Chapter 153 — My Body Is a Hegemon Body

Though her strength had advanced with astonishing speed along the way, she was still somewhat below Shen Mu; to rashly cross hands without knowing the shamans' true depths would easily cost her. Shen Mu exhaled a breath of turbid air and said in a low voice: "Qingniu, bring me my bundle!

" Qingniu came forward and took the bundle from his back.

Shen Mu first slung the knife sheath over his shoulder, the two butchering knives crossed within it, then strapped the sword case behind the knife sheath, hung up the great iron hammer, thrust in a bamboo staff, and belted the Chubao Sword at his waist. Qingniu, reeking of killing intent: "I hear you used to herd cattle, and yet you can't even beat me. Can you beat them?

" Shen Mu worked his body, his bones crackling, and said calmly: "I am a Hegemon Body.

" Qingniu shouted: "My master has never been defeated beneath this golden gate!

" Shen Mu's expression was wooden: "I am a born Hegemon Body.

Under all heaven, at the same realm, none can defeat me.

" The bird-winged shaman took down two golden vajras, light flickering in his eyes, and laughed: "Hegemon Body, what dog's fart is that?

Never heard of it.

" Shen Mu urged his vital essence with the Mystic Body Three Cinnabar Art; his vital essence ran like an explosion, surging through his whole body in an instant.

"I — Hegemon Body! " He lifted his foot, and the golden floor beneath it sank into a deep footprint.

With a thunderous roar his body charged at the bird-winged shaman, moving so fast that one could only catch a string of afterimages.

"Peerless Hegemon Body! " The bird-winged shaman's face changed drastically. He hurriedly beat his wings to rise, but before his body could leave the ground he saw Shen Mu's fist come crashing in.

As that fist struck, a dragon's roar shook the air; his pupils shrank, and what he saw was not a fist but a ferocious, snarling dragon's head!

The next instant he saw two dragon heads, then three, four!

His wings beat; he wanted to dodge, but it was already too late. In desperation he could only cross the two golden vajras before him.

The two golden vajras bent in an instant; the force of Shen Mu's fist struck these two primal weapons as though they were made of mud, blasting the vajras thin as paper.

Whoosh — The bird-winged shaman flew up into the air, then burst apart with a bang into a cloud of blood mist. From that blood mist came dragon roars and dragon howls; the mist became forty-five blood dragons, ferocious and snarling, as though it were not Shen Mu's fist that had shattered the bird-winged shaman but these forty-five blood dragons that had burst his body from within! And on the golden platform before the mountain gate, Shen Mu went from the most violent motion to sudden stillness; his raging vital essence abruptly subsided, his face calm.

"Qingniu, your master needed a hundred days to break Loulan's Golden Palace. " Shen Mu turned, his gaze indifferent, sweeping over the shamans below the golden platform: "But I need only one day.

" He stood beneath the gate, his voice like rolling thunder, crashing back and forth through Loulan's Golden Palace: "I need only one day to destroy the will of every disciple in the Golden Palace, to grind their self-respect to dust, to trample their dignity beneath my feet!

" "Insolence!

" A shaman flew into a rage and came charging at Shen Mu. As he ran, his very flesh underwent a world-turning transformation: the human skin of his head flew away in shreds, an elephant's head grew forth, his body grew taller and taller, mightier and mightier, his garments bursting apart with a ripping hiss, his hands and feet thickening like elephant legs. Golden light spilled from his skin.

With an elephant's head and a human body, he seemed like a sacrificed deity come back to life, possessed of boundless strength!

His cultivation and strength were clearly far above the bird-winged shaman's; that one's body had not begun to turn to gold, but this one's skin was as though cast from gold! Boom — A fist as large as a water vat came crashing at Shen Mu. The fist shook the air and burst forth with a thunderclap, white torrents of air exploding outward in rings! Behind Shen Mu, the snow-white fur of the Snow Fox before the mountain gate was blown back by the fierce wind raised by that punch, and Ling Yuxiu's hair streamed back as well.

"Die!

" roared the elephant-headed shaman. Shen Mu leaped, charging out past that incomparably domineering fist, both hands drawing his knives.

He rushed beneath the elephant-headed shaman's massive body, and the blade-light flared.

Drawing the knives, breaking the prohibition! Shen Mu's body soared into the air, flipped backward, and on landing thrust both knives back into the sheath at his back.

And the elephant-headed shaman's massive body split in two, rolling and tumbling down the mountain, dyeing the golden steps blood-red. A shaman, eyes red, suddenly pulled out a Netherworld Soul-Devouring Banner and waved it at Shen Mu, crying fiercely: "I will refine your soul — die!

" Shen Mu sealed his own soul with the Creation Heavenly Demon Art, raised a hand and pointed.

The sword case behind him opened, and a flying sword shot out with a shrill whistle, piercing straight through the shaman's brow. Shen Mu flicked his finger upward; the flying sword whistled back and slid into the sword case with a ding, a trail of blood-light following behind it.