Chapter 279 — Warm a Pot of Wine

Scriptural runes surfaced all over Shen Mu's body, revolving around him like a great bell cast down over him; the five great heavens of the Thunderclap Mahayana Sutra dimly emerged, and the hum of Buddhist chants wreathed about him. At the same time, he drove the Nine-Dragon Sovereign Art, and the dragon essence of the nine great dragon veins around the capital came swarming toward him, pushing his momentum through another breakthrough!

The Nine-Dragon Sovereign Art—the supreme lore of the imperial Ling clan, personally transmitted by the Yanfeng Emperor—now, as Shen Mu activated it, the dragon essence surging in from the nine veins even took form, invaded the river, and dragons leaped out of the water to rush at Shen Mu!

He had seized the initiative. Whether or not Ban Gongcuo had shown a flaw, as long as he held the first hand he could attack first, crush Ban Gongcuo with an exceptionally vast and vigorous primordial qi, suppress every exquisite move with sheer weight, and grind him down, grind him to pieces with unmatched force!

The best way to deal with Ban Gongcuo was to overwhelm him with absolute dharma power, not to trade moves with him! Boom—the river surface burst open, towering water stood upright, turning into the image of a giant Buddha. Water dragons coiled about the Buddha, whose body rose more than ten zhang tall, like a water mountain on the river.

The five fingers were like five peaks, palm and fingers bearing the Five Elements, and with a thunderous boom a palm came slamming down over Ban Gongcuo!

The nine dragons bellowed.

He had fused the Nine-Dragon Sovereign Art with the Nine Dragons Riding Wind and Thunder from the Eight Thunderclap Methods into one, and this blow displayed the vast spiritual power of the Buddhist school and the invincible bearing of the imperial house to the fullest! The nine dragons pounced—boom, boom, boom—the water outran sound and burst into thunderous spring roars, shattering everything in the way!

What is divine power? This is divine power!

Dharma power—Shen Mu's mightiest asset was dharma power, more than double that of his peers; even such an old monster as the ward chief, at the same realm, was far inferior.

Now even Ban Gongcuo could not come close.

He would overwhelm Ban Gongcuo with absolute force, so that all the cultivation of his former lives—eleven thousand years of experience—became utterly useless!

The instant Shen Mu's attack exploded, Ban Gongcuo's counterattack exploded as well. What he used was a sword—a sword core the size of a fingertip, but the next moment, sword light burst from it, so brilliant!

The second chapter of the Fourteen Chapters of the Dao Sword: "Five qi and three primordials knot in splendor; where they rise, cloud chariots intertwine! " He directly called on the Daoist school's supreme art, the Primordial Grand Mystery Art, and with the purest Primordial Grand Mystery driving the second sword of the Dao Sword, the sword light held the Five Qi—Yang Wood, Yang Fire, Yang Earth, Yang Metal, Yang Water—and the Three Primordials of Heaven, Earth, and Water.

Heaven Primordial is the sun, called the Great Yang; Water Primordial is the moon, called the Great Yin; Earth Primordial is the harmonious mean. The move unfolded, and sword light built the Daoist ideal world: sword-sun, sword-moon, sword-earth, Five Qi paying court to the Origin!

The Daoist sword arts were profoundly accomplished in the art of numbers.

This sacred place took the art of numbers as its foundation, believing that every great Dao between heaven and earth could be solved by numbers. As the saying goes: Dao begets One, One begets Two, Two begets Three, Three begets all things. Numbers constitute everything under heaven; anything, even life, can be constructed from numbers, and in the end, all is merely wonderful numbers.

Thus the Daoists created the circular Wuji diagram, the Taiji diagram separating the Two Modes, and the Four Symbols diagram, the Eight Trigrams diagram, and the Sixty-Four Hexagrams diagram, to calculate the great Dao and the myriad things.

And when these principles became sword techniques—using swords to form diagrams, endlessly calculating and evolving into the myriad beings—they bore the majestic power of the Dao! In the Daoist school's Fourteen Chapters of the Dao Sword, each chapter is an ideal world: pure numerical art transmuted into exquisite patterns, explaining the marvelous principles of heaven and earth.

This was the greatest difference between Daoism and Buddhism: Daoism is a study of numbers, Buddhism a study of the mind. There was a joke among Daoist disciples: "Bad at the art of numbers?

Then why cultivate the Dao? Go home early and hold your baby.

" When the two divine powers collided—one a sword-art divine power, the other a bodily and spell-art divine power—the meeting of dharma-power-wrought abilities was simply dreadful. The terrifying force shook the river, making the great waters hang suspended; it shook the ground, making the earth tremble.

In the burst of shock waves, thin jets of water pierced through willow after willow along the bank with thudding sounds, and sword qi stabbed into the riverside rocks; in a moment, the reefs along the shore were pocked with a thousand holes!

The earth-shattering blow Shen Mu had hurled charged into the Daoist ideal world built from Ban Gongcuo's sword light, and even its overwhelming force was broken down by the number-logic hidden in the light!

In Ban Gongcuo's sword technique, that dry, boring thing called the art of numbers became utterly fascinating, utterly dazzling.

In that fascinating light, the nine water dragons and the water Buddha collapsed in mere moments—truly no match for the Dao Sword's second move! Countless streaks of sword light flowed out and struck the great bell formed by the Buddha light and Buddhist scriptures around Shen Mu; ripples rose over the bell's face, and the next moment, the great bell was shattered!

Shen Mu's expression did not change. The sword core flew up into his hand; in a flash, the sword light within it erupted.

He did not use Sword Treading Mountains and Rivers, but executed the second move of the Sword Diagram! Crash—the edge of the Yong River turned crimson; blood-red sword light surged like a boundless ocean, and in the blood light, as if an emperor of the gods rose from the sea of blood, pointing his sword at the enemy, despising all!

One Sword Opens the Imperial Blood-Ocean!

The Dao Sword and the Sword Diagram collided.

Ban Gongcuo gave a muffled grunt; the Five Qi and Three Primordials broke at once, and matchless sword light and peerless killing intent rushed at his face. He soared into the air, coiling like a dragon, working a body technique of exquisite subtlety, shifting again and again—like a startled swan, a swimming fish, a flying sparrow, a nine-headed phoenix—but he still could not avoid all the sword light.

With a series of sizzling sounds, bloody flashes burst from his body. He bounded and landed on the river, smashing the water outward in all directions!

With a whoosh, Shen Mu leapt up; the sword light in his hand vanished, and the sword core, catching the wind, turned into a great saber.

With a hiss, it split the river open! Ban Gongcuo swung his own sword core to meet the strike; a string of booming clashes rang out, and like a pebble thrown by a child, he skimmed across the river—sixty-seven skips—before he finally stopped.

Meanwhile, Shen Mu came running over the river, every footfall making the water explode; spray flew in all directions, and before the airborne spray could fall, Shen Mu had already covered several hundred zhang.

The great saber made from the sword core suddenly shrank, wrapping his fist like flowing water.