Chapter 1194: Plucking Phoenix Feathers (Fourth Update)
The dragon scales on Dragon Earl King’s body had been stripped bare, even his reverse scales were completely plucked clean, leaving no more scales to pull. Qin Mu had also yanked out quite a few of his dragon whiskers before finally stopping.
“Only a thread away from success!”
Qin Mu was overjoyed and waved at Feng Qiuyun, laughing, “Sister Qiuyun, I need to borrow a few things from you!”
Feng Qiuyun’s face turned ashen. She steeled herself and stepped forward, gritting her teeth as she plucked a phoenix feather, saying, “These phoenix feathers of mine have been tempered a thousand times. Each one is an extraordinary treasure; if taken out, they’d make the people of the Primordial Realm fight to the death over them!”
Dragon Earl King fumed, “The dragon scales on us Dragon Earls are a hundred times more precious than your phoenix feathers. We’ve all been stripped clean, and you still want to keep your plumage?”
Feng Qiuyun ignored him and handed the phoenix feather to Qin Mu.
Qin Mu comforted her, “We’re almost there, really almost there.”
Feng Qiuyun said, “You said the same thing when you plucked the scales off the third Dragon Earl.”
Qin Mu chuckled, “This time is different. This time we’re really close to success.”
Boom—
Wei Suifeng flicked his sleeve, and a multicolored sun appeared in the sky. Feng Qiuyun looked up at this rainbow-hued sun, her expression bitter.
Her phoenix feathers gradually grew sparse. Before she knew it, half of them had been plucked and handed over to Qin Mu for his experiments. Yet it was still the same as before—Qin Mu’s initial tests always went smoothly, but he always failed at the final critical moment, causing the phoenix feather’s mass-energy to reverse and explode on the spot.
Every time his experiment failed, Qin Mu would sink into deep thought, and the time he spent pondering grew longer and longer.
Unnoticed, another half month passed. Even Wei Suifeng had been worn down by him until he had no temper left, a feeling of despair rising in his heart, though he forced himself to hold on.
As the renowned Cloud Luo Emperor, he had weathered great storms and witnessed the rise and fall of countless heroes. He knew well that what destroyed a person was not external factors, but the collapse of their own Dao heart.
How many heroes had seen their Dao hearts shatter from repeated defeats, never to recover?
Though he understood this principle, when faced with it himself, he couldn’t help but feel some despair.
“But Junior Brother seems to have kept his original intention all along. Logically, each failure should hit him the hardest, yet he acts like nothing’s wrong… No, it’s more like he’s heartless and carefree, as if setbacks don’t affect him at all!”
He was both puzzled and filled with admiration for Qin Mu: “Indomitable spirit—this is probably why he’s honored as Mu Tianzun, and why I fall short of him.”
Suddenly, Qin Mu spoke calmly, “It’s done.”
Everyone grew excited and quickly looked toward his hand. There, in Qin Mu’s grasp, was indeed a complete phoenix feather!
Qin Mu gently shook the feather, and seven-colored light flowed, the feather gleaming with dazzling divine radiance, carrying its own divine power.
Qin Mu seemed utterly unexcited, but the light within his body gradually brightened, though he quickly suppressed it.
“Everyone, don’t get worked up.”
Qin Mu advised the group, saying, “Be careful of explosions. Sister Qiuyun, I need to run a few more tests to stabilize the success rate.”
Feng Qiuyun gritted her teeth, reached up, and plucked another dozen or so phoenix feathers, asking urgently, “Is that enough?”
Qin Mu looked troubled, saying, “Just for tests with the Taiji Divine Stone, it should be enough. Even if there are failures, the chance is not too high. But I also need to test with the Taiji Primal Stone. The power of the Taiji Primal Stone is immeasurably greater than the Taiji Divine Stone, so…”
Feng Qiuyun’s expression went blank. She savagely yanked off a hundred or so phoenix feathers, thrust them all into his hands, turned, and walked away, saying flatly, “I’ll go find some clothes to cover myself. Call me when your experiments succeed.”
Qin Mu nodded and carefully put away the phoenix feathers.
Wei Suifeng whispered, “Junior Brother, can’t you use something other than phoenix feathers? What about plucking hairs from our heads? Hair should work for experiments too.”
“Ah! I forgot!” Qin Mu exclaimed in surprise.
In the distance, Feng Qiuyun stumbled and fell flat on her face, then scrambled back up and walked away without looking back.
Qin Mu ran over a dozen more tests with the Taiji Divine Stone, finally stabilizing the success rate. Then he took out the Taiji Primal Stone and continued his attempts with it.
The principles of Yin-Yang evolution contained within the Taiji Primal Stone were far more complex and harder to comprehend. Qin Mu endured dozens more failures. After each failure, he would summarize and contemplate the way of Taiji evolving into Yin and Yang.
Though he hadn’t succeeded yet, his understanding of the Dao of Taiji had grown much deeper, and his insights more profound.
“It’s a pity I can’t enter the Dao through dreams and use the dream world to deduce the Dao of Taiji. Otherwise, fully comprehending the principles hidden in this Taiji Primal Stone wouldn’t take much time.”
Qin Mu sighed inwardly. The Taiji Primal Stone contained many profound and unfathomable truths, not just simple mass-energy conversion. It also included the evolution of the Great Dao, deep and mysterious, not something he could crack in a short time.
However, using the Taiji Primal Stone to transform mass and energy, he was already eighty to ninety percent confident. Now it was just a matter of stabilizing the success rate.
Using the Taichu Divine Stone to transform everyone’s energy bodies into living beings, he was already fully confident. But the Taiji Divine Stone could only restore everyone’s physical bodies and divine power, not their Dao techniques.
The Taiji Primal Stone was different.
Using the Taiji Primal Stone for transformation could restore everyone to their most perfect state, even stronger and more perfect than before!
Of course, those who had been plucked bare of fur and scales would not have those restored—they would have to grow back on their own.
Qin Mu continued his experiments with the remaining phoenix feathers. Finally, he succeeded. After restoration with the Taiji Primal Stone, this phoenix feather shimmered with seven-colored light, its divine power abundant, even suffused with the Dao resonance of the Phoenix Clan!
Qin Mu gently waved the feather, and seven-colored light blazed. With a swoosh, it pulverized the mountain ahead into dust!
“This phoenix feather is even stronger than Feng Qiuyun’s original feathers!”
He nodded lightly. Wei Suifeng, Dragon Earl King, and the others looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to speak.
But Qin Mu continued his experiments, striving for success every time.
Unnoticed, he tested all the remaining phoenix feathers. The success rate grew higher and higher, with very few failures possible. Only then did he let out a breath and laugh, “Everyone, I can restore you all now.”
Feng Qiuyun walked over, her expression excited.
Qin Mu pondered for a moment, then shot a glance at Wei Suifeng. Wei Suifeng understood and said, “Let’s restore a few Feather Forest soldiers first, in case of failure. Then we’ll restore ourselves.”
Qin Mu smiled, “These Feather Forest soldiers sacrificed themselves for the cause, truly admirable.”
Feng Qiuyun and Dragon Earl King knew full well why Qin Mu and Wei Suifeng said this. It was mainly because if they restored Dragon Earl King and Feng Qiuyun first, the two might rebel and seize the chance to kill everyone.
The Feather Forest soldiers were different. They only obeyed their commander’s orders. Wei Suifeng was their commander, the leader in their hearts, and he had already won them over completely.
Their loyalty to Wei Suifeng even surpassed their loyalty to the Heavenly Emperor!
Wei Suifeng summoned a few soldiers. Qin Mu immediately activated the Taichu Primal Stone. The energy within the first Feather Forest soldier gradually condensed into a heart, slowly taking shape.
It was a divine heart!
From the divine heart, blood vessels spread in all directions, extending throughout the body. Following these vessels, bones, internal organs, and viscera also began to form slowly!
When they reached the locations of the various divine repositories, those repositories actually began to form as well!
Suddenly, Wei Suifeng let out a surprised exclamation. He saw that this Feather Forest soldier’s Divine Bridge repository was not being restored, but instead transforming into a Heavenly River repository!
“Junior Brother is modifying him! This guy is still so reckless—what if he makes a mistake?”