywhere.

This was not Shen Mu's own strength, but the strength of the God-Slaying Mystic Saber and the God-Slaying Platform.

This platform was a marvel: standing upon it, however many heavens of Dao realm a man possessed, the platform would call forth that many heavens of Dao realm.

Shen Mu's own saber way reached only the twenty-sixth heaven; joining hands with Zaifu and the others, he could raise it to the thirtieth heaven, which was certainly not enough to wound Kaihuang. But with the aid of the platform he could wield the Dao realm of the thirty-fifth heaven!

This was the platform's might, and Kaihuang's might as well.

Had Kaihuang, a being of the thirty-fifth heaven of Dao realm, not been standing upon the platform, he could never have commanded the power of thirty-five heavens of Dao realm. Add to that the power of the God-Slaying Mystic Saber, and he had wounded Kaihuang! For the first time Kaihuang faced an attack so ferocious.

The saber-light sweeping down upon him from every quarter made him feel he had no way to withstand it; and worse, that dreadful saber-light penetrated everywhere, cutting into his flesh again and again, cutting into his primal spirit!

Even his Dao heart was invaded by the saber-light, hacked full of holes! The God-Slaying Mystic Saber, joined with the God-Slaying Platform, and with Shen Mu, a formidable being steeped in the saber way, had driven Kaihuang onto the defensive!

He saw Shen Mu within the blood-light: the mystic saber splitting into two, then suddenly one again, now long, now short, now far, now near, like a gale, like thunder, like a driving storm, swift beyond imagining, swift beyond belief! Shen Mu attacked from every angle; even his Dao realm could not hold, and his sword domain was cleft open again and again by those two divine sabers. The wounds to flesh and primal spirit were heavy, but heavier still were the saber scars laid upon his Dao heart.

The God-Slaying Mystic Saber struck again and again, like question after question of the Dao, rebuking his Dao heart, rebuking all that he had done, making him doubt himself, deny himself! Such an attack he had never seen before; he did not know how to resist it.

For the first time he hesitated; for the first time he wavered.

His unbreakable Dao heart grew frail in that moment. It was as though in the blood-light he saw the whole of his life's deeds, his failures; saw the consequences that his own decision had brought when the Kaihuang Calamity erupted.

He saw himself in the Kaihuang Calamity, leading the strongest forces of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court to Wuyou Township for refuge; saw that after their departure the people the Kaihuang Heavenly Court had sheltered were scattered and homeless, husbands parted from wives, parents from children; saw countless living beings die wretched deaths at the hands of the Heavenly Court's gods and devils!

He saw the lives he had sworn to protect, the suffering and helplessness they faced amid natural disaster and human calamity; saw them wail at heaven and beat the earth, and wait in vain for him to keep his word.

He saw his old subordinates fall into despair, one after another turning to stone. He saw the Kaihuang Era become a wasteland; saw the Heavenly Artisan God Clan slaughtered; saw the Woodcutter Sage's disappointment; saw the First Ancestor Human Emperor leading the remnant peoples of the Kaihuang Era through bitter toil, wandering everywhere in search of a way to live. He saw the First Ancestor Human Emperor at the last, out of guilt, turn into a stone statue upon Little Yujing and refuse to wake.

This was Kaihuang's sin, and yet it was the First Ancestor Human Emperor who bore it. Kaihuang's Dao heart wavered. Shen Mu's saber-light made it waver.

In all his life he had never been able to be free of shame, and Shen Mu, wielding the platform's Dao-marvel, had struck out the shame within his Dao heart! Shing!

A blood-stained saber-light fell.

Kaihuang raised his sword to block, but was pressed down onto his knees; the God-Slaying Mystic Saber bore down upon the Wuyou Sword, and the Wuyou Sword pierced his shoulder. He knelt on the ground, and it was as though he had returned to the past, to the moment he first took a sword in hand. Dimly he saw his master, an obscure swordsman.

When he had knelt and begged the man to teach him swordsmanship, the aged swordsman's voice sounded within his Dao heart: "Shen Ye, why do you study the sword?

" In the mud, a young child raised his head, his eyes full of resolve.

"I study the sword to protect those who suffer hardship and injustice as I have!

" "I study the sword to possess power, to level the world's inequalities and shelter the common people! " "I study the sword to make the sword a plow, to plow out river channels so the floods no longer run wild, so the gods above dare not send down calamity.

I study the sword to make the sword a weapon, to sweep away fierce beasts, to root out demons and monsters, to establish order and law for the gods, and to restore peace and prosperity to the world!

" . .

.

"Can you do it? " "I can! " The aged swordsman pressed the sword in his hand against the boy's shoulder and smiled.

"Shen Ye, do not forget: this is your original intent. Nothing you do hereafter may go against it.

" In the blood-light, Kaihuang, drenched in gore, lifted his head and looked at the two blood-fiend dragons cutting toward him.

The dragons' eyes seemed to mock all he had done these years, mock that he had long since forgotten what his original intent was! Kaihuang's face streamed with tears, and the tears he shed were blood. Crack.

The Wuyou Sword in his hand shattered suddenly, crumbling to dust.

The sword that had campaigned at his side through all his wars was broken, broken utterly clean.

And yet in his hand there remained a sword, blazing with light!

His sword way, with Wuyou gone, held only the original intent. The original intent, forged into a sword.