Chapter 137 — The Young Sovereign Lord Meets the Daoist Sect
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
For all its outward overbearing ferocity, the Nine Dragons Riding Wind and Thunder was in truth an exceedingly delicate technique, concealing within it forty-five kinds of dragon force. That force was hidden in the palm; to take that palm head-on was to have all forty-five dragon forces pass straight through one's body, wreaking most terrible havoc upon one's organs.
And yet Daozi Lin Xuan's Heaven-Overturning Seal had raised an iron wall of bronze, holding all forty-five dragon forces hidden in his palm between the two palms—proof of no small skill!
At that same moment the countless stone fragments flew past Daozi Lin Xuan's side.
Daozi Lin Xuan's blood ran cold. His Yin-Yang Dao Eyes saw that among those fine stone fragments ran threads—threads of primal qi, hair-fine beyond measure.
Those qi threads were infinitely fine; under the gaze of his Yin-Yang Dao Eyes, each thread was in truth a whirling slender sword. These swords were sword qi transmuted from Shen Mu's primal qi; hidden at first within the stones, they were now detaching themselves from the fragments.
"The Wheel-Hewing Seal!"
Daozi Lin Xuan's ten fingers flew, one palm turned up and one down; with a hum, two wheels appeared above his head and beneath his feet. These wheels were transmuted from primal qi and had an unusual structure, seeming to be a formation array—only one inverted with respect to the other.
Scarce had the paired formations of forward and reverse encased him when the fine stones around him abruptly crumbled to powder and dust filled the air. The sword qi Shen Mu had hidden among the countless stones closed in at once and became a green dragon of primal qi; countless sword qi formed the dragon's body, churning with all its might!
The Coiling Sword Form!
Between the two wheels that revolved in opposite directions, countless slender swords suddenly surfaced, forming a curtain of swords that clashed with the churning green dragon. Sword qi shattered and flew every which way; the two young men were clashing not only in sword moves but in dharma power.
Had any scholar of the Grand Academy been present, he would surely have been astonished beyond measure: what Shen Mu was now using was the Coiling Sword Form imparted by Imperial Preceptor Jingping—except that Shen Mu had not, as the Imperial Preceptor taught, turned the Coiling Sword Form into a pillar of swords; instead he had let the countless twining sword qi become a single green dragon!
Daozi Lin Xuan immediately felt the pressure. Shen Mu's primal qi was overpowering his own. His own cultivation was vast and mighty, and yet Shen Mu's cultivation was greater still—a thing well-nigh impossible.
The Daoist sect's Innate Grand Mystery Art was famed for the might of its dharma power; in sheer dharma power at the same realm, no sect's foundational scripture in all the world could match the Innate Grand Mystery Art—not even the Thunder Roar Mahayana Sutra, likewise famed for its dharma power!
And yet now he sensed that Shen Mu's dharma power exceeded his own!
Daozi Lin Xuan felt that his Wheel-Hewing Seal might break at any moment, and changed his move at once. Though he had no whisk in hand, he opened his palm and countless dust threads flew out—primal qi threads, and under his command like so many qi swords, cutting from within the wheel toward the outside, seeking to sever the green dragon.
In the very instant he moved, Shen Mu outside the wheels was already upon him; he reached out and seized a handful of the swirling dust and powder, and his primal qi burst forth. The dust and powder gathered in his hand and became a long spear, which with a hiss pierced into the turning wheel.
Daozi Lin Xuan blocked with the Heaven-Overturning Seal in his other hand, holding the great spear at bay—and then crash, crash, crash, the sounds came without cease. Shen Mu used his hand as a blade: Night Slash, Wind and Rain over a Thousand Cities, and countless cuts fell upon the wheel.