Chapter 756 — The Nineteenth Sword
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
This sword of Shen Mu's was the first form of the Tribulation Sword, the sword art by which he had entered the dao — the Opening Tribulation Sword — and the strongest of all his sword arts.
The sword core flew faster and faster. It was a primal weapon he had refined not long before, and now it spun at terrifying speed, skimming low over the sea, while from within it countless slender swords leaped free, every tip turned toward Heavenly Lord Hao.
And behind the sword core came Shen Mu, erupting with all his strength, sprinting at full power!
His mana poured into the core; thread upon thread of vital essence linked the flying swords one to another, and their blades bore runes woven in ceaseless change, leaping like lightning from one flying sword to the next.
The positions of the flying swords, too, shifted and changed without pause, like schools of fish swimming through the sea — the swords were silver fish, darting up and down, threading to and fro, laying bare the charm of the sword art in perfect display.
In that moment his countless flying swords seemed a single whole; the interwoven runes and the surging vital essence revealed matchless variation and nimbleness.
The rushing stream of swords became a brilliant ribbon of flowing light above the sea, and the shifting of every flying sword perfectly embodied the eighteen most fundamental sword forms!
Seen from afar, it was a single flying sword of terrifying length, one very simple technique: a thrust.
Seen close, examined carefully, one could find innumerable variations hidden within that simple thrust.
This was the first time since he had created the Tribulation Sword that he had wielded this sword art so perfectly.
Yet in that instant space itself abruptly seemed to turn thick and viscid. Space has no resistance; what resists is the air — but now a nameless force filled the space, and his technique met enormous resistance in mid-flight.
Shen Mu hurled himself forward in a mad charge, and the Opening Tribulation Sword thrust ahead as if splitting bamboo, its tip drawing ever nearer to Heavenly Lord Hao!
And yet Shen Mu felt the resistance surge as well!
This force was not the strength of any simple divine art, but a pressure upon the rules themselves, uncanny and outside the common order.
Such pressure Shen Mu had met before, when he entered the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Douniu Palace in the Douniu Realm. The pressure of the Southern Heavenly Gate came from all directions, acting upon every aspect of the fleshly body and the primal spirit.
Even upon his Opening Tribulation Sword!
It was the first time Shen Mu had ever encountered a sword-dao divine art being suppressed!
The tip of the Opening Tribulation Sword still pressed forward, but ever more slowly, and by the time it reached Heavenly Lord Hao's face, the speed of its light had grown as slow as a snail's crawl.
At that moment, behind Heavenly Lord Hao, cloud-glow rose in soaring rays, a thousand strands and ten thousand threads, converging from every quarter.
That was not the descent of Heavenly Lord Hao's mother in her true body, but her projection.
Her true self must be within the Heavenly Court; she had not come here in person.
That was a goddess, before and behind whom cloud-glow drifted like ribbons, dazzling beyond compare.
Her figure was slender and graceful; unlike the rough, uncouth style of Heavenly Lady Tianyin, her adornment was very fine.
The cloud-glow formed into flying ribbons that both veiled her body well and brought out the loveliness of her form.
Heavenly Lady Tianyin had crudely and bluntly used divine cloud-glow to cover her private parts, leaving every other part bare; and Heavenly Lady Tianyin wore not one or two pieces of jewelry, whereas this goddess bore many ornaments, and all of them exquisite.