荒墟牧神 - 第1199章 拔下神凰翎羽 - 墨香閣

The dragon scales on King Longbo's body had been plucked utterly bare. Even his reverse scale was gone, and there were no scales left to take; Shen Mu had pulled out a good many of his dragon whiskers as well, and at last he stopped.

"We are a hair's breadth from success!"

Overjoyed, Shen Mu beckoned to Feng Qiuyun and said with a smile, "Sister Qiuyun, I need to borrow a thing or two from you!"

Feng Qiuyun's face went ashen. Gritting her teeth, she stepped forward and, with a wrench, plucked out a single phoenix plume. "Every feather on this body of mine has been tempered a thousand times over. Each one is a marvel beyond price. Take one out into the world, and the people of the Yuan Realm would batter their own heads bloody over it!"

King Longbo said furiously, "The scales on our Longbo bodies are a hundred times more precious than your plumes. We have been stripped bare, and you still mean to keep your coat of feathers?"

Feng Qiuyun paid him no heed and handed the plume to Shen Mu.

"Do not fret," Shen Mu consoled her. "We are almost there. Truly, almost there."

"That is exactly what you said when you plucked the third Longbo bare," said Feng Qiuyun.

Shen Mu laughed. "This time it is different. This time we truly are almost there."

BOOM—

Wei Suifeng shook out his sleeve, and a seven-colored sun appeared in the sky. Feng Qiuyun raised her head and looked up at that many-hued sun, her face drawn with sorrow.

The plumes on her body were growing sparse. Before she knew it, half of them had been plucked out and handed to Shen Mu for his tests. Yet it was just as before: his trials would go smoothly from the start, only to fall short at the very last moment, so that the matter-energy of the plume reversed and it burst on the spot.

Whenever a test failed, Shen Mu would sink into deep contemplation, and each time it took him longer than the last.

Before anyone knew it, another half month had gone by. Even Wei Suifeng had been worn down past all temper, and despair was rising in his heart; he held on only by sheer force of will.

As the renowned Emperor Yunluo, he had weathered great storms and witnessed the rise and ruin of countless heroes, and he knew well that what destroys a man is never the world outside him, but the heart of his Dao.

How many heroes had watched the heart of their Dao collapse under defeat and never risen again?

He understood the truth of it, and yet, when the hour came, he could not help but taste despair.

"And yet our junior brother seems to have held fast to his original heart. By rights, these repeated failures should have wounded him deepest of all, yet he carries on as though nothing were amiss... no, as though he had no heart at all to wound, as if no setback ever lands on him!"

Doubt and admiration filled his heart together. "Unbending through a hundred defeats—perhaps that is why he is revered as the Shepherd Heavenly Venerable, and why I am not his equal."

Suddenly Shen Mu said, his voice calm, "It is done."

Everyone surged with excitement and hurried to look at his hand, and there, sure enough, Shen Mu was holding a whole, unbroken phoenix plume!

He gave the plume a gentle wave. Seven-colored radiance flowed from it, and the plume shone with a blinding divine light, carrying divine power of its own.

Shen Mu seemed not the least bit stirred, yet the light within his body had begun to brighten of itself, only to be forced down again at once.

"No one get excited," Shen Mu urged them. "Beware of explosions. Sister Qiuyun, I need to run a few more tests to steady the chance of success."

Feng Qiuyun gritted her teeth, reached around, and plucked a dozen more plumes. "Is that enough?" she asked, her voice urgent.

A difficult look crossed Shen Mu's face. "For tests with the Taiji divine stones alone, it should be enough. Even if something fails, the odds are not too high. But I still need to test with the Taiji origin stone, and its power is immeasurably greater than that of the divine stones. Therefore..."