Chapter 605 — Unfathomable Divine Powers
The Herdsman of the Wasteland Page 2 of 2
Why did even Tubo find it necessary to seal it away?
" Though Shen Mu could open only the eye between his brows, its power of sight was exceedingly strange, able to perceive what other sacred eyes could not. The demon god had hidden himself with masterful skill, plainly in possession of an extremely peculiar art of concealment. He crouched within a spatial rift above the altar, working his rites—now head-down and feet-up, now with hair tumbling loose about his shoulders, steps broken and chaotic, like one possessed.
"Granny," Shen Mu said gravely, "watch the direction my origin-qi thread extends! I will fix his position for you.
You must strike him dead! " Granny Zhu snapped, "Do not use the Mystic Body Triple Elixir Art!
Use only your origin-qi thread, stretched into a single line, to guide me! Hand me the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra!
" At a thought from Shen Mu, a ball of thread flew out; in the same breath his origin qi spun into silk, and a strand shot toward the sky above the altar, stretching outward at speed. That strand of origin qi pointed straight at the hiding place of the demon god in the midst of his sacrificial rite.
At the same time, Granny Zhu summoned the scripture of the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra; countless characters whirled forth, forming a thread of their own. The thread of scripture clung tight against Shen Mu's strand of origin qi and raced outward.
All of Granny Zhu's arcane power poured into the characters of the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra.
This scripture had been handed down by the founding patriarch of the Heavenly Sage Sect, who had refined it into a treasure. When the scripture was not unrolled, it was no more than a small ball of thread; but when unrolled and magnified with origin qi, it became countless written characters. What was more, the characters could be wielded as an origin weapon, possessing overwhelming power and might. Granny Zhu had once used them to contend with many powerhouses at Crimson Dragon City; and when Shen Mu first followed the village head into the darkness of the desolate ruins, the scripture had been one of the protective treasures he carried on his person.
It was only after Shen Mu later obtained an origin weapon of his own that he seldom made use of the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra.
The scripture had never suited his hand. For Granny Zhu, however, it was the most fitting of origin weapons, perfectly matched to her cultivation art and her temperament.
She could even use it to work transformations that ordinarily demanded fully-fledged divine powers.
But because Shen Mu was the Sect Master of the Heavenly Sage Sect, the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra rightly belonged in his keeping, and so she had never asked him to hand it over.
Shen Mu's strand of origin qi stretched fifty li and was almost upon the demon god's hiding place; but his origin qi had reached the limit of its strength. If he activated the Mystic Body Triple Elixir Art, he could extend the reach of his qi sixfold; without the art, the strand could go no more than fifty li. "Shen'er, on no account activate the art! With your strand to fix the direction, I can strike him down!
" Granny Zhu warned him urgently once more; then, behind her, a Divine Bridge spanned the sky. Her primordial spirit appeared, stepped onto the bridge, and flew across it, straight to the Celestial Palace at the bridge's very end! With a thundering shout, Granny Zhu unleashed a divine might from within her. Beyond the Southern Heaven Gate of the Celestial Palace, light blazed across the nine heavens, and the characters of the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra, like the slenderest of spirit serpents, shot with a swish into the demon god's hiding place!
The demon god was at the most critical juncture of his rite.
The blood-river sacrifice flared, its radiance surging into the heavens, when in that very instant a silver thread darted into his brow! Startled, the demon god clapped a hand to his forehead and caught a thread-end between his fingers.
He stared in bewilderment. "What is this?
" Beside Shen Mu, Granny Zhu's hair streamed, a beauty like a butterfly, sleeves and skirts aflutter, as she cast one divine power after another without pause. The demon god's face changed drastically.
He was about to pull the thread out from within him when the characters of the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra inside his body suddenly swelled, erupting into hundreds of divine powers that burst forth all at once.
Bang, bang, bang, bang—countless detonations thundered from within the spatial rift; then the blood of a demon god streamed out of the rift, like a wound in the sky, pouring down in a waterfall.
Granny Zhu exhaled in relief and withdrew the Great Nurturing Nether Demon Sutra. She looked up and saw that the blood sacrifice had not yet stopped.
The demon god was dead, but the sacrifice was already complete.