Chapter 1045: Five Luminaries Fall
On the other side, Qin Mu's sword light met Zhen Xingjun. Zhen Xingjun's reaction was extremely swift—the mirror in his hand met Qin Mu's sword light, while the white banner in his other hand rose and slammed heavily onto the Heavenly River!
Boom—
The waters of the Heavenly River suddenly exploded. That great white banner stood like a giant flag blocking half the sky. Qin Mu's sword light shot with a whoosh into the mirror, vanished, and the next moment flew out from the white banner.
Flying out together with the sword light were countless enormous Creator beings, each with a vertical eye on their forehead—the vertical eye being a Primal Chaos Primordial Stone. Their physical bodies were solid and incomparably powerful. They grabbed hold of Qin Mu's sword light and instead thrust it back at Qin Mu.
Zhen Xingjun was the foremost of the Five Luminaries, immensely powerful. The sword Qin Mu had unleashed contained sword techniques and sword dao from later ages—nineteen basic sword forms composed his sword art, while the twentieth sword form unified them all, allowing his essence, qi, and spirit to merge into the blade, transforming into sword dao.
Yet Zhen Xingjun's white banner was actually connected to that Soul-Summoning Mirror, and within the banner were hidden the corpses of numerous Creators. These prehistoric Creators' physical bodies had been tempered to extreme power. Under his control, they seized Qin Mu's sword light and turned it back against him.
Using Qin Mu's own sword art against him to kill him—he truly deserved his reputation as the most powerful among the Five Luminaries Star Lords.
Now his birthplace, the Zhen Star, had descended. His magical power grew ever stronger, his dao cultivation ever more profound, his strength skyrocketing. Combined with the wondrous uses of the Corpse-Hiding Banner and Soul-Summoning Mirror, he immediately turned the tables and seized the initiative.
But the next moment, Qin Mu's vertical brow eye opened wide, divine consciousness erupting. In an instant, terrifying divine consciousness swept over all the charging Creator corpses!
Thousands of Creator corpses were under Zhen Xingjun's control. He relied on soul-controlling arts—he was an ancient god who governed the dao of death. Back then, he had slain the Creators, controlled their souls, and used those souls to control their physical bodies.
These Creators were the Zhen Clan—nearly the entire Zhen Clan had died by his hand.
In ancient times, Zhen Xingjun had used his death dao to annihilate the Zhen Clan, an event that shook the prehistoric era.
And now, Qin Mu's divine consciousness surged forth. Almost at the very moment of contact, he used his divine consciousness to seize control of these Creators' physical bodies, employing the Great Emperor's life-borrowing technique to erase Zhen Xingjun's soul-controlling arts!
The Great Emperor's Grand Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness, refined and improved by Qin Mu himself and combined with the Divine Treasury Heavenly Palace system, surpassed Zhen Xingjun's arts by an immeasurable margin in subtlety. Suppressing his soul-controlling techniques was effortless.
Zhen Xingjun's heart jolted. He silently thought something was wrong, then watched as his white banner was torn to shreds by thousands of Creators wielding sword light, and his Soul-Summoning Mirror was shattered as well.
The Creators charging toward him arranged themselves in upper and lower tiers, thirty-three layers in total, their forms staggered in perfect formation, forming a sword array.
Zhen Xingjun suddenly roared, his serpentine body slithering as he charged forward instead of retreating, meeting the Creators head-on.
These Creators were all souls he had slain—he felt no fear of them whatsoever.
But then the sword light blazed.
Though the Creators held the swords and formed the sword array, it was Qin Mu who executed the sword techniques and the formation. In truth, Qin Mu was borrowing the Zhen Clan Creators to spar with him.
The sword array was completed almost in an instant—it was the Thirty-Three Heavens.
Zhen Xingjun's body screamed in agony. The Kaihuang Emperor's Thirty-Three Heavens sword dao sliced his physical form into thirty-four pieces. The might of the Thirty-Three Heavens sword dao erupted, the sword forms giving birth to the sun, moon, mountains, rivers, oceans, streams, even grass and trees and living beings of the Thirty-Three Heavens!
This pinnacle sword dao of later ages surged into his flesh. His primordial spirit crumbled under the sword dao's might, and his physical body collapsed as well!
He governed death, yet at this moment, he felt death's approach.
Qin Mu slew the mightiest Zhen Xingjun with the Kaihuang Emperor's sword techniques, then whirled around—but it was already too late.
In the blink of an eye, he had killed Zhen Xingjun in an instant, yet Taibai Xingjun's assault arrived in that same instant.
Taibai Xingjun stamped on twin dragons as he pounced at Qin Mu. A colossal dragon claw seized Qin Mu's body and slammed him down hard.
Qin Mu's body was pressed against the surface of the Heavenly River, hurtling backward at tremendous speed, while Taibai Xingjun, standing atop two golden dragons and wielding a bronze battle-axe, crazily smashed down at the Qin Mu held in the dragon's claw. Axe rose, axe fell—he chopped Qin Mu into a pulp!
The golden dragon raised its claw and tossed Qin Mu's tattered body into the air. The two golden dragons spat out two golden pellets, from which ten thousand streams of golden qi shot forth, riddling Qin Mu with countless holes.
Taibai Xingjun gripped his axe with both hands, eyes wide open. White light shot from both eyes—swish, swish, swish—the white light sliced in rapid succession, cutting toward Qin Mu!
Just then, a massive hand seized his tiger-head and wrenched it backward.
Taibai Xingjun's heart jolted. His head was yanked backward, and he saw a qilin's face.
Dragon Qilin's hands gripped his jaws and tore them apart, then spat out the Qilin Pearl and Dragon Pearl, blasting them into his mouth.
Dragon Qilin's hands pressed together, forcing Taibai Xingjun's great maw shut.
The two divine pearls had been tempered through countless refinements by Dragon Qilin. He had followed Qin Mu in cultivation, and Qin Mu had never held back any of his various Emperor Throne techniques. Whatever divine abilities and dao arts Qin Mu pioneered, Dragon Qilin was always the first to learn them—Ancestral Dragon Grand Profound Technique, Three Primordial Spirits Imperishable Divine Consciousness, Leakless Creation Profound Art, Martial Combat Heavenly Art, Dark Demon Kapala Sutra—he had studied them all.
The two divine pearls had also been refined into divine weapons. Now, borrowing the magical power of six Jade Capital realm heavenly dragons, his cultivation surged straight to the Empyrean realm. The might contained within the pearls erupted inside Taibai Xingjun's mouth. Taibai Xingjun's body trembled violently, both eyes flying out of their sockets, his throat and internal organs almost completely destroyed by the power of the Dragon Pearl and Qilin Pearl.
Yet he was still not dead. The two golden dragons beneath his feet flew up into his hands, one on each side, coiling around Dragon Qilin's neck. The golden dragons were formed from golden qi, razor-sharp—they would sever Dragon Qilin's head from his body.
Two heavenly dragons on Dragon Qilin's shoulders quickly opened their great maws and bit down on the golden dragons, their dragon mouths slashed open and streaming blood.
Taibai Xingjun seized the chance to break free from Dragon Qilin's grip and charged at him, though without eyes, he was rather inconvenienced.
Dragon Qilin showed no fear whatsoever. Six heavenly dragons coiled around his body as he extended his claws to meet Taibai Xingjun. These six heavenly dragons moved like six arms—under his control, they executed divine abilities and dao arts he had never learned before, suppressing Taibai Xingjun into a disadvantage. His defeat was only a matter of time.
On the other side, Yinghuo Xingjun and Sui Xingjun pounced over. Yinghuo Xingjun wielded twin hammers, with an ox head and human body, his combat power astonishing. Sui Xingjun had a bird head and human form, his twin claws gripping two azure dragons, which suddenly transformed into a bow and an arrow.
Sui Xingjun spread his wings and soared up, seizing the bow and arrow formed from the azure dragons. He loosed a single shot—the arrow struck Taibai Xingjun square in the back.
Dragon Qilin's heart leaped with joy, but then he saw that though Taibai Xingjun had been hit by the arrow, the wounds on his body were healing at terrifying speed—even two eyes were rapidly growing back in his empty eye sockets!
"Sui Xingjun is an ancient god who governs the dao of life and sacrifice—he wasn't trying to shoot Taibai Xingjun, he was healing him!"
Taibai Xingjun's strength recovered completely, his combat power growing ever stronger. With Yinghuo Xingjun and Sui Xingjun also charging in, Dragon Qilin would surely be overwhelmed.
Just as the two Star Lords pounced, a plump, fat dragon-sparrow flew in with beating wings, its two sharp talons seizing Sui Xingjun. Sui Xingjun twisted around, and the two great birds tumbled in midair, their cries crisp and clear.
Sui Xingjun had witnessed Yan'er devour Chen Xingjun and was quite afraid of her. But now Yan'er, having swallowed Chen Xingjun, was round and bloated—like a ball with two vermilion bird wings stuck on it, unable to fly nimbly. This immediately emboldened him.
"As long as I can hold out until my ancestral star descends, killing this stupid bird will be easy!" Sui Xingjun's heart settled.
Yinghuo Xingjun charged to Dragon Qilin's side, his twin great hammers striking from both sides. At that very moment, Qin Mu—who had clearly just died—suddenly seemed reborn from the flames, charging in from an oblique angle.
Yinghuo Xingjun's heart skipped a beat. He saw Qin Mu's palms transform in a thousand ways—in an instant, it seemed countless figures were executing different combat techniques.
Suddenly, ten thousand combat techniques merged into a single fist, piercing through his twin hammers and slamming into his chest.
Yinghuo Xingjun heard the sound of his own bones snapping as he flew backward.
Qin Mu's steps did not pause as he gave chase. His two hands split into four, four into eight, forming eight arms. Runes danced as various divine abilities bombarded him.
Yinghuo Xingjun's body suddenly felt incomparably heavy, as if layers of heavens were pressing down on him. Then teleportation divine abilities erupted across every part of his body, tearing his flesh in all directions.
Fortunately, his physical body was immensely powerful, barely managing to withstand the spatial tearing force.
Qin Mu's eight arms flew in a blur. The vertical eye on his brow blazed with light, and a vast sky hung suspended above Yinghuo Xingjun.
Though Yinghuo Xingjun felt the mad suppression of geomagnetic primordial force, his body did not fall toward the Heavenly River—instead, it floated upward, flying toward that sky.
His limbs spread wide, his body growing larger and larger.
He heard the sound of heavenly dao in his ears—the dao tones emitted by the Heavenly Duke's great dao, mysterious and profound.
He wanted to turn his head to look at the sky, but found he could not turn it.
He could only struggle to roll his eyeballs, and then he saw his twin hammers—forged from Yinghuo Star's plague dao—turn into thin sheets of paper.
Not only were his dao weapons pressed into thin paper, but his body was also being pressed into a thin sheet of flesh-paper, growing thinner and thinner without end.
His body continued to rise. At this speed, he should have already flown out of the Primordial Realm, yet when Yinghuo Xingjun looked down, he saw he was still above the Heavenly River, with Qin Mu below him.
But his vision grew increasingly blurry, as if separated by layer upon layer of void.
He felt himself flying upward endlessly, flying for what seemed like an eternity without reaching an end. Now he had become a sheet of paper with absolutely no thickness, and even his thoughts were being stretched, extended, becoming incomparably thin and fragile.
Finally, he was fixed at the very top layer of that sky, as if eternally branded there.
Qin Mu reached out and grasped—the sky shattered. Then he turned around.
This was his Dao-Entry Divine Ability's Fourth Heaven: Gathering Perfection Above Grand Luo.
The moment Qin Mu turned around, the Third Heaven of his Dao-Entry Divine Ability had already formed.
When this technique was unleashed, the Heavenly River violently churned, then suddenly broke apart—separating from the main body of the Heavenly River to form a small Heavenly River.
The small Heavenly River pierced through the Four Extremes Heavens. Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, and White Tiger appeared above the Four Extremes Heavens, the Heavenly River forming a great circle.
His body stood at the very center of the great circle formed by the Heavenly River. The Four Ancient God Emperors manifested from his own dao runes stood atop the Four Extremes, mobilizing the power of the Heavenly River and the dao of the Four Emperors, making him like an Ancient God Heavenly Emperor who governed the rules of heaven and earth's great dao.
Gazing at the Four Extremes from the Heavenly River.
When Qin Mu unleashed this technique, he pulled the battling Dragon Qilin and Taibai Xingjun into the divine ability.
From Qin Mu's surprise attack killing Zhen Xingjun, Yan'er devouring Chen Xingjun, to Taibai Xingjun gravely wounding Qin Mu, Dragon Qilin's rescue, Yinghuo Xingjun and Sui Xingjun coming to Taibai Xingjun's aid, and then Qin Mu's rebirth through creation, two techniques blasting Yinghuo Xingjun into layers of void to be ground to nothing—all of this had taken only a brief moment.
In that brief moment, offense and defense had swapped sides multiple times, dazzling to behold.
Especially the Creator Luo Xiao, who had been preparing to fight to the death—his eyeballs darted back and forth, utterly unable to find an opening to intervene.
By the time Qin Mu's Gazing at the Four Extremes from the Heavenly River was unleashed, he finally found his chance to intervene. But by then, Qin Mu had already joined forces with Dragon Qilin to slay Taibai Xingjun within the divine ability.
Qin Mu's aura flagged, and he let out a muffled groan. But at that moment, Sui Xingjun cast aside the fat, bloated dragon-sparrow, spread his wings, and soared upward, charging toward the Sui Star that had already appeared more than halfway in the sky. He shrieked, "Mu Heavenly Venerable, you're dead!"
"You've colluded with Creators to murder ancient gods—the Heavenly Emperor will exterminate your nine clans! Your human race will die to the last!"
Yan'er spread her wings and gave chase, but flew slower and slower, panting heavily.
Dragon Qilin hurried forward as well, quickly catching up to Yan'er, but unable to catch Sui Xingjun.
Sui Xingjun's speed grew faster and faster. As long as he reached the Sui Star, with the blessing of his birthplace, he would fear nothing even if Qin Mu and the others all came at once.
Suddenly, an incomparably massive figure flew past Yan'er, then caught up to Dragon Qilin, leaving him far behind.
Dragon Qilin stared in astonishment. The figure flying past was none other than Luo Xiao—the youth Qin Mu had picked up from the sky.
He watched as this youth sprinted at full speed, his body wildly expanding as he ran toward the heavens, growing larger and larger. Soon he was many times larger than Sui Xingjun—even the Five Luminaries stars themselves seemed unimpressive before him.
Qin Mu looked up. The titan of antiquity, the Creator of the prehistoric age, after an endless span of dark ages, had once again appeared in the skies of the Primordial Realm.
Luo Xiao reached out his palm and seized Sui Xingjun, who was desperately struggling toward the Sui Star.
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