Chapter 1578 — Crushing a Mighty Foe in One Blow
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
He walked very slowly, studying bit by bit the shifts in Heavenly Lord Ming Fangyu's moves as he attacked Lord Ling, and even stepping back a few paces so that he might see more carefully. Lord Ling's death repeated endlessly, and Shen Mu did his best not to let it disturb him.
He watched with ever greater care; he did not belittle the Great Emperor merely because the Great Emperor had again and again come off the worse in dealings with him.
The Great Emperor was, after all, one of the mightiest beings since the beginning of history; even Heavenly Emperor Taichu had never lodged himself in the Daluo Heaven, and yet this one had not only imprinted the Daluo Heaven with his divine consciousness, but had also grown a Dao Tree, opened a Dao Flower, and borne a Dao Fruit.
One had only to understand that even Kaihuang, first among the Dao Realm, had to this day never borne a Dao Fruit. If he wished to wipe out the Great Emperor completely and free Lord Ling and Lord Yun, he must face the Great Emperor within the Daluo Heaven, the one transformed by the Way of Divine Consciousness!
That was the Great Emperor's true source.
Only by destroying him could the Great Emperor be uprooted entirely, with no hidden peril left behind!
"Since the cosmos was opened, no Dao-attainer has ever died, and of Dao-attainers there are only three or four in all.
But this time, who can say?
A Dao-attainer may well die! " His eyes flickered, and he said silently in his heart: "In the days to come, more will surely die!
But first, how does one truly kill a Dao-attainer like the Great Emperor? " The Great Emperor was only half a Dao-attainer, but even half a Dao-attainer was something Shen Mu had never dealt with before.
Whether he could slay the Great Emperor was crucial to the battles ahead, and rich in lessons.
He studied Ming Fangyu's strikes over and over until he knew Ming Fangyu's every move by heart, then sat down in silence and deduced the transformations of Ming Fangyu's divine abilities.
He had no choice but to be so cautious, for he must undo Lord Ling's Unchanging divine ability before he could free Lord Ling from that unchanging state.
And to break the Unchanging divine ability and free Lord Ling meant that Ming Fangyu, who held the Heavenly Emperor's body in his grasp, would be freed as well!
The Great Emperor's primordial spirit, Ming Fangyu, cultivated the primordial spirit above all, and to stand among the Heavenly Lords he must surely command vast divine powers.
Heavenly Emperor Taichu's body was the mightiest flesh in all history; the two joined together would be hard for Shen Mu alone to contend with.
Therefore Shen Mu had to master every shift of Ming Fangyu's moves and know every facet of him with perfect clarity.
Sitting there, Shen Mu actually closed his eyes and sank into a deep slumber, and soon the sound of snoring arose; dream after dream surfaced upon the Heavenly River, and within those dreams many tiny Shen Mus appeared, every one of them bearing the Great Emperor's manner, mimicking his every gesture and movement to perfection.
They unleashed the Great Emperor's ultimate techniques, deducing bit by bit how his moves evolved; many of the tiny Shen Mus even fought one another using the Great Emperor's ultimate techniques, and naturally there was slaughter, rivers of blood flowing through the dreams. It had to be said that the Great Emperor was a man of near-universal talent. He held many identities: the Great Emperor's flesh was so mighty that it could contend with the ancient god Heavenly Emperor; his avatar of divine consciousness, Lady Qiang, was the foremost master of divine consciousness under heaven; and his primordial spirit Ming Fangyu was a Heavenly Lord famed for the surpassing strength of his primordial spirit.
A mighty body, and mastery of close combat. A mighty primordial spirit, and mastery of the Dao arts.
A mighty divine consciousness, and mastery of visualization and soul-control.