Chapter 1481: Heavenly Retribution
"Pastoral Celestial Venerable, why do you always have so many bizarre ideas?"
That little girl Taiyi couldn't help but say, "Your ideas are always absurd and unconventional, yet they're filled with a devilish allure. Even I sometimes can't help but feel tempted, thinking that if your ideas were actually implemented, they'd definitely be good ones!"
Qin Mu's eyes lit up.
The little girl sniffled, then said, "But from my experience, every time your ideas turn out to be utterly terrible. The Grand Emperor was practically a half-enlightened one, but after listening to your terrible ideas just two or three times, he lost his physical body. And I listened to your idea and lent you the Chaos Axe, so you chopped down the World Tree but couldn't save it."
Qin Mu laughed heartily, his voice loud and clear.
The girl Taiyi waited quietly for him to finish covering up his awkward laughter, then continued, "How do you know this idea of yours isn't another terrible one? Even I dare not say whether that World Tree can be saved. And even if it is saved, do you know the consequences?"
Qin Mu's expression changed drastically. He tested the waters, asking, "Do you mean that if this World Tree ends up in my divine repository, it will burst it open?"
"It shouldn't burst your divine repository. If this tree comes back to life, its roots will grow slowly, and the tree itself won't grow for a while."
The girl Taiyi dispelled his doubts, saying, "I'm talking about something else. The water in this bucket of mine isn't ordinary water. It's the Dao dew from my Dao Tree. The Dao dew condenses at night and disappears during the day. Every leaf on my Dao Tree represents my Dao attainment, and each leaf can only condense one drop of Dao dew per night. The total amount of Dao dew is fixed, and I can only collect this one bucket each time. And this one bucket is just enough to repair the cracks in the Great Black Mountain that open at night, preventing the strong from the previous universe from sneaking through."
Qin Mu understood her meaning and said, "So, if you use the Dao dew to save that World Tree, then there will inevitably be strong beings from the previous cosmic era sneaking through?"
The girl Taiyi nodded and said, "That's exactly it. If you have the ability to stop them, then it's fine. I can lend you a bucket of water, and you can just go and kill the stowaways. But you simply don't have that ability."
Qin Mu was deeply ashamed.
The girl Taiyi glanced at him and said unhurriedly, "I'll show you the right path. Go to the World Tree and comprehend it like Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua. Once you achieve something in the future, you can use your own Great Dao runes to plant a Dao Tree in your own ancestral court. With this Dao Tree, when you cultivate to the point of enlightenment in the future, you'll find the benefits are immense, and all your previous hardships won't have been in vain! This kind of enlightenment is nothing like the Grand Emperor's, which was full of impurities."
Qin Mu looked ashamed. He glanced around, and seeing no one nearby, he leaned down and whispered in the little girl's ear, "I'll tell you a secret, but don't tell anyone. To be honest..."
He hesitated for a moment, then mustered the courage to tell the girl Taiyi the secret that had been hidden in his heart for years: "Actually, I'm not as smart as Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian. My comprehension isn't as high as theirs, and my Dao heart might not be stronger than theirs either."
The girl Taiyi rolled her eyes, looking at him with disinterest, clearly already aware of this.
Qin Mu hesitated, saying, "If I comprehend the Dao under the tree with them, I'll definitely not achieve as much as they do. They'll know that I, the Overlord Body, am a fake, full of impurities. But if I take an unconventional path and directly refine the World Tree, they'll still praise me and say, 'As expected of the Overlord Body.' So even if I can't refine the World Tree, I still have to plant one..."
"Then, are you ready to face the prehistoric strong who crawl here from the destroyed universe?" the girl Taiyi asked.
Qin Mu hesitated for a moment.
The girl Taiyi sneered, "You're no match for them now. Even the weakest among them is no less skilled than the Ten Celestial Venerables, and that's after the destruction catastrophe has worn them down. If they come to this universe and imprint their Great Dao onto the void, reaching the ultimate void of our universe, they can return to their peak state. By then, not to mention you, even if the Ten Celestial Venerables were tied together, they wouldn't be a match for any one of them!"
Qin Mu hung his head dejectedly and turned to leave. Just then, the girl Taiyi's voice came from behind him, saying, "But that doesn't mean there's no solution."
Qin Mu stopped, turned around, and a look of hope appeared on his face.
The girl Taiyi smiled, revealing the scattered teeth in her mouth, clearly in the middle of losing her baby teeth, and said, "I'm stationed here precisely to deal with this situation. If any prehistoric strong step in, I'll kill them one by one!"
Qin Mu's eyes lit up.
"But why should I do that? After all, this Great Black Mountain is your Great Black Mountain. I've already handed over the position of landlord to you."
The girl Taiyi said calmly, "I'm already busy enough repairing the Great Black Mountain every day. So, it's not that I can't make a move, but repairing the mountain every day is truly boring."
Qin Mu quickly said, "I'll repair the mountain! Let me repair it for as many days as you want!"
The girl Taiyi winked slyly, "I don't need you to repair it for long. Just half a year. During this half year, I need to leave the Great Black Mountain to do something. You just need to climb to the highest point of the World Tree every night. My Dao Tree will drip Dao dew. You collect the dew, and during the day, repair the cracks in the Black Mountain. After half a year, I'll come back, and then you'll be free."
Qin Mu was overjoyed and nodded repeatedly.
The girl Taiyi then took out another iron bucket, filled to the brim with Dao dew.
Qin Mu was suspicious. He looked at the little girl, then down at the Dao dew in the iron bucket, and tested the waters, asking, "Dao brother, how come you have two iron buckets here, and both are full of Dao dew? Didn't you just say that the number of leaves on your Dao Tree is fixed, and you can only collect one bucket each time?"
"That's right, I can only collect one bucket."
The girl Taiyi readily cleared up his doubts, saying, "But before you all returned to the ancestral court, the activity in the Great Black Mountain wasn't this intense, so I could save a little each time I repaired it. Little by little, it added up, and I ended up with a few extra buckets. I'm frugal by nature, so I kept them for emergencies."
Qin Mu's eyelid twitched, "So, Dao brother doesn't have to deal with those prehistoric strong who crawl out."
The girl Taiyi said bluntly, "Exactly!"
Qin Mu grunted, took the iron bucket, and bowed, saying, "Thank you, Dao brother."
The girl Taiyi's eyes curved into crescent moons, and she smiled, "Aren't you angry?"
"Angry about what?"
Qin Mu smiled, "Dao brother lent me a bucket of Dao dew and also prevented prehistoric enlightened beings from crawling over to harm the world. I'm grateful, not angry. I was just outmaneuvered by Dao brother. I admit my wisdom is no match, but I'm still overjoyed."
The girl Taiyi praised him sincerely, "Pastoral Celestial Venerable, although you're not as smart as Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian, nor do you have their comprehension, and your Dao heart might not be as strong as theirs, and you're not as handsome as they are... you are a true person! Lan Yutian is a sage, Xu Shenghua is a divine being, and you are a true person."
Although Qin Mu didn't know which of the titles "sage," "divine being," and "true person" was more impressive, he assumed she was praising him, so he humbly accepted the compliment, picked up the small bucket, and left.
He returned to the World Tree, took the other World Tree he had cut down, and stored it in his divine repository, still planting it in the ancestral court.
The people under the tree were startled and worried, but when they saw he wasn't there to cut down the tree, they relaxed.
Qin Mu steadied himself, then unfolded his divine repository domain. He saw the broken tree standing in the ancestral court of his divine repository, its branches and leaves withered, showing no signs of life.
He carefully sprinkled water at the base of the tree. Not far away, in the Grand Beginning vein, the Grand Beginning egg stood steadily on the vein altar. The large egg slowly turned half a circle, and the Grand Beginning's voice came, "This tree is already dead. You can't save it... What's that? Let me have a taste!"
The large egg jumped down from the altar and hopped over to the tree. Qin Mu was sprinkling water, and the Grand Beginning egg tilted sideways, as if it could see his actions, and said curiously, "Without roots, it can't absorb nutrients. You can't save this tree. Why don't you give me a taste of the water in your bucket..."
Qin Mu sneered, "Without roots, the tree can't absorb water. You don't have a mouth either, so you can't absorb water."
The Grand Beginning egg laughed, "Although I don't have a mouth, I can absorb the power of the vein."
"Then this tree is the same."
Qin Mu earnestly continued watering, saying, "If it had grown into a big tree, it might not be saveable. But this tree is still a sapling. If it gets nutrients, it might grow roots."
The Grand Beginning egg leaned close to the bucket. Qin Mu pushed the large egg aside. After a moment, the Grand Beginning egg came close again, and Qin Mu pushed it aside once more.
"Fine, if you won't give it, then don't!"
The Grand Beginning egg hopped away, returning to its own vein and settling securely on the altar, saying, "This tree has no roots and can't absorb water. I control the power of the vein. The water you sprinkle will definitely all be absorbed by me!"
Qin Mu ignored it. The Grand Beginning egg, however, was controlling the Grand Beginning vein, trying desperately to steal the Dao dew Qin Mu was sprinkling. Just then, the large egg became restless. With a whoosh, it jumped up from the altar and hovered in mid-air, unwilling to land, shouting, "Something is stealing the power from my vein! Strange, very strange!"
This vein was one Qin Mu had crafted by imitating the Grand Beginning vein in the ancestral court. The Grand Beginning divine stones and Grand Beginning primordial stones he had obtained were all planted in the vein for the Grand Beginning ancient god inside the egg to absorb.
At this moment, shadows were slowly wriggling and growing beneath the vein, stealing its power. One by one, the Grand Beginning divine stones in the vein gradually lost their power, their light growing dimmer and dimmer.
Crack!
Suddenly, a divine stone split open, then shattered into pieces. The Grand Beginning egg cried out in alarm, hovering in the air, even more afraid to land.
Crack, crack, crack!
One by one, the Grand Beginning divine stones lost all their energy and shattered. Even the Grand Beginning primordial stones were growing dimmer and dimmer.
The Grand Beginning egg was on the verge of tears, shouting, "Pastoral Celestial Venerable, what kind of water is that? You've turned this tree into a monster! Stop it now!"
At the same time, the divine stones Qin Mu had buried in other veins were also cracking and shattering. Clearly, the energy of these vein divine stones was also being absorbed by the World Tree!
After being nourished by the Dao dew, the World Tree growing roots should have been a good thing. But it was seizing the power of the four major veins, causing Qin Mu to hesitate.
These four major veins were built from his insights into the four innate Great Daos of Grand Ultimate, Grand Beginning, Grand Simplicity, and Grand Beginning. Because his understanding was incomplete, he needed to borrow the power of the divine stones.
If the four major veins were drained dry by the World Tree, would the loss outweigh the gain for him?
Just then, he suddenly felt his own power rapidly draining away, and his heart began to race!
Not only was the World Tree seizing the power of the four major veins, but it was also starting to absorb his power!
No matter what kind of Great Dao, the World Tree accepted it all, forcibly seizing and taking it all!
In his divine repository, the Mystic Capital was constantly shrinking. The Mystic Capital, along with the stars, constellations, and various Great Daos, began to surge toward the World Tree. The starry sky of the Mystic Capital quickly shrank, as if a whale was swallowing a rainbow. Countless stars, constellations, and star rivers rushed into the tree!
Not only that, but the Primordial Capital, the Nether Capital, and the Four Extreme Heavens were also shrinking, collapsing toward the tree!
Even the myriad realms were being devoured by the World Tree one by one!
Qin Mu had used his own Great Dao to forge nearly two thousand ancient gods of the myriad realms. Now, even these were being devoured by the World Tree, without even a chance to escape!
Qin Mu was horrified. He quickly withdrew his divine repository domain and sprinted toward the girl Taiyi, who was still repairing the Black Mountain.
Now, only Taiyi could save him. If she could just swing her great axe and cut down the World Tree that was causing havoc in his divine repository, he wouldn't be devoured by it!
But the moment he took a step, his physical body visibly shrank.
When Qin Mu took his second step, he was already skin and bones.
By the third step, he had lost all moisture. He fell stiffly from the air, crashing to the ground, motionless, like a dried corpse.
Hua Xuanxiu was the first to notice Qin Mu falling from the sky. She screamed, "The old sect leader has been struck by heavenly retribution for cutting down the tree!"