The Divine Martial Stars

Chapter 365 The Miracle Creator

The Xiantian Skill and the Zhenwu Boxing Li Mu had practiced was, after all, immortal’s arts. The Five Emperors’ Immortality Scriptures he later studied was also the Taoist magic arts invented by Master Puti. Those arts were far more advanced than the martial arts on that planet and could not be measured with criteria in that world. That was precisely what Li Mu had counted on.

Nevertheless, trudging up against the current had its upper limit.

Li Mu’s current combat ability could indeed rival that of a practitioner who just entered the Sage Realm.

But when he came across Yingshan Snow-eagle, the Emperor’s Broadsword and god of killing in the Sage Realm, the result was almost predestined— he would be knocked out.

“That’s pretty much all I can do. Retreat now!”

With a stir of his mind, Li Mu turned into a jet of light and soared backward to distance himself from the enemy.

“Humph.” Yingshan Snow-eagle gave a sardonic sneer.

All of a sudden, he vanished from the bow of the Flying Whale Shuttle. In the same second, he covered a hundred meters and miraculously appeared behind Li Mu as if he had disapparated and then apparated there. Next, his seemingly dead palm reached out to grab Li Mu’s shoulder.

His speed was incredulous.

Li Mu’s hair on his back all stood on end.

In that instant, Li Mu felt endless mountains had born down upon him. The natural qi of the Southern Fire Emperor inside him seemed to stagnate and could not flow smoothly. Meanwhile, as if sinking into marsh, his speed was lowered. For a fraction of a second, he even felt Yingshan Snow-eagle’s five cold fingers biting into his shoulder.

“Humph. The deemed genius…”

Yingshan Snow-eagle’s ghostly white eyes revealed no emotion. He had concentrated his force on his palm, ready to shatter Li Mu into dust.

However, at that precise moment, as if unable to bear the pressure, Li Mu slightly lowered his shoulder and did a weird, somersault-like movement.

Yingshan Snow-eagle felt his eyes blinded for a second. Then, he found his palm merely shattered a very convincing illusion of Li Mu, while the real target had magically disappeared.

“What just happened?”

Yingshan Snow-eagle was stupefied.

He was too overwhelmed to react.

He was 100% sure that he could pull off that grab. Yet, the target easily broke free with a bizarre movement?

When he looked up to search for Li Mu, he found the boy had already entered the range of the All-side Starlight Deployment. Li Mu lifted a hand and waved. Immediately, beams of colorful divine light zoomed toward him. The 24 flying broadswords rushed back to his palm at supersonic speed and remerged into the Samsara Knife.

“Third Brother, are you alright?”

“Young Brother Li…”

“Lord…”

The crowd surrounded Li Mu at once. All of them were unnerved by Li Mu’s boldness.

A moment ago, Yingshan Snow-eagle already exercised his internal qi confinement and was about to capture Li Mu. At that scene, Qiu Yin, Xu Sheng, and the others all shook in their boots. But to their utter amazement, the strange somersault Li Mu did as if imitating a monkey worked magic. It instantly helped Li Mu get out of the internal qi confinement and returned to the range of the defensive deployment.

The whole thing happened in a trice. Nearly everyone was still in shock.

Breathing a deep sigh of relief, Li Mu said, “I’m fine.”

Only he knew clearly what a peril he was in moments ago.

At the last second, the Emperor’s Broadsword’s raging killing intent already plunged into his body. Had he not cast the Somersault Cloud to make a flight, or had he hesitated for a fraction of a second, perhaps by the time he had already been reduced to a pile of mince… The strength of the god of killing in the Western Qin Empire was truly extremely dreadful. He was way more daunting than any opponent Li Mu had encountered before.

“Well, that’s it.”

Li Mu started to do some self-reflection.

At that time, the qi of the Southern Fire Emperor inside Li Mu was in disorder. A stream of peculiar, bloody force was on the rampage, destroying his veins and meridians. If it had not been for his stalwart body, he was probably already gravely injured and in a coma.

“Well, he did run fast when making a break for it.”

Yingshan Snow-eagle was a man who had been through too many difficulties. Despite his surprise, he would not be deeply perturbed by the unconventional escape Li Mu just made.

Overlooking the gate of the Yue Mountain Faction, Yingshan Snow-eagle’s ghostly bloodshot eyes exuded a zealous madness.

Terrifying waves of Spiritual Qi converged in his body.

As his hands flipped upward and held still over his chest, tiers of thickly-dotted blood-colored star patterns flashed between his hands and spread out. The pressure generated by that ultimate move covered the area within several kilometers. In an instant, he had gathered countless Spiritual Qi around him. The Sage’s power raged like an over spilling reservoir after a storm. Also, it simmered like the boiling magma before a volcano eruption…

“Holy crap! He will destroy the defensive deployment by force…”

Xu Sheng’s expression altered drastically as he realized what was going on.

The All-side Starlight Deployment of the Yue Mountain Faction was a wonderful defense. It was reputed across the entire Divine Land. It would not be outshone even if being compared with the State-protecting Magic Fa Circles of the three great empires. Nevertheless, the defensive deployment of the Yue Mountain Faction was not built by the empire, so its energy storage was not that rich. Further, that deployment was laid by the founding fathers of the faction. After a millennium, none of the members from later generations attained that kind of mastery over the tactical deployment. As a result, the All-side Starlight Deployment had lacked the necessary repair and betterment. As time lapsed, more and more damages and flaws occurred. Adding that it had just been assaulted, exhausted, and wrecked by Huang Shengyi’s forces, it was already a spent arrow.

So, could such an All-side Starlight Deployment withstand the blow fired by the powerful Emperor’s Broadsword?

No one could guarantee a positive answer.

And once the deployment was destroyed, the Yue Mountain Faction would perhaps be annihilated in minutes.

“The deployment can’t block him.” Being an expert in tactical deployments, Li Mu, who had just tried Yingshan Snow-eagle’s power, immediately came to that conclusion. “That thing can’t even throw off the Emperor’s Broadsword’s one blow. Head Xu, why haven’t you gotten the full-fledged deployment in motion?” He had noted that many secret functions of the All-side Starlight Deployment had not been switched on yet and assumed the Yue Mountain Faction was deliberately reserving its power.

Xu Yue, Head of the Yue Mountain Faction, gave a wry smile and answered, “It’s not like I don’t want to make it full-fledged. I’m just unable to. The All-side Starlight Deployment was built by the founders of our faction. Sadly, no disciples have inherited the complete set of deployment skills left by the founders. So this one… Well, after a thousand years, this is all we’ve got.”

“What shall we do then?” Qiu Yin suddenly looked tense as well.

By then, all of them were gripped by a rising sense of helplessness.

Sometimes, it struck them how limited their power was.

Xu Sheng sighed, “Get ready to run for your lives. The more of our members get away the better. As long as one of us gets out alive, our Yue Mountain Faction will sure make a comeback someday…”

At that remark, everyone looked rather grim.

Li Mu, however, chose to break the leaded silence. “You have no need to be so pessimistic now… Let me give it a shot.”

He soared a hundred meters over the main hall and opened his Third Eye. A jet of divine light shot out from between his brows and swept through the entire deployment. Li Mu captured many sights invisible to the others. He saw through the void and the earth, peered into the flaws and damages in the deployment. After that, he conjured magic seals with his hands before raising his arms and tossing them to the ground. Jets of jade-colored light dived into every side of the gate of the Yue Mountain Faction.

Every time a jet of the jade-colored light zoomed to a spot, the glowing shield of the All-side Starlight Deployment became brighter than before.

When Li Mu had rapidly cast 21 jets of jade-colored light in a row, the shield of the All-side Starlight Deployment was ten times more dazzling. The glowing patterns that had dimmed also began to swirl in the tiers of the shield again. The dull deployment instantly sprang to life, exuding the glow of the Spiritual Qi.

Boom!

At the same time, Yingshan Snow-eagle had finished collecting strength for the ultimate strike. He pressed both hands together in front of his chest, and a shaft of opaque blood-colored light spun. The terrifying Spiritual Qi in his palms blended, bringing out a blood-colored sword a kilometer long. Star patterns sparkled on its surface. Shafts of light swirled. Carrying a force that could destroy anything, the sword followed his gesture and cleaved the sky before plummeting toward the ground and banging into the All-side Starlight Deployment.

The area within several hundred miles around the main peak quaked violently.

Unable to offset the repercussions, a few precarious high mountains tumbled down.

Layers of energy clouds radiated in all directions from the impact point. Everything within a hundred meters near the main peak was flattened in a trice. All the hills, mountains, boulders were squashed flat. Those practitioners from various sects that had been assisting the crown prince to attack the gate had no time to run away. As the radiation waves scanned the place, they were burnt into ashes like straws in a fire…

When the dust fell, it could be seen that the area within a hundred meters around the main peak had been completely flattened, covered only by gravel.

But the All-side Starlight Deployment was still there. Although it was not as bright as it had been, it was stable and unbreakable as usual, keeping all the key buildings and the gate of the Yue Mountain Faction under its firm protection.

Li Mu landed in front of the main hall. As tiers of sweat broke across his brows, he heaved with a deep sigh of relief.

It withstood him.

Surprisingly, it did.

“How can that be?”

Many of the disciples of the Yue Mountain Faction could not believe what they just saw.

Xu Sheng felt his jaw drop. After quite a while, he remarked, “Bro, you excel at tactical deployments as well… What else can you not achieve anyway?”

Qiu Yin did not know what to say, either. So, he blurted, “Third Brother, are you still human?”

He was convinced again that Li Mu was wearing a halo that could create miracles. No matter how dire the situation seemed, the boy could always turn the table.

Rounds of whoops sounded from every part of the Yue Mountain Faction.

Only those who experienced real despair could feel how wonderful it was to feel hopeful again when they saw the All-side Starlight Deployment shone again. Even though all the members of the Yue Mountain Faction had braced themselves to die in the upcoming battle, that did not mean they had no desire for life.

Li Mu then added, “I might have seen this tactical deployment before. Due to the lack of time, I simply conjured a few jade seals in a haste to mend some cracks and increase its power. That’s why it survived that blow of Yingshan Snow-eagle. However, you shouldn’t be too optimistic now. What I’ve done is just a quick fix for emergencies. It can’t last long. To give the tactical deployment a full play, we have to repair and renovate it.”

Up in the sky.

After casting one strike, Yingshan Snow-eagle, the Emperor’s Broadsword, did not launch more attacks.

His lifeless eyes were riveted on Li Mu, as though he was seeing the boy in a different light.

“Humph,” he eventually let out a cold laugh and said, “I’ve born you in mind.”

With that, Yingshan Snow-eagle leaped back to the Flying Whale Shuttle in a flash.

“Eunuch Yingshan…” Called the crown prince. He stepped toward the old man with a shade of awe and fear.

Before that day, the crown prince only saw the chief eunuch as a powerful crony of his father’s. But he never knew he was that powerful, almost like a demon. That blow he launched carried the force that could devastate the world.

All the other experts on the Flying Whale Shuttle looked awestruck as well.

“Keep attacking. Continue to consume the energy of that tactical deployment. Even though Li Mu has enhanced its force, that is merely some humble magic art. I have separated the Spiritual Qi in this area from the world out there. The deployment can’t hang in there for long.” Yingshan Snow-eagle growled as he slumped into the chair the two younger eunuchs brought him.

His face was even paler than before. He waved at the others, looking exhausted.

“In three days tops, the tactical deployment will be cracked. Then, we force our way across that gate and kill all of them. Not a foul or a dog will be spared. As to that Li Mu, leave him to me. I want to drink his blood.” The chief eunuch grunted, clearly feeling aggrieved at Li Mu.

“Okay. Right now, I’ll ask them to fire on and don’t stop no matter what.” The crown prince hurried forward to give the orders.