# Chapter 1478: Should the Tree Be Cut?
Granny Si watched as layers of dreams contracted, and the small Qin Mus within the dreams disappeared one after another. Then Qin Mu opened his eyes, and her heart filled with joy.
Qin Mu's final layer of dream was about to dissipate when Horse Lord and War Void Tathagata woke up at just the right moment, each stepping out from his dream.
The dream completely vanished. Qin Mu's primordial spirit stood behind him, bowing to the two in thanks.
War Void Tathagata quickly returned the gesture, pointing at himself and saying, "Elder brother."
He then pointed at Qin Mu and said, "Younger brother. Why thank me?"
Qin Mu laughed heartily. Seeing that both of them were utterly exhausted, he invited them to rest. Granny Si stepped forward, returning the divine bow to him, and asked, "Mu'er, has the crisis been resolved?"
Qin Mu nodded, smiling. "The nine Heavenly Lords of the Heavenly Court acted with great righteousness, stepping in to kill the Primordial Sage of Miluo Palace. My predicament has finally been resolved."
Granny Si breathed a sigh of relief and praised, "Those nine Heavenly Lords are indeed righteous. You must thank them properly in the future."
Qin Mu quickly said, "I'll try my best to make their deaths painless."
"Then I'm relieved." Granny Si let out another sigh.
Qin Mu's spirits soared. He felt as if the clouds had parted to reveal the sun, and he too let out a long sigh of relief. He laughed and said, "Senior Brother and Shu Jun certainly handled things efficiently. I was worried they might just drop the Pifragrant Hall in Jade Capital City to trigger the seal and then leave on their own. If the nine Heavenly Lords hadn't entered the Pifragrant Hall and forcefully fought the Primordial Sage of Miluo Palace, I would have been in trouble."
He said joyfully, "I didn't expect them to do so well! The nine Heavenly Lords successfully entered the Pifragrant Hall and eliminated the Primordial Sage! Have Senior Brother and Shu Jun returned yet?"
Granny Si shook her head. "Not yet. The Ancestral Court's Jade Capital is quite far from here. They're probably still on their way back. When those two reached the Ancestral Court's Jade Capital City, they caused quite a commotion—they blasted a huge hole in the sky! It was terrifying!"
Qin Mu paced back and forth, laughing. "I wonder if the nine Heavenly Lords found anything good when they entered Jade Capital City. The secrets of Jade Capital City..."
Granny Si glared at him. "You were just ambushed and barely recovered, and you already want to run off? You have the nature of a roe deer—you don't know how to spell 'death'! You should know, after Jade Capital City opened, another major event occurred. Yan'er said your sacred land has sprouted. You'd better go take a look."
Qin Mu immediately set aside matters concerning Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun. Surprised, he asked, "The sacred land sprouted? What does that mean?"
"I don't know either. I've been guarding here the whole time, so I have no idea how these hundred thousand sacred mountains sprouted."
The two of them walked toward the center of the Hundred Thousand Sacred Mountains as they talked.
They hadn't gone far when they saw a young Taiyi repairing the cracked Great Black Mountain.
The young Taiyi put down his bucket, pointed toward the center of the Great Black Mountain sacred land, and said to Qin Mu, "I've been waiting for you there for a long time. Go quickly."
Qin Mu was puzzled and wanted to ask more, but the young Taiyi had already gone back to his work.
The two continued to the center of the Great Black Mountain. From afar, they saw a tender green sapling towering high into the sky. The sapling was hundreds of thousands of zhang tall but had only five or six leaves. On one of those leaves sat a palace—the very sacred hall where Qin Mu guarded this sacred land!
Qin Mu and Granny Si stood dumbfounded. They quickly sped up. The closer they got, the larger the sapling appeared. Its branches and leaves were as high as the clouds, surrounded by thunderbolts that crackled and struck the leaves.
But even the heavenly thunder of the Ancestral Court seemed insignificant before this sapling, as thin as needles, unable to harm it in the slightest.
Qin Mu arrived beneath the tree. He saw Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua sitting under the tree, comprehending the Dao. Blind and Mute were carefully examining a large axe. Others were busy surveying the Dao patterns on the strange sapling's branches and leaves, trying to unlock its secrets.
Not far away stood Ming Huang, staring intently at a burly man beneath the tree. That man kept his eyes on the tip of his nose and his nose on his heart, ignoring him completely.
Qin Mu stepped forward and tentatively said, "Brother Taiyi."
Taiyi rose and said, "Pastoral Heavenly Lord, this land is yours, and this tree that grew from this land is also yours. Therefore, I waited for you to ask: should this tree be cut down?"
Qin Mu hesitated and probed, "This sapling is..."
"This tree is the World Tree. From the destruction of one universe to the next, this divine tree remains undying and indestructible. It has survived the calamities of countless universal destructions. Countless living beings, even enlightened divinities, could not escape death—only this tree survived."
Taiyi said, "I once cut it down and set it on fire, yet it still refused to die. This is now your territory. I am merely a guest lodging here. Cutting down your tree requires your consent."
"The World Tree?"
Qin Mu's heart pounded wildly. He looked up at this incredibly massive sapling and murmured, "This is the divine object that can survive the Great Destruction of the universe?"
His eyes shone brightly. He had always regretted never seeing this divine tree with his own eyes, always dreaming of witnessing it in person.
Unfortunately, Taiyi had cut it down and set it on fire, leaving only blackened roots. But he never expected the tree to come back to life!
"Pastoral Heavenly Lord, if you keep this tree, it will allow the undying parasites from the previous sixteen universes to crawl into this universe. Even I cannot stop them."
Taiyi said, "However, even cutting down this tree won't completely sever that passage. They will still come, but it will buy some time. Keeping the tree will hasten their arrival. Whether to keep or cut this tree is entirely up to you, the master of this land."
Qin Mu hesitated, looking up at the World Tree sapling.
The Eastern Heavenly Azure Emperor and the Earth Mother Primordial Lord were both divine trees that had achieved cultivation. The Earth Mother, in particular, was a primordial tree that supported all the heavens and myriad realms. Yet compared to this divine tree before him, even the Earth Mother was far inferior!
This divine tree was almost a naturally indestructible divine object!
A divine object capable of connecting one universe to another!
However, it was precisely because of this World Tree that prehistoric beings had crawled along its roots into the next universe, escaping the calamity of destruction and parasitizing the new universe.
This led to another dire consequence: the lifespan of the new universe was greatly shortened!
"Mass-energy is conserved. The total amount of energy and matter in the universe is fixed. Cultivated beings essentially gather the universe's energy together."
Taiyi seemed to see through Qin Mu's thoughts and said beside him, "The more powerful beings there are, the more energy is concentrated. Enlightened beings are the most energy-dense things. Their Dao trees are suspended in the ultimate void, making it the most energy-dense place. The more enlightened beings squeeze into this universe, the faster the ultimate void collapses. The Great Destruction begins precisely from the ultimate void."
Qin Mu steadied himself, his gaze still fixed on the divine tree. He murmured, "Can't we comprehend the mysteries of the World Tree and find a way that even the Great Destruction cannot erase?"
Taiyi said, "If such a method existed, the powerful beings from previous universes would have found it long ago. They still had to rely on the World Tree to survive, which proves no such method exists."
Qin Mu pondered.
Suddenly, a violent tremor came from beneath the earth. The World Tree sapling rumbled and grew upward!
In just a few breaths, the World Tree had grown another thousand zhang, its trunk thickening significantly, and another leaf sprouted!
As the tremor beneath the earth subsided, the World Tree's growth stopped.
Taiyi said, "Before you woke up, this tree had already trembled many times, once a day, and always during the daytime. Why did this tree come back to life? Why does it grow during the day? Does Pastoral Heavenly Lord know the secret?"
Qin Mu shook his head and said sincerely, "Please teach me, Brother."
"Someone is nurturing this tree. The World Tree's revival, its growth, the entire Ancestral Court turning into a massive altar devouring the dead here, even Lan Yutian obtaining the Pifragrant Hall, Wei Suifeng sending the Pifragrant Hall back to Jade Capital City, and the reappearance of the Ancestral Court's Jade Capital City—perhaps all of this is under that person's control."
Taiyi's words were shocking. He said calmly, "Perhaps even your current desire to keep the World Tree is within that person's grasp."
Qin Mu's heart stirred. "You mean the powerful being from the first universe era? Has he already arrived in the Ancestral Court?"
Taiyi shook his head. "I don't know. I seem to know everything, but in reality, there are many things I don't know. For example..."
He hesitated, not continuing along that line of thought, and said, "The Ancestral Court's Jade Capital City is also a place I cannot see. It is extremely mysterious. I can feel that a terrifying existence there blocks my vision. Pastoral Heavenly Lord, after all this talk, will you keep this tree or not?"
Qin Mu paced back and forth, occasionally stopping to look up at the World Tree sapling, torn with indecision.
Taiyi waited quietly.
After a long time, Qin Mu's chaotic mind gradually calmed, and his steps slowed.
Finally, he stopped, his eyes bright as he looked at Taiyi, and said with a smile, "Brother, you are immensely powerful and nearly omniscient. Let me ask you one thing. The powerful beings from prehistoric universes can crawl along the World Tree's roots into our universe. Can we, in turn, use the World Tree to enter the prehistoric universes?"
Taiyi was stunned.
He had indeed never considered this question.
"You mean..." He looked at Qin Mu's bright eyes, somewhat hesitant.
This was the first time in his life he had ever hesitated—an unprecedented experience!
"I mean, since the arrival of prehistoric powerful beings is inevitable—whether we cut the tree or not, they will descend upon our universe—why not keep the World Tree and wait for it to grow? By then, we can go to their universe first, stop those old fellows in their own universe, and even kill them one by one!"
Qin Mu laughed. "Defense can never guarantee no loopholes, but offense will expose the enemy's weaknesses! In this way, the roles of offense and defense are reversed!"
Taiyi looked at the sapling behind him. After a long pause, he said, "Good. When you achieve enlightenment, I will send you over!"
The smile on Qin Mu's face froze instantly. He stammered, "Brother, this matter needs careful consideration..."
Taiyi reached out, grabbed the large axe, shook Blind and Mute off its head, turned around, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"Cutting down the tree is still negotiable!" Qin Mu called out loudly.
But Taiyi was already gone.
Qin Mu said angrily, "He dawdles around on normal days, but now he runs off like the wind!"
He turned to look at the World Tree, his eyes gleaming.
Meanwhile, in Jade Capital City, by the banks of the Chaos Long River, Wei Suifeng said with full confidence to Shu Jun, "Don't worry. Junior Brother will definitely come to save us!"