Chapter 221 — Even Firm Armor Cannot Claim Supremacy

" The wind hit him in the face and Shen Mu shivered; the Vermilion Bird vital essence around him was chilled through, and frost soon coated his face and hands.

With a great roar, the treasure ship outran sound and tore away through the void. Snow Fox shut down the furnace in the ship's belly, and the flames from the bronze beasts at the stern grew short.

"Young Master, we don't have much medicine stone left from the capital! " Shen Mu looked back. Firelight welled in the clouds behind; a giant serpent burst up out of the cloud layer, and then the golden insect tide poured out after it, howling in pursuit, only far slower than their ship.

Now the ship had slowed, but there was no chance of the pursuers catching up.

Shen Mu let out his breath.

He lashed the helm with threads of vital essence and went into the cabin: "How much medicine stone is left?

" Snow Fox was busy feeding medicine stones into the furnace. She jerked her chin. Shen Mu looked.

He frowned slightly: every medicine basket was empty, only a basket and a half of stone left. The tower ships of the Kingdom of Jingping were provisioned with medicine stone wrapped in kraft paper; one had only to feed packet after packet into the furnace to keep them flying.

They had bought more than ten baskets of medicine stone in the capital, enough to reach the Wasteland; but on the road they had stopped again and again, constantly coming down to melt the ice from the ship, and much had been used up.

Snow Fox said, "It's too cold. If we run the furnaces wide open, I don't think we'll make it to the Wasteland. " Just then the ship gave a violent jolt.

Shen Mu hurried out of the cabin, and no sooner had he poked his head out than he slammed the door shut again — ding, ding, ding — a rapid, dense series of impacts, and a dozen or more flying swords were stuck in the cabin door. Shen Mu pushed the door open. Above the ship a sword pellet had flown up and was spinning; the deck and the cabin walls were bristling with flying swords, and now, as the pellet turned, those swords hummed and trembled and one by one fell loose from deck and wall and flew back into the pellet.

The Cleaving Sword Form!

Shen Mu raised his hand and cut down; the Chubao Sword came down with a ring and split the sword pellet open. The pellet burst, and hundreds of flying swords broke apart and fell from the sky.

"A fine sword!

" A voice came. Shen Mu looked toward it and saw, above the cloud layer a thousand zhang or more away, a young scholar running flat out toward them at a speed that made the eye ache.

"Sect Master Shen of the Dark Demon Sect, your identity is exposed — the road ahead of you is full of hardship!

" The young scholar bounded over the clouds like a flying thing, divine arts bursting behind him again and again to drive his speed higher and higher, and his voice came steady and clear. He laughed: "Many fellow cultivators are waiting for you up ahead!

" Shen Mu's eyes flickered. He pointed, and the Chubao Sword streaked cold light at the young scholar. The scholar, wide robe and great sleeves, both hands drifting, went to meet the Chubao Sword, and suddenly both sleeves were pierced through by the sword light. Startled, he hastily flicked his fingers again and again, and at each movement of his fingertips a divine art burst out, becoming a flock of fire-bearing sparrows that struck the Chubao Sword with ding after ding.

Shen Mu turned his sword-fingers, forming the Encircling Sword Form, and shredded every sparrow; the Chubao Sword was scorched red, but it whirled and danced up and down around the young scholar, and in an instant the young scholar was stripped stark naked, not a thread on him. "A fine sword art! " The young scholar hastily halted and put distance between himself and the ship.

Shen Mu felt his vital-essence threads reach the limit of their control, and took out the sword sheath; he gave it a shake in the wind, and the sheath became a fish-dragon, and the Chubao Sword came flying as a streak of light and was swallowed into the fish-dragon's mouth.

"Amitabha! " A Buddha's name came from overhead. Shen Mu quickly raised his head: the sunlight ahead was dazzling, the sun's rays unbearably fierce, and dimly he seemed to see a great Buddha blazing with golden light descending from the heavens, falling toward the treasure ship!

Shen Mu's vital essence burst forth; from the sheath the Chubao Sword flew out again, and became the Drilling Sword Form, stabbing upward at the descending Buddha!

"Vajra Unconquerable! " A shout exploded from midair, and at once Shen Mu felt the Drilling Sword Form turn impossibly sluggish; a vast pressure came down, passing through his body into the ship, and in his body came the creaking, groaning sound of bones that could not hold, and the treasure ship too began to creak and groan, pressed down until it sank into the clouds.