Chapter 1406: Brutally Beating the Empress
Facing the overwhelming torrent of chaotic energy surging toward her, the Empress quickly retreated. Qin Mu’s One Qi Mixed Yuan Dao Companion Travel technique was extremely fast, soon catching up to her!
The Empress continued to retreat, and suddenly a vertical abyss split open behind her. She withdrew into the abyss, which then closed, causing the Empress’s figure to vanish instantly.
The next moment, the power of One Qi Mixed Yuan crushed forward. The Return to Ruins Great Abyss deep within space was violently ground over. The Empress, hiding within her Return to Ruins divine ability, was caught off guard and watched in horror as Qin Mu’s strike shattered the Return to Ruins and surged toward her.
“Since I can’t dodge it, I’ll just withstand it head-on! I don’t believe that your cultivation at the God-Slaying Platform level can contend with my ancient god’s divine power!”
The Empress raised her hand to block and counter, her full divine power erupting. The moment they clashed, she felt her own power and her Great Dao begin to be assimilated upon encountering this divine ability, transforming into the Primordial Beginning Dao, adding to the power of this strike!
The Empress was startled and quickly withdrew her hand. She took a hairpin from her hair bun. The hairpin was forged from Return to Ruins Abyss Iron, and she infused it with her divine power before flicking it out!
*Chi!*
The hairpin rode the wind and broke through the waves, cleaving through Qin Mu’s strike, splitting its power, and heading straight for Qin Mu.
The hairpin was extremely fast, but even the Return to Ruins Abyss Iron was constantly worn away by Qin Mu’s strike, turning into chaotic energy. By the time it reached Qin Mu, the Abyss Iron had been reduced to a mere iron needle, which flashed past his brow and pierced into his brain.
*Boom!*
A loud noise rang out as the iron needle exploded within Qin Mu’s mind, transforming into a Return to Ruins Great Abyss that instantly devoured and refined Qin Mu’s head.
Qin Mu’s headless body swayed but did not fall. Instead, his neck shook, and three heads grew out, and four more arms sprouted from his armpits, making him three-headed and six-armed.
At that moment, the power of One Qi Mixed Yuan Dao Companion Travel was exhausted. The Empress walked out from the chaotic energy, her clothes tattered and torn, revealing her fair skin, her body faintly visible.
The Empress’s face was green with rage, murderous intent radiating from her as she strode toward Qin Mu, sneering, “Mu Tianzun, this great divine ability must have exhausted your cultivation, hasn’t it? How much divine power do you have left?”
Divine light shot up from the top of Qin Mu’s head, forming a vast Heavenly Court. His three heads spoke in unison, laughing, “I have plenty of divine power, Empress! Please take a look!”
The Empress’s pupils contracted sharply. She saw that within the various heavenly palaces of the Heavenly Court, Qin Mu’s primordial spirits had left the God-Slaying Platform, each stepping forward into the next realm.
What baffled her was how Qin Mu could cross from the Jade Pool realm into the God-Slaying Platform realm in such a short time, and then directly leap from the God-Slaying Platform realm into the next realm!
Even more incomprehensible was that his next realm was not the Jade Capital realm. According to logic, the realm after the God-Slaying Platform for deities should be the Jade Capital City. But in Qin Mu’s Heavenly Court, between the God-Slaying Platform and the Jade Capital City, there was an additional massive Heavenly Prison!
The Heavenly Prison in the Heavenly Court was a place to hold serious criminals, overgrown with thorns, making it impossible for anyone to escape. It imprisoned death-row inmates guilty of heinous crimes. Being beheaded on the God-Slaying Platform was too merciful for them, so they were locked in the Heavenly Prison to endure endless suffering and torment.
In the Heavenly Court system, the Heavenly Prison was not considered a realm. When a deity’s primordial spirit arrived there, it did nothing to enhance their cultivation or strength. Historically, during the Dragon Han Era, after the Heavenly Court system was spread, countless divine beings had experimented with the Heavenly Prison, finding it utterly useless.
But for Qin Mu, once his primordial spirit entered the Heavenly Prison, his cultivation and strength immediately began to skyrocket!
Clearly, he had turned the Heavenly Prison into a realm.
What made it even harder for her to understand was that even though Qin Mu had nineteen heavenly palaces, and even if the Heavenly Prison realm was equivalent to the previous Jade Capital realm, Qin Mu was still far behind her. His physical body, primordial spirit, and divine power were all vastly inferior—a gap that could not be described as anything less than a chasm.
Yet, Qin Mu’s physical body, primordial spirit, and divine power were not much weaker than hers. She found it truly difficult to understand where his power came from.
However, she could still discern some clues from Qin Mu. Other cultivators and deities all cultivated the Seven Divine Treasuries. Even the cultivators and deities of Eternal Peace cultivated the Seven Divine Treasuries, only replacing the Divine Bridge Treasury with the more reasonable and universe-Dao-aligned Heavenly River Treasury.
But on Qin Mu, she could find none of these treasuries.
Although his divine treasury was called the Spirit Embryo Treasury, it was completely different from the Spirit Embryo Treasuries of other cultivators and deities.
Qin Mu had only a single divine treasury. Within this treasury, there was actually the Mystic Capital, the Nether Capital, the Primordial Capital, the Four Extremes Heavens, as well as the ancient gods of the heavens, vast stars, brilliant galaxies, and a grand cosmic layout.
Even the Return to Ruins Great Abyss was there!
More crucially, there was the Ancestral Court. The center of his Spirit Embryo Treasury was an Ancestral Court.
Even more terrifying was that his Ancestral Court had a reverse side!
Compared to other cultivators and deities, his foundation was like heaven and earth!
All the divine treasuries of others combined, placed within his Spirit Embryo Treasury, would be nothing more than a drop in the bucket. This was because Qin Mu’s Heavenly Court was even built upon the Ancestral Court, occupying only a small corner of it.
“Mu Tianzun is the same kind of person as us. He’s kept secrets and hasn’t spread his cultivation system to Eternal Peace.”
The Empress sneered inwardly, thinking, “You talk about how brilliant and great you are, but in reality, you’re just a selfish person, only more refined. Hypocrite!”
But she didn’t know that Qin Mu hadn’t been unwilling to spread his cultivation system. The reason his system succeeded was that after he had dug out his soul and eyes and given them to Qin Fengqing, he used the Calamity-Answering Sword to forcibly destroy his own Heavenly Court and divine treasuries, turning them into chaos!
Facing the danger of even his indestructible consciousness being completely annihilated, he seized the opportunity to open up the chaos, re-enact the Spirit Embryo Treasury, and thereby regenerate his soul.
His soul and spirit embryo were equivalent to the ancient gods within his own body.
Achieving this required immense fortune; others could not imitate it. Forcibly cultivating his system would only lead to death, with absolutely no chance of success.
In contrast to his cultivation path, the path Lan Yutian was currently taking was safer and easier. As long as Lan Yutian could open up his path and spread it, others wouldn’t have to take Qin Mu’s dangerous route and could still cultivate the Ancestral Court.
Although this cultivation path wasn’t as powerful as Qin Mu’s, it was still extraordinary. If one could cultivate to the pinnacle, they would surpass the current Heavenly Venerables.
—The only problem was that it required extremely high comprehension, and only a few could reach the pinnacle.
As Qin Mu’s cultivation realm rose to the level of the Nine Prisons Platform, his power surged again, and the Empress immediately felt a headache coming on. Suddenly, she relaxed again.
Because at that moment, she sensed the aura of the Return to Ruins.
The Taiji Ancient God had finally made its move, infinitely shortening the distance, bringing the Return to Ruins closer and closer to the Taiji Star Domain!
The Empress was a Dao-Born Ancient God, but like the Sacrifice-Born Ancient Gods, the closer she was to her birthplace, the stronger her power became. The same was true for other Dao-Born Ancient Gods, such as Earth Lord and Sky Lord. In their respective birthplaces, the Nether Capital and Mystic Capital, their power was at its peak.
Now that the Return to Ruins was approaching, the Empress’s combat power was also continuously increasing!
At the same time, the Artifact Imperial Heavenly Venerable felt a stir in his heart and also sensed the arrival of the Return to Ruins, filling him with great joy. He, too, felt his power increasing!
Within the Artifact Imperial Heavenly Venerable, Yuanmu Consort controlled it with her own primordial spirit. Her primordial spirit, like the Empress’s, originated from the Return to Ruins, from the same source.
With the Return to Ruins approaching, her power would naturally keep rising!
Qiang Tianfei also sensed the aura of the Return to Ruins at the first moment. Her expression changed slightly, and she quickly looked up. She saw a narrow abyss appear in the sky above the Taiji Star Domain, dark and unfathomable.
At first, the abyss was very far away, looking like a half-open, half-closed eye from a distance.
But the abyss was gradually growing larger. It wasn’t that the abyss itself was expanding, but that the distance was closing!
Around this abyss were mountains composed of Return to Ruins Abyss Iron, and floating dead stars. Some stars were tattered, pulled by this suddenly appearing abyss, orbiting around it.
Within the abyss, two large flowers were slowly emerging from the darkness.
“Damn it, those two little sluts have actually summoned the Return to Ruins!”
Even Qiang Tianfei’s expression changed at this moment, feeling the difficulty. What she hadn’t expected was that it wasn’t the Empress and Yuanmu who had summoned the Return to Ruins, but the Taiji Ancient God using its own power to pull the space closer!
Qin Mu also sensed the aura of the Return to Ruins, and his expression changed as well.
He had forcibly raised his cultivation to test his own strength and see if he could contend with a Heavenly Venerable. He wasn’t here to court death.
The Return to Ruins Great Abyss was a place that even Sky Lord feared, believing it to be where all Daos were ground to dust. With this abyss appearing, the Empress’s power would inevitably skyrocket, growing stronger the closer it got.
He had to verify his strength before the Empress’s power reached its peak. He didn’t aim to kill the Empress—he didn’t have the ability to do so—he just wanted to test his strength against a Heavenly Venerable!
He let out a long roar, and his body burst into motion. At this moment, all his power erupted!
With his first step, his hands reached for the sky and pressed down on the earth, each forming a different hand seal, manifesting the First Layer of the Dao Realm, the Heaven and Earth Four Venerable Seals!
The Heaven and Earth Four Venerable Seals formed a domain around him, round like heaven and square like earth, with four divine and demonic faces appearing, expressing joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, looking in all directions.
With his second step, a Heaven and Earth Mystic Gate appeared behind him, the gate connecting heaven and earth, reaching up to the Mystic Capital above and down to the Nether Capital below, borrowing power from both realms.
This was the Second Layer of the Dao Realm.
With his third step, the Heavenly River surged forth, vast and mighty, and the Four Extremes Heavens appeared, surrounding the Heaven and Earth Mystic Gate and the Heaven and Earth Four Venerable Seals.
With his fourth step, the Great Luo Heaven gathered into a circular form, the Great Luo Heaven above his head like a canopy.
With his fifth step, purple flowers flew out, splitting into two, then four, then eight, instantly covering the layers of heaven.
The sixth step was Nether Capital Chasing Wandering Souls, the seventh step was Ancient Jade Platform Standing in Mystic Capital...
In an instant, Qin Mu took twenty-six consecutive steps, stacking twenty-six layers of the Dao Realm on top of each other. His momentum was unparalleled, moving as fast as lightning and thunder. He raced across the White Sand Wasteland, leaving a trail of thunderous sounds in his wake, carrying overwhelming power as he charged toward the Empress with crushing force!
“Mu Tianzun, you really don’t know when to die!”
The Empress was furious. She had already been left with tattered clothes barely covering her jade-like body by Qin Mu’s One Qi Mixed Yuan Dao Companion Travel. Now, Qin Mu, relying on having stepped into some inexplicable realm, dared to strike even as the Return to Ruins arrived. He truly didn’t know when to die!
“If you want to die, I’ll grant your wish!”
The Empress’s momentum soared wildly, actually accelerating the arrival of the Return to Ruins as she met Qin Mu’s strike!
At this moment, Yuanmu Consort, controlling the Artifact Imperial Heavenly Venerable, was racing through the Taiji Mine. She had already sensed Yan Tianfei’s location. Meanwhile, Qiang Tianfei, unable to spare time to watch the battle between Qin Mu and the Empress, pursued the Artifact Imperial Heavenly Venerable.
Just then, a shocking tremor came, causing even the two Heavenly Venerables to turn their heads. They saw the Empress spitting blood, flying backward, her jade-like body pressing against the White Sand Wasteland as she slid rapidly across the desert surface!
The gazes of the two Heavenly Venerables froze. They saw Qin Mu leaning forward, sliding diagonally at lightning speed. In an instant, twenty-six great divine abilities, like a string of arrows, furiously bombarded the Empress!
In just a short moment, the Empress slid for hundreds of miles, and Qin Mu’s great divine abilities reached their final strike—a bowing salute!
*Boom!*
The Empress’s jade-like body lay horizontally in the air, and the space around her suddenly exploded, turning into a mass of chaotic energy. The surging chaotic energy waves spun and erupted, blasting a massive hole in the Taiji Star Domain!
“You damn little thief!”
The Empress’s furious voice rang out as she charged out from the chaotic energy waves, her clothes nearly gone. She looked up and saw Qin Mu leaping into the air, a Ferry Ark appearing beneath his feet, carrying him away with a whoosh as he fled.
In her rage, the Empress gave chase, but where could she still find that little thief?