Chapter 1179: The Medicine Master's Celestial Palace (First Update)
Shu Jun was also dumbfounded.
In the history of the Creators, the Void Beasts had always been the mount of choice for the warriors among the Creators. Owning a Void Beast would instantly elevate one's status within the tribe.
Of course, Shu Jun did not have a Void Beast. It wasn't that he lacked strength; on the contrary, in his previous life, he was the most powerful Creator of that era, revered as the Divine King!
Although Void Beasts were formidable, the Void Mother Beast was under the control of the Imperial Emperor. Shu Jun had not subdued a Void Beast; instead, he had tamed another extremely powerful giant beast called Taipu.
Taipu had even greater combat power, almost on par with the Void Mother Beast, but it lacked the Void Beast's ability to vanish into the void unpredictably.
Later, during the upheaval in the Ancestral Court, the ancient beasts here went extinct, and Shu Jun's Taipu beast died alongside him in the Blood Rust Zone.
"Now that we have the Void Mother Beast, we can control the Void Beasts to attack and harass the territories of other Heavenly Honored Ones. If they covet our territory, we'll strike where they must defend!"
Qin Mu laughed heartily. "Pi, you've done exceptionally well!"
Dragon Qilin was very smug.
Qin Mu's mind began to race as he calculated. "We can also strike first. First Ancestor, Second Ancestor, I'll take you to block the gates of the various Heavenly Honored Ones' territories!"
The First Ancestor, the Human Sovereign, smiled and said, "Mu'er, you're already this grown, and you're the Mu Heavenly Honored One. Doing things like blocking gates doesn't require us to follow along."
Qin Mu shook his head. "It's me taking you to block gates. Blocking gates requires powerful experts to hold the line. I'll take you to blockade the mining areas of the various Heavenly Honored Ones and see the divine abilities of the Heavenly Court's experts."
The successive generations of Human Sovereigns clenched their fists, their expressions dark.
The Yishan Human Sovereign sneered coldly, "If I weren't no match for you, I'd beat you so badly even Su Muzhe wouldn't recognize you!"
The other Human Sovereigns nodded in agreement, and the First Ancestor also nodded repeatedly.
Qin Mu laughed heartily. "Then it's settled. I'll handle some matters here first, and then I'll take you to meet them."
He led the Medicine Master to the lush vegetation of the Great Black Peak and probed, "Medicine Master Grandpa, are the plants here medicinal herbs?"
The Medicine Master bent down and carefully examined a flower. His expression grew increasingly strange. After a long while, he straightened up, took out a silver needle, and cautiously pricked the tender green leaves.
The flower suddenly *shua*—dove into the ground and fled.
The Medicine Master frowned in thought, then took out a spirit pill and carefully placed it in front of the small hole left by the fleeing divine herb. After a moment, the herb cautiously extended a leaf, tested the surroundings, and finding no danger, grew back out, using its roots to roll the spirit pill into the ground.
"The medicinal herbs here are all rare varieties. I've never seen them outside."
The Medicine Master looked around and said in a deep voice, "As for their medicinal properties and effects, I need to examine them in detail... Hmm, strange..."
He approached another medicinal herb. This one was so potent it had almost become tangible, its medicinal power manifesting as Dao patterns, forming visions of various runes.
The Medicine Master's heart shook violently. He meticulously examined the structure of each segment of medicinal power. After a long time, he exhaled a turbid breath and murmured, "My Dao... is about to be complete..."
Tears streamed down his face, while Qin Mu was ecstatic, looking up at the sky and muttering, "My Dao... is also about to be complete..."
The Medicine Master kicked him flying, furious. "All you do every day is leech off others! If you put in more effort yourself, you'd have achieved it long ago!"
Qin Mu rubbed his backside and said matter-of-factly, "I'm busy with far more things every day, running around, comprehending various divine abilities and Dao techniques. When do I have time to study medicine? Of course, I leech off you!"
Seeing him talk back, the Medicine Master wished he could shove a handful of poison down his throat.
Qin Mu quickly left and saw Dragon Qilin and Yan'er settling the arrivals from Yan Kang. After they were settled, Qin Mu called them over and carefully inquired about the old man with no fixed appearance or gender.
After a long while, Qin Mu's eyes flickered. "He seems to know everything? He even knew I taught you the Three Walls Upper Knowledge Great Luo Supreme Divine Awareness, and he knew about the Void Mother Beast's birth... Before this, the Ancestral Court had always been sealed, only unsealed when we arrived, but not completely. So this mysterious old man can only be a divine being born from that enigmatic chaotic mineral vein."
Yan'er said, "These days, he's been carrying a bucket of water, repairing the divine mountains that were cracked by the tremors. Those mountains are terrifying!"
"This is the Dao of Material Substitution."
Qin Mu said calmly, "The total matter and total energy of the universe are eternally constant. The process of the universe's destruction is the transformation of matter into energy; the process of the universe's birth is the transformation of energy into matter. Although those terrifying creatures come from a past universe that has already been destroyed, they must still follow this principle. With this Great Black Tree, a connecting channel between the past and the future has been established."
He paced back and forth, deep in thought. "They use the Void Beasts to steal a portion of matter from our universe to fill their past universe. Then, when our matter decreases and theirs increases, they can use that to swap over and come to our world."
"In other words, in the previous universe—right next to the roots of this Great Black Tree—they performed a reverse summoning, stealing our matter. That's why you saw the mountains of Void Beast corpses quickly lose their blood, then their muscles, and even their bones disappear within a few days."
Qin Mu looked into the distance and clenched his fist heavily. "That ancient god handled it poorly. He sealed off the mountains of the Great Black Tree, but our universe is still missing a portion of matter, and that past universe still has an excess. They will come again sooner or later!"
"Sealing the Great Black Mountain is just treating the symptoms, not the root cause!"
"Well said!"
Just as Qin Mu finished speaking, a voice chimed in, praising, "The Mu Heavenly Honored One speaks truly well. Worthy of being the Mu Heavenly Honored One."
Qin Mu followed the sound and saw a scholar-like figure standing behind them, holding a folding fan, elegant and handsome, but with a hint of femininity.
Qin Mu looked at Dragon Qilin and Yan'er. They quickly shook their heads and whispered, "Every time he comes, his gender, appearance, and race are uncertain. We don't know if it's him either."
Qin Mu bowed in greeting. "May I ask how to address you, Daoist Brother?"
The scholar tapped his fan on his hand and returned the bow. "In later ages, I am called Taiyi. The Mu Heavenly Honored One is still holding the eggshell from my birth!"
Qin Mu's face flushed slightly. "Seeing a treasure, I couldn't help but be tempted. Does Daoist Brother intend to reclaim it?"
The scholar Taiyi shook his head. "It's useless to me now."
Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief; he hadn't planned on returning it to Taiyi anyway.
The scholar Taiyi said, "Mu Heavenly Honored One, we have actually met before."
Qin Mu was astonished. "May I ask where?"
"One million years ago, I transformed into a great Kun and carried the Mu Heavenly Honored One, the Qin Heavenly Honored One, and others as we roamed the Longhan Heavenly Court."
The scholar Taiyi opened his folding fan and smiled. "Six hundred thousand years ago, when the Heavenly Court split, the Great Sun Star Lord released his Howling Heaven Dogs to search for the Gong Heavenly Honored One. I was one of those Howling Heaven Dogs, running right past you. When the Heavenly River fell, I was a mortal fleeing for his life beneath the Mu Heavenly Honored One's feet."