Chapter 655 — The Star Lord's Riddle

Then suddenly he took out his Sun Jade Eye at speed, studied the jade eye, then gazed off at the sun again, and blurted: "Is the one coming really the Great Sun Star Lord? " "It is the Great Sun Star Lord beyond all doubt! " Chi Xi tossed the Zhentian Tower above the tower-ship, entered it, and went straight to the thousandth floor.

Taking down the tower's guardian treasure, Chi Xi said in a low voice: "Apart from him, no one has the power to command the sun's might! " Shen Mu's mind was somewhat disordered. He murmured: "But why are most of the formation structures of my Sun Jade Eye identical to this sun's formation structures.

.

. ? The jade eye is a treasure from the Qushan Shrine of the Supreme Emperor's era, and the Great Sun Star Lord should have existed as far back as the Longhan Era, no?

Why would he deploy formations of the Supreme Emperor's era. . . " Ling Yuxiu said: "The Great Sun Star Lord lived through the Supreme Emperor's era. He could have learned the formation arts and divine abilities of that era.

What is there to be astonished at? " "No, that is not it!

" Shen Mu shook his head: "Divine abilities depend upon the Way.

Once one's own arts are fixed, one essentially continues along one's own road, and learning another's divine abilities and arts can never reach the peak in any case. The Great Venerable is one example. " Ban Gongcuo, furious beyond measure, shouted: "Shen, when you give examples, could you have some regard for other people's feelings?

You and I are in the same boat, after all! " "The Great Venerable originally cultivated shaman arts; in shamanic divine abilities he was a grand master rarely matched in the world.

His attainments in soul and primordial spirit remain rare even today. Yet he divided his mind, and went off to learn the Daoist sect's Dao and sword, the Buddha dharma of the Great Thunder Bell Temple, the arts of the Celestial Sage Sect, the arts of Little Jade Capital, until his own abilities became merely passable. " Shen Mu went on analyzing, lost in his own reasoning: "If I were the Great Sun Star Lord, I would learn the formations of the Supreme Emperor's era, but I would alter them, making them best suited to myself. Yet the Great Sun Star Lord has made almost no alterations at all.

That is unreasonable. And moreover, from what Senior Chi Xi and the First Ancestor say, he is a sacred one born from the sun, which makes it even more impossible that he would learn the divine abilities of the Supreme Emperor's era. Because he simply could not learn them! " Ling Yuxiu was baffled: "Why could he not learn them? " "He was born from the sun, and the great Way within him is already fixed. A change of arts begins with a change of divine abilities: change the divine ability and the art changes; change the art and the Way changes.

" Shen Mu explained: "The great Way within the Great Sun Star Lord does not change.

If he goes to learn altered arts and divine abilities, he naturally cannot master them. Like Tu Bo. Tu Bo too is an innate sacred one, and he should be unable to learn King Yama's arts and divine abilities.

" Far off, the sun's formation had taken shape. Suddenly a beam of incomparably thick light burst through the bonds of space and shone toward the tower-ship! The beam passed a star, and in an instant that star was pierced through, a great hole torn in it.

This power was mightier by more than can be told than the Sun Jade Eye's. At the stern, the First Ancestor Human Emperor and Chi Xi were in a frenzy of alarm, yet Shen Mu was pacing to and fro, tugging at the vigorous beard on his chin, musing: "If my conjecture is right, then there is one possibility: this Great Sun Star Lord may not be the original Great Sun Star Lord at all, but a deity of the Supreme Emperor's era.

And if the conjecture holds, then where has the true Great Sun Star Lord gone.

.

. First Ancestor, could you get me a little of the Great Sun Star Lord's blood, for me to study? " Chi Xi, choked with exasperation: "If we keep our lives, that will be feat enough! " The First Ancestor Human Emperor called loudly: "Get inside the tower and hide, quickly! " Shen Mu ran for the tower. Ling Yuxiu stood at the tower door; Ban Gongcuo meant to shut the door and lock Shen Mu outside, but Ling Yuxiu seized him by the neck with one hand and slammed him heavily to the ground.

Shen Mu darted into the tower.

The door had barely shut when there came a great boom, and then violent shaking, flinging the three people in the tower high and hurling them about.

At the stern, the First Ancestor Human Emperor drew the sword at his waist, roused all his mana, and brought it down in one stroke against the light. The Yuming Sword surged, cleaving through the dense divine radiance, but in the next moment it was burned red-hot.

Pressed by the terrifying force, the First Ancestor's form was driven back and back. Chi Xi roused the tower's guardian treasure, six divine swords, which likewise slashed at the divine light.

The strength Chi Xi commanded was not enough, but the six divine swords' power was too great, and it dragged Chi Xi's might up by a full measure. The two of them together just managed to hold off the power of the Sun's Sacred Pupil.

The dense, blinding firelight and divine radiance were split in two by them, screaming past the edges of the tower-ship and leaving two long trails across the starry deep of the cosmos, blazing bright. Just then the tower-ship lurched violently. A god-man with a bird's head, a human body, twin wings and three feet had ridden the divine light and alighted at the stern.

It was the Great Sun Star Lord. Inside the tower, Shen Mu called out loudly: "First Ancestor, remember to get me some of his blood! " "Say no more!

" the First Ancestor shouted back in exasperation.