Chapter 1373: Prison Locking the Dao Heart (Second Update)
Qin Mu arrived at the second tier of the Nine Prisons Platform. Here, the sensation of the prison locking the Great Dao was even stronger. The cultivation of his primal qi had become incredibly sluggish, barely able to circulate!
Countless pores all over his body felt as if they had been sealed shut, preventing the qi within from flowing to the outside world.
Not only that, but the stabbing pain grew more intense, like countless invisible needles piercing into his body!
Even stranger, his primordial spirit, his divine consciousness, and his primal qi could all feel the sting of these needles.
"If this is also a realm, what is its purpose? Unfortunately, Senior Brother isn't here..."
He was somewhat puzzled. The Heavenly Court had a Heavenly Prison, used to detain the most heinous criminals of the Heavenly Court. Back then, after Cloud Luo Emperor Wei Suifeng was captured, he was imprisoned there.
If Wei Suifeng were present, he might be able to share his experiences in the Heavenly Prison for Qin Mu's reference.
"If the Nine Prisons Platform is a realm, then between which two of the seven Heavenly Palace realms should it be placed? Is it lower or higher than the Jasper Terrace realm?"
He carefully sensed, trying to find the Dao realm hidden within the Nine Prisons Platform, but aside from the pain, he couldn't grasp any principle of the Dao realm.
He jumped down to the third tier of the Nine Prisons Platform. At that moment, he saw many twisted skeletons.
They were giants, likely Creators. They must have been caught in excruciating pain, their bones deformed by the agony. Qin Mu even saw a Creator whose skull had warped, suggesting that in life, his face must have been twisted in pain!
Qin Mu's cultivation and strength, even in the ancient era, would have made him a dominant force in one region. On the third tier, he could still endure, so he paid it no mind and continued onward.
He leaped to the fourth tier of the Heavenly Prison. Still, he felt no enhancement to his own Dao. However, the stabbing pain began to affect his primordial spirit, and the agony caused his Heavenly Palaces to start deforming!
"Interesting..."
He pressed deeper, arriving at the fifth tier. Here, the Great Dao was locked, and all his Dao techniques and divine abilities were completely unusable!
"But the Daos of Primordial Beginning, Primordial Commencement, Primordial Simplicity, and Primordial Ultimate can still be used. As long as these four Daos are available, this place can't trap me."
He reached the sixth tier. His primordial spirit was now locked, sealed within its respective Heavenly Palaces by a powerful binding force. Qin Mu's mind grew drowsy, and a flood of chaotic thoughts surged into his heart.
"This place can disturb the Dao heart, like the demonic nature of the demonic path in Youdu."
He arrived at the seventh tier. Here, even his divine consciousness seemed about to be locked, and his thoughts appeared ready to cease. Qin Mu reined in his mind, focusing his thoughts on the ancestral court of the Embryonic Divine Treasure, using the power of the five mineral veins to guard his consciousness and awareness.
At the eighth tier, his primal qi fell completely silent. He could no longer sense any trace of the Great Dao within his body. It felt as if even his blood was stiffening, leaving only an overwhelmingly intense pain!
The eighth tier of the Heavenly Prison was littered with skeletons, twisted beyond any recognizable shape!
He even saw ancient gods!
Long Xiao had indeed not deceived him. Many ancient gods had been thrown here, unable to crawl out, eventually dying in agony within this terrifying prison.
Qin Mu's mind roared, as if billions of inner demons were clamoring and causing chaos, making it hard for him to maintain his usual Dao heart.
His eyes turned bloodshot. Everything he saw was distorted—the sky, the earth, himself—all twisted forms!
"Damn it, the Heavenly Prison is locking my Dao heart! If my Dao heart collapses, I'm afraid I'll end up like the skeletons here, only able to wail, never to walk out!"
He quickly shut his eyes. The prison locking the Great Dao was more terrifying and treacherous than he had imagined!
His vertical eye on his forehead opened, and as he looked around, the sensation of the entire world twisting vanished.
"Celestial Venerable Mu, you've come to a bizarre place." The voice of Tai Shi came from within his divine treasure.
Tai Shi, still in his egg, had been quietly refining the Primordial Commencement Primeval Stone these past days and rarely emerged. Qin Mu's arrival here had finally disturbed him.
"This place seems to be an extremely dangerous spot in the ancestral court, not somewhere you should be. It's not too late to retreat now."
Tai Shi, within the egg, used Qin Mu's vertical eye to survey the surroundings, his heart sinking. He said gravely, "There are a few places in the ancestral court that even I cannot fathom. This is one of them. Besides this, I sense a few other locations, one of which is your Great Black Tree."
Qin Mu was taken aback, then asked, "Then, Brother Dao, which layer do you sense?"
"The very bottom."
Qin Mu approached the edge of the eighth tier and peered down. Tai Shi in the egg urgently shouted, "Don't look!"
But by then, Qin Mu had already seen the ninth tier of the Heavenly Prison. There was only a patch of white light, like a well reflecting moonlight.
The well water was utterly still, reflecting Qin Mu's face.
The ninth tier of the Heavenly Prison was not large, only about two zhang square.
"There's nothing here. What's all the fuss about?" Qin Mu laughed.
Tai Shi in the egg sighed. "You're already on the ninth tier."
Qin Mu was stunned. It was then that he realized he wasn't looking down at the ninth tier—he was looking up at the sky!
He was now standing on the ninth tier of the Nine Prisons Platform, gazing upward at a sky that resembled a well!
He didn't even know when he had descended!
"You're finished. Your Dao heart is locked."
Tai Shi in the egg sighed again. "Celestial Venerable Mu, your Dao heart is locked, your divine abilities are locked, your Great Dao is locked, your primal qi is locked, and the power of your physical body is locked. All that remains is the divine consciousness hidden in the ancestral court of your divine treasure."
Qin Mu's primordial spirit was dull, his primal qi solidified, the Dao runes in his Heavenly Palaces had stopped changing, the myriad stars in his divine treasure, the imprints of ancient gods in the hundred acupoints of his body—everything, absolutely everything, was locked!
In his vertical eye, yin and yang qi still swirled, but Qin Mu could no longer mobilize the power of that eye!
He was now completely an ordinary mortal, without any divine abilities!
"Brother Dao Tai Shi, what should I do now?" Cold sweat poured down his forehead.
Tai Shi in the egg said coldly, "The old you would never have asked me what to do! You always had all sorts of ingenious ideas to get through difficulties. But now you've lost your nerve and are asking me. Has your Dao heart completely vanished?"
In the ancestral court of his divine treasure, within the mining area shrouded by the five ores, Qin Mu's divine consciousness was in turmoil, unable to come up with any plan.
The final prison of the Nine Prisons Platform, the prison locking the Dao heart, was the greatest and most terrifying cage!
Tai Shi in the egg sighed. "This Nine Prisons Platform is not a realm for someone at your current level to enter. If my guess is correct, among the seven Heavenly Palace realms, the Nine Prisons Platform should be placed after the God-Slaying Platform and before the Jade Capital City. You don't even have the strength to step onto the God-Slaying Platform of the ancestral court, let alone pass through the Nine Prisons Platform."
Qin Mu's heart was filled with panic. He sat down heavily on the ground. At that moment, he felt an overwhelmingly intense pain coming from every part of his body, twisting and deforming him in agony.
Tai Shi in the egg said, "When you passed the God-Slaying Platform, it should have had another function—not just severing the primordial spirit, but also severing cultivation and severing the Dao heart. Only after passing that would you be qualified to enter the Nine Prisons Platform. Your only hope now is the divine consciousness hidden within the five ores. That is your last chance... Celestial Venerable Mu!"
Tai Shi in the egg roared: "Pull yourself together! You must rouse your spirit and rebuild your Dao heart! Otherwise, like all the Creators and ancient gods in the Heavenly Prison, you will die here!"
——Zhai Zhu is going out again. This time, he's catching a flight. He can write on the high-speed train, but rushing for the flight eats up time. Zhai Zhu will do his best!