Chapter 476 — A Floating Life in the Mirror

Suddenly the jagged stones burst apart. Ban Gongcuo blasted his way out of the rubble and shot skyward, ashamed and enraged, and flung up a great cauldron.

The cauldron hung in midair, its mouth turned downward, and at once sand flew and stones rolled. Scattered boulders, broken pillars, crumbling walls—all were sucked up and drawn into the cauldron's mouth.

That cauldron was like a pot of boiling soup, and what boiled was true fire. The cauldron did not look large, yet the true fire within it churned like a seething ocean, utterly terrifying. Anything that fell in was burned to ash and ceased to exist. Clearly this was not a primal weapon the present Ban Gongcuo could have forged. It must have been forged in one of his former lives—immensely powerful, a sect-guarding treasure forged by a warrior at the near-god realm. It was only that his current cultivation was too poor to unleash the cauldron's full might.

Primal weapons also differed in strength and in realm. Obtaining a superior primal weapon did not always bring about a world-shaking leap in power; it also depended on how much of that might one could draw out.

Take Shen Mu's Carefree Sword—a divine sword of extraordinary power. Yet to this day Shen Mu could not rouse the divine sword's true might, and could only rely on its sharpness. So it was with Ban Gongcuo. His current realm could not unleash the full power of his former life's primal weapon, yet even so, at the peak of the Seven Stars realm he could draw out about ten percent of the cauldron's might.

Countless grains of sand rose from the ruins. Wall after wall, pillar after pillar, ruined palace after ruined palace were torn loose and sucked in, tumbling into the cauldron. The entire ruins were dissolving, rising in a swirling cloud into the sky.

"Shen, now you see what I'm capable of? Strength doesn't rest on cultivation alone!"

Ban Gongcuo flipped in the air and landed atop the cauldron, sneering. "So what if your cultivation runs deeper than mine? My treasure is mightier than you—I'll pin you down and beat you, and make your death too ghastly to behold!"

He looked down and started. Shen Mu stood beneath the cauldron, utterly motionless; no matter how fierce the cauldron's suction, it could not lift him.

"How is that possible?"

Ban Gongcuo's eyes went wide. In Shen Mu's palm rested a metal sphere the size of an orange. The sphere suddenly stirred, flowing like water, like sand.

"A sword core!"

Ban Gongcuo understood at once why the cauldron could not draw Shen Mu in. The sword core must weigh a terrifying amount, pinning his body down—even a cauldron forged in a former life could not lift such weight!

"Wasn't his sword core two feet across? If it can't draw you in, then I'll refine you to death!"

Ban Gongcuo suddenly leaped up, head down and feet up, both palms striking the cauldron. With a great clang, a sea of fire surged from the cauldron's mouth. Wherever it passed, all things dissolved; sand and stone melted into rolling magma, and in the blink of an eye the entire ruins became a sea of magma and flame.

Shen Mu seized the sword core and clenched it hard. Countless tiny flying swords flew out, merging together with the Carefree Sword at their head. Shen Mu raised the sword in both hands and, with a single strike into the wind, cleaved apart the sea of fire rushing at him.

Where that strike passed, the flames were instantly snuffed out. The desert to either side was burned molten, yet where the blade's power reached, red sand still lay everywhere. The corner of Shen Mu's eye twitched. This true fire was fierce beyond measure, its power immense—he did not know what manner of evil flame it was.

Ban Gongcuo bellowed, and his body underwent a monstrous change. Wings sprouted from his ribs, his feet became bird claws, and the cauldron hung above his head, draping down a curtain of firelight to shield him all around. His wings blazed with golden light. He suddenly spread them wide, and the feathers clashed with a ringing sound like metal. Howling, he charged at Shen Mu, his two enormous wings beating, wind and thunder mingling, his feathers like swords, slashing and cutting, his assault a violent storm.

Shen Mu crossed his hands, and the Carefree Sword between them split apart with a ringing clash, becoming eight thousand flying swords that danced like a river. The mighty sword-river surged toward Ban Gongcuo. Ban Gongcuo's steps faltered; his wings flapped wildly, sword-feathers flying up to meet the sword-river. A ceaseless ringing filled the air. When the sword-river had passed, Ban Gongcuo cried out in alarm and stood there stripped bare, broken sword-feathers strewn at his feet. Every one of his feathers had been cut away by Shen Mu, leaving only two bare wings that flapped twice.

The curtain of firelight his cauldron had draped down was no small thing—it was called the Yiyan Divine Fire Shield, and its defensive power was terrifying. It could continually divert an enemy's attacks into the cauldron, and the Yiyan divine fire was fearsome enough to burn ordinary primal weapons straight to ash. Yet Shen Mu had shattered his Yiyan Divine Fire Shield outright and cut every feather from his wings!

"This fellow can even break through my Yiyan divine fire. He truly is a hair stronger than me—I am no match for him!"

At the thought, Ban Gongcuo hesitated no longer. He suddenly leaped up and plunged head and feet into the cauldron; the cauldron struck the ground, about to burrow into the earth and flee. Before it could sink into the sand, Shen Mu had seized its leg and lifted the cauldron up. "Where is the Venerable One off to?" he asked with a smile.

Just then, Ban Gongcuo turned into a streak of black light and landed on the sand, burrowing through the earth as he fled. Shen Mu tossed aside the cauldron, his body suddenly becoming a black shadow that skimmed along the ground in pursuit. A moment later, a thousand zhang away, sand and dust billowed, and the two burst out of the ground. Ban Gongcuo ran two quick steps, feathers growing on him once more, then flipped and leaped up, becoming a great bird that beat its wings and shot high into the sky.

"Racing me in speed?"

Shen Mu unleashed the Heaven-Grazing Divine Legs, and without any spell or divine power, stepped through the air in pursuit. Man and bird chased each other across the sky, until after a moment the great bird was beaten into a featherless chicken and plummeted from the heights.

Before Ban Gongcuo hit the ground, a sonorous elephant cry suddenly issued from his mouth. The muscles of his head and face bulged wildly, his neck twisting with a crack. Two more heads grew, and he became a three-headed divine elephant—elephant heads upon a human body. His body swelled madly to a height of six or seven zhang, possessed of boundless strength. He hurled a fist at the pursuing Shen Mu, all three heads crying out together: "Shen, meet your death!"

Boom—

Their fists collided, and the force of their bodily divine powers erupted. Whirlwinds like blades rose around them, sweeping up countless sand and stones in a mad spiral. The three-headed elephant-man spat blood, his massive body sent flying backward.

Shen Mu gave chase. Before he could catch up, Ban Gongcuo's three-headed elephant body swayed and reverted to his true form. Ban Gongcuo leaped through the air. Before he landed, a lotus appeared in the sky, blooming to the width of a zhang. He jumped into it, and the lotus suddenly closed its petals, vanishing with him inside.

Shen Mu was startled. "A teleportation art? Not quite..."