Chapter 1717: A True Scholar, Both Righteous and Unorthodox
Xu Shenhua once again inserted the Path-Banishing Divine Nails all over Qin Mu’s body. The wounds on Qin Mu stopped bleeding, and he felt slightly more comfortable.
The Path-Banishing Divine Nails were part of the Burial Path Divine Coffin. The main function of the Burial Path Divine Coffin was to restrict the power of the one being suppressed, preventing them from escaping the coffin.
As for the Path-Banishing Divine Nails inserted into his wounds, their first purpose was to suppress the Dao wounds within them.
The Third Young Master, with his unparalleled divine abilities, had left fifty wounds on Qin Mu’s body. The Dao wounds were extremely peculiar and difficult to heal. It was precisely because of these Path-Banishing Divine Nails that Qin Mu had awakened so early.
Xu Shenhua had also recognized this, which was why he suggested Qin Mu seal the wounds with the nails.
“The person who nailed you did it in completely the wrong places.”
Xu Shenhua carefully examined one of the Path-Banishing Divine Nails and said, “If it were me, I would definitely have avoided these wounds. Strange, who would help you like this?”
Qin Mu also didn’t know the reason behind it. He pondered and said, “Perhaps that person, though in the Heavenly Court, has his heart set on Yankang. He is a rare righteous man.”
“That should be the case.”
Xu Shenhua nodded and said, “What are your plans for the Ancestral Land?”
Qin Mu frowned. Although his other injuries were gone now, his wounds were still extremely severe and would take a long time to recover. He would need to slowly comprehend the Dao techniques and divine abilities contained within the Dao wounds, figuring out their mysteries, in order to break them.
And that would take time.
With his current strength, he simply couldn’t cope with the upheaval in the Ancestral Land.
The upheaval in the Ancestral Land was entirely caused by the Spirit Official of Miluo Palace, whose purpose was to release those prehistoric powerhouses trapped under the roots of the World Tree and create chaos.
The more lives these prehistoric powerhouses took, the stronger the blood sacrifice would become, ultimately causing Miluo Palace to descend into this universe!
The stowaways, in their struggle for power, would certainly strike at the myriad realms, inevitably triggering the Third Young Master’s blood sacrifice. And if any of them achieved enlightenment and imprinted upon the Ultimate Void, it would inevitably accelerate the destruction of this universe!
Therefore, these prehistoric powerhouses still had to be eliminated.
However, eliminating them was not easy. Just now, Xu Shenhua had said that a prehistoric enlightened one had already stowed away through the World Tree’s roots and planned to attack the Heavenly Court.
Yankang was already struggling to fend off the Heavenly Court’s offensive and had no spare strength to deal with those stowaways.
“Let’s return to Yankang first.”
Xu Shenhua picked Qin Mu up again and placed him back into the coffin. Qin Mu tried to struggle, but Xu Shenhua said, “This coffin was tailor-made for you. It can suppress your Dao wounds even more effectively than the coffin nails. You can stay inside and slowly comprehend how to break the Dao wounds.”
Qin Mu quickly said, “Don’t nail the coffin shut!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll just close it loosely.”
Xu Shenhua put the coffin lid on, leaving a crack, and lifted the Burial Path Divine Coffin to continue his journey. He said, “Qin Cult Leader, who was that person fighting in the void against Tai Chu and the Empress Dowager? His methods were formidable, and he was also very clever, using the Ultimate Void to limit the Empress Dowager’s strength.”
“That was Shang Jun.”
Qin Mu said, “I’m too injured now to see the Ultimate Void. How is Shang Jun faring, fighting alone against both Tai Chu and the Empress Dowager?”
“They were still fighting just now, but after seeing me rescue you from the coffin and you waking up, Tai Chu and the Empress Dowager left.”
Xu Shenhua said, “That Lord Shang is currently in my shadow.”
Qin Mu burst out laughing, but the laughter triggered his injuries, causing him to cough repeatedly. He said, “My prestige remains; I scared off Tai Chu and the Empress Dowager.”
Xu Shenhua tilted his head, thought for a moment, and said, “It should be because they saw me coming that they retreated. You don’t have much combat power right now.”
Qin Mu snorted.
Tai Chu was uneasy. Just now, Xu Shenhua had directly opened the Burial Path Divine Coffin, which had truly shocked him and forced him to retreat.
He had already had some psychological trauma from the previous battle in the Ultimate Void against Shang Jun.
Shang Jun was an extremely terrifying person. In their last battle, he had been wounded by Shang Jun, and if Shang Jun hadn’t been unfamiliar with the Dao of Tai Chu, he would have been doomed.
And this time, Shang Jun had again chosen to fight him and the Empress Dowager, two enlightened experts, in the Ultimate Void, which also made his heart race.
One had to know that the Second Young Master’s clone had died in the battle in the Ultimate Void, killed by Yun Tianzun, and even Emperor Hao had been severely injured as a result.
The Empress Dowager, like the Second Young Master, had achieved enlightenment through the path of Guixu. In the Ultimate Void, she was constrained and cautious, with constant cold, still winds blowing, counteracting her Guixu hot, still winds and weakening her strength.
Fighting Shang Jun together, this battle was truly arduous.
Coupled with the fact that Xu Shenhua had dismantled the Burial Path Divine Coffin so effortlessly, Tai Chu had misjudged Xu Shenhua’s strength. Fearing that Xu Shenhua might attack the Ultimate Void, he had retreated without a fight.
“Who is that person? How could he so easily break the Burial Path Divine Coffin taught by the Third Young Master, Ling Xiao?” Tai Chu frowned deeply.
The Empress Dowager said, “That is Xu Shenhua, Young Master Xu of the Upper Heavens. I once wanted to recruit him as a private guest and keep him as a paramour. But his talent and bearing were unparalleled in the world, and I unconsciously became impressed by him, so I regarded him as a Dao companion.”
Tai Chu raised an eyebrow and sneered, “You were once infatuated with that pretty boy Yu Tianzun, and now you’re infatuated with Xu Shenhua. So it turns out, Zitong, you like this type of man.”
The Empress Dowager said calmly, “My relationship with Yu Tianzun was pure and spotless, and my relationship with Young Master Xu is also as pure as jade. I don’t need to hide anything from you. Ever since you had an affair with that slut, I have taken countless paramours to get back at you. There’s no need to lie about this. Those two are gentlemen of humility and integrity, and I only feel respect and admiration for them.”
Tai Chu’s face darkened, and he laughed coldly, “Have you forgotten how Lan Yutian schemed against you?”
“Lan Yutian is Lan Yutian, not Yu Tianzun.”
The Empress Dowager sneered, “Tai Chu, in my heart, you will never compare to the radiant and righteous Yu Tianzun, nor to the gentle and jade-like Young Master Xu!”
Tai Chu was furious and vanished in a flash, “Slut!”
The Empress Dowager watched him go and smiled, “With Young Master Xu’s strength, there’s no way he could have broken the Burial Path Divine Coffin. There must be something fishy about that coffin! Most likely, Tianzun Xing Han tampered with it!”
Tai Chu left in anger, his figure disappearing.
The Empress Dowager slowed her pace. After a while, Xu Shenhua arrived, carrying Qin Mu’s coffin.
Xu Shenhua stopped and bowed to the Empress Dowager, saying, “Your Majesty, it has been a long time.”
The Empress Dowager returned the bow. Her gaze fell on the shadow behind him, and she said calmly, “Shang Jun, in the Ultimate Void, I am no match for you, but out here, you are no match for me. Don’t try anything. I came to see Young Master Xu with no ill intent.”
Xu Shenhua’s shadow remained motionless.
Xu Shenhua said, “Your Majesty has seen me.”
The Empress Dowager looked at his face, sighed softly, and murmured, “There are many extraordinary men in this world, but few are like Young Master Xu. It’s a pity that we are enemies. If we could turn swords into plowshares and share a drink in joyful conversation, what a wonderful thing that would be.”
Xu Shenhua said, “If Your Majesty would abandon the Heavenly Court and join Yankang, then we could turn swords into plowshares.”
The Empress Dowager shook her head, “Impossible. My fate is tied to the Heavenly Court; if it prospers, I prosper, and if it falls, I fall. How could I abandon the Heavenly Court for a kindred spirit?”
From inside the coffin, Qin Mu couldn’t help but say, “If Your Majesty is willing to give up the Heavenly Court, I can act as a matchmaker and betroth Brother Xu to you. If Your Majesty doesn’t mind, I think I could also…”
“Shut up, you wretched man!” the Empress Dowager roared angrily.
Xu Shenhua calmly closed the coffin lid, and Qin Mu’s voice was immediately cut off.
“Your Majesty, we each have our own Dao, but we have merely taken different paths.”
Xu Shenhua bowed deeply and said, “Today, I bid you farewell. When we meet on the battlefield in the future, I hope Your Majesty will not hold back.”
The Empress Dowager returned the bow, tears falling as she covered her face and left, “I also hope Young Master Xu will not hold back. It is a pity that I did not meet you earlier. If it had been a hundred years earlier, or if you had been born a million years earlier, perhaps you and I would have had a different ending…”
Xu Shenhua watched her go and continued on his way, carrying the coffin.
Qin Mu knocked on the coffin from inside. Xu Shenhua opened it a crack, and Qin Mu’s voice came from within, “Brother Xu, if the Empress Dowager were willing to join the Yankang camp, it would be an overwhelming advantage against the Heavenly Court. Why don’t you sacrifice a little…”
Slap!
Xu Shenhua sealed the coffin shut. After a moment’s thought, he took out other nails and hammered them into the coffin lid.
On the other side, Tai Chu sped along, returning to the Primordial Realm ahead of Xu Shenhua and the Empress Dowager. He went straight to the Heavenly Court camp, not bothering to see Emperor Hao, and stormed directly into the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, murderous intent radiating from him.
In the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, Tianzun Xing Han was surrounded by floating brains. He was controlling an even greater number of brains, and the scale of his divine brain matrix was growing, its calculations faster and more exquisite.
Tai Chu’s murderous intent suddenly vanished. His face became as gentle as a spring breeze as he walked in, smiling, “Tianzun Xing Han, how leisurely. Tianzun, isn’t there something wrong with the Burial Path Divine Coffin you made?”
Xing Han looked up and glanced at him, “What’s wrong with it?”
Tai Chu’s expression was amiable as he smiled, “On the way to the Ancestral Land, the Feather Forest Army escorting the Burial Path Divine Coffin was ambushed by a man named Xu Shenhua, who stole the coffin. He opened the divine coffin directly and released Tianzun Mu. If it were a genuine Burial Path Divine Coffin, would it have been so easy to open?”
Xing Han was surprised. He stood up, looking puzzled, “I know Xu Shenhua’s abilities. I once visited him in the Western Lands of the Primordial Realm. His strength is indeed formidable, and I lost to him back then. But there is absolutely no way he could break the Burial Path Divine Coffin I made! He doesn’t have that kind of power!”
A cold gleam flashed in Tai Chu’s eyes, and his smile grew even warmer as he said leisurely, “I saw with my own eyes that he effortlessly pulled out forty-nine Path-Banishing Divine Nails without any difficulty. The fifty Path-Banishing Divine Nails on Tianzun Mu’s body were also easily…”
“Wait a moment!”
Xing Han raised his hand, looking confused, “Forty-nine? Wasn’t it ninety-nine?”
The murderous intent in Tai Chu’s eyes seeped out bit by bit, but his smile grew even wider, “You told me that half of the ninety-nine nails should be nailed into the coffin, and half into Tianzun Mu’s body…”
Xing Han nodded, “That’s correct.”
Tai Chu’s smile turned cold, “That’s exactly what I did! But it was completely useless!”
Xing Han’s primordial energy transformed into a long nail, and then into a coffin and Qin Mu’s “corpse.” He raised his hand and drove a nail into the coffin, half of it inside the coffin and half inserted into the “Qin Mu corpse.”
Xing Han drove in ninety-nine nails in succession and said, “If you do it like this, you can trap the injured Tianzun Mu. Not to mention Tianzun Mu, even an enlightened one would be trapped and unable to escape!”
Tai Chu was dumbfounded, “You said half should be nailed into the coffin…”
Xing Han’s expression of surprise deepened. He shook his head and said, “How can ninety-nine be split evenly? The Emperor Emeritus should have thought of that. I need to continue my work. Please make yourself at home, Emperor Emeritus.”
Tai Chu staggered out, his mind filled with clashing thoughts, “Ninety-nine, half, not forty-nine and fifty…”
After Xing Han watched him leave the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, he immediately clapped his hands. The box came clattering over.
Xing Han quickly packed his belongings and stuffed them into the box, saying, “Tai Chu is too stupid and misunderstood my meaning. But he needs someone to take the blame, and that someone will definitely be me! When he leaves and comes to his senses, he will come back to kill me! This place is no longer safe. We need to leave quickly.”
The box bounced around joyfully.
Xing Han then took some divine and demonic limbs from the box, fiddled with them, and created a person. He then shifted his primordial spirit into this new body, leaving his original body behind.
He stuffed the box into his divine treasury and slipped away, walking out of the Zaofu Heavenly Palace and disappearing among the gods and demons of the Heavenly Court.
Suddenly, a loud crash came from the Zaofu Heavenly Palace, followed by Tai Chu’s furious voice, “Tianzun Xing Han colluded with Tianzun Mu and deserves to die ten thousand deaths! I have already beheaded him!”
Xing Han walked out of the Heavenly Court camp, smiled slightly, and released the box. He and this little monster walked into the forest, one after the other, “Now, I am a free man.”