Chapter 1856 — The Supreme Sword Dao

His wife could not cross it. Though she bore heaven-defying talent that could help Zixiao attain and make him the future Fourth Young Master of Miluo Palace, she could not preserve her own life within the Annihilation Calamity.

Within the Calamity they passed their last hours, their last tenderness.

Zixiao stood upon the river and watched this scene. It was the calamity his Dao heart could never leap free of. He alighted above the great ruin of the Tenth Era and watched how, within it, all his striving and struggle could not save his wife.

Shen Mu alighted upon the river and did not strike, but quietly waited.

After a long while, Zixiao withdrew his gaze and raised his head and said coldly: "Seventh, you brought me here hoping my Dao heart would break?

Then you are wrong. Coming here will only harden my Dao heart.

I must defeat you, that in the future I may save my wife.

Therefore in this battle I shall hold nothing back! " Shen Mu let his gaze rest upon the embracing pair in the Annihilation Calamity of the Tenth Era and said evenly: "Fourth Senior Brother, do you think I used some power to sway your Dao heart? I could do it, but I have not. Your Dao heart crumbles bit by bit, and it all comes from yourself.

It is you who, in wielding the sword Dao, long for your wife. It is you who feel shame in your Dao heart. I have moved no hidden hand. " A jeer touched his face, yet his eyes did not look at Zixiao opposite him, but stayed upon the history of the Tenth Era: "With every sword form you use, you feel your attainment truly came from your wife. You have defeated yourself.

" Zixiao's face darkened. Shen Mu raised his head, met his eyes, and smiled: "These days I have felt out your Sword Dao to the marrow. Why could I strike you just now?

Because your Dao heart is broken, and its flaws grow ever wider.

While I can borrow the strength of the Annihilation Calamity within the Chaos River, and raise my cultivation to stand against you! " Young Master Zixiao shook his Dao sword, and sword light stabbed forth! Shen Mu rose into the air and landed upon the Chaos Hall, rushing forward to meet the light. Countless sword lights stabbed up from the river, glimmering upon the waters, as if gathering Zixiao's longing for his wife in the Tenth Era and forging it into a supreme Sword Dao!

Beneath the eaves of the Chaos Hall the Cosmic Bell rang without pause, shaking the Chaos River.

Amid its tolling the air of chaos turned into world upon world, might shooting in all directions and beating back sword light after sword light! With a rush, the World Tree rooted itself in the Chaos River, thick roots piercing the waters and drinking the strength of the Annihilation Calamity! At the same time the Guixu Lotus appeared and turned the river upside down.

His Guixu Lotus Throne likewise drank the Calamity's power, and the two holy relics drove Shen Mu's magic power upward in a straight line until it grew boundlessly vast! Shen Mu's powers shifted through a thousand changes as he closed in to kill, swinging the Taiyi Divine Axe to cleave down!

Zixiao raised his sword to seal the blow, and a great crash rang out.

Zixiao's body leaned back, his feet skimming the river as he retreated, his arm numbed by the shock.

Just as Shen Mu had said, Shen Mu had felt out his sword Dao powers to the marrow, and with the borrowed strength of the Chaos River his magic power was no weaker than his own, only stronger! The balance of strength reversed, and at once he fell to the disadvantage!

And indeed his Dao heart was flawed.

As his Dao sword met that axe, a gap opened upon its edge, even as upon his Dao heart. The Chaos Hall came howling through the air.

Shen Mu stood upon its roof and brought the axe down again! Zixiao took the blow head on once more.

Another great crash rang out, his Dao sword snapped with a crack, and he was sent flying backward, blood spraying from his mouth as countless wounds burst open across his body!

Shen Mu pursued him and brought the axe down again. Just then came faint music.

Shen Mu started.

He had indeed heard music. His Dao heart bore no flaw, nor had he known Zixiao's past.

He could not be hearing phantoms as Zixiao had, yet the music passed truly into his ears.

The Zixiao Attainment Melody.

It was indeed the Zixiao Attainment Melody! Its tune matched that played by Moon Celestial Venerable, yet within its measure lay a rich feeling she had never held, a feeling and longing so thick it would not dissolve, a wife's entrusted longing for her husband.

The Fourth Young Master Zixiao was drunk upon the sword, while she poured extremity of feeling upon her husband, lodging her whole heart's love upon Zixiao.

In the years before the Calamity came, had she bent herself to crossing it, she could have lived through it.

But she wished her husband to live! With an idle glance Shen Mu saw, within the Chaos River below, that woman stroking her strings amid the Annihilation Calamity, and her music pierced through the Calamity to reach the river's surface. Plainly, within the Calamity she had seen this battle beyond it, and at the final pass lent her husband one last strength.

The feeling Moon Celestial Venerable lacked poured forth in her music, and Shen Mu felt grave danger. With a hiss, the broken sword in Zixiao's hand blazed with Dao light.

It was a Sword Dao Shen Mu had never seen. Where its light arrived, it broke his great Taiyi Tree-Felling power and snapped the divine axe!

Shen Mu urged his Chaos power. His Chaos power had reached small completion, and he had meant to borrow Zixiao's Sword Dao to slay Young Master Lingxiao, yet those sword lights pierced his Chaos power and stabbed into his flesh.

Shen Mu grunted as wounds burst open all over him. The Cosmic Bell shook, but in the next instant the divine bell was pierced by sword light, and its tolling dimmed!

Shen Mu spent every power he owned in desperate defense, yet amid the Zixiao Attainment Melody, whether Guixu Lotus Throne or the Dao fruits upon the World Tree, all were pierced by Zixiao's single sword!

"Without feeling in the Zixiao Attainment Melody, there lies Zixiao's flaw of Dao heart.

But with feeling, Zixiao's Sword Dao climbs another step! " Shen Mu resisted with all his strength.

Even borrowing boundless power, he could not block that stunning Dao sword! Zixiao seemed to dwell in an ultimate state, a state he had never reached, driving the sword's might to its uttermost!

With a roar, ten thousand swords pierced Shen Mu's heart.

Amid the sword light blood splashed as he tumbled across the river's face, nearly plunging into the Chaos River, when a lotus leaf grew upon the waters and bore him up.

Shen Mu rose, yet his knees buckled and he nearly fell. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth as he stared hard at Zixiao upon the river, his heart sinking ever lower.

Zixiao aided by his wife could not be beaten. He could think of no way left to defeat husband and wife!

Suddenly the music faded.

Shen Mu started slightly and looked into the river, where he saw Zixiao's wife breaking apart within the Calamity. He raised his head toward Zixiao opposite him, only to see that invincible being, the Fourth Young Master of Miluo Palace, also gazing down upon that scene, his shoulders suddenly shaking and trembling.

Zixiao remembered the moment his wife perished within the Calamity, when for him she played her final song.

He had never known why, at the last pass, she had not resisted the Calamity but insisted on playing that final melody, spending her last life until she died within it. For six cosmic eras thereafter he pondered why she had done so, until now, at last, he understood.

Within the Annihilation Calamity his wife had seen this scene, had seen him about to fall and die by Shen Mu's hand, and so with her final thread of life she bought his victory.

"Fourth Senior Brother.

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