Chapter 398 — Making Connections

Cowering under Dawnspring’s shroud and waiting to be besieged was absolutely not Shen Mu’s style. His style was to seize any opportunity and strike a fatal blow with thunderous force.

The Butcher had once told him that seeing an opportunity was not hard; he who saw it and seized it was a hero, while he who saw it and crouched motionless was a coward. Many men stronger than the Butcher had ultimately fallen into his hands, precisely because the Butcher was bold and fierce, never hesitating, never looking ahead and behind—he seized the moment the instant he saw it.

The opportunity Shen Mu seized this time was to strike while that demon god, occupied with using its pointed mouth to ferry many-bodied demons into Dawnspring, had no chance to break free. He drove the Dawn Ark straight through the world Dawnspring had formed, swung up the sun, and smashed his foe to pieces.

To remain trapped in Dawnspring and fend off enemy attacks was not his way. That was following the enemy’s rhythm, and it would only leave him besieged, letting the enemy fight however it pleased. He had to fight at his own rhythm—break out, charge forth, strike at the enemy’s head, and kill the head.

You fight your fight, I fight mine. If I win, you die.

It was that simple.

This was the essence of the Butcher’s blade art.

The chieftain of the Sunherds was still limp.

He watched Shen Mu haul back the massive sun that had crushed the demon god, the chain rattling, the sun scorching the land around it until the earth became bubbling magma, belching great bubbles one after another.

Suddenly Shen Mu’s eye twitched, and the old chieftain’s eye twitched too. Both heard dull snapping and cracking sounds from inside the sun. Shen Mu blinked, shook the chain gently, and lifted the sun, but he did not use his full strength, as if afraid the sun would shatter.

The old chieftain rose unsteadily, only for the sun, which had just floated into the air, to emit a sharp splitting crack. He looked up and saw a terrifying crack running across the sun, and his legs gave way as he sank down again.

“It’s all right, it’s all right. ” Shen Mu’s voice boomed in reassurance.

“It hasn’t broken! Everyone rest easy!

”

The many-bodied demon god had been shattered by his one blow, yet countless many-bodied demons on the Dawn Ark were still attacking in a frenzy, slaughtering and assimilating the Sunherd warriors.

At the same time, countless demons were devouring one another—the big ate the small, making their bodies ever larger and their cultivation ever stronger.

Like snowballs gathering mass, three increasingly colossal many-bodied demons appeared on the Dawn Ark, while even more many-bodied demons kept streaming into their mouths, feeding themselves willingly. “What I killed was not the true body of the many-bodied demon god?

” Shen Mu’s heart jolted. He let out a thunderous shout, and at once the sun in the sky erupted with incomparably fierce true fire, pouring downward and washing over the entire Dawn Ark in an instant. The true fire blazed wildly, turning the whole Dawn Ark into a flaming divine vessel. Countless many-bodied demons were burned with sizzling shrieks, dissolving into black smoke amid the flames.

He controlled the complete Dawn Ark.

Though this vessel was a treasure meant to tow the sun in its rising and setting, it also wielded tremendous offensive power. In the past, when Yan Jingjing had controlled the Dawn Ark, the sun had been extinguished, so she could never fully unleash the vessel’s might.

Now that Shen Mu had kindled the sun, the Ark’s ferocious majesty had finally blossomed. Terrible as the sun’s true fire was, it had little effect on the Sunherds.

They had lived aboard this ship since childhood and breathed nothing but its pure yang qi, giving them an extremely high resistance to true fire. Xue Hu’er, Ling Yuxiu, and Si Yunxiang, meanwhile, were fighting in midair alongside the flood dragons and the dragon qilin. The true fire had not swept over that quarter. The little fox stood atop the black flood dragon, wild with excitement, shouting at the top of her lungs, yet she could contribute little.

Compared with the flood-dragon host, her strength was insignificant. Shen Mu burned countless many-bodied demons to death, but the three abnormally towering many-bodied demons on the ship were not burned. They crawled swiftly through the fire, then suddenly sprang into the air.

The bone wings on their backs beat as they shot toward Shen Mu at the center of the Dawn Ark. One of them dove down, reached out, and tore free the demon-god war halberd stuck in a great hall, and demonic might exploded at once. “Don’t smash with the sun!

” the old chieftain shouted hurriedly, seeing Shen Mu about to swing the sun.

“Smash again and you really will break it! Let us old bones hold them off! ”

“Troublesome!

”

Shen Mu stopped, scanned the area, and searched for the many-bodied demon god’s true body. The old chieftain gave a shout and summoned several elders to meet the three towering many-bodied demons.

These three were incomparably massive and ferocious; even against the old chieftain and the elders, they did not fall behind.

The old chieftain seized a bronze bell and struck it again and again, clang after clang. It was no mortal treasure.

Layer upon layer of runic marks surfaced on the bell’s walls, and whenever it rang, they revolved around the bell, sending two sun-shaped fireballs flying out to blast the enemy.

But the broken halberd was a demon-god weapon, able to cleave through every divine art the bronze bell unleashed, and it was supremely dangerous.

Shen Mu swept his gaze about. The darkness of the Ruins was deep and heavy, and he could not tell where the many-bodied demon god’s true body was hidden. Suddenly, solid, heavy footsteps boomed from the darkness, thudding so hard the earth trembled without cease.

The footsteps came from every direction, faster and faster, until they abruptly vanished and became the sound of splitting air. The sound was piercingly sharp, and Shen Mu’s heart sank as he watched one enormous many-bodied demon after another fly out of the darkness, straight for the Dawn Ark. “So it really was not his true body!

”

Shen Mu’s mind stirred.

The Sorrowless Sword shot from its sheath and hung motionless in the air.

On the Dawn Ark, the great sun hung high. The Sunherd warriors gripped their weapons, frantic with dread, and looked up.

Huge demon monstrosities one after another blotted out the great sun’s light and came to hover over the great ship, casting shadows so vast and wide that the heart froze. At that instant, sword light burst forth.

The center of the Dawn Ark seemed to gain a silver sun, and terrifying sword intent and sword energy shot outward like sunlight in every direction!

In that fleeting moment, the Sorrowless Sword’s divine might swept across the sky, and a black rain began to fall.

Countless severed limbs and broken arms came crashing down, almost burying the Dawn Ark. But one demon in the air dodged all the sword light. It flew straight to the four divine pillars, passed between two of them, and rushed at Shen Mu.

Humm—

The great eye at the center of that many-bodied demon’s face flickered with black light, shining straight into Shen Mu’s face. Its four claws seized Shen Mu’s chest and sank deep into his flesh.

The black light in its demonic eye grew even darker, a light that seemed able to devour all things, so that even a soul caught within it would sink endlessly. Everyone on the ship cried out.

The old chieftain and the elders changed color, abandoned the three many-bodied demons, and rushed over. But those three demons immediately flew after them and held them back, preventing them from saving Shen Mu.

“You got close only because I let you.

” Shen Mu stared straight into the demon’s eye, his gaze blazing.

“I will use your assimilation to find out where your true body is hidden! ”