Chapter 224 — For the Righteous Path of All Under Heaven

Shen Mu, his mind free of all distraction, went on summoning the demon. Of a sudden blood-light burst forth, dyeing the snow-cloaked valley as though it had been steeped in gore.

That blood-light shot skyward, some hundred zhang high, while crackling lightning became coiling thunderbolts that snapped and burst out in every direction. The thunderbolts struck the cliffs ringing the valley, melting the deep snow and even the stone, so that molten rock came running down the cliff faces. The thunder wreathed the blood-light in a net of lightning, shifting with a sizzle and a crack, and a dreadful magic power came smashing in from another world, striking the statue upon the altar within the blood-light.

The wooden statue split at once with a crack, swelled, grew taller and taller, its aura more and more terrible! From the Taotie Bag at Shen Mu's waist came the Dutian Demon King's voice, angry and frantic: "You brat! When you summoned the Jiahe Demon God last time, you were holding back, weren't you?

This Plague Demon God you're calling up now is far more powerful than before!

" In this he wronged Shen Mu. When Shen Mu had summoned the Jiahe Demon God at the Imperial Academy, he understood a good deal of the demon tongue, but had not yet fully mastered it. In the days since, he had digested the demon tongue he learned when he struck the Pact of Tubo with the Dutian Demon King, and mastered more and more of it; hence the demon gods he summoned were stronger.

Last time he had not deliberately held back.

When the old Daoist saw this dreadful sight, he too lost the composure he had shown a moment before. His expression shifted slightly, and he tossed out the whisk in his hand: "Go! " The whisk grew as it met the wind; in an instant each filament became a filament sword dozens of zhang long, scattering through the air, so that seen from afar it was like a white umbrella ceaselessly spinning, only unimaginably vaster. And the whisk was exceedingly perilous: every strand was a filament sword, and the finer it was, the harder to guard against!

The whisk flew with great speed, slicing through countless bolts and flashes of lightning, and the next moment it reached above the valley and cut off that dreadful magic power crashing in from the other world! Shen Mu immediately sensed that the summoning was about to be broken; hastily he shouted, and the dragon qilin leapt into the air with a roar.

The roar rushed at that whisk, tangling and scattering its filaments, and at once the severed magic power flowed through once more and came surging on. Seeing this dragon qilin, the old Daoist was glad at heart and sneered, "You brute beast, you serve the tiger without knowing it, and may well bring destruction on yourself. I see you are of no common spirit and beauty; if you will submit to me and serve a hundred years as my mount, you may wash away your sins.

Otherwise, your lifetime of cultivation may well come to nothing!

" "Beast? " The dragon qilin flew into a rage and roared furiously.

Fire kindled in its open mouth, and a blazing pillar of flame shot toward the old Daoist! The old Daoist's body shook; his vital essence burst forth and took form behind him as a god-man with a turtle's shell, more than ten zhang tall. In his hand the whisk was a great snow-white serpent; his other hand he stretched forward, and with a thunderous boom he blocked the flame the dragon qilin spat.

The flame surged away on either side of that great hand, fire-waves flooding the heavens, scorching the cliffs all around red. "A heaven-being? " Shen Mu's heart sank. The dragon qilin's four hooves churned; fire-clouds sprang up beneath its feet, and it charged straight at the old Daoist.

Of a sudden the whisk in midair rolled back, and countless filaments wrapped around the dragon qilin's four hooves, binding it fast and tight.

The old Daoist rejoiced and laughed, "Little wretch, still you will not submit? Do you want your soul scattered and your spirit dispersed?

" At that very moment Shen Mu patted the Taotie Bag. Its mouth widened, and a demon-god puppet of eight arms and four faces leapt out of it, gripping eight treasures in its eight hands: a zither, a pearl, a bow, an arrow, a relic, a broken sword, a demon-subduing pestle, and a thousand-banner pagoda, the very treasures Shen Mu had stolen from the Golden Palace of Loulan. Shen Mu had kept this Dutian Demon King in the Taotie Bag; the Demon King had been fretting that he had no weapons to hand, and now he seized these treasures at once.

When Shen Mu let him out, he understood Shen Mu's meaning well enough: he was to help in the slaughter.

The Dutian Demon King also knew good from ill.

So long as he followed at Shen Mu's side, Shen Mu might spare his life; but were Shen Mu slain, and he left to fall into this old Daoist's hands, death was the only road. For the great cause of the migration of the Dutian living things, he must fight this old Daoist to the death. The treasures Shen Mu had stolen from the Golden Palace of Loulan were all of the grade of sect-guarding treasures, mighty in power.

As the greatest holy ground beyond the frontier, the Golden Palace of Loulan would naturally not collect anything commonplace; it was only that Shen Mu himself had no leisure to use these treasures for cultivation.

With these treasures in hand, the Dutian Demon King's murderous intent surged. All four faces showed a ferocious look, and he thought: "If I take this brat unawares right now, I'll be free! But then again, this steel body of mine has been packed full of mechanisms by the brat; if I kill him and the mechanisms lock up, I'll be trapped in this demon-god image and unable to stir. .

. Better to deal with this little Daoist first! " The zither in his hands rang out loud, bursting with wave upon wave of demonic sound.

The old Daoist's soul and spirit were assailed; he felt his soul stir and fidget, and demons rising in every corner of his heart. Hastily he shouted, formed a Mudra of Purity, and pressed the demons down. The turtle-backed god-shade behind him raised a hand; the white-serpent whisk lifted, and of a sudden the waves rose to the heavens and came crashing down upon the Dutian Demon King.

The Dutian Demon King's four faces snarled and bellowed; the eight treasures in his hands burst with power and struck at the heaven-covering waves.

In a world-shaking roar, the Dutian Demon King was sent flying backward and smashed deep into the cliff. The white-serpent whisk opened its great mouth and rammed straight into him, driving the Dutian Demon King into the mountain's body. "Little Daoist, you have no idea how dreadful the sovereign of Dutian is.

You have angered me! " The cliff exploded; the Dutian Demon King flew out from the shattered mountain, shook the thousand-banner pagoda, and the thousand banners whirled into a pagoda a thousand zhang tall, pressing down upon the old Daoist. The old Daoist sneered. The god-man behind him raised a hand and struck a seal, smashing the Dutian Demon King, pagoda and all, down to the ground, where he lay flat and could not stir. Just then, the dense blood-light in midair and the surging magic power suddenly vanished.

Upon a white-bone altar, the bear-headed demon-god statue became a demon god a hundred zhang tall, and gave a world-shaking roar: "You worms of this lowly world, prepare to receive the wrath of the great Dutian Bear Demon God. . .

eh? Old Dutian!

" Seeing the Dutian Demon King lying at his feet, the great Bear Demon God laughed aloud for joy: "Old Dutian! The mighty supreme sovereign of Dutian, beaten into such a state! It was leaders as useless as you who dragged Dutian down to where it stands today!

A good-for-nothing like you should long ago have vacated the Demon King's seat!