The Divine Martial Stars

Chapter 258 Breakthrough

“Who is it?”

He Yunxiang and his company were all on their guard. ‘That figure standing on the blood-red crescent is rather sinister!’

‘Staying in the air is the skill only those Celestial Beings can master!’

The experts of the Qing Sha Clan were also on the alert. ‘From the tone of that sinister figure, he was an old acquaintance of Hua Xiangrong. Did he come here to assist her? Now that Elder Zhang is not here, perhaps none of us is a match of that man.’

Behind Hua Xiangrong’s protective shield, Dean Qu looked up at the crescent looming above their head and the blood-red cloud spreading across the field. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind, and he cried, “Are you Bloody-moon Evil Master?”

“Seems some people can still recognize me. Good for you!”

The figure standing on the blood-red crescent cackled.

Shangguan Yuting finally showed a tinge of fear on her face, but very soon she recovered her composure.

Back then, she was forced to host an Opening Day under the threat of the Bloody-moon Faction. In the past, the name of that faction gave her nightmares. Thus, as she heard the title ‘Boody-moon Evil Master,’ her heart instinctively shivered in fright.

But she soon registered that she was not that famous prostitute living at the mercy of others anymore.

She was already a constant companion of Brother Mu.

After spending those days practicing magic with Brother Mu, on that day, she believed she was bold enough to face any challenge.

“Don’t bother to put up a fight. Just be a lamb and come with me,” said that Bloody-moon Evil Master enveloped in a blood-red halo. He was wearing a set of blood-red matte armor to protect his body, and a matte helmet obscured his facial features. No one could see his expression, but they all sensed his intimidating imperiousness from his voice.

Hua Xiangrong still remained silent.

She made a Taoist sealing gesture, and then, six extra jade seals flew out of her sleeves and fluttered around her, as if a flock of butterflies dancing around a blossom. Those jade seals shielded every part of her, and layers of silver light around her could be seen indistinctly. Hua Xiangrong’s magic was booming.

She had made her choice clear with her act.

“Though I don’t like handling women by force, you shouldn’t be so stubborn and ungrateful,” Boody-moon Evil Master said in a baleful tone, “Li Mu keeping you around is simply because of your defined physique. He is merely using you. Now that he is so audacious as to challenge a Celestial Being, he is seeking death on his own accord. Once you follow his footsteps, you will wind up in misery as well. If you...”

But all of a sudden, something interrupted his speech.

Swoosh!

A jade seal smooth like light instantly broke through the void and lunged directly at Boody-moon Evil Master.

‘Anyone who speaks ill of Brother Mu shall go to hell!’

A trace of wrath flitted across Shangguan Yuting’s eyes.

Boody-moon Evil Master reached out and quickly grabbed that jade seal. Then, with a teasing note in his voice, he remarked, “You wish to confront me with a couple of days’ worth of practice? Hua Xiangrong, don’t blame me of not going easy on you, now that you insist on declining my kind offer.”

His fingers closed on the seal and squeezed gently.

That jade seal instantly crumbled into a handful of dust.

...

...

“Hey, little rat, you are really good at escaping.”

Zhang Bulao, the Red-hair Killing God, displayed a hint of impatience on his features.

The battle had been on for half an hour.

He was no longer in the mood of playing but eager to end the battle without suspense. Li Mu’s last-minute defensive means came out in a constant flow. Even though he had resorted to his natural power, he found it hard to kill Li Mu for the time being.

And the array of defensive means Li Mu exercised also shook the Red-hair Killing God’s nerves.

‘No wonder he created one miracle after another in Chang’an. This youngster is indeed on the ball. He has studied both magic and martial arts, and the Cultivation methods he mastered are all mysterious ones that chill my heart. If it were not for the striking gap between our realms and my skill of extracting the power of heaven and earth, perhaps today I would fall to this brat’s hand.’

‘In the upcoming years, if he grows stronger and rises to power, how horrible he could be?’

Zhang Bulao’s fear deepened every second he dwelled on that thought.

‘No matter what, today I must eradicate the source of the potential trouble!’

He instantly mobilized all the power of heaven and earth he could lay a hand on and directed the blade light that was scores of feet long to fervently chop at Li Mu.

With a radius of several hundred miles, stone peaks collapsed one by one, and the old-growth forest became a mess.

For the creatures living in that area, it was absolutely a disaster out of no reason.

All that could be seen were a scene of doom.

Riding on the Samsara Knife, Li Mu took shelter from the collapsing stone peaks and the rising dust and managed to dodge all the hacks of Zhang Bulao’s blade light with the supersonic speed endowed by the Dao-commanding technique and the power of his Third Eye. Each time it was a close call. The scarlet blade light slashed in all directions, but he always made a narrow escape.

It was like the scene of a man chased by a band of sharks trying to escape with a surfing board. If he made any mistakes, he would be engulfed by the hungry beasts in the sea.

At that moment, Li Mu was fleeing in panic.

After all, the gap between a Natural Expert and a Celestial Being was wide enough to cover a whole realm, just like the difference between a beggar and an emperor.

When the battle proceeded to that point, he had already employed every single skill he learned, including the Zhenwu Boxing, the established styles of the Wind-Cloud Six Moves, and even the killing Taoist magic arts he had mastered so far. It could be said that he already demonstrated all the attacking techniques he grasped since he came to this world.

However, none of them worked in the presence of the Red-hair Killing God’s grid of hidden energy flow.

That was the power of heaven and earth.

‘Faster! I need to go faster...’

He urged the flying broadsword.

His spiritual force had been concentrated to the utmost, causing the spot between his brows to throb.

All of a sudden, he found that through the Third Eye, he could detect the direction and trajectory of the opponent’s blows in advance. It was almost a kind of prescience. Although what he could see was a bit fuzzy and it felt somewhat mysterious and unfathomable feeling, Li Mu’s heart leaped in joy.

He knew that he was about to make a breakthrough.

It had been a while since he fully accomplished the first level of the Xiantian Skill.

Today, he finally saw a chance to take a step forward.

And that was why he ‘recklessly’ challenged the Celestial Being.

He kept running, running away from the enemy like mad.

Scarlet blade light brushed past his shoulder and instantly shattered his clothes.

Then, Li Mu was practically a naked man running... oh no, flying by dint of a broadsword.

He was pushing himself to the limit.

The spot between his brows prickled more and more violently, as though an invisible knife was cutting his flesh.

Struggling with the pain, he avidly exercised the Xiantian Skill and urged his internal qi to flow in large circles furiously.

Suddenly, there was a rumble in his head and the throb between his brows disappeared at once. Then, a sense of cool and cozy feeling took over, as if drops of rare nectar was moistening his forehead. In a second, his spiritual force broke through the upper limit, and the flying speed of the Samsara Knife under his feet immediately doubled.

‘I made it!’

‘I finally made a breakthrough!’

Li Mu felt a surge of wild joy.

Like a jet of red light, the Samsara Knife zoomed at top speed. It was so fast that it almost could not be captured with bare eyes. Soon, it left a streak of shadow in the air, and all the roaring thunder and raging lightning produced by his previous Dao-riding vanished in a trice.

The flying broadsword had turned into a jet of light.

Compared with flying by generating thunder and lightning, that was a higher-leveled object-commanding skill.

‘Uh? How did he get even faster?’ Zhang Bulao was taken aback.

Li Mu’s original speed was also very formidable for him, because even the Celestial Being could hardly fly at that kind of speed. Now that Li Mu’s speed had increased by one time, Zhang Bulao nearly could not lock his eyes on him. ‘If Li Mu keeps running like that, I won’t be able to catch him, will I?’

At that thought, Zhang Bulao got into a flap.

But at that precise moment, Li Mu, who had landed on a towering mountain with his flying broadsword, came up with an idea. The Samsara Knife turned into a scarlet streak of light and threw itself at Zhang Bulao, who was on Li Mu’s heels.

‘Let me try the power of the Dao-commanding technique after I entered the second level of the Xiantian Skill.’

Li Mu made up his mind.

“You don’t run away? That’s courting death... I’ll smash your weapon first.”

Upon seeing Li Mu came to a halt, Zhang Bulao was elated.

He pulled the machete back and stopped throwing off Li Mu’s strikes. Then, unexpectedly, he stuck out his left hand as he drove the power of heaven and earth to the five fingers and made a grab at the huge Samsara Knife. Next, he already gripped Li Mu’s weapon firmly in hand.

Li Mu went deathly pale with fright.

At that time, he saw through the Third Eye that the grid of hidden energy currents had wrapped around Zhang Bulao’s left arm as if he was wearing an elbow pad and encased the Samsara Knife, dissipating all its power and forbidding it advancing even one more inch.

“Fu*k! Now I’m screwed...” Li Mu frenetically impelled his spiritual force to run faster so as to keep the broadsword under his control.

The Samsara Knife buzzed and vibrated wildly in the attempt to break free but did not succeed.

A cold smile curled the corner of Zhang Bulao’s mouth as he said, “It turns out to be made of pure dark iron. It can almost scrape a pass, but...” Before his voice died away, the power of heaven and earth assembled in his hand suddenly erupted.

Crack! Crack!

The sound of breaking metal was heard.

Cracks appeared on the heavy blade of the massive Samsara Knife, stretching from the top part held by Zhang Bulao’s five fingertips to the hem of the handle. Eventually, with a loud rumble, it burst open, leaving behind numerous scarlet fragments drifting in the sky.

The broadsword was destroyed.

It raptured into pieces.

“With the broadsword gone, I shall see how you can perform your broadsword-commanding skill.”

Zhang Bulao mocked relentlessly.

Li Mu’s broadsword-commanding art was not very intimidating in terms of attacking. But its supersonic speed was so fast that even Zhang Bulao, a Celestial Being, could hardly catch up. What was more, it successfully doubled the rate at the last critical moment, which rendered him thoroughly, unable to keep up the pace. That speed frightened him. Thus, he crushed that Samsara Knife at the first opportunity.

He could see that Li Mu did not know how to fly himself, and all that he relied on to escape was the broadsword-commanding skill. Once the broadsword was crumbled, Li Mu would be a bird with snapped wings and had no chance to get away.

At that moment, Li Mu looked dumbstruck.

‘Fu*k! I do have underrated the horrible power of the unparalleled expert in the Celestial Being Realm!’

‘My Samsara Knife! What a pity!’

Staring at the fluttering fragments of the blade, Li Mu felt his heart was bleeding.

Almost at the same time, he sensed the energy fluctuations in each of the broken pieces. The Samsara Knife was refined by his spiritual force and the Five Elements Sky-flipping Seal. Even though it was shattered, the fragments still shared the miraculous connection with his spiritual force. With a stir of his mind, those scattered bits all winged their way back at Li Mu’s feet like swallows returning to their nest, though they lay in disorder.

As those pieces assembled again, Zhang Bulao did not strike once, because he knew Li Mu could not escape anyway.

...

“Where did you get all those Cultivation Methods and secret techniques?” Zhang Bulao glared at Li Mu and demanded, “Hand me the secret technique of the broadsword-commanding skill and the punch manual and illustrations you employed before. Then, I might let you have a quick death.”

At his remark, Li Mu snapped, “Sh*t, you do have sharp eyes for quality goods... But, I have one more treasure. I think you should have a look. Once you see it, perhaps you won’t be so unruffled.”

As those words reverberated in the wild—

Li Mu opened his mouth wide.

A jet of five-colored divine light shot out from his mouth and materialized an ancient and unadorned square seal, which then floated over his head.