Chapter 650: The Secrets of the Upper Sovereign Era
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign was still very weak. Although the two big eye monsters were highly unreliable, they managed to dissolve all the medicinal power of the elixirs in one go, and surprisingly succeeded. As a result, the injuries to the First Ancestor Human Sovereign's primordial spirit were alleviated, allowing him to escape the execution blade on the Execution Platform.
Of course, Qin Mu didn't know about this. If he did, he would definitely give those two big eyeballs a thorough scolding.
The First Ancestor struggled to stand up, his body swaying. His physical injuries had healed, but his primordial spirit and celestial palace were still severely wounded. Fortunately, his life was no longer in danger.
"Chi Xi's injuries are lighter than mine. His strength now far surpasses mine."
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign said in a low voice, "I'm afraid I can no longer protect you."
Qin Mu was unconcerned: "Even if he knows you have little strength now, he wouldn't dare to make a move against you. He doesn't dare to gamble. Once I heal your injuries, he'll be even less willing to take that risk."
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign shook his head: "I'm not worried about him, but about the Suspended Void Realm. Before we enter the Suspended Void Realm, do you have confidence in healing me?"
Qin Mu hesitated. He indeed had no confidence in healing the First Ancestor within a few months. Primordial spirit injuries were extremely tricky, and he had no experience whatsoever with celestial palace injuries. Moreover, there weren't enough spiritual medicines on this broken ship. Although his Gluttony Pouch contained many types of herbs, it was still missing some crucial ingredients.
To heal the First Ancestor, he would need to go to the Suspended Void Realm and see if he could purchase enough spiritual medicines.
"The Heaven-Toppling Three Techniques have caused too much damage to you. You must never use them again," Qin Mu advised.
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign shook his head: "I don't want the Celestial Master to still think of me as a deserter."
Qin Mu was stunned. Being branded a deserter once meant bearing that shame for a lifetime—it was indeed somewhat cruel.
"The main reason the Celestial Master calls you a deserter might not be because you fled from that battle."
Qin Mu thought it over, speculating on the Woodcutter Saint's meaning, and said, "After you became a deserter, you fled for another twenty thousand years, never facing reality. For twenty thousand years, you lived in seclusion, doing nothing, making no efforts, accomplishing nothing, and you didn't even teach your disciples well. He wouldn't resent you for fleeing once, but the fact that you fled for twenty thousand years is something he cannot forgive."
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign was lost in thought.
Qin Mu fell silent and looked at the trampled medicinal garden, frowning slightly. These herbs could be cultivated again using the Creation Earth Origin Technique, but many varieties were still missing.
His Gluttony Pouch was bulging, with the two jade eyes squirming inside. Qin Mu released them. The two big eyeballs landed on the ground, propping themselves up with their hands on either side of their round, bulging eyes, and took a few steps to survey their surroundings.
"Bro, bro, there's a chick, there's a chick!"
The Taiyin Jade Eye gestured toward Ling Yuxiu excitedly, "She's one of the two chicks who discovered us!"
The two eyeballs' eyes lit up, staring at Ling Yuxiu without letting go, giving her a long, hard look before finally feeling satisfied.
Ling Yuxiu looked at the two eyeballs in surprise, carefully stepping around them to approach Qin Mu, and whispered, "The Ten Thousand Spirits Natural Art?"
Qin Mu nodded.
"How did you awaken their spirits?"
Ling Yuxiu lowered her voice, "These two big eyeballs are incredibly powerful. Even ordinary gods can't withstand their gaze. If they rebel, we won't be able to control them at all right now. By the way, do they know how strong they are?"
Qin Mu shook his head and whispered, "They don't know. They're still afraid I'll turn them back into their original form."
Ling Yuxiu breathed a sigh of relief, then remembered something and whispered, "Do they know they're the eyes of a Gluttony? After you awakened the box's spirit, it acted like a Gluttony, eating everything in sight, and even tried to eat the Dragon Qilin as a corpse a few times."
Qin Mu shook his head again: "They don't know that either. They're quite innocent."
The two jade eyes rolled around, chattering quietly among themselves.
Ling Yuxiu walked over and smiled, "You two, from now on, one will be called Little Yang, and the other Little Yin, alright?"
"Alright!"
The two jade eyes said in unison, "Chick!"
Ling Yuxiu walked back and whispered to Qin Mu, "These two big eye monsters don't seem so innocent. They called me 'chick.'"
The two big eyeballs ran into the dense forest. After a moment, the forest caught fire. Ling Yuxiu quickly shoved the small box into Qin Mu's arms and rushed over, without hesitation using her primal qi to form water dragons that weaved through the forest, extinguishing the flames.
The two big eye monsters stood there, smugly muttering, "I told you this method would lure the chick over, didn't I?"
"Brother is so clever!"
Ling Yuxiu was furious. After a moment, the girl dragged the two big eye monsters by their thin legs, storming over angrily, and threw them in front of Qin Mu: "These two bastards set a fire and almost burned down this forest! If this place burns, we'll all die without a burial ground! Better to turn them back into their original form and save the trouble!"
"Spare us, young mistress!" The two big eye monsters knelt on their thin little legs, their eyeballs flat on the ground.
Qin Mu looked troubled: "I still need them to deliver medicine to the First Ancestor's celestial palace. I can't kill them yet..."
Ling Yuxiu shouted, "This debt is recorded! If you make another mistake, I'll have your heads!"
The two big eye monsters trembled, hugging each other, their eyes filled with terror.
"It seems we don't have heads..."
"Shut up! Don't talk! If she finds out we don't have heads, she'll come poke out our eyes!"
Qin Mu continued refining medicine. When the medicinal power of the elixirs within the First Ancestor Human Sovereign was exhausted, he had the two big eye monsters deliver medicine again. He himself went to the stern of the ship, carefully observing the divine blood shed by the Great Sun Star Lord.
The Great Sun Star Lord was severely injured. His divine blood immediately ignited upon falling on the ship, but the First Ancestor Human Sovereign had extinguished it with his sword energy. However, the divine might within the blood remained, constantly emitting tiny, complex symbols that flickered in and out of existence, quite wondrous.
Qin Mu didn't dare to touch it. Just then, the First Ancestor Human Sovereign tottered over, drew his waist sword, and handed it to Qin Mu, saying, "Try using this sword..."
Qin Mu took the Jade Bright Sword and examined it. It was his first time carefully studying this treasure that guarded the palace. The Jade Bright Sword was a prince's sword used to guard the Jade Bright Palace, with terrifying power. The sword body was completely bright, like a sword-shaped beam of light, its brilliance flickering in and out, seemingly without a fixed length. Clearly, the craftsmanship used to forge this sword was extremely high.
This level of forging skill was something even the current Mute had not yet achieved!
Suddenly, Qin Mu took out the Carefree Sword and compared it with the Jade Bright Sword. The Carefree Sword appeared much more simple and unadorned, its divine might not evident, nor as bright as the Jade Bright Sword. The Carefree Sword looked like an ordinary divine weapon forged from common divine metal, showing no sign of advanced forging techniques.
"This sword of yours..."
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign's expression shifted, and he said to Qin Mu, "Let me see it!"
Qin Mu handed him the Carefree Sword. The First Ancestor examined it repeatedly, his face changing between light and shadow. After a moment, with a hint of confusion and melancholy, his voice hoarse, he asked, "Who gave this to you?"
"My father."
Qin Mu used the Jade Bright Sword to gently scoop up a bit of the Great Sun Star Lord's divine blood. Layers of formation patterns spun in his pupils as he observed the blood with his Jingxiao Heavenly Eye, saying, "He made a Tu Bo Pact with the Town Star Lord and cannot see me, so he gave me this sword as a keepsake."
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign said, "Do you know the name of this sword?"
"Carefree Sword. When I received it, I saw the two characters 'Carefree' appear on the blade."
Qin Mu carefully pressed a finger onto the Great Sun Star Lord's divine blood. The blood's might was suppressed by the Jade Bright Sword, but when he touched it, the small clump of divine blood immediately expanded, turning into a blood sphere about a zhang in diameter.
Qin Mu flicked his fingers, one after another, striking the blood sphere. It continued to expand, growing larger and larger, until finally it became a hundred-zhang blood sphere slowly rotating on the sword blade!
"Carefree Sword..."
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign let out a soft laugh and murmured, "It's called Carefree Sword now. Yes, indeed carefree now..."
Qin Mu focused intently, the formations in his pupils spinning wildly, seeing even the tiniest particles of divine blood within the sphere clearly.
"First Ancestor, this Great Sun Star Lord is not the true Great Sun Star Lord. Like you, he is a human who cultivated to become a god."
Qin Mu suddenly spoke, "Look, his blood is actually human blood. A divine demon born from the sun shouldn't have human blood. He has imprinted a peculiar runic mark into his blood. Every smallest particle of blood is branded with an incredibly tiny runic mark. This runic mark should be a type of flame rune or pure yang rune."
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign said, "My primordial spirit is too weak now to activate my divine eyes. Draw this rune for me to see."
Qin Mu dispersed the blood sphere, which rapidly shrank back into a small clump.
He flicked the sword, and the blood clump fell to the ground.
Using his primal qi as a brush, he manifested the runic mark he had seen in the air. This rune was an extremely peculiar mark, incredibly complex, seemingly containing patterns of various fire-type divine beasts, but not entirely identical. It was for this reason that Qin Mu couldn't tell if it was a flame rune or a pure yang rune.
"It's a runic mark from the Upper Sovereign Era, different from the flame runes and pure yang runes of the Kaihuang Era."
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign examined it closely and said, "The Celestial Master has deep research in this area. I haven't studied much. But it's certain that this Great Sun Star Lord is indeed a human who cultivated to become a god, not the true Great Sun Star Lord!"
The two exchanged glances, their expressions grave.
Qin Mu muttered to himself, "Then why did a divine being from the Upper Sovereign Era become the Great Sun Star Lord, and where is the true Great Sun Star Lord? Chi Xi said the Upper Sovereign Era lasted three hundred thousand years, longer than any other era. Why could this era endure for so long?"
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign was still weak. He returned the Carefree Sword to Qin Mu and said breathlessly, "In the early Kaihuang Era, there were still remnants of the Upper Sovereign Era, but the civilizational gap was severe. Even the Kaihuang Emperor couldn't deduce what happened in the Upper Sovereign Era. To know the secrets of the Upper Sovereign Era, one would have to go back to the past. This era is likely far more complex than we imagine."
Qin Mu was stunned, recalling his bizarre time-travel experience with Ban Gongcuo and thinking of Bai Qiu'er. "Go back to the past? I've gone back once..."
"Take good care of this Carefree Sword. Never lose it."
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign said, "Guard it with your life. It is very precious."
Qin Mu stroked the Carefree Sword and nodded, "I will. It's the only thing my father gave me. I will never discard it! But there's one strange thing, First Ancestor. With your Jade Bright Sword, I can barely unleash a trace of its power, but with this sword, I can never activate its might. What's the reason?"
The First Ancestor Human Sovereign seemed about to speak but held back. After thinking it over, he ultimately didn't explain the reason, saying, "You will know in the future."
The two big eye monsters: "Chick, chick, vote, vote!"