Chapter 1115: The Unique Me (First Update!)
Boom—
One celestial palace after another collapsed, and the Hall of Lingxiao behind Jing Baichuan crumbled as well. Jing Baichuan reached out his hand, as if trying to stop the collapse of his hard-cultivated celestial palaces, but his body fell along with the destruction.
In the end, all the celestial palaces vanished, dissolving into the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, leaving only Jing Baichuan’s corpse lying in the ruins of the Cloud Gauze Palace.
Qin Mu walked forward, helping Yu Chudu, who had fallen in the dust, to his feet. He said in a deep voice, “Yan’er, leave no survivors. Don’t let their souls remain either. I don’t want the Heavenly Lord Hao to trace this back to me.”
At his command, Yan’er grew excited. Her body shifted, transforming into a Dragon Sparrow, and she pounced toward the four experts at the Jade Capital realm. The Dragon Qilin leaped onto the tower ship, charging at the gods and demons aboard.
Yu Chudu gasped for breath, unable to stand, so he sat on the ground and bowed to Qin Mu. “Thank you, Senior Mu Tianzun…”
Qin Mu smiled. “Just call me Uncle-Master.”
“Uncle-Master…” Yu Chudu was startled and uncertain.
Qin Mu smiled faintly and was about to speak when suddenly a woman’s voice came from behind him. It was extremely pleasant but carried a melancholic tone. “Mu Tianzun, you killed the disciple of the Heavenly Lord Hao. Aren’t you afraid of death?”
“Then why didn’t you, Heavenly Teacher, stop me?”
Qin Mu turned around and looked at Bai Yuqiong, who stood not far away. He smiled. “Que Feiyin, long time no see. That jade pendant is still hanging on your primordial spirit, isn’t it?”
Bai Yuqiong was dressed in white, unlike her past life’s preference for red robes. Her figure was graceful and enchanting, like mutton-fat jade, her skin as tender as fine gemstone.
Her expression was complex as she met Qin Mu’s gaze. She raised her hand, then lowered it again, her heart tangled with indecision.
“Mu Tianzun, I am the Third Heavenly Teacher of the Heavenly Court. By rights, I should arrest you, but you are also my lifesaver. Without that jade pendant of yours, I might still be an ignorant girl, killed over and over by the Heavenly Lord of Darkness.”
Bai Yuqiong sighed, her breath like orchid fragrance. “I distinguish between kindness and enmity. This time, I won’t pursue it. I’ll pretend it never happened. I can even cover for you before the Heavenly Lord Hao. Mu Tianzun, let us part ways here…”
She turned to leave, but Qin Mu laughed. “Que Feiyin, do you still remember your master?”
Bai Yuqiong’s body trembled slightly, and she stopped in her tracks.
Qin Mu continued, “Don’t you want to know the mystery of your origins? Don’t you want to know why the Heavenly Lord of Darkness killed you time and again, only to let you reincarnate? That Vermilion Bird feather—hasn’t it reminded you of something?”
Bai Yuqiong took out the Vermilion Bird feather, staring blankly at the Vermilion Bird sacred flame.
Qin Mu’s vertical eye on his forehead opened. Deep within his pupil, the ancient great dao runes on the Primordial Egg of the Heavenly Emperor Tai Chu lit up, converging into a line of sight. The Qin Continent trembled, and the great dao of the Netherworld stirred up ripples, surging toward the Primordial Stone at the continent’s center.
The Primordial Stone merged the Primordial Dao and the Netherworld Dao, gradually elevating the power of the Third Divine Eye.
With his vertical eye, Qin Mu looked at Bai Yuqiong and immediately saw the legendary life of this female emperor.
From Bai Yuqiong’s birth, to her becoming a divine ability user, then a deity, her repeated escapes from death, avoiding the schemes of the Heavenly Lord of Darkness, to her rise to fame in the Kaicheng Era and her plot against the Heavenly Lord of Darkness.
Qin Mu’s gaze deepened, seeing her past life, her life before that, tracing back her deaths time and again.
Bai Yuqiong stood there. Suddenly, she tossed aside the Vermilion Bird feather in her hand, turned, and smiled. “Mu Tianzun, I don’t want to know. I am me—the unique me! In this world, there is only one Bai Yuqiong!”
Her hair swept through the air, severing Qin Mu’s line of sight, and she turned and left, free and graceful.
When Bai Yuqiong reached the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge, she looked back with a smile. “Mu Tianzun, I am not the Southern Emperor! If you try to make me the Southern Emperor, you will be my enemy!”
She pressed her palm onto the altar of the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge and stepped into the light. “Mu Tianzun, the Heavenly Lord Hao has lost his disciple, and the White Emperor has lost his beloved general. They will surely come to investigate. I’ll buy you some time. You should leave now.”
Her figure vanished, and the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge collapsed with a roar!
“What a clever woman, a clever woman…”
Qin Mu looked at the collapsed altar and murmured, “Should I awaken her, make her the Southern Emperor Vermilion Bird, or not awaken her, letting her remain as Bai Yuqiong?”
He picked up the Vermilion Bird feather and examined it for a long time.
Behind him, Yan’er had killed the four Jade Capital realm experts and immediately helped the Dragon Qilin slaughter the gods and demons under the White Emperor’s command on the tower ship.
Qin Mu looked at the Vermilion Bird feather, thinking to himself, “Awakening the Southern Emperor’s soul would be equivalent to killing Bai Yuqiong, but isn’t Bai Yuqiong the Southern Emperor? Even if I awaken the Southern Emperor Vermilion Bird, Bai Yuqiong’s memories won’t disappear; they’ll just become part of the Southern Emperor’s long years of memories…”
Yan’er flew over, chattering, “Young master, it’s done! Where’s my mother?”
Qin Mu handed the Vermilion Bird feather to her and said, “Yan’er, your mother doesn’t want to become the Southern Emperor. She’s too clever. She guessed from my words that she is the reincarnation of the Southern Emperor, but she feels it’s better to be Bai Yuqiong, or Que Feiyin. She thinks that if she awakens the Southern Emperor’s memories, it will mean the death of Bai Yuqiong or Que Feiyin.”
Yan’er was a bit confused, murmuring, “But Bai Yuqiong, Que Feiyin, and the Southern Emperor Vermilion Bird—aren’t they all her?”
Qin Mu put away the Heavenly Dragon Chariot and treated Yu Chudu’s broken bones, saying, “Bai Yuqiong has already destroyed the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge. She’s not only delaying the Heavenly Lord Hao or the White Emperor from arriving here, but she also doesn’t want us to return to the Heavenly Court. She’s even more worried that I might make her die again to revive the Southern Emperor’s soul.”
Yan’er was still confused, murmuring, “But that’s still herself…”
Qin Mu couldn’t help but think of himself and Qin Fengqing. His experience was very similar to Bai Yuqiong’s.
Back then, Qin Mu had always believed that he was himself, unique and one of a kind. But in the end, he was merely the second consciousness born from Qin Fengqing’s physical body.
He was just an accidental consciousness. Not only was his body not his own, but his soul wasn’t either.
All he had was his consciousness.
Later, Qin Mu gouged out his eyes and was reborn. Only after that did he have his own soul.
How similar was Bai Yuqiong’s experience to his? In fact, Bai Yuqiong had it worse—she had reincarnated nearly two hundred times, always struggling to survive, forcing herself to become smarter.
For her to accept that she wasn’t herself, but merely the reincarnated soul of the Southern Emperor—that was naturally very hard for her to do.
“Nephew Yu Chudu, can you walk now?” Qin Mu finished treating him and asked with a smile.
Yu Chudu stood up, moved around a bit, and found that his physical injuries had healed, though his primordial spirit’s wounds hadn’t mended. Qin Mu’s Creation Art could heal the body, but it was less effective for primordial spirit injuries.
“I can walk. Uncle-Master…”
Yu Chudu hesitated, studying Qin Mu, and said, “I’ve never heard my master mention having an uncle-master…”
“You have two uncle-masters. I’ll tell you about it slowly later.”
Qin Mu flicked his finger, and the few old gods guarding the Cloud Gauze Palace fell into a deep sleep. He also altered their memories, erasing any recollection of seeing Qin Mu and the others. He smiled. “Let’s go. The Heavenly Dragon Chariot can’t be used. If we ride it, it will leave traces, and if someone sees it, the Heavenly Lord Hao will know it was me who got rid of his disciple. Nephew Yu, do you know a shortcut to leave here and quickly return to the Heavenly Court?”
“Yes, Uncle-Master. The nearest route is from the Central Divine Province among the Nine Provinces, at the White Earth of Ji Province. There’s a Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge there that leads to the White Emperor’s Celestial Palace. If we go through the starry sky, it would take fifty or sixty years to reach the Heavenly Court.”