Chapter 1787: Suppressing the Heaven-Opening Multitude
The Heaven-Opening Multitude’s gazes fell upon Qin Mu and the Coffin of Burying the Dao. Qin Mu had arrived before them, not only earlier but also bringing the Coffin of Burying the Dao.
The Coffin of Burying the Dao was forged by Eldest Young Master Tai Shang to suppress Tai Yi.
Presumably, after arriving here, Qin Mu had awakened Dong Yang and the others, and convinced Dong Yang to place the fleshly body of the Heavenly Capital’s Master—that paralyzed man—inside the Coffin of Burying the Dao.
Qin Mu had visited the Obelisk Forest many times and was familiar with the path. Coupled with the delay the Heaven-Opening Multitude and Tai Yi had encountered on the way, Qin Mu had instead seized the opportunity to arrive first and set up his arrangements.
“Young Master Chaos, you are indomitable, never giving up.”
The Smiling Face, Ren Shi Jing, said, “You have already experienced our Dao techniques. You should know that you are no match for us. Not just you, even Young Master Wu Ji is no match for us. Even if you place the Leader into the coffin, what of it? Defeating you, opening the coffin, and inviting the Leader out is not difficult for us Heaven-Opening Multitude.”
“If you want to defeat Seventh Young Master, you must first defeat me.”
The woman beside him stopped beating her clothes and stood up, resting her washing club on her shoulder, imposing and majestic. “Heavenly Capital’s Heaven-Opening Multitude, you have become twisted monsters. This place will not tolerate your insolence!”
“You must also defeat me first!”
The old woman stood up, trembling, and said, “Although this old woman has had few dealings with Seventh Young Master, I have heard of his notorious reputation. But compared to the utterly wicked Seventh Young Master, I find you even more detestable!”
“And me, Zhu San Tong!”
The pig hanging upside down from the tree at the village entrance suddenly broke free from its rope, landed on the ground, and transformed into a sturdy man. He strode forward, sneering, “I have always opposed the Mi Luo Palace and scoff at the so-called Young Masters, spitting on them whenever we meet. But Seventh Young Master is an anomaly of the Mi Luo Palace, and I find him more agreeable. As for you, I can’t stand the sight of you! If you want to deal with Seventh Young Master, you’ll have to trample over my corpse!”
“Very well.” The Smiling Face, Ren Shi Jing, laughed heartily, but his face showed no change in expression.
“You must also defeat me.”
The old man Dong Yang said calmly, “Ling invited me here to protect the Heavenly Capital’s fleshly body and prevent anyone from destroying it. I admire Ling as much as I admire the Heavenly Capital. I must fulfill what I promised her. Even if I was once part of the Heavenly Capital’s Heaven-Opening Multitude, even if I was once one of you, I must stop you.”
The girl sighed, slid down from the tree, and said resentfully, “Ya Ya neither admires Seventh Young Master, nor knows the Heavenly Capital’s Master, nor understands your grievances. But during the time I was imprisoned, I became good friends with Zhu San Tong and Dong Yang. Since my good friends want to oppose you, Ya Ya has no choice but to reluctantly join in. When you trample over Ya Ya’s corpse later, please be gentle.”
The Smiling Face, Ren Shi Jing, sighed. “You are all sick, sick in the head. You need treatment.”
Zhu San Tong cursed loudly, “You’re the one who’s sick! Your whole family is sick! Your brains are all rotten!”
The Heaven-Opening Multitude paid no heed to his insults. Although they had strayed from the path, their attainment in the Dao heart was immensely powerful. They merely regarded Zhu San Tong and the others as patients in need of treatment.
This attitude, however, made them all the more terrifying.
“Dao Brother Tai Yi, do you wish to become the Heavenly Capital’s Master, or return to being yourself?” Qin Mu suddenly asked.
Tai Yi remained silent. The thirty-five members of the Heaven-Opening Multitude also fixed their gazes on him. The Smiling Face, Ren Shi Jing, said, “Leader, you are sick. Only by returning to the identity of the Heavenly Capital’s Master will you be cured.”
Tai Yi sighed and said, “Friend Mu, will you let me become the Heavenly Capital’s Master?”
Qin Mu shook his head. “No. When I first entered the Mi Luo Palace and met the Mi Luo Palace Master, my teacher told me to be wary of Tai Yi. I doubted his words and thought he was lying. But later, I understood. What he wanted me to be wary of was not you, but the Heavenly Capital’s Master. For you, Dao Brother, I have only admiration and respect. When you are Tai Yi, you are the transcendent hermit who guarded the Seventeenth Epoch for six billion years. But if you become the Heavenly Capital’s Master, you might become the one who destroys the Seventeenth Epoch.”
Tai Yi was silent.
After a long time, he opened his eyes, revealing a smile, and said, “I understand. You may proceed.”
A sharp gleam flashed in Qin Mu’s eyes. Suddenly, his Primordial Qi activated, and in an instant, countless Primordial runes formed within his body, arranged in a strange array!
In that single moment, he gave off the feeling of being a towering, majestic Obelisk!
Among the Obelisk Forest set up by Eldest Young Master Tai Shang, one obelisk had been sent out of the Filthy Place by Qin Mu to the Ancestral Court, where it was destroyed by Empress Dowager. With the forest incomplete, it could not exert its full suppressive power here.
However, Qin Mu had studied the Obelisks deeply. Every time he entered the forest, he used Primordial runes to simulate the Obelisks and blend into the formation.
This time, he transformed his body into an Obelisk, the same technique Eldest Young Master Tai Shang had used when he entered the forest and turned into an Obelisk to suppress Dong Yang and the others.
The Obelisk Forest roared to life. In an instant, each obelisk blazed with light, countless runes emerged, and the formation left by Eldest Young Master Tai Shang activated!
The thirty-five members of the Heaven-Opening Multitude shifted their steps, their forms interweaving. Their reaction speed was extremely fast. As Qin Mu activated the Obelisk Forest’s suppressive power, they simultaneously activated the Heaven-Opening Altar formation!
At the same time, Old Man Dong Yang, Zhu San Tong, the girl, the woman, and the old woman all attacked together, charging at the thirty-five Heaven-Opening Multitude members to disrupt their formation!
They were racing against time. Qin Mu needed time to activate the Obelisk Forest and push its suppressive power to the limit. They had to block the Heaven-Opening Multitude before they could unleash the altar formation’s might!
This was the strategy Qin Mu had agreed upon with them.
The Heaven-Opening Multitude possessed a combined attack technique that could rival the Mi Luo Palace Young Masters and even severely wound Second Young Master Wu Ji in the Gui Xu Abyss!
Second Young Master Wu Ji’s strength might even surpass that of Eldest Young Master Tai Shang. Even though she was bound by the Red Rope Knot, severely wounding her was no easy feat.
The thirty-five Heaven-Opening Multitude members had managed to wound her in her birthplace, the Gui Xu Abyss, and fight their way out. Qin Mu already regarded these thirty-five as beings on par with the Young Masters!
Activating the Obelisk Forest required time, and activating the Heaven-Opening Altar formation also required time. Whoever seized the initiative first would likely win!
Beneath the feet of the thirty-five Heaven-Opening Multitude members, the phantom of the Heaven-Opening Altar rose. These thirty-five seemed to share a single mind, and the activation speed of the Heaven-Opening Altar formation was astonishingly fast!
Zhu San Tong charged in with his spiked club, smashing it onto the head of one Heaven-Opening Multitude member. Blood gushed out instantly.
That member’s head split open like a blooming flower, its petals spreading apart. His face split in two, each half on a separate piece of the cracked skull, yet he grinned, sending chills down one’s spine.
Zhu San Tong was startled. “Still not dead?”
Behind the Heaven-Opening Multitude member with the split skull, a large drum rose and boomed. Zhu San Tong spat blood. The drum sounded eighteen times in succession, and Zhu San Tong was torn apart.
The girl spun her body, and the Dao fruits on her Dao Tree flew out with a whoosh. The Dao fruits rotated, and thousands of threads and needles shot out from them, piercing through a Heaven-Opening Multitude member’s physical body and primordial spirit.
The girl grabbed the threads and pulled hard, but the member did not shatter as she had expected.
Startled, the girl was about to release the threads and flee when the member turned his head to look at her. A vertical eye on his forehead opened and swept its gaze.
With a series of tearing sounds, countless tender bamboo shoots burst out from within the girl’s body, growing wildly, piercing through her and planting her onto a bamboo grove.
“Dao Trees and Dao Fruits are already outdated,” the member said calmly.
At the same time, the woman closed in for close combat, swinging her washing club. As the club rose, a radiant light shot up from the ancient well behind her!
Her strength was immense, not at all inferior to Dong Yang’s. The ancient well where she usually drew water and washed clothes was the true seat of her Dao. In her own cosmic epoch, she had been the most eye-catching existence!
However, she was met by the attacks of three Heaven-Opening Multitude members. Her moves had barely been launched when she was severely wounded by the three and sent flying backward.
“How can their techniques be so bizarre? How can their Dao be so unheard of?”
Her mind roared. The techniques of those three Heaven-Opening Multitude members were unlike anything she had ever seen, and the Dao they employed was also beyond her knowledge. She was severely wounded in the very first exchange.
On the other side, the old woman and Old Man Dong Yang were also met with counterattacks and encirclement from the Heaven-Opening Multitude.
In the Seventh Epoch, Old Man Dong Yang had ranked third in the Heavenly Capital City, second only to the Heavenly Capital’s Master and the mysterious Ling. He too had been a member of the Heaven-Opening Multitude, once as famous as Eldest Young Master Tai Shang.
He thought he understood the Dao techniques of these thirty-five Heaven-Opening Multitude members, but to his surprise, the Dao techniques of the Heaven-Opening Multitude of the past were completely different from those of the present!
The Dao techniques of these thirty-five showed no trace of their former selves!
Bang! Bang!
His form flew backward, his body splitting open in midair, his mind filled with confusion.
He could no longer comprehend the Heaven-Opening Multitude’s techniques.
On the other side, the old woman was defeated almost simultaneously. A Heaven-Opening Multitude member stepped on her face and was about to deliver a killing blow.
Just then, Qin Mu mobilized the Obelisk Forest formation and pointed a finger!
The Heaven-Opening Multitude member’s body shook violently. All his mana was suppressed to the last drop, and his form suddenly flew backward with a whoosh!
Bang!
His body crashed into the nearest Obelisk, his physical form and primordial spirit merging into the stone, trapped within.
Qin Mu moved his steps, and the entire Obelisk Forest shifted its formation. Huge Obelisks moved continuously. Qin Mu pointed a second time, and another Heaven-Opening Multitude member flew backward, landing in the second Obelisk!
The other members charged at Qin Mu. Qin Mu circled the Coffin of Burying the Dao, flicking his sleeve. Another member screamed and flew into the third Obelisk.
The Smiling Face, Ren Shi Jing, shook his body, activating the Heaven-Opening Altar formation. The other members suddenly transformed their physical forms and primordial spirits, merging with his to form a towering, heaven-splitting giant!
Although three members had been suppressed by Qin Mu, making the Heaven-Opening Altar formation incomplete, Qin Mu’s cultivation and strength had not reached the Young Master level. Ren Shi Jing was still confident he could break through the Obelisk Forest!
Just then, a great axe swung from behind, cleaving apart the thirty-two about to merge!
The thirty-two Heaven-Opening Multitude members scattered in all directions, each landing separately, and the formation was immediately broken!
Qin Mu seized the opportunity to drive the Obelisk Forest, forcibly suppressing one Heaven-Opening Multitude member after another into the Obelisks.
“Leader, you are truly sick!”
The smile on the Smiling Face, Ren Shi Jing’s face finally changed, twisting as he said to Tai Yi, “You need to be cured…”
Qin Mu mustered the last of his mana, sweeping his sleeve. The Smiling Face, Ren Shi Jing’s form flew backward and landed in the thirty-fifth Obelisk.
Qin Mu panted heavily. The Obelisk Forest was still draining his mana, making it hard for him to endure. The faces of the thirty-five Heaven-Opening Multitude members were pressed against the mirror-like surfaces of the Obelisks, their eyes staring at him coldly, waiting for him to falter.
Mobilizing such a vast Obelisk Forest consumed a tremendous amount of mana, while he also had to maintain his form, converting his Primordial Qi into Primordial runes to fill the gap left by the missing Obelisk.
Though sealing the thirty-five Heaven-Opening Multitude members in one fell swoop was a stunning feat, it had drained Qin Mu’s mana completely.
“Young Master Chaos, as always, you are still a reckless brute, never considering the consequences.”
The Smiling Face, Ren Shi Jing’s face pressed against the Obelisk’s mirror surface, his eyes devoid of emotion, his voice coming from within the stone. “You will soon be unable to hold on. Then, we will break free. Everything you have done will be in vain.”
Qin Mu suddenly sat in a lotus position. The Chaos Hall appeared behind him, and the World Tree flew up, landing in the Chaos Hall, drawing energy from the rivers within to replenish his consumption.
“If I want to suppress you, I can make you submit completely!”
Just as Qin Mu uttered this fierce declaration, Tai Yi’s large hand landed on his shoulder.