Chapter 349 — Weaknesses Everywhere

The corner of Long Yu's eye twitched wildly.

Shen Mu's swords were planted over every slope and field of the mountain; how was this battle to be fought?

The mere weight of those swords would likely be enough to crush him to death! Long Yu looked toward the Hermit of Qingyou, who pretended not to see him. That seemingly simple feat of lifting eight thousand swords into the air and planting them in the ground would likely drain the dharma power of many an adept of the Six Harmonies realm utterly dry; only a fellow as outrageously savage and mighty in dharma power as Shen Mu could drive so many flying swords at a single breath, surely? And to command so many flying swords demanded an exceedingly high mastery of the arts of number and of calculation; it required a brain of lightning response, one able to give every single sword a trajectory of its own, so that none interfered with another.

To merely reckon the trajectories of eight thousand flying swords demanded a monstrous attainment in the arts of number! Clearly, Shen Mu had fused the Daoist Sect's Dao Sword with Li Zheng's sword art; only so could he command so many flying swords. "Can it be that an Overlord Body truly exists in this world?

" The Hermit of Qingyou was full of doubt.

If an Overlord Body existed, it would surely appear in the records of Little Jade Capital; yet ever since he had returned to Little Jade Capital in his despondency and begun reading through its entire library, he had found not a single mention of any Overlord Body!

The library of Little Jade Capital embraced all things under heaven, and the ages it reached back to were more remote than any other sect or holy land could imagine.

If there was no record of an Overlord Body here, then it proved that no Overlord Body existed at all! That was why the Hermit of Qingyou had been so certain that Li Zheng was deceiving them; but now, seeing Shen Mu's performance, his confidence was shaken. "Senior Brother Long Yu, please," Shen Mu said again.

Long Yu steadied himself and said in a low voice, "Human Sovereign, after you! " Firelight glittered in his eyes as he thought, "This Human Sovereign must expend enormous dharma power to control so many flying swords. Driving eight thousand swords through a sword move, one or two moves and his cultivation will surely be spent entirely.

I need only hold out for a move or two, and I can turn defeat into victory! " No sooner had the thought formed than he realized it had been wishful thinking.

Shen Mu gave him no chance to hold out at all: with his very first move he invoked the fourth form of the Dao Sword—Silently turning the wheel of heaven's circuit, beholding the myriad constellations shift and change!

In the blink of an eye, the eight thousand swords set the stars of the whole heaven revolving; the myriad constellations unfolded in all their transformations!

This was the fourth chapter of the Dao Sword. When Dao Lord Lin Xuan had tested Shen Mu's attainments in the arts of number, he had used the Celestial Star-Sprawl Chessboard Algorithm; the mathematics within it was precisely the fourth form of the Dao Sword! Shen Mu drove the fourth form of the Daoist Sect's Dao Sword: the stars of the whole heaven, spread like chess pieces, the celestial signs marshaled, the myriad forms in change—he brought the turning of the starry sky and the Milky Way to its fullest, most dazzling expression!

The Dao Sword had fourteen chapters, each form stronger than the last; by the fourth, the eight thousand swords had become a skyful of strewn stars, wheeling and transforming, trapping Long Yu inside the sword formation.

Long Yu had no time to think further. Firelight burst from his eyes; his eyelids opened and closed, and two snow-white blades of sword light flew out!

His sword art was unlike any other, one of the supreme secret teachings of Little Jade Capital.

It cultivated the eyes above all; yet it was not the same as pupil arts—it refined the sword art into the pupils of the eyes, so that where the eye reached, the sword reached. It was called the Heavenly Eye, Sword-Heart Formula.

The strength of this sword art lay in this: it cultivated no primal weapon, no sword-core, nor anything of the kind, but made of one's own eyes a sword-core. What the eye sees, the sword points to—direct and clean.

Add to this its unique method: when the eyes became a great sun, the sword light was indestructible; when the eyes became starlight, they shone like a river of stars—star gleams and sword gleams, a myriad points, impossible to guard against. If one refined the sword-heart, then heart and sword became one, swifter and more terrible even than the sword-eye: wherever the thought reached, the sword arrived.

Long Yu had not yet reached that realm, but his sword-eye was already no small thing.

Yet the next moment, countless flying swords simply shattered his two beams of sword light. His sword light was vital essence transmuted, while Shen Mu's swords were treasures refined from the precious things the Nether Demon Cult had gathered; their very substance far surpassed the sword light he had forged.

Add to that a cultivation vast beyond measure, and his sword light was crushed to powder! Countless sparks of starlight burst from Long Yu's eyes; the starlight flew from them like a silver river to meet the transformations of the Dao Sword's fourth form.

The two sword arts seemed alike, yet at bottom they were fundamentally different. The Dao Sword built the stars of the whole heaven out of mathematics; its transformations had a mathematical structure.

The Heavenly Eye, Sword-Heart Formula followed the heart's desire, changing as the heart willed; in fineness it could not match the Dao Sword, but in the multitude of its changes it surpassed the Dao Sword by a hair.

Only, sword against sword, the substance of his sword light was far inferior to Shen Mu's flying swords.

Long Yu gave a stifled grunt. The silver river bursting from his eyes was extinguished; the eight thousand swords became a rain of blades that ground the silver river to pieces. As they came raining down, Long Yu heard the Hermit of Qingyou cry out: "Stay your sword!

" Then all the flying swords surrounded him, closing into a single enormous sword-core with him at its heart; the gleaming point of blade upon blade aimed at every corner of his body, until he could not help but wonder whether, when they fell, a whole corpse of him would remain. With a ringing clang the sword-core split apart and gathered into a long river of sword light that poured into the Taotie Pouch at Shen Mu's back.

Long Yu hastily felt himself all over, found himself still whole, and only then let out a breath. He wanted to thank Shen Mu, but his limbs felt weak and his throat was utterly dry; no sound would come. Mu Qingdai hurried forward with clean water.

Long Yu drank, and only then could speak: "Thank you, Human Sovereign, for your mercy.

But I did not lose in swordsmanship! You beat me by a single measure through your treasures!

" Shen Mu did not deny it. "Senior Brother Long Yu speaks truly," he said modestly. "I have not diligently cultivated the Dao Sword. In fact, I studied it for only ten days, and I am not skilled in it.

" Long Yu's face went black at once, and his throat grew dry again.

"Not skilled in the Dao Sword? " he rasped.

Shen Mu glanced at Li Zheng. "I cultivate the sword art under Grandpa Li Zheng.

The sword art he passed to me is too strong—I fear I cannot hold back my hand. My attainment in the Dao Sword is not high; you could still block it.

" Long Yu drank several mouthfuls of water in succession, yet his throat was still somewhat dry.

Mu Qingdai's eyes flickered. "Then could Human Sovereign Shen display your strongest sword art?

" Wang Muran's eyes too shone, and his face showed expectation.

If such was Shen Mu's attainment in the Dao Sword, then how formidable must his strongest sword art be?

Shen Mu looked troubled.