Chapter 1784 — Two Sounding in Unison
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Emperor Haotian stared, for though the axe had plainly missed, it seemed to have struck something, and the Taiyi divine axe formed of the Dao of Taiyi shattered from the shock, leaving even Shen Mu's palm streaming with blood. The Taiyi divine axe broke, yet fresh Dao of Taiyi at once reformed into the Taiyi divine axe again, and Shen Mu circled Emperor Haotian in swift flight, raining move after move of the great Taiyi tree-felling art down upon the back of his head.
Emperor Haotian dared not move a muscle and stood sweating like rain: "He is fighting the Fourth Young Master across empty space!
" Long ago the Master of the Lingguan Palace had told him that in Shen Mu's hands he would not survive ten moves before defeat and death, but that had been more than ten years past.
Now he felt that if Shen Mu meant to kill him, he would likely not survive even one move, but die the instant a blow was struck! Fortunately Shen Mu now bent heart and soul to countering the art sent through the string by the Fourth Young Master, the two clashing across six billion years with the battlefield set in the present, and Fourth Young Master Zixiao, unable to see Shen Mu's art and hampered besides by the Destruction Calamity, proved inferior to Shen Mu in shift and response.
His earlier stroke had torn the Heavenly Court asunder and slain countless mighty treasures and prehistoric powerhouses, and even Feng Hualian, an elder who had long attained Dao, had died beneath his string. Yet that stroke had been long stored up, and in crossing blades with Shen Mu, Shen Mu would give him no time to store power.
Shen Mu's Taiyi divine axe hacked at the string, seeking to sever it and bar his meddling in the Seventeenth Era.
And he must keep the string, guarding it with his art lest Shen Mu cut it asunder.
If Shen Mu severed the string and broke his link to the Seventeenth Era, then in the next instant Shen Mu could fell Emperor Haotian with one axe, wiping out body and Dao of the agent he had nurtured!
The descent of Miluo Palace would then recede beyond hope. Moreover he must block Shen Mu's art from traveling by the string to Yujing City, for Shen Mu's earlier blow that had wounded his finger had taken him unawares and already cost him face, and to be caught a second time would disgrace him utterly.
The two traded swiftness for swiftness, and Emperor Haotian stood chilled to the marrow as Shen Mu's axe broke and regathered without pause, flashing above and about his head so that he could not stir.
"If I strike Mu Tianzun from behind now, could I wound him gravely and let the Fourth Young Master prevail?
" A bold thought sprang suddenly in Emperor Haotian's heart, stirring and ungovernable.
Just then the Fourth Elder Yan Xiuge came killing toward them and dealt a murderous blow at Shen Mu!
Shen Mu frowned, for all his strength was spent countering the art sent through the string by Fourth Young Master Zixiao, leaving him no leisure to meet Yan Xiuge's art and Dao-attainment treasure.
Yan Xiuge's cultivation ran deep, and though in Dao and art she fell short of him, in cultivation she stood far above him.
In open duel Shen Mu could defeat her by his Dao and art, though defeating her would be no easy task. Now Shen Mu had no spare strength to answer her assault.
Suddenly music rang out as Yue Tianzun's Zixiao Melody of Attaining Dao sounded anew, and at once no art came through the Fourth Young Master's string, and Shen Mu drew a long breath and turned the Taiyi divine axe in his hand to cut at Yan Xiuge!
Emperor Haotian saw his advantage and at once urged the Myriad Dao Heaven-Wheel Seal, vital energy bursting from both hands to form two Myriad Dao Heaven-Wheels that slammed hard into Shen Mu's back!
Boom upon boom!
Within his Heaven-Wheels his dao realm ran thirty-two heavens deep, erupting in sixty-four successive peals as the full might of the Myriad Dao Heaven-Wheel Seal burst forth.