Chapter 1159: Blackwood Rings (First Update)
The ancient god egg and the Primordial Beginning egg within the Azure Sky Canopy had already been exposed to many external worldly affairs. Since these two eggs had been unearthed quite early, Qin Mu keenly sensed that the two ancient god eggs were no longer pure.
The ancient god egg in the Azure Sky Canopy was one that granted all wishes, a treasure unearthed by the Nüxin clan. It had endured the catastrophe of the Creators' downfall, fell into the hands of the Northern Emperor Xuanwu, and was refined by Xuanwu into the Azure Sky Canopy.
As for the Primordial Beginning egg, it was unknown which branch of the Creators had unearthed it, but it later fell into the hands of the Heavenly Emperor Taichu.
Because the Heavenly Emperor Taichu was imperfect at birth, he feared the existence of a perfectly born oviparous ancient god. Therefore, he sealed the Primordial Beginning egg and hid it within the Zhaoyang Hall.
After being unearthed, they had experienced the treachery of the human heart. The Heavenly Emperor Taichu, himself an oviparous ancient god, could still become a brutal ruler. Qin Mu felt that the ancient gods within these two eggs might not be as detached as the two ancient gods in the Taiji vein, nor as transcendent as the ancient god in the Chaos vein.
Ever since the two ancient god eggs began communicating with each other, they had always avoided him, clearly harboring some scheme.
"Before long, I will be able to decipher the Dao language of the Primordial Beginning egg. By then, from the language of their communication, I can decipher the Dao language of the ancient god egg in the Azure Sky Canopy. Once both Dao languages are cracked, I will know what they are discussing."
Qin Mu strode out of the mine, temporarily setting aside the matter of how to handle the two ancient god eggs. He quickly descended the mountain, summoned Dragon Qilin and Yan'er, and said, "We are leaving this place."
Dragon Qilin and Yan'er were surprised and asked, "Master (Young Master), this is such a treasure land! Why would you abandon it?"
Qin Mu glanced at the Void Beast beside him and smiled, "Heavenly treasures and earthly riches are for the blessed to obtain and the virtuous to possess. My fortune and virtue are insufficient; if I forcibly occupy this place, I will surely suffer for it."
Dragon Qilin and Yan'er were greatly puzzled. Qin Mu had always been one to clean a place out thoroughly; why would he enter a mountain of treasures and return empty-handed?
Moreover, this was the supreme five great veins of the Ancestral Court. These five veins contained five different powers, even representing five different cultivation systems, directions, and paths!
The Creator race alone, relying solely on Taichu Divine Stones, had developed the ability of divine consciousness creation, ruling the universe for billions of years during the ancient era, even enslaving ancient gods!
If mere Taichu Divine Stones were already this formidable, the other divine stones were certainly no less. If they could seize one of these precious mines, the future would hold even more possibilities.
However, since Qin Mu wanted to leave, they could only follow him.
"What a pity, the few acres of farmland I just planted..."
Dragon Qilin looked regretfully at the fields he had cultivated, thinking to himself, "Though the heavens and earth are vast, they cannot accommodate a few acres of good farmland."
They once again entered the Black Sand Desert, heading outward. Ahead, black sand filled the sky, and the wind and sand were extremely fierce. They had no choice but to raise the Azure Sky Canopy.
Qin Mu casually glanced behind him and was stunned.
He saw that the Black Sand Desert they had traversed had transformed into a vast starry sky, with countless stars forming a galaxy. The surging black sand was actually the stars themselves, moving like a tide.
He withdrew his gaze and looked ahead. The desert stretched to the horizon, pitch black, making it impossible to see one's hand in front of one's face.
"Truly a strange place, capable of giving birth to such gods and demons."
He took out a Taiji Divine Stone and infused his primordial energy into it. Suddenly, the primordial energy split into two, transforming into Yin and Yang Qi.
Qin Mu was startled. The Yin and Yang Qi produced by the primordial energy passing through the divine stone was even more powerful than the energy input, and it possessed far more variations, seemingly capable of evolving all things in heaven and earth.
"This Taiji Divine Stone also contains a path of cultivation, similar to the Taichu Divine Stone and the Creators. If the Taiji Divine Eggs were to be unearthed, then the eight people who master the eight Taiji Primeval Stones would become eight Grand Emperors. And the two ancient gods within the eggs might well become another Heavenly Emperor Taichu."
He put away the Taiji Divine Stone, turned around, and waved towards the Taiji vein.
Five oviparous ancient gods, two of whom had already been born. When would the ancient gods within the Taiji Divine Eggs be born? And what changes would they bring to the world if they were?
"I forgot to ask them whether the Void Beast was artificially created. Was it created by that already-born oviparous ancient god? And what was the purpose of creating the Void Beast?"
Qin Mu frowned slightly. After the Heavenly Emperor Taichu defeated the Creators and the Grand Emperor, he united with almost all the powerful figures of the time to seal the Ancestral Court, with the purpose of sealing the Void Beast here.
Furthermore, Palace Lord Gongjun, also known as Heavenly Venerate Gong, though a Creator, also believed that the Void Beast should be sealed here and must never be released.
Clearly, even the Creators believed that the being who created the Void Beast harbored ill intentions.
What story lay behind all this?
Was the Heavenly Emperor Taichu's sealing of the Ancestral Court an attempt to seal away that born oviparous ancient god as well?
They traveled north for over ten days before finally seeing the blackwood that the two ancient gods in the Taiji vein had mentioned. Qin Mu looked up, his heart shaken. If those two ancient gods hadn't said it was a blackwood tree, he would never have recognized its true form.
Ahead, countless black mountains stood like forests, their peaks jutting out abruptly, rugged and imposing. From a distance, it looked like a hundred thousand great mountains, their peaks arrayed in a scattered pattern, forming a circular mountain range, ring upon interlocking ring. It was impossible to tell that this was actually the stump of a tree!
This was indeed the stump left by an extremely ancient tree. The mountain range formed a ring structure, which was actually the growth rings of this blackwood!
However, the hundred thousand great mountains were arranged in layer upon layer of rings, yet they didn't seem to have many rings.
Qin Mu flew into the sky and counted. The mountains here only formed sixteen circular rings. If judged by a tree's growth rings, this blackwood should only be sixteen years old.
"A sixteen-year-old tree, growing this big?" He couldn't help but laugh and shook his head.
"That pair of ancient gods said this place is second only to the five great ancient god veins. Then my territory will be established here!"
Qin Mu drove the Void Beast to fly over the pitch-black mountain range, heading straight for the core of the blackwood. At the center of the hundred thousand great mountains stood a large black peak, a perilous summit standing tall, but its top was extremely flat.
Qin Mu took out the Azure Sky Canopy and, with a *dong* sound, thrust it into the center of this perilous peak. He shouted in a low voice, "Rise!"
*Whoosh!*
The layers of canopies of the Azure Sky Canopy slowly unfurled, and one layer of heavens after another expanded outward, quickly covering the circle after circle of black mountains, enveloping all sixteen rings within the twenty-eight layers of heavens.
After securing his territory, he immediately opened his vertical brow eye, visualized creation, and conjured a palace.
Just then, Dragon Qilin's voice came, calling out, "Master, this large black peak also has growth rings!"
Qin Mu's heart stirred, and he walked over. He saw Little Tuba lying on the ground, counting the rings of this large black peak one by one. He had already counted to several thousand.
"This... they really are growth rings!"
Qin Mu was astonished. Little Tuba had already counted to three thousand, but had only moved a couple of steps.
The entire large black peak was hundreds of miles long and wide; who knew how long it would take to finish counting!
Qin Mu's heart shook violently. He stared blankly at the grain of this large black peak, his mind roaring: "This blackwood is only sixteen years old. What was used to measure its years? How long is one year for this tree?"
Dragon Qilin, meanwhile, paced out the length of the large black peak, calculated the average number of rings per step, and then multiplied it by the number of steps. He laughed, "Master, if this large black peak is a tree, it should be thirty billion years old!"