Chapter 1068 — Stirring the Origin Ancestral Star

Beside Shen Mu, Yan'er had turned back into an azure sparrow, hopping about in a fever of excitement: now onto the canopy, now onto Shen Mu's shoulder, then onto the top of his head, and then, beating her wings, onto the great head of the Dragon Qilin, where she pecked rapturously at its crown. "What has you so excited, Yan'er? " Shen Mu shook his head, spread his palm, and the myriad sword pellets above the Heavenly River arranged themselves like a matrix; of a sudden they collided two by two, and in moments all the pellets had merged into one, which dropped into his palm.

He had just now annihilated the gods and demons under the Five Luminaries Star Lords with sword pellets, relying on the myriad sword energies shot forth from within them.

It looked a simple sword formation, yet had a master of the sword from Jingping sought to perform it, it would have taken an entire army retrained in swordsmanship to bring it off! Jingping's armies dedicated wholly to the sword were equipped with sword pellets or sword caskets; once roused, tens of thousands of flying swords would shoot out at the foe and cut them down: gathered, they could form a formation; scattered, they could execute any sword move at all.

Shen Mu wielded swordsmanship through sword pellets, and every sword energy carried a different variation of the art; one man was the match of an entire army of sword cultivators! Say nothing of an age in which the way of the sword did not yet exist; even in Jingping his attainments in the sword way closely pursued those of Lizheng and Jiang Baigui, formerly Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, and in places surpassed them, second only to Kaihuang! The gods and demons under the Five Luminaries Star Lords, facing his swordsmanship, had never heard of such a thing nor seen such a thing, and could only choke on their hatred and die.

"Bugs! " Yan'er pecked excitedly at the Dragon Qilin's skull, her gaze fixed all the while on the Five Luminaries Star Lords. The Dragon Qilin's skull bled under her pecking, yet it stood immovable, letting the blood run down its face, a steadiness frightful to see.

It thought: "I have long since grown used to it. Still, these ancient gods are no bugs.

But I am used to that as well. .

.

" Yan'er's temper was past fathoming.

The girl knew nothing of the world, was far too simple, loved to wait upon others, and loved to eat strange and outlandish things. Back in Guixu she had taken the ancient gods that the stamens of Guixu's flowers had become for bugs, and eaten them up clean, so that for a very long stretch she grew fat sideways, and Shen Mu felt shamed to be seen abroad with her. Only after much difficulty did she digest them, and her figure returned to what it had been.

Now her eye had fallen on the Five Luminaries Star Lords, which gave the Dragon Qilin a feeling of unease.

Star Lord Zhenxing and Star Lord Chenxing alike had human heads and serpent bodies; the female ancient gods of Guixu were likewise lovely serpent-women with human heads, and so to Yan'er, a dragon sparrow, they were all bugs.

Star Lord Suixing had a bird's head and a human body, Star Lord Yinghuo an ox's head and a human body, Star Lord Taibai a tiger's head and a human body, and those were no bugs to Yan'er. But the crux was that all three of these ancient gods trod upon twin dragons. The dragons beneath their feet were bugs as well, to this dragon sparrow, and that was what set her leaping in exultation.

She had eaten an ancient god once in Guixu, and could not forget the taste. "I wonder how fat she will grow this time?

" The Dragon Qilin's skull rang hollow under the pecking. It thought: "But no matter how fat she grows, I will never hold her in disdain.

" The Five Luminaries Star Lords each frowned, gazing at the corpses drifting down the Heavenly River. These gods and demons were their descendants; though they could not compare with the Star Lords themselves, they were the finest of their offspring, cultivators of the Divine Treasury Heavenly Palace system, immortal and undying, gods of the new generation.

Most ancient gods cared nothing for their offspring, it was true, but these were their own forces, and Shen Mu had in a single stroke swept away nearly half of them, which was more than they could bear.

Yet ever since Shen Mu had run riot through the Jade Pool more than a thousand years before, his strength seemed to have grown greater still, and the five Star Lords felt a chill in their hearts.

"Five Luminaries, you are no match for me.

Withdraw.

" Shen Mu said politely: "I have learned a little of the arts of fate from the Northern Emperor Xuanwu, and my fortunes are quite accurate. Bloodshed is certain to come upon you in days to come. Best return to your own ancestral lands, keep quietly to yourselves, and rest body and mind.

As for His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor, there is only a small misunderstanding between us; I will explain it to His Majesty myself, and trouble none of you five to do it for me. " Star Lord Zhenxing said nothing, but looked to the other ancient gods.

Star Lord Yinghuo said in a low voice: "This brute's strength is no small matter, and he does not fear our Dao-majesty.

We are ill prepared; it is indeed unwise to tear all pretense with him.

" Star Lord Suixing nodded as well: "By some means or other he has evaded our Dao-majesty, and the Heavenly Dragons beside him are no trifling power either. If we fight him head-on, I fear we shall take wounds. Let us go back first and memorialize His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor, accusing him of slaughtering our descendants, and let His Majesty pass judgment. " Star Lord Chenxing licked his lips and chuckled: "Once he reaches the Heavenly Court he will be dragged onto the God-Slaying Platform to be beheaded.

We need only stand by and watch his head fall!

There is no need to fight him to the death today. " The other Star Lords all agreed.

Star Lord Zhenxing was chief of the Five Luminaries; he was just about to speak when Star Lord Taibai, tiger that he was, suddenly sniffed, wrinkling his nose mightily, and said suspiciously: "There is a strange smell, like the smell of a Creator. . .

" His tiger's sense of smell was very keen; he sniffed hard again, and his two tiger ears stood up, and the bronze axe in his hand clattered and rattled. Of a sudden he turned his tiger eyes upon the Heavenly Dragon Treasure Carriage and cried sternly: "There!

A Creator is hidden in the carriage!

" The other four ancient gods felt a chill, and their killing intent flooded the heavens as they looked at the carriage behind Shen Mu. Within the carriage, the Creator Luo Xiao, pale of face, rose to his feet, pressed his lips together, and said in a low voice: "I walked out of the Void with death in my heart.

I never thought that before I found the ancestral land, I would go to my death. Dying here, I wonder whether I may meet the ancestral spirits of my forebears. .

.

" Shen Mu sighed. The sword pellet in his palm floated up once more, and a helpless, absurd feeling filled his heart: "Can it be that the Five Luminaries Star Lords are to die at my hands? " The Five Luminaries Star Lords cried out in unison: "Summon the ancestral stars!

" Star Lord Zhenxing spun once around, his serpent body swelling until he became a serpent ten thousand li long, coiling above the Heavenly River, the Great Dao of Death spreading from him on every side, piercing the void! The space of the sky shook violently, and a dead star came crashing through the world barrier of the Yuan Realm, until the surface of that dead star appeared in the sky of the Yuan Realm!

That star was heavy with the breath of twilight, squeezing in from another world into the Yuan Realm, the part forced into the Yuan Realm growing ever larger.

It was the Zhen Star of the Five Luminaries! The Zhen Star bore rings of earth-yellow radiance, and about it revolved seventy or eighty lesser stars of every size.