Chapter 572 — The Ten-Mile Star-Sand Snare Formation

He looked hastily toward Shen Mu, who was in a like plight: his sword core had been blasted apart, but Shen Mu had used the Shadow Demon Transformation Art to become a black shadow and dodge the star-sand collisions, escaping that calamity.

As for the chest and the little dragon, he must have taken them into his Taotie Pouch.

Now nearly all the star-sands had become evil eyes. Throughout the gorge floated star-sand evil eyes, hunting the two of them with starlight sword-qi.

Xing Han dodged beam after beam with all his strength.

He thought: "At least I'll have this brat for company in death—not a total loss.

. . No.

I've only just attained godhood, and to be dragged down to die with this brat is a bloody loss!

" Elsewhere, Shen Mu had suddenly frozen, head tilted back to stare at one star-sand evil eye, his gaze vacant, as though he had accepted his fate and given up. Xing Han, after all, was powerful in cultivation, his body monstrously tough; he could still hold out.

So long as he could puzzle out the numerological shifts of the star-sand killing array, he would still have a chance to escape. Just then he saw Shen Mu's body abruptly return to its normal form.

Shen Mu raised a hand in a seal, and behind him took shape a vast array of stars, a Great Luo Heaven Star constellation, which met the starlight sword-qi coming at him. Then something eerie happened: the wheeling stars of the Great Luo Heaven Star were lit by that beam of starlight sword-qi, blazing brighter than ever, and with a drone a beam of colossal thickness shot out and shattered one star-sand evil eye!

Xing Han was stunned. He knew that seal of Shen Mu's—Fan Xuanshu had used it too.

It was called the Great Luo Heaven Star Palm Force! In the battle at the Heavenly Sacred Academy, Fan Xuanshu had used this divine power against Xing Han, and in the end Fan Xuanshu had died at his hands.

It was undeniably a supremely powerful divine art, but Fan Xuanshu's cultivation had been insufficient, far below his own. And yet Shen Mu had now used this same art to withstand the starlight sword-qi of the star-sand evil eyes. Utterly bizarre.

In the distance, Shen Mu deployed the Great Luo Heaven Star Force Field, striking out one Great Luo Heaven Star Palm Force after another, shattering star-sand evil eyes as though walking on flat ground, advancing deeper into the gorge. Xing Han watched helplessly as he vanished.

He himself tried to use the Great Luo Heaven Star Palm Force, but he had only learned the Creation Art from the Great Nurture Dark Demon Sutra, never the complete sutra.

"Why can this brat break a formation that can strangle true gods?

" Perplexity and doubt filled his heart.

After a long while, Shen Mu walked out of the ten-li gorge, out from ten li of yellow sand, and released Jiang Miao and the chest from his Taotie Pouch. Jiang Miao looked back and saw the star-sand evil eyes flying to and fro in the gorge, starlight sword-qi shooting this way and that, and dread filled his heart; he could not fathom how Shen Mu had made it out.

Shen Mu said nothing, surveying his surroundings. A river of yellow sand floated in the air, flowing ceaselessly; walking on, he saw that the source of the yellow sand was a great cauldron, filled to the brim with yellow sand.

These ten li of yellow sand must all have come from that cauldron.

Behind the cauldron stood a magnificent palace, vermilion and jade-green, carved with dragons and painted with phoenixes, holy beyond compare. On its eaves sat ten divine-beast sculptures, and at the very front was one of a man riding a crane.

But chains stretched out from that great hall in every direction, plunging deep into the cliffs of the gorge. Every so often the chains clinked and shuddered, heavy and solid.

Jiang Miao grew agitated. He said in a low voice, "The call of the divine dragon I heard—it comes from here!

I hear it more clearly now.

" Shen Mu could not hear that sound. He was not of the dragon race; presumably only dragons could hear such a call.

"Don't go in yet.

" Shen Mu gave the order and walked to the chains, examining them closely.

He raised a hand and brushed it lightly over the chain, and at once splendid rune seals surfaced from the links; tiny sparks of fire floated in the air and scattered with the wind. He went to the cliff wall as well, studying the runes upon it.

These runes were divine script, while the ten li of yellow sand was a demonic formation used to refine a true god to death; stranger still, the divine script was what roused and drove the demonic formation.

The interplay of god and demon was exquisitely subtle.

"To act according to one's own nature, to follow what is purely natural—that is called the Dao. So whether one is god or demon, what is that to me? " Shen Mu's face was as still as an ancient well.

"Jiang Miao, this is the creed of the Heavenly Sacred Cult. Hold out your hand. " Jiang Miao held out his palm, and Shen Mu drew a rune on it in cinnabar, all but identical to the divine script on the cliff.

"Come, let's go in.

" Puzzled as to his meaning, Jiang Miao hurried after him into the great hall.

Inside, a divine dragon was bound by layer upon layer of chains, the links passing through its very body, pinning it there. It was immense and majestic, holy, wrapped in dragon aura and dragon might, a thing that made men look up in awe.

The divine dragon opened its eyes and looked at Shen Mu and Jiang Miao.

Then it spoke, its voice rumbling and shaking the air: "My kinsman, you have come at last! " Jiang Miao said hastily, "Cult Master, let's hurry and free this venerable dragon!

" Shen Mu shook his head.

His eyes rested on the chained giant dragon, and he said softly, "Venerable dragon, there is one thing I cannot understand. Why were you chained here by the founding patriarch of my Heavenly Sacred Cult?

"