Chapter 1776 — Death to Trespassers

Shen Mu walked into the forest of swords, his form passing straight through broken blade after broken blade as if he had no substance, and said calmly: "Go back. Return to the Miluo Palace, and I will grant you a way to live.

" The ever-shifting nature of Taishi was embodied in him to the fullest.

The man in the mirror burst into wild laughter, and in an instant his unruly figure appeared upon the mirrored faces of every divine sword in the forest of swords, saying with a smile: "Seventh Young Master, now that I have come, I will not go back. This is my sole chance at life, and I cannot abandon it no matter what. You have yet to attain Dao, you are not yet the Seventh Young Master, and you may not be my match. " Shen Mu raised his hand, and in a sudden flash every divine sword in the entire forest of swords shattered!

The fragments numbered in the hundreds of millions, yet upon each mirror-like surface emerged the figure of Palace Master Chuge, countless Palace Master Chuges speaking as one: "Seventh Young Master, you have not yet attained Dao, and you do not know how vast my Dao arts and divine powers are.

My inheritance is extremely ancient. As early as the Eleventh Era I had already attained Dao, in the time of the Prison Emperor, yet even the invincible Prison Emperor perished in the Calamity of Destruction, while I survived. Upon my Dao tree hang five Dao fruits and one Dao flower. Though I am no Young Master of the Miluo Palace, my skill should fall little short of a Young Master's. " Shen Mu gazed at the countless mirrors upon the ground and smiled: "It seems you attained Dao by fleeing for your life. If that old friend of mine were still alive, he would be delighted to see you and take you for his fellow Daoist.

" Amid the countless mirrors, the figures of Palace Master Chuge vanished, leaving only a final figure stepping from one mirror into another, saying: "The Seventh Young Master jests. My skill was never meant for fleeing, it is only that you cannot comprehend my skill.

After all, you have yet to attain Dao. Of course, once you attain Dao in the future, even our Master will sing your praises, and then I will be far from your match. " His figure suddenly split in two, appearing in two mirrors with different movements in each, smiling: "Since that is so, why does the Young Master not return to the past and become the Seventh Young Master in the past? This Seventeenth Era holds too many cares, clouding your wisdom.

Return to the past, and all this will have nothing to do with you, and you may attain Dao in peace. " Shen Mu laughed aloud, his form suddenly vanishing to appear within a mirror, face to face with Palace Master Chuge, smiling: "I will return to the past and become the Seventh Young Master of the Miluo Palace. But before that, I must first settle accounts with the Miluo Palace. " Palace Master Chuge's expression shifted slightly, and with a flash he stepped out of that mirror and vanished.

He arrived in another mirror, only to find a Shen Mu already waiting for him there. "I always believed I would attain Dao in the Seventeenth Era.

" Shen Mu said to him: "But not long ago I realized our Master was right.

Without enduring one Great Calamity of Destruction after another, my attainment of Dao can never be complete.

If I wish to attain Dao, I must return to the past and witness the chaotic Calamity of Destruction with my own eyes.

" Palace Master Chuge flickered onward, flashing through countless mirrors, and to his astonishment, in every mirror stood a Shen Mu, calm and unhurried, awaiting his arrival. "Therefore I have made a decision, which is to crush the Miluo Palace while I am still not its Seventh Young Master! " Cold sweat broke out on Palace Master Chuge's brow, and he suddenly transformed into countless selves appearing in all the mirrors at once, yet to his shock, in every mirror there was a Shen Mu!

"Crush the Miluo Palace? " Palace Master Chuge steadied his mind and laughed loudly: "Seventh Young Master, you are a Young Master of the Miluo Palace, yet you would crush the Miluo Palace?

Can you face our Master?

" "I am not yet a Young Master of the Miluo Palace, so crushing it lays no moral burden upon me. " Shen Mu said with utter seriousness: "Striking at my Dao heart through my mind has no effect upon me.

Moreover, our Master founded the Miluo Palace, and he would not wish to see what it has become.

If I destroy it for him, he will surely be pleased. Once I have destroyed the Miluo Palace and returned to the past, when Master takes me as his disciple he will surely favor me in every way.

" The corner of Palace Master Chuge's eye twitched, for as Shen Mu said, the Lord of the Miluo Palace did indeed favor this Seventh Young Master, even to the point of indulgence!

Shen Mu's deeds across past cosmic eras were, in his eyes, far more than a disgrace to the Miluo Palace, they could be called heinous, and even the other Young Masters bore him great grievance and resentment. All others in the Miluo Palace likewise railed against Shen Mu, their fury boiling over! And yet the Lord of the Miluo Palace still trusted Shen Mu excessively, never uttering a word of reproach, but letting him run wild! "Can what he says be true?

Has our Miluo Palace truly been utterly destroyed by him. .

. No!

He has turned my own heart-attack against me!

" Palace Master Chuge awoke with a start.

He had failed to assail Shen Mu's heart, and instead Shen Mu had assailed his, and for one who had cultivated to his stage, even the slightest tremor of the Dao heart was enough for an opponent to seize!

In the very instant his Dao heart wavered, every Shen Mu in every mirror struck at once! In all the mirrors, countless Palace Master Chuges laughed as one: "Seventh Young Master, shaking my Dao heart is useless!

My arts and Great Dao are wondrous beyond measure.

If you fought my true self I would have to weigh you carefully, but to fight me within the mirrors, you are doomed to defeat! " In countless mirrors, countless Palace Master Chuges erupted with divine powers, each one wielding arts utterly different from all the others, with not a single repetition! This was his supreme skill!

He could incarnate without number, each self possessing different abilities and thoughts, able to face countless foes at once! To achieve this required not only mighty power and an incomparably strong Dao heart, but also a powerful primordial spirit and profoundly vast comprehension of the Great Dao.

Beyond that, his divine consciousness had to be strong beyond all measure, and his power of calculation had to reach its peak!

The reason he could become a master of a hall in Yujing City of the Ancestral Court, unique under heaven, was that he had achieved all of this!

He could incarnate without end, each self driving different arts and commanding different Great Dao divine powers, fighting countless enemies at once without the slightest disorder! He firmly believed that even in the universe of the future Seventeenth Era, none could do what he had done!

"The skill of Heavenly Venerable You?

" Shen Mu's surprised voice came through: "It seems you resemble not only that old friend of mine in the art of fleeing for life, but also Heavenly Venerable You in skill.

But why should I dance with you and let you lead me? " In the countless mirrors, the divine arts of Palace Master Chuge shifted in a thousand ways without repeat, yet the countless Shen Mus wielded only a single move!

His vital energy transformed into Taiyi qi, and he wielded only the single axe art taught by Taiyi, the axe art that breaks the six thousand four hundred Great Daos of Taishang Hall!

When Taiyi taught him this axe art, he could not tell him its name, so Shen Mu gave it the easiest name to remember.

Taiyi Fells the Tree! He was like Taiyi at the dawn of the Seventeenth Era universe, transformed into an unmatched giant raising his axe to fell the World Tree.