Chapter 407 — Flawless

Fan Xuanshu's sleeves and skirts streamed in the wind. As the former Cult Master of the Dark Demon Cult, her temperament was somewhat twisted, but her strength was absolutely of the first rank; the moment she struck, she displayed a battle power of ferocious might.

Her figure drifted like mist, yet every step she set down was utterly solid, solidity and lightness joined in flawless union.

Fan Xuanshu stretched out a hand, and space itself seemed on the verge of collapse, tumbling into her palm; with her hand as its center, the surrounding space revealed dense, thread-like patterns. Every node of those threads stood for a star; a few stars, a few dozen stars, formed a constellation; three hundred and sixty constellations, great and small, formed a net of heaven spanning all space.

The Great Luo Heaven Star Palm Force! If one looked closely at the stars and constellations within her Great Luo Heaven Star Palm Force, one would find them arrayed into different marvels: the Purple Star, for instance, was built within like a heavenly palace — the Purple Star stands for imperial authority, and so it is a heavenly palace.

The White Tiger's seven mansions held more than seven hundred stars, fifty-four constellations, within them appearing such marvels as the Wood Wolf of Kui, the Gold Dog of Lou, the Earth Pheasant of Wei, and the power each star stood for differed as well.

Fan Xuanshu had, after all, once been the Cult Master of the Dark Demon Cult; she had received scriptures passed down by the Woodcutter and comprehended a grand unified art of her own. Had she not been so twisted, her learning alone would have ranked among the finest under heaven; the Great Luo Heaven Star Palm Force was the peerless art she had comprehended after mastering the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture through and through — a formidable thing indeed.

She charged into the heart of the explosion and joined hands with Emperor Yanfeng; at once violent waves burst from that center, lashing outward, shaking heaven knows how many monsters in the manor until they spat blood, so that they scurried in panic into the great halls to hide from the blast.

Halfway up the mountain, flood dragons stood one by one before Shen Mu, Ling Yuxiu, and the others, shielding them from the aftershocks of the divine powers.

Shen Mu's palm rested on the Wuyou Sword; in his eyes heaven upon heaven opened, and he stared fixedly at the battle in the manor. His fingers drummed ceaselessly on the sword hilt; before and behind him appeared the sigils and symbols of Wuji, Taiji, the Four Phases, and the Eight Trigrams, reckoning madly.

At the heart of the explosion the collapsing world within the painting dispersed, and there were Emperor Yanfeng and Fan Xuanshu circling a painting, running and striking, while in the blind elder's hands the black spear grew longer and longer; the great spear quivered, his feet moved without cease, and he thrust at the painting! And from within that painting arms and legs struck out, meeting the three masters blow for blow, not yielding the advantage in the least.

Emperor Yanfeng's dharma power was matchless in its ferocity; though his cultivation had not yet returned to its peak, such power was already enough to laugh down the world, surpassing even Fan Xuanshu and the blind elder.

His moves opened wide and closed wide, his strength great and his blows heavy, fierce and domineering.

Fan Xuanshu's divine powers were a notch above; her grand unified art, though it could not be called true transmission, had unified the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture, so that she wielded every art and power with ease — and in her Shen Mu saw something he himself lacked.

That was the deeper divine powers hidden within the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture. But such powers required combining the various arts within the Great Nurturing Dark Demon Scripture: Fan Xuanshu's Great Luo Heaven Star Palm Force, for instance, fused more than three hundred divine powers into a single palm — a might terrifying to hear of!

"Cult Master Li is indeed a heaven-sent prodigy of our cult — a pity her mind went crooked.

" Shen Mu could not stop marveling. Of the blind elder nothing need be said; his battle with Lord Huanlong had already shown his strength.

Yet the blind elder now performed even more powerfully than in that duel: his divine spear grew longer and longer, and its might grew with it, every blow he dealt feeling exquisite to the last hair. His finest quality was that he could precisely cover the shortcomings of Fan Xuanshu and Emperor Yanfeng, striking where the enemy must needs save himself.

He was the complement to Fan Xuanshu and Emperor Yanfeng, letting them strike without restraint, free of worry for themselves.

Even so, the three of them were gradually unable to suppress Xing An within the painting. The painting drifted to and fro; the fists and feet and divine powers within it not only blocked their attacks but struck back!

Xing An's divine powers were incomparably fierce, his dharma power incomparably fierce, and his fleshly body fierce beyond all reason; he shook the three of them until blood seeped from the corners of their mouths, and the painting itself was shaken into crack after crack!

He was about to break free! Shen Mu frowned slightly, seeing the three's disadvantage, and suddenly called out loudly: "Clan Chief Yu!

" Yu Zhaoqing darted forward in a single stride, her feet flying, two fingers pressed together, and stabbed at the painting.

Swoosh — her speed was extreme, a flicker of light and shadow; the tips of her two fingers flashed with radiance and stabbed into the painting like a sharp sword, swift as lightning!

The moment Yu Zhaoqing's strike landed, she felt a power of utmost ferocity surge back at her from the painting, shaking her slender body until it trembled and hurling her backward.

Suddenly the wings on Yu Zhaoqing's body snapped open with a shh-shh-shh, and she beat them and flew, halting in midair; dozens of scaled feathers quivered at speed, and at once countless runes and patterns surfaced on her garments, light racing across them, rays bursting from the scaled feathers to shoot into the painting.

A trace of blood appeared on the painting; Emperor Yanfeng and Fan Xuanshu were greatly heartened and pressed their attack harder.

Shen Mu's face was anxious; he said in a low voice to the girls behind him: "Get into the hall and hide while you can.

" Ling Yuxiu hastily led Yan Jingjing and the others flying down the mountain and hid themselves in one of the great halls.

Shen Mu frowned slightly; the calculations before and behind him still raced on madly, but he gradually felt his own wisdom insufficient, no longer able to reckon how great the blind elder's odds of victory were.

He shifted his feet, calculating the angle and odds of his own strike; he roused the Dragon-Taming Art, and one flood dragon after another began to coil about him, lending him their dharma power.

Shen Mu's aura surged; as flood dragon after flood dragon lent him strength, his body grew taller and taller, his dharma power fiercer and fiercer, and dragon scales burst madly from his skin, crawling over his whole body.

Hum, hum, hum.

Several more Ninefold Heaven array patterns appeared in his pupils. He drove the Ninefold Heaven Gazing Eye Art to its utmost!

He calculated not only with his supreme mastery of divination but also with the Sacred Pupil, watching the battlefield, computing the battlefield.

"Xing An has a flaw!

His body is not quite settling — the parts are rejecting one another!

" Suddenly his eyes lit up; his spiritual power burst forth, and he linked his mind to Yu Zhaoqing, who at once sent out a spiritual pulse to inform the blind elder, Fan Xuanshu, and Emperor Yanfeng. Halfway up the mountain Shen Mu halted, knees bent, body crouched low; the dharma power of the dozen-odd flood dragons on him ran wild, and his own aura turned wild with it.