Chapter 1051: The Subverter of Realms
Among his fifteen celestial palaces, the one ranked first was the Main Celestial Palace, transformed from the Great Dao contained within the Spiritual Fetus Divine Treasury.
Ranked second was the Great Luo Divine Sense Celestial Palace, followed by the Sword Celestial Palace, Dragon Celestial Palace, Demon Celestial Palace, Creation Celestial Palace, Martial Celestial Palace, and Painting Celestial Palace.
These eight celestial palaces were complete.
The other seven celestial palaces—the Blade Celestial Palace, Medicine Celestial Palace, Divine Ability Celestial Palace, Forging Celestial Palace, Buddha Celestial Palace, Thief Celestial Palace, and Formation Celestial Palace—were incomplete.
This time, Qin Mu attempted to have his primordial spirit break through the Southern Heavenly Gate of the eight complete celestial palaces. Doing so would mean stepping into the True God realm, albeit an incomplete one.
Once Butcher and Master Ma and the others achieved some accomplishment in their cultivation and comprehended techniques that directly led to the Throne of the Emperor, Qin Mu could directly learn their techniques from them and perfect the remaining seven celestial palaces.
His Overlord Body Three-Dan Art could now be considered a Small Heavenly Court technique, still some distance away from the Great Heavenly Court technique of eighteen celestial palaces.
Qin Mu activated the Overlord Body Three-Dan Art. His primordial spirit stood before the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Main Celestial Palace. Suddenly, his primordial spirit split, dividing into sixteen, with sixteen primordial spirits appearing in the sixteen celestial palaces.
This was the Primordial Spirit Division technique from the Three Primordial Spirit Indestructible Divine Sense.
The Red Emperor's Three Primordial Spirit Indestructible Divine Sense, after Qin Mu's improvements, had been integrated into the Overlord Body Three-Dan Art. This differed from others who cultivated Heavenly Court techniques, such as Lady Mu Mu and Empress Dowager. Their Great Heavenly Court techniques used primordial spirit projections, projecting the primordial spirit into each celestial palace—not the true primordial spirit.
Qin Mu, using primordial spirit division, employed the true primordial spirit.
Qin Mu's sixteen primordial spirits advanced side by side, all stepping into the Southern Heavenly Gate together.
An invisible pressure descended. The pressure of the Southern Heavenly Gate was peculiar, coming from all directions. Every inch of the primordial spirit's skin surface bore immense pressure, and moreover, every corner within the primordial spirit's body also endured pressure from all sides.
In the past, Qin Mu hadn't understood where this pressure came from, but now he knew it was Dao pressure.
The Celestial Palace realm imitated the structure of the Heavenly Court. The Southern Heavenly Gate was the Heavenly Court's Southern Heavenly Gate, which was transformed from the Great Dao of the Ancient Gods.
It could be said that every divine being who entered the divine realm had their Southern Heavenly Gate as a projection of the Heavenly Court's Southern Heavenly Gate. Entering the gate and withstanding the Dao pressure to walk into the celestial palace was what qualified one as a True God.
However, Qin Mu's celestial palaces contained Southern Heavenly Gates transformed from acquired Great Dao. The pressures brought by the four celestial palaces—Sword Celestial Palace, Creation Celestial Palace, Martial Celestial Palace, and Painting Celestial Palace—were each different, unlike the pressure of the traditional celestial palace's Southern Heavenly Gate.
The Southern Heavenly Gate of the Sword Celestial Palace seemed to have countless flying swords piercing his primordial spirit from all directions within his body, destroying his primordial spirit's Sword Dao, forcing him to activate his Sword Dao to resist.
He felt as if he were facing the Sword Emperor, the Opening Emperor. His primordial spirit involuntarily executed various sword techniques, contending with the invisible Opening Emperor.
In the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Painting Celestial Palace, he felt as if he had stepped into countless bizarre painting worlds. Every step forward was like passing through myriad worlds, experiencing all kinds of trials.
His primordial spirit used Dao as a brush and Yuan Qi and divine sense as ink, painting strange and grotesque worlds within the Southern Heavenly Gate, as if contending with the Deaf Painter, this Painting Saint, using the Painting Dao to resist the Painting Dao.
In the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Creation Celestial Palace, he felt as if he had encountered the two great masters, the Red Emperor and the Bright Emperor, contending in the Way of Creation with the most majestic Creation Emperor!
In the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Martial Celestial Palace, he felt as if he were contending with the most powerful Martial Emperor, as if facing the Martial Combat Heavenly Teacher himself!
Qin Mu's eight primordial spirits simultaneously stepped forward. The pressure of the Southern Heavenly Gate grew stronger and stronger, causing his primordial spirits to gradually shrink.
He made a prompt decision, mobilizing his physical body's functions, integrating spirit and flesh, to resist this pressure and advance with difficulty.
Resisting the traditional Southern Heavenly Gate was the simplest, but resisting the celestial palaces formed from acquired Great Dao was the most difficult.
This was because the Ancient God Dao had been thoroughly studied, while acquired Great Dao was just beginning.
His main primordial spirit, the Great Luo Divine Sense primordial spirit, the Dragon primordial spirit, and the Demon primordial spirit each safely passed through the Southern Heavenly Gate. However, the Sword primordial spirit, Martial primordial spirit, Painting primordial spirit, and Creation primordial spirit were still trapped within the Southern Heavenly Gate.
The treasure carriage traveled deep into the starry sky. Unknowingly, they arrived at the Heavenly River. Dragon Qilin controlled the direction of the treasure carriage, while Yan'er diligently tried to digest the Ancient God she had devoured.
"At this speed, it will probably take about half a year to reach the location the Sect Leader mentioned."
Dragon Qilin looked ahead. He saw that the current course of the Heavenly River was very different from the later ages. He saw a Milky Way falling from the high and distant places of the universe, then flowing to the four poles of the universe.
Countless stars revolved around this Milky Way. Presumably, the waters of the Heavenly River flowed out from the Mystic Capital, and at the top of that Milky Way should be the Mystic Capital.
The direction of the Dragon Treasure Carriage was precisely below the Milky Way.
Inside the carriage, the space was vast. Qin Mu was cultivating and had no time to pay attention to others. Da Hong and Gu Xiao were trying to pry information out of Luo Xiao, but no matter how eloquently they spoke, Luo Xiao never revealed where the Tai Xu was.
Time passed leisurely. One day, the Dragon Treasure Carriage finally arrived below the Milky Way. It stopped advancing forward and instead went deeper into the place where the Milky Way fell.
At this moment, Qin Mu finally broke through the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Sword Celestial Palace. Not long after, he broke through the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Martial Celestial Palace and the Creation Celestial Palace, leaving only the Painting Celestial Palace unbroken.
"Sect Leader, the destination is almost here!" Dragon Qilin's voice came.
Qin Mu opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid air. The Painting primordial spirit withdrew from the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Painting Celestial Palace, not persisting any further.
His Painting Dao was still far inferior to that of the Deaf Painter. Even if he persisted, he wasn't fully confident he could break through this Southern Heavenly Gate and become a True God of the Painting Dao.
"Three elder brothers, the Ancestral Court is almost here. Let's go out," Qin Mu said to Da Hong and the others.
Da Hong, Gu Xiao, and Luo Xiao stepped forward, each looking at Qin Mu with expressions of surprise.
The Qin Mu now was vastly different from the Qin Mu of several months ago. The aura he exuded carried a peculiar Dao resonance. Standing there, he seemed isolated from the world.
This feeling was as if Qin Mu contained a universe within him, isolated from the external universe. Within his internal universe, he had his own Heavenly Dao, his own cosmic epochs.
"His cultivation path is definitely different from other cultivators and gods!" Gu Xiao and Da Hong thought to themselves.
Qin Mu's cultivation path was unique.
Before the Dragon Han era, there was no such thing as realms. In the long period from the extinction of the Creator race to the establishment of the Heavenly Court in the early Dragon Han years, it was the process of the demigod races' rise.
During this time, people did not cultivate; their strength was determined by bloodline.
Whoever had the stronger bloodline and better lineage had the higher strength.
During this period, the children of the Ancient Gods ruled the various races of the world. Demigods like Lang Xuan Divine Sovereign and Ancestral God King were the leaders among them.
Around the beginning of the Dragon Han era, the Seven Heavenly Venerates created the seven realms of the Divine Treasury. The Imperial Heavenly Venerate died, and Qin Mu improvised, comprehending the Longevity Method for becoming a god. Together with the Heavenly Venerate Hao, he taught the seven realms of the Celestial Palace and the Heavenly Court realm to the world.
From then on, the concept of realms came into being.
Therefore, it was not an exaggeration to say that Qin Mu, along with the other Heavenly Venerates, had created the realms.
Many people in later ages never considered this point. Recklessly using realms to measure Qin Mu would only lead to wrong conclusions about his cultivation and strength. Not a few gods and demons had died at his hands because of this.
For the people of the early Dragon Han era, the Divine Treasury and Celestial Palace cultivation system established by Qin Mu and the Seven Heavenly Venerates had not yet taken root in people's hearts. The demigods and other races of this era cultivated the Divine Treasury and Celestial Palace system more to achieve immortality like the Ancient Gods.
Demigods cultivated the Divine Treasury and Celestial Palace only for immortality; bloodline determined strength.
However, in the long years that followed, more and more people would discover the power of the Divine Treasury and Celestial Palace system, gradually marginalizing the theory of bloodline.
Bloodline no longer represented strength. This was a subversion of the demigods and Ancient Gods, which was why the changes of the Dragon Han era were called the Dragon Han Revolution.
It was a revolution against the lives of demigods and Ancient Gods.
In the even longer years that followed, the Divine Treasury and Celestial Palace system became deeply ingrained, so deeply rooted that people no longer questioned or pondered why this system made people so powerful.
However, for Qin Mu and others born a million years later—pioneers of the Yan Kang Reform like Jiang Bai Gui, Yan Feng Emperor, Xu Sheng Hua, Wang Mu Ran, and Lin Xuan—they had already begun to doubt this truth.
Thus, the Heavenly River Divine Treasury was born, subverting the Divine Bridge Divine Treasury.
Qin Mu was the greatest subverter of the Divine Treasury system and the Celestial Palace system in this reform.
After the Yan Kang Calamity, he had no soul or spirit, relying on divine sense to keep his life hanging by a thread, temporarily avoiding death. So he created the Calamity Sword, which with one slash cleared away his own celestial palaces and seven divine treasuries, then reopened his Spiritual Fetus, regaining his soul and spirit.
He used a single Spiritual Fetus Divine Treasury to evolve the cosmos and epochs, to evolve the myriad Ancient Gods, completely surpassing the Divine Treasury cultivation system. He had already walked a path completely different from the predecessors and sages.
Simply using realms had become very difficult to measure his achievements.
The Divine Treasury and Celestial Palace realms familiar to the world were created by him and the Seven Heavenly Venerates, but they were also broken by him.
After he reopened the Spiritual Fetus Divine Treasury, his cultivation could already rival True Gods and even gods of the Jade Pool realm!
He could even completely abandon the Celestial Palace and Heavenly Court system, seeking his own path to advance continuously, all the way to an indescribably wonderful realm!
However, for the sake of rapid growth, he still abandoned this path and returned to the Celestial Palace and Heavenly Court system.
But after undergoing that transformation, he also became very different from the cultivators and gods of the Divine Treasury and Celestial Palace system.
For him, from beginning to end, he had only one realm: the Spiritual Fetus realm.
Because his celestial palaces or heavenly court were not above the Spiritual Fetus Divine Treasury, but within the Spiritual Fetus Divine Treasury!
The Celestial Palace realm and the Heavenly Court realm were merely two minor realms within his Spiritual Fetus realm!
The seven realms within the Celestial Palace realm were minor realms within minor realms!
This was the greatest difference between him and other cultivators and gods.
All his realms, including the Celestial Palace and even the Heavenly Court realm, were a single whole, unified within the Spiritual Fetus realm.
Others were students who followed step by step, while he, after the Yan Kang Calamity, had already transcended the realms he had created.
Realms were frameworks created by pioneers to teach mediocre people how to cultivate. As a pioneer, he tried to break free from the shackles of realms.
Of course, Qin Mu still needed the wisdom of people over a million years, and even the wisdom of the reformers, to go further.
This was also the reason he did not abandon the Celestial Palace and Heavenly Court system.
He needed the wisdom of these people to help him grow.
Only in this way could he cultivate to a level capable of contending with the Ten Heavenly Venerates in the shortest possible time.
From this perspective, he was not a complete subverter.
Complete subversion was revolution; without complete subversion, only patching up and repairing, it was reform.
The Dragon Han era was a revolution, subverting the former theory of bloodline determinism, making cultivation the mainstream.
The Chi Ming era was a revolution, subverting the advantage of demigods over humans, allowing humans to be as powerful as gods.
The Shang Huang era was a revolution, subverting human reverence for gods, proposing the concept that human life is greater than heaven, and putting it into practice.
The Kai Huang era was a reform, continuing the results of the Shang Huang era. If the Kai Huang era had achieved the branding of acquired Great Dao into the void, and the Kai Huang Emperor, Martial Combat Heavenly Teacher, and others had become a new generation of Ancient Gods, then it would have been a revolution rather than a reform.
Yan Kang did not subvert the previous generations but improved and perfected the Divine Treasury and Celestial Palace systems. This was also why the Yan Kang Reform could not be called the Yan Kang Revolution.
The efforts of humans and gods across five eras, generation after generation using their lives and blood, made the Divine Treasury and Celestial Palace system perfect, advancing people's concepts step by step.
Qin Mu was an anomaly in this revolution and reform that spanned a million years.
Qin Mu stepped out of the treasure carriage and looked ahead. There was only a stretch of void, no stars, no nebulae, no light, nothing at all, like a dark region in the starry sky!
"The Ancestral Court is here." His heart surged with emotion.
Gu Xiao looked at him and said in a low voice, "Brother Mu, are you a Creator?"
Qin Mu shook his head.
"Then, don't release the demon," Gu Xiao said softly, looking at that stretch of void.
Qin Mu was startled. Luo Xiao, excited, came to the front of the carriage. His divine sense visualized, and a stretch of void opened behind him. An altar flew out from the void.
"Whether this is the Ancestral Court or not, we can verify it!" he said loudly.
"How do we verify?" Qin Mu asked.
Luo Xiao could barely contain his excitement: "Summon a Void Beast!"