Chapter 1504: The Truth of the Great Annihilation
The Primordial Emperor’s primordial spirit was trapped by Ling Tianzun within the Unchanging Divine Ability and had yet to escape. Therefore, Qiang Tianfei’s body contained no primordial spirit. The Holy Lord’s teaching rod was specifically aimed at primordial spirits, striking with sure accuracy. Once struck, anyone whose Dao heart was inferior would be controlled by the caster.
However, facing a freak like Qiang Tianfei, who had no primordial spirit and relied solely on divine consciousness, the teaching rod was utterly useless.
Qin Mu looked toward Qiang Tianfei and saw her standing on a stump of the Dao Tree, relying on the woman within the Dao Fruit to cross the Chaotic River, charging forward with overwhelming momentum. Earlier, the woman in the Dao Fruit had failed to block the Holy Lord’s teaching rod, indicating that her cultivation and strength were inferior to the Holy Lord’s. However, it was certain that she was a cultivator who had achieved the Dao in a previous era.
Qin Mu pondered for a moment, then urged the small boat formed from his crutch to avoid Qiang Tianfei, choosing not to continue the relentless struggle. With his current strength, killing Qiang Tianfei was no easy task, and even if he did kill her, it would not mean killing the Primordial Emperor. To truly eliminate the Primordial Emperor, he would have to ascend to the Great Luo Heaven and uproot his Dao Tree and Dao Fruit.
Previously, Qiang Tianfei had the weakness of her Dao Tree, which constrained her during attacks, forcing her to avoid it. Coupled with Qin Mu’s deliberate scheming, she had been led to believe that the Calamity Sword was a Dao weapon Qin Mu had luckily obtained from Jade Capital City, and thus she wanted to seize it. This caused her to fall into Qin Mu’s trap and lose the initiative. But such a trick could only be used once; it would certainly fail a second time.
If it came to a direct confrontation, Qin Mu would have to face those two God-Slaying Profound Blades. Those two divine blades were incredibly fierce—even the Heavenly Lord’s physical body could not withstand them. They could be called the number one fierce weapons under heaven. Facing these two blades, Qin Mu would have to set up dozens of Unchanging Divine Abilities in advance, just as he had done against the cultivator who achieved the Dao in the Great Black Mountain, activating them the moment he was wounded by the God-Slaying Profound Blades to avoid death. But on the Chaotic River, such a bizarre place was clearly unsuitable for setting up Unchanging Divine Abilities. A single misstep and falling in would surely result in death and the dissolution of the Dao!
His purpose in coming here was not to fight Qiang Tianfei to the death, but to investigate Taiyi’s whereabouts and explore the Jade Capital realm.
“The Primordial Emperor’s path is still too narrow. He has actually joined forces with beings from a previous era, cutting himself off from all under heaven.”
Qin Mu took out the God-Slaying Platform and tried to activate it, attempting to see if he could take away Qiang Tianfei’s two God-Slaying Profound Blades. Although Qiang Tianfei was a Heavenly Lord, her personal cultivation was relatively weak among the Ten Heavenly Lords. Without a primordial spirit, even with the fusion of the Primordial Emperor’s head, her cultivation could only rank among the lower tier of the Ten Heavenly Lords. But those two divine blades were truly formidable. The reason Qiang Tianfei had brought the Ancestral Court’s God-Slaying Platform was to guard against someone among the Ten Heavenly Lords using immense divine power to seize the two blades.
Earlier, when Qin Mu used the Void Form Guest Taiji to trap the two blades, she had used the God-Slaying Platform to retrieve them and counterattack Qin Mu. This showed that the God-Slaying Platform had a controlling effect on the two God-Slaying Profound Blades.
The moment Qin Mu took out the Ancestral Court’s God-Slaying Platform, Qiang Tianfei sensed it. Enraged and frantic, she unleashed her divine consciousness without hesitation, surging toward Qin Mu like a tidal wave! At the same time, Qin Mu activated the Ancestral Court’s God-Slaying Platform, mobilizing the Dao power contained within it. The two divine blades in Qiang Tianfei’s hands immediately went out of control, becoming difficult to manage!
Numerous large hands reached out, grabbing the Dao Tree stump beneath Qiang Tianfei’s feet and pulling it toward the Chaotic River. Qiang Tianfei’s feet entered the water, and her two legs were instantly immersed in the Annihilation Calamity of the previous universe, turning to ash and vanishing!
Simultaneously, Qin Mu was struck by Qiang Tianfei’s divine consciousness, his mind becoming dazed and confused. His control over Taiyi’s crutch immediately faltered, and the small boat formed from the crutch carried him, rushing toward the Chaotic River!
Both were startled. Qin Mu quickly withdrew the God-Slaying Platform and steadied the small boat, only to find that it had already sunk beneath the river’s surface. The Annihilation Calamity surged in, corroding his feet! Before his physical body could dissolve completely, Qin Mu rushed out of the Chaotic River, only to see that both of his lower legs had completely rotted away!
He turned back to look, and saw that Qiang Tianfei’s two lower legs had also been completely annihilated.
The two stared at each other from a distance, each feeling a lingering fear. Qin Mu turned around, drove the small boat away with a whoosh, and disappeared into the vast chaotic mist. Qiang Tianfei also stopped pursuing.
Both possessed the power to destroy the other, so they had to compromise and avoid each other to prevent mutual destruction.
This Chaotic River was truly magnificent. The small boat traveled on the river’s surface, directionless, with chaotic mist everywhere, making it impossible to see the end. Qin Mu stopped the boat, activated the Creation Mystic Art, and gradually grew back his two lower legs, feeling a deep sense of fear. “This Annihilation Calamity is too fierce. Without achieving the Dao, even strength on par with the Ten Heavenly Lords cannot withstand it!”
After his legs recovered, he continued forward. Although the place was directionless, his vertical eye could see through the chaos. As long as he approached the shore, his gaze could pierce the mist and see the opposite bank. However, after searching the river for a long time, Qin Mu still could not find the opposite shore.
Time passed bit by bit, and he began to grow anxious. Not only had he failed to find the opposite shore, but he had also lost track of the way back!
“Damn it…” Worry crept into his heart. If he could not find the opposite shore or the way back, he might be trapped here forever! In the chaos, there was no distinction between north and south, no up or down. If he got lost, he could only rely on luck. No geographical map would work here because there was nothing to use as a reference point!
“If I could be trapped here together with the Ten Heavenly Lords, that would be a great blessing for the mortal world.” His mood calmed again. The Ten Heavenly Lords had committed many evils. If he were trapped with them, the world would be rid of them, giving the Yan’kang civilization ample time to develop. Overthrowing the Heavenly Court would only be a matter of time.
He did not give up hope and continued searching. But as days passed, he still could not find the opposite shore of the Chaotic River. Not only that, but he had not even encountered any other Heavenly Lords. This river was too vast; meeting other Heavenly Lords was also very difficult.
Suddenly, Qin Mu’s gaze fell beneath the river’s surface, and a look of surprise appeared on his face. He saw a strange scene in the universe below that was being destroyed! There, beneath the towering World Tree, the phantom of a giant wielding a Chaos Axe was walking toward the tree! The scene he had seen earlier was of the giant Taiyi holding the axe and chopping at the World Tree, but now it seemed as if time was flowing backward, and Taiyi was at the moment before he began chopping!
This was very strange.
His heart stirred, and he urged the small boat to sail in a random direction. After a moment, Qin Mu looked at the World Tree again and saw that Taiyi had already arrived at the base of the tree with his axe. He stopped the boat, turned around, and sailed in another direction, only to see Taiyi retreating, moving farther and farther away from the World Tree.
Qin Mu was stunned, then overjoyed. This Chaotic River was directionless, but there was a reference point! That reference point was the process of the previous universe’s destruction!
He urged the small boat forward continuously, watching as Taiyi’s phantom grew farther and farther from the World Tree until it finally disappeared. Meanwhile, the Annihilation Calamity in the universe below seemed to flow backward. The annihilated Dao was restored, the shattered heavens and broken worlds were vomited back from the chaos one by one, recovering! The beings who had died in the Annihilation Calamity reorganized their physical bodies and primordial spirits from the chaotic mist, returning to the moment before the destruction. The stars revived from death, and starlight shone once more!
Qin Mu continued forward, and the starry river appeared, and the Ancestral Court reappeared! The Annihilation Calamity of the previous universe seemed to replay in reverse before his eyes.
He saw the early stages of the previous universe’s destruction. The worlds there had reached a high level of civilization, and he saw many different types of civilizations. For example, there were civilizations based on sacrifice, civilizations based on faith, civilizations of Dao cultivators, mechanical civilizations, and countless others. These worlds were ruled by various cultivators who had achieved the Dao, each with its unique civilization structure and world order. Before the great Annihilation Calamity descended here, everything was peaceful.
Those cultivators who achieved the Dao had towering figures that enveloped their respective worlds, giving an immensely magnificent and majestic feeling. They were the rulers of these worlds, transforming the realms they governed according to their own will.
Qin Mu only glanced briefly. He could not say that the worlds governed by these Dao achievers were bad, but as far as his eyes could see, he found that the previous universe was many times smaller than he had expected. This universe was too small. Its Ancestral Court was many times smaller than the current one, and the myriad heavens and countless worlds were not as awe-inspiring as those of the present universe. The entire universe was only one-thousandth the size of the current universe, or even smaller!
Qin Mu continued to look, searching for the source of the Annihilation Calamity. Finally, his gaze fell on the Ultimate Void. There, Dao Trees stood like a forest—so many of them! The energy of the Dao was highly concentrated, and the trees shone with brilliant light, towering and magnificent. The light emitted by the Dao Fruits was even more dazzling than the stars and starry rivers in the sky!
However, in that Great Luo Heaven, the great Annihilation Calamity had already erupted, sweeping through everything in the Ultimate Void! As the saying goes, ducks know the warmth of spring water first. Many cultivators who achieved the Dao had already sensed the upheaval and were cutting apart the Great Luo Heaven, slicing it into pieces, accelerating the Annihilation Calamity! That great Annihilation Calamity surged from the Ultimate Void, destroying layer after layer of void, sweeping into the real universe!
At that moment, the cultivators who achieved the Dao and controlled various worlds flew toward the World Tree, while others flew toward the Chaotic River—they should have been heading toward the Miluo Palace and Jade Capital City.
Qin Mu watched this scene, unconsciously slowing down the small boat, tracing back bit by bit until the time froze at the eve of the previous universe’s destruction.
At that moment, the small boat beneath his feet came to a slight halt, finally touching the opposite shore of the Chaotic River. However, he did not step ashore. Instead, his gaze was fixed tightly on the chaos within the river. There, he saw the last cultivator to achieve the Dao in the previous universe. To cultivate his Dao and entrust it to the void, he had chosen to cultivate the Killing Dao. That cultivator destroyed world after world, slaughtering countless beings. As those worlds were annihilated and the stars returned to chaos, he absorbed that power and finally achieved the Killing Dao. His Dao condensed in the Ultimate Void, forming a Dao Tree and bearing a Dao Fruit, ultimately becoming the last straw that broke the Ultimate Void’s back.
The moment his Dao Fruit was formed, the Annihilation Calamity that swept the entire universe finally erupted in the Ultimate Void! But in truth, even before this, the Ultimate Void had already become unstable, with frequent violent tremors shaking the Dao Trees of the cultivators who achieved the Dao! Not only did the Dao Trees shake, but even the various worlds of the entire universe were constantly vibrating and trembling!
“Energy is highly concentrated, causing collapse, and the source of this collapse is the Ultimate Void!”
Qin Mu steadied his mind, withdrew his gaze, and walked toward the shore, thinking to himself, “The Ten Heavenly Lords do not have as powerful a gaze as mine; they probably cannot find the opposite shore. Perhaps Qiang Tianfei, with the guidance of that woman in the Dao Fruit, might be able to find it, but the other Heavenly Lords won’t…”
The moment his foot touched the ground, the expression on his face froze. There, standing right in front of him, were the Ten Heavenly Lords—Hao Tianzun, Xiao Tianzun, and the others—with Qiang Tianfei surrounded in the middle by the other nine!
Qin Mu’s heart skipped a beat. He turned around and leaped back onto the small boat.