Chapter 1528: Experiment Failed
Qin Mu stood at the bow of the ship, his gaze exceptionally bright. Naturally, he was not blind; he had long since noticed the Empress Dowager.
However, his plan was to take advantage of the moment when the Empress Dowager had just broken out of her cocoon and was not yet fully in control of her cultivation, to launch a sneak attack and crush her beneath the ship in one fell swoop!
If the Empress Dowager were to cultivate the Heavenly Court realm and master the power of that realm, then in terms of sheer strength, she would reach a peak that even Hao Tianzun and Xiao Tianzun had never achieved!
Having fully mastered the Great Dao of Guixu, she could simultaneously possess the power of creation and destruction, becoming immortal and indestructible.
Not only that, but she could also combine the strengths of Lady Yuanmu, mastering the techniques and divine abilities of Hao Tianzun, Xiao Tianzun, Hong Tianzun, and others, achieving enlightenment through sheer force!
If she forcibly imprinted her power onto the Ultimate Void, then she would have no equal!
Qin Mu did not believe for a moment that the Taiji Ancient Gods could control the ambitious Empress Dowager. It would be a stroke of heaven’s fortune if the two ancient gods weren’t killed and devoured by her.
Suddenly, the Ferry of the Ages shook. The golden ship slowly began to rise.
Qin Mu’s heart jolted. The Ferry of the Ages had been rolling over all kinds of strange phenomena in Jade Capital City, even flattening the dense forest of Dao trees. Yet the Empress Dowager, pinned beneath the ship, had managed to lift it!
“Enlightenment through sheer force is truly extraordinary! If you then imprint yourself onto the Ultimate Void, you will truly be invincible under heaven!”
Qin Mu channeled his magical power, urging the golden ship. The ship instantly became immensely heavy, but beneath it, the Empress Dowager, supporting the ship with both hands, slowly stood up!
A series of divine halls rose up, forming her Heavenly Court. Her Heavenly Court realm was not yet truly perfect; she had as many as fifty divine halls, but not the full seventy-two, so she could not construct a complete Heavenly Court.
Even so, her magical power was already boundless!
Qin Mu’s eyes flickered. His Calamity Sword flew out, stabbing toward the Empress Dowager beneath the ship.
The Empress Dowager was using all her strength to lift the Ferry of the Ages. She only sensed the Calamity Sword behind her head at the last moment, and her heart turned cold: “Could it be that I’ve just achieved enlightenment, only to be schemed to death by that bastard Mu Tianzun?”
Just then, she suddenly felt two arms grow from her armpits, and her heavenly palace and divine halls seemed to be invaded by another consciousness. That consciousness mobilized her power to meet Qin Mu’s Calamity Sword!
“Who’s behind me?” the Empress Dowager cried out in terror.
“It’s me, sister!” Lady Yuanmu’s cheerful voice came from the back of her head.
Qin Mu immediately felt the power of his Calamity Sword being devoured by something. Startled, he quickly flew up from the ship, only to see the Empress Dowager, hair disheveled, fly out from beneath it.
The Ferry of the Ages crashed down heavily onto the ground.
The Empress Dowager’s face was panicked. She frantically attacked the back of her own head, completely ignoring Qin Mu, and shrieked, “Bitch, you’re still alive? Impossible! I clearly devoured and refined you!”
On the back of her head, another face had grown—none other than Lady Yuanmu!
“Sister, you are me, and I am you. How could you possibly refine yourself?”
This woman had one body but two faces, four arms, each pair frantically unleashing divine abilities against the other face, the power of their techniques astonishing.
Before Qin Mu could even get close, he was sent flying backward by the shockwaves of the two women’s attacks!
Yet the Empress Dowager and Lady Yuanmu paid him no attention at all, madly attacking each other, desperate to kill the other!
Qin Mu steadied himself, recalled his Calamity Sword, and struck at the bizarre woman with a single move: “Break Calamity.”
His sword technique was unparalleled. Beams of sword light cut through the two women’s divine abilities, leaving over a dozen wounds on the Empress Dowager’s body.
“Little bitch!”
The Empress Dowager flew into a rage and tried to dodge Qin Mu’s Calamity Sword, but found her body unresponsive. One of her legs had lost all sensation, now controlled by Lady Yuanmu!
As she tried to evade Qin Mu’s sword light, Lady Yuanmu was controlling her body to actively meet it.
“Mu Tianzun, help me kill her!”
Suddenly, the Empress Dowager turned her face, revealing Lady Yuanmu’s expression, and called out excitedly to Qin Mu: “Kill her, and I’ll support you as Heavenly Emperor!”
The Empress Dowager spun around, snarling, “You slut, colluding with an outsider!”
Her face twisted violently. Suddenly, the red mole between her eyebrows turned black, becoming a black mole.
Lady Yuanmu had taken the front, giggling, “Sister, you hate me the most, but now you have to share a body with me!”
The Empress Dowager’s face appeared on the back of her head, letting out a scream: “Taiji Ancient Gods, what have you done to me?”
She raised her hand and struck her other face heavily, turning it into a bloody mess.
Lady Yuanmu cried out in pain, enraged, and leaned back. The Empress Dowager’s face met the tip of Qin Mu’s sword.
The Empress Dowager shouted, drew a line in the air with her hand, and a Guixu Abyss split open. She dove into it.
The two women fought fiercely within the abyss. Suddenly, the abyss vanished and reappeared dozens of miles away, spitting them out. Qin Mu immediately soared into the air, landed on the Ferry of the Ages, and gave chase.
He saw the two women in that single body suddenly strike together, tearing off each other’s face!
Qin Mu was horrified. He stopped the golden ship and did not pursue.
A Guixu Abyss appeared, swallowing the bloody head, leaving only the Empress Dowager’s headless body.
“Little bitch, you’re finally dead!”
Laughter came from the headless body, but before it faded, a face grew on the palm of one hand—Lady Yuanmu—and another face grew on the other palm—the Empress Dowager.
The two women continued their slaughter, beating the headless body into a bloody pulp.
Qin Mu’s hair stood on end. The headless body suddenly rolled into the abyss, which closed and reappeared in the distance.
The Empress Dowager staggered out of the abyss, now with two heads squeezed onto one neck, one on the left and one on the right, still trying to kill each other.
They vanished again and reappeared. The Empress Dowager and Lady Yuanmu had become a monster crawling on the ground, with no legs, each having an upper body, using their hands as feet, racing across the ground while still killing each other!
Qin Mu’s eyes widened. The Empress Dowager fell into the abyss again. When she next appeared, her body had undergone another strange transformation.
They had become a monster with three legs and one torso, only one upper body, stumbling and fighting.
Qin Mu urged the Ferry of the Ages forward, only to see the woman’s two faces fused onto one face. This face had four eyes—two above and two below—a nose below another nose, and a mouth below another mouth.
From the two mouths poured all kinds of venomous curses, attacking and reviling each other.
Qin Mu chased after them, but the Empress Dowager and Lady Yuanmu could never separate or kill each other. They kept fighting and changing, becoming more and more bizarre.
“Crush them with the golden ship and end their suffering!”
Qin Mu drove the golden ship, accelerating toward the two women. Just as it was about to hit, the two women suddenly stopped fighting and raised their hands together to block the Ferry of the Ages.
Crack!
All four of their arms broke at once. The golden ship slammed into their chests, shattering their bones and tearing their sinews, sending them flying backward.
Qin Mu swung his sword, about to take their lives, when suddenly the bizarre body grew wildly, sprouting four new arms. The Empress Dowager and Lady Yuanmu struck together!
Qin Mu grunted, sent flying backward with his sword, crashing into the ship’s pavilion, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
The two women resumed their fierce battle, fleeing all the way, quickly escaping Jade Capital City and disappearing, leaving only curses echoing from afar, growing fainter and more distant.
Qin Mu slid down from the pavilion, struggled to his feet, coughed violently a few times, and was filled with horror.
If the Empress Dowager and Lady Yuanmu had joined forces, they would have wielded the power of an enlightened one. But these two women were only focused on killing each other, wanting to destroy the other and claim the body for themselves!
“How did the Empress Dowager and Lady Yuanmu end up like this?” he wondered, bewildered.
Just then, he saw the two Taiji Ancient Gods, supporting each other, sneaking toward the city gates.
Boom!
The Ferry of the Ages suddenly stopped in front of them. The Sun Ancient God and Lady Taiyin quickly looked up and saw Qin Mu on the bow. Both ancient gods forced smiles onto their aged faces.
“Mu Tianzun…”
Qin Mu was about to grab the two ancient gods and bring them onto the ship when suddenly a golden light flashed from the Ferry of the Ages, lifting the two elderly gods.
Unable to resist, they landed on the ship in the next moment.
Qin Mu was surprised: “Does this ship understand my intentions so well?”
“Mu Tianzun, we have never opposed you. Please spare us,” the Sun Ancient God said hastily.
Qin Mu softened his expression and said, “I have always respected your kindness. But what exactly happened to the Empress Dowager and Lady Yuanmu?”
The two ancient gods exchanged a glance and sighed in unison. “We forcibly fused them using the Taiji Dao, but we didn’t expect that the consciousness and thoughts of both Yuanmu and the Empress Dowager would remain, merging into one…”
“Can they be separated?” Qin Mu asked.
“We fused their physical bodies, their primordial spirits, and their souls into one. Their consciousness and thoughts are now completely merged.”
Lady Taiyin hesitated, then used her primordial energy to form a double-stemmed lotus flower, placing it in Qin Mu’s hand. “Mu Tianzun, can you turn this double-stemmed lotus into two separate lotuses? They cannot be separated.”
Qin Mu stared at the double-stemmed lotus, his expression growing stranger. “Do you mean that inside the Empress Dowager’s body, there is now actually one person, not two?”
The two elderly ancient gods nodded.
“The reason she is in this state is because you merged Yuanmu’s consciousness with the Empress Dowager’s consciousness.”
Qin Mu continued, “Her thoughts contain both the Empress Dowager’s thoughts and Yuanmu’s thoughts, but she herself doesn’t know this. She thinks she is the Empress Dowager.”
The Sun Ancient God said, “Or she thinks she is Yuanmu.”
“In other words…”
Qin Mu hesitated, then ventured, “The Empress Dowager has gone mad?”
The two ancient gods looked at each other, their old faces full of sorrow, and nodded. “She has gone mad. Our experiment… has failed…”
Qin Mu stood stunned. The Taiji Ancient Gods had created a mad enlightened one?