Chapter 274 — Three Fists and Two Blades

"Impressive!" Shen Mu circulated the Creation Heaven-Devil Art and sealed off his own soul, his heart turning cold.

The arts of Loulan's Golden Palace were deeply sinister: they cultivated through souls, and the souls of men, of monsters, of divine beasts — all could be used for cultivation.

That glance of Ban Gongcuo's was no ordinary look. Hidden in his eyes was a divine ability aimed at the soul, and the instant he looked, that ability had already taken hold of the other's soul. Caught off guard, a man could truly be stared to death.

The Creation Heaven-Devil Art happened to be exactly suited to counter this kind of soul-targeting divine ability — though of course, that was also because the power in Ban Gongcuo's eyes was not so great that the Creation Heaven-Devil Art could not defend against it.

Had his eye-ability been aimed not at the soul but at the body or the Dao-heart, the Creation Heaven-Devil Art would not have held.

"The Heaven Blade's blade art?"

Ban Gongcuo's raised brows smoothed out again. "Does the Heaven-Record Tower hold such a technique?"

"The Heaven-Record Tower does not. I do," Shen Mu said with a smile, and lifted his hand to grip the hilt of the Butcher Knife.

The moment his palm closed on the hilt, the books and papers throughout Six Harmonies Hall began to rustle and flap, as though an invisible giant had cleaved out with a blade and stirred up a gale.

Across from him, the skin of Ban Gongcuo's face was blown into wrinkles, and several strands of his hair parted without a sound.

Shen Wanyun, Yue Qinghong and the others felt their hearts quiver. "Hierarch Shen's skill has risen again," they thought. "His blade has already been refined into blade intent! He only went home for the New Year — how could his blade art improve so much over a single New Year?"

They had all followed Shen Mu to the Southern Wilds to put down the rebellion and temper themselves, had gone through life and death with him, and they knew his abilities. Back then his blade art had been fierce enough, but nothing like this.

To refine blade art into blade intent was a qualitative leap; it was not something a few days of hard practice could achieve.

What they did not know was how hard Shen Mu's journey home for the New Year had been — nine chances of death to one of life, ambushes on ten sides, layer upon layer of pursuit and interception, battles of blood beneath a sky of slaughter; only after a thousand hardships had he reached Hidden Remnants Village in the Wilderness Ruins.

And even in Hidden Remnants Village he had not passed a peaceful New Year. After the festival he fought the village elders every day; Zai Fu, Old Master Huo, the Lame Elder and the Blind Elder fed him moves daily and expounded their own insights, and there was the village headman, a man of great strength, to spar with him.

That one trip home for the New Year had advanced Shen Mu as much as two or three years of bitter cultivation.

Not only his blade art had leapt in quality — his sword art, his movement arts, his Buddhist arts, his hand techniques, his eyesight, his Dao-heart, all had leapt as well.

Ban Gongcuo's brow twitched. The blade intent pressed upon the space between his eyebrows, as though Shen Mu's blade might leave its sheath at any moment — and once out of the sheath, it would cut into his brow.

He was about to respond when Reverend Hongfa suddenly threw herself bodily between the two, and Shen Mu's blade intent was cut off in midair by the reverend.

"This is Six Harmonies Hall, a place for cultivating the Six Harmonies and opening the Spirit Treasury — not a place for you to brawl."

Reverend Hongfa swept a glance over the two of them and said calmly, "The Imperial College has the Imperial College's rules. Whoever cultivates in my Six Harmonies Hall is my disciple and must keep my Six Harmonies Hall's rules. You have both only just broken through the wall of the Spirit Treasury of the Six Realms; as divine ability users you have barely entered the gate, your foundations are not yet steady. What is the use of such hot tempers?"

Ban Gongcuo smiled. "The reverend speaks truly. Hierarch Shen, another day I shall come and learn from your Heaven Blade." With that he walked toward the door of the hall.

Shen Mu walked shoulder to shoulder with him and said with a smile, "Why another day? Aren't classes over now? Now is perfectly good. Once we are outside Six Harmonies Hall, the reverend has no authority over us."

Outside the hall, two great shamans of Loulan's Golden Palace came up, one to each side, falling in behind Ban Gongcuo. One of them said softly, "Why is Hierarch Shen in such a hurry? If his hands itch for a fight, we, his attendants, are always ready to oblige."

From Six Harmonies Hall, Wei Yong, Shen Wanyun, Shen Yu and the rest came out one after another. Shen Yu frowned. "Hierarch Shen is being a little too overbearing. Ban Gongcuo is, after all, an envoy of a foreign land who has come to our country to study. Even if he was once an enemy, one must observe propriety and not slight him."

The monk Yun Que nodded. "Overbearing indeed. Hierarch Shen must have some grievance with him?"

Shen Mu glanced at the two great shamans of Loulan's Golden Palace and said leisurely, "I have been to Loulan's Golden Palace. One cauldron of medicine, and I knocked out nearly every great shaman in the Golden Palace; the Shaman King was so frightened he fled in panic. You two were knocked out by me as well, weren't you?"

The two great shamans' faces darkened; they said not a word.

"Or perhaps you were beaten by me?"

Shen Mu pondered. He had no memory of it, and shook his head. "Probably because I killed too many people in Loulan's Golden Palace, I don't remember you two. On that Golden Way of the Golden Palace, corpse after corpse rolled down, and blood dyed the Golden Way red. With my two blades I cut my way from the outer-court disciples to the inner-court disciples, and then to the disciples of the Shaman Venerable — how many shamans and great shamans did I kill? A hundred? If not a hundred, then eighty. I killed until the shamans and great shamans of the Golden Palace went cold at heart, and none dared move."

The two great shamans' faces grew darker still; their palms trembled faintly. Golden light began to seep from the body of one of them, his head shifting toward a bird's head, and he shrieked in a shrill voice, "That is because I was not in the Golden Palace! I was traveling abroad! Had I been in the Golden Palace, ten of you would have died by my hand!"

Behind them, the scholars of Six Harmonies Hall caught up, and hearing Shen Mu speak of this, each was greatly shaken, some appalled.

Though they were fellow students of Shen Mu, none of them had known that he had gone beyond the frontier to the holy land of Loulan's Golden Palace and laid siege to its gate, and had even killed so many of the Golden Palace's masters.

"I know!"

Wei Yong suddenly blurted out. "I know who defeated the Dao Heir and the Buddha Heir!"

Shen Yu, Shen Wanyun and the others were greatly astonished. "You mean when the Dao Heir and the Buddha Heir laid siege to the gate, it was Hierarch Shen who drove them back?"

The monk Yun Que said, "No wonder — truly no wonder! I wondered which master had defeated the Buddha Heir and the Dao Heir and not even left a name. It was Hierarch Shen!"

Si Yunxiang's slender brows knitted slightly; she was somewhat displeased and muttered, "The Buddha Heir was clearly defeated by me..."

Shen Wanyun said gravely, "I heard news on the road that the Buddha Heir is dead — killed by our Hierarch Shen here."

Yue Qinghong said in a low voice, "Not long ago the Crown Prince plotted against the Emperor and tried to ascend the throne. I heard it was Hierarch Shen who led the Celestial Sage... the Dark Devil Cult's masters into the imperial city's Altar of Heaven, and Hierarch Shen cut off the Crown Prince's head!"