Chapter 12 — A Clash of Legs Decides the Victor

The two pairs of legs collided—pink skirt and white legs against beast-hide shorts and thick, coarse thighs. Though Senior Sister Liu's legs were slender and long, their strength was terrifying; her kicks came down like a blade's cut or an axe's chop. Shen Mu's legs were thicker and sturdier, yet they gave an impression of airy lightness, as though they held hardly any strength at all.

Bang, bang, bang—a string of heavy impacts rang out. In the space of a single breath, Senior Sister Liu's legs took heaven knows how many kicks. Shen Mu's legwork was simply too fast, so fast she could not react in time!

The fearsome strength in her legs was utterly useless. Struck by Shen Mu's dazzling flurry of kicks, her power vanished at once, as though it had been "eaten" by his legs.

"This is bad..."

Senior Sister Liu's legs went weak and sore. His legs kicked in an unbroken chain, falling on her waist, her chest, her throat like a rainstorm beating a banana leaf, and then one great bare foot after another slapped and hammered viciously into her face.

Shen Mu's body spun up into the air; he twisted and kicked backward. This kick was unlike his earlier legwork—before, his kicks had carried little force, seeking only speed, but this one held a power that made the heart quail.

Senior Sister Liu's face was kicked flat; her fine, straight nose was all but pressed into the flesh of her cheeks; her jaw was shattered, and her mouth seemed to fill with foreign matter. Head first and feet behind, the girl was sent flying back into the ruins like an arrow loosed from a bowstring.

Shen Mu had confirmed one thing: the Lame Old Man's Sky-Skimming Divine Legs were indeed first!

First under heaven—that he would not dare claim, but within the village they were unquestionably first.

That Senior Sister Liu's legwork had looked fierce and domineering, yet it had not touched him in the slightest before he crippled her!

Shen Mu could not use a single scrap of primal qi; he relied only on the strength of his own body. Senior Sister Liu, by contrast, could pour her primal qi into her legs to strengthen her power and attacks and to quicken her legwork—and even so, she was crippled in a single exchange!

He had just kicked Senior Sister Liu away when every hair on his body stood on end and an incomparably intense sense of deadly peril surged up in his heart. He had no time to turn; he hurriedly sprang forward.

Behind him, Senior Brother Chu had crept up stealthily and struck to kill. His blow should have found its mark without fail—only he had not expected Shen Mu to be so alert!

The two raced across the beasts' backs, leaping from the back of one strange beast to the back of another. Senior Brother Chu's steps were exceedingly swift, and he attacked Shen Mu's heart from behind with mad ferocity, while Shen Mu strove forward at full speed, his hands flying, blocking Senior Brother Chu's assaults.

The Thunder-Cry Eight Precepts—the Myriad-Arm Vajra!

Senior Brother Chu could not help but be appalled. With his back to him, Shen Mu could still block every one of his attacks, as though he had grown countless arms. Such a technique he had never even heard of!

Though Shen Mu's Myriad-Arm Vajra could not, like Old Master Huo's, make every lift of a hand and shift of a foot roll with thunder and rumble with lightning, it was swift as wind and quick as lightning. Though his back was to Senior Brother Chu, though he raced across the backs of beasts, he met force with force, displaying all his fierce dominance, and did not let Senior Brother Chu gain the slightest advantage.

Zheng—

Suddenly a sword rang out. Shen Mu's scalp went numb; blood appeared on his arm at once, cut by a keen blade.

Shen Mu tumbled off the beast's back and raced along beneath the belly of a giant beast. Senior Brother Chu followed him down, his hands empty, yet a silver sword whirled and darted around him, up and down.

Shen Mu's pupils contracted sharply. This Senior Brother Chu's sword-control far surpassed Senior Sister Liu's. When Senior Sister Liu controlled her sword, the blade could fly out dozens of zhang and kill an enemy dozens of zhang away; but when Senior Brother Chu controlled his, the sword never strayed more than three chi from his own body.

That was truly terrifying—and exceedingly dangerous.

To wield a sword to kill in close combat, where the slightest carelessness would wound oneself, demanded an extremely high level of sword-control. It also showed the formidable, fearsome nature of his swordsmanship, and his absolute confidence in it!

Without a minute, exquisite control of primal qi, one would never dare to wield a sword this way!

"Grandpa Tu and the others never taught me how to rouse my primal qi, and Grandpa Village Headman never spoke of how to use the primal qi of a tyrant body. In a case like this, I fear I will come off the worse."

His foot suddenly struck a tree branch—it must have been trampled and broken by the herd. Without thinking, Shen Mu tapped it with his toe; the branch fell into his hand. It was a willow wand six or seven chi long, as thick as a thumb.

The youth gripped the willow branch, his steps moving with flying speed, his gaze fixed dead on the tip of Senior Brother Chu's sword, paying no heed at all to his hands.

He tried to drive his primal qi into the willow branch, but once the qi entered the branch, at the point of one chi and three cun he lost all sense of it.

One chi and three cun—far too short. To pit that against the other's flying sword was truly too perilous.

Senior Brother Chu charged in, his precious sword whirling up and down around him—thrusting, slicing, wiping, flicking, chopping, shaking, cutting—as though an invisible swordsman gripped that blade and killed at Shen Mu from every vicious, tricky angle.

Chi, chi, chi, chi—a few soft sounds, and only one chi and three cun of the willow branch remained in Shen Mu's hand. The precious sword chopped down again and clashed with the willow branch, giving off a light ding, as though it had struck steel.

Seeing that the primal qi he poured into the willow branch could actually hold off the other's precious sword, Shen Mu set his heart completely at ease. Only the sword tip existed in his eyes, and the willow branch of one chi and three cun in his hand he treated as the Butcher's Blade. The saber art the Butcher had taught him was displayed upon that one chi and three cun of willow!

Night Slays a Thousand Cities, Wind and Rain!

Shen Mu's heart held nothing else; he unleashed to the fullest, with the little willow branch, the saber art the Butcher had taught him.

Fast! Fast! Fast!

The Butcher called his saber art the Livestock-Slaughtering Saber Art, and it had but one secret: speed!

So fast it was a fleeting gleam and a passing shadow; so fast the blade rose and the pig's head fell!

Shen Mu threw himself wholly into the swinging of his blade, swinging with abandon and delight. The clang and clatter of heavy blows came without cease. The two moved with flying steps beneath the running herd, killing their way from under the belly of one giant beast to under the belly of another. The giant beasts' thick legs and feet came down like pillars smashed down from the heavens; one careless step and a man would be trampled to powder!

Their steps seemed chaotic, yet in truth both followed a wondrous rhythm, and each time a giant beast was about to tread on them, they always managed to evade.

Senior Brother Chu was both shocked and furious. He was being beaten!

He, of all people, was being thrashed by this "little spawn of evil" with a little stick!

The willow branch in Shen Mu's hand was very short, a chi or so long—was that not indeed a little stick?