Chapter 657 — Hard to Tell Friend from Foe

The tower ship in the surging waves was like a tiny skiff in a storm on the vast ocean, battered up and down by the great billows, when suddenly the windows burst open one after another and went whistling away from the ship. Whuff — a whole deck snapped clean through and shot off sideways.

Shen Mu and Ling Yuxiu hurriedly clutched at the pillars of the tower, only to hear them creak and crack. "Hold on to my waist!

" Shen Mu shouted.

Ling Yuxiu did not catch it.

"What?

" "Hold on to my waist —" This time she heard him clearly. She let go at once and wrapped her arms around his waist. Shen Mu felt two soft places against his back, very pleasant indeed, but he had no leisure to wonder what they were that felt so soft; he acted at once to rouse the Heaven and Earth Seal.

Heaven Spins, Earth Turns, the Heart Unmoved!

Once this seal was unleashed, the wild surges were drawn up by his palms and spun around him. Shen Mu gave a muffled groan, feeling the pressure between his hands all but snap his arms, but he could only grit his teeth and keep holding. Suddenly the pillar propping up the tower cracked and broke.

The whole tower flew level off its base and crashed into the starry void.

Ling Yuxiu was frightened out of her wits and clung to Shen Mu for dear life.

Shen Mu urged the Heaven and Earth Seal with all his might, striving against the ever-growing surges. The tower ship still rolled madly on; the phoenix figurehead at its prow had been snapped off, the deck planks burst with a rattle of explosions and kept flying away, leaving the hull battered and broken. Boom — the cabin door blew open, and from the Divine Ship's hold came Ban Gongcuo's scream of terror.

Hearing it, Ling Yuxiu thought, 'Ban Gongcuo really is frightfully quick-witted — he hid himself in the hold so early.

Can he truly foresee danger ahead of time? ' Ban Gongcuo tumbled and rolled within the hold, knocked this way and that by the tossing, until all at once the surges subsided, and still the broken ship rolled on and on, with no telling when it would stop. Shen Mu crossed his hands and shifted to the next move of the Heaven and Earth Seal, Earth, Water, Wind, Fire — the Five Elements Fixed.

The tower ship slowly ceased its spinning. His face was flushed crimson, his skin on the verge of splitting apart, but at last it steadied.

Shen Mu dispersed the Heaven and Earth Seal. Both legs trembled; his hands convulsed and could not be raised; the muscles at his waist seemed torn, and he drew hissing breaths through his teeth in pain. The ship was a wreck: its six wings snapped apart, three pairs of them; the phoenix figurehead broken off; the mast toppled; the sails riddled with holes; the tower gone as if it had never been; the hull leaking at every seam — even the air within was rushing out at a furious rate.

The ship's vitality shield must have burst. Shen Mu forced his steps forward, racing along the vessel's vitality shield to patch its cracks.

After a while he came down again and let out a breath. "That should hold for a while. I wonder how the First Ancestor is. .

. Yuxiu, you can let go now. " Ling Yuxiu hastily released his waist, her face flushed pink. While Shen Mu had been racing along the vitality shield, she too had clung to his waist without letting go, making him drag her along the whole circuit.

Shen Mu suppressed the ache throughout his body and tried to get his bearings — only to find himself in an unfamiliar starfield, with no up or down, no distinction of the six directions.

And when he looked into the distance, he could not see where the battlefield between the First Ancestor and the Great Sun Star Lord lay! Not only could he not find the battlefield — he could not even see the sun the tower ship had once circled!

Shen Mu's heart turned cold. He hastily grasped the Wisdom Bead at his throat, gave it two turns, steadied himself, and said, "We should not wander blindly now. Best to stay where we are and quietly wait for the First Ancestor, or Chixi and the others, to come find us.

" Ling Yuxiu looked around and murmured, "But what if they never find us?

What if. . .

" "If they never find us, our air will run out before long.

" Shen Mu took out a handful of herb seeds, dug some soil from the Taotie Pouch, and sowed the seeds in it, then roused the Creation Earth-Origin Art.

The seeds put forth roots and shoots at astonishing speed, and soon a little medicinal plot sprang up on the remaining deck. He spread his fingers, and a ball of firelight rose from his palm — a small sun formed of pure yang qi, bathing the green herbs in sunlight. His pure yang qi was far more abundant than others', because when he had traveled back forty thousand years he had met a god-devil who had died in the era of the Supreme Emperor, and it had bestowed on him two strands of divine qi, one pure yang, one pure yin. Shen Mu raised a little moon in his other hand and said softly, "May this buy us a while longer.

" Ban Gongcuo crawled out of the hold, and seeing that he had even packed a heap of soil in his Taotie Pouch, cried out in disbelief, "Sect Master Shen, you even carry soil in your Taotie Pouch? " "Better safe than sorry. " Shen Mu opened his hand, and the tiny sun and moon revolved around the little herb plot. "I feared I might not be able to grow herbs in a desert or the like, so I brought some along. I never thought I would use it here.

" Ban Gongcuo's face turned strange. He sighed, "Now I know why I was never able to kill you.

" Enduring the pain in his body, Shen Mu laughed. "You never once beat me — how could you kill me?

" Ban Gongcuo's face darkened and he said no more, and dared not make a move either.

Shen Mu mused aloud, "Three of us breathing uses up the air faster than two. . .

So.

.

.

" Ban Gongcuo's expression changed drastically. He was about to flee when suddenly the tower ship lurched violently.

The three of them turned to look aft, and their faces went ashen. There stood the Great Sun Star Lord at the stern, riddled with wounds, wings broken, one leg lame, his whole body a mass of injuries, two of his three eyes apparently beaten blind — a sight too ghastly to behold. "Cough, cough! " He coughed violently and spat out a mouthful of fiery phlegm, which burned without cease where it landed, setting even the Divine Ship alight in one place. "What a formidable Kaihuang divine power —" The Great Sun Star Lord gasped with pain, blood streaming endlessly from his body, and laughed with a nasty grin.

"It nearly killed me, but only nearly.

. .

What was it I said earlier?

Ah yes. You are already dead. " His single eye opened wide, and within it seemed to brew a great sun of divine fire!

Shen Mu hurriedly snatched out the small box and, without a word, flung it open.

Two red beams of light shot at the Great Sun Star Lord with lightning speed! The Great Sun Star Lord's tattered pinions suddenly wrapped around his whole body.

The two blood-red beams coiled about him, severing countless feathers, and fresh blood burst forth. "Agony —" came the Great Sun Star Lord's shocked and furious voice from within the feathers.

Shen Mu's heart went cold.

The God-Slaying Dark Blade had failed to slay this already grievously wounded Great Sun Star Lord. What drove him to despair even more was this: if the Great Sun Star Lord stood here before him, could the First Ancestor Human Emperor already be dead in battle? The two red beams returned without success, and the box snapped shut with a clack.

"Without the God-Slaying Terrace, a mere God-Slaying Dark Blade cannot touch me.

" The Great Sun Star Lord spread his wings, both streaming blood.

Where his blood fell to the deck it set it alight at once, and the stern was now wholly engulfed in divine fire. The air was consumed at a frantic pace, and soon neither Shen Mu nor Ling Yuxiu could breathe.

The Great Sun Star Lord strode toward them, panting.