Chapter 351 — The Hour When Gods Meet

The Buddha's realm is the god's realm. Master Huo's whole cultivation lay in his fist: overbearing and steady, and yet endlessly changeable. Even with a single arm remaining, he was as one with a thousand arms! Even without exerting dharma power, the strength of his body alone could make his moves mightier than any divine ability!

Shen Mu's years under Master Huo had been his bitterest, and the Thunder Roar Eight Forms was the fist art he had put the most heart into.

Yet the young god could block his attacks — and not merely block them: he could strike back! Shen Mu roared, his momentum gone suddenly savage and overbearing. The youth who came from the Desolate Ruins had inherited its savagery and tyranny, its ferocity and brutality; and at once blade arts entered his fist technique — his hand a blade, hacking through brambles, cleaving every obstacle, cleaving every injustice; whatever stood in his path was chopped to pieces!

The Butcher's blade — the blade of madness! The Heavenly Blade was a madman who dared draw his blade against heaven. His blade art was a madman's blade art, killing intent surging to the sky.

Twin blades in hand, he dared cut down any noble or man of power, the emperor included; dared draw against heaven, draw against the gods!

In the air two swiftly flickering figures tore across the sky, clang, clang, clang, dense as rain. Shen Mu slashed on in madness, as if reenacting the Butcher's frenzy, blade raised, cursing the thieving heavens.

The Heavenly Blade, a godlike blade, was blocked. Shen Mu's heart sank. Ring after ring of array patterns spun madly in his eyes; a fourth heaven, a ninth heaven, appeared in his pupils — the Nine Heavens Gazing Eye Art! His realm allowed him to employ it only up to the Cinnabar Sky Heaven Eye, but that was enough: Cinnabar Sky, Jade Sky, Azure Sky, Soaring Sky — four heavens of eye power layered together, so that his pupils burst with five colors and the black pupil at their center turned deeper still. Every move his opponent made could be caught by his heaven eyes.

The Blind Elder's eyes — the eyes of a god!

Those eyes held the power to see through all illusion, all technique, all divine ability; to catch every motion of an opponent, foretell his next action, pierce the mysteries of his divine powers, break them apart, and point straight at his fatal weakness. It was then that he saw his opponent's eyes — a way of opening the eyes utterly unlike his Nine Heavens Gazing Eye Art. The young god's brow split open, revealing a third eye, and in that eye appeared five stars. "You cannot be serious.

. . " Shen Mu had already seen the light in the other's Sacred Pupil begin to blaze — the sign that the Sacred Pupil's power was stirring!

His opponent also commanded a Sacred Pupil.

Unlike Shen Mu, however, his Sacred Pupil carried matching divine abilities; the Blind Elder had never taught Shen Mu the pupil-technique powers of the Nine Heavens Gazing Eye Art! True essence gathered in Shen Mu's eyes; layer upon layer of heaven-eye patterns became a Divine Sky Ring, an Azure Sky Ring, a Jade Sky Ring, and a Cinnabar Sky Ring.

Treating his own eyes as true-essence cannons was not a first for him; at Qingmen Pass he had already tested the might of his Sacred Pupil! "Are you an Overlord Body too?

" Fire blazed in Shen Mu's eyes. "Then let us see whose Sacred Pupil is the greater!

" Light burst from both their Sacred Pupils; five radiant beams slashed at each other along the line of their gaze, swift beyond all evasion! The instant the youth's Sacred Pupil stirred, Shen Mu discerned its attribute: the light that burst from those eyes was five-colored, and unlike Long Yu's sword eye, it came stabbing in like five-colored divine swords, intertwining as they thrust!

He had three eyes, and in each the five colors were arrayed in a different order; the power of these three five-colored beams was by no means to be taken lightly!

Boom — Two figures fell from the sky, each struck by the other's divine light, plunging into the earth.

Two mushroom clouds rose from the ground. Shen Mu sprang up, sucking in a cold breath at the pain.

He had blocked that blow with the body-forging, qi-refining method of the Great Nurture Nether Demon Sutra, the Nine Turns, Three Verifications Profound Art. That art was exceedingly perilous; when Shen Mu first cultivated it, all the energy in his body was drained away, and in a short time he was reduced to skin and bones, nearly dying. To cultivate this profound art one needed spirit pills enough to replenish one's energy.

After that brush with death in cultivation, he had spent the past two years warily using it to temper his body and refine his primal qi, and had reached the fourth turn, the second verification. The first verification: bones drawn tight.

The second: a body like iron.

Four turns of primal qi: the first turn, qi like a rainbow; the second, like lead and mercury; the third, like a fire dragon; the fourth, the great furnace opens.

It was as though a vast pill furnace lay hidden in his body, round and full, true essence burning like fire within it, shielding his flesh — and with a body like steel, he had blocked that blow.

"I have the Great Nurture Nether Demon Sutra, a technique passed down in my family! " Shen Mu leaped from the crater, springing step after step, and in a few strides scaled a hilltop, gazing toward the place where the young god had fallen. He said in a low voice, "I do not believe you can withstand my Sacred Pupil! " Suddenly his pupils shrank.

He saw a figure walk slowly out of the deep pit wreathed in smoke and dust, growing ever clearer. "Not dead yet? " Shen Mu gave a long cry and tried to summon the Carefree Sword, only to find that the Carefree Sword could not be used here.

At once his primal qi erupted and he sprinted at the young god: "If I cannot wield a weapon I brought, then I will forge one!

" Outside the Three Primes Hall, Qingyou the Hermit smiled and said slowly, "This god is called Chongming.

By a curious coincidence, he too comes from Carefree Village. Guess — what is his surname? "