Chapter 997: Identity Exposed
“The altar is the Creator’s altar, but the strange thing is, why would the Creator visualize an egg? The Ancient God Heavenly Emperor was hatched from an egg, yet the Creator should have directly visualized a living being into existence. There’s no reason to first visualize an egg, then hatch the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor from it…”
Qin Mu pondered, a sense of unease creeping in.
The birth of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor was shrouded in an inexplicable strangeness. Judging from the birthplace of the Heavenly Emperor, the egg must have existed first. Then, the Creator race, having somehow obtained this egg from somewhere and sensed life within it, built an altar.
They performed sacrifices day and night. The immense power of their rituals surged into the egg, causing the life within to be born.
However, the birth of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor also led to the decline and fall of the Creator race, eventually causing their extinction. They were even forced to carve out another void and retreat into the Great Void.
Many mysteries remained unsolved in this speculation. Where did the egg come from?
How could such a powerful being as the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor be born from an egg?
What was the purpose of the Creator race gathering so many of their people to incubate the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor?
Qin Mu vaguely felt that this replica of the Heavenly Emperor’s body couldn’t withstand the pressure much longer. He had no choice but to retreat, easing the strain.
“That cracked eggshell should be very useful. I wonder if I can take it away?”
His eyes flickered. He tried to mobilize the power within the Heavenly Emperor’s body, attempting to retrieve the eggshell that had split in two.
However, even though the Heavenly Emperor’s body possessed power surpassing the Imperial Throne, the mana surging from this body was still crushed by the purple haze of the Great Dao emanating from the birthplace.
Qin Mu frowned. The eggshell was right there, yet the Ten Heavenly Lords of the Heavenly Court hadn’t taken it away for so many years. This showed just how difficult it would be to retrieve it.
Although he could mobilize the power of this body, the body itself couldn’t resist the pressure of the birthplace and couldn’t reach that altar.
“If I had the true body of the Heavenly Emperor, I could take the eggshell. But the true body is trapped within Ling Tianzun’s divine ability. Come to think of it, back when the true body of the Heavenly Emperor was still around, the Ten Heavenly Lords didn’t take the eggshell either. Could it be they were afraid it would fall into someone else’s hands?”
Since the death of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor, the Heavenly Alliance was no longer a unified entity. Internal factions among the various powers checked each other. So it wasn’t hard to understand why they couldn’t take the eggshell even when they controlled the Heavenly Emperor.
“All divine abilities and techniques in the world are useless here. Even the supreme domain of divine consciousness can’t withstand the pressure of the birthplace. But there is one divine ability that can deal with the purple haze of the Great Dao here!”
Qin Mu’s eyes flickered. He took out Ling Tianzun’s peachwood hairpin.
Only Ling Tianzun’s divine ability of the Immutability of Matter could freeze the purple haze and smoke of the Great Dao here.
He controlled the Heavenly Emperor’s body, mobilizing the power within it to activate the peachwood hairpin. With a gentle wave, the streams of colorful light flowing toward the eggshell in front of him froze completely, motionless!
Qin Mu was overjoyed. He stepped forward, walking toward the purple light. But as soon as his foot touched the purple light, he immediately felt a stinging pain from the Heavenly Emperor’s body.
This body, upon contact with those colorful lights and smoke, couldn’t resist them at all. It was eroded, leaving many wounds.
Qin Mu frowned. At this moment, he needed to use the power within the Heavenly Emperor’s body to maintain the Immutability of Matter divine ability. There was no other power left to spare.
“Can my own primal energy and divine consciousness reach the altar?”
With this thought, he surged his own primal energy and divine consciousness outward, a vast torrent rushing straight toward the altar.
The altar didn’t look far away, but the actual distance was immense. Moreover, the altar was far larger than it appeared, and the eggshell split in two was unimaginably huge!
Qin Mu’s primal energy and divine consciousness merged, becoming extremely agile. They finally reached the altar, attempting to lift the eggshell.
But the half of the eggshell that still contained the egg white was so heavy that it couldn’t be budged in the slightest.
He turned to drag the other half of the eggshell. This one shook slightly.
Qin Mu’s heart leaped with joy. He channeled his primal energy and divine consciousness, straining with all his might, and slowly moved this half of the eggshell, inch by inch, to the edge of the altar.
The eggshell fell from the altar, landing on the frozen purple light as if floating on water. Qin Mu’s heart pounded wildly as he pulled the eggshell closer.
The closer the eggshell got, the more he felt its immense size. When it was right in front of him, the height of this half of the eggshell surpassed that of the Heavenly Emperor’s body. He had to look up at it!
Qin Mu was astonished. Without taking time to examine the runic marks on the eggshell, he struggled to send this half into the Qin Continent.
Boom—
A violent tremor echoed through the Qin Continent. The eggshell fell from the sky but didn’t land completely. Instead, it inverted itself in the sky of the Qin Continent, covering nearly half of the land!
Qin Mu immediately felt his third eye’s vision blur. He could only see countless flickering runes, unable to see anything outside.
This was because his third eye was peculiar. It used the Qin Continent, formed from the Earth Lord’s horn, as its iris, and the Primal Chaos Origin Stone as its pupil. The Heavenly Emperor’s eggshell, falling down, happened to cover his pupil.
“I have no other treasure to store this behemoth, so I can only put it in the Qin Continent. But having my vision blocked by the eggshell isn’t good.”
Qin Mu had an idea: “There’s nothing on the back side of the Qin Continent. I wonder if I can move this eggshell there?”
He didn’t act immediately. Instead, he withdrew the peachwood hairpin and slowly retreated. Only when the Heavenly Emperor’s body could withstand the pressure of this place did he stop.
He channeled the power within the Heavenly Emperor into his third eye, shifting the eggshell and sending this massive half to the back of the Qin Continent, inverting it over the center.
At this moment, the eggshell seemed to transform into the vitreous body of his third eye’s eyeball. Light from outside entered through the Primal Chaos Origin Stone at the center of the Qin Continent, illuminating the inner wall of the eggshell. Countless runic marks on the inner wall were lit up.
Then, something miraculous happened. Qin Mu immediately felt that when he used this eye to look around, everything was vastly different.
He could see the microscopic structure of anything, even the microscopic structure of the purple haze!
The composition of the Great Dao’s colorful lights and smoke, even the subtle nuances of his own divine consciousness, were all reflected with crystal clarity in his third eye!
He looked down at the Heavenly Emperor’s body. The structure of this body, which he couldn’t see before, was now clearly reflected in his pupil!
He could even see every mathematical structure within this replica, including the mysteries of the Creation Technique!
He looked toward the altar in the purple light. His gaze could pierce through the light, seeing the altar clearly!
“This eggshell is incredibly useful. If I could get the other half too…”
Qin Mu shook his head. From the current situation, he didn’t have the strength to drag the other half.
“Time is short. After all, I’m borrowing this Heavenly Emperor’s body. Although the Ten Heavenly Lords are suspicious of each other, they will surely soon discover that the Heavenly Emperor’s body has disappeared. I can’t linger here too long.”
Qin Mu immediately controlled the Heavenly Emperor’s body to close its glabella, hiding himself deep within it. He then turned the body around and walked toward the Eastern Palace Crown Prince.
The Heavenly Court was filled with the eyes and ears of the Ten Heavenly Lords. From discovering the disappearance of the Heavenly Emperor’s body to finding its whereabouts, it wouldn’t take them long.
He still planned to use this body to visit the Zaofu Palace and the Pixiang Hall. He had to move before the Ten Heavenly Lords noticed.
The Eastern Palace Crown Prince’s eyelids twitched as he watched his “Imperial Father” approach. Qin Mu came to his side. The Crown Prince lowered his head, his lips moving slightly before he finally uttered the word: “Imperial Father.”
Qin Mu stopped, looking at him with a faint, ambiguous smile. Suddenly, he spoke: “You’ve noticed?”
The Eastern Palace Crown Prince was terrified, every hair on his body standing on end. He barely restrained himself from bursting forth with all his power to flee!
“It doesn’t matter that you’ve noticed.”
Qin Mu said calmly, “I am one of the Ten Heavenly Lords. I don’t care about you, the Eastern Palace Crown Prince. To be honest, your father, the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor, has been dead for a long time. You sensed my coldness toward you for forty thousand years. Can’t you figure out the reason now?”
His voice turned icy: “Your father has been dead for forty thousand years!”
The Eastern Palace Crown Prince fell to his knees with a thud, his hands supporting him on streaks of purple haze. His palms were soaked in blood, eroded by the light.
His body trembled. He wanted to rise up, to use all his strength to kill the Heavenly Lord before him and avenge the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor. But he knew the gap in power. He was no match for a Heavenly Lord!
His reason told him that he absolutely couldn’t move now. He had to endure. Endurance was the only path to survival!
Qin Mu looked down at him coldly. After a moment, he said, “Forty thousand years ago, your father died at the hands of us Ten Heavenly Lords. We created this body to control the Heavenly Court.”
The Eastern Palace Crown Prince’s voice was hoarse: “Why…”
“Why?”
Qin Mu laughed heartily. “For this seat! For this immense power! Crown Prince, if you behave yourself and stay in your role as Crown Prince, you may live. If you start making trouble, your death is not far off.”
The Eastern Palace Crown Prince was silent, his body no longer trembling.
Qin Mu waved his hand dismissively, saying indifferently, “I have no evidence against you right now. Deposing and replacing a crown prince is troublesome, so I’ll spare your life. You may leave. Conduct yourself well.”
The Eastern Palace Crown Prince slowly stood up, tears glistening in his eyes. He lowered his head and walked out silently.
“Stop.” Qin Mu called him back.
The Eastern Palace Crown Prince’s body stiffened as he stood there silently.
“Don’t think about betraying us, giving us Ten Heavenly Lords a reason to depose you. Understand?” Qin Mu’s voice came from behind.
The Eastern Palace Crown Prince nodded silently.
“Go.” Qin Mu said.
The Eastern Palace Crown Prince left, tears streaming down his face.
Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself: “If the Eastern Palace Crown Prince had actually attacked, with his Imperial Throne-level strength, even if I could control this body, I probably couldn’t withstand it. This body is too large, difficult to maneuver. Fighting a peak Imperial Throne powerhouse would be tough…”
His spirits lifted as he walked out: “First, go to the Pixiang Hall to see if I can retrieve Yu Tianzun’s remnant soul. Then, head to the Zaofu Palace to see what that Creation Divine Artifact really is, capable of creating so many Blue Fatsoes…”
He had just stepped out of this forbidden zone when, suddenly, a woman approached from ahead. She wore cloud-climbing boots, a red-and-white off-shoulder dress, her hair piled high in a bun, her chest half-exposed. It was Qiang Tianfei, one of the Ten Heavenly Lords!
Qin Mu blinked, thinking to himself, “Oh no!”
“Why does Your Majesty have the leisure to come here?” Qiang Tianfei’s beautiful eyes roamed, looking around before she chuckled.
Qin Mu laughed heartily, “My beloved consort, this is my ancestral land. Why have you come running here?”
Qiang Tianfei said with a smile, “Your Majesty hasn’t visited the harem for many days. Today, you suddenly arrived. Your servant naturally rejoiced and awaited Your Majesty. But I didn’t expect Your Majesty to not come see me, instead coming here.”
Qin Mu’s skin crawled. The thought that this Qiang Tianfei might be a soul incarnation of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor made him intensely uncomfortable.