Chapter 455 — The Array Master of the Western Frontier

The mathematical structures of those stones had become the structures of arrays; the stones of the outer layer that no longer moved had already become tier upon tier of killing arrays, binding them fast, while the stones of the inner layers, ceasing one after another to move, likewise became killing arrays. One killing array nested within another, leaving them ever less chance of escape, and once the last layer of killing array was laid, it would become a trap of absolute death.

To move was death; not to move was death as well. Shen Mu chose to stand where he was, lifting his brush and splashing ink, his strokes flying as he painted with all speed.

Pillar after pillar and beam after beam pressed steadily toward them; the array evolved without pause, until at last it came to their fronts and their backs.

Having evolved to the end, the array became six walls that squeezed inward toward the center, and on the six stone walls the blocks bulged and advanced, booming and thundering.

At last the six walls crashed together with a tremendous roar, and a force of immense solidity burst forth; layer upon layer of arrays on the outer perimeter activated, and rune marks on countless stones lit up, driving the six walls into a terrifying crushing pressure.

Beneath that thunderous collision, the whole three-dimensional Yun City shook and trembled!

Under such a blow, to say nothing of masters like Shen Mu and the dragon-qilin—even a sect-master-level master of the Divine Bridge realm could not have escaped death! "Good, very good!

" Yu Bochuan's voice came, clapping and laughing, in admiration: "An Array Master is truly an Array Master. This array of hers is peerless under heaven, matchless by any. The Youmo Sect Master may be full of cunning schemes, but before the Array Master's array he can only die in perfect submission, without half a word of complaint.

" A woman's voice rose, cool and even: "Young Master Yu flatters me.

I have heard that this Sect Master Shen once crossed swords with the Poison Master.

Mu Yingxue has always been proud and haughty, yet she was defeated by him—so there must be something extraordinary about the man. But he has spent too much of his mind on poisons, and in the arts of calculation and arrays he falls far short of me. I reckoned against one who did not reckon against me, and thus I was able to trap him, and force him to bow his head and submit to the blade.

" Yu Bochuan laughed heartily: "He thought Yun City could only overpower him by brute force, so he charged in to flaunt his might, never knowing it was merely the Array Master's stratagem of luring the enemy deep—and so he fell into the ambush. Array Master, Poison Master, Sword Master: the three wonders of our Western Land are each of them truly beyond the common. Array Master, pray unmake the array; I still wish to see the picture Sect Master Shen left me before his death. " A chiming and clanking of stone came without cease; the vast array structure of Yun City slowly came undone, blocks of giant stone sinking into the earth, and houses and palaces rising slowly from the ground, until before long Yun City had recovered its former state, leaving only a single stone wall upon the spot where Shen Mu, the dragon-qilin, and the others had stood—and on that wall hung a painting.

Yu Bochuan rode his fragrant carriage toward that stone wall, a smile on his face, and behind the carriage followed a host of masters of the Western Land, a hundred or so in all, at their head a woman of delicate, clear features, holding in her hand a cube of metal. In her hand that metal would suddenly clatter apart into metal blocks great and small, then suddenly clatter back together again. She was He Yiyi, the Array Master of the Western Land, whose name stood alongside those of the Poison Master Mu Yingxue and the Sword Master Luo Yinyu. The Three Masters of the Western Land were all women, each with her own peerless art, each ruling a domain of her own.

The Array Master He Yiyi ruled Yun City, famed for her arrays, her skill unmatched in the Western Land, her attainments in the array arts without rival. Though Zhentian Palace was the holy ground of the Western Land, the Three Masters each had their own strengths, and were not subordinates of Zhentian Palace. Yet in fear of Zhentian Palace's power, the Three Masters held some dread of it as well, and if Zhentian Palace made a request, they would lend their aid.

Behind He Yiyi came the masters of Yun City, the heads of its great families, men of formidable strength, a degree more overbearing even than Fangxiu City; that they could carve out a domain of their own was surely no small matter. Yu Bochuan drove his carriage up before the stone wall and studied the painting upon it.

Painted on the stone wall were Shen Mu, the dragon-qilin, and Xiong Qi'er, rendered with perfect fidelity.

"Lifelike indeed!

" Yu Bochuan's face shone with glory, and he said with a laugh to the Zhentian Palace women disciples in the fragrant carriage: "Lifelike indeed!

Sect Master Shen paints well—with such brushwork he could sell paintings and earn himself a decent living!

Hahahaha! " The women in the fragrant carriage laughed in turn: "A pity he is dead.

Young Master, look—the Sect Master Shen in the painting is still smiling! " Another Zhentian Palace woman laughed prettily: "He died at the Array Master's hand, and beheld a perfect array—that must be the smile of one who dies without regret, no?

" Yu Bochuan laughed aloud, rose from the carriage, and with his hands clasped behind his back studied the painting on the stone wall, saying leisurely: "Sect Master Shen, I have come to chat with you.

" "Very well.

" The Shen Mu in the painting suddenly turned his head and said with a smile: "I have been wanting to chat with Brother Yu as well! Sword Treads the Rivers and Mountains—"