Chapter 1448 — The Blade Dao of the World
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
"Grandpa Tu, where are we going?
" "To call upon the strongest blade Dao practitioner under heaven.
" Dozens of days later they came to the Yong River. On either bank lay fair and mighty country, and upon the water fishing boats came and went, drifting among the waves.
It was already noon and the sun stood at its fiercest; the boats steered for the shore to hide from the blaze.
The two stood upon the river, Shen Mu's hands empty, and doubt crept into his heart: this time Zaifu had not bade him forge a blade, so did that mean no blade would be needed here? And besides, was not the strongest blade Dao practitioner under heaven Zaifu himself?
Just then a great voice came booming suddenly from the riverbank, laughing loudly: "Shen!
Back in Jingping to sponge off your elders again? " Shen Mu followed the sound and saw a young general clad all in divine armor, a demonic blade slung across his back, appear upon the bank.
The young general trod the empty air and sprang, and beneath his feet ten thousand blade lights raced, bearing him swiftly over. Shhk—the ten thousand blade lights beneath him suddenly gathered into one demonic blade that swam like a dragon and chopped at Shen Mu. Shen Mu raised his hand, caught the blade light between index and middle finger, clipped it in two with a snap, and said mildly, "Zhe Huali.
It has been a long while.
" Zhe Huali crashed down onto the river; the surface burst open and the water splashed Shen Mu all over.
"You live so merrily up in the heavens, Heavenly Venerate Mu—a name to frighten the wits out of anyone! But every time you come back you shamelessly sponge off your elders!
What are you sponging off this time? " The demonic blade Zhe Huali had, in these years, been charged with guarding a divine city on Jingping's western line, the Tianyuan Divine City at the source of the Yong River, and had grown into a formidable general. Shen Mu's face could not help darkening.
He said sullenly, "Sponging off my elders? You lot stay in Jingping and sponge off the elders every day of your lives, and I come back once in a while to sponge, and you scold me for it.
. .
" Zhe Huali laughed. "The Dao arts and divine powers of Jingping long ago ceased to be what they were when you left.
There are so many geniuses now, so many masters they cannot be counted, and I truly fear you have fallen behind. " Though he spoke thus, a keen light flickered in his eyes, eager for the fray, and the demonic blade Dragon Fang on his back gave off low growls like a demon dragon, plainly excited, itching to trade blows and teach Shen Mu a lesson at once. In the old days, when Shen Mu taught Zhe Huali a lesson, the Dragon Fang blade had been taught a lesson more than once as well.
This demonic blade was spiritual—a tooth of the Azure Dragon, the Eastern Emperor, grown demonic.
Utterly uncanny, and it remembered grudges.
After another moment, blade radiance abruptly flickered in the sky: one layer of blade radiance, one heaven, eighteen heavens in all.
The blade light of those eighteen heavens poured down straight at Shen Mu in the middle of the river.
Shen Mu seemed not to notice; above his head blade qi soared to the heavens and became a heavenly palace of the blade Dao. His blade Dao spirit-soul stood within the Nine Hells Terrace, gathered qi into a blade, and cut upward against the eighteen heavens of the blade Dao.
Clang!
The air rang out and blade radiance scattered across the sky; then all at once the radiance drew in and became a divine blade that sprang upward.
Above, an arm reached down, seized the divine blade, and a one-armed figure crashed down upon the river, the water it threw up turning to blades that flew cutting in all directions like scattered jade. Zhe Huali stood motionless upon the river with folded arms, blade light like silk before and behind him, cutting apart every blade of water.