Chapter 200 — Lurking Dutian

Whether it was the Youmo Cult, foremost sect of the demonic path, lending aid to Imperial Teacher Jingping, or the Youmo Cult using its teleportation banners to bring in Jingping's great army and wash the disciples of every sect and school in blood—either would set these Cult Master-level beings' hearts trembling, their minds wavering, their spirits thrown into chaos.

Though the span of their disorder was brief, to lose one's mind before a being like Imperial Teacher Jingping was, in essence, to have one's death already written.

Cult Master-level beings were, to be sure, great masters of the Divine Bridge realm—but within the Divine Bridge realm there were the strong and the weak. As Imperial Teacher Jingping himself had said, he was a man with no weakness in any realm; however wide another's angle, it could never match the length of his straight line.

His cultivation surpassed others'; his strength surpassed others' too.

Caught in a surprise attack, there was essentially no one who could be his match—who could even take a single blow from him.

Just as at Tianbo City, when the Dutian Demon King was locked in struggle with Mojiang and he cut the Demon King down with a single sword stroke—that stroke, too, had been a sneak attack.

Shen Mu reckoned that Imperial Teacher Jingping could, in the brief instant these powerhouses lost their wits, kill at the very least four formidable foes. How many he could wound besides, that would depend on the man's own skill.

Yet though this battle was dazzling beyond compare, displaying the finest martial power in the world today, those able to make out what was happening were few. Of the several hundred people present, perhaps only the Left and Right Protector Envoys could clearly grasp every move and gesture of the combatants.

Shen Mu gazed at the battlefield again, and still could not see its details; he could see only the afterimages left by swiftly moving figures, and beyond that the radiance bursting from spells, divine powers, and sword arts.

But every brief moment, a light would vanish—the death of a powerhouse.

Now, eight figures remained there.

"Apart from Imperial Teacher Jingping, seven others."

Shen Mu's eyes flickered. Among those seven, all should be of comparatively great strength. Which seven were still alive?

He could see the figure wreathed in flame like a god shifting and maneuvering there, but he could not tell who was who.

"To be unable to see the battle is to miss an immense stroke of fortune. I wonder—can I open the Bixiao Heavenly Eye?"

Shen Mu mobilized his vital essence, sending more of it into his eyes, attempting to construct the array-patterns of the Bixiao Heavenly Eye. His eyes already held three pupils: the first layer was his own pupil, the second the pupil formed by the Shenxiao Heaven, the third the pupil formed by the Qingxiao Heaven. And if he could condense the Bixiao Heaven, a fourth layer of pupil would form, letting him see far more.

Just as he was channeling vital essence into his eyes, he suddenly sensed something different entering his eyes along with that vital essence.

Shen Mu was startled. All at once, everything on the battlefield became incomparably clear!

He shook his head, looked again—still incomparably clear!

And yet he had not formed the array-patterns of the Bixiao Heaven at all!

"There is another person's eye within my eyes!"

Shen Mu broke out in a cold sweat. He could now even see every move of Imperial Teacher Jingping and the others—the level of each divine power or sword art, the inner structure of those powers and arts!

Every person's movements, every expression, were vivid before him!

This was not something his own eyes could see; it was what another's eyes saw—or rather, another person was watching the battle through his eyes!

Who on earth was watching through his eyes?

Suddenly he remembered: when he had summoned the demon at Tianbo City and called forth the Dutian Demon King, the Demon King's consciousness and mana had entered the demon-god statue through his body, bursting open the center of his brow. Lightning had flowed like a stream from his brow into the statue, and at that moment he had been driving the Mystic Body Three-Cinnabar Art.

As the art circulated, he had felt something enter his body along with the turning of his vital essence.

Then the disciples of the Hongshan Sect had arrived and unleashed the Demon-Repelling Token. Though the token failed to drive the Dutian Demon King back, when its light shone upon him, Shen Mu felt the demon-summoning cut short—the mana and consciousness flowing from his body into the demon-god statue severed.

In other words, a portion of the Dutian Demon King's consciousness and mana had been trapped within Shen Mu's body!

"Then the one inside me now, watching the battle through my eyes—that is the Dutian Demon King!"

Shen Mu was seized with dread. This Demon King's consciousness lurked within his body—where exactly was it hiding? Why had he never sensed the slightest abnormality in all this time cultivating the Mystic Body Three-Cinnabar Art?

The Dutian Demon King—what was he scheming?

Granny Zhu had a demon cult master, Fan Xuanshu, inside her; if he himself had a Dutian Demon King inside him, the fun would be considerable.

Shen Mu betrayed nothing. That the Dutian Demon King watched the battle through his eyes was, for him, a good thing too—it let him see clearly what happened on the battlefield, and the Daoist arts and divine powers unleashed in the duels of masters could greatly broaden his horizons.

"What I trapped is only a single strand of the Dutian Demon King's consciousness and mana. However strong, it cannot be strong beyond measure. So long as I can find it, I will surely be able to deal with it! For now I must not startle the snake in the grass—best to pretend I know nothing."

Now at last he could see the battle clearly.

Imperial Teacher Jingping's sword was no true sword, but sword-qi transformed from his vital essence, ever-changing, gathering and scattering at will.

His body blazed with light, like a god's; Shen Mu had once seen such radiance upon the village headman.

When the sword art was executed in his hands, even the most basic sword forms took on a state of incomparable complexity and profundity.

And his sword art was not merely basic forms; it held still more complex calculations and transformations.

"The Dao Sword of the Daoist orders?"

Shen Mu was startled. In Imperial Teacher Jingping's sword art he saw the shadow of the Daoist Dao Sword—those incomparably complex techniques of calculation. Take the taiji diagram, the circle: anyone can draw a circle, but no one can calculate the ratio between the circle and the arc that cuts it.

And this touched upon the first form of the Dao Sword, the secret of reversing yin and yang within the Two Modes. How to achieve that reversal—the Taixuan Calculation Classic was crucial to the reckoning.

To bring the power of reversing yin and yang within the Two Modes to its utmost, one had to calculate to the hazy digits beyond the point of indivisibility; and to rise a level higher still, one had to calculate to the digits of emptiness and purity.

"Imperial Teacher Jingping's attainments in mathematics are exceedingly deep!"

Shen Mu thought: "Had I known, when we traveled south together, I should have asked him about the Taixuan Calculation Classic!"

Those crossing swords with Imperial Teacher Jingping were the three old men and the old woman—Master Qiong, Li the Wanderer, and True Lord Tian. Worthy of the finest powerhouses of the old era, the radiance they gave off made them like three aged gods, and each had his or her own means.

The great brush in Master Qiong's hand was like a brush, yet its hairs were very long; like a whisk, yet with fewer transformations than a whisk.