Chapter 590 — The Calamity of Wuwang City

At the center of Shen Mu's brow, that willow-leaf-shaped vertical eye slowly opened, and from the seam of the eye a radiance like the veins of a butterfly's wing spilled out from either side of the lid, so dazzling it seized the eye.

"How beautiful!"

Granny Zhu could not help but cry out in admiration — though in the very next instant she saw that these butterfly-wing veins, for all their splendor, seemed to hold something unspeakably dreadful within them.

Zaifu, the Blind Elder, and the rest pressed closer to look, and saw that as Shen Mu's art drove it on, the eye opened wider and wider, the butterfly wings growing larger and larger, until it seemed his head had become a great butterfly! The butterfly, of course, was on his forehead.

Suddenly, Zaifu and the others felt threads of a dreadful throb, as though some hideous demon-monster were waking in the abyss and slowly opening its blood-red eyes.

"What is it?"

Zaifu, the Blind Elder, and the Silent Craftsman were the first to grasp it, and without meaning to they let loose wave after wave of terrifying divine might. They had sensed a threat and reacted beyond their own will, each at his own speed. Zaifu was fastest: with a clear, soaring cry of the blade, his divine saber flew up, spun a full circle, and hung in the air. The Silent Craftsman came next; behind him the forge-fire shot a pillar of flame into the heavens, the column whirling madly in the air and scorching the sky red. The Blind Elder was a shade slower; the Dragon Tuo divine spear clattered and quivered and became a black dragon coiled about his body, poised to strike.

Then Granny Zhu, too, involuntarily released her aura; countless stars surfaced behind her and formed the Great Luo Heaven star-force field, to hold back that dreadful throb.

Boom—

The Lame Elder was off and running, and in the next breath he was a hundred li away, only then coming to his senses: "It seems to have come from inside little Shen — not some frightful monster..."

Zheng—

Ba Shan drew his saber and swept a doubtful, startled look around him, crying harshly: "Where has this demon-monster come from?"

He too was a Grandmaster; though his saber art could not match that of a strong one like Zaifu who had entered the Way through the saber, he had founded the school that fuses battle and art, and he was keenly sensitive to unknown peril.

The Deaf Elder and the Alchemist were utterly at a loss, the Alchemist especially, who had no idea at all what was happening.

The Deaf Elder's cultivation had not yet reached the god realm; he had trained only to the middle stage of the Divine Bridge and had not begun to repair his Divine Bridge. He was drunk on the way of painting, his ears closed to all the world's affairs, and his reactions were somewhat dull. The Alchemist had two years ago finally succeeded in breaking through the wall of life and death, and was still in the life-and-death realm; he did not set much store by cultivation, and so his realm advanced very slowly. Only after Shen Mu passed on the Magpie Bridge Formula, the Mystic Guide Formula, and the Divine Crossing Formula did he turn his mind to training — but with so many women about him, his progress was dragged down all the same.

These two were the slowest of them all, yet even they soon sensed that something was wrong. That sudden, dreadful throb seemed to be some incomparably hideous demon-monster slowly waking; and the source of that dreadful throb was precisely the third eye Shen Mu was opening!

They all looked to Shen Mu's brow. The light bursting from that eye grew ever more gorgeous, and in the gorgeous light a black shadow could dimly be seen walking.

It was a very small black shadow, like a tiny infant — but it trod upon the light, walking out step by step from the depths of Shen Mu's third eye, and with every step the infant grew and swelled, until at last it was about to fill Shen Mu's third eye!

"Shen'er, stop driving the Mystic Body Three-Core Art!" Zaifu shouted, as though facing a mortal foe. "There's a strange thing in your eye! Stop, quickly!"

But it was too late. The black shadow had already filled Shen Mu's third eye and was about to step out.

"I feel filled with power..." A voice like sleep-talk came from Shen Mu's mouth. "Power that can destroy everything!"

At those words, every soul of Yincan Village went cold with fear — they had heard two voices! Two voices overlapping, speaking from Shen Mu's mouth.

Crack!

The sky shook violently; the light from the third eye bent space itself, and the dreadful power spilled out, rendering space unstable. Crack after crack appeared amid thunderous detonations.

Taihuang Heaven's space had been somewhat unstable ever since the demon race descended, easily torn — but by no means could any common wielder of divine arts tear it; at the very least, one needed the battle power of a god-demon to manage it.

And now the power coming from Shen Mu's eye was making the space all around him split open without cease, the dense cracks still spreading!

Below the watchtower of Wuwang City there were several dozen wielders of divine arts from Taihuang Heaven. Seeing crack after crack spread out on every side, they hurried to flee. Long Qilin, who was training hard, hastily looked up, saw a crack driving straight at him, and scrambled away. That spatial crack tore apart the ground where he had just been standing, and at once a chasm more than ten li long appeared, deepening without stop!

Long Qilin shuddered. Snow Fox bounded and leaped like the wind, jumped up onto the crown of his head, and cried: "Fat Dragon, run! The young master is about to show his true form—"

Long Qilin turned and ran for all he was worth. Behind him came an earth-shaking roar. Snow Fox looked back, and saw that the Green Ox too was fleeing in panic; behind the Green Ox stood that watchtower, a hundred zhang tall and more than ten mu about.

It was the watchtower that had made the roar. Warped by the cracks in space, it came apart where it stood into countless pieces, and every piece floated in a different fragment of space!

Then roar upon roar came rolling on — that was the residual divine arts of the god-demon battle in the Wuwang City ruins, stirred by the torn space; at once a chain reaction set in, and remnant divine arts after remnant divine arts burst forth, blooming like fireworks in the shattered space, uncommonly beautiful, beautiful beyond all words.

Snow Fox had no leisure to admire them. Looking at the butterfly-wing light, it felt a little downcast at heart: "The young master is no fox spirit, but a butterfly spirit..."

Where Shen Mu stood, the earth too was collapsing and sinking; the ground beneath the feet of Zaifu, the Blind Elder, and the rest kept sinking, exposing fiery lava!

The ruins of Wuwang City were falling into the earth; huge masses of soil and stone and broken walls and ruined pillars dropped into the rolling lava and threw up sheet after sheet of flame.

Everyone strove to steady themselves. Zaifu, the Silent Craftsman, the Blind Elder, Granny Zhu, and Ba Shan strained to hold back the tearing space and shield the Alchemist and the Deaf Elder, while the Lame Elder shuttled ceaselessly through one broken space after another, trying to draw near.

Their hearts were full of dread. The Blind Elder reached out and seized the Dragon Tuo divine spear; the spear moved with his body, and in a single turn he thrust out countless spear-shadows, holding off the vicious forces in the space around them, and shouted: "Zaifu, lend me your strength and let me get to him, so I can seal the eye on his brow!"

Zaifu gripped the Heaven Saber and rushed to his side, saying: "Granny, Silent Craftsman, you protect the others!"

The two of them joined forces and drew toward Shen Mu step by step through the air, but space kept splitting open, widening the distance between them and Shen Mu; to draw near him was no easy matter.