Chapter 1827 — Subduing the Multitude of the Heaven-Opening Host

Beneath the feet of the thirty-five, the phantom image of the Heaven-Opening Altar rose. As though their minds were one, the formation of the Heaven-Opening Altar came to life with a speed beyond imagining!

Zhu Santong came charging in with his wolf-tooth club and brought it down on the skull of one of the Heaven-Opening Host. Blood gushed forth at once.

That man's skull was like a flower in full bloom, its petals parting to every side. His face split in two, each half riding one of the cloven skull-halves, and yet he grinned — a grin to make the blood run cold.

Zhu Santong was startled: "Still not dead?"

Behind the split-skulled member of the Host a great drum rose and boomed once. Zhu Santong spat blood. The drum sounded eighteen times in succession, and Zhu Santong was torn into four pieces.

The girl spun, and the Dao fruits upon her Dao Tree flew out with a shriek. The fruits revolved, and from within them a thousand needles and ten thousand threads came flying all at once, piercing through the body and primal spirit of one of the Heaven-Opening Host.

The girl reached out, seized the threads, and gave a mighty pull — yet the man was not, as she had expected, sliced to pieces.

Startled, the girl was about to abandon the threads and flee when the man suddenly turned his head to look at her. A vertical eye opened at the center of his brow, and its gaze swept over her.

Whizz, whizz, whizz — countless tender bamboos burst out from within the girl's body, growing madly, piercing her through and through and nailing her upon a bamboo grove.

"Dao Tree and Dao fruit — long out of date," the man said mildly.

At the same time, the woman closed in for close combat, swinging up her washing mallet; and the moment the mallet rose, rosy light came shrieking up into the sky from the ancient well behind her!

Her strength was exceedingly great, in no way inferior to Dongyang's; that ancient well, from which she so often drew water and washed clothes, was where her great Dao lay. In the cosmic epoch she came from, she too had been a figure of the utmost renown!

Yet what greeted her was the assault of three of the Heaven-Opening Host. Her move had scarcely been delivered when she was gravely wounded by the three, and went tumbling backward through the air.

"How can there be such uncanny divine abilities? Such an uncanny great Dao?"

Her mind roared. The divine abilities of those three she had never seen before, and the great Dao they wielded she had never heard of — so much so that she was gravely wounded at the very first exchange.

On the other side, the old crone and the old man Dongyang likewise came under counterattack and encirclement by the Heaven-Opening Host.

In the Seventh Epoch, the old man Dongyang had ranked third in the city of Tiandu, second only to the Lord of Tiandu and to the mysterious Ling. He too had been of the Heaven-Opening Host, and in those days his name stood equal with that of the First Young Master, Taishang.

He had thought he understood something of the Dao arts and divine abilities of these thirty-five. Yet to his surprise, the Dao arts and divine abilities of the Heaven-Opening Host of old and those of the Heaven-Opening Host of today were utterly different things!

In the Dao arts and divine abilities of these thirty-five, not the faintest trace of those former days could be seen!

Bang! Bang!

His form went flying backward, his mortal body splitting apart in midair, his heart a blank waste.

He could no longer make sense of the divine abilities of the Heaven-Opening Host.

On the other side, the old crone was defeated almost at the same moment. One of the Host set his foot upon her face and struck to kill, about to take her life.

Just then, Shen Mu marshaled the formation of the Obelisk Forest and pointed a finger!

That member of the Host convulsed. His whole store of dharma power was suppressed until not a drop remained; his form suddenly shot up with a whoosh and flew backward.

Bang!

His body struck the nearest obelisk stele, and body and primal spirit merged into the stele, imprisoned within it.

Shen Mu shifted his steps, and the whole Obelisk Forest shifted its formation with him; one giant stele after another moved without cease. Shen Mu pointed a second finger, and another of the Host flew tumbling backward, falling into the second stele!

The rest of the Host came at Shen Mu one after another. Shen Mu moved his steps around the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin, flicked his sleeve, and yet another of the Host screamed and went hurtling away, falling into the third stele.

The Smiling Man, Shijing, shook his body, and the formation of the Heaven-Opening Altar came to life. The other members of the Host suddenly transformed in body and primal spirit, merging into his own, so that his body and primal spirit swelled up towering, like a giant who had opened the heavens and split the earth!

Though three of the Host had been suppressed by Shen Mu and the altar formation was incomplete, Shen Mu's cultivation had not reached the level of a Young Master, and he still had confidence that he could break the Obelisk Forest!

Just then a great axe came cleaving from behind, splitting apart with a single stroke the thirty-two who were about to merge!

The thirty-two of the Host were sent flying in all directions, each landing on his own, and the formation broke at once!

Shen Mu seized the moment to drive the Obelisk Forest, forcing one member of the Host after another bodily into the steles to be suppressed.

"Leader, you truly are ill!"

The smile on the Smiling Man's face finally changed, twisting, as he said to Taiyi, "You need to be cured..."

Shen Mu summoned up his last reserves of dharma power, swept his sleeve, and the Smiling Man, Shijing, went flying backward, falling into the thirty-fifth stele.

Shen Mu panted hoarsely. The Obelisk Forest was still devouring his dharma power, more than he could bear; and the faces of the thirty-five of the Host were pressed against the mirror-smooth surfaces of the steles, their gazes dark and distant, watching to see when he would hold out no longer.

To marshal an Obelisk Forest of such immensity drained his dharma power enormously; and at the same time he had to maintain his own form, turning his vital essence into Primal Chaos runes to make up for the missing obelisk stele.

To seal all thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host at one stroke was a feat of dazzling brilliance, to be sure — but it had also drained Shen Mu's dharma power to nothing.

"Young Master Hundun — as ever, a crude brute, never once considering the consequences of his deeds."

The Smiling Man's face pressed against the mirror surface of the stele, his gaze devoid of feeling, his voice coming from within the stone: "You will not hold out much longer. And when you fail, we shall break free. Everything you have done is wasted effort."

Shen Mu suddenly sat down cross-legged, and behind him the Hall of Chaos appeared. The World Tree flew up and fell into the Hall of Chaos, drawing energy from the long rivers within it to replenish what he had spent.

"If I wish to suppress you, then I will suppress you so thoroughly that you will not stir a finger!"

Shen Mu had scarcely spoken these fierce words when Taiyi's great hand suddenly fell upon his shoulder.