Chapter 1737 — Wisdom Light Piercing the Nine Heavens

The two figures, one great and one small, collided for the first time in midair, and in the fleeting instant of that first clash Lingguan at once discerned what set Xu Shenghua's Dao-realm domain apart. The thirty-six heavens Dao-realm domain Lingguan unleashed through his Dao fruit was outward-released, spreading wide, no different from the domains of other Dao Attainers and gods.

Yet Xu Shenghua's Dao-realm domain was inward-drawn, wholly contracted! Even in Shen Mu he had never seen such a use.

This alone revealed that their cultivation systems had turned diametrically opposite, and Xu Shenghua's way of cultivation was vastly different from Shen Mu's as well!

Outward release meant a broader shroud, and in warfare on a grand scale, once the domain unfolded, every being that entered would be affected.

Take Tai Di's supreme divine-consciousness domain for instance: spread open, to envelop a continent was child's play, and all within lay trapped in his domain, unable to struggle. An inward-drawn domain, by contrast, was centered within the cultivator's own body, and its shroud could naturally never be as vast as an outward-released domain; only after the cultivator's divine treasury was released would its scope expand. Xu Shenghua gathered his thirty-three heavens domain into one, hidden within his body and held without release, its cohesion powerful beyond imagining!

He cut into the ancient god Lingguan's thirty-six heavens Dao-realm domain, and the mighty power concealed within his body made it hard even for those thirty-sixfold domains to wound him! In the instant they collided, the two slipped past each other.

In the fleeting moment of parting, their divine arts shifted unfathomably, dazzling and indiscernible to onlookers, yet in each other's eyes every art of the foe stood vividly clear, and the Dao methods and principles hidden within each art were mirrored with perfect clarity in their hearts.

A brute like Shen Mu, when slaying an ancient-god clone of Lingguan, never sought to comprehend or dissect the marvel and skill of the clone's arts, but simply killed outright, yet Xu Shenghua was different.

He could savor the beauty of Lingguan's arts and the wonder of his Dao methods, and then break them.

When their forms had fully slipped past, they stood back to back, yet each one's arts still streamed unceasing toward the other! By the time the two separated, each alighting upon a mountain peak, they had already exchanged more than sixteen hundred kinds of divine arts, each bearing a different Dao principle, without a single repeated move. As their feet came down, two thunderous booms rang out, and the two Great Black Mountains were pressed sinking beneath their feet, splitting open.

The riven mountains were a passage for the prehistoric powerhouses seeking to steal through the World Tree into this world. The passage had been dark, but now light appeared to guide them as they stowed away into this universe!

Thud, thud, thud.

Xu Shenghua's body trembled faintly, and muffled booms sounded from within him; of those more than sixteen hundred blows, forty-nine had struck him, and now, once he landed, their power could no longer be suppressed and erupted from inside him!

Forty-nine wounds burst open across his body, blood streaming, but then the power of Taiyi Dao dew erupted, fully restoring the injuries to his flesh, divine treasury, and primordial spirit. Xu Shenghua turned.

"Xu Shenghua, you are indeed formidable!

" The ancient god Lingguan turned as well, and within his own body came a muffled boom as the art with which Xu Shenghua had breached his defenses erupted inside him. The ancient god Lingguan gazed at the slender wound upon his chest and could not help but praise: "Your arts shift in numberless ways, truly beyond my expectation.

I studied under Miluo Palace, and though the Lord of Miluo Palace never acknowledged me as disciple, all still call him teacher.

How vast are the Dao methods and divine arts of Miluo Palace? How profound?

Every art has been tempered through age after age of universes, yet you could withstand them. You astonish me!

" He urged his cultivation art, and the wound soon healed.

Light flickered in Xu Shenghua's eyes as he said: "Fellow Daoist, these are Miluo Palace arts?

They seem somewhat different from the Miluo Palace arts I have seen.

" The ancient god Lingguan asked curiously: "Where did you ever see Miluo Palace arts? Most likely some half-baked standard. " Xu Shenghua shook his head and said: "I saw them from Heavenly Venerable Mu. He once displayed Miluo Palace arts, and they were most formidable.

" The ancient god Lingguan snorted coldly: "You would borrow the Seventh Young Master to strike at my Dao heart?

That trick is useless against me!

" Though he had followed the Lord of Miluo Palace in seeking the Dao and studied for four universe epochs, he was after all no Young Master.

Shen Mu, though he had never met the Lord of Miluo Palace and had gone to Miluo Palace but once to copy a single Dao pattern, had become a Young Master of Miluo Palace.

In this, he could never compare.

Xu Shenghua wondered in puzzlement: "How have I struck at his Dao heart? " He said no more, for striking at Dao hearts was something he seldom did.

When he had first crossed with Shen Mu long ago, he had been harshly struck, and walking shoulder to shoulder with Shen Mu had left him dragged until he spat blood.

Since then his Dao heart had grown ever higher, and seldom could anything shake it now.

Nor did he often try in battle to strike at an enemy's Dao heart; if his strength sufficed, the foe's Dao heart would crumble and dissolve bit by bit in the clash, with no need for words. The ancient god Lingguan charged again, his momentum greater than before; this exchange was briefer, but the arts denser, for the arts were summoned too swiftly, from stirring thought to formation and eruption in but a fleeting instant, so neither could employ great Dao-realm arts! Great Dao-realm arts were mighty indeed, but somewhat slower to summon; in such close combat, if one tried to use them, before they were ready one would likely already have taken a dozen killing blows!

The two parted, each landing upon a mountain peak. Crack.

Two more great mountains split open. Xu Shenghua grunted, sixteen bursts sounding within him as sixteen wounds burst open upon his body.

This time the sixteen wounds were not healed by Taiyi Dao dew, blood flowing unceasing, for clearly the ancient god Lingguan had fathomed how to restrain Taiyi Dao dew, using Miluo Palace arts to inflict wounds the dew could not cure. On the other side, the ancient god Lingguan also grunted, nine muffled booms sounding within as his flesh burst open with nine wounds.

He frowned slightly; those nine wounds meant Xu Shenghua had already discerned some pattern in his arts, deduced what arts he might unleash, and prepared their counters in advance!

Just now, in their second exchange, he had sensed this too; in that second clash Xu Shenghua's arts had come faster, and many moves struck straight at the weak points of his own arts, without the slightest hesitation!

"A monster of heaven-piercing wisdom!

" The ancient god Lingguan steadied himself, his Dao fruit revolving as more Dao chains surged forth; his wounds could no longer heal themselves, and he must rely on the chains within his Dao fruit to forcibly erase the Dao wounds within them!

Xu Shenghua raised a hand to seal his own wounds and said lightly: "Once more. What says my fellow Daoist?

" The ancient god Lingguan sank low, flesh tensed, and chuckled: "Then once more!

This time I shall surely hold nothing back! " He suddenly opened his mouth in furious roar, his voice like a great bell, Dao voices booming toward Xu Shenghua, while his form followed close behind the sound, all manner of arts erupting!