Chapter 1112: Ling Tianzun’s Manuscripts (Second Update!)
The Western Heaven.
At the Cloud Loft Heavenly Palace, on the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge, a beam of light descended, transforming into a Heavenly Dragon Treasure Chariot on the bridge.
Qin Mu stepped out of the chariot and looked around. The Cloud Loft Heavenly Palace was in a shambles, with collapsed halls everywhere. Even the divine gold and divine materials used in some palaces had been stripped away, leaving only broken walls and ruins.
It looked as if it had been ransacked. Everything of value had been looted clean, not a single tile remaining.
Now, only a few elderly divine beings remained to guard the place, their hair white, their faces gaunt, their clothes tattered. From a distance, they spotted Qin Mu’s carriage and craned their necks to peek, but dared not approach.
Yan’er flew over, and those divine beings immediately turned and ran. But in the next moment, Yan’er caught them and slammed them to the ground.
“Spare us, great god!” The divine beings kowtowed frantically.
Qin Mu frowned slightly and asked, “Why has the Cloud Loft Heavenly Palace become like this?”
“Great god, you may not know, but after the incident with the previous Cloud Loft Emperor, the Heavenly Court never sent a new Cloud Loft Emperor to guard this place. Bandits from the Three Pillar Heavens and the Nine Provinces ran rampant, attacking the Cloud Loft Heavenly Palace and looting it countless times.”
One divine being, his clothes in tatters, wept as he spoke: “Originally, many brothers were stationed here, but they were all captured and made slaves. Only we old, weak, and disabled ones remain. A couple of days ago, another group of bandits came to loot again. When they couldn’t find anything valuable, they bled us old brothers, drawing out all our divine blood, saying they would use it to refine treasures…”
Qin Mu was stunned. “Why didn’t you report this to the Heavenly Court?”
“We dared not.”
The old divine beings wailed: “Those demon kings said that if we dared report to the Heavenly Court, they would kill us and make us into wine dishes!”
Qin Mu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Standing atop the Cloud Loft Heavenly Palace, he looked around. The palace was situated between the First, Second, and Third Pillar Heavens of the Western Heaven and the Nine Provinces, at a very high vantage point, offering a panoramic view of the Nine Provinces and the Three Pillar Heavens.
The so-called First Pillar and Second Pillar referred to the Pillar Heavens.
The Pillar Heavens were worlds shaped like pillars. Qin Mu could see from afar that three Pillar Heavens floated above the Nine Provinces, clusters of stars gathered together, forming heavenly pillar worlds made of stars.
The Nine Provinces of the Western Heaven were: Southeast Shen Province, called Chen Earth; South Ang Province, called Shen Earth; Southwest Rong Province, called Tao Earth; West Yan Province, called Kai Earth; Central Ji Province, called Bai Earth; Northwest Zhu Province, called Fei Earth; North Xuan Province, called Cheng Earth; Northeast Xian Province, called Yin Earth; East Yang Province, called Xin Earth.
Each of these nine provinces had its own ancient god, and the Three Pillar Heavens also housed ancient gods, known as the Three Pillar Gods.
The Cloud Loft Heavenly Palace was built between the Three Pillar Heavens and the Nine Provinces.
In the middle to late Dragon Han Era, the Heavenly Court ascended, leaving the Primordial Realm. The Dragon Han split apart, and the Zhou Tian Star Lords and the Four Ancient Emperor Gods each left the Primordial Realm and the Heavenly Court, migrating to various parts of the universe.
Among them, the Four Extremities Heavens were where the Four Ancient Emperor Gods resided, while the Western Heaven, Eastern Heaven, Southern Heaven, and Northern Heaven were ruled by the White Emperor, Azure Emperor, Red Emperor, and Black Emperor.
These four emperors were called the Four Color Emperors, distinguished by the colors in their titles. Unlike the Four Ancient Emperor Gods, they were cultivated from post-natal beings or demigods.
The Four Color Emperors held immense power, each commanding four great heavenly palaces. The Cloud Loft Heavenly Palace was one of the four great palaces of the Western Heaven, a vassal under the White Emperor.
From the Dragon Han Era to the present, wars had been constant, and the Four Color Emperors had been replaced one after another. Whenever one died in battle, the Heavenly Emperor would promote a Throne-level powerhouse to take their place.
—The only one who had never been replaced was the Black Emperor Yin Chaojin, also known as the Yin Heavenly Emperor, who held the Black Emperor’s position steadily, ruling the Northern Heaven and establishing the Nether Capital.
The area guarded by the Cloud Loft Heavenly Palace was part of the Western Heaven, along with three other great heavenly domains, collectively called the Western Heaven.
“Senior Brother holding down twelve ancient gods all by himself is truly remarkable,” Qin Mu said.
He looked down at the Nine Provinces world. The nine provinces were connected, and within them lived many demigod races and post-natal beings. Qin Mu gazed into the distance and saw murderous energy filling the sky, blood light shooting up. In the Nine Provinces world, chaos reigned, with wars erupting everywhere!
From this height, he could see the terrifying fluctuations caused by divine abilities, mushroom clouds rising slowly, accompanied by intense divine light.
“The Nine Provinces world and the Three Pillar Heavens both have ancient gods guarding them. Why is it still so chaotic?” Qin Mu asked.
A white-haired divine being shook his head. “The twelve ancient gods guarding this place don’t concern themselves with worldly affairs. Why would they care? When the villains below start fighting, they offer blood sacrifices to the ancient gods, and then the gods descend and slaughter everyone.”
Qin Mu frowned. “What about the Cloud Loft Emperor’s disciples?”
“After the Cloud Loft Emperor was captured, they fled. They’re probably down in the lower realms causing trouble as demons and monsters. I suspect they were among those who looted the Cloud Loft Palace.”
An old divine being said, “A few days ago, people from the Heavenly Court also came, looking for them. When they didn’t find them here, they went down to the lower realms to search and haven’t returned yet.”
Qin Mu waved his hand, dismissing them. Yan’er, unable to bear it, gave these divine beings some spirit pills to fill their stomachs.
The divine beings thanked her profusely and ate quickly, tears streaming down their faces. “It’s been so long since we’ve tasted such delicious food. For the past few years, we’ve been surviving on tree bark and leaves from the palace. Not long ago, those damned bandits came up and carried away the divine trees too. Now we don’t even have bark to gnaw on…”
Speaking of their sorrow, the old divine beings hugged each other and wept bitterly.
Qin Mu took out Wei Suifeng’s geographical map and compared it with the layout of the Cloud Loft Palace. He found the spot marked on the map, but it was nothing but rubble, empty.
Qin Mu frowned slightly and raised his hand, sweeping the rubble into the air. The debris reassembled into a great hall in midair and slowly descended.
Qin Mu walked into the hall and looked around. On the ceiling of the hall was a fragmented star map.
He stood beneath the star map and examined it closely. The star map was incomplete, making it hard to discern what the complete star map looked like.
Qin Mu pondered for a moment, then his primordial energy surged, transforming into stars to fill in the missing parts of the star map.
He had some understanding of Wei Suifeng’s Heavenly Dipper Dao Technique, which also originated from the Great Cultivation Demon Sutra. Therefore, it wasn’t difficult for him to complete the star map.
Once the star map was restored, an object fell from it—a potted plant.
Qin Mu reached out and caught the pot. The pot was rectangular, containing a miniature landscape with artificial mountains and trees, surrounded by water. Beside the central artificial mountain was a small, gnarled pine tree. Under the pine tree was a small house with a courtyard.
The small house had three rooms on each side and three main halls, complete with doors and windows. Through the windows, light could be seen, and on the tables and chairs were stacks of papers, along with a pot of tea. Steam still rose from the teacup.
“Ling Tianzun’s manuscripts!”
Qin Mu’s heart burned with excitement. This potted plant wasn’t really a plant. Wei Suifeng had used spatial divine abilities to shrink Ling Tianzun’s former residence and fit it into the pot!
Ling Tianzun’s former residence was very simple. After her death, all her manuscripts were taken by the Heavenly Court, and even her residence was moved away.
Later, the residence was stolen, and the thief was Wei Suifeng!
“Finally, I’ve found Ling Tianzun’s manuscripts!”
Qin Mu’s heart pounded wildly. He looked into the other rooms and saw mountains of manuscripts inside. Clearly, Ling Tianzun had expended immense effort in her research on the Dao of Creation and the Immutable Divine Ability.
“With these manuscripts, I can comprehend Ling Tianzun’s Immutable Divine Ability and Creation Divine Ability. Even better, I can use the Immutable Divine Ability to reverse-engineer the Dao runes of the Primordial Egg, thereby cracking the Immutable Divine Ability!”
—Zhai Zhu has gone to study at Lu Xun Academy. This is an auto-update~