Chapter 185 — Summoning the Demon God

Upon this modest altar, two blades of knife-light flared into being, one horizontal and one vertical. The horizontal stroke beheaded that Daoist priest, while the vertical one cleaved down through the head and face of another priestess.

That priestess was a divine ability user of the Six Harmonies realm; though she had never cultivated combat arts, a golden chain hung upon her forehead, and at its center was a jewel that blazed with light, blocking Shen Mu's strike. Shen Mu dragged his blade, and the priestess, her head split and blood streaming, erupted with primal qi in an instant; the horsetail whisk in her other hand bloomed open like countless flower stamens, its thousand filaments of silk thrusting toward Shen Mu. Her assault had scarcely begun when countless blades of knife-light drowned her.

Night Slays a Thousand Cities, Wind and Rain. Shen Mu's steps crossed and wove, evading the thrusting whisk as he circled behind the priestess's corpse — the body still had not fallen — and behind it stood another Daoist.

That Daoist had already recovered his wits, and strip after strip of yellow talisman paper flew from the satchel at his waist, but at that moment Shen Mu cast aside both his blades and pointed with joined fingers; the primal qi at his fingertips transformed into a sword-light of incomparable sharpness that pierced clean through the Daoist's brow.

Behind Shen Mu, dragons and elephants soared and surged; Monk Yunque came charging, coiled in dragon, trampling elephant, and slew toward another priestess.

With a thunderous boom, he slammed her against the statue of the demon god. The priestess vomited blood, erupted with primal qi, and blasted him flying.

She was just about to strike a killing blow when suddenly a sword-light flashed past and wiped across her throat with a light ding. This priestess possessed immense, mighty primal qi, and she actually blocked the sword with raw qi alone — but in the next instant, Shen Wanyun appeared at her side, seized the sword hilt, and unleashed all his strength, pinning her against the demon god statue. He wrenched the sword free, and blood sprayed forth.

Wolf-Slave's figure flickered; he leaped atop the statue's head, his two demon blades appearing and vanishing with uncanny swiftness as they chopped downward, while Yue Qinghong stood upon Wolf-Slave's shoulder, and from the sword case at her back, sword after sword flew out, transforming into the Drilling Sword Form and stabbing down at one of the Daoists below. That Daoist swung his hand back, snatching up a white funeral banner stuck in the edge of the altar.

The banner quivered, the runes upon it lighting up like red serpents swimming out from the cloth, blocking the two demon blades — yet Yue Qinghong's Drilling Sword Form bored through the banner's face and drilled into his brow. At the same time, on the other side, Si Yunxiang flickered like a ghost, striking in succession with a strange hand-seal technique, shaking another priestess dead where she stood, every bone in her body shattered.

Shen Wanyun's heart skipped: "Junior Sister Si hides her depths well — this cultivation of hers is ferociously powerful! " He lunged at another Daoist. That Daoist abruptly leaped down from the altar and sprinted away, and behind him strip after strip of yellow talisman paper flew in unison toward the altar.

Shen Wanyun hurried to give chase, but suddenly the strips of talisman paper exploded one after another, blasting him fiercely away. On the other side, Yunque also threw himself in front of that Daoist, deploying the Great Five Terraces Seal to block his path. The Daoist sneered, splayed his five fingers, and a thunderous clap burst from his palm, blasting Yunque into a daze.

The Daoist relaxed and snarled: "A pack of juniors who haven't even reached the Six Harmonies realm, and yet. . .

" He had just spoken these words when suddenly his heart went cold. He looked down — a sword had pierced through his chest from behind, and he had had no sense at all of when the person behind him had drawn near.

Shen Mu drew the sword back.

The Daoist's voice came out hoarse: "Fine movement technique! " With that, he pitched forward onto the ground, dead.

Shen Mu returned the sword to its sheath.

On the altar, Yue Qinghong, Wolf-Slave, and Si Yunxiang were about to cut down the remaining Daoists when they circled around and saw, strewn every which way around the demon god statue, corpse after corpse.

Some Daoists had not fallen but were nailed to the statue; some were hung upon the white banners; some had been blasted into puddles of mud by fist techniques; some had their skulls smashed by iron hammers.

Their deaths were all different. The three were deeply shaken.

Si Yunxiang's face was grave as she carefully examined each corpse. Every one of these corpses had met Shen Mu's deadly hand in the blink of an eye, slain before their divine abilities could even be unleashed.

"Barely two moves each — most died in a single strike," she thought, and raised her eyes to look at Shen Mu.

Thirteen divine ability users — though their close-combat ability was not strong, a divine ability user was still a divine ability user. Everyone said that when a combat-arts school expert closed in, a spell-school expert had only death to look forward to, but that saying was only talk.

If the gap in realm was too great, the combat-arts school might not be able to break through the opponent's defensive divine ability at all. This time, though they had caught the enemy off guard, Shen Mu's combat strength was simply too great, his speed simply too fast. Shen Mu shook the Chubao sword, flicking the blood from the blade, returned it to its sheath, and said: "Clear the battlefield, then destroy the demon god statue!

" His words had scarcely fallen when suddenly a tremendous boom came from not far off. Within the black mist, a blood-red light burst forth, dyeing the gloomy fog crimson. That blood-light towered several hundred zhang high; standing in the mountain hollow, they could see it clearly.

Wave after wave of terrifying power surged in from another world, crashing toward the place where the blood-light erupted.

Then rolling thunder followed, and around the blood-light, lightning and thunder interwove — thunderbolts and lightning squeezed out from space by that dreadful power. For if power is too strong, the force of its vibration compresses space itself, causing spatial instability. And when space is unstable, the thunder hidden within space bursts forth.

The faces of all present went blank.

There, where blood-light and thunder converged, an enormously colossal body was slowly rising to its feet — a demon god statue with horns upon its head, four arms and four legs. Though it was a sculpture, at this moment it radiated a towering, heaven-blotting aura, as though a demon god had descended into the world.

This descended demon god was taller even than Deer Mountain where they stood. Dense smoke wreathed its whole body, and within the smoke were firelight and lightning; blood-red radiance soared to the heavens, hanging above its head.

"There's another place where a Hongshan School divine ability user has summoned a demon. .

.

" Shen Mu's hands and feet went cold.

The Hongshan School divine ability user at the other location had succeeded in casting the spell and summoned the demon god. That towering demon god's gaze was like interwoven lightning; wherever its gaze passed, trees, mountains, rocks — all were consumed in a sizzling crackle, reduced to ash and smoke. Shen Mu let out a breath of turbid air and said in a low voice: "Strip the clothes!

" Everyone was slightly taken aback.

Monk Yunque murmured: "Stripping clothes again. . . " Si Yunxiang caught on and immediately went to strip the garments from the corpses on the ground.