Chapter 1491: Entering the Mine Alone, Slaying Phantoms in the Cool Night
The crowd rushed toward the mine veins on the outskirts of the Black Mountain, only to see the sky gradually darkening.
On the outskirts of the Black Mountain, there were thousands of mine veins. Each mine vein signified a divine weapon of a powerful being from a past universe, and at the same time, it also signified a powerful being from that past universe waiting to descend!
The Great Blackwood was vast and boundless, with thousands of mine veins extending in all directions, encircling the outskirts of this hundred-thousand-mountain range. This scene was both spectacular and unbelievable.
The divine bow that Qin Mu had obtained came from one of these mine veins.
That mine vein contained not only the divine bow but also the imprint of the bow's Great Dao, which radiated outward and combined with the roots of the Great Blackwood to form countless extraordinary treasures!
The power of these treasures was also extremely formidable. Upon emerging, they possessed astonishing might, even surpassing that of ordinary heavenly god weapons.
If further refined, they could be forged into top-tier divine weapons.
The Yan Kang people had migrated here to mine these veins, extracting the treasures within them.
However, each mine vein contained the divine weapon of a powerful being from a past universe. The might of such divine weapons was immense, even surpassing that of Heavenly Lord treasures!
Even more terrifying was the fact that these divine weapons were often held in the hands of their owners!
The bodies of those powerful beings attempting to cross over were fused with the roots of the Great Blackwood, buried deep underground, awaiting an opportune moment to fully traverse into this world.
These powerful beings awaiting their descent, though not as strong as the lanky strange man, were still beings no less formidable than the Ten Heavenly Lords, and perhaps even stronger.
The lanky strange man was an accomplished Daoist like Tai Yi, while the powerful beings in the mine veins were likely lacking only the opportunity to achieve Dao.
Mining the Great Black Mountain veins was Qin Mu's idea. Back when he unearthed the divine bow, it triggered an invasion by the bow's owner. At that time, the combined strength of everyone in the Great Black Mountain was needed to seal it, turning it into a stone statue.
Later, after consulting with Tai Yi, Qin Mu decided to forge a divine weapon specifically to sever the hands of these illegal crossers and seize their treasures.
However, various matters later piled up, leaving him no time to forge the weapon. Qin Mu then ordered the Yan Kang people to continue mining the outer veins, but this time, they were only to extract the subsidiary treasures and not touch the divine weapons of the past universe's powerful beings.
Over the years, the Yan Kang miners had excavated many mine veins, but upon reaching the core, they would stop and move on to other veins.
The divine weapons and tools accumulated in the Great Black Mountain were also sent to Yan Kang to bolster its strength.
Now, Qin Mu was going alone to those mine veins, certainly not just for the sake of mining!
The sun set, and the anomalies in the Ancestral Court reappeared, but by then, the crowd had not yet reached the outskirts of the Great Black Mountain.
Suddenly, a violent eruption of power burst from one of the mine veins. Divine light shot into the sky, and within that light, the faint silhouette of a massive divine demon stood towering within a series of heavenly palaces. Then, it crashed down heavily upon the mining area!
The earth trembled, and several intense shockwaves followed in quick succession. The expressions of the crowd shifted. Wei Suifeng and Youming Crown Prince, both experts at the Imperial Throne realm, immediately dashed toward the source!
When they arrived, they saw that the entire mine vein had exploded, revealing an unfathomably deep abyss. Rolling divine light surged within, sealing the bottom.
Wei Suifeng and Youming Crown Prince's hearts skipped a beat. They immediately activated their heavenly palaces and cautiously descended.
From the deepest part of the mine vein came the unique Dao aura of a prehistoric powerful being—an ancient, eerie Dao that did not belong to the current universe. Clearly, a battle had taken place here!
They had to proceed with caution, lest a prehistoric monster escape and injure them.
They passed through the dense residual energy of divine abilities, the divine light swirling around them, causing a faint stinging sensation on their skin and in their primordial spirits.
It was evident that the prehistoric being trapped within the tree roots had taken advantage of Qin Mu's treasure retrieval, which had damaged the roots, to forcibly break free and engage in a fierce battle with Qin Mu!
"Second junior brother is becoming more and more reckless!" Wei Suifeng frowned deeply.
Below, divine light surged upward, obscuring their vision. However, as they descended further, they vaguely saw, at the deepest part of the mine, before a root as massive as a mountain range, stood a towering divine demon with a hunched back and multiple heads and arms!
That divine demon exuded overwhelming divine might, forming strange ribbons of divine light and power behind it. To their astonishment, Wei Suifeng and Youming Crown Prince saw a divine city faintly floating within those ribbons!
The Jade Capital City!
The two were startled and exchanged glances. Wei Suifeng whispered, "It's the Ancestral Court's Jade Capital City! This powerful being from a past universe cultivated the Jade Capital City system, not our Heavenly Palace cultivation system, but the Jade Capital cultivation system."
Youming Crown Prince had recently heard Wei Suifeng and Shu Jun mention the Jade Capital trap, and he felt only deep fear, marveling at the far-reaching schemes and foresight of the Miluo Palace Master.
But now, seeing that a past universe's powerful being had actually cultivated the Jade Capital cultivation system left them both puzzled.
"It seems the Ancestral Court's Jade Capital City is not merely a trap. The Miluo Palace Master likely had deeper intentions."
Youming Crown Prince mused, "Otherwise, beings from past universes wouldn't be able to cultivate the Jade Capital cultivation system."
However, the true intentions of the Miluo Palace Master were beyond their ability to fathom.
The two carefully made their way to the valley floor of the mining area, each activating protective divine abilities. This was the underground space created by the explosion of divine abilities. Even the roots of the Great Blackwood bore numerous wounds, a testament to the astonishing intensity of the battle!
But what surprised them was that the hunched divine demon remained motionless, frozen in a pouncing posture.
It was then that they noticed a massive hole in the chest of this divine demon, as powerful as a Heavenly Lord. Behind it, on the thick tree root, was a huge handprint in a bowing gesture.
The two approached the front of the majestic divine demon. Youming Crown Prince made a bowing gesture and pushed forward, pondering, "It's Mu Tianzun's divine ability, called 'Hunyuan Yiqi Dao Tongyou,' the twenty-sixth layer of his Dao-entry divine abilities!"
Wei Suifeng went behind the hunched divine demon to examine the mark left by the bowing push on the tree root. He saw strands of chaotic energy drifting from the wound, saying, "It is this divine ability. But the power is too fierce—far more intense than I imagined!"
They flew up and down, examining the body of the hunched divine demon. They found that its primordial spirit had become ethereal, like Tai Su's form with substance but no body, trapped within its physical form, which had turned to stone!
Even more peculiar was that its vital energy had become chaotic!
The two exchanged glances. Youming Crown Prince jumped into the tree root from which the hunched divine demon had emerged. The root had a large hole, just big enough to accommodate his body.
Though he wasn't hunched, he carried a tortoise shell on his back.
Wei Suifeng stepped forward, miming a bow-drawing pose, and shot a few imaginary arrows at him. Youming Crown Prince immediately leaped out of the root, about to speak, when Wei Suifeng drew a circle with his hands, forming a Taiji diagram, and pressed it onto his chest. Then, he struck with a "Tai Su Hu Kai Hun Dun Bao," impacting his primordial spirit, followed by a "Tai Shi Zhi Xing Wen Qing Ming," which chaoticized his bloodline!
Wei Suifeng then made a bowing gesture and pushed forward. Youming Crown Prince's body shook violently and froze in place.
Of course, Wei Suifeng didn't know Qin Mu's divine abilities; he was merely imitating their forms. Youming Crown Prince cooperated with him, and the two rehearsed the sequence, deducing the steps Qin Mu had taken in the battle.
Both were obsessed with divine abilities, and upon seeing such battlefield traces, they couldn't help but reconstruct the process.
"It should be like this—killing him in one go."
Youming Crown Prince regained his mobility, flew up, and stood behind the hunched divine demon, before its Jade Capital City. Gazing into the city, he saw thousands of palaces and halls, towering endlessly, with chaotic rivers crisscrossing in countless paths. This cultivation system was breathtaking!
"What a pity. This being's cultivation system was extremely unique. He must have been a remarkable existence, yet he was killed by Mu Tianzun in three moves without even knowing what hit him."
Youming Crown Prince shook his head, saying, "At the very least, he should have exchanged a few words with him, asked about his Jade Capital cultivation system, and then killed him."
Wei Suifeng said, "Junior brother had the advantage of striking first. This man's strength was certainly not inferior to the Ten Heavenly Lords, perhaps even stronger! Unfortunately, he was trapped in the past universe and tried to use the World Tree to escape his fate. But the World Tree was cut down by Tai Yi, leaving him trapped in the tree, unable to fully escape the destruction of his past universe. When he first arrived, he was in a weakened state, which is why junior brother took him down in three moves."
Despite saying this, he still held great admiration for Qin Mu.
Even if it were one of the Ten Heavenly Lords, being ambushed by Qin Mu with three consecutive moves would likely result in severe injury!
Such was the power of entering Dao through divine abilities!
Especially since Qin Mu had planted the World Tree in his divine storage, unifying his techniques and divine abilities, his Dao had advanced by leaps and bounds. Facing Qin Mu at this moment, even a Heavenly Lord could suffer a great loss with the slightest misstep!
Just then, another violent shockwave erupted. The two were startled and quickly soared into the air, heading toward another mining area.
Granny Si, Lan Yutian, and the others had only just arrived at this point. Seeing this, they quickly followed.
When the group reached this mine vein, they found it in complete disarray, filled with terrifying residual energy from divine abilities. Joining forces, they entered the depths of the mine. There, they found the corpse of another past universe's powerful being!
This being was even more miserable than the hunched divine demon from before. He had been dismembered by a strange divine weapon, and his primordial spirit had been transformed into pure energy!
This energy state was that of Tai Shi, but it was extremely unstable. It seemed that when he encountered Qin Mu's ambush, he had forcibly activated his power, causing his primordial spirit to explode, leaving the area in such chaos!
"Junior brother used the hunched divine demon's divine weapon to kill him, but the fatal blow was still 'Tai Shi Zhi Xing Wen Qing Ming'!"
Wei Suifeng was shocked. The power of this strike from Qin Mu was far greater than the one that had killed the hunched divine demon!
Suddenly, another violent tremor came from afar.
The group quickly rose from the mine and rushed toward it. When they arrived, Qin Mu had already left, leaving behind only a vast underground space in the mine and a headless, armless corpse.
The head of that past universe's being had been turned into chaotic energy. On the tree root behind him was a deep handprint from a push, and beneath his feet was a massive Taiji diagram!
"He's not far away!"
They heard another intense shockwave and hurriedly set off again, but once more, they arrived to find only the corpse of a prehistoric powerful being.
"At this rate, even a man of iron would be worn down to mud! And besides, people always make mistakes. If he slips up, it will be utter disaster!"
A sense of unease grew among the crowd. Mine after mine, they pressed on, but they were always one step behind Qin Mu. He had already cleared each mine, forcibly dragging the past universe's powerful beings from the tree roots and beating them to death!
The sky gradually lightened. They had been rushing all night, and finally, as the sun rose, they saw Qin Mu.
Qin Mu was sitting on a cliff face at the top of a Great Black Mountain peak. Below the cliff was a pile of various prehistoric treasures, their divine light shooting into the sky, vying with the morning sun!
Qin Mu sat there, looking somewhat weary, but his expression was calm. There was none of the reckless anger they had speculated about. On the contrary, he appeared extremely composed.
His gaze was deep, and though his voice carried fatigue, it was steady and firm. He said to the arriving crowd, "I appreciate everyone's concern. I intend to take some materials for forging a divine weapon. Now, it should be enough to forge my divine sword."
——It's the middle of the month! Calling for monthly votes for The Legend of Mu!