Chapter 494 — The Struggle in the Dark Chamber Behind the Scenes

Shen Mu roared. The two Butcher Knives at his back left their sheaths and were in his hands. In that instant the dozen-odd divine-power masters charged. The Dragon Qilin opened its mouth and roared, true fire gushing from it in a pillar that blasted forward. The fire pillar exploded; the dozen figures wove and scattered, dodging past the pillar to cut down at the Dragon Qilin.

The Dragon Qilin turned its head and swept the fire pillar in all directions. One man clapped his hands downward and the earth heaved up, but the chest pressed it back down, and he could not lift the ground at all. Another spun a blade-light of incomparable skill, whirling madly around the fire pillar and cutting the Dragon Qilin's blow apart. Shen Mu took up his knives and moved back to back with the knife-wielder, step for step.

That divine-power master was formidable too. He knew that once he was locked in the close combat of the martial-arts school, life and death hung on a single instant, decided by each other's blade work and footwork. The two of them spun like tops, swift as flight, their blade-light flaring and falling, and the outcome was already sealed.

"Fine knife work!"

The man's head flew up and dropped into the darkness, and he turned back to offer the praise. His flying head saw his own body toppling, while Shen Mu took a palm strike to the chest from another divine-power master. Yet Shen Mu's body coiled with a flood dragon, his vital essence turning into a flood dragon that bound his foe's arm; and on the other side, the two knives moved too fast to follow, and slash slash slash, countless streaks of blade-light chopped down at his opponent.

"Truly fine knife work!"

The head praised again, and then darkness filled his eyes; he could no longer see Shen Mu's knives. Bang. His head struck the ground, rolled a few turns, and still wide-eyed, his consciousness slowly scattered: "To die beneath knife work like that..."

Ban Gongcuo's blade orbs floated in the air. He struck almost in the same instant as Shen Mu, the orbs crossing, countless blade-lights sweeping low along the ground. At the same time, from the Jade Blood Gourd on his back came a splash, and a waterfall of blood surged into the air, wrapping up a divine-power master who was dodging his leg-severing blade-light. The blood waterfall washed over him, and it was full of every manner of insect; in an instant it ate the man clean.

Ding, ding, ding, the clash of metal rang out. Another divine-power master trod along the blades, stepping one knife after another down, and invaded the space beside Ban Gongcuo. He raised a hand, and divine thunder burst forth, pouring down like rain. Ban Gongcuo, bearing the five thunders striking his crown, raised a hand and swept his sleeve: countless flying daggers poured out and nailed the man over head and face.

The Dragon Qilin roared, revealed its true body of forty zhang, and lunged to fight back, smashing and crushing its foe.

A while later, Shen Mu cut down the last enemy and kicked the corpse away, spitting out a mouthful of bloody phlegm. These divine-power masters were all of high cultivation realms, most at the Six Harmonies or Seven Stars realm, and there was even a Heaven-Human realm expert whom the Dragon Qilin had tangled with. His primordial spirit was powerful, and he nearly lifted the Dragon Qilin and flung it into the darkness. It was only with Shen Mu and Ban Gongcuo joining forces that they killed him inside that hundred-zhang space.

Ban Gongcuo had taken several strokes of divine power himself, his face grimy, and simply stopped hiding matters from Shen Mu, attaching the two divine legs to his own body. Shen Mu looked the other way and smiled. "Great Venerable, be quick about it. Our enemies won't give us the chance."

"Enemies?" Ban Gongcuo laughed. "Aren't our enemies all dead?"

He raised his head and looked into the darkness, where a black mass of figures was rushing out of the dark, and he froze. He spun about to flee, but beyond was nothing but darkness, and he stopped again.

"No way out!"

Ban Gongcuo turned back, wailing. "Sect Master Shen, there's no way out! I'm done for, you've killed me!"

Shen Mu stood at the center of the hundred-zhang space and slid the two great knives back into the blade pouch. With a thud, a Sun Jade Eye dropped down beside him, and he declared in a ringing voice, "Those who cross the border die!"

"Boastful words!"

An outrealm demon-lord divine-power master came charging with a howl, and suddenly a streak of sword-light flew out from beneath the ground, piercing through his chest and into his skull. The master rushed forward dozens of paces and pitched over dead at Shen Mu's feet.

Shen Mu smiled, and facing the hundreds of outrealm demon lords in the darkness, repeated, "Those who cross the border die!"

"I'll kill you!"

A giant leaped up with a great shield in hand and cast it down beneath his feet to block the sword-light surging from the ground, and with a roar his body changed: he became a god-man with a turtle's shell and a great serpent coiled about him, crashing down into the space the chest had spread open. He threw a punch, and a soaring serpent screamed, coiled around his fist.

Zheng, zheng.

Two blade-lights, one horizontal and one vertical, the twin knives crossing; then the blade-light whipped shut, and the giant broke apart into four pieces.

Shen Mu wiped the blood from his blade and grinned. "Those who cross the border die!"

"You two, and a pig, hold a hundred zhang of space, and you mean to block my army?"

A strange beast came walking forward, and on its back the leader of this host of outrealm fiend-demons lifted his visor and looked down at Shen Mu, sneering. "For the sake of your decent cultivation and your courage, I will grant you a death with no whole corpse left! All you soldiers, hear my command, trample them flat!"

All the outrealm fiend-demon divine-power masters surged in and drowned that hundred-zhang space. Outside the space, eight thousand swords broke from the earth and became the first form of the Sword Diagram, Sword Treads Over Rivers and Mountains, drawing everyone who rushed into the hundred-zhang space into the diagram! The leader sneered, his primordial spirit soaring into the air, his mana erupting, forcibly shaking off all the flying swords and shattering Sword Treads Over Rivers and Mountains!

Ban Gongcuo's face went pale. Gazing up at that overbearing being who had broken the Sword Diagram with such ease, despair filled his mind, and he murmured, "A general of the Life-and-Death realm has come as well. There is no way out. I cannot run..."

"There is a way out!"

Shen Mu bellowed, and a dazzling light burst forth and stabbed at the general's eye. In the instant the general froze the Sword Diagram, the radiance of the Sun Jade Eye buzzed in through his brow and out the back of his skull!

The divine-power masters surging in fell upon Shen Mu and drowned him; the Sun Jade Eye was blasted away by dozens of divine powers and came rolling out.

Hope kindled in Ban Gongcuo's heart again. His face turned savage as he met the hundreds. "Kill!"

"Kill!"

The Dragon Qilin roared, its scales bristling and flying from its body.

Bang, bang, bang.

The hundred-zhang space suddenly folded at furious speed and closed, packing hundreds of outrealm fiend-demon divine-power masters, together with Ban Gongcuo, Shen Mu, and the Dragon Qilin, into the chest.

In the darkness, the chest gave off a faint, ghostly glow, but inside the chest was darkness of the densest kind, without a single gleam of light. From within the chest came blow after blow, thudding. Terrible sounds of slaughter came from inside: the sound of blades cutting flesh, the muffled bursting of divine powers, and blood flowing steadily from the corners of the chest.

A long time passed, and the chest fell silent once more.

Bang.