Chapter 1502: Calamity's Vastness Suppresses the Great River
On the river surface, chaos stretched vast and boundless. The ten Heavenly Sovereigns, including Qiang Tianfei, had each felled a Dao Tree and were using the trees as boats to cross the river!
The Dao Trees in Jade Capital City belonged to those who had achieved enlightenment and survived the great destruction calamity. Yet now, the ten Heavenly Sovereigns had cut them down to use as ferries.
Even Qin Mu had to admire the ten Heavenly Sovereigns' audacity and ingenuity. However, as the strongest beings in the current universe, each possessed their own bearing and ambition, often making moves that others found unimaginable.
For instance, Divine Sovereign Langxuan had forcefully seized the Dao Fruit of a prehistoric enlightener, displaying extraordinary boldness.
That the ten Heavenly Sovereigns would make such a move was only to be expected.
Qin Mu gazed into the distance and saw Dao Trees emerging and vanishing within the chaotic qi. From time to time, enormous skeletal figures rose from the Chaos River, attempting to drag the ten Heavenly Sovereigns, who stood atop their Dao Trees, into the water.
The ten Heavenly Sovereigns each employed their own techniques, driving back these powerful entities.
This Chaos River was far more dangerous than Qin Mu had imagined. Even the ten Heavenly Sovereigns found themselves in peril upon its waters.
The ten Heavenly Sovereigns had entered Jade Capital City two years ago. It had taken them two years to reach this point, and the dangers along the way were unimaginable. Yet during those two years, their cultivation and strength had advanced by leaps and bounds, clearly having gained tremendous benefits within the city.
Qin Mu had taken only a little over a month to reach this place, mainly because the ten Heavenly Sovereigns had cleared the path ahead, eliminating many dangers. Thus, he could travel so quickly.
As pioneers, the ten Heavenly Sovereigns had faced far more dangers here than he had.
They had paid more and reaped more; their increased strength was only natural.
Qin Mu pondered for a moment, then took out the Taiyi Staff. He tossed it into the air, and it fell into the river, growing longer and longer until it reached three zhang in length, then stopped.
The staff now resembled a small boat, its prow curving upward.
He stepped forward, landing on the boat's prow, and the small vessel began to move forward.
This little boat was much faster than the Dao Trees beneath the ten Heavenly Sovereigns' feet. After all, it was a treasure refined by Taiyi from the World Tree, far more formidable than those Dao Trees.
Qin Mu stood at the prow, gazing ahead. He saw towering, shadowy figures rising from the river within the chaotic qi, blocking the boat's path.
One shadow spoke in the chaotic qi, using Dao Language. Its question was strange.
It asked Qin Mu why he was preventing it from reaching the shore.
Qin Mu pressed his hand on his sword hilt and replied, also in Dao Language, telling the shadow that this universe did not belong to them. Their arrival would cause this universe to collapse and be destroyed.
Suddenly, the shadow grew agitated. It thrust a massive head out from the chaotic qi—a head as large as a mountain, pushing aside the chaos and appearing before the small boat!
Qin Mu looked up at this skull, which was nothing but bone. Compared to a human skull, it was irregular, with many sharp bone spurs growing from its cranium.
What was enviable was that this being possessed Dao Bones—bones forged from the Great Dao itself, incredibly powerful. That was how it had survived the destruction calamity, undying and indestructible!
The path it had cultivated was clearly another route, somewhat similar to what Divine Sovereign Langxuan had described: imprinting the physical body onto the Ultimate Void!
Divine Sovereign Langxuan had not yet achieved this step, but this being already had!
The skull opened its massive jaws and roared furiously at Qin Mu. From its words, it was angrily accusing Qin Mu of selfishness, of sitting by while the people of its universe died, unwilling to accept them as refugees.
It seized the moral high ground, using the deaths of the common people from its universe to rebuke Qin Mu, aiming to shake his Dao heart.
Words alone had no power, but when combined with Dao Language, they could truly kill a person's spirit.
Qin Mu drew his sword. The moment the blade left its sheath, a brilliant sword light severed the skull's neck, piercing through layers of chaotic qi!
"Invite you here to be our masters? After you land, you would enslave us, making us toil while you enjoy yourselves, until the universe is destroyed, and then you abandon us to flee to the next universe."
Qin Mu's gaze was strange. He lifted his foot and stomped down heavily, forcing the skeletal figure to sink into the Chaos River. His Dao Language rumbled and clashed against the other's Dao Language: "You are no different from the ten Heavenly Sovereigns—in fact, you are even worse! You are inferior to them!"
The skull fell into the Chaos River, and soon the headless body swam over, retrieved the skull, and placed it back on its neck.
Qin Mu returned his sword to its sheath and glanced at the Chaos River. The small boat sailed forward, while the skeletal figure swam in the river, following close behind.
Qin Mu raised an eyebrow. His Divine Treasury Domain expanded.
His hand gripped the sword hilt tightly, ready to strike.
In the Chaos River, the skeletal divine figure swam gracefully, its massive shadow appearing beneath the boat, moving alongside it.
At the same time, other enormous shadows appeared around the boat—some were Dao Trees in the chaos, others were souls residing in fragments of the Great Luo Heaven.
Qin Mu sneered. He activated the Overlord Body Three Dan Art to its utmost limit.
His hand grew steadier, and the power of his Calamity Sword became more and more restrained. Behind him, the World Tree stood tall, rooted in the Ancestral Court, while simultaneously drawing chaotic qi from the Chaos River below!
Boom—
The Chaos River exploded. Two massive hands reached out from the water, one on each side, grabbing the sides of the small boat and pulling it down into the chaos!
Clang!
A sword cry rang out. A blindingly bright sword light flashed, and severed fingers flew into the air.
Qin Mu wielded his sword, pointing its tip downward. He reversed his grip on the hilt, as if bowing in a salute, and ten fingers exploded with a crack, dissolving into chaos!
Behind the boat, the surface of the Chaos River burst open. A colossal skeletal figure shot into the air, its mouth emitting heavy Dao Language, as if chanting a spell about to unleash a heaven-shaking divine technique!
But the moment the skeletal divine being opened its mouth, Qin Mu, still holding the Calamity Sword in a reverse grip, thrust it backward like lightning. The dazzling sword light plunged into the skeletal figure's mouth!
The back of the skeletal being's head exploded. Qin Mu lifted his sword, and the creature's skull was cleaved in two!
The bones fell into the water. The Chaos River seethed. A Dao Tree rose up, lifting the small boat above the river's surface. Yin winds howled as countless souls from the fragments of Great Luo Heaven flew out of the river, rushing toward the boat!
Dao Fruits also rose from the river, spinning as they wove Dao patterns and Dao chains, locking the small boat in place!
Qin Mu unleashed his sword path. The Calamity Sword's light flashed like lightning and beams, weaving through the air, severing the souls and splitting the Dao Fruits. Then he hurled the sword, and its light whirled around the Dao Tree below, cutting it down!
"Longhan's storms rise in yellow gloom; calamity's vastness suppresses the great river!"
He was caught up in the thrill of battle. Reaching out, he grabbed the Calamity Sword and thrust it forward again and again.
The skeletal divine being, having just re-formed its body, rose from the water only to find countless sword lights wrapping around it. It froze for a moment, then its bones snapped and collapsed. The Dao chains within its Dao Bones were severed one by one, breaking down into Dao patterns. Then the Dao patterns were severed, breaking down into Great Dao runes!
Within the sword light, even the Great Dao runes were decomposed, shattering and annihilating.
The skeletal divine being let out a great cry, then collapsed on the river's surface, scattering into nothingness, utterly destroyed!
Qin Mu swung his sword, sheathing the Calamity Sword, and stood tall on the boat's prow.
Behind him, layers of Dao Realms spread out like layers of heavens, forming twenty-nine layers of heavens.
Sword light wove above the twenty-ninth layer, beginning to form the thirtieth layer.
Around him, the Dao Trees within the chaotic qi faded and vanished, retreating into the depths of the chaos.
The wandering souls from the Great Luo Heaven fragments drifted away, sinking into the Chaos River. The Dao Fruits spun and disappeared one after another.
"This technique, I shall call Calamity Breaker."
Qin Mu lifted his right leg and placed his foot on the raised prow of the boat formed from the staff, ignoring the eerie presences around him as he gazed ahead.
This Calamity Breaker sword technique truly suppressed the great river—suppressed the Chaos River—causing those eerie beings that had tried to drag him into the water and take his place to cease their actions against the boat.
The Calamity Breaker technique targeted the composition of the Great Dao, working backward from its construction. It deconstructed the Great Dao, breaking down a domain into Dao chains, then the Dao chains into Dao patterns, then the Dao patterns into Great Dao runes, and finally annihilating the runes!
Others, like the ten Heavenly Sovereigns, dealt with the eerie beings in the Chaos River by relying on sheer power to knock them back into the water. While this damaged them, it was rarely fatal.
But once Qin Mu's Calamity Breaker technique was complete, it could dismantle their Great Dao, threatening their very existence. Thus, the beings in the Chaos River were unwilling to provoke him.
Behind Qin Mu, the thirtieth layer of heavens formed. This was the thirtieth Heavenly Dao Realm. Once this realm was complete, his Great Dao was imprinted into the Calamity Sword, further enhancing its power.
"Grandpa Mute truly forged this sword with incredible skill."
Qin Mu couldn't help but admire. When he had rushed here, Mute was still comprehending the Dao in the Ancestral Land of Dao Fire. No doubt this forging of the Calamity Sword would elevate his crafting path to astonishing new heights!
The title of the world's foremost artisan was well deserved!
With no more eerie beings in the Chaos River, the dugout canoe formed from the staff sped forward, gradually delving deeper into the great chaotic river.
The Chaos River seemed immeasurably wide, as if it would never reach the opposite shore. Gradually, Qin Mu sensed fluctuations of divine techniques ahead. His heart stirred, and he opened his vertical eye to look forward.
Suddenly, two blade lights silently snipped toward him. Qin Mu ducked, and the two blade lights crossed above his head, missing him but leaving a cut on his neck from which blood flowed.
After the two blade lights passed, they vanished into the chaotic qi.
Qin Mu looked up, drew the Calamity Sword, and thrust it forward!
As the sword thrust out, the chaotic qi stirred. The sword light disappeared into the chaos, and suddenly a pleasant cry of surprise came from ahead: "Opening Emperor Qin Ye? You ambushed me?"
"It's not the Opening Emperor."
Qin Mu spoke: "Supreme Emperor, you also call yourself 'I'?"
The voice ahead fell silent for a moment, then Qiang Tianfei's voice came, chuckling: "So it's Mu Heavenly Sovereign. You've grown quite skilled, boy. That sword strike caught me off guard and wounded me."
Whoosh—
A Dao Tree with roots writhing like tentacles appeared before Qin Mu. The tree stood on the Chaos River's surface, its roots moving like an octopus as it walked across the water.
Qiang Tianfei stood on the withered Dao Tree. Beside her hung a tattered Dao Fruit, within which a woman peered at Qin Mu through a hole in the fruit.