Chapter 1642: The Void Rubbish Dump
Tai Chu made a snap decision, hurling the flesh-and-blood pagoda out of the One Qi Grand Celestial Realm, then urged the Grand Celestial Realm to roar away!
"Since I can't stop him from breaking free, and there's no time to sink him into the river, I'll just toss him into the Ultimate Void! Whether the Ultimate Void can obliterate him or not will be left to luck!"
The One Qi Grand Celestial Realm vanished without a trace.
Tai Chu was also worried that if Qin Mu broke free, he would surely strike to kill.
Unable to win, he could retreat. The Ultimate Void was so vast that as long as he hid, no matter how formidable Qin Mu's divine abilities were, he wouldn't be able to find him.
The void was silent, empty of everything, with only the flesh-and-blood pagoda floating alone in the Ultimate Void.
From within the pagoda came Qin Mu's voice, laughing: "Tai Chu has left."
The Eight-Armed Demon God, Heavenly Demon King, put down his divine bow and said in surprise: "Pulling the bowstring was enough to scare him off? He's an accomplished Daoist, how did he become a startled bird?"
The bow in his hand was just an ordinary divine bow. The "twang, twang" sounds that had come from the pagoda earlier were him pulling the bowstring and firing a few phantom arrows.
"Tai Chu is a man who loves scheming but lacks decisiveness, fierce in appearance but timid at heart. He'll risk his life for petty gains but cherishes his skin when it comes to great matters."
Qin Mu said unhurriedly: "You pulling the bowstring and firing those phantom arrows made him mistakenly think I had already broken through this Hongmeng Dao Transformation technique and undone those Dao chains. Naturally, he fled in panic like a startled bird. The Ten Heavenly Honored Ones are all like this—rarely are there those who are brave and decisive. Speaking of which, Hao Tian is still considered decent among them."
Breaking the Hongmeng Dao Transformation sounded easy, and Lan Yutian was full of confidence, but the actual process would take a long time. By then, the flesh-and-blood pagoda would have already been sent by Tai Chu into the Chaotic Long River. That was why Qin Mu had the Heavenly Demon King imitate the sound of Dao chains snapping, to scare Tai Chu away.
He knew Tai Chu's character all too well.
Because Tai Chu had been framed by the Grand Emperor and forced to be born early, becoming the Grand Emperor's adopted son, he worked under the Grand Emperor with extreme caution while secretly plotting how to eliminate him.
Yet it took tens of billions of years before he got that opportunity. That opportunity was given to him by Tai Yi. Without Tai Yi's Dao transformation, which made the ancient gods rebel against the Grand Emperor, Tai Chu would likely have continued to endure.
After becoming the Heavenly Emperor, Tai Chu was full of ambition, but he was overthrown by Yun Tianzun and Hao Tianzun. Later, he transformed into Xiao, living a life of petty scheming, dealing with other Heavenly Honored Ones with false courtesy, and doing nothing for a million years.
He thought about restoring his rule but never acted on it, only focusing on hiding his identity.
Later, when Qin Mu emerged, Tai Chu began various schemes that seemed flawless, but he cherished his life too much. Thus, he was defeated by Hao Tianzun and had to submit, making his son Hao Tianzun the Heavenly Emperor.
And sometimes, for petty gains, he would dare to risk his life!
Loving scheming but lacking decisiveness, fierce in appearance but timid at heart, risking his life for petty gains but cherishing his skin in great matters—this was the best assessment of him!
The flesh-and-blood pagoda drifted silently through the Ultimate Void. Qin Mu was learning from Lan Yutian how to transform his cultivation into Hongmeng Primordial Energy. The pagoda, uncontrolled, was carried by the cold, desolate wind toward an unknown destination.
How vast was the Ultimate Void?
No one could answer that question.
Even Qin Mu only knew that the Ultimate Void was many times larger than the known universe, but he didn't know where its boundaries lay.
The void had no matter; everything here would be infinitely decomposed until it turned into nothingness. The voidification of the First Layer Void wasn't too terrifying, but the deeper one went, the stronger the voidification power became. Even beings at the Heavenly Honored level couldn't stay in the Thirty-Fifth Layer Void for long without risking voidification.
As for the Ultimate Void, only accomplished Daoists could preserve themselves. However, the flesh-and-blood pagoda was extremely peculiar, actually blocking the cold, desolate wind of the Ultimate Void, forming a barrier that protected the Hongmeng Primordial Energy Qin Mu had transformed into and the Yan Kang people within.
The pagoda drifted for an unknown amount of time before suddenly coming to a slight halt, as if hitting something, and stopped moving.
Inside the pagoda, it was completely silent.
Lan Yutian and the Heavenly Demon King looked out through Qin Mu's eyes and saw that the pagoda had come to rest in a place of ruins, filled with broken walls and debris everywhere.
There were extremely ancient buildings here, but they had all collapsed. Even the cold, desolate wind blowing through could dissolve the ruins.
"The layout of these ruins looks like another Jade Capital City!"
Lan Yutian had been to the Jade Capital City in the Ancestral Court and immediately noticed something. He said in surprise: "But the arrangement of the seventy-two halls is different! Strange, could there be a second Jade Capital in this world?"
Just as he was about to examine it more closely, a surge of chaotic energy rolled in from the ruins, blocking their view.
After a moment, when the cold, desolate wind dispersed the chaotic energy, the strange place had vanished.
Lan Yutian marveled. The cold, desolate wind pushed the flesh-and-blood pagoda to continue drifting through the Ultimate Void. After another unknown amount of time, the pagoda hit something with a clattering sound.
Lan Yutian looked out through Qin Mu's eyes and saw that what the pagoda had collided with was a massive skull, many times larger than the pagoda itself!
The skull had no flesh left, only bones, carried by the cold, desolate wind to who knows where!
But in the collision, some blood from the pagoda had smeared onto the skull.
Qin Mu's vertical eye was incredibly powerful. Even through the pagoda, Lan Yutian could see clearly that on the surface of the huge skull, that trace of blood was actually writhing and growing!
Lan Yutian was horrified, not knowing what was going on with the skull, why the flesh could grow when attached to it.
A gust of cold, desolate wind blew, and the flesh on the skull rapidly dissipated, but some of the grown flesh took the opportunity to burrow deep into the skull, hiding inside the cranium to avoid the wind.
Lan Yutian's heart pounded: "Where has the cold, desolate wind sent us in the Ultimate Void? How can there be such strange things?"
He could no longer see where the skull had been blown, but the earlier scene suggested that the skull still had some spirit, with something dwelling inside it, using the trace of blood from the pagoda to try to regenerate its body!
"The Ultimate Void was formed when the universe was created. It has existed since the origin of the universe. Could there be prehistoric monsters hiding here?"
Just as Lan Yutian thought this, the flesh-and-blood pagoda came to another halt. He quickly looked out and saw that the pagoda had hit a perfectly smooth stone wall.
It should be a wall made of chaotic stone, as smooth as a mirror, without a single flaw!
Lan Yutian tried to control Qin Mu's eyeball to look upward and saw that this stone wall was neatly cut, of unknown length, with a clean cross-section, but its width was limited. It looked like a long, rectangular stele, standing alone in the Ultimate Void!
The cold, desolate wind blew, and the pagoda bumped against the great stone stele twice before being blown away.
Lan Yutian turned Qin Mu's eyeball to look at the back of the stele. On the back was a line of text, arranged vertically, dripping with blood, but the characters were clearly not from the current era. He didn't know their meaning.
"What a strange place!"
Lan Yutian's heart skipped a beat: "Where has the cold, desolate wind sent us? Why hasn't big brother woken up yet? Is Hongmeng Primordial Energy so hard to comprehend?"
He frowned and thought to himself: "I've taught him everything I should. It shouldn't be too hard to comprehend... If Xu Shenghua were here! I'm not good at teaching; he's much better at it..."
At that moment, the flesh-and-blood pagoda hit something else. It was a broken ship, only half remaining, with jagged cross-sections, some places so sharp they nearly pierced the pagoda.
The pagoda's surface flesh was torn, and it got stuck on the broken ship.
Lan Yutian suddenly saw a white skeleton embedded in the ship's wall. It should be an accomplished Daoist, whose bones hadn't been voidified by the Ultimate Void!
That accomplished Daoist had clearly been killed, with the sternum cracked open, pierced by a rusty weapon.
Crack.
The skull of the skeleton suddenly twisted around, its empty eye sockets looking toward the pagoda, as if it could see through everything inside.
Lan Yutian was startled and quickly covered his eyes. After a moment, he peeked through the gaps in his fingers.
The Heavenly Demon King saw this and thought to himself: "Young Master Lan still has a child's temper, scared like this! What could have startled him so... Ah!"
He also saw the scene outside, and the hair on all four of his heads stood on end like a hedgehog's quills.
"It's dead!"
Lan Yutian put down his hands and laughed to him: "Don't worry, it's dead! The wind just moved its head, making me think it was alive. Strange, when the universe was created, these things should have been destroyed in the creation of heaven and earth. How are they still preserved?"
He couldn't figure it out and muttered: "Could the wood of this ship be made from the material of the World Tree?"
He was eager to leave Qin Mu's eyeball and examine the broken ship, but even if he could get out, he couldn't leave the flesh-and-blood pagoda.
He didn't have the strength.
And outside, he couldn't resist the cold, desolate wind of the Ultimate Void!
Although Qin Mu had some things he didn't understand about Dao techniques and divine abilities, his cultivation and strength were far greater than Lan Yutian's. If Qin Mu came back to life, with his power, he could go out and explore, finding out what was strange about this place.
The cold, desolate wind blew, and finally, the pagoda swayed, detached from the broken ship, and drifted away.
Lan Yutian looked back at the skeleton on the ship and suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. The skeleton was slowly turning its head, staring fixedly at the pagoda!
"Alive!"
Lan Yutian's heart pounded, and he quickly steadied himself.
The flesh-and-blood pagoda had apparently unintentionally entered a mysterious zone within the Ultimate Void. During its drift, it encountered all sorts of strange things!
There were withered Dao trees, broken divine weapons, unknown bones, and he even saw a head stuck on a flag!
This place was like a dumping ground in the Ultimate Void for useless things—anything that couldn't be voidified was thrown here!
— "Rubbish dump" means garbage dump, recycling station... Hmm, it's the end of the month, asking for monthly votes!