Chapter 1827 — Subduing the Multitude of the Heaven-Opening Host
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
His body struck the nearest obelisk stele, and body and primal spirit merged into the stele, imprisoned within it.
Shen Mu shifted his steps, and the whole Obelisk Forest shifted its formation with him; one giant stele after another moved without cease. Shen Mu pointed a second finger, and another of the Host flew tumbling backward, falling into the second stele!
The rest of the Host came at Shen Mu one after another. Shen Mu moved his steps around the Dao-Burying Divine Coffin, flicked his sleeve, and yet another of the Host screamed and went hurtling away, falling into the third stele.
The Smiling Man, Shijing, shook his body, and the formation of the Heaven-Opening Altar came to life. The other members of the Host suddenly transformed in body and primal spirit, merging into his own, so that his body and primal spirit swelled up towering, like a giant who had opened the heavens and split the earth!
Though three of the Host had been suppressed by Shen Mu and the altar formation was incomplete, Shen Mu's cultivation had not reached the level of a Young Master, and he still had confidence that he could break the Obelisk Forest!
Just then a great axe came cleaving from behind, splitting apart with a single stroke the thirty-two who were about to merge!
The thirty-two of the Host were sent flying in all directions, each landing on his own, and the formation broke at once!
Shen Mu seized the moment to drive the Obelisk Forest, forcing one member of the Host after another bodily into the steles to be suppressed.
"Leader, you truly are ill!"
The smile on the Smiling Man's face finally changed, twisting, as he said to Taiyi, "You need to be cured..."
Shen Mu summoned up his last reserves of dharma power, swept his sleeve, and the Smiling Man, Shijing, went flying backward, falling into the thirty-fifth stele.
Shen Mu panted hoarsely. The Obelisk Forest was still devouring his dharma power, more than he could bear; and the faces of the thirty-five of the Host were pressed against the mirror-smooth surfaces of the steles, their gazes dark and distant, watching to see when he would hold out no longer.
To marshal an Obelisk Forest of such immensity drained his dharma power enormously; and at the same time he had to maintain his own form, turning his vital essence into Primal Chaos runes to make up for the missing obelisk stele.
To seal all thirty-five of the Heaven-Opening Host at one stroke was a feat of dazzling brilliance, to be sure — but it had also drained Shen Mu's dharma power to nothing.
"Young Master Hundun — as ever, a crude brute, never once considering the consequences of his deeds."
The Smiling Man's face pressed against the mirror surface of the stele, his gaze devoid of feeling, his voice coming from within the stone: "You will not hold out much longer. And when you fail, we shall break free. Everything you have done is wasted effort."
Shen Mu suddenly sat down cross-legged, and behind him the Hall of Chaos appeared. The World Tree flew up and fell into the Hall of Chaos, drawing energy from the long rivers within it to replenish what he had spent.
"If I wish to suppress you, then I will suppress you so thoroughly that you will not stir a finger!"
Shen Mu had scarcely spoken these fierce words when Taiyi's great hand suddenly fell upon his shoulder.