Chapter 300 — The Uncanny Thing

He looked with the Cinnabar Heaven Eye, and suddenly saw something beside the corpses moving at furious speed, vanishing in an instant. Then his heaven eye seemed to take a violent impact, and layer upon layer of the heaven eyes snapped shut at speed. Shen Mu's mind too was left dazed and reeling by the impact; it seemed countless shrill voices were howling and shrieking in his head, all but tearing his soul apart.

Fortunately he had already refined his primordial spirit, and withstood the attack by main force. But what it was that had attacked him, he had not seen clearly.

"Boundless, boundless, Maha-boundless!

" The shrill screams in Shen Mu's head grew louder and louder.

He acted at once, rousing the Thunderclap Mahayana Sutra.

Buddha-light blazed from his whole body, and behind his head appeared the gods and Buddhas of the six heavens, chanting in unison, Buddha-voices wreathing about him, and at once the uncanny shrieking that assailed his soul was refined away. The soil beneath his feet suddenly hissed and gave off a wisp of green smoke; a stench came up from the earth. Shen Mu stretched both hands forward and gathered emptiness into an embrace.

With a great boom his essence became a bodhi tree descending from the sky, lush and green, sweeping down upon the ground before him. Thousands upon thousands of branches, together with the trunk, struck the earth; branches and roots whirled and bored into the ground. From beneath the earth came a shrill cry, and then the ground before Shen Mu heaved, as though something were fleeing at speed through the soil. When it passed a great tree, that tree too was shaken by the thing underground until it clattered and rustled. "My Bodhi Swaying divine ability cannot kill this thing either?

" Shen Mu gave a low shout, and suddenly his whole body was like jade, his skin translucent as if carved of jade, and behind him faintly appeared a bodhi tree, as though he were an ox-headed Buddha awakening to the Way beneath the tree. In the Great Thunderclap Monastery he had obtained only the Dharma of the Thunderclap Mahayana Sutra, not its divine abilities; but with the Dharma he could work out the abilities for himself. The divine abilities of the Thunderclap Mahayana Sutra were in fact encompassed within the twenty heavens of the Mahayana Sutra.

The Eight Thunderclap Formulas were one part of it, belonging to the Shakra Heaven level of divine ability—already the highest grade of ability, second only to the Brahma Heaven ability.

The Bodhi Swaying ability belonged to the Bodhi Tree Heaven, the fourteenth heaven counted from the top, or the seventh counted from the bottom. Though the Thunderclap Mahayana Sutra was not the principal art Shen Mu cultivated, he drew understanding by analogy, and had not neglected his study of the Mahayana Sutra.

What he now displayed was the Bodhi Jade Buddha True Body, using Buddha-nature to suppress the strange thing underground and keep it from coming near. But at the same time he roused the Mars Fire Lord True Art, and so still kept the ox-head, human-body divine form, flames blazing all about him, blossoms of fire floating at his side—altogether a rather incongruous sight.

The uncanny thing underground came and went in a flash, exceedingly swift; and strangely, Shen Mu felt that the thing was sometimes scattered and sometimes condensed, and at times it even burrowed into the trees, or into those corpses. "What on earth is it? " Just then two auras swiftly approached from behind.

The Carefree Sword at Shen Mu's back rang and left its sheath, becoming the Cloud Sword Form, whirling swiftly about him to guard his body. But the two auras passed him by, flying past on either side: it was the two great white bats.

The two great white bats separated, flying to the two giant statues on either side of the gorge, and hung head-down from the statues' nostrils. One of them said with a giggle, "This silly ox still does not know a great host has come up behind him—several hundred masters have entered.

. . " "Silence! " From the nostril of the other statue, the other white bat complained, "Why remind him?

" "A great host? Several hundred masters? " Shen Mu's heart went cold.

Those who had come in could not be the army of the Jingping Kingdom; the garrison at Qingmen Pass could hold the defense well enough, but it could not spare more troops to enter the Nether Valley.

"It is the army of the Mandi Kingdom! " Shen Mu hesitated no longer, and at once walked into the forest, heading for the heart of the Nether Valley.

To clash with the great army of the Mandi Kingdom would be to seek certain death.

The soldiers of Mandi were wild and domineering by nature, and their armies worked well together, supported by battle formations. When Shen Mu had followed Bashan the Libationer to the Golden Palace of Loulan, he had encountered the armies of the grasslands; their strength was extreme—eight hundred men could hold their own against an existence of the Hierarch level, such as Bashan. From what the two white bats said, several hundred masters had come from the Mandi Kingdom.

Shen Mu could only avoid their edge for now.

"The silly ox is going to die!

" The two bats in the statues laughed together.

"Fall! Fall!

" Buddha-light wreathed Shen Mu, guarding him and the Dragon Qilin, and still he did not fall.

The two white bats were astonished.

Suddenly one of them flew out from the statue's nostril, caught a branch in its claws, and hung upside down before Shen Mu. Doubtfully it said, "Why do those things not attack you? " Shen Mu raised his head. "Fellow Daoist, what is the thing underground?

" The white bat was about to answer when it suddenly flew up without a sound, toward the nostril of the Bat God statue.

Several hundred soldiers of the Mandi Kingdom and several dozen Great Shamans and Shaman Kings glittering with golden light walked out of the gorge and came to the entrance of the Nether Valley, their ranks orderly.

"Prince Bangong Cuo, please!

" A Shaman King bowed, and Bangong Cuo walked slowly out from the rear, his gaze sharp as lightning, sweeping toward the Nether Valley.

Then he saw Shen Mu on the Dragon Qilin's back, and could not help starting slightly, a playful smile appearing on his face. "Hierarch Shen, I trust you have been well? " His voice, still somewhat boyish, carried extremely far, displaying a cultivation of immense power.

Hearing that voice, Shen Mu's heart gave a slight shock: "He cultivates faster than I do!

When we crossed swords outside the capital, we had both entered the Six Harmonies realm, but at that time his cultivation was not as deep as mine—and now he has caught up with me! " "Well enough. " Shen Mu laughed heartily.

"Very well indeed!

The young prince looks very well too. I was worried those few cuts of mine had killed you underground; seeing you alive sets my mind at ease. " Bangong Cuo smiled faintly.

"The Hierarch was well enough before.

Now, perhaps not.

" "Prince, there are two bat monsters up above. " A Shaman King looked up at the Bat God statues and said. Bangong Cuo said lightly, as if of wind and clouds, "Kill them.

"