Chapter 843 — One Sword Breaks the Heavenly Dipper

In midair, the Northern Emperor Xuanwu's disciple drove the great river with his Xuanwu primordial spirit. The long river surged, and from it rose five great cloud-thunders — five layers of cloud, five layers of thunder, wind and cloud, thunder and lightning, the long river like a dragon — a tremendous display of force bearing down on Lin Xuan!

The Northern Emperor Xuanwu was one of the Four Emperors, an ancient god-king whose Dao was formed by nature; even Di Yiyue had once entered his school to study.

And this disciple of the Northern Emperor's cultivation was immeasurably deep and mighty. He stood upon the head of the soaring serpent, which flew in winding, elusive arcs; he worked his divine powers from atop the serpent's head, while below the black tortoise roared with a dragon's cry, its sharp teeth and claws tearing at the sky until it darkened and then blazed bright with thunder!

The Northern Emperor's line was famed for the depth and power of its cultivation and for its terrifying defense; this man's strength was not to be taken lightly!

"The first thing I changed was the Daoist school's Fourteen Chapters of the Dao Sword. I have perfected only seven of them, but even so they are far beyond anything the bumpkins of the Heavenly Court could match!"

Dao Master Lin Xuan gave a long whistle, drew his sword and went to meet the Northern Emperor's disciple, every word and gesture brimming with matchless confidence. He laughed aloud: "Sect Master Shen, when you see my true sword, you will know what you have missed these past years!"

Chapter One of the Dao Sword: a single point pierces through the vast motion; within the two poles, yin and yang turn back upon each other!

In the sky a black-and-white taiji diagram a hundred zhang across appeared, its yin and yang grown infinitely fine, its inner structure utterly unlike the Dao Sword of old.

The old Chapter One had been famed for its grandeur and its transformations; the Dao Sword now was grand and microscopic at once, its calculative transformations grown so complex as to be beyond measure!

This was the fruit of Lin Xuan's painstaking study of the Taiwei Calculation Canon.

It was while contemplating heavenly fire that Shen Mu had grasped the Taiwei Calculation Canon, using it to deconstruct the fine inner structure of that fire.

Yet though he knew full well what boundless prospects the canon held, he would not bend over it until his hair turned white, spending his whole life perfecting it; so Shen Mu had handed the Taiwei Calculation Canon to Lin Xuan and Xu Shenghua.

Xu Shenghua was busy founding the Shangcang Academy of the Heavens in the Western Lands, and had also to study geomagnetic force with Granny Zhu; he seldom found time to visit the Daoist school.

Dao Master Lin Xuan, however, poured all his energy into the Taiwei Calculation Canon, and in these few years had at last brought earth-shaking changes to his Dao Sword.

Shen Mu raised his head. As the pioneer of the Taiwei Calculation Canon, he could see the true marvel of the Dao Sword, and he marveled inwardly: "Jingping's Imperial Preceptor was right. In only a few years, Jingping's Daoist arts and divine powers have been turned upside down. I have been wandering abroad all this time and have indeed missed many changes in our arts. But it is not too late. Once the matter of Qingyun Heaven is settled, I must go study again at the great academies and the Grand Academy. If I do not learn, Lin Xuan and the others will truly surpass me."

In the sky, the Northern Emperor's disciple's divine power was vast and matchless — and the next moment Lin Xuan shattered it with a single sword stroke!

Throughout the Qingyun Sect, disciples and elders searching for the thieving old Daoist were startled by that sword; one after another they raised their heads to the sky, their eyes entranced.

Qingyun Heaven was a branch of the Daoist school and had cultivated the Dao Sword as well, yet Lin Xuan's Dao Sword differed from theirs in subtle ways: from the grand to the minute, rebuilding the grand from different calculations and different details, more perfect still, leaving the Dao Sword without a single flaw!

Lin Xuan's Dao Sword changed again: the five breaths and three primes gather their excellence; where they rise, cloud chariots interweave!

The moment this move appeared, the Daoists up and down the mountain could not hold back their cheers, and grew more entranced still.

Chapter Two of the Dao Sword was ternary and quinary, using mathematical constructs to build the sun, the moon and the seven stars, and involving the orbits of the sun, the moon and the five luminaries.

Yet when Lin Xuan unleashed this move, the form was the same but the inner structure wholly different, with infinite detail added; deconstruct the sword art inward without cease, and one would deconstruct countless orbits of suns, moons and the five luminaries!

Blood flashed in the sky: the Northern Emperor's disciple was already wounded.

Five-colored auspicious clouds spread their canopy; over the three heavens the immortal cadence rings clear.

Chapter Three of the Dao Sword had come forth. As Dao Master Lin Xuan unleashed this move, the sound and cadence of the Dao poured out in abundance, and the Northern Emperor's disciple was in an instant severed head from body, his primordial spirit fleeing away.

Dao Master Lin Xuan's Dao Sword slashed at his primordial spirit, and at once the disciples of the Eastern Emperor, the Southern Emperor and the Western Emperor sprang out from behind Shen Mu, rising to meet Lin Xuan in the sky and blocking him!

Lin Xuan's sword art turned, and his move changed again: the sky filled with the myriad phenomena of the constellations, and from all across the mountain the Daoists cheered in unison.

Silently turning the whole celestial cycle, one beholds the constellations, and all phenomena shift and pass!

His sword changed with extraordinary speed: the myriad constellations had scarcely appeared before they became Chapter Five of the Dao Sword — the jade cavern gathers in all transformations; upon the Kunlun ridge, wind and moon glide in grace!

The phantom image of the Kunlun ridge appeared in the sky. Lin Xuan stood upon the ridge, his sword quivering in his hand; his sword move was like a jade cavern, drawing in the myriad constellations, and with them the disciples of the Eastern, Southern and Western Emperors, all gathered into the jade cavern within the mountain.

Then came the cry of dragons, the roar of tigers, the call of phoenixes: the three broke out of the cavern, drenched in blood.

What met them was Chapter Six of the Dao Sword: seven golden lotuses reveal their marvel; the clear morning rejoices, its grace ever new!

The three struck out together to block it. Dao Master Lin Xuan moved with his sword, his long whistle like a Daoist chant: "Since first I drifted, scattered and dispersed, in vain I grieved — how could I ever ascend—"

This was Chapter Seven of the Dao Sword.

As Chapter Seven was unleashed, the three Emperors' disciples were covered in wounds, joining strength to withstand the move. Suddenly the sword light in the air drew in, and Dao Master Lin Xuan descended from the heavens like a beam of sword light.

He had carried the Taiwei Calculation Canon only as far as Chapter Seven of the Dao Sword; beyond the seven, it was the ordinary Dao Sword, and could not withstand the combined assault of three masters.

At the same moment, Shen Mu and Xiao Chunfeng shot into the sky almost together, and the two collided with a thunderous crash in midair. Xiao Chunfeng blocked Shen Mu's killing blow aimed at the three Emperors' disciples — then saw Shen Mu uncover the golden willow leaf at his brow. Shen Mu shook his head, and there appeared three heads and six arms; from the three heads, three beams of light shot from their brows!