Chapter 600 — How Could This Be

And as Qi Jiuyi split his attention to fend off Shen Mu's Sword That Opens Tribulation, the pressure on Zhe Huali lightened.

With a sudden storm of clangs, the countless demon blades leaping from the magma crashed together and merged into one, and that single blade slashed down on Qi Jiuyi's head!

Behind him, gorgeous wings unfurled — pinions like swords, feathers like blades — meeting the stroke. Shen Mu came hard after his own sword-light, his feet shifting in one thunderous burst, and lashed out a punch.

The air around Qi Jiuyi was exhausted on the instant, compressed onto Shen Mu's fist, and bolts of lightning blasted outward in every direction! Qi Jiuyi raised a hand to catch it, but at just that moment Zhe Huali charged in from the other side like a wrathful demon god, a demonic word tearing from his mouth, his blood-qi surging as he smashed out a seal!

Qi Jiuyi's other hand worked a seal to meet him, fending off two enemies at once.

Two unbearable forces crashed in, and two thundering booms sounded together. Qi Jiuyi let out a muffled groan, and blood spewed from all nine heads at once.

Shen Mu's other hand opened, and the flying swords scattered by the eight phoenix heads gathered again into the sword elixir, dropping into his palm.

He clenched it with all his might, and a snow-bright column of sword-light formed from eight thousand swords spinning madly swept toward Qi Jiuyi's necks, ready to take off all nine heads. The revolving light shrieked through the air; if that sweep so much as grazed him, Qi Jiuyi would be dashed to pieces, carved into the finest dice of flesh!

Zhe Huali reached out and grabbed his demon blade; clang!

— the blade caught Shen Mu's sword-light, and a spray of clear flashes broke the beam apart. He sneered: "He's mine, Sect Master Shen.

Best you don't interfere.

" Both men's bodies shuddered, their arms numbed and aching, the demon blade and the sword elixir jarred from their hands. Shen Mu's other palm shot out, snatched the demon blade out of the air, crossed his steps, and swung it down, sneering: "Zhe Huali, you've no head for this!

He's our common enemy — we must cut him down first, and only then can you and I fight in ease!

" The stroke was grand and overbearing, an inheritance of the Butcher's wild, tyrannical style, and in his hand its power was little inferior to when the same blade rode in Zhe Huali's fist.

Then his palm burned with pain — the demonic eye at the blade's hilt had grown a mouth full of jagged teeth and bitten into his flesh, blood pouring out. At the same instant, Zhe Huali caught the sword elixir, gave a start, and nearly dropped it.

He had not expected Shen Mu's sword elixir so heavy, and almost failed to hold it.

He clamped down hard, and the sword elixir's light flared up; but he had little skill with the sword, and with eight thousand blades within the elixir it was exhausting to control, each tiny sword beyond ready command. Helpless, he could only swing the column of light to meet the descending demon blade, saying expressionlessly: "He is no different from you — both of you are foes I mean to kill.

You will die under my blade, the pair of you! " In the instant sword and blade collided, Zhe Huali grunted and staggered back. Shen Mu was a master of the blade; though the demon blade had bitten his palm, the force of his moves was still tremendous, and his magical power was deeper and vaster than Zhe Huali's, who could scarcely withstand him.

Both men lost their weapons; the demon blade shuddered in midair, and countless rays of blade-light flew in chaos about the three, crashing into one another.

With a breath, Shen Mu reasserted his own power over the sword elixir; the sword-light soared to the firmament and turned into a scroll painting of mountains and rivers, crashing down to engulf all three of them.

Sword Treading Mountains and Rivers!

"How dare you! You actually dare to ignore me! " Qi Jiuyi was equal parts shock and fury. He shook his mighty frame again and revealed his full form — nine heads, a human torso, bird's talons, twin wings — and was just about to erupt and slaughter them both when Shen Mu and Zhe Huali struck as one and gravely wounded him.

Qi Jiuyi spat blood; Shen Mu and Zhe Huali whirled around him, hacking viciously at each other in a three-way melee of mutual slaughter. The moment Qi Jiuyi offered the slightest resistance, the pair knocked him down again.

Whenever Shen Mu went for him, Zhe Huali would parry the blow away; whenever Zhe Huali moved in for a killing stroke, a sulking Shen Mu would block it instead.

Blood running from a dozen wounds, Qi Jiuyi felt fright and confusion growing in his heart.

Facing either Shen Mu or Zhe Huali alone, he would have had every certainty of victory — but against the two as a pair, all he could do was take the beating.

"How could this be?

" His mind was at a total loss.