Chapter 1613: The Number Forty-Two
On the Ferry World Golden Ship, in the final golden hall, Qin Mu reached out his hand and gently touched that Dao Flower.
The Dao Flower spun, cutting his finger.
"The Dao Flower is still here. The Dao Flower is still here..."
Qin Mu murmured, as if feeling no pain. "You told me, 'See you in the Chaos Hall.' What did that mean? You should still be alive, right? There's a chance you're still alive..."
The sword blade within the Dao Flower spun, emitting a tinkling, ringing sound, as if responding to him.
Qin Fengqing and Tai Shi entered the golden hall, their gazes falling on the Dao Flower. Tai Shi asked, puzzled, "Is this the Dao Flower of the Founding Emperor?"
Qin Mu nodded. "I still don't understand the specifics. Why could the Founding Emperor's Dao Flower survive an attack from the Fourth Young Master of the Miluo Palace? That attack was aimed at Ling Tianzun. Its power could have completely erased her. The force of that single zither string was enough to utterly destroy the Founding Emperor, leaving nothing behind. Yet this Dao Flower was preserved..."
He mused, "There must be a power I haven't detected, protecting the Founding Emperor's Dao Flower, leaving him a thread of hope. This person's divine abilities are vast... Chaos Hall, Chaos Hall... What place is that?"
He looked somewhat lost.
Qin Fengqing quickly circled the hall once but found no trace of the Founding Emperor's "ghost." His expression was strange, and he said dejectedly, "Brother, I clearly saw the ancestor's ghost. Strange, if it's not here, where is it?"
"Are you sure it was him?" Qin Mu asked.
"Definitely him!"
Qin Fengqing said, "I couldn't be wrong! That aura, that bearing, and that sword path—it was absolutely him!"
Tai Shi hesitated for a moment, then said, "The appearance was also him. But we couldn't touch him; we just passed right through his body..."
Qin Mu paced back and forth, deep in thought, muttering, "Why couldn't we touch him? Could it be him in an immutable state?"
He recalled Ling Tianzun's experience.
Back when he rescued Ling Tianzun, leaving behind the Miluo Palace Dao patterns, he and the Founding Emperor and others stayed in the Divine Consciousness Great Luo Heaven to fight the Grand Emperor, while Ling Tianzun cast a spell to send them forty thousand years into the future, remaining herself forty thousand years in the past.
At that time, there were two Ling Tianzuns: the one in the real world and the one trapped in the Heavenly River's immutable divine ability.
Both of these Ling Tianzuns existed in an unobserved state.
If someone's gaze fell upon Ling Tianzun, she would collapse, and the Ling Tianzun trapped in the Heavenly River's immutable divine ability would become the sole reality.
This was the uniqueness of matter under observation.
In the unobserved state, Ling Tianzun had two possibilities: one living in the real world, and one endlessly dying and reviving in the Heavenly River.
Only Ling Tianzun herself could break this state, and at that time, she was buried in her research on the Miluo Palace Dao patterns, waiting for Qin Mu's era to arrive.
She only broke it once when she saw the Founding Emperor.
Thus, over the span of forty thousand years, Ling Tianzun had hardly appeared.
"The Founding Emperor might also be in this state."
Qin Mu paced, thinking. "The Founding Emperor you saw was likely a future version glimpsed inadvertently. A being of almost unimaginable power used supreme divine ability to send him into the future when the Fourth Young Master's divine ability erupted. And the Founding Emperor was sent by that unimaginable being into an object that could pierce through the future—that object is the Ferry World Golden Ship!"
His eyes gradually brightened, his pace quickened, and his speech sped up. He suddenly clapped his hands. "That's what it means to board the ghost ship... no! The Ferry World Golden Ship! People who board the golden ship see ghosts and feel like the ghosts are talking to them! These aren't real ghosts, but the Founding Emperor, sent by that unimaginable being onto the future golden ship!"
He said excitedly, "This golden ship was refined by the master of the Miluo Palace. The ship itself is equivalent to an eternally unchanging substance! It can pass through the great tribulations of universe after universe! Therefore, in an immutable material state, it can appear in the past! Grandmother Si and the others met someone from the future on the ship and thought it was the master of the Miluo Palace, saying he guided their cultivation! That wasn't the master of the Miluo Palace—it was the Founding Emperor!"
The more he spoke, the more excited he became. "The Founding Emperor in a future state! Because he is in a different time-space from us, our interaction with him is like my conversation with Cloud Sovereign on the Heavenly River back then—only able to see each other vaguely! That's how it is with the Founding Emperor!"
Even more excited, he suddenly released his primal qi, visualizing runes. In an instant, countless mathematical runes appeared, crackling and shifting unpredictably!
Qin Fengqing watched his twin brother, seemingly possessed, constantly changing all sorts of bizarre runes, and was stunned.
These runes changed so rapidly they made him dizzy. After watching for a moment, Qin Fengqing nearly vomited and quickly looked away.
"Little fatty, what is my brother doing?" he asked curiously.
Tai Shi stared intently, very excited, his eyes fixed on the runes formed by Qin Mu's primal qi. Without looking up, he said, "He's calculating! Truly wondrous and profound! And this algorithm... excellent!"
Qin Fengqing was completely lost and humbly asked, "What is he calculating?"
"Whether his hypothesis is feasible!"
Tai Shi grew even more excited, clearly understanding Qin Mu's calculations. His eyes darted rapidly, and he clapped in admiration. "Wonderful! So this is the solution... You don't understand? Aren't you two brothers? I heard you share the same brain, but yours seems to be lacking..."
Qin Fengqing's face darkened, and he punched Tai Shi in the right eye.
Tai Shi's eyes both swelled into slits, and he muttered, "Truly brothers..."
Qin Mu exhausted his knowledge, calculating frantically, even developing new algorithms during the process. He was already one of the highest masters of mathematics in the current world, perhaps slightly inferior to Lin Xuan, but not far behind.
The mathematics of Eternal Peace had been pushed to an extremely high level by the Eternal Peace Dao Sect. Every time Qin Mu returned, he would go to the Eternal Peace Dao Sect to study.
Dao Master Lin Xuan could be said to be at the forefront of mathematics, but whatever he knew, Qin Mu basically knew as well.
Moreover, when Ling Tianzun analyzed the Miluo Palace Dao patterns, she also created her own mathematical system. When Qin Mu learned the Miluo Palace Dao patterns from her, he also absorbed her mathematical system, lest Ling Tianzun find him too stupid to teach.
Qin Mu tried to merge the Eternal Peace mathematical system with Ling Tianzun's, creating more algorithms. After more than ten days, the entire hall could no longer hold so many mathematical runes.
Qin Mu went outside and continued his frantic calculations.
After another ten-plus days, Qin Fengqing looked up and saw that the mathematical runes Qin Mu had visualized with his primal qi had filled the sky above the golden ship, forming a vast canopy that stretched endlessly into the distance!
By now, even Tai Shi couldn't understand Qin Mu's calculations. The little fatty sat on the ground like a round egg with a head on top, his hands cupping his chin, staring blankly at one formula.
After a while, he suddenly jumped up, like a big ball bouncing a small ball into the air, and said joyfully, "I understand!"
But after landing, he looked dejected and said sheepishly to Qin Fengqing, "I think I miscalculated..."
Qin Mu was still calculating frantically, but as time passed, his pace of solving slowed. His expression grew serious, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
Sweat flowed like a spring, quickly soaking his clothes.
Qin Fengqing paced anxiously, muttering, "Is it done yet? Has he figured it out... We're at the Southern Heaven!"
He hurried to the bow and looked down. The magnificent main continent of the Southern Heaven and a series of splendid celestial domains appeared beneath the golden ship.
The Ferry World Golden Ship sailed through the void of the Southern Heaven like a ghost, gliding silently.
Qin Fengqing, with twin horns on his head, looked down.
His appearance was identical to a young Qin Mu, like a mold stamped out, with a hint of the youthful innocence unique to Qin Mu in his younger days.
The only difference was the horns on his head—the horns of the Earth Lord.
Qin Fengqing kept looking around. Suddenly, his heart trembled as he saw a celestial domain twist, turning into a massive wheel.
This twisting was terrifying—it was using boundless divine power to warp the entire space of the celestial domain, even twisting its starry regions into a ring!
That celestial domain contained a galaxy, countless suns and planets, all forcibly twisted into a ring.
In the current world, only a few possessed such immense divine power!
Besides Hao Tian Emperor, Tai Chu, Cloud Sovereign, and the Return to Ruins Goddess, probably only Ancestral God King, who controlled the Heavenly Lord's physical body, and Fire Heavenly Lord could do it!
"I see Fire Heavenly Lord!"
Qin Fengqing grew anxious, not daring to look directly at Fire Heavenly Lord for fear of being detected. He whispered, "Hasn't my brother figured it out yet? So slow!"
Crash!
The Netherworld Heavenly Gate appeared, and the Nether Sea surged out from the gate. The Nether Emperor sat on the threshold, mocking Fire Heavenly Lord, and was then blown apart by a finger from Fire Heavenly Lord.
"That's Little Nether? Fire Heavenly Lord's divine ability is strong, but it seems unable to kill him."
Qin Fengqing had fought the Nether Emperor more than once in the Tai Xu Land. Earlier, their strength was similar, but later, Qin Fengqing devoured the souls of fallen gods and demons from the Heavenly Court, gradually surpassing the Nether Emperor. However, the Nether Emperor had many tricks, especially his reincarnation divine abilities, which were bizarre and allowed him to escape death every time.
Thus, Qin Fengqing knew the Nether Emperor's methods well.
Within the Reincarnation Heavenly Gate, the Nether Emperor revived again, extremely excited, and said to Fire Heavenly Lord, "I know you've always looked down on me. How could the esteemed Fire Heavenly Lord look down on a despicable little man like me? But you don't know, your weakness has long been in my grasp!"
He stood in the Reincarnation Heavenly Gate, full of bravado. "Fire Heavenly Lord, killing you would take no effort at all!"
Qin Fengqing clenched his fists, about to study the Nether Emperor's reincarnation path, when a voice suddenly came from beside him: "The Nether Emperor is about to die. Hao Tian Emperor couldn't tolerate the Great Sun Star Lord, so how could he tolerate the Nether Emperor, who knows even more of his unspeakable secrets?"
Qin Fengqing quickly turned his head and saw Qin Mu had somehow come up behind him.
He hurriedly looked behind Qin Mu and asked quickly, "Brother, have you figured it out?"
He only saw a sky full of runes, all kinds of mathematics, but couldn't understand them, nor did he know if Qin Mu had gotten a result.
Now, only Tai Shi sat there, still cupping his chin, listlessly staring at a formula.
Qin Mu looked a bit tired and nodded. "I've figured it out. It's feasible. I also calculated which year in the future the Founding Emperor will appear."
He gently flicked, and a rune flew over.
The rune transformed, forming the characters "forty-two."
"Forty-two years from now."
Qin Mu smiled, his expression somewhat haggard. "He will appear on this Ferry World Golden Ship."
---The Qidian Seventeenth Anniversary celebration has ended. After returning home, Zhaizhu immediately started writing and hasn't eaten dinner yet. Starving. Asking for monthly votes. Going to eat now; I'll check how many monthly votes have increased when I get back.