Chapter 814: Unobservable
The Crimson Emperor, the Great Brahma Heavenly King Buddha, and the Heavenly Duke remained silent, the atmosphere so heavy it was terrifying.
The Great Sun Star Lord shrank his head, occasionally rolling his eyes to observe the others, thinking to himself: "It seems I'm learning more and more. In my past life, I took an arrow to the heart because I knew too much. Now I know all this again—am I going to be silenced once more?"
"The Empress is Jue Wuchen, and Jue Wuchen is the Empress. What a brilliant scheme."
The Old Buddha sighed, his expression turning serious. "Let me sort out the cause and effect of this matter. The Empress returned to her hometown, arriving at the Guixu. The Dragon Bo Kingdom in Guixu rebelled, and the Empress was ambushed. The Yulin Army came to the rescue and investigated the ambush on the Empress. The Yulin Army suppressed the rebellion, but the Empress was ambushed a second time. She faked her death to escape. The Yulin Army then traversed time. Jue Wuchen emerged into the world, and the Empress took over Jue Wuchen's body to lure the Heavenly Emperor."
"The Heavenly Emperor reincarnated. Cloud Heavenly Venerable, Hao Heavenly Venerable, and Jue Wuchen assassinated the Heavenly Emperor. The two Heavenly Venerables rushed to the Heavenly Court to seize the Heavenly Emperor's physical body. The Empress abandoned Jue Wuchen's body, burying it together with her own true body on this ship that the Yulin Army traversed through time."
"This is the truth as I currently speculate. Heavenly Duke, Earth Lord, Crimson Emperor, Star Lord—do any of you have anything to add?"
Everyone shook their heads.
The Old Buddha spoke unhurriedly: "Then the question arises. The Empress must have planned the murder of the Heavenly Emperor before she went to Guixu. Why did the Dragon Bo Kingdom rebel? Why was it so coincidental that the rebellion happened exactly when she returned to Guixu? Even if the Dragon Bo Kingdom captured the Empress to threaten the Heavenly Emperor, it would be an incredibly foolish move—the Heavenly Emperor could destroy the Dragon Bo Kingdom with ease. So, was Dragon Bo one of the Empress's people? That's the first point."
"Second, the Empress also once came to this ghost ship of the Yulin Army. She came to bury Jue Wuchen, interring her own body with Jue Wuchen's. How did she leave this ghost ship? If she didn't come personally, then she sent someone else. Is that person still on the ship?"
"Third, the Empress's body and Jue Wuchen are both here. Without these two bodies, where did the Empress go? And who is the Empress in the Heavenly Court now?"
He voiced his doubts, and everyone frowned deeply.
The Old Buddha had asked the key questions, but no one could answer them.
The Heavenly Duke said to the Earth Lord, "Hiding in the brow of the Netherworld Prince's divine child is quite interesting, isn't it? You can see and hear many things we never knew before."
The Earth Lord nodded. "But knowing so much also sends a chill down my spine."
The Old Buddha stood up, stretched lazily, and his body slowly rose into the air. "I'm going to sleep in the sky. Take care, all of you."
The Crimson Emperor immediately sensed something was wrong. He quickly turned his head and saw the big-headed child Qin Fengqing carrying the Life-Slaying Cauldron, looking at them with ill intent.
The demonic nature within the Life-Slaying Cauldron grew even fiercer. Faceless visages emerged from the demonic aura, flying around the big-headed child.
"Ugly one," they called out to Qin Fengqing.
"Old Buddha, come down!"
The Heavenly Duke shouted loudly, "If we join forces, we can still suppress this fat kid!"
The Great Brahma Heavenly King Buddha yawned, slowly lying down, and said leisurely, "I can't beat him. I'll sleep for a while. You all fend for yourselves."
Outside, Qin Mu's eyes flickered. What the Village Chief was thinking was also what he was thinking: Jue Wuchen was the Empress.
As the Heavenly Emperor's empress, she knew his temperament deeply—the Heavenly Emperor didn't even understand himself as well as she did. That was why she could set up this trap against him.
"Cloud Heavenly Venerable of the Heavenly Alliance was involved. What about Ling Heavenly Venerable?"
Qin Mu was lost in thought. Jue Wuchen's beauty was unparalleled. Creating such a body required a transcendent and saintly understanding of the Art of Creation.
In the Long Han Era, the only one with such profound mastery of the Art of Creation was likely Ling Heavenly Venerable.
Moreover, the Yulin Army's time traversal incident occurred when the Yulin Army, on their way back to the Heavenly Court, encountered Ling Heavenly Venerable performing a divine art. That was why this ship became a ghost ship traversing time and space.
It was also for this reason that the Yulin Army failed to carry the Empress's body back to the Heavenly Court, and all evidence on this ship vanished completely.
The timing of Ling Heavenly Venerable's appearance on the Heavenly River was far too coincidental, forcing him into excessive speculation.
"Perhaps Ling Heavenly Venerable passed her divine art to Cloud Heavenly Venerable. After all, Cloud Heavenly Venerable was the leader of the Heavenly Alliance at the time..."
He comforted himself: "Maybe things aren't as bad as I imagine..."
The Village Chief's injuries had improved somewhat. He forced himself to stand and said, "When you summoned souls, the Empress sensed it. She should have detected you and will likely be able to find you. This place is not safe to stay..."
He frowned again. Now they were trapped on the ghost ship, unable to leave.
"Village Chief, rest assured. The Empress won't find this place."
Qin Mu took out some spiritual herbs and began refining pills on the spot to treat the Village Chief's soul injuries. He smiled and said, "The Empress's divine abilities are vast, but the Yulin ghost ship traverses time and space. By the time she finds this place, the ship will have already moved to some other era."
The Village Chief was stunned for a moment, then relaxed. "This ship is so bizarre and unpredictable, and so dangerous. How do we get out of here?"
"Village Chief, don't worry."
Qin Mu finished refining the pills, had him take them, and helped him catalyze the medicinal power. He said, "The Yulin ghost ship is not unsolvable. This ship should be trapped in a peculiar divine art. This art is likely one that I, as Shepherd Heavenly Venerable, created together with Ling Heavenly Venerable, though it was only a prototype back then. I need to find more clues before I can possibly break her divine art."
The Village Chief laughed. "In our village, you're the most learned and talented. Our teachings weren't in vain. Since it's a divine art you created with that Ling Heavenly Venerable, it shouldn't be too hard... Wait, what did you just say? Shepherd Heavenly Venerable? What Shepherd Heavenly Venerable?"
Qin Mu smiled faintly and briefly recounted how he and the Kai Emperor had returned to the ancient Long Han Era.
The Village Chief's mind buzzed. His gaze went blank, and he didn't come back to his senses for a long time.
Suddenly, the old man reached for his sword, only to remember that his divine sword had already shattered.
Qin Mu asked curiously, "Village Chief, what are you doing?"
"Kill the Dragon Tamer Lord!"
The Village Chief said with murderous intent, "This matter is of utmost importance! Now that the Dragon Tamer Lord knows about it, of course I have to kill the dragon to silence him!"
The Dragon Tamer Lord's face turned ashen.
Qin Mu laughed. "The Dragon Tamer Lord has also rendered meritorious service. How could I kill him just because he knows a little secret of mine? Village Chief, rest assured. He has already sworn the oath of the Great and Small Earth Lords. He wouldn't dare to betray us."
The Dragon Tamer Lord quickly nodded.
The Village Chief had no choice but to drop the matter. "Do you have confidence in breaking this bizarre divine art?"
Qin Mu stretched his body and walked outside. "Someone has broken Ling Heavenly Venerable's divine art before. The Four Emperors!"
The Village Chief came to his senses and followed his steps. "That's right! The Four Emperors once came to this ship. On the deck, there are seals left by the Four Emperors, sealing those black coffins. This means that the Four Emperors—Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, and White Tiger—came here and broke this divine art, leaving this place!"
Qin Mu nodded. "At that time, Ling Heavenly Venerable's divine art was probably not yet perfect, which caused the unstable state of matter on this ship. Every time the ghost ship traverses, matter is reorganized. Since there are flaws, and since the Four Emperors found a way out, then so can I!"
They left the hall. The lanterns flew around them, their light shining in all directions.
From the distant deck came the miserable horn sound of the old dragon: "The heavens and earth may change, but the thirty-six constants remain unchanged! The thirty-six constants, what does it mean..."
Qin Mu frowned slightly.
"Is that old dragon Dragon Bo, the Dragon Tamer Lord, or the Ancestral Dragon King who will go mad in the future?"
An uneasy feeling arose in his heart. If it was the Dragon Tamer Lord or the Ancestral Dragon King, wouldn't that mean there were two of them?
"There must be more clues on the ship!"
He suddenly remembered something and quickly called out to the lantern, asking, "Lin Xiao, where are the other Yulin soldiers? Why are you the only Yulin soldier on this ship? Where did the others go?"
The little bird-headed man sitting on the threshold of the lantern said, "Has the Commander forgotten? Please follow me."
He flapped his wings, and the lantern flew forward.
Qin Mu quickly followed, feeling a surge of excitement. "I have the Yulin Army's command token. The Yulin Army recognizes the token, not the person. If I can gain the help of the most powerful divine army of the Long Han Heavenly Court, I can kill everyone else on the ship and then gather the Yulin soldiers' strength to break Ling Heavenly Venerable's divine art!"
This great tower ship was enormous. Behind the front halls and buildings lay the training grounds for the soldiers. The training grounds were vast and flat, enough to accommodate thousands of divine beings practicing formations here.
As soon as Qin Mu arrived, he felt something was wrong. He could clearly sense hundreds of incredibly powerful auras, yet he couldn't see anyone!
The Village Chief and the Dragon Tamer Lord also frowned. They sensed it too—hundreds of divine auras, each one terrifying!
But when they looked around, they saw no divine beings at all.
"Commander, turn around," said the little man in the lantern.
Qin Mu and the other two did as they were told.
The little man in the lantern said, "Now slowly turn back."
Qin Mu and the others slowly turned around. Out of the corner of their eyes, they saw towering divine figures standing on the training grounds. But the moment their gazes touched these divine beings, the terrifying figures instantly collapsed into nothingness!
Qin Mu quickly turned his head and, in a flash, saw hundreds of divine beings standing majestically on the training grounds. But in the next instant, they collapsed and vanished!
Qin Mu turned his back again and once more sensed those divine beings. But when he turned around again, he could only see the collapsing shadows of those divine beings!
"When the mist struck back then, their physical bodies and souls completely decomposed, entering an unobservable state. As long as they are observed, they collapse and disappear."
The little man in the lantern looked dejected. "No line of sight can touch them, and no one can feel them. I was the lucky one. The divine art in the mist didn't envelop me. Back then, the old Commander extinguished the sun in the lantern, and that's how I escaped."
Qin Mu was stunned, cold sweat beading on his forehead. His voice was hoarse as he asked, "This ghost ship traverses through time and space thirty-six times? Thirty-six times make one cycle?"
The little man in the lantern nodded.
Qin Mu's forehead grew even sweatier. "Then the first traversal would go back to the moment the mist erupted?"
The little man in the lantern nodded again.
Qin Mu's voice trembled slightly. "That means we will also be hit by that divine art and become like the Yulin soldiers—unobservable matter?"
The little man in the lantern shook his head. "The Commander survived and lived on this ship for a very long time, until death."