Chapter 535 — The Sword of Kalpa Fire

"This one sword technique alone is still not enough to defeat the Primordial Ancestor."

Shen Mu sheathed his sword and gazed at Taihuang Heaven shrouded in darkness, where that dazzling flash of sword light had faded from the sky.

On the battlefield the flames still crackled and burned, not yet extinguished, and the air was thick with the smell of scorched flesh.

That strike he had just unleashed—though it had poured all the emotion and feeling in his heart into a single sword, reaching a height he had never attained before—was still a considerable distance from defeating the Primordial Ancestor, the Human Sovereign.

Without the pressure of the Primordial Ancestor, without the encounters he had met upon entering the Dark Realm, it would have been hard for him to take this step, hard to walk out from beneath the Village Head's sword diagram, hard to walk out from beneath the Butcher's blade art.

That one strike was not merely the creation of a sword technique that belonged to him alone; it had also pierced through the gloom that had hung over his heart all this time.

Sang Hua stared blankly at his back. The youth's practice of cultivation and swordplay upon the altar just now had left a deep impression on her.

Especially Shen Mu's final strike—pointing at his brow, thrusting out his sword—the artistic conception contained within that sword was so vast and magnificent that in her daze she seemed to see a mighty upheaval in which heaven and earth were remade, to see countless noble and resolute souls struggling amid blood and slaughter, pressing forward one after another.

The sword techniques Shen Mu had displayed earlier—Sword Treads Mountains and Rivers, for all its grandeur, for all its spirit of charging forward to slay gods in heaven—merely described mountains and rivers, its exquisite craftsmanship diluting its grandeur.

One Sword Opens the Emperor's Bloody Ocean was a move of murderous intent that reached the heavens, too overbearing, possessed of the makings of a Sword God, but its sword intent was a remembrance of fallen heroes, a wallowing in antiquity.

Shanghuang's Kalpa Stirs was too desolate and wasted, recounting the history buried in the Shanghuang era.

These three sword techniques each had their strengths, but each also had its shortcomings.

As for grandeur, she felt the previous three techniques were still inferior to the one Shen Mu had just unleashed—but precisely wherein it excelled, she could not say.

"A fine sword technique."

She rose to her feet, came to Shen Mu's side, and asked, "What sword technique is this?"

"The Kalpa Sword."

Shen Mu turned his head, watching her come to his side, then lifted his gaze to the distance.

Suddenly a fierce wind rushed at them, and before the altar it landed and transformed into an incomparably magnificent tiger, its body patterned in alternating black and yellow, patches of its fur curling in whorls, majestic and extraordinary. A small tuft of down grew upon its ears, which stood erect and could swivel in every direction.

"A fine sword technique! That move was truly brilliant!"

The tiger god stepped onto the stone stairs of the altar, and halfway up its forelegs left the ground, transforming into a deity with a tiger's head and a human body. It walked toward Shen Mu, its voice booming: "Why is it called the Kalpa Sword?"

This tiger god was the mount of the Woodcutter Sage, summoned into this world together with him, bearing the Woodcutter Sage into battle, fierce and valiant.

Shen Mu's heart stirred slightly. This black tiger god had returned from the front lines—it seemed the Woodcutter Sage had already quelled the demon gods there. He said at once: "When heaven and earth are remade, it is called a great kalpa! The remaking of heaven and earth is not merely natural disaster, not merely the invasion of heavenly demons, not merely the common people buried in flood and fire—the remaking of heaven and earth is also the people's hearts turning to change, divine arts changing the law, the law changing the great Dao." Note 1

The tiger god tilted its head, and as it climbed it sneered: "Change the people's hearts, change divine arts, change the law, change the Dao—what a grand claim! With your sword technique, can you change this world, change this bright heaven and earth, change the thoughts and minds of all living beings? Your sword technique is not bad, but your ambition is too great!"

Shen Mu's gaze grew fervent, his tone somewhat impassioned: "Change the people's hearts—if the people do not worship the gods, if the people do not fear the gods, then the gods have no authority. If the gods have no authority, then divine arts can be changed. If divine arts change, the law changes; if the law changes, the Dao changes; if the Dao changes, heaven and earth change!"

Sang Hua looked at the youth beside her. The youth beside her was radiant with spirit, fearless even before this majestic black tiger god.

Shen Mu raised his hand, pointing at the savage battlefield in the darkness. His voice was somewhat hoarse, yet in the night it was deeply stirring.

"Look! This is the kalpa the gods and demons have brought down upon us, to destroy our world, to make the common people know the might of the gods and demons, to fear them, to tremble before them, to revere them, to worship them! And my Kalpa Sword is meant to open the kalpa of changing the people's hearts, to open the kalpa of changing divine arts, to open the kalpa of changing the Dao and the law—and thereby remake heaven and earth!"

He grew more and more impassioned. Though Sang Hua did not fully understand, she could feel the surging passion within him!

This youth seemed to possess a charm that could stir the heart, making one unable to resist listening to his words, infected by his emotion.

In a few strides the black tiger god reached the foot of the altar, its body already towering far above Shen Mu and the others, exerting an intense sense of pressure.

This demon god looked down at Shen Mu, and after a long while, it finally broke into a smile, the whiskers on its face spreading in all directions: "I knew you were remarkable. I do not fully understand your words, but I find them extraordinary. What is this move of yours called?"

Shen Mu looked up at it and said in a deep voice: "This sword technique is called Opening the Kalpa!"

The black tiger god was slightly taken aback: "Opening the kalpa of changing the people's hearts? Opening the kalpa of changing divine arts? Opening the kalpa of changing the Dao and the law? A fine name!"

Sang Hua understood a little as well. This youth beside her, who had come from another world, intended to bring down a kalpa upon the gods and demons who had brought down a kalpa upon them—and so he called his sword technique Opening the Kalpa.

His sword technique followed the path of changing the law—changing the law of the ancestors, revolutionizing the fate ordained by gods and demons.

The black tiger god asked again: "How many moves does your Kalpa Sword have?"

Shen Mu's face reddened slightly, and he said hesitantly: "For now, only one. In creating this move, I feel my reserves are spent..."

"I thought as much. At your age, what you can accumulate is not much."

The black tiger god's whiskers lay flat against its face as it said: "To create a sword technique at your age is already quite remarkable. I have come on my lord's orders to bring you to him. He is in the midst of a brawl with someone and has need of you. Come with me."

Shen Mu was slightly startled, and could not help but grow excited: "The Woodcutter Sage wishes to see me?"

The black tiger god revealed its true form once more and said: "Did you not hear me? He is brawling with someone, and suddenly thought of you, and wants you to come. Get on my back. There are dangers along the way—many of the demon race—and you cannot get through on your own."