Chapter 530 — Descending from Heaven

" The demon elite were not the lowly vanguard, still pounding along on foot. These were mighty beings, belonging to the Heavenly Demon Host. Shen Mu had once crossed blades with the Heavenly Demon Host in the Realm of the Dead and the Living, and their strength was indeed fearsome.

These Heavenly Demon Host hid behind the cloud chariots, waiting for the lowly demon vanguard to smash into the enemy formation and loosen it before they would strike. Now numberless Heavenly Demon Host were pursuing him, meaning to do away with this human cultivator of divine abilities who had appeared out of nowhere.

Shouts rang out from behind, and the other lowly demons received their orders at once and turned to kill the running Shen Mu. The lowly demons were beyond counting, a black tide of them; in an instant they had swallowed Shen Mu whole.

"Eight Thousand Swords!

" Shen Mu bellowed in fury.

The great sword in his hand suddenly burst forth; countless sword lights spun madly, and in a twinkling the demon vanguard was a storm of flying flesh and blood.

The eight thousand swords, like a vast sphere of light, rolled through the vanguard, shredding everything in their path. Whoosh. The rolling sphere of light ground back and forth through the crowd.

Of a sudden, a demon of the Heaven-Human realm among the lowly demons roared in anger, his body swelling joint by joint, until in an instant his bulging muscles burst his armor and his clothing.

Ten-plus zhang tall, he swung a monstrous spiked club, sweeping all around him and knocking aside every lowly demon in his way. That club had been forged by secret arts, divided into thirty-six segments joined one to another, spinning at speed in every direction, cutting even his own kind to pieces. The Heaven-Human realm demon general swept the crowd aside and brought the club smashing down at Shen Mu. A ceaseless din of clanging rang out: the eight thousand swords gathered in an instant into a great shield and blocked the blow.

The demon general's frame swayed; with two resounding booms, two more arms burst from beneath his armpits, and his four hands hammered the great shield like a violent storm, while the other two raised the club high and brought it down again. Shen Mu's body shook, and he transformed into the form of the Zhenxing Lord, human-headed and serpent-bodied.

Behind him rose a Heaven-Bearing Gate several zhang tall, its doors flung wide to guard his back; the demons charging from behind were swept by the gate, and their souls went straight back to the Dark Otherworld. Boom! He raised his hand and met the demon general's palm.

The two of them burst forth with mana, with divine powers; the demon general's club could not come down, and his body was flung high by Shen Mu's terrifying strength, crashing into the surging mass of demons and crushing who knew how many lowly demons beneath him. But in that moment of blocking, the swiftest of the Heavenly Demon Host caught up with Shen Mu, and a volley of saber pellets came flying at his face.

The saber pellets spun madly in midair, and countless demon sabers shot out from them, hewing at him in a frenzy! "Sheer Cliff Heavenly Dipper! " Shen Mu roared.

Both hands thrust forward, and Bashan Jijiu's divine ability, the Sheer Cliff Heavenly Dipper, came forth from him with ease.

Stars lay scattered across the sky like pieces on a board, wound about with starlight, chief among them the sun, the moon, and the five planets, these seven stars the greatest, forming a curtain of light that nailed the curved sabers in the air. Then the Sheer Cliff Heavenly Dipper shattered with a bang. Shen Mu grunted and staggered back.

The first of the Heavenly Demon Host came charging in, a handsome youth of the Asura clan among the Eight Tribes of Heavenly Demons. He reached out and snatched at the air; countless curved sabers flew to him and gathered into a saber pellet in his hand.

The Asura whirled his hands; the saber pellet rang with a metallic shriek and became a long saber double-edged front and back, while the other curved sabers within it shrank to the size of grains of sand, streaming out from between his fingers and orbiting his body.

The Asura swung the curved saber high and came at Shen Mu like a whirlwind.

Clang. The two clashed once. Shen Mu shifted his stance and shed the force: "Such strength! " The Asura was shaken back by him as well, then of a sudden he steadied himself and came at him faster still.

Shen Mu stepped forward and thrust out a single palm.

Light wavered before him, and primal energy took the form of the character for "freeze". The Asura's body stiffened for a breath; the instant he could move again, Shen Mu's sword swept past and a head leapt into the sky. "Strong, certainly, but a shade or two beneath me.

" Shen Mu narrowed his eyes. More of the Heavenly Demon Host had reached his side, none of them inferior to the Asura just now, and his scalp prickled. And then, of a sudden, a world-shaking roar came from the battlefield.

It was the sound of the two battle lines colliding, and in a single instant flesh and blood flew through the air in every direction.

The sky abruptly darkened.

At the center of the battlefield, an altar rose slowly, shouldering aside the flying gore, and the upheaved earth flung Shen Mu and the Heavenly Demon Host who had come to kill him into the air.

Shen Mu turned to look in his haste, and his heart jumped.

That altar was a sacrificial altar, an altar for offering up flesh and blood, somewhat like the one he had built to send himself into this world, but its chief purpose was to use a blood sacrifice to summon a mighty being from another world! "This altar is several hundred times larger than the one I built. Who buried it here?

" He had barely landed when, before he could think further, the Heavenly Demon Host engulfed him.

And at that moment, the altar lit up. Countless runes spun, light blazed in all directions, and streaks of blood-light shot across the sky, straight up to the heavens, smashing a hole in the firmament.

Rumble! A great axe fell from the sky, and then a colossal striped tiger emerged from the blood-light, its body wound about with gorgeous divine markings of every hue.

"My lord! " The tiger roared.

Upon its back, within the blood-light, a familiar figure appeared. Shen Mu looked hurriedly, and his expression went slack, so that he nearly had his belly ripped open by one of the Heavenly Demon Host. Upon the altar, the man who had appeared riding the divine tiger carried a great axe, and Shen Mu had seen that face long ago.

The Woodcutter Sage who had passed the scriptures upon the stone.