Chapter 647: Star Lord's Maze

The Human Emperor First Ancestor finally breathed a sigh of relief and earnestly advised, "This blade is extremely dangerous. Forged from the skull of a Sovereign Realm expert, it's beyond your control. It's best not to use it if you can avoid it."

Ling Yuxiu, her fright having just subsided, frantically patted herself down and only relaxed when she realized her head was still attached.

Ban Gungong was also feeling his own head and breathed a long sigh of relief when he realized it hadn't fallen off.

"It's a pity I couldn't seize the opportunity to slay the Great Master..."

Qin Mu put away the casket and squatted down to examine the corpse of the Fire Crow Deity on the ground. He saw that the deity's head was separated from its body, all its vital energy and blood completely gone. Not a single trace of blood could be found; it was as if all the divine blood in his body had been sucked dry the instant his head was severed, leaving him as two sections of a dried corpse!

"It is indeed an extremely dangerous item."

Qin Mu's heart pounded with fear. "Once hit by the blade, there's no chance of survival! The most terrifying thing is that if the divine blade in the casket doesn't strike the opponent, it will most likely strike its master... However, it is indeed very effective; it slew a deity as easily as cutting melons and vegetables..."

The Human Emperor First Ancestor asked, puzzled, "I haven't seen you practice my hand seals, yet you've refined them to such perfection. You can even instruct me, the creator of these hand seals?"

Qin Mu stood up, stretched, and chuckled, "I am a Hegemon Body; naturally, I grasp things instantly."

The Human Emperor First Ancestor's face darkened, and he exuded an aura of melancholy.

Qin Mu quickly said, "Although I haven't directly practiced it, I've gone over it thousands of times in my mind. First Ancestor, your hand seals are indeed not bad, but you have too little experience when facing battle formations. I think I can teach you how to charge into battle and break formations at the fastest speed. I learned about breaking formations from my blind grandpa and have been through many wars."

Upon hearing this, the First Ancestor became even more dispirited, muttering, "You teach me..."

He looked dejected and dispirited, like a wilted eggplant.

Qin Mu said, "To break a formation, you must disregard your opponents. The Fire Crow Formation just now looked very powerful, with four thousand eight hundred Fire Crow Deities constantly shifting their positions, attacking from front to back and back to front. If you get caught in the formation, you'll be dazzled and unable to lock onto any single enemy. At this point, you need to treat them as numerical symbols—a total of four thousand eight hundred numbers. As these numbers move and change positions, you'll quickly discern the true nature of the formation."

The First Ancestor's interest was piqued. He recalled the earlier scene, and as the Fire Crow Formation reappeared in his mind, he replaced the Fire Crow Deities with numbers. Sure enough, all the mysteries of the Fire Crow Formation were revealed to him!

In this way, the Fire Crow Formation became predictable!

"However, the Fire Crow Deities' formation changes too quickly," the Human Emperor First Ancestor quickly realized something was wrong and humbly sought guidance. "They have a peculiar telepathic connection among them, making the flaws in their formation disappear in a flash. How, then, should one break the formation?"

Qin Mu patiently guided him, "Which move did I teach you to break the formation?"

"Heaven and Earth Rotate, Heart Remains Unwavering!"

The First Ancestor suddenly understood and chuckled, "Heaven and earth rotate, space becomes disordered, the numbers are scrambled, and the formation is broken. So that's how it is!"

Qin Mu smiled, "Do you understand now?"

"Disciple underst—"

The Human Emperor First Ancestor stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing his mistake. He hastily closed his mouth, his old face flushing with embarrassment as he raised his sleeve to cover it.

Qin Mu's patient and diligent guidance had subtly made him feel as if he had a teacher, causing him to unconsciously want to blurt out, "Disciple understands." Fortunately, he reacted quickly and didn't finish the sentence.

Chixi tidied the ark, recovering the scattered treasures and throwing the Fire Crow Deity corpses overboard. He walked over and said, "Fire Crow Deities possess a unique psychic ability, allowing them to communicate across vast distances. These Fire Crow Deities finding us means the Great Sun Star Lord is not far behind. The Fire Crow Deities we left behind can't catch us, but the Great Sun Star Lord certainly can. We must leave quickly!"

Qin Mu walked onto the deck and looked back. He saw that the Fire Crow Deities, flung away by the Human Emperor First Ancestor, were still relentlessly pursuing them, but this time they couldn't use the sun to accelerate, so the distance between them and the ark grew wider and wider.

"Let's abandon the ship,"

Qin Mu suddenly said, "Fly to a place where the Fire Crow Deities can't see us, then abandon this ship and leave on another, leaving this one to attract the Great Sun Star Lord's attention. Do we have any other ships?"

Chixi shook his head, and the Human Emperor First Ancestor also shook his head.

"Senior Chixi," Qin Mu said, "you clearly knew enemies would be pursuing us, so why didn't you prepare another ship? For example, if I were refining poison, I'd prepare extra, just in case."

Qin Mu shook his head and said, "You're all too immature in your approach."

Ban Gungong hastily pulled out a small booklet, jotted down Qin Mu's words, and thought to himself, "The more I understand him, the easier it will be to deal with him!"

Chixi said, "My Chining Divine Dynasty was destroyed. To have kept even one ship like this is already remarkable."

The Human Emperor First Ancestor pondered, "We cannot abandon the ship; we must fight head-on. Although the Great Sun Star Lord is powerful, we are not pushovers either! Only by severely wounding him will we have a chance to shake him off!"

Chixi hesitated. The Human Emperor First Ancestor's performance just now clearly showed he had no combat experience; he seemed flustered when facing a battle formation's encirclement and was even lectured by Qin Mu.

Of course, Chixi was also not a general and didn't know how to deal with battle formations.

If Qin Mu hadn't experienced battle formations and wasn't proficient in the Human Emperor First Ancestor's cultivation arts and divine arts, then even just the Fire Crow Formation would have probably left them thoroughly defeated.

The Great Sun Star Lord was a famously renowned deity with a long-standing reputation and unfathomable strength. If he caught up, the First Ancestor and Chixi, with their current strength, would likely be unable to resist him.

Ling Yuxiu suddenly exclaimed, "Look at that sun!"

Everyone on the ship quickly looked. They saw that the sun they had flown away from was changing!

The sun underwent a strange transformation: its surface began to collapse inward, forming layer upon layer of complex concentric rings that constantly drew inward. Upon closer inspection, those rings were composed of incredibly intricate runic patterns!

Soon, an incredibly complex formation took shape from the sun's surface to its core. As the circular patterns contracted, it looked like a gigantic eye from a distance!

"The Great Sun Star Lord is here!" Chixi exclaimed, his voice hoarse with extreme nervousness.

The Human Emperor First Ancestor took a deep breath, stood firmly at the stern of the ship, and said in a deep voice, "One-on-one, we might not be powerless! Since it's difficult to escape the Great Sun Star Lord's pursuit, then we might as well severely wound him so he won't dare pursue us!"

Qin Mu watched the constantly changing sun, stunned. Suddenly, he quickly pulled out his Sun Jade Eye, examined it, then looked at the distant sun, and blurted out, "Is the one approaching truly the Great Sun Star Lord?"

"It's definitely the Great Sun Star Lord!"

Chixi threw the Sky Suppressing Pagoda into the air above the ark, entered it, rushed straight to the one thousandth floor, and took down the pagoda's most important treasure. He then said in a deep voice, "No one else possesses the ability to harness the sun's power!"

Qin Mu's mind was somewhat disoriented as he murmured, "But why is the formation structure of the Sun Jade Eye largely identical to the formation structure of this sun...? The Jade Eye is a treasure from the Qu Mountain Divine Temple of the Upper Emperor era, and the Great Sun Star Lord should have existed since the Dragon Han era, right? Why would he be using a formation from the Upper Emperor era...?"

Ling Yuxiu said, "The Great Sun Star Lord lived through the Upper Emperor era; he could have learned the formation divine arts from that time. What's so surprising about that?"

"No, that's not right!"

Qin Mu shook his head and said, "Divine arts depend on foundational principles. Once one's own cultivation method is established, one essentially continues along one's own path. Learning others' divine arts and principles will never lead to true mastery. The Great Master is an example."

Ban Gungong was furious. He shouted, "Qin, can you be more considerate of others' feelings when giving examples? After all, we're in the same boat right now!"

"The Great Master originally cultivated shamanic arts and was a rare grandmaster in shamanic divine arts. His attainments in soul and primordial spirit, even today, are exceptional. However, he became distracted, learning Daoist swordsmanship, Great Thunderclap Temple Buddhist principles, Heavenly Saint Cult cultivation methods, and Little Jade Capital cultivation methods, which made his skills mediocre."

Qin Mu continued his analysis, "If I were the Great Sun Star Lord, I would learn the formations of the Upper Emperor era, but I would modify them to suit myself best. But the Great Sun Star Lord has made almost no modifications, which is illogical. Furthermore, listening to Senior Chixi and the First Ancestor, he is a deity born from the sun. In that case, it's even more impossible for him to learn divine arts from the Upper Emperor era, because he simply wouldn't be able to learn them!"

Ling Yuxiu was puzzled. "Why wouldn't he be able to learn them?" she asked.

"He was born from the sun, so the Grand Dao within him is already fixed," Qin Mu explained. "However, changes in cultivation begin with changing divine arts; changing divine arts leads to changing methods, and changing methods leads to changing the Dao. When the foundational principles and divine arts change, the Grand Dao also changes accordingly."

Qin Mu explained, "If the Grand Dao within the Great Sun Star Lord remains unchanged, he naturally cannot learn modified foundational principles and divine arts. Just like Earth Count; Earth Count is also an innate deity, so he shouldn't be able to learn King Yama's foundational principles and divine arts."

In the distance, the sun's formation had completed. Suddenly, an incredibly thick beam of light broke through the spatial restraints and shone towards the ark!

The beam of light passed through a star, piercing it instantly and leaving a large hole!

This power was many times more potent than that of the Sun Jade Eye!

At the stern, the Human Emperor First Ancestor and Chixi were extremely tense. Qin Mu, however, was pacing back and forth, stroking the vigorous beard on his chin, and mused, "If my conjecture is correct, then there's a possibility that this Great Sun Star Lord might not be the original one, but rather a deity from the Upper Emperor era. If this guess is true, then where did the true Great Sun Star Lord go...? First Ancestor, can you get me a bit of the Great Sun Star Lord's blood so I can study it?"

Chixi said exasperatedly, "It'll be good enough if we can just save our lives!"

The Human Emperor First Ancestor shouted, "Quickly get inside the pagoda and hide!"

Qin Mu ran towards the pagoda. Ling Yuxiu stood at the pagoda entrance. Ban Gungong intended to close the door and lock Qin Mu outside, but Ling Yuxiu grabbed him by the neck with one hand and slammed him heavily onto the ground.

Qin Mu swiftly rushed into the pagoda. Just as he closed the entrance, they heard a tremendous boom, followed by violent tremors that sent the three inside flying high and crashing into things!

At the stern, the Human Emperor First Ancestor drew the sword from his waist, channeled all his magic power, and struck down with a single slash, meeting the beam of light. His Jade Bright Sword instantly swelled, breaking through the incredibly intense divine light, but was immediately burned crimson!

The First Ancestor was continuously forced back by the terrifying power. Chixi activated the pagoda's important treasure, which were six divine swords, and also slashed towards the divine light. Although his own strength was insufficient, the immense power of these six divine swords forcefully elevated his strength significantly.

The two joined forces and finally managed to block the power of the Sun God Eye. The incredibly intense fire and divine light were split in two by them, whizzing past the edges of the ark and leaving two long, incredibly bright trails in the cosmic starry sky.

Just then, the ark suddenly lurched heavily. A deity with a bird's head, human body, two wings, and three legs arrived, riding on divine light, and landed at the stern. It was none other than the Great Sun Star Lord!

Inside the pagoda, Qin Mu shouted, "First Ancestor, remember to get some of his blood!"

"Stop talking!" the First Ancestor snapped exasperatedly.