Chapter 242 — One More Time

Granny Zhu said with a placid smile: "The Village Chief's transmission is the envy of who knows how many. The finest man in the world in his day, the famous Sword God — of course Shen'er is so thrilled he is babbling nonsense."

Shen Mu truly could not get free, and could only accept his fate; he casually tossed the Human Emperor Seal into the Taotie Pouch.

The Village Chief was well satisfied. "The first move of the Sword Diagram, Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers, you have already learned. Now use it once, and let me see whether you have improved in this time."

Shen Mu assented and performed Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers.

His Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers differed from what the Village Chief had taught him: he had blended into it the Imperial Preceptor Jingping's Coiling Sword Form, Piercing Sword Form, and Roving Sword Form, and it had gained many variations.

Having performed the move, Shen Mu withdrew his sword qi and looked at the Village Chief in trepidation.

The Village Chief was surprised, and thoughtful. "Is this the basic sword forms the Imperial Preceptor Jingping taught you?"

Shen Mu nodded and said, "Village Chief, I altered the Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers you taught me — betraying my teacher and defiling my forebears. Will you expel me, and choose another Human Emperor?"

"Very good. Very good."

The Village Chief praised him: "The Imperial Preceptor Jingping is very good indeed, to work a new device upon the fourteen basic sword forms and open a new move from them. He is truly better suited to be Human Emperor... but you are not bad either — you do not cling to the old ways, and you dared to use your altered Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers before me. Very good, very good. Your qi threads have changed as well — you refine qi into threads with the Coiling Sword Form?"

Shen Mu nodded.

The Village Chief said, "I will use the cultivation of the Five Luminaries realm; you use your improved Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers. Let us trade one blow."

Shen Mu's eyes brightened, and he laughed: "Village Chief, if you are defeated by this one move of mine, may I be excused from being Human Emperor?"

The Village Chief smiled, refining qi into a sword, and said leisurely: "Fine. If you defeat me, I will carry the Human Emperor Seal into my grave."

Shen Mu drew a long breath. Suddenly his body changed — deified — into the form of Star Lord Taibai, treading twin dragons, tiger-headed and white-browed; his vital qi became golden qi, and gathering qi into a sword, the sword light surged at once!

Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers!

Beneath his sword, mountains and rivers burst into being, unfolding like a scroll of painting, screening the village and drawing the Village Chief into his painted landscape!

He had not only fused the Imperial Preceptor Jingping's basic sword forms, but had also blended in the way of painting bequeathed by the deaf old man; a thousand mountains and ten thousand waters rushed at the face, like a real and certain world.

Swordsmanship so profound could no longer be called swordsmanship; it was a Way — the Way of the sword.

His Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers bloomed fully, its power bursting out in full, and at that moment the Village Chief's single thread of sword light flickered — also Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers. It was as though two worlds collided; no sword light could be seen at all, only a terrible power erupting in a single instant!

Ch-ch-ch-ch —

Dozens of streaks of blood light flashed upon Shen Mu's body; wounded in dozens of places, he flew backward and, with a thunderous crash, slapped against the wall of Zai Fu's butcher shop. Upon the wall, sword lights appeared one after another, carving out a landscape about Shen Mu.

Those were the traces left by that single thread of the Village Chief's sword light.

"Again!"

Shen Mu roared, sealed the sword wounds on his body, and with a howl charged at the Village Chief, once more performing Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers. The next moment another figure flew out, smashing into Old Man Huo's house with a clatter.

The wall around Shen Mu was still a landscape painting.

Shen Mu was stunned. He slid down from the wall, smeared some dragon saliva on his wounds, applied the medicine, and then pondered bitterly, continuing to improve Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers. After a long while he rose again and charged at the Village Chief: "One more time!"

Crash.

Upon the wall of the blacksmith's forge appeared the imprint of a human figure, and around the imprint a landscape — utterly different from the patterns on the other walls.

Each time the Village Chief struck, the landscape was different.

In the blacksmith's forge, the Silent Craftsman poked his head out, looked at Shen Mu, and split his face in a silent grin.

Shen Mu, his face black, smeared on wound medicine and went on racking his brains, clearing away the flaws in his moves one by one, improving the sword forms.

"One more time!"

A figure flew back through towering mountains and rivers, and hung upon the deaf old man's wall.