Chapter 1694 — Drawing His Sword to Subdue the Champions
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
The girl, meanwhile, plunged into Shen Mu's great abyss of Guixu; the next moment she flew out, garments in disarray, clutching her Dao fruit, only to be sent tumbling head over heels by the shock wave before she barely steadied herself.
And the woman held the paddle crosswise before her, her feet shifting and stumbling, retreating step by step, while behind her the ancient well for washing clothes abruptly gushed light — the water in that well was in truth Dao liquid and Dao dew, radiant with cloudy luster, like a sea, like a tide.
"Lord Shang!"
Her face was bitter and fierce; having barely blocked the shock wave, she at once looked toward Xiao Shang.
She saw at Lord Shang's waist a line of red, and Dao blood flowing out.
Drip.
The blade in his hand split cleanly along its length and fell upon the tabletop, leaving only the hilt in his grip.
The pig-god roared in fury and came charging with great strides, shattering stone and churning soil where its feet fell; its frame was majestic, it gripped the Dao tree, and with wide-sweeping, open moves it charged at Shen Mu!
"Zhu Santong, no!" the old man and the old woman cried in alarm from their two Dao trees.
The pig-god leaped, swinging the Dao tree down with all its might.
Shen Mu did not even raise his head; the Tribulation Sword in his hand went shua, shua, shua, meeting the pig-god head-on, and in the air one line of blood after another burst forth. Zhu Santong came down — forelegs into one basin, hind legs into another, pig's head into another, offal into another, and the tail sliced neat and even.
And there were plates and dishes besides, every slice cut with perfect uniformity.
Shen Mu's other hand lifted an empty dish, his arm swaying, and three Dao fruits dropped one by one into the dish.
The Dao tree crashed to the ground and took root, its jeweled branches swaying, but the Dao fruits upon it had vanished — cut down by Shen Mu's sword light and laid within the dish.
Shen Mu sheathed his sword, planted the Tribulation Sword and its scabbard at his side, and said with a smile: "My friends, my cookery is not bad either. Shall I show you a trick or two?"
Zhu Santong's pig head faced Shen Mu directly, still not dead, and snarled viciously: "Miluo Palace's Old Seventh, even your First Master could not kill us — otherwise he would never have sealed us away! You have not the ability either!"
The girl shrieked: "You can use your cultivation and we cannot — what skill is there in defeating us? If you have the guts, release us and fight us fair and square! Yaya could beat you to death with one hand alone!"
The woman hurried to Lord Shang and examined him; Lord Shang touched his belly and shook his head: "Nothing serious, only a cut through the skin. He held back."
His gaze was strange as it settled on Shen Mu.
That slash of Shen Mu's had been terrifying beyond measure, breaking his strongest killing move outright, even cleaving his Dao-attained blade in two with a single stroke.
Yet when the stroke passed across his waist, its force had been checked; the killing blow was never dealt.
Had the power of that slash erupted fully, he would surely have been parted in two, enduring in an instant the five stages of chaos, Taichu, Taishi, Taisu, and Taiji, transformed into a heaven and earth — body slain, Dao extinguished!
The old man and the old woman, nimble of limb, slid down from their Dao trees and examined his wound; finding nothing grave, each breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhu Santong's pig head rolled its eyes upon the table, but could not turn its head to see Lord Shang, and cried: "Old monster, what has become of Xiao Shang? Did he kill him? We shall fight him to the death!"
The old man said: "He is not badly off — his wound is lighter than yours."
The pig head breathed a sigh of relief, its pig eyes glaring round at Shen Mu: "Damn it, after all that, I am the worst hurt! Miluo Palace's Old Seventh, how did you manage it? Why can I not merge back together?"