Chapter 1449 — Nurturing the Spirit with the Blade
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 5
Heavenly King Tian Shu had gone to the Land of the Great Void to seek his original heart, and after the bloody battles there, the barrier that had bound his realm was utterly gone; he broke through in battle, cultivated the Imperial Throne, and became another great master of the Imperial Throne realm in the Kaihuang Heavenly Court.
The Dique Divine Blade was a divine blade forged for him by Heavenly King Indra; for a long time the blade's might had surpassed Tian Shu's own strength. One blade severed the horn of Tubo and carved out a Fengdu.
One blade cut across the Desolate Ruins mountain range and sealed the strangeness and darkness of the Desolate Ruins within the Desolate Ruins. And now Heavenly King Tian Shu's strength was enough to perfectly command the Dique!
He was the emperor among blades; his blade severed souls and seized spirits—it was the demonic blade of Youdu!
Yet when the Dique Divine Blade clashed with the blade qi transformed from Shen Mu's primal qi, Heavenly King Tian Shu could not help his breath stirring, and he was secretly startled: "How formidable—able to withstand my full ten-tenths mana!
Worthy of the Heavenly Venerate whom even Kaihuang cannot forget; in a mere dozen years or so he has cultivated to the Imperial Throne realm!
But when I have drunk wine, I fear neither Tubo nor the Yin Son of Heaven, and a Heavenly Venerate I will cut down just the same! Ten-tenths battle strength is not my limit! " He gave a long furious whistle, his movements ghostly: now his body dissolved into demonic qi, now hung high like a demonic sun, now his sinews and frame turned hideous, snake-headed and man-bodied, towering, commanding the great Dao of Youdu, now goat-headed and man-bodied, tiny beyond measure, hard for anyone to find. Yet his blade was ruthlessly powerful; the might of his blade art leaked not at all, bearing the unique style of the Kaihuang era.
Four masters of the blade Dao struck at once, clashing with Shen Mu's blade, each reaching a different conclusion, and all felt that Shen Mu's cultivation realm was about the same as their own. Five figures, rising like hares and stooping like falcons, each displaying their own Dao perfectly within their blade arts.
Zhe Huali's demonic wickedness, Luo Wushuang's discipline, Tian Shu's domineering way and demonic way, Zaifu's grand sweep—all laid bare!
And Shen Mu, in clashing with them, gathered their wickedness, discipline, domineering force, and grand sweep into himself.
He took the blade Dao heavenly palace as his primary heavenly palace and the other heavenly palaces as auxiliary; with one blade Dao heavenly palace and one divine blade transformed from primal qi, he swept and maneuvered, holding off four great masters of the blade Dao at once.
Earlier, he had followed Zaifu in training, tempering his blade Dao heart; whether establishing discipline or guarding the rivers and mountains and the multitudes, all was the tempering of the blade Dao heart, and from that tempering he had comprehended the most fundamental Dao-entering divine ability of the way of the blade.
Unbending, and so he knocked at the Southern Heavenly Gate; unyielding against injustice, and so he would establish discipline; to guard, and so he would kill.
The blade nurtures the spirit. Only by mastering these three fundamental spirits of the blade Dao could one be counted as formally entered.
In the future, however his way of the blade might change or evolve, what he could not cast aside or deviate from were these three spirits; to cast them aside or deviate from them would be to betray the Dao of the blade. Zaifu could teach him no more, could guide him no further, and so he must fuse together all he had learned and comprehended.