Chapter 647 — Utterly Convinced

Shen Mu gave himself over wholly to copying down the runes upon the Creation God Wheel — the dullest ink outlasts the best memory — and as he transcribed them, insights came crowding into his mind; some runes yielded their meaning of their own accord after a single copying, and along the way he grasped several divine abilities for the creation of the flesh. Yet far more of the runic imprints would need deduction and calculation before their mysteries could be known. "I really ought to have brought along several hundred, several thousand Jingping scholars to study and copy these together — the speed would be unimaginable.

In multitude there is wisdom; with so many scholars copying at once, all manner of ingenious notions would surely come bursting forth!

" Such was the use of an imperial dynasty: talents of every description could be gathered by the batch and set to research on a grand scale, with astonishing speed, surpassing any lone endeavor by who knew how many times. "A pity Chi Xi is the sort who never softens until he is beaten; only a sound thrashing will make him docile and willing to cooperate with us.

" Shen Mu tried lighting the runes of the Creation God Wheel with his own vital energy, spurring them through their changes as he went on copying, thinking: "The First Ancestor's ability is not bad; I only wonder whether he can subdue him. " Within the Chiming Heaven-Suppressing Tower, the First Ancestor Human Emperor fought with peerless valor, battling his way upward from the three hundredth floor.

This tower was a mighty treasure for suppressing the heavenly palace, of extraordinary power; the divine weapons enshrined on every floor were the most famed divine weapons of the Chiming Era, and those weapons formed a single set, six in all. When the god Chi Xi drove them with his own magic power, their might erupted and his strength leapt up a whole great tier; moreover, outside every floor hung a thousand treasures woven into an array, and the might of that thousand-treasure array was immense, attacking the First Ancestor Human Emperor alongside him.

The thousand divine weapons quivered, wave upon wave of divine majesty bombarding the First Ancestor within the tower, while the six mighty treasures in Chi Xi's hands whirled up and down, their divine majesty surging to the heavens — and then the First Ancestor Human Emperor beat them down outright, shattering the thousand-treasure array outside the tower, blasting Chi Xi away and forcing him to fall back to the next floor down. The higher he climbed, the greater the might of the treasures enshrined and the stronger the arrays of divine weapons hanging without; by the time the First Ancestor Human Emperor had fought his way to the eight hundredth floor, he too felt the strain beyond measure.

In truth, past the three hundredth floor it was scarcely Chi Xi controlling these mighty treasures anymore — it was the treasures wielding Chi Xi; his own cultivation had become negligible beside the power of the treasures and the might of the arrays!

The First Ancestor Human Emperor was contending with the treasures and arrays of the Chiming Heaven-Suppressing Tower itself, forcing his way upward against them all, fighting his way bodily to the eight hundredth floor! "If this goes on, I fear even I will be wounded.

" The First Ancestor Human Emperor's eyes flickered. "It seems Chi Xi cannot hold out much longer either," he thought. "His Leakless Battle God Art cannot achieve true leaklessness and flawlessness; he merely draws on the blood and vital energy within others to keep himself at his peak.

But that has one precondition — the opponent must be wounded first. If the opponent stands unharmed, he can do nothing, and can only burn away his own vital energy and cultivation, growing weaker and weaker. " Chi Xi's three-headed, six-armed body was indeed a battle frame of matchless strength, yet it was still far weaker than the First Ancestor's, and had long since been beaten to a mass of wounds, barely able to hold on.

That Chi Xi could hold on at all was chiefly because the First Ancestor Human Emperor wished to win Shen Mu over — to show him how overpowering his seal arts of Heaven and Earth were, so that Shen Mu would learn them of his own free will. He had fought his way to the eight hundredth floor precisely to display his seal arts before Shen Mu; so long as Shen Mu saw the subtlety in them and took the desire to learn, then the First Ancestor need only give a gentle push along the current, Shen Mu need only trot down the slope that offered itself, and all would end in joy on every side.

"I have fought to the eight hundredth floor; all that should be shown has been shown. Now it is time to end this! " The First Ancestor Human Emperor erupted with his full strength in an instant, unleashing the Seal of Eternal Heaven and Earth; as the seal pressed down, the space within the tower all but congealed, and the god Chi Xi was pinned in midair, his body convulsing violently, as though struck by some invisible blow of tremendous force!

His body shuddered a hundred-odd times, as though it had taken a hundred-odd blows of unspeakable terror!

The mighty treasures in his grasp abruptly slipped his control, their power erupting as they blasted toward the First Ancestor Human Emperor!

Those six mighty treasures no longer needed his steering; of their own accord they hurled themselves at him. The First Ancestor Human Emperor drew his sword — the blade at his waist left its sheath — and flicked it in six swift points; with several crisp rings of metal the six mighty treasures snapped apart at once, their power gone entirely, destroyed outright by that divine sword! The First Ancestor's attainments in swordsmanship were in fact not high; what was truly formidable was the sword he carried. The divine majesty stored within that blade could stand against the whole Chiming Heaven-Suppressing Tower — plainly no ordinary treasure! The Human Emperor Hall had been built within Yuming Palace, one of the thirty-six heavenly palaces, and the sword he wore was the Yuming Sword, the mighty treasure with which the Kaihuang Heavenly Court had suppressed Yuming Palace — a palace-guarding treasure and a prince's sword, extraordinary beyond all saying!

The moment this sword came out, all the divine weapons hanging outside the tower trembled violently too, their power sweeping wildly in every direction; beams of divine light a hundred li long swayed through the air, slicing until the surrounding space shuddered without cease. The First Ancestor Human Emperor dispersed his seal art, and Chi Xi crashed to the ground with a thud; the divine weapons hanging outside came clattering down — across a thousand floors every divine weapon fell, a spectacle to behold.

This was the clash of the Chiming Heaven-Suppressing Tower's might against the Yuming Sword's; found wanting, it had its treasures struck down through all its floors by the sword light! Mighty as this sword was, the First Ancestor's attainments in the sword were not high, and so he seldom used it.

Ban Gongcuo, watching this scene, shuddered several times in a row, hesitated a moment, and then his figure slowly faded away and was gone. Chi Xi's three heads streamed with blood as he crawled with difficulty toward the eight hundred and first floor; he made it up the stairs, then slid back down. "Brother Daoist, there is no need for us to fight to the death.

" The First Ancestor Human Emperor sheathed his sword and stepped forward to help him up.

"I truly bear no ill will — you can see that yourself. Had I exerted my full strength from the start, you would not have survived.

Your Chiming Era and my Kaihuang Era are fellow sufferers of the same ailment; you have hidden away for so long — why let a moment's contest of temper plunge us into irreconcilable strife?

" Chi Xi's three heads panted hard as he struggled to speak.