Chapter 1644: Traces of Taiyi
The Butcher back then was even more miserable than Qin Mu is now. Back then, the Butcher was severed at the waist, leaving only his upper body. Qin Mu currently has a waist, but his thighs haven’t fully grown out yet.
He had used Hongmeng primordial energy to reconstruct his physical body, but unfortunately, his energy was exhausted, leaving him unable to restore his form.
“Now, there are only two paths. One is to cultivate honestly and steadily, improving my cultivation base. As my cultivation rises, my physical body will slowly grow back.”
Qin Mu, “standing” on the door plank, raised a hand to scratch his head, thinking to himself: “The other path is to search for Chaos Qi, learning from Lan Yutian how to transform Chaos Qi into Hongmeng primordial energy. There are Chaos mineral veins in the Ancestral Court. Although there are no Chaos divine stones or raw stones left, there is enough Chaos Qi for me to absorb and refine.”
The first path was safer, relying on his own step-by-step cultivation. However, when exactly his body would grow back was uncertain.
The second path was faster, but the Spirit Energy Teleportation Bridge leading to the Ancestral Court had been completely destroyed. Even if he asked the Moon Sovereign to send him to the Ancestral Court, it would take one or two months.
Adding in the learning cost—figuring out how to transform Chaos Qi into Hongmeng primordial energy—would probably take another four or five years.
This encounter could be considered a blessing in disguise.
He had fully mastered Hongmeng primordial energy, using it to reconstruct his physical body and primordial spirit. In terms of pure physical strength, he had absolutely surpassed the physical body of the Taichu Ancient God!
Now, his physical body could be called the number one physical body in the world!
Of course, it was just not complete.
If his primordial spirit also cultivated back to its former level, then his primordial spirit would also be the number one in the world!
His energy would also reach the long-dreamed-of level of Hongmeng Purple Qi, with benefits so great they were unprecedented!
If he returned to his peak state, even ordinary cultivators who had achieved the Dao would be unable to breach his physical body and primordial spirit, leaving Dao wounds on him. However, Qin Mu was truly troubled about when he could return to his peak state.
He looked down and was startled. Below, there was no world among the myriad realms, no stars or galaxies, only a vast emptiness. This place seemed like a pure dark void zone of the universe, devoid of any matter.
Qin Mu had long established a grand cosmic star map, clearly marking the geography of the universe and the primordial chaos. The mathematical experts of Eternal Peace had even calculated the total amount of matter in this universe. For him, there were few secrets left in the cosmos.
In the universe, from a macroscopic perspective, matter was basically evenly distributed—this was dictated by the rules.
Due to the effect of the thirty-six voids, space was constantly stretching, causing matter to move away from each other, from the scale of galaxies and stars down to every particle.
Yet, below him, there was a vast expanse of space that was completely dark, without any matter. This was almost impossible!
Qin Mu was stunned for a moment, thinking of that abandoned place in the Ultimate Void where undigestible filth was discarded. That abandoned place seemed to correspond to this one.
“Perhaps from this void realm, I can find the abandoned place of the Ultimate Void.”
Qin Mu stood on the door plank, drifting aimlessly, searching for a reference point to determine his location.
“The text on this door plank seems to be a kind of seal.”
As he controlled the door plank to resist the cold, desolate wind, he observed the text on the plank.
The text was extremely ancient, formed in a prehistoric universe, completely different from any modern script. To deduce its meaning from the text, one had to start with the most basic runes that composed the characters.
The runes forming the text were numerous, but by deciphering the Dao language within the runes, one could infer the basic meaning of the text from the Dao language.
This was the method for interpreting prehistoric texts.
This void realm was unimaginably vast, and finding a familiar world of the myriad realms was not easy. Qin Mu chose to “stand” on the door plank and drift against the cold, desolate wind.
The cold, desolate wind of the Ultimate Void couldn’t dissolve him or the door plank, so the wind’s direction was trying to send him back to that abandoned place. By going against the wind, he could leave this void realm and find a familiar world of the myriad realms.
Then, he could determine his position in the universe, leave the Ultimate Void, and return to the Primordial Realm.
His primordial spirit entered the vertical eye on his forehead, preparing to check the ecosystem in the Gourd Heaven Bottle, to see if it could still support the billions of Eternal Peace people and divine demons inside.
Lan Yutian watched his primordial spirit, now only the size of a bean sprout, with a strange expression on his face.
Previously, how vast had Qin Mu’s primordial spirit been?
Now, reconstructed with Hongmeng primordial energy, it was only the size of a bean sprout, extremely tiny.
Qin Mu checked and found that inside the Gourd Heaven Bottle, besides the Eternal Peace people, there were also the demons and demon gods of the Dutian World, numbering in the billions.
The demon race developed rapidly, and their consumption of resources was astonishing. The ecological structure inside the bottle was very precarious.
Simply using creation divine abilities was not enough to alleviate the ecological pressure.
“It can probably last about two more months.”
Qin Mu opened the vertical eye on his forehead, carefully analyzing the runes within these prehistoric texts. He listed the internal runes one by one, deciphered their meanings, and then slowly read them out in Dao language.
After a few days, Qin Mu finally understood the text on the door plank.
His expression turned strange. The general meaning of the text on the door plank was that the eldest son of the Miluo Palace had sealed one of the Miluo Palace’s mortal enemies, eternally suppressing them in the Ultimate Void, ensuring this enemy could never escape.
“A mortal enemy of the Miluo Palace? Personally sealed by the eldest son of the Miluo Palace?”
Qin Mu was slightly stunned. The second son of the Miluo Palace was the Guixu Goddess, whose strength was so great that even the great calamity of cosmic birth and destruction couldn’t erase her. This eldest son’s strength was likely even greater, approaching that of the master of the Miluo Palace!
For him to personally act to seal and suppress someone, who could this mortal enemy of the Miluo Palace be?
“Could it be Taiyi? Or some other terrifying existence?”
His mind began to stir. In the past universe, there were many powerful beings who hadn’t joined the Miluo Palace, and Lingyu Shangzun was one of them.
Of course, Lingyu Shangzun’s strength wasn’t particularly high, not even matching the sons of the Miluo Palace, but he still had means to survive the great calamity of birth and destruction.
Besides Lingyu Shangzun, there should be other, even stronger existences!
From the text left by the eldest son of the Miluo Palace on the door plank, it seemed that in the prehistoric universe, there wasn’t just the Miluo Palace, but another massive force comparable to it!
This being sealed by the eldest son could be Taiyi, or it could be another prehistoric powerhouse from that other force!
Qin Mu frowned, examining the door plank. The door plank was incredibly hard and indestructible, the strongest treasure he had ever seen, even better than his Calamity Sword. For someone to refine such a treasure and only use it as a door plank showed how seriously the eldest son regarded the being he had suppressed.
“For beings who have cultivated to a height like Taiyi, it’s basically impossible to kill or erase them; they can only be suppressed. I’ve never found a place in this universe that matches Taiyi’s geographical map. Perhaps Taiyi really is suppressed in this void garbage dump, treated as waste by the Ultimate Void.”
Qin Mu looked down and saw stars appearing. The door plank had unknowingly left the void realm, and the first world of the myriad realms came into view.
“Judging from the fact that Taiyi’s Dao tree always appears above the World Tree in the Ancestral Court, Taiyi is indeed still alive. His Dao tree appears every night, dripping Dao dew that allows us to repair the Great Dark Mountain. This shows he can still control his Dao tree.”
Qin Mu turned back, looking at the void realm, hesitating slightly: “Of course, what’s suppressed there might not be Taiyi; it could also be some extremely powerful demon lord! A demon lord that the Miluo Palace couldn’t kill!”
He furrowed his brow. Regardless of whether Taiyi was suppressed there, he had to return to that abandoned place in the Ultimate Void to explore its mysteries.
“But not now. I must return to Eternal Peace as soon as possible and release the Eternal Peace people from the Ancestral Court!”
He steadied himself, his gaze falling on a nearby world. That world was the Xingyuan World, located on the northern frontier. It was extremely far from both the Primordial Realm and the Ancestral Court, but very close to the Arctic Heaven.
However, what surprised Qin Mu was that this world actually had a Spirit Energy Teleportation Bridge!
The light of that Teleportation Bridge formed a funnel shape, connecting to some other world.
For such a remote place on the edge of the universe, close to the Arctic Heaven—a world that didn’t submit to the Heavenly Court—the Heavenly Court wouldn’t build a Spirit Energy Teleportation Bridge. If there was one here, it definitely wasn’t connected to the Heavenly Court!
Qin Mu’s eyes lit up, and he immediately flew out of the Ultimate Void on the door plank, heading toward the Xingyuan World.
“At my speed, it would take five or six months to reach the Primordial Realm. During that time, many people in the Gourd Heaven might die. But if I reach the Xingyuan World, I can temporarily resupply and extend their survival time.”
Two days later, he arrived at the Xingyuan World and found it to be richer than he had imagined, not a barren, cold place.
The inhabitants here were mostly divine beings with the bloodline of the Black Tortoise, though inferior to the bloodlines of the Teng Snake and Mystic Turtle, likely a lower-level divine race formed from the fusion of multiple bloodlines.
Besides divine beings, he also saw humans, demons, and other acquired races!
Humans had built many manufacturing plants here, hiring the divine beings of the Xingyuan World to work, smelting divine ores and forging divine weapons. Trade and commerce were quite lively.
Qin Mu stopped someone to ask, and that person clearly didn’t recognize him, saying: “The Teleportation Bridge? Of course, it was built by Eternal Peace! Six years ago, the National Preceptor ordered the connection of other worlds. Director Si then ordered Eternal Peace envoys to travel through other worlds to get here, signed a trade agreement with the ruler of the Xingyuan World, and then helped establish a Spirit Energy Teleportation Bridge here, building many branch factories of Eternal Peace’s manufacturing plants.”
“Si Yunxiang is quite efficient!”
Qin Mu smiled, thinking to himself: “If Eternal Peace has even built a Spirit Energy Teleportation Bridge in the most remote Xingyuan World, then trade connections likely exist in most other worlds. That’s a good thing. If this Teleportation Bridge leads to Eternal Peace, I can have the people in the Gourd Heaven leave in batches and head to Eternal Peace.”
He let out a long sigh of relief. Directly stepping into the Spirit Energy Teleportation Bridge would cause a violent surge of spirit energy, possibly exceeding the altar’s limit and causing it to collapse. But if he sent people in batches over one or two months, there would be no need to worry.
That person saw him standing on a door plank without legs, looking quite pitiful, so he gave him two Dafeng coins, saying: “Don’t go begging around and embarrass Eternal Peace. Take this money, buy a ticket to Eternal Peace at the Spirit Energy Teleportation Bridge, and go back early.” With that, he shook his head and walked away.
Qin Mu raised an eyebrow, finding it both amusing and frustrating. He pocketed the two Dafeng coins, then summoned the Dutian Demon King and Lan Yutian, saying: “The Spirit Energy Teleportation Bridge leads to Eternal Peace, and it charges money. This is either Si Yunxiang’s doing or Hu Ling’er’s. To get everyone over there, I’ll need a considerable sum.”
The Dutian Demon King was shocked: “Eternal Peace built the bridge, and they still charge money?”
“Rules can’t be changed.”
Qin Mu looked embarrassed, saying: “I don’t have any money on me…”
Lan Yutian was puzzled: “Brother, you’re the former National Preceptor…”
“Exactly because I’m the former National Preceptor, I have no money. My money is all managed by Ling’er. Since I got married, Ling’er stopped dealing with me and handed the money over to my wife…”
Qin Mu sighed, saying: “And I never carry money on me. Getting all of you to Eternal Peace is a huge expense. That merchant just now gave me two Dafeng coins, enough to buy one ticket to Eternal Peace. I’ll go back to Eternal Peace first and have Si Yunxiang bring the money over. You all wait here for a few days.”
The Dutian Demon King and Lan Yutian had no choice but to stay. Qin Mu “stood” on the door plank and drifted toward the Spirit Energy Teleportation Bridge, handing the two Dafeng coins to the divine demon guarding the bridge.
That divine demon glanced at him and gave one coin back.
Qin Mu was puzzled. The divine demon said: “The ruler has decreed that the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled get half price. You qualify for half price.”
—May has only twelve hours left. Happy Children’s Day in advance to all the big kids and little kids! In these last few hours of the month, let’s pull some monthly votes for The Legend of the Shepherd!