Chapter 1792: The Great Change in the Return Void
The Chaos Hall retreated with the group from the World Tree, and the Old Man Wuyai did not lead his forces in pursuit. The two sides thus ceased hostilities.
"The Old Man Wuyai doesn't dare to pursue."
Qin Mu returned to the golden ship, pushed aside the mountains of various treasures piled up, and led everyone into the golden hall of the ship. He invited them to sit down and said, "Last time the Miluo Palace attacked, we joined in the fun and wounded him. After he forced back the Miluo Palace, I took the opportunity to strike. At that time, the Old Man Wuyai was at his most docile; no matter how you hit him, he wouldn't fight back. You are... Luo Santong!"
He looked at Luo Santong and immediately traced his soul back to his previous life, recognizing this old acquaintance. He laughed and said, "Brother Zhu's cultivation is still weak, about the same as the former Nether Emperor. How did you manage to come here?"
His mastery of the Cycle of Reincarnation had grown increasingly profound and unfathomable; he could discern Zhu Santong's origins with a single glance.
Qin Fengqing said, "He insisted on coming. I couldn't dissuade him, so I had to let him."
Luo Santong felt secretly displeased: "When did you ever try to dissuade me? If you had just said a word of discouragement, I... I probably still wouldn't have been able to resist coming anyway."
Grandma Si took a vast ocean of texts from her divine storage and handed them to Qin Mu, saying, "These are the results of the Reform over the years. I've brought you the useful parts. Take a look for yourself."
Qin Mu accepted these texts and let out a hearty laugh. "Coming is fine, it doesn't matter much. As long as you don't get beaten into Chaos, there's still hope. But here in the Ancestral Court, everyone has the strength to beat someone into Chaos..."
He tilted his head, thinking, and laughed again. "Wherever the yellow earth lies, it buries people. Dying anywhere is the same."
Luo Santong's face darkened. "These two brothers talk exactly alike. No wonder they're blood brothers..."
Qin Mu's body shook, and numerous tiny Qin Mus emerged, spreading throughout every corner of the golden hall. They rapidly flipped through the texts Grandma Si had brought. He said, "We haven't been idle in the Ancestral Court for three thousand years. Emperor Yu and Brother Xu have been organizing divine arts and Dao techniques—first, compiling the various divine arts and methods practiced by the powerful beings of prehistory, and second, recording the divine arts and Dao techniques we've created during this time. Once Bai Gui and the Dao Ancestor attain the Dao, they will return and spread these Dao techniques to the Eternal Peace."
Jiang Baigui was also close to attaining the Dao, but his path was the one opened by the Woodcutter Saint, a very difficult road.
"You've just arrived from the Eternal Peace. Don't rush to join the battles yet. First, study the divine arts and Dao techniques here."
With a thought from Qin Mu, several more golden halls appeared on the ship. He said, "Don't worry about a lack of battles. There will be plenty in the future."
Grandma Si, Qin Fengqing, and the others followed Xu Shenghua toward another golden hall. They saw the Kai Emperor Qin Ye, Jiang Baigui, and Tai Shi placing the spoils of the battlefield onto the golden ship.
These were the treasures they had obtained by killing their opponents in the recent great battle—several hundred pieces, each one an extraordinary masterpiece.
The deck was already piled high. Tai Shi picked out a few useless items and casually tossed them overboard.
Mute and Village Chief and the others felt a bit embarrassed. They quietly stuffed the fragments of treasures that were poking out of their glutton sacks back inside, thinking, "We've really let Mu'er down."
"Why didn't the Jade Capital City come to join the fun when we attacked the World Tree earlier?" Grandma Si asked Xu Shenghua.
"The Dao attainers and hall masters of the Jade Capital City are eager for us to go to war with the Old Man Wuyai, hoping for a fight to the death where both sides are destroyed."
Xu Shenghua explained, "If the Dao attainers of the Miluo Palace want to descend, they need more blood sacrifice energy; otherwise, it's not enough to support the descent of Dao attainers and hall masters. However, the Old Man Wuyai is skilled at stealing blood sacrifice energy. In the past, over sixty billion years, the vast majority of blood sacrifice energy was stolen by him. When we go to war with the Old Man Wuyai, the casualties are all at the Celestial Venerable level or higher, and there are even Dao attainers among them. The Miluo Palace can then take the opportunity to accumulate blood sacrifice energy, allowing more Dao attainers and hall masters to descend."
He wore a worried expression and continued, "Over the years, the Miluo Palace has accumulated a great deal of blood sacrifice energy. Twelve hall masters have descended, and the number of Dao attainers has reached over a hundred. If not for Lord Qin Mu holding the line here, they would have crushed us long ago."
Qin Mu could be considered the backbone of their group. Over these three thousand years, countless fierce battles had occurred. If not for Qin Mu turning the tide time and again, they would have long since been buried in the Ancestral Court.
Over the years, everyone's progress had been obvious, but Qin Mu's progress was even more astonishing.
Tai Yi had been suppressing the Heaven-Opening Multitude and had been missing for three thousand years. The only one capable of standing alone in the Ancestral Court was Qin Mu. He had to face the divine art attacks of the Third and Fourth Young Masters of the Miluo Palace while also holding back the Old Man Wuyai—an immense pressure.
In these mere three thousand years, Qin Mu had forcibly elevated his lotus platform to the sixth level of Dao quality. On the World Tree, he also had two Dao fruits and three Dao flowers, all of which had bloomed and borne fruit from the Five Great Primal Dao.
"Recently, the pressure on us has lessened considerably, but hidden worries remain."
Xu Shenghua continued, "The Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court has had no new Dao attainers descend for nearly eight hundred years. This makes one worry that the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court is planning something big."
He stood before the golden hall, gazing into the distance at the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court, and said, "Over these eight hundred years, there have been no fewer than a hundred major battles among the three sides, and countless smaller skirmishes. The Old Man Wuyai has seized about forty percent of the blood sacrifice energy. Tai Shi has dissolved about fifteen percent. The remaining forty-five percent should have been taken by the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court. The Jade Capital City has been accumulating energy for eight hundred years; it is now extremely formidable."
Everyone was startled.
Zhu Santong's voice trembled as he asked, "Are the Young Masters of the Miluo Palace preparing to descend?"
Xu Shenghua shook his head and pushed open the door of the golden hall, saying, "Tai Shi, Minister Jiang, and I have calculated that if we convert Lord Qin Mu into blood sacrifice energy, the energy seized by the Jade Capital City over these eight hundred years could probably be used to sacrifice and exchange for one and a half Lord Qin Mus. But Young Master Zixiao and Young Master Lingxiao are each no less than ten Lord Qin Mus. Therefore, the Young Masters cannot descend."
Everyone was stunned.
Qin Mu could contend with the Old Man Wuyai. His Cosmic Primordial Bell spanned sixteen Chaos Long Rivers, with divine arts so vast they had never been heard of before. Yet he was still only equivalent to one-tenth the combat power of a Miluo Palace Young Master!
If the two Young Masters of the Miluo Palace were to descend, how terrifying would that be?
However, they had overestimated the combat power of the Miluo Palace Young Masters and underestimated the strength of the Old Man Wuyai.
Qin Mu relied on the Return Void Lotus and the World Tree taking root in the Chaos Long River, borrowing the power of the Destruction Calamity from sixteen cosmic epochs. That was how he could contend with the Old Man Wuyai. While borrowing power, he was not weaker than Young Master Zixiao or Young Master Lingxiao.
As for the Old Man Wuyai, it was because Qin Mu had sealed the Ancestral Court, even sealing the thirty-six layers of void, making it so that to attain the Dao in the Ancestral Court and imprint upon the Ultimate Void, there was only one path: to cultivate the Ancestral Court Dao Realm system.
In the current Ancestral Court, none of the powerful beings under the Old Man Wuyai could attain the Dao through the traditional Dao Realm Dao Tree system, so the Old Man Wuyai's strength could never return to its peak.
If it were the Old Man Wuyai at his peak, he would undoubtedly be the most powerful existence, capable of contending with the Master of the Miluo Palace. —Of course, compared to the current Old Man Wuyai, the difference was that he could withstand a few more moves before being killed by the Master of the Miluo Palace. But that was still an impressive achievement.
Xu Shenghua invited them into the golden hall and said, "Furthermore, there have been unusual movements from the Return Void recently. The Return Void has become increasingly unstable, erupting violently from time to time. It's very strange. That's why Lord Qin Mu planted his Return Void Lotus on the Chaos Sea to temporarily suppress it."
Everyone recalled the Return Void Lotus and lotus leaves they had seen when they first entered the Ancestral Court. Their hearts stirred.
The Return Void seemed to have disappeared, but in reality, it had transformed into the sky of the Ancestral Court. Qin Mu had used his own divine power and arts to flip the Chaos Sea inside the Return Void outward and plant his Return Void Lotus on the sea. He was indeed suppressing something.
"Mu'er has suffered," Grandma Si sighed.
The golden hall was filled with texts compiled by Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian. Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian were the founders of the Ancestral Court Dao Realm system. Their talent and comprehension were supreme, hailed by Tai Yi as Divine Men and Ultimate Men. When they organized the divine arts and Dao techniques of prehistory, they transformed them into the divine arts and Dao techniques of the Ancestral Court Dao Realm system.
This made it easier for the divine ability practitioners and Divine Men of the Eternal Peace to understand.
If it were Qin Mu, he might not have had such talent, comprehension, or patience.
The golden hall contained an immense number of texts, enough for Grandma Si and the others to study for a long time. Xu Shenghua let them slowly ponder and then walked out of the golden hall to see Qin Mu.
Qin Mu was still studying the results of the Eternal Peace Reform over these three thousand years. He read very quickly, absorbing the nutrients of the Reform, striving not to fall behind the times. He was very diligent.
Xu Shenghua looked at the Cosmic Primordial Bell hanging in front of his Chaos Hall. The bell had been forged in recent years. They had collected the Dao weapons of prehistoric powerful beings, refined them, and used Qin Mu's techniques and divine arts as the prototype to forge this bell.
It was Qin Mu's Dao Realm thirty-fifth level divine art, containing incredibly complex Dao changes. It could be said to be the most powerful divine art in the current world, encompassing the two systems of the World Tree and the Return Void.
When the bell was activated, it was like the terrifying scene of the Creation Calamity erupting at the birth of the universe. It evolved from the Five Great Primals to the myriad Daos of heaven and earth. And when it evolved to the myriad Daos of heaven and earth, Qin Mu also absorbed Jiang Baigui's Postnatal Attainment of Dao, mixing in Postnatal Great Daos, making its power even more terrifying.
In prehistoric cosmic epochs, research on various Primal Great Daos had reached its limit. But in the evolution of Postnatal Daos, the Eternal Peace era was second to none among the seventeen cosmic epochs!
Faced with Postnatal Daos, prehistoric powerful beings were often helpless.
This was the reason Qin Mu was so attentive to the results of the Eternal Peace Reform brought by Grandma Si and the others.
The Eternal Peace Reform provided him with enough nourishment, giving him the strength to contend with the Miluo Palace and the Old Man Wuyai.
After a long time, Qin Mu finished reading through the texts Grandma Si and the others had brought. He stood up, walked out of the golden hall, came to Xu Shenghua's side, and looked up at the Chaos Sea in the sky.
The Chaos Sea was violently churning again, with surging waves, causing his Return Void Lotus to become somewhat unstable.
"Something major must have happened in the Return Void."
Qin Mu's brow split open, and his third divine eye gazed into the distance at the Chaos Sea. He said in a deep voice, "Ever since the Heaven-Opening Multitude borrowed the path through the Return Void, the disturbances in the Return Void have gradually increased, and each time is more violent than the last. This makes me a bit fearful."
Xu Shenghua asked, "Do you want to go to the Return Void?"
Qin Mu nodded. "I want to know, when the Heaven-Opening Multitude borrowed the path through the Return Void and fought a great battle with Young Master Wuji, did they fight to the death, or did they eventually reach some kind of agreement? The Second Young Master Wuji and the Heaven-Opening Multitude are no pushovers. If they secretly reached some agreement, then it would be dangerous."
Logically speaking, Young Master Wuji definitely had the strength to kill a few of the Heaven-Opening Multitude. But that time, although the thirty-five members of the Heaven-Opening Multitude were injured, they all survived and fought their way out of the Return Void.
If there really was some agreement between them and Young Master Wuji, then not only the Ancestral Court would be in danger, but even Tai Yi, who was suppressing the Heaven-Opening Multitude, would be in danger!
"When will you go?" Xu Shenghua asked.
"Now!"
Without any hesitation, Qin Mu's figure flew up and headed toward the Chaos Sea.
He was getting closer and closer to the Chaos Sea. Just then, a beam of blood sacrifice light shot up from the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court. Qin Mu's heart stirred, and he looked into the distance toward the Jade Capital City.
He saw that in the Chaos Long River of the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court, a huge Dao spear slowly emerged within the torrent of blood sacrifice, gradually turning from illusion into reality!
That Dao spear was the weapon of Young Master Lingxiao, and it was now descending through blood sacrifice!
The Dao spear vibrated continuously within the blood sacrifice, causing the entire Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court to be filled with phantom images like towering pillars, seemingly capable of propping up the universe and the primordial chaos, unchanging and unshakable even amidst the Destruction Calamity!
Dong——
The Cosmic Primordial Bell hanging under the eaves of Qin Mu's Chaos Hall seemed to sense the descent of a powerful enemy and automatically emitted a clear, resonant chime.
Qin Mu raised an eyebrow, continued flying upward, entered the Chaos Sea, and stepped into the Return Void.
——Zhai Zhu has lost another monthly ticket. Why don't you all look for it again?