Chapter 1066: The Vanished Reverse Side
Among the ten Heavenly Venerables of the Heavenly Court, few knew that the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell had fallen into Qin Mu's hands. After all, on the day the eggshell was stolen, Qin Mu had managed to deceive almost all the Heavenly Venerables, except for Yan Heavenly Venerable.
The ten Heavenly Venerables did not know who had stolen the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell, but they were quite familiar with the abilities of Yan Heavenly Venerable's white cat. The white cat had seen the person disguised as the Heavenly Emperor who stole the eggshell, and the cat had the ability to discern who that person was within the Heavenly Emperor's physical body.
They only needed to monitor this white cat, and they could follow the vine to find the melon, tracking down the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell.
In other words, Xiao Heavenly Venerable and the others were not actually monitoring Qin Mu, but rather monitoring Yan Heavenly Venerable's white cat.
The white cat came to find Qin Mu, seemingly in secret, visiting under the cover of night. However, he had long since fallen under the watch of Xiao Heavenly Venerable and the others. When the white cat hurriedly departed, it naturally triggered a conflict among the Heavenly Venerables.
On the Heavenly Dragon Carriage, Qin Mu looked at the battle in the sky, furrowed his brow, and said in a low voice, "I should have handed the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell to the white cat. Only the real Heavenly Emperor's eggshell could make the ten Heavenly Venerables completely tear off their masks. After they fight over it and discover that the white cat doesn't have the eggshell, they'll suspect me again. They'll still return to a state of balance."
Lang Wan Divine King smiled and said, "Holy Child, thinking like that is a mistake."
Qin Mu humbly sought advice: "Divine King Sister, what do you think?"
"In this battle for the cat, whether the white cat lives or dies, the conflict among the Heavenly Venerables cannot be pacified."
Lang Wan Divine King said, "When information is transparent, they will suspect you. But when information is opaque, they will suspect each other. Right now, the white cat has changed hands several times, with four Heavenly Venerables snatching it back and forth. During this process, anyone could have gotten their hands on the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell. As a result, none of them actually obtained the eggshell, but they will suspect that another Heavenly Venerable took it. This is information chaos."
Qin Mu blinked.
"With information chaos, everyone gets only partial information, creating a situation where you suspect me, and I suspect you."
Lang Wan Divine King said unhurriedly, "Although Yan Heavenly Venerable's white cat is a master at the Lingxiao realm, he absolutely cannot see through the Holy Child's divine consciousness creations. He believes he has obtained that treasure. When he is captured by other Heavenly Venerables, the Holy Child's divine consciousness creation will vanish into nothing, and he will only think it was taken by another Heavenly Venerable. Even if he survives, he too will be trapped in information chaos. The Holy Child, on the other hand, can extricate himself and watch the conflict from the sidelines."
Qin Mu fell into thought as the Heavenly Dragon Carriage sped into the distance.
"Besides the four Heavenly Venerables, other Heavenly Venerables will join this struggle, making the information even more chaotic. As for who ends up with the Heavenly Emperor's eggshell, it no longer matters."
Lang Wan Divine King looked out the window and said, "The fifth Heavenly Venerable has made a move. After this battle, the rift among the Heavenly Venerables is irreparable."
Darkness spread across the sky; it should be Xu Heavenly Venerable making his move.
Then, the figure of the sixth Heavenly Venerable appeared, joining the battle for the cat.
One Heavenly Venerable snatched the white cat, hugged the feline, and fled, disappearing beyond the heavens. The other Heavenly Venerables vanished one after another, presumably chasing after that one.
This battle marked the official tearing off of masks among the Heavenly Venerables!
Qin Mu withdrew his gaze and asked, "Divine King Sister, is the Yuan Realm the ancestral court you seek?"
Lang Wan Divine King also looked away and shook her head. "No. Yuan Du is the birthplace of Earth Mother Yuan Jun, not the ancestral court of our Creator race. In the ancient memories of the Creator race, the ancestral court was far richer than Yuan Du, with abundant resources and every kind of heavenly treasure. However, the Creator race has suffered many calamities, and not much information has been passed down."
Qin Mu pondered for a moment and said, "Could it be on the reverse side of the Yuan Realm? No one has ever been to the reverse side of the Yuan Realm. It should be vast, no smaller than the Yuan Realm itself."
Lang Wan Divine King asked, "Has the Holy Child been to the reverse side of the Yuan Realm?"
Qin Mu shook his head and smiled. "The farthest place I've been in the Yuan Realm is the Guixu. I have no idea what lies on the reverse side. The Heavenly Dragon Carriage is very fast; why not go there and take a look?"
Lang Wan Divine King nodded in agreement.
Qin Mu immediately ordered the six heavenly dragons to pull the carriage straight toward the Eastern Sea.
The carriage moved like wind and lightning, its speed unparalleled, leaving a bright streak across the sky. After more than ten days of racing, Qin Mu looked ahead and saw the sea still stretching endlessly, making him anxious.
The Heavenly Dragon Carriage was faster than him; traveling this long would have taken him half a year on foot. Yet, he still hadn't reached the edge of the Yuan Realm. However, he did see many fragmented continents in the sea.
"We're almost at the Guixu," Qin Mu thought to himself.
The carriage continued forward, passing the Guixu, and raced for another ten-plus days. Qin Mu looked into the distance and saw a stretch of land appearing ahead, continuous and surrounding the ocean. The land was mostly steep divine mountains.
"Could this be the edge of the Yuan Realm?"
Qin Mu was delighted and ordered the Heavenly Dragon Carriage to fly over these divine mountains. The mountains were covered in white snow, freezing and lifeless. After crossing the endless snowy peaks, Qin Mu looked down and saw the vast Western Lands appear before his eyes.
Qin Mu was stunned. He turned back and saw that the ocean of the Yuan Realm was a flat plane, not a sphere. Yet, crossing the sea had brought them directly to the Western Lands!
This was almost impossible!
He had once flown beyond the heavens of the Yuan Realm with Bai Qiu'er. From outside, the Yuan Realm was essentially a flat plane, not a planet.
So why, when they sailed eastward, did they not reach the edge of the Yuan Realm but instead arrive at the Western Lands?
"The reverse side of the Yuan Realm seems to have been hidden!"
Qin Mu grew excited. "To hide the reverse side of the Yuan Realm, one would need to fold space, and fold every boundary of the Yuan Realm! The difficulty is no less than folding the entire Yuan Realm and sealing it! Only the ten Heavenly Venerables or the ancient god Heavenly Emperor at his peak would have the power to do this! So, what are they trying to hide by sealing the reverse side of the Yuan Realm?"
Lang Wan Divine King watched him curiously as Qin Mu stepped out of the carriage, hovered above the snowy mountains, and tried to probe for any seals using his magnetic divine ability.
After a moment, Qin Mu dispelled the magnetic divine ability and shook his head. "No traces of a seal... Open!"
His vertical eye on his forehead opened, scanning the surroundings, examining the void. After another moment, his vertical eye closed. Even his mysterious third eye could not detect any spatial seal here.
"Soul Departure!"
Qin Mu's primordial spirit flew out, plunged deep into the earth, and kept descending.
Since he couldn't see any seal, he would use his primordial spirit to go deep underground, perhaps finding the reverse side of the Yuan Realm!
After a long time, Qin Mu's primordial spirit suddenly flew out from underground, looking around in confusion.
Lang Wan Divine King asked, "Holy Child, what did you find?"
Qin Mu withdrew his primordial spirit, his expression strange. "I just went deep underground and saw some races living in underground spaces, surviving by the light of magma. I kept descending, flying for who knows how many miles, and felt I was about to reach the reverse side of the Yuan Realm. But when I broke through the surface, I found myself back where I started. This Yuan Realm..."
His expression grew even stranger. "The Yuan Realm has no reverse side!"
Lang Wan Divine King was also taken aback. She untied the willow leaf on her brow, and her divine consciousness erupted, diving deep into the earth. After a moment, her divine consciousness flew back from the depths.
Her divine consciousness also felt it was about to pierce through the Yuan Realm's earth, but when it emerged, it returned to the front side of the Yuan Realm!
If this was a spatial seal, it surpassed the understanding of both of them!
Such a seal would require folding and sealing all the space of the entire Yuan Realm, creating a world with only a front side and no reverse side!
"Maybe from beyond the heavens, we can see the reverse side of the Yuan Realm..."
Qin Mu thought this, but then hesitated. He and Bai Qiu'er had once flown out of the Yuan Realm and roamed outside, yet they never discovered a reverse side.
When they flew to where the reverse side should be, they actually saw the front side. At the time, they were so engrossed in each other that they didn't notice this oddity.
Now, recalling it, it felt strange and sent a chill down his spine!
"Holy Child, have you ever been to the reverse side of the Heavenly Court?" Lang Wan Divine King suddenly asked.
Qin Mu was stunned and shook his head blankly.
Come to think of it, it was indeed strange. The Heavenly Court also seemed to have no reverse side!
Not only that, but even the Youdu, the land beneath Earth Lord's feet where the Jade Lock Pass stood, seemed to have no known reverse side!
The Heavenly Court, the Youdu, and the Yuan Realm—none of them had a reverse side!
"Does the ancestral court have a reverse side?" Qin Mu suddenly asked.
Lang Wan Divine King shook her head. "I have no impression of that. Among the Creators, I am relatively young, born in the Tai Xu, which you call the era before the Long Han era. However, Shu Jun Divine King is extremely ancient; he might know."
Qin Mu sighed and ordered the six heavenly dragons to pull the carriage to the nearest Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge. "Let's go to the Four Extremities Heavens first. Maybe we can find traces of the ancestral court."
Lang Wan Divine King nodded.
The Heavenly Dragon Carriage arrived at the nearest Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge. Qin Mu used it to return to the Heavenly Court, then took another bridge to the Eastern Extremity Heaven of the East Emperor Azure Dragon. However, before that, he drove the carriage to the South Heaven Gate, circled around to the bottom of the Heavenly River, and tried to find the reverse side of the Heavenly Court.
But what met his eyes was still the South Heaven Gate. The Heavenly Court simply had no reverse side!
"Just as I thought. The Tianyin Realm probably has no reverse side either. Strange, where did the vanished side of these worlds go?"
Qin Mu was greatly puzzled but had to set aside this doubt. He ordered the Heavenly Dragon Carriage to enter the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge leading to the Eastern Extremity Heaven.
In the light of the transfer bridge, the carriage sped toward the Eastern Extremity Heaven. Qin Mu was still pondering this question. He had never thought about it before, but now the more he thought, the stranger it seemed.
After who knows how long, the Heavenly Dragon Carriage gave a slight jolt and finally arrived at the Eastern Extremity Heaven, driving out from the altar. The six heavenly dragons were very excited and transformed into dragon-headed humanoid deities.
Qin Mu hesitated for a moment, then ordered Dragon Qilin and Yan'er to untie the harnesses. He invited the six dragon gods onto the carriage and said, "Yan'er, tie up Fatty Dragon and have him pull the carriage to the Azure Dragon Heavenly Palace."
Dragon Qilin complained bitterly, but Yan'er tied him up anyway, and he had to pull the carriage forward.
Qin Mu looked at the scenery outside the carriage. The Eastern Extremity Heaven was unique, with stars composed of countless thunderbolts hanging in the sky, extremely bright and dazzling.
Moreover, lightning bolts thousands of miles long hung in the sky, yet they made no sound, creating a very serene atmosphere. The land of the Eastern Extremity Heaven was filled with dragon-shaped creatures, like a dragon clan's habitat, presumably descendants of the East Emperor Azure Dragon.
From time to time, one could see giant dragons lying prostrate among the towering mountains, thousands of miles long, sleeping soundly, their snores like thunder.
Many small dragons climbed onto the giant dragons, playing and roughhousing. Some breathed fire, some sprayed water, and others rode lightning bolts to strike their companions.
Many small dragons also climbed onto the giant dragons' whiskers. When the dragons breathed, the whiskers were blown up by the violent airflow, and the small dragons on the whiskers shook violently in the gusts, very excited.
Some small dragons were blown away, landing with bruised noses and swollen faces, sitting on the ground and wailing loudly.
When the giant dragons were awakened, they would open their huge eyes and yawn. The small dragons would hurriedly scurry down and hide everywhere.
The giant dragons were quite gentle, using their whiskers to curl up the crying small dragons, coaxing them for a while before falling back into a deep sleep.
Dragon Qilin pulled the Heavenly Dragon Carriage, and its speed slowed considerably. Fortunately, the Azure Dragon Heavenly Palace was vast and not too far from here; it would only take a few days to reach it.
However, the Heavenly Dragon Carriage was still stopped by some dragon gods, who said that descendants of the divine dragon should not serve as charioteers for humans.
These dragon gods were quite displeased, so Qin Mu had Dragon Qilin stop.
"I'll pull the carriage!" Yan'er said excitedly.
Qin Mu shook his head, thinking to himself, "You are the daughter of the East Emperor Azure Dragon. If you pull the carriage, the East Emperor will probably want to kill me!"