Chapter 1069 — The Five Stars Fall in Succession

Six heavenly dragons coiled about his body, and he reached out his claws to meet the Tai Bai Star Lord. The six heavenly dragons were like six arms, and under his command they performed divine arts and dao methods he had never learned before, pressing the Tai Bai Star Lord into the inferior place; his defeat and death were only a matter of time. On the other side, the Ying Huo Star Lord and the Sui Star Lord came charging in.

The Ying Huo Star Lord held twin hammers, ox-headed and man-bodied, his fighting power terrifying; the Sui Star Lord was bird-headed and man-bodied, his two claws gripping two azure dragons, and of a sudden the azure dragons transformed, becoming a bow and an arrow. The Sui Star Lord beat his wings and rose, caught the bow and arrow the azure dragons had become, and loosed an arrow that struck the Tai Bai Star Lord square in the back of the heart.

The Dragon Qilin rejoiced — then saw that though the Tai Bai Star Lord was struck, the wounds on his flesh healed with flying speed, and even in his hollow eye sockets two eyes were swiftly growing!

"The Sui Star Lord is an ancient god who rules life and the way of sacrifice.

He did not shoot the Tai Bai Star Lord to kill him, but to heal him! " The Tai Bai Star Lord's strength was restored to what it had been, his fighting power growing ever greater, and with the Ying Huo Star Lord and the Sui Star Lord charging in as well, the Dragon Qilin could not possibly hold.

Even as the two Star Lords came at him, a plump, fat dragon sparrow flew up on beating wings, its two sharp claws seizing the Sui Star Lord. The Sui Star Lord rolled over, and the two great birds fought wildly in the air, their cries shrill and clear.

The Sui Star Lord had seen Yan'er slay the Chen Star Lord, and he feared her greatly; but Yan'er, having swallowed the Chen Star Lord, had grown round as a ball, like a sphere with two vermilion-bird wings stuck into it, and flew with difficulty, which at once gave him courage.

"So long as I hold out until my ancestral star descends, killing this stupid bird will be easy!

" The Sui Star Lord's heart steadied.

The Ying Huo Star Lord rushed to the Dragon Qilin's side, his two great hammers closing in from either flank, and just then Shen Mu, who had plainly died a moment before, suddenly charged in from the side as though reborn in fire.

The Ying Huo Star Lord's heart leaped, and he saw Shen Mu's palms shift through a thousand transformations, as though in a single blink countless figures were performing countless different combat arts. All at once those ten thousand combat arts merged into one stream and became a single fist, which passed between his two hammers and smashed into his chest.

The Ying Huo Star Lord heard the sound of his own bones breaking and was sent flying backward. Shen Mu pursued without pause.

His two hands split into four, four into eight, becoming eight arms; runes leaped, and all manner of divine arts blasted at him.

The Ying Huo Star Lord's body suddenly felt immeasurably heavy, as though one heaven after another were pressing upon him; then teleportation arts burst out all over his body, tearing each part of his flesh in every direction. Luckily his body was immensely strong, and he withstood the rending force of space by main force.

Shen Mu's eight arms flew, and the vertical eye at his brow blazed; a vault of heaven hung high above the Ying Huo Star Lord.

Though the Ying Huo Star Lord felt the geomagnetic power crushing him madly, his body did not fall toward the Heavenly River but instead floated upward, flying toward that vault of heaven.

His limbs spread wide, his body growing ever larger.

At his ear he heard the voice of the heavenly dao, the dao sound given forth by the Heavenly Duke's Great Way, mysterious and profound.

He wished to turn his head and look up at the sky, yet could not turn his head. He could only roll his eyeballs with difficulty, and then he saw that the twin hammers he had forged with the plague way of the Ying Huo Star had become thin sheets of paper.

Not only were his dao weapons crushed to paper, his body too was crushed into thin paper of flesh, and still it grew thinner.

His body was still rising; at that rate he must already have flown out of the Yuan Realm, yet when the Ying Huo Star Lord looked down, he saw that he was still above the Heavenly River, and below him was Shen Mu.

Yet his vision grew ever mistier, as though layer upon layer of void lay between.

He felt himself flying upward without cease, flying longer than he knew, and still there was no end.

He had now become a sheet of paper with no thickness at all, and even his thoughts were stretched and drawn out, become infinitely thin and frail.

At the last he fixed fast at the very top of that vault of heaven, as though branded there forever.

Shen Mu reached out and grasped; the vault of heaven shattered and perished, and he turned around.

This was the fourth heaven of his Dao-entering divine art: Gathering the Round Complete Above the Dalu Heavens.

In the moment Shen Mu turned, the third heaven of his Dao-entering divine art had already taken shape. When this move was performed, the Heavenly River shook violently, and of a sudden its flow was severed; it broke away from the Heavenly River itself and formed a little Heavenly River.

The little Heavenly River pierced the Four Poles Heavens; the Vermilion Bird, the Black Tortoise, the Azure Dragon, and the White Tiger appeared in the Four Poles Heavens, and the Heavenly River formed a great circle.

His body stood at the center of the great circle the Heavenly River formed; the four ancient god emperors that his own dao runes had become stood upon the four poles, and drawing on the power of the Heavenly River and the way of the four emperors, he was like an ancient god emperor who ruled the laws of heaven and earth. The Heavenly River surveys the four poles.

By the time Shen Mu performed this move, he had drawn into the divine art both the Dragon Qilin and the Tai Bai Star Lord, who were locked in battle.

From Shen Mu's surprise slaying of the Zhen Star Lord and Yan'er's devouring of the Chen Star Lord, to the Tai Bai Star Lord's grievous wounding of Shen Mu, the Dragon Qilin's rescue, the Ying Huo Star Lord's and the Sui Star Lord's rescue of the Tai Bai Star Lord, and then Shen Mu's rebirth through creation and his two moves that cast the Ying Huo Star Lord into layer upon layer of void to be ground to nothing — all this was in truth but a brief moment.

In that brief moment, attack and defense had changed hands between the two sides many times over, dazzling the eye.

Above all Luo Xiao the Creator, who had been ready to fight to the death, rolled his eyes this way and that, wholly unable to find a chance to intervene.

When Shen Mu's "Heavenly River Surveys the Four Poles" was performed, he at last found his chance to intervene — but by then Shen Mu had already joined forces with the Dragon Qilin and slain the Tai Bai Star Lord within the divine art.

Shen Mu's breath faltered and he gave a muffled groan; yet just then the Sui Star Lord flung aside the plump, fat dragon sparrow, beat his wings, and rose, charging toward the Sui Star that had already appeared more than halfway in the sky, crying in a shrill voice, "Mu Tianzun, you are doomed!

" "You collude with the Creators, you murder the ancient gods; the Heavenly Emperor will exterminate your nine clans! Your human race will die out as well!

" Yan'er beat her wings in pursuit, but flew ever slower, panting for breath.

The Dragon Qilin hurried after as well, and soon overtook Yan'er, but could not overtake the Sui Star Lord.