Chapter 851: The Death of Ling Tianzun
Qin Mu felt his mind grow hazy as he saw the words on the stone stele.
Tomb of Ling Tianzun.
Ling Tianzun was dead?
His gaze was filled with confusion and disbelief. In his view, even if the Heavenly Emperor died one after another, Ling Tianzun would not die. Yet here stood the Tomb of Ling Tianzun.
He quickly walked to the stone stele, about to examine it, when he suddenly paused.
Behind the stele was a simple stone coffin, placed flat on the ground. However, behind this simple burial site stood another stone stele, and behind that stele was another stone coffin.
His gaze gradually extended further, and he saw more stone steles and coffins, an immense number, densely packed, covering the entire Jade Capital of this ancient heavenly court!
Qin Mu looked around. The entire Jade Capital was filled with countless stone coffins and tombstones, with no other structures!
All the stone steles bore the same inscription: "Tomb of Ling Tianzun!"
Behind him, Yan Qiling, Mu Qiubai, the Heavenly Dragon King, and the "Imperial Heavenly Lord" of the heavenly court walked over quickly, staring dumbfounded at the scene.
There were too many tombs of Ling Tianzun here, an appalling number. With so many coffins, could each one hold a Ling Tianzun?
"Most of these coffins are probably decoys. The real Ling Tianzun should be buried in the Lingxiao Hall!"
Mu Qiubai suddenly spoke up. "As one of the Nine Heavenly Lords, Ling Tianzun is entitled to be buried in the Lingxiao Hall!"
The Heavenly Dragon King took the lead, rushing straight toward that location. Yan Qiling and Mu Qiubai quickly followed, while Xing Han and the "Imperial Heavenly Lord" also flashed away.
Only Qin Mu remained, with the Dragon Qilin by his side and the green sparrow transformed from Yan'er on his shoulder.
Qin Mu steadied himself, took out a stick of incense, lit it, and silently inserted it before the tombstone.
After a moment, he walked behind the stele, grabbed the stone coffin lid with both hands, and opened it.
Inside the coffin was no corpse, only a shallow layer of clear water. Qin Mu paused, then closed the coffin.
He went to another stone coffin, opened it, and looked inside. This coffin also contained a pool of clear water.
One by one, he opened the coffins, and all he saw was clear water. No Ling Tianzun.
Qin Mu stubbornly opened coffin after coffin, but it was always clear water.
From the Lingxiao Hall came intense tremors, and the Heavenly Dragon King's voice was thunderously loud, shouting harshly: "No one will get Ling Tianzun's treasure! This treasure belongs to the Earth Mother Primordial Sovereign!"
The Dragon Qilin looked into the distance and saw the Heavenly Dragon King transform into an old dragon, his massive body coiling around the Lingxiao Hall, his dragon form encircling the entire hall. The demigods under his command stood on his body, contending with the maidservants beside Yan Qiling.
Those maidservants were incredibly powerful, blocking the Heavenly Dragon King.
Inside the hall, several figures could be faintly seen moving like lightning—the "Imperial Heavenly Lord," Yan Qiling, Xing Han, and Mu Qiubai were locked in battle, fighting over Ling Tianzun's treasure.
"Chief," the Dragon Qilin whispered. "Aren't we going over? They seem to have found something."
Qin Mu lifted another stone slab. The coffin still held a pool of clear water, shallow and pure.
He stared blankly into space. There were countless stone coffins of Ling Tianzun in the Jade Capital, far too many to check one by one. It would take who knows how many years.
Xing Han, Yan Qiling, and the others had chosen to go directly to the Lingxiao Hall, which was indeed the best choice. As a Heavenly Lord, Ling Tianzun held an extremely high status, so it was only natural for her to be buried there.
The coffins in the Jade Capital were mostly decoy tombs.
"Perhaps we should also go to the Lingxiao Hall and take a look. She might really be buried there."
Qin Mu straightened up, and then he heard a clanging, hammering sound.
He paused. The sound was not from divine techniques but seemed like the noise of chiseling stone.
The battle in the Lingxiao Hall continued, but Qin Mu followed the sound. After a while, he arrived outside the Jade Capital, where an old man with white hair was dismantling the palaces of this heavenly court. He took down stone materials and used an axe and chisel to carve them into stone coffins.
Qin Mu came to stand behind the old man, watching silently. The old man worked quickly, soon crafting a stone coffin. Then he began chiseling a stele, carving the words "Tomb of Ling Tianzun" onto it.
The old man seemed unaware of Qin Mu's presence, quietly continuing his work. Around him were already many stone coffins and steles.
After a long time, the old man stopped to rest and looked up at Qin Mu. "Is it Mu Tianzun?"
Qin Mu saw that the old man's eyes were completely white, without pupils. He was blind.
"Elder, how did you know it was me?" Qin Mu asked.
"Qin Tianzun has already been here, about thirty thousand years ago. It's been too long; I can't remember clearly."
The old man put down his axe and chisel. "Qin Tianzun came to pay his respects and then left. Ling Tianzun asked me to set up this burial ground, and only two people can enter: Qin Tianzun and Mu Tianzun. These two Heavenly Lords can use their Heavenly Lord tokens to enter this place. Qin Tianzun has already come, so you must be Mu Tianzun. However, you've also brought some uninvited guests."
Qin Mu steadied himself. "Elder, is Ling Tianzun truly dead?"
The blind old man said, "Dead, but also alive. She died while completing the divine technique of the Immutability of Matter, but she also gained eternal life."
Qin Mu was stunned.
The blind old man stood up. "Qin Tianzun came here to bury her and mourned her. Since Mu Tianzun has also come, you should come along as well."
He dragged a chain of stone coffins forward, and Qin Mu followed behind him, watching as the old man headed toward the Heavenly River.
Before long, they arrived at the bank of the Heavenly River.
The blind old man set down the coffins. "She will be here soon."
Qin Mu stood by the riverbank. The Heavenly River shimmered with rippling light. After a while, a woman drifted down from the river.
Suddenly, Qin Mu's heart inexplicably clenched, filled with pain.
The woman drifting on the river wore a leopard-skin skirt and straw sandals, with a peachwood hairpin in her hair. It was Ling Tianzun, but she had no breath of life.
"Master, return your soul—! Your disciple has come to bury you!"
The blind old man waded into the water and stopped Ling Tianzun's body. Qin Mu also jumped into the Heavenly River and helped him bring Ling Tianzun's body ashore.
They placed Ling Tianzun's body in the stone coffin. After a moment, she turned into a pool of clear water.
Qin Mu was stunned.
The blind old man seemed unable to see this. He closed the coffin and continued sitting by the Heavenly River, waiting.
After an unknown amount of time, another Ling Tianzun drifted down the river, wearing a leopard-skin skirt and straw sandals.
Qin Mu was bewildered. The blind old man had already waded into the river again. "Master, return your soul—! Your disciple has come to bury you!"
Qin Mu quickly followed into the river. This body of Ling Tianzun was placed into the coffin and again turned into clear water.
"What is happening?" he asked, confused.
The blind old man sat silently. After another long while, another Ling Tianzun drifted down the river. They buried her again, but the same thing happened—she turned into clear water, as if what they had pulled from the river was not Ling Tianzun's physical body but just a patch of river water.
They waited there for who knows how long. Each stone coffin now held a "Ling Tianzun." The blind old man dragged the coffins toward the Jade Capital.
The city was already filled with stone coffins and tombstones. The old man dragged these coffins outside the city, arranged them neatly, and buried the steles deep, standing them upright.
Qin Mu followed him, paid his respects to these empty coffins, and then followed the old man to the place where he quarried stone. He watched as the old man picked up his axe and chisel and continued hammering and carving the stone materials.
After a moment, Qin Mu could no longer hold back and asked, "Elder, what exactly is going on?"
The blind old man put down his axe and chisel, his blind eyes staring blankly into space. After a moment, he said, "My master spent her life studying Dao techniques and divine abilities, always walking alone with few friends. She took me as her disciple, probably because she felt lonely and bored. I am from the era of the Upper Emperor. After becoming her disciple, I followed her in cultivation. I knew my master had few friends, but she often mentioned two people—two who suddenly appeared in the early years of the Dragon Han Era and helped her."
Qin Mu felt a warmth in his heart.
Those two were him and the Kai Emperor.
"Qin Tianzun and Mu Tianzun were the ones she often mentioned. She wanted to find them but could never succeed."
The blind old man picked up his axe and chisel again and continued hammering. "The Upper Emperor Era was very long. She did not find these two Heavenly Lords during that time, and she could no longer bear it. Her divine technique was almost complete, and the heavenly court supported by the Heavenly Alliance had also achieved victory. I still remember that day, after the Earth Mother Primordial Sovereign died, she intercepted the Heavenly River and performed her divine technique. That day..."
The hammering stopped.
Qin Mu felt a chill run down his spine.
The heavenly court supported by the Heavenly Alliance had achieved victory?
What victory?
Was it the eradication of the Northern Upper Emperor Heavenly Court?
The heavenly court supported by the Heavenly Alliance—was it the Southern Upper Emperor Heavenly Court?
"That day, the Heavenly River was severed. My master stood in the heavenly court, using her divine technique to freeze the matter of the Heavenly River, even restoring it to its ancient state and advancing it to its future state. I remember that day, standing on the riverbank, I saw a sudden mist rise over the Heavenly River. My master was within the mist, merging with it."
That day, the Yuan Realm underwent a drastic change.
The vast Heavenly River suddenly stopped flowing. This river floating in the sky lost a large section, vanishing from the world.
As a result, the Southern Upper Emperor Heavenly Court became unstable, suffering a devastating blow from the Outer Realm Heavenly Court.
"Then, is this heavenly court we are in now the Southern Upper Emperor Heavenly Court?"
Qin Mu suddenly interrupted him. "Then who is buried in the Lingxiao Hall?"
"Naturally, it is the Upper Emperor Heavenly Emperor. He died fighting to protect Ling Tianzun, and I buried him in the Lingxiao Hall."
The blind old man continued. "The Upper Emperor Heavenly Emperor was also a member of the Heavenly Alliance, a disciple of another Heavenly Lord. Every generation of Upper Emperor was a disciple of a Heavenly Lord. However, the fall of the Southern Upper Emperor Heavenly Court was not due to my master's divine technique but to the betrayal of the Heavenly Alliance."
When Ling Tianzun performed her divine technique and merged with the mist, the Heavenly Alliance's betrayal led to the Southern Upper Emperor Heavenly Court being breached. Darkness descended, and Ling Tianzun reappeared from the mist.
At that moment, a terrifying force struck without warning—a majestic figure charged into the mist, heading straight for Ling Tianzun.
The Southern Upper Emperor Heavenly Court was defeated, leaving only ruins.
"Later, I saw my master's body drifting on the river."
The blind old man took out a token—Ling Tianzun's token—and said hoarsely, "I built this burial ground and left a mechanism that only Qin Tianzun and Mu Tianzun could unlock."
Qin Mu looked at Ling Tianzun's token. It was the same size as his own token. The blind old man had designed the mechanism based on this token.
"Then why do you say she is still alive?" Qin Mu suddenly asked.
The blind old man put down his axe and chisel, dragging the coffins with chains toward the riverbank. "Qin Tianzun came here and told me that he had seen Ling Tianzun. She came to find him and told him many things."
Qin Mu was stunned and quickly followed him. "What is the origin of the Outer Realm Heavenly Court? Who is the Heavenly Emperor of the Outer Realm Heavenly Court? Others may not know, but Ling Tianzun must know!"
"The Heavenly Emperor of the Outer Realm Heavenly Court is..."
The blind old man turned back, his wrinkled face showing an expression that was neither a smile nor a cry: "The Heavenly Alliance. Mu Tianzun, it was you who founded the Heavenly Alliance—"