Chapter 1488: The Sacrifice
That tall, gaunt freak was struggling to squeeze his way over here. His power was too immense, making it no easy task to enter.
There existed certain laws governing the transformation of mass and energy. For an existence like him, who had already attained the Dao, he was almost pure embodiment of the Great Dao's principles. Squeezing from the previous universe into this one required an exchange of mass and energy on an unimaginably terrifying scale.
This was similar to the Spirit Energy Reciprocal Bridge, yet different and far more complex.
The Spirit Energy Reciprocal Bridge opened a barrier between two worlds, forming a bridge for spirit energy to flow back and forth. When a living being crossed, their own energy caused a mutual flow of spirit energy, maintaining balance between the two realms.
But traversing from a past universe to the present one also required adhering to the balance of mass and energy. What made it more troublesome was that the old and new universes could not open a bridge like the Spirit Energy Reciprocal Bridge to actively transfer mass and energy. That was why they needed to set up a massive sacrificial array in the Ancestral Court, using it as an altar.
The total mass and energy of the universe remained constant. Under this condition, for people from the past to enter the present universe, they had to discard a portion of the present universe's mass and energy into the past universe to maintain overall balance.
Over the years, although countless living beings had already been sacrificed, every Dao-achiever from the past universe tried to transfer to the present universe before their own universe collapsed. This led to a situation where everyone wanted to squeeze in, but no one could!
This tall, gaunt freak was no exception. He had already gotten half his body through, and now he needed to sacrifice a portion of the Ancestral Court's matter and energy to the past universe, accelerating his escape from that collapsing original universe.
The Black Mountain shook violently. Rocks and stones continuously crumbled and peeled off, floating in the air.
These rocks surged like a torrent, drifting behind the tall, gaunt freak and vanishing one by one into that enormous eye.
Around Qin Mu, the ground was also splitting apart. Patches of earth continuously disintegrated, floating toward that strange eye.
That eye grew increasingly massive, standing vertically behind the freak like a fire of apocalypse. Its flames illuminated the Ten Thousand Mountains, casting the shadows of the peaks into a wavering dance.
It resembled a giant furnace, or a massive mouth, greedily devouring everything in the Ancestral Court. It shredded and melted heaven, earth, and all things, converting them into pure energy to send to the collapsing universe behind it, in exchange for the tall, gaunt freak's vitality!
Qin Mu halted his momentum, raised Taiyi's staff, and charged at the tall, gaunt freak.
The vertical eye on the freak's forehead was filled with arrows. Qin Mu's earlier strike had forcefully driven the arrows deep into that eye. Yet even with the explosive power of the divine bow and arrows, it had not inflicted a severe wound.
The freak was tall and gaunt, of some unknown strange race. He raised a hand to grab at the arrows in his vertical eye, trying to pull them out, while his other hand reached for Qin Mu.
He had only that single eye at the center of his forehead, occupying that spot. Now, with so many arrows stuck in it, his vision was impaired.
He had to pull out those arrows first before he could deal with Qin Mu.
Qin Mu swung his staff. The fluctuation of its power was far weaker than before, which was why the freak had reached for him. But it was this seemingly powerless strike that made him suffer a great loss!
His palm was long and slender, each finger many times longer than Qin Mu's entire body. As he reached out, divine abilities gathered in his palm. In an instant, countless razor-sharp threads flew wildly in all directions within his palm, crisscrossing and intertwining.
The moment Qin Mu charged into his palm, his physical body was pierced by countless threads. Yet he still swung his staff to meet the freak's fingers.
Crack!
One of the tall, gaunt freak's fingers was struck by the staff and bent backward at a shocking angle.
Crack, crack! One by one, his fingers were broken by Qin Mu, all five bending backward. Qin Mu reversed his grip on the staff, using it as a sword, and thrust fiercely toward the center of the freak's palm!
At that moment, the countless threads that had pierced Qin Mu's body suddenly pulled in all directions. With a tearing sound, Qin Mu was instantly shattered into countless pieces!
His fragmented flesh and blood were drawn by the strange eye behind the freak, falling into it.
Suddenly, a peculiar fluctuation of divine power spread out, as if time itself were flowing backward. Qin Mu's body rapidly reassembled, still in the freak's palm, holding the staff and using it as a sword to deliver a world-shaking strike!
The third form of the Calamity Sword, Facing the Calamity!
The blunt wooden staff, though without an edge, pierced through the tall, gaunt freak's palm, driving Qin Mu's entire body deep into his arm!
Facing the Calamity was a sword technique for severing the Heavenly Palace and pacifying the Divine Treasures. It was a sword Qin Mu used to cut himself, and also to cut others. He had not used his sword techniques or sword Dao in a long time.
Because ever since he comprehended more profound divine abilities, the power of his sword techniques and sword Dao could no longer keep up with the power of his abilities. Moreover, the enemies he faced were far stronger than before. His sword techniques and sword Dao had gradually fallen behind his cultivation progress, making it hard to injure opponents.
But now, with Taiyi's staff in hand, it seemed like an unstoppable sharp weapon, elevating the power of this Facing the Calamity strike to a level unimaginable in ordinary times!
The tall, gaunt freak showed a look of surprise on his face. He uttered a question in an unintelligible language, as if commenting on Qin Mu's divine ability.
By now, he had already pulled out the arrows from his vertical eye. His other hand raised, fingers moving with incredible agility, tapping one after another on his own arm.
On that arm, beneath the skin, a sword light surged like a rolling torrent, destroying everything in its path. It severed his hand bones and arm bones, and snapped his tendons!
Under his skin, tendons pierced through the flesh, exposed to the air. Broken bones jutted out through blood and flesh, a gruesome sight.
Even more terrifying was that the sword intent preceded the blade. Before the wooden staff reached his upper arm, the sword intent had already arrived there, causing his entire arm to feel an incredibly sharp sword aura, draining all strength from it!
However, his other arm's fingers tapped in succession on his arm. Each strike landed precisely on Qin Mu, who was traveling through his arm. Each blow was so powerful that it crushed Qin Mu to pieces!
But Qin Mu seemed to possess an indestructible body. Every time he was killed, he would immediately revive within the freak's arm, restored to his original state.
The tall, gaunt freak spoke another unintelligible sentence. Suddenly, he raised his hand and chopped off his own arm. Qin Mu flew out from the severed limb, his sword light pointing straight at the freak's brow!
The tall, gaunt freak smiled and repeated that unintelligible phrase. A beam of light shot out from his vertical eye.
Boom!
This strike directly shattered Qin Mu. His physical body, his primordial spirit, his Divine Treasures, and his domain—all were reduced to dust!
The power of this strike was extremely peculiar. It directly froze all the matter that constituted Qin Mu's body, primordial spirit, and Divine Treasures, rendering Qin Mu's Indestructible Matter ability completely ineffective!
He had clearly recognized Qin Mu's divine ability. The Indestructible Matter ability was created by Ling Tianzun. Its greatest strength lay in reversing the flow of matter, creating the illusion of time flowing backward.
But for an existence like the tall, gaunt freak, who had already attained the Dao, although this ability was profound and unfathomable, he still had ways to counter it.
He only needed to freeze all the matter that made up Qin Mu, preventing it from flowing backward, and he could break it.
For others, such a feat might require immense magical power, but for him, it was not so difficult.
The tall, gaunt freak looked at his severed arm, a look of admiration on his face. He spoke another sentence, likely praising how such an insignificant cultivator like Qin Mu could injure him so severely with such low strength.
He continued to channel his magical power. The ground around the cracked Black Mountain began to heal, while the Black Mountain itself continued to fracture, roaring as it flowed into the strange eye behind him.
Suddenly, a hidden killing array buried deep underground was activated!
The tall, gaunt freak showed surprise. The power of this killing array was negligible in his eyes, yet it had been hidden right under his nose without him noticing at all. That was quite impressive.
But what surprised him even more was that there was not just one killing array.
When the first killing array was triggered, it was like lighting a string of firecrackers. All around the Black Mountain, for hundreds of miles in every direction, one killing array after another was set off!
The power of a single killing array was not enough to harm him, but when a thousand arrays erupted together, the force was terrifying!
Not only that, but Qin Mu and Blind had set up countless layers of killing arrays here. Some were hidden in extremely subtle places—inside the ground shattered by the tall, gaunt freak, buried in the soil, within the rocks of the Black Mountain.
Those pieces of earth and rock were being pulled into the strange eye behind him, and now they were exploding inside that eye!
Outside the Ten Thousand Black Mountains, Blind, Granny Si, and the others were migrating away from the Black Mountain sacred ground. At that moment, Blind looked back. In the darkness, from the direction of the Great Black Mountain, boundless murderous aura surged into the sky. Countless killing arrays operated within that aura, dazzling to behold.
The Great Dao of heaven and earth was drawn by those arrays, transforming into calamitous killing formations with power that shook heaven and earth!
"This is my greatest skill."
Blind murmured softly: "The art of formations. Heaven sends forth killing intent, earth sends forth killing intent, man sends forth killing intent—the Three Absolutes Calamity Formation of Heaven, Earth, and Man. My lifelong Dao attainments, combined with Mu'er's magical power, this is all I can do..."
His eyes were bright, filled with hope. He muttered to himself: "Mu'er, with your magical power, can you mobilize the Great Dao of heaven and earth to slay that prehistoric existence?"
Just as he said this, suddenly, one killing array after another collapsed and disintegrated. The Three Absolutes Calamity Formation of Heaven, Earth, and Man crumbled, swept away by an overwhelming force!
Blind's eyes dimmed. Granny Si's voice came: "Blind, stop looking! Let's go!"
Blind turned around and silently followed her.
Granny Si said nothing. Blind was silent for a moment, then said: "This battle is not without a chance of victory. Mu'er and I set up another trump card—an altar..."
Granny Si suddenly asked: "Where is Lame? Where has that damned Lame gone?"
She looked around. In the darkness, figures flickered, but there was no sign of Lame.
Just as she was about to search, Blind took her arm and shook his head: "Don't look for him. You know, Lame loves Mu'er the most. Even though Mu'er sent him away, he's already sneaked back. He won't watch Mu'er die..."
Granny Si flew into a rage, shouting: "So he's just going to watch him die? Why didn't you stop him?"
Blind said calmly: "If I could save Mu'er, I would gladly die too."
Granny Si's chest heaved violently, and she said no more.
In the Great Black Mountain, between the cracked peaks, that strange eye was tattered and broken, severely damaged by the Three Absolutes Calamity Formation of Heaven, Earth, and Man. Inside the eye, the tall, gaunt freak was furious. His hair flew wildly, and his body was covered in wounds.
In the moment he was trapped by the killing formation, Qin Mu, who had been shattered into countless particles, finally broke free from his confinement. The Indestructible Matter ability erupted, restoring him to his original state. He still held tightly to the wooden staff.
At that moment, a massive altar emerged beneath Qin Mu's feet. The tall, gaunt freak stared coldly at this enormous altar.
The altar had already been activated, opening a passage to another space!
The sky shattered. An incredibly powerful aura came through. Huge heads poked out from the rift, and a thunderous voice rang out: "Which insignificant being dares to summon the most powerful and majestic sovereign of the Beast Realm?"
An enormous dragon head descended from the sky, coiling down to hover above the altar. Its eyes were like twin suns, and it spoke leisurely: "The most ancient Dragon Xiao, the Divine King, descends. Tiny life form, present your sacrifice... Mu Tianzun!"
Dragon Xiao's massive body was still in the Beast Realm, but one of his heads came to hover above the altar. One head stared at Qin Mu in shock, while the other heads looked at the strange eye and the tall, gaunt freak inside it!
"Damn you, Mu Tianzun!"
Dragon Xiao's nine heads strained to pull back into the Beast Realm, all nine roaring in fury: "Every time you call me, it's nothing good..."
Qin Mu said coldly: "Dragon Xiao, you promised me three things. This is the first! Sovereign of the Beast Realm, are you going to break your word and grow fat on it?"