劍問蒼天 - 第170章 神劍 - 翰墨軒

In midair, Dao Yan Zhenren's brows were tightly knitted as he faced the Beast Lord before him, a thing shaped like an evil spirit newly emerged from the Nine-Yin underworld. It was not he alone—every righteous cultivator below, to a man, stood gaping. The monster suspended in the air was black as ink, its vast body knotted with muscle, and from that body extended countless thick, stout arms—a rough count put them at no fewer than several hundred—while the head and face, warped by shamanic arts, were all the more hideous and terrifying, a demonic beast such as the world had never seen since the splitting of heaven and earth.

Silence was followed by a swelling tide of commotion and clamor through the crowd. Amid the shock and dread, most felt a sense of grim vindication: savages of the southern wilds were indeed villains through and through. This thing before them—neither human nor ghost, neither spirit nor demon—how could such a monster be any natural creation of heaven and earth?

In midair, Dao Yan Zhenren drew a deep breath and slowly laid the ancient Slaying Immortal Sword across his chest. Dazzling white light pulsed ceaselessly from the blade, wrapping not only the sword itself but his entire right arm where he gripped it. To those watching, the sky was now filled with a myriad of sword shadows, the Slaying Immortal Sword Formation majestic and awesome, Dao Yan Zhenren himself like an immortals' immortal. Yet somehow, beneath that ethereal, otherworldly demeanor, his face was beginning to turn faintly pale.

"Demon spawn," Dao Yan Zhenren's voice boomed like a great bell and drum, deep-toned and rumbling as it rolled outward—and this time it carried a measure of killing intent beyond his usual,"have you still not come to your senses? Will you not bind your hands and surrender?"

The thousand-armed monster that was the Beast Lord's avatar plainly did not take Dao Yan Zhenren's words to heart; and since his transformation, his voice had lost its earlier even tone, becoming hoarse and grating, as though torn sandpaper scraping across a keen blade. He sneered, "Bind my hands and surrender? Heh heh—let me first flay you alive, then I'll cut open the bellies and dig out the hearts of every last one of those worthless wretches beneath your feet, and send them down to keep you company in the underworld. How does that suit you?"

Killing intent flickered between Dao Yan Zhenren's brows. He wasted no more words; with a gesture of the sword-seal, sword qi whirled across the heavens, and the Slaying Immortal Sword Formation stirred to life once more. For all the monster's arrogant bluster, faced with this peerless sword formation unseen in a thousand years, he dared not be careless, and focused all his attention to meet it.

Then came the sudden clash of gongs and drums, from far to near, booming forth; seven beams of colored radiance flew up from the ancient Slaying Immortal Sword and shot straight into the sword formation in the sky. In an instant the heavens blazed with strange light and crisscrossed with sword shadows, and in the blink of an eye seven immense monochrome sword formations had re-formed, as before, facing the Beast Lord's monstrous avatar.

The Beast Lord loosed a low, rumbling roar. Black qi coursed across the surface of his vast body, almost like running ink, and several hundred strange hands opened and closed, awaiting the storm about to break.

With a long, shrill cry, Dao Yan Zhenren rose like a mountain eagle soaring straight into the clouds. At his cry the white light surged, the Slaying Immortal Sword swayed, and the immense Slaying Immortal Sword Formation rumbled into motion; numberless monochrome qi-swords slowly turned about and leveled themselves at the Beast Lord.