Chapter 478 — Hidden Designs

In such a savage storm neither could keep his footing; the terrifying gale rolled their bodies about, and even their primal weapons could not fly far, or they would be swept away by the storm. Bolts of lightning split back and forth through the sandstorm, falling again and again around the two and upon them, when suddenly a dreadful fluctuation swept over them.

The two were shaken until their bodies quivered and were flung high; it was a fluctuation of space, rising and falling, and their bodies were stretched long and short by turns — at their longest a zhang and six or seven chi, at their shortest a mere five chi tall — an agony beyond words. Whoosh — a huge black sun rolled past them and hurtled onward, carrying billowing heat that ignited the flying sand and the storm around it, blazing up into one fire tornado after another, swift beyond measure.

Shen Mu and Ban Gongcuo could not hold their ground and were sucked into the fire tornado; the enormous whirlwind spun at furious speed, carrying the two of them whirling up into the high sky. Clang, clang, clang — the two exchanged a hundred-odd sword strokes within the fire tornado, and then a sword light sweeping level suddenly cut the tornado in two. Shen Mu's and Ban Gongcuo's bodies spun at furious speed, and before they could steady themselves a sand serpent a hundred zhang thick let out an earth-shaking roar and lunged at them with gaping jaws.

Shen Mu ran for all he was worth; on the other side Ban Gongcuo tumbled and rolled through the air, narrowly, desperately avoiding the enormous sand serpent. Then came the thunderous roar of the serpent burrowing into the earth, shaking both men until they spat blood.

The battle between the Old Mother of True Heaven and Imperial Preceptor Jingping was savage beyond measure; the storms stirred up by the aftershocks of those two deities' divine arts were more than they could bear, and at any moment they might be buried in the sandstorm. Ban Gongcuo dodged the sand serpent and rushed for the edge of the storm, but just then an earth-shaking sound of footsteps reached them.

Shen Mu and Ban Gongcuo were struck dumb: a continent that moved through the desert appeared beside them, and wherever it passed, space itself warped, rippling out in layer upon layer. Space is by nature invisible, yet now, crushed beneath the Dawn Ark, its fluctuations could actually be seen. "Run!

" Ban Gongcuo shrieked, but even his voice was drowned in the sandstorm.

Shen Mu ran for the outside, but within the sandstorm even the Lame Elder's Heaven-Skimming Legs could not carry him fast; the wind here was simply too strong.

An incomparably overbearing divine might came crashing down, shaking blood from both their mouths; not even Shen Mu's True Dragon Overlord Body, not even Ban Gongcuo's tortoise shield, could withstand it.

After all, the cultivation of these two men stood at the very summit of the Seven Stars realm, only a single step from the Heaven-Man realm — and yet the divine might surging through the sandstorm was simply too strong. Bang, bang.

Shen Mu was pinned against one of the Dawn Ark's legs, unable to move; the wind beating at his face folded it into countless wrinkles, and the fluctuations of space abruptly stretched his body out to more than two zhang. Shen Mu felt his head grow thin and pointed, and the way his eyes saw things turned strange as well.

Beside him was Ban Gongcuo, stretched into a noodle and pressed dead against the Dawn Ark's leg.

At last, when that wave of fluctuation passed and the wind abated, their bodies snapped back at once. Shen Mu, gripping his sword in both hands, spun at furious speed, and with a clang-clang-clang of blows hewed his way along the Dawn Ark's leg toward Ban Gongcuo. Ban Gongcuo, standing on his tortoise shell, parried with his sword, then suddenly gave a stifled grunt as half a leg was cut from him by Shen Mu.

Boom — the Dawn Ark's fluctuation came again, this time bursting outward, flinging the two of them away, crushing them until they seemed to have become round balls.

Just then Shen Mu saw a sword light cleave the sandstorm open. Imperial Preceptor Jingping walked onto the Dawn Ark amid the dreadful fluctuations, and his sword light split open the skull of the Old Mother of True Heaven at the center of the four pillars — yet the Old Mother of True Heaven wore a cruel smile, for the huge black sun was rolling down upon Imperial Preceptor Jingping from behind.

That black sun crushed nearly everything on the Dawn Ark and rolled off its rear, flying out, dragging the enormous Dawn Ark tumbling backward, heaving it up, rolling it, until at long last it settled.

Shen Mu was flung away by the terrifying storm.

The storm surged madly, sweeping up and devouring more of the Flaming Desert; even Long Qilin was caught up in it, struggled feebly a few times, then resigned himself to fate and lay still, letting the storm blow him away.