Chapter 545 — A Fate Between Us

Zhe Huali cried out and took a step toward Shen Mu.

"Yield!"

Beyond the heavens, Furiluo's voice rolled like thunder: "Your saber technique is square and orthodox, skilled in calculation—but your heart is in chaos now. You will only lose faster, die faster! When a sworn friend dies, you avenge him. To throw your own life away instead of taking vengeance is the act of a fool!"

Zhe Huali's face contorted, and suddenly he drew his saber with his left hand.

Outside the sandbox world, Furiluo frowned, yet made no move to stop Zhe Huali within it.

The sandbox world was a creation he and the Woodcutter Sage had forged together. If he interfered, the Woodcutter on the other side would interfere as well, and the tangle would never be unraveled—he had no chance of winning.

The Woodcutter Sage had been summoned abruptly, throwing his arrangements and plans into disarray and catching him off guard; hence he could only stake everything on this wager. He could not break his own wager, or he would very likely lose the entire game.

He needed time.

Though he admired Zhe Huali greatly—though Zhe Huali already had another master, he still regarded him as his own heir—for the sake of the demon race's great cause, however much he admired him, he could only steel himself and let him go.

The corner of Zhe Huali's eye twitched. At the hilt of the demon saber in his hand, that demon eye grew ever more uncanny and unfathomable; and the place it stared at was not Shen Mu, but Zhe Huali's own right arm.

Zhe Huali raised his right arm; the saber was already lifted.

Shen Mu had spoken truly: he could not perfectly execute the saber technique of the Divine Saber Luo Wushuang. To execute it perfectly, he would have to sever his own right arm—otherwise the arm would only be a burden.

His purpose in descending to this world had been to find a way out: to wield the saber with both hands, to bring his saber technique into the Dao, and to step free of Luo Wushuang's shadow.

That sword stroke of Shen Mu's had been dazzling beyond compare; he judged that he could not have evaded it either. To defeat Shen Mu, there was no other way but to sever the arm and push Luo Wushuang's saber technique to its utmost.

And yet, to sever his own arm meant that he would never step free of Luo Wushuang's saber technique, never find his own way of the saber into the Dao—it meant cutting off his own path.

Zhe Huali's expression shifted dark and bright by turns. The saber light fell—and struck the ground.

"I have lost."

He dropped to his knees with a thud—not toward Shen Mu, nor toward Yu He and the others, but toward Jiang Yi's corpse.

Zhe Huali knocked his head on the ground, rose, gathered Jiang Yi's corpse in his arms, and said, turning his head: "I have seen your swordsmanship. I will not let my master see it—because I mean to cut you down with my own hands, and avenge my sworn friend!"

Shen Mu's face grew solemn. He nodded. "If such a day truly comes, I shall die without regret."

Zhe Huali strode away, toward the Li Fire wall. With a hiss, the demon saber flew up and split the wall of fire with a single stroke, hewing out a path. Bearing Jiang Yi in his arms, Zhe Huali walked into the flames and vanished.

Shen Mu's eye twitched. Zhe Huali's bearing left him vaguely uneasy.

Zhe Huali was in no way his inferior. The saber stroke that had just cloven the sea of fire had been exquisite to the utmost; his fleshly body, his mana, his primordial spirit—even the attainments in Dao arts and divine abilities revealed in his saber technique—were no lesser than Shen Mu's. His physical body, indeed, was far superior.

The Zhe Huali of this moment was like Shen Mu after the First Ancestor Human Emperor had struck him a crushing blow—poised on the edge between collapse and transformation.

If he could walk out of it and find his own path—just as Shen Mu had created the first form of the Tribulation Sword, Opening Tribulation—then he too would create a saber technique of his own, leap free of Luo Wushuang's saber technique, and come for Shen Mu in vengeance.

"When he turned and walked out through the wall of fire just now, if I had given him a single sword stroke, it would have finished him... If it were Grandpa Cripple, he would surely have done it without the slightest hesitation!" Shen Mu's expression shifted dark and bright by turns.

Outside the sandbox world, the Black Tiger God caught his expression precisely and at once grew excited, saying again and again: "My lord, my lord! Did you see that? This brat either twitches the corner of his eye or his face changes drastically, dark and bright by turns—sometimes he even cries out aloud! Clearly his cultivation of the heart is shallow, a slipshod affair at best!"

The Woodcutter Sage shot him a glare. The Black Tiger God's face changed drastically, and he hastily bowed his head and drooped his ears.

The Woodcutter Sage reached out and gripped the haft of the divine axe. At the same moment, Furiluo reached out and gripped the demon spear. The two raised their weapons as one.

Shen Mu, within the sandbox world, sensed at once that something was wrong. The space of the sandbox world began to collapse; the collapse began where axe and spear crossed, and the space kept caving in, devouring the towering mountains!

"Run!"

Without a word, Shen Mu seized Sang Wan. Gorgeous runes emerged around him, spinning without cease. In haste he called: "Sister Yu He, Brother Shu You, come to my side!"

Yu He and Shu You still stood there dumbly, staring at him blankly, as if their wits had not yet returned.

Behind them, the collapsing space was rushing closer at terrifying speed. Shen Mu gritted his teeth and roused his teleportation divine ability. Light flashed, and he vanished with Sang Wan.

Only then did Yu He and Shu You come to their senses. They looked back, and their faces changed drastically; they hurriedly rose into the air. Yu He called out loudly: "Brother Shu You, let us join forces to break the wall of fire and charge out of this place!"

The two were swift beyond measure, racing straight for the sandbox world's wall of fire. Only when they lifted their feet did they realize the peril: at full sprint they moved faster than sound, faster even than Shen Mu at his utmost—yet the space collapsed faster still!

The wall of fire was plainly right before their eyes, yet no matter how fast they ran toward it, the distance to it never closed by so much as a hair.

Not only did the distance not close—it was widening; while the distance between them and the great collapse grew ever shorter!

Cold sweat broke out on Yu He's and Shu You's brows. The collapsing space held the force of the collision between the Woodcutter Sage's divine axe and Furiluo's demon spear—the same force that had earlier become the sandbox world, turning a plaza fifty zhang long and thirty-one zhang wide into a vast world of towering mountains a thousand li across.

And now that this world was collapsing inward, it would surely release the might generated when the divine axe and demon spear clashed!

Such might was not something cultivators of their Seven Star realm could withstand; they would likely be vaporized outright, their very souls ceasing to exist!

"That blacksmith Shen Mu was calling to us just now—was he trying to take us away with him?"

Only then did they secretly regret it. They had been so stunned by the radiance of Shen Mu's sword that their minds had gone blank, and they had not heard clearly what he said. By the time they came to their senses, it was too late.

Just then a flash of light passed, and Shen Mu's figure abruptly appeared beside them. Countless runes whirled around them with a clatter; light burst forth. Yu He and Shu You were spun head over heels, and when their feet found solid ground and they opened their eyes to look around, they saw that they had already come outside the plaza.

"Go!"

Shen Mu shouted, sprinting forward: "Hide behind the great hall!"