Chapter 733 — Comprehending the Dao Through Martial Arts

Shen Mu was somewhat doubtful. Back beneath the Southern Heavenly Gate, Hu Bugui's strength had not been what it was now, and he had not entered the Dao through martial arts; yet now he seemed to have stepped onto the very edge of entering the Dao through the martial soul.

"Brother Hu is truly a genius."

Shen Mu could not help but marvel, thinking: "It was only by relying on the Overlord Body's power of comprehension that I could, at twenty, fathom my own cultivation art and enter the Dao, and enter the Dao through swordsmanship. But he, by his own true ability, has fathomed entering the Dao through martial arts! Such talent commands admiration."

What he did not know was that Hu Bugui's breakthrough on the God-Slaying Platform was in fact thanks to him.

He and Shen Mu were friends, not enemies, not rivals — yet even so, a secret desire to match skills had risen in Hu Bugui's heart.

Shen Mu not only brought him pressure but also impetus, and even inspiration, forcing and spurring him to advance one step further and make a breakthrough.

It was just like the year Shen Mu, upstream on the Jin River, happened upon Xu Shenghua in a painted pleasure boat. The two met by chance and drank tea in place of wine aboard the boat; Shen Mu felt the pressure of a "pseudo-Overlord Body," turned that pressure into impetus, and fell into a state of enlightenment, together with Ling Yuxiu creating the Primordial Spirit Guide.

Hu Bugui's state was the same.

Shen Mu watched Hu Bugui's every movement on the platform with anxious urgency. This moment was critical: if Hu Bugui's enlightenment were interrupted, wanting to enter such a state again would be as hard as climbing to heaven. To fill in the missing parts of one's own enlightenment is the hardest thing of all — of this Shen Mu had deep experience.

He himself had once had his enlightenment interrupted. At that time he had escaped from Fu Riluo's grasp and was hurrying from the demon clan's territory to Li City; on the road he had unwittingly entered a state of enlightenment, only to be surrounded and attacked by demon clan experts, who forcibly shattered it.

A state of enlightenment cannot be sought, only encountered. Even gods and demons, with their endless lifespans, enter such a state only a handful of times in a whole life.

Even a heaven-gifted genius will not exceed ten times.

"And I, with this Overlord Body, have managed only three or four."

Shen Mu's gaze clung tightly to Hu Bugui's figure. This man was unquestionably of the genius breed in the martial path; unfortunately the God-Slaying Platform was not very large, and he would soon walk off it!

Once off the platform, with the external threat of the two blood-fiend auras gone, the pressure would drop sharply, and Hu Bugui would wake from his state of enlightenment.

In Shen Mu's case, his enlightenment had been broken because the pressure suddenly increased.

A sudden increase or a sudden decrease in pressure will both shatter a state of enlightenment.

At last Hu Bugui walked down from the God-Slaying Platform. Shen Mu's fighting spirit soared to the heavens, and he suddenly attacked Hu Bugui!

Si Meixue cried out in alarm and was about to block Shen Mu when, the next instant, Shen Mu manifested three heads and six arms and blasted her away with three fists and two kicks!

With a boom, Si Meixue crashed into the walls of Yujing. She hastily clutched her head lest it fall off, bewildered and alarmed: "Why is Brother Shen attacking Senior Brother Hu?"

Shen Mu moved at incredible speed, leaving phantom after phantom in his wake. He pushed the Sky-Skimming Divine Legs to their utmost; his six arms whirled, the speed of his attacks too fast for the eye to follow!

He meant to give Hu Bugui pressure, to keep him in his state of enlightenment and let him complete entering the Dao through martial arts!

Hu Bugui kept walking forward, his attacks ever faster, blocking every one of Shen Mu's strikes. The afterimages he left grew more numerous, and the power erupting from his physical divine ability grew stronger and stronger.

Shen Mu had been holding back the force of his moves, but he soon felt Hu Bugui's counterattacks rising sharply. His eyes lit up, and his own strikes grew fiercer and fiercer as he continued to press Hu Bugui, determined to squeeze out more of his latent potential!

The afterimages around Hu Bugui already numbered a hundred, and still they multiplied, yet he could still maintain his unhurried walking posture.

The two fought their way to Yujing, battling into that city in the sky.

Si Meixue guarded her neck with one hand and attacked Shen Mu with the other, when suddenly there came another thunderous boom, and Shen Mu's fist blasted her out of Yujing. She felt deeply aggrieved: "You still call me Elder Sister, and you hit that hard..."

The two fought their way into the first shrine of Yujing. Guarding the shrine was a peasant woman from the village; though a woman, she had the bearing of a great general. Seeing the two come charging in, she was about to strike when she suddenly grasped Shen Mu's intent; at once she suppressed her qi, blood, and cultivation, gave no sign of herself, and let them pass through the hall.

"Hu Bugui, entering the Dao through martial arts, may well be the first to fly across to the Heavenly Palace at the Life-Death Realm."

The peasant woman stood with her hands clasped behind her back, her gaze flickering like starlight, and watched the two of them smash the back door of the hall to splinters. "No," she said softly. "He will be the second, because..."

She walked out through the ruined back door of the hall and gazed up at the lofty Lingxiao Treasure Hall. "He too has no Divine Bridge. The martial path has an insurmountable mountain — and he is that mountain. He is the foremost man of the martial path!"