Chapter 1452 — The Wicked Dragon's Baleful Breath Enters the Body
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 3
Zhe Huali raised his head and studied the God-Slaying Platform. The two strands of baleful aura had devoured Fang Ziyan's qi and blood, and had grown all the more savage for it. "My dao heart can hold," he said, "but my cultivation is insufficient. The first to be wounded upon setting foot on the God-Slaying Platform would be me. With my cultivation, in the space of a single breath the platform would strip me of every drop of qi and blood, behead my primordial spirit, and leave me dead with my dao extinguished! And yet, when it comes to the wickedness of the blade dao, the divine sabers of the God-Slaying Platform are no match for mine!"
Zai Fu likewise formed his own judgment. "By my attainments in the blade dao, I can climb this platform and keep the saber aura from wounding me. But once I am up there, the moment those two divine sabers stir, my head comes off. My strength is insufficient; had I strength enough, perhaps I could give battle!"
Luo Wushuang said gravely, "I have but one arm, and my defense is gravely flawed. Before I could even mount the God-Slaying Platform my flesh would be damaged. I could preserve my dao heart, but my strength would ebb swiftly. Yet once on the platform, I might hold off one of the two divine sabers."
Tian Shu said, "Judging by how fast Fang Ziyan's aura is failing, I too would be wounded facing both divine sabers. Within a single breath I would die on that platform. But so long as I can hold, I can gain firm footing there."
The five of them were all old hands of the martial world. From the moment Tian Shu feigned drunkenness and lewdly teased Qiang Tianfei, the other four understood his purpose; they grasped it in their hearts and let Tian Shu provoke Fang Ziyan as he pleased.
Fang Ziyan's attainments of the dao heart were not their equal. She fell for the trick, and the protective jade talisman Qiang Tianfei had bestowed upon her was destroyed. When the God-Slaying Platform attacked her, the five seized the chance to gauge the platform's striking power and the manner of its attacks, and to reckon up their own weaknesses and strengths.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and in a hundred battles you will never be defeated.
The more they understood the God-Slaying Platform, the greater their odds of passing it.
Though Fang Ziyan was an existence at the Imperial Throne realm, and though she was Qiang Tianfei's disciple, she had weathered little of the martial world. Compared with these five old hands who had rolled in the mud, she was far inferior. Especially with her dao heart suppressed by the God-Slaying Platform, she fell into Tian Shu's scheme with the greatest of ease.
The four each weighed their own advantages and disadvantages, then turned as one to look at Shen Mu.
Shen Mu's gaze flickered. "With the four of you to aid me, passing the God-Slaying Platform and obtaining its great dao is certain."
Hum—
His divine treasury domain unfurled in an instant. Standing within it, the four suddenly found that their eyes could see before and behind, above and below, in every direction at once — every angle was their front!
At the same time, Shen Mu, with the Heavenly Palace of the Blade Dao as his core and the other heavenly palaces as auxiliaries, gathered qi into a saber, held fast to his dao heart, and unleashed the Saber of Protection. Their wills united as one city, their auras linked, their mana flowing as one!
Zhe Huali, Zai Fu, and Luo Wushuang immediately felt their cultivation and mana surge layer upon layer, until in a single instant it was as though they possessed the mana of an Imperial Throne!
As for Tian Shu the Heavenly King, he felt his mana dip slightly, but not by much — it still kept him at the Imperial Throne realm.
The four were aghast. This mana was plainly not Tian Shu's; it came from Shen Mu!
That Shen Mu's mana should run so deep was truly inconceivable!