Chapter 280 — Poison in the Pot

After a moment, the great shaman who had gone to warm the wine brought it up, while the other great shaman swirled it until it ran clear, then strained a bowl and respectfully set it before Shen Mu. "Is it poisoned? " Shen Mu asked amiably.

The two great shamans of the Golden Palace said hastily, "We would not dare!

" Shen Mu laughed heartily.

"I am myself a divine physician, a disciple of the Jade-Faced Poison King. If you were to play with poisons before me, it would only make you a laughingstock.

" The two great shamans smiled apologetically again and again.

Shen Mu's face darkened. Pointing at the wine before him, he said to the great shaman who had warmed it, "Drink it.

" The great shaman's expression changed drastically, his legs trembling. Shen Mu's face grew even darker, and he said coldly, "Drink!

" The muscles at the corners of the great shaman's mouth and eyes twitched wildly. Trembling, he lifted the wine bowl, took two sips, and said with an apologetic smile, "There is no poison.

. . " He had barely spoken when his body suddenly convulsed, and then, as if all the air had been let out of him, he shriveled up. He grew shorter and shorter, until after a moment only a human skin remained. Outside the skin were his clothes; within the clothes something squirmed. A great mass of insects bit through the human skin and came pouring out of the clothes with a clatter, crawling in all directions.

Then one by one the insects burst into flame and turned to ash.

The other great shaman, the one who had strained the wine, turned ashen.

Shen Mu's expression did not change.

Tapping the table, he said, "Strain another bowl.

" The wine-straining great shaman said with a mournful face, "The wine is poisoned.

.

. " "It won't kill me. " Shen Mu said calmly, "Keep straining the wine. Where are the dancing girls?

Call them up to sing and dance for our entertainment. " The great shaman hastily strained another bowl of wine and called up the dancing girls. The singing and dancing began again.

Shen Mu ate and drank, enjoying the singing and dancing.

When he was stirred, he clapped his hands in time. The banquet lasted a long while; only when the sun hung halfway down the western sky did Shen Mu finally have his fill of wine and food. He waved his hand, dismissing the singing girls and dancing girls. The wine clearly contained a virulent poison, a kind of shamanic poison, a witch gu raised by the great shaman, which fed solely on souls and bodies.

Yet Shen Mu drank nearly the entire jar and remained perfectly fine. "How disappointing. " Shen Mu rose. The table was in complete disarray; all the wine and dishes had been consumed.

Even a dozen grown men might not have been able to finish so much food and drink, yet he still showed no sign of being full. The wine and food in his belly had all been dissolved by his Spirit-Returning Pill Great Tonic Art. "Living so many lives, eleven thousand years, and still you have never carved out your own path. You like to walk others' roads, leaping from one road to another, back and forth, until you have worn away your own edge.

" Shen Mu shook his head.

"I waited so long for you, and still you dare not show yourself.

How laughable. I thought you would be my match, but I never expected that the older you grow, the more you fear death.

Once I seized the initiative and the first hand, you no longer dared to fight me head-on.

" The great shaman of the Golden Palace was baffled, not knowing to whom he was speaking. "What need has a man who dares not strive for dreams? " Shen Mu walked out, sneering, "Go home obediently.

Oh, and since you treated me to this meal, pay the bill before you leave.

" He walked out of the Jade Fragrance Pavilion and drifted away. In the Green Bamboo Garden, the great shaman was utterly bewildered. He waved the singing girls and dancing girls away. After a moment, Ban Gongcuo emerged from the shadows, bloodstained, his face grim. "The Human Sovereign's swordsmanship.

. . " He said in a low voice, "It really is the Human Sovereign's swordsmanship!

Though it seems somewhat different, I would not mistake it.

This junior is wielding the Human Sovereign's sword art, fused with the swordsmanship of Imperial Preceptor Jingping, and further combined with the Thunderclap Mahayana Sutra and the Ling clan's Nine-Dragon Sovereign Art.

He has merged these arts.

. . " Shen Mu had fused so many arts and divine powers, and all of them the most supreme, that the moment he clashed with Shen Mu, his Dao sword was suppressed in the collision, throwing his mind and his bearings into chaos. That was why he dared not fight Shen Mu head-on.

He did not know how many moves of the Human Sovereign's swordsmanship Shen Mu had learned.

The Human Sovereign of the previous era had been a supreme powerhouse; he dared not risk it. In that previous era, many stories had unfolded.

Many figures who walked the world were near deities; he was one of them, and Heavenly Blade was another. Beyond them were countless other brilliant figures, yet none of them were the most dazzling. The Human Sovereign alone was the most radiant star of that era! Apart from the Human Sovereign of the previous era, Ban Gongcuo had seen another Human Sovereign in the era before that, and tracing back another eight hundred years, he had seen yet another Human Sovereign.

Generation after generation of Human Sovereigns had appeared in his long life, each one extraordinarily dazzling, eclipsing his own brilliance. These Human Sovereigns could be traced back even to his first life, and even before his first life there had been Human Sovereigns walking the world! He had once been deeply curious about this ancient lineage.

Each Human Sovereign excelled in different arts and divine powers, yet each was stunningly brilliant. Even many of the sages who appeared once every five hundred years were Human Sovereigns!

He had wanted to make contact with this lineage, but several times he had died at the hands of a Human Sovereign, and so he had abandoned the notion. And now, in Shen Mu he saw the lineage of the previous Human Sovereign. But that Human Sovereign had vanished long ago; rumor had it that he had been dead for three or four hundred years.

He had seen this Human Sovereign's sword, the strongest man of the previous era, the strongest sword. One glance, and that sword light would be forever branded on his heart, impossible to forget. Had it not been so, he would not have panicked so badly as to lose his composure, been gravely wounded by Shen Mu, and lost the initiative.

Thus he first used water escape to avoid Shen Mu's edge, then earth escape to burrow underground, only to be detected by Shen Mu's Azure Heaven Eye. Shen Mu attacked him mercilessly with a bamboo staff, an iron hammer, and the Livestock Slaughtering Knife, wounding him again and again until he had no choice but to flee. His mastery of escape techniques was cultivated to the utmost; the escape arts of Little Jade Capital were absolutely first-rate under heaven. His soul was extremely powerful, nearly that of a deity, and Shen Mu still could not kill him. Moreover, the cultivation of his past lives was still hidden within his body.

Though his current body was still weak and could not withstand that hidden, terrifying power, if Shen Mu pushed him to the limit and that power erupted, it would be enough to slay Shen Mu! After he fled, Shen Mu knew he could not keep him and did not pursue.

Instead he returned to the Jade Fragrance Pavilion, forcing him to stay hidden and delaying his treatment of his wounds. "If that ancient organization knew the Human Sovereign was not dead and had a successor, there would be a great uproar," Ban Gongcuo said in a low voice. The great shaman who had strained wine for Shen Mu hurried forward and said with an apologetic smile, "Your Highness, how are your wounds? Just now Cult Master Shen did not pay. .