Chapter 469 — The Crafty Old Ghost

The Five Thunder Pot floated there, rising higher and higher; his eight thousand flying swords seemed frozen, floating around the pot, and bolt after bolt of thunder passed through sword after sword, the swords like kindling drawing the thunder out.

The swords were now burned red-hot by the dreadful power of the thunder, and he could not help but worry whether they could withstand the divine thunder of the Five Thunder Pot.

Shen Mu broke free of the thunder's pull; suddenly azure light illumined the sky, and he jerked his head up just in time to see the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl detonate the thundercloud.

"The Yu family. .

. it is finished.

.

. " he murmured.

But the thunder was too loud; he could not hear his own voice. Then he saw Bagou's sword come flying, and next he saw Imperial Preceptor Jingping intercept him, two figures, one green and one white, battling within the thundercloud.

"Old sneaking bastard!

" Shen Mu spat, and watched the battle between these two great masters.

Neither used sword techniques or divine powers; each gripped his sword in hand, left hand forming the sword seal behind his back.

Their movements were exceedingly swift, their bearing ethereal, now still, now moving, and the sword seals of their left hands behind their backs shifted without cease, as though ceaselessly calculating something.

Shen Mu was slightly dazed: the two men's sword seals changed so fast that he could scarcely see them clearly, and he could only desperately memorize the swiftly shifting seal gestures, sensing vaguely that these gestures were of the utmost importance.

As for the sword duel between Imperial Preceptor Jingping and Bagou, it had reached the point of utter simplicity, almost devoid of variation—only a dozen or so basic sword forms—yet with every thrust, the space around the blade trembled, and within that trembling one could faintly glimpse their divine powers hidden; the sword dao concealed therein was already beyond his comprehension. "Truly worthy of a monster who appears once in five hundred years—his attainments in the sword dao advance so quickly!

" Shen Mu barely memorized a few sword seals when suddenly the divine statues, bearing the bombardment of countless divine thunderbolts, charged into the thunder layer; dreadful divine might erupted, and the eight statues struck as one, scattering the thundercloud.

At once countless bolts poured down in all directions, thunderbolts raining everywhere. The eight divine statues were battered and broken, scarcely one of them whole, yet their fighting strength was still monstrous; together they struck at Imperial Preceptor Jingping.

Imperial Preceptor Jingping seemed not to notice, continuing his killing duel with Bagou, while Xiong Xiyu, leading Xiong Qi'er, stepped to the fore, raising the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl high; azure light burst from it, and the eight statues were at once turned to wood, fixed in the air. Suddenly one of the wooden statues twisted its neck, and a strange smile appeared on its face; it beckoned, and the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl in Xiong Qi'er's hand flew up of its own accord, falling toward the statue's palm. "Little girl, thank you. " Xiong Qi'er was stunned, utterly losing control of the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl, while Xiong Xiyu felt a chill of dread and cried out hastily: "Careful!

That is a god of the True Heaven Palace—" Before she finished speaking, above Imperial Preceptor Jingping's head rosy light billowed, and a flying bridge soared into the void; the bridge seemed able to reach an inconceivable place, and boundless divine light poured in as though from the end of time and space, filling the nine heavens, at whose end lay a heavenly palace, faint and indistinct.

Imperial Preceptor Jingping's primordial spirit charged out from that dim, hazy heavenly palace, treading the divine bridge, and came flying with a sword, seeming to ignore space; the sword light passed through time, and in the very instant the statue grasped the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl, his primordial spirit ran the statue through the brow, the blade emerging from the back of its head! That "statue" bled from the brow, and blood and brains flowed from the back of its head—not like a statue at all, but like a living being! A smile appeared on Imperial Preceptor Jingping's placid face; his primordial spirit rose into the air, one hand behind his back, the other holding the sword, joining his own body to surround and kill Bagou.

"My target was never you," he said with a smile.

Chi, chi, chi! Attacking from both sides with his primordial spirit, sword light flashing, he severed Bagou's four limbs, then raised his sword again and struck off Bagou's head.

"The Divine Bridge! " Shen Mu cried out in shock, and his suspended heart finally settled.

Imperial Preceptor Jingping was indeed worthy of being a sage who appears once in five hundred years: from the time Shen Mu and the others built the spatial-arithmetic model of the Divine Bridge, scarcely half a year had passed, and he had already refined the Divine Bridge! "Old sneaking bastard—complete the Divine Bridge, enter the heavenly palace, and he will be a god; and yet he still has to skulk in a corner and stab people in the back.

. . " Shen Mu grumbled inwardly.

Behind him came the battle cries of countless women; the divine-power wielders of the great families, led by the heads of their clans, were killing their way toward the True Heaven Palace. Mu Yingxue passed by him and said in a low voice: "Little man, so long as Imperial Preceptor Jingping lives, do not ever rebel. You are no match for him in cunning!

" He Yiyi too rushed past him and whispered: "If you rebel, you will die very neatly!

Imperial Preceptor Jingping is far too sinister! " Shen Mu did not know whether to laugh or cry.

He thought: "I have never once thought of rebelling.

But that fellow Imperial Preceptor Jingping is indeed sinister.

.

.

"