The Divine Martial Stars

That outlined figure slowly raised his chin.

Li Mu thought he heard a long sigh of relief in the dead silence.

“You can go out when you have refined this rock from Chu Empire.”

As that remarked faded, the outline of Qu Yuan gradually dissipated.

That phantom was a thread of his deep longing left there. On that day, he finally met the one he had waited for and learned what he wished to learn. Therefore, when the longing was satisfied, the phantom disappeared as well.

Li Mu prostrated himself at the foot of the rock for a long time before he got up.

He knew clearly that to get out of the small space he must refine the Star Stone that Qu Yuan referred to as the rock from Chu Empire. There was no other way to do it.

Li Mu suddenly recalled that according to the tales on Earth, Qu Yuan had jumped into Miluo River holding a rock to commit suicide. “Could the rock he grabbed at that time be ‘the rock from Chu Empire’? Well, the rock is so huge. I wonder how Qu Yuan had held it in his arms.”

“No, that’s not right. Qu Yuan was already a mighty practitioner then. Maybe he has shrunk it before he jumped into the river?”

Li Mu’s mind ran wild. A while later, he finally straightened out his thoughts and started to refine the Star Stone filled with the Spiritual Qi of the wood element.

He had completed the first section— the Mental Scripture of Fire Emperor— in the Five Emperors’ Immortality Scriptures he had been practicing. The second section in order was the Liver-enhancing Scripture of Wood Emperor, which happened to call for an enormous amount of wood energy.

“The liver houses the soul. The acquired is the wandering soul, inherited is the benevolence. The soul will be steady if without the decline of the two. To avoid such decline, the wood qi of the Eastern Wood Emperor is required…”

Li Mu drove spiritual force to open the jade scroll of the Five Emperors’ Immortality Scriptures in his Mud-pill Palace. As the scroll unfolded, the rings of the tutoring voice spread to his Sea of Consciousness. Li Mu let his spirit sink in it and began to meditate as though he was attending a lecture given by some ancient mighty Taoist.

Soon, it came to the steps of refining the Star Stone.

In the small space, Li Mu had completely lost track of time.

His every cell was engrossed in the lecture.

Having no idea how long it had taken, Li Mu’s spirit finally withdrew from his Mud-pill Palace. After learning the text of the entire Liver-enhancing Scripture of Wood Emperor, Li Mu started to try to work out the mysteries in it. Only when he had fully understood the scripture could he turn to absorb the power of the wood element.

Because since he entered the Celestial Being Realm, every step ahead was dangerous. He could not afford to be careless.

An uncertain amount of time passed.

Li Mu slowly opened his eyes.

“I’m all set.”

He unhurriedly climbed up the colossal Star Stone of the wood element and sat cross-legged on its top. Then, he performed his Cultivation Methods, driving the natural qi to flow down a designated route leading to the liver before being pumped up to the heart.

As Li Mu had already attained the Taoist True Fire, his natural qi ran down his meridians quite smoothly. After covering the route appointed by the Liver-enhancing Scripture of Wood Emperor, an eccentric energy zone was formed inside him. The zone released a bizarre force that automatically extracted the wood energy in the Star Stone beneath.

Wisps of cyan mist surged from the rock as if being vaporized and wrapped themselves around Li Mu before eventually seeping into Li Mu’s mouths, nostrils, and pores.

Two hours later, just like when he was practicing the Mental Scripture of Fire Emperor for the first time, his body became thoroughly transparent, only that this time a strange change occurred— he had not only a fiery heart but also a liver that was steadily turning green.

As Li Mu kept absorb the wood qi inside that rock from Chu Empire, his liver became greener and greener. As if made of green jade, his liver now radiated strong vigor.

More time lapsed.

Numerous hours flew by.

Li Mu’s liver became bright green, as pure as the most impeccable piece of jade in the world. It housed such a huge amount of vigor that a minuscule world seemed to be going on in it.

The rock from Chu Empire, by contrast, dimmed bit by bit.

At least, the glow around the rock died away and it became a normal, unadorned rock.

Inside Li Mu’s body, two streams of internal qi in cyan and fiery continued to run through his meridians and nurture his body. His transparent body gradually became solid again.

Several days later, Li Mu’s internal qi became increasingly pure and sophisticated. The qi of the Southern Fire Emperor and the Eastern Wood Emperor blended perfectly, leaving no weak or repellent spot.

Li Mu opened his eyes and slowly got to his feet.

He guessed nearly half a month had passed.

Anyway, the time he spent completing the practice of the Liver-enhancing Scripture of Wood Emperor was shorter than the practice of the Mental Scripture of Fire Emperor. That was attributed to the rock from Chu Empire loaded with pure wood energy. Li Mu relied on the wood energy it contained the whole time during his practice. That was way more efficient than capturing the drifting fire energy when he was practicing the first section in the Everlasting Heaven.

Moreover, thanks to the heart qi of the Southern Fire Emperor he already acquired, the proceeding practice on the other four major organs were much easier. As the fire itself was the substance for refining items, including the soul and the spirit, it could assist the development of the other four kinds of qi.

That was one of the reasons the Mental Scripture of Fire Emperor was arranged in the first section of the Five Emperors’ Immortality Scriptures.

“Having mastered the Liver-enhancing Scripture of Wood Emperor, I am already a second-stage Celestial Being. When I was in the first stage of the Celestial Being Realm, I was already able to go up against the current and resist a Sage at the beginning stages. Now that I’ve entered the second stage and acquired the qi of Wood Emperor, how much has my combat ability increased then?”

Li Mu lowered his head to examine his hands.

On one palm danced cyan qi of vigor, on the other flowed fiery qi of fire. Rather impulsively, he pressed his hands together.

Boom!

A new power came into being.

As if a demon had been enraged, dreadful energy fluctuations broke out, which slightly distorted the small space.

“What a horrible power! It’s not less than that force released from the hack Emperor’s Broadsword did when attacking the All-side Starlight Deployment. What’s more, if solely in light of the quality of the power, mine is better.”

Li Mu was amazed by that as well.

“When the qi of the Southern Fire Emperor and the Eastern Wood Emperor blend together, the power it creates increases more than twofold?”

“Yes. Because wood generates fire, wood boots fire.”

“Sure. Wood helps the fire blaze.”

Li Mu experienced a moment of enlightenment.

He plunged into the second round of trials, hoping to blend the two kinds of qi outside of his body.

After a score of experiments, finally, a ball of bright orange fire emerged on his palm and danced with great dexterity. That destructive power dreadful as the wrath of a demon was also integrated into that ball of fire.

“Though this fire is not the real Samadhi True Fire, it is not much less than it. This is the combination of the qi of both the Southern Fire Emperor and the Eastern Wood Emperor. The power of two emperors. Why not just call it… Emperors’ Fire.”

With stirs of his mind, the Emperors’ Fire began to expand and shrink on his palm. When it swelled up, it could be several hundred meters high. When it shrank, it could be as tiny as a grain of rice or a needle. Li Mu was able to control its size at will.

As he flexed his muscles, he felt a potent power was circulating in his body.

Each of the five stages of the Celestial Being Realm was a different world.

That was a saying from the martial art theories on that planet. It could not be more suited to apply that saying to Li Mu. Now that he was already in the second stage of the Celestial Being Realm, what he was capable of was not simply resisting a Sage but killing one.

If Li Mu ever came across Yingshan Snow-eagle again, he would have the confidence to fight and defeat him.

That was the great change brought by his Cultivation Methods.

What Li Mu had been practicing were all immortals’ Cultivation Methods.

That was just like the case with the turbocharging engine, which definitely functions more rapidly than a nature inspiration engine with slightly larger displacement. In that case, the displacement did not matter. What mattered was the technological difference.

About half an hour later, Li Mu sensed that the separated small space was more and more unstable. It was probably about to vanish.

Li Mu knew he could finally get out.

Then, his eyes rested on that colossal Star Stone.

Having had its pure wood power sucked out, it was turned into a normal rock. Still, it contained the traits of the wood element and might serve as the finest ore in weapon refining. It would be a shame to leave it there. Li Mu reckoned he had better take it before going out.

At that point, a voice sounded, “Do not disclose your experience here to anyone else. All the items here are yours, but do not let anyone outside know about this.”

It was Qu Yuan’s voice.

Then, the last trace of the spirit the great forefather left in the small space vanished forever.

Upon hearing that remark, Li Mu felt a tingle of guilt for the Yue Mountain Faction. He had no intention to take the treasure as his own. But judging by that message, the huge Star Stone was for the use of the Yue Mountain Faction.

Li Mu drew the Samsara Knife and cut the huge ore in chunks, which filled a dozen of his storage spaces.

When he finished all that, the small space collapsed as a strange force knocked Li Mu out.

As Li Mu recovered from the shock, he found he was inside the mountain boring the All-side Starlight Deployment again. The stone walls around him glinted, as if stars were twinkling. And Li Mu was standing right at the ninth tier of the smooth black sacrificial altar.

Yet, that poem saying “the road ahead is long but I will keep searching” had disappeared, as though it had never been there.

The separated small space was gone, too.

Li Mu had roughly figured it out. Perhaps as he fixed the All-side Starlight Deployment and triggered the power of the stars, the separated small space was activated as well, even though he did not intend it. And the poem— “the road ahead is long but I will keep searching”— was just a prelude, a key, which dragged him into that space.

But before he entered the space, he was put through a test.

That illusion about the blue star resembling Earth Qu Yuan placed there was perhaps devised to ascertain if the one who had intruded on the small space was an Earth resident. After all, any of those who left Earth and traveled to that planet must have seen the complete picture of Earth from the universe out there.

So, it turned out that everything in that separated small space was set for a certain descendant from Earth.

“I have no idea how long I’ve stayed here. I need to go out and have a look at once.”

Li Mu then turned into a jet of light and zoomed toward the exit of the space inside the mountain.

…

…

“Where did my third brother go?”

Qiu Yin cried. He was standing in front of the main hall, looking rather anxious.

So were Xu Sheng, Xu Yue, and other high officials of the Yue Mountain Faction.

That was because they already saw blood splash outside the All-side Starlight Deployment.

Dozens of people were retained on the Flying Whale Shuttle. They were all Li Mu’s acquaintances back in Chang’an. Three of them had been beheaded already. Scarlet blood began to fan out in the void.

“Humph. Li Mu still doesn’t want to come out? Get the slaughter going!”

Yingshan Snow-eagle, the Emperor’s Broadsword, uttered that order without emotion.

The wife of Ning Jing, the by-blow in the Ning Mansion in Chang’an, was shoved forward. Steel broadsword had pinned on the back of her neck. Ning Jing thrashed desperately but could not break free. So, he was forced to watch his wife be placed on the scaffold with his own eyes.

“No…” Ning Jing howled in despair.