Chapter 1660: The Eighth Tree
"The positions of the World Tree and the Guixu are eternally unchanging in the universe."
The old man said, "Once the positions of the World Tree and the Guixu are determined, with them as references, we can map the distribution of Dao trees from the Sixteenth Epoch onto the Ultimate Void of the Seventeenth Epoch. With that, finding where Taiyi is located shouldn't be difficult."
Qin Mu nodded, his mind at ease, and smiled, "Once we find Taiyi, he should have a way to wake the paralyzed man. After I solve this stele forest, I can rescue him."
Although he spoke lightly, the old man and the old woman both understood the difficulty involved.
Taiyi wasn't suppressed here; he was certainly suppressed elsewhere. Here, Taiyi had broken through the restrictions, but there, he hadn't. Therefore, Qin Mu needed to go and break those restrictions.
"This journey may be dangerous. Let Xiao Shang accompany you."
The old man said, "Although Xiao Shang attained the Dao through slaughter, he is not a wanton killer. With him by your side, young master, this journey will have far fewer dangers. Moreover, he is familiar with the distribution of Dao trees and can help you find Taiyi faster."
Qin Mu nodded. Taking Shang Jun away from here shouldn't be too difficult for him.
"Then..."
He looked around and smiled, "Gentlemen, can you tell me whose Dao tree is the eighth one?"
In the village, counting the pig and the paralyzed man, there were only seven people, but there were eight Dao trees. Clearly, besides these seven, there was an eighth person.
The woman laughed, "Young master is joking again. There's only us here; where is this eighth person?"
Qin Mu was surprised and looked at the others. The girl with the horn-shaped braids said, "There really is no eighth person here."
The pig head in the plate said, "We wouldn't deceive you, young master. There truly is no eighth person you speak of. Not only is there no eighth person, but there is also no eighth Dao tree."
The old woman's heart stirred, and she quickly asked, "Young master, you've been talking about eight Dao trees all along. Could it be that you weren't bluffing us?"
Qin Mu laughed, "I told you long ago, I am charitable and merciful, a great man full of compassion. Why would I bluff you... Wait a moment, you mean you don't know there are eight trees in your village?"
The old woman's expression turned grave, and she nodded.
The others also nodded, the atmosphere becoming somewhat oppressive.
The old man said, "All along, we thought you were bluffing us by saying there were eight trees. But in our eyes, there are only seven trees here, and only seven of us are suppressed here."
A sense of unease rose in Qin Mu's heart, and he asked in a deep voice, "You can't see the eighth tree?"
Everyone shook their heads.
The atmosphere grew even more oppressive.
Qin Mu could see that Dao tree because his vertical brow eye was exceptionally powerful, capable of even seeing through chaos. But they didn't have such powerful divine eyes.
The girl suddenly laughed, "Young master, you're joking, right? Don't scare Yaya..."
The pig head in the plate suddenly shuddered, its ears covering its eyes, but leaving a gap to sneak a look around.
Qin Mu's mind stirred, and he withdrew his sword Dao. The pig god immediately felt the sword wounds blocking his body's recovery disappear and quickly pieced his body back together.
Qin Mu smiled, "It's probably that my divination was taught by the Martial Heavenly Master Zhuo Cha, so I must have miscalculated. I can take one person away from here, but to take all of you out, I need to break the obelisk forest. I don't have that strength yet. I'll have to trouble you all to stay here a while longer. When I'm strong enough, I'll come back to break the obelisk forest and rescue you all."
The old man walked under a tree, his brow furrowed in worry, and said bitterly, "My purpose in staying here is to guard the paralyzed man. If he doesn't wake, I cannot leave. Even if you break the stele forest, young master, I cannot leave this place."
He sat on a stone, lit his tobacco, and puffed on his water pipe, his dim old eyes occasionally glancing at Qin Mu.
The old woman tottered over to another tree and chuckled, "Old monster, I'll stay here with you." She sat down, lazily basking in the sun, and took the hairpin from her head.
Shang Jun walked toward the village entrance and said, "I'll wait for you outside the village, young master. Don't delay too long."
Zhu Santong shouldered his Dao tree and laughed, "This fight has cleared the air. I, Old Zhu, misjudged you before, young master. Please forgive me. I'll go plant my tree first."
The girl, holding her Dao fruit, skipped over to her Dao tree and laughed, "I still need to hang my Dao fruit on the tree."
The woman sighed, "I wanted to invite you for a meal, young master, but so many things have happened. Young master, I need to tidy up the paralyzed man's clothes. Once his clothes are washed, I'll hang them on his Dao tree to dry."
She picked up a basin, went to the paralyzed man's Dao tree, and hung his clothes on it.
After doing that, the woman went to the tree by the old well and took out a mallet to beat other clothes.
At the village entrance, Shang Jun stood under his Dao tree, veins bulging on his hands. He only had half a blade left. Although his knife had been broken by Qin Mu, it didn't affect his strength much.
The girl poked her head out from the canopy of her Dao tree, her expression tense, staring intently at Qin Mu's movements.
The old man smoked his water pipe, the old woman combed her hair, Zhu Santong replanted his Dao tree, transformed into a black wild boar, and used his snout and tusks to tamp down the soil, his small eyes darting around.
The woman beat the clothes absentmindedly, forgetting to add water.
In their eyes, Qin Mu moved his steps to an empty space where there was nothing. However, Qin Mu raised his hand and gently reached forward.
Everyone's nerves tightened instantly. Suddenly, Qin Mu seemed to touch something.
The hidden eighth Dao tree!
The moment Qin Mu's fingertip touched that Dao tree, six figures suddenly burst into action!
The girl pounced from the tree like a swallow skimming the water, her body hugging the ground. With a tap of her toe, she flew up, biting her tongue and spraying Dao blood onto the Dao fruit in her hand. The Dao fruit blazed with light!
The woman swung her mallet, her steps shifting, her body spinning like the wind. With fierce shouts, she whirled the mallet and slammed it down at the spot Qin Mu had touched!
Zhu Santong roared, uprooted his newly planted Dao tree, transformed into a towering black wild boar standing upright, and swung the Dao tree to sweep toward where Qin Mu's finger pointed!
At the same time, Shang Jun's broken blade, the old man's water pipe, and the old woman's hairpin all struck simultaneously!
The six of them unleashed their full power, their momentum no less than when they had surrounded Qin Mu earlier!
They knew they only had one chance. This Dao tree, hidden among them for billions of years without their notice, showed that its owner's strength was truly unfathomable!
If the other party was prepared, even their combined might might not be able to do anything to them!
Therefore, this strike must destroy the other party's Dao tree, annihilate their Dao fruit, and ruin their Dao cultivation!
Boom!
An incredibly violent fluctuation erupted, and the storm swept through, causing Qin Mu, standing beside that Dao tree, to have his clothes rustle as he was forced back step by step!
Qin Mu retreated all the way, resisting this powerful impact. When the storm subsided, he found himself already outside the village.
He opened his vertical brow eye and looked. The Dao tree still stood there, motionless, with no one around it.
Qin Mu was startled and searched carefully. He saw the girl hanging from her own Dao tree, one foot exposed, still clutching her Dao fruit, unconscious.
The woman had fallen into her well, gripping her mallet tightly, the mallet stuck at the well's mouth.
Shang Jun sat sprawled under his Dao tree, blood flowing from the hand holding his knife, his eyes vacant. The broken knife in his hand had completely shattered, the handle reduced to splinters.
The old woman's hairpin was stuck in her own forehead, her breath faint. The old man's water pipe was broken, and his head had hit the large stone he usually sat on, bleeding profusely.
Zhu Santong's tusks were all broken, and he was unconscious, hugging his Dao tree.
Qin Mu was stunned. In that brief instant, all six Dao attainers had been defeated and injured!
"Big Brother!"
The old man sat up shakily, his arm trembling as he tried to fill his pipe with tobacco, but the water pipe was broken, and the water leaked out.
His voice was hoarse, his eyes filled with fear and anger: "It's Big Brother's Dao tree! He's been here all along! Heh heh, that old schemer..."
Qin Mu looked around, and his gaze suddenly fell on the sun hanging high in the sky.
That sun blazed with fiery power, having burned for perhaps ten cosmic epochs, countless billions of years, from the Seventh Epoch all the way to the present!
According to the laws, the sun should have long since extinguished, died, evaporated, and eventually turned into void. Yet this sun still lived on, which couldn't help but raise suspicion.
"Big Brother isn't here."
Qin Mu suddenly said, "He only left his eye and his Dao tree here."
The old man struggled to his feet, looked up at the sun in the sky, and sighed dejectedly, his voice hoarse: "I've been suppressed here too long; I can no longer compare to him. Heh heh, once his equal, now I can't even match one of his eyes..."
He was very desolate.
Because of a promise, he had guarded the paralyzed man for ten cosmic epochs. In those ten epochs, he had neglected his cultivation, far behind the Big Brother who had once been his equal. The loss in his heart was understandable.
In fact, Qin Mu could see that the old man, revered here as the Old Monster, must have been a figure of great renown in his era, so much so that many had heard his legends.
However, in this small village, the strongest was not him, but Shang Jun.
Although Shang Jun only had one Dao fruit and one Dao tree, his strength already surpassed the other Dao attainers in the village!
This was also why Qin Mu wanted to take Shang Jun with him.
Qin Mu stepped forward, pulled the hairpin from the old woman's forehead, gave her a simple treatment for her injuries, and patted the old man on the shoulder.
The old man came to his senses and said desolately, "I cannot see you off, young master."
The others struggled to their feet and saw Qin Mu to the village entrance.
Shang Jun barely stood up, hesitated for a moment, and said, "I no longer have a knife; I'm afraid I can't do much for you. Moreover, I have a heavy killing nature and many enemies. I will only bring you disaster."
Qin Mu smiled, "Coincidentally, I also have many enemies, probably far more than yours."
Shang Jun hesitated. Qin Mu looked at him calmly and said, "Shang Jun, who attained the Dao through slaughter, you are afraid. The reason you fear the outside world is not because you lost to Big Brother, but because you are afraid to return to it."
Shang Jun was silent.
"Even though you attained the Dao through slaughter and cultivated the Thirty-Six Heavens of the Slaughter Dao, your Dao heart still has a flaw."
Qin Mu's gaze was sharp, "You think the Sixteenth Epoch was destroyed by your hands, and you feel guilt, self-blame, and shame to leave this place. What sealed you, what suppressed you, was not Big Brother, but the cage you built for yourself, imprisoning yourself. You are no longer the Shang Jun who attained the Dao through slaughter. Even if you leave here, you cannot imprint your Dao onto the Ultimate Void and become a Dao attainer again."
Shang Jun's voice was hoarse, "Then do you still need me?"
Qin Mu walked past him and laughed, "Of course I do. I need you to help me find Taiyi, and I also need the sharpest blade in the world. You are no longer that blade now, but I can grind you into one. Follow me, and I can help you walk out."
Shang Jun followed him step by step, like his shadow.
Soon, they entered the obelisk forest. Shang Jun hid in Qin Mu's shadow. Their steps were synchronized, lifting and falling together with the same rhythm, gradually disappearing into the stele forest.
Outside the village, everyone watched the two disappear. Zhu Santong suddenly said, "The Seventh Young Master of the Miluo Palace is a strange person."
"He truly is a strange person."
The old woman sighed, "Clearly from an opposing faction, yet it's hard to hate him. Not only can you not hate him, but you also want to be friends with him."
The woman laughed, "I've never seen such a strange person. It's a pity he's already married; otherwise, Yaya could have found a good husband..."
The girl spat, blushing, and hid behind a tree.
Everyone laughed, but as they laughed, they started coughing violently.
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