Chapter 876: Hello, Wei Suifeng
"The Empress's younger sister... How is her corpse here?"
Qin Mu's mind went blank, almost unable to believe his eyes!
The Empress's corpse was hidden on the ghost ship, and his experiences on that vessel had been so bizarre that he would never forget them.
To unravel the mystery of the ghost ship, he had memorized every detail, every cycle of reincarnation aboard it, leaving an exceptionally deep impression on his memory.
On the ghost ship, the bodies of the Empress and Jue Wuchen lay in the same coffin. When Qin Mu performed a soul-summoning ritual for Jue Wuchen, he discovered she had no soul at all—she was an artificial human, a perfect female body created by Ling Tianzun using the Art of Creation to eliminate the ancient god, the Heavenly Emperor.
When he performed the soul-summoning ritual for the Empress, he was horrified to find that she was not dead at all—she was still alive in the world!
Later, he deduced the process by which the Empress and her sister had conspired with the Heavenly Alliance to murder the ancient god, the Heavenly Emperor.
The two sisters worked together. The younger sister remained in the Heavenly Court to distract the ancient god, while the Empress returned to her hometown under the pretense of visiting family. She used the nearby Dragon Bo Nation, inciting the Dragon Bo King to rebel, wounding the Empress, and trapping her in the Guixu Abyss.
The Heavenly Emperor ordered Wei Suifeng to lead the Imperial Guard to suppress the rebellion and rescue the Empress. After Wei Suifeng quelled the uprising, just before his army returned to court, the Empress was attacked. The Guixu's undercurrents surged, and in the darkness, two Empresses appeared—the real one died.
Wei Suifeng brought the Empress's body back to the Heavenly Court. On the Tianhe River, he encountered Ling Tianzun's divine art. Wei Suifeng immediately used the fog to escape the Longhan Era and return to his own time, while the Imperial Guard and their warship, caught in Ling Tianzun's power, transformed into the ghost ship that traversed thirty-six dimensions.
Yet the Empress had not died; she had become Jue Wuchen.
The Heavenly Court also announced that the Empress had not died. Qin Mu speculated that the Empress in the Heavenly Court was likely the younger sister.
According to this reasoning, both sisters had participated in the plot to murder the Heavenly Emperor.
But now, before him lay the younger sister's coffin, her body resting inside!
What if, at that time, the younger sister had not stayed in the Heavenly Court to distract the Heavenly Emperor but had instead followed the Empress to the Guixu, incited the Dragon Bo Nation's rebellion, and taken the opportunity to strike at her sister—only to be killed by her instead?
The elder sister hid the younger sister's body in the Guixu, pretended to be attacked and killed, had Wei Suifeng send her own "corpse" to the Heavenly Court, then used the ghost ship to escape and transform into Jue Wuchen.
Wei Suifeng, sensing something amiss, realized the dead one was actually the younger sister. He left behind a map, guiding Qin Mu to uncover the truth.
"But there's a flaw in this guess: why did the Heavenly Court announce that the Empress had not died?"
Qin Mu steadied himself, sinking into thought. "The Empress in the Heavenly Court must be one of the two sisters. So who is it? Perhaps there's another possibility. At the time, the sisters were playing a double act. The younger sister pretended to ambush the elder, killing her in full view of everyone. The elder faked her death and escaped as Jue Wuchen, while the younger returned to the Heavenly Court, promoted from deputy to the real Empress."
"After the ancient god, the Heavenly Emperor, was killed, the Empress eliminated her younger sister, sent her body here, and buried the truth! It wasn't until Wei Suifeng came here and discovered the younger sister's corpse..."
"There are still inconsistencies! One sister's body is hidden on the ghost ship, the other in the Guixu. So who are they now? Is there still an Empress in the Heavenly Court? Or did the Empress not kill her sister, but instead they share one body, remaining in the Heavenly Court to control the Heavenly Emperor's physical form?"
...
Qin Mu felt like his head was about to explode. He suddenly shouted, "Fatty Dragon, come down! Open the coffin!"
Dragon Qilin trembled all over, frozen on top of the crystal coffin. Qin Mu raised his hand, flipping the coffin and the dragon off to the side, then immediately activated the Ba Ti Three Elixir Technique.
Behind him, the Gate of Inheritance appeared, but strangely, it was extremely dim, barely visible, unable to fully form!
Qin Mu frowned. The Guixu was incredibly strange, suppressing the powers of the Netherworld. He couldn't use soul-summoning to test whether the younger sister was alive or dead.
"Wei Suifeng left the younger sister's corpse here as a treasure. Does he want me to take it away?"
His frown deepened as he paced around the coffin, staring at the younger sister's body inside, lost in thought.
Should he really take it away?
Suddenly, a thunderous sound of water came from outside. Qin Mu paused, then quickly walked out of the Red Palace and looked up. The sound came from beyond the sky, but it didn't seep into the flower world.
"The Tianhe River has dried up. Where is this water coming from?"
Qin Mu was stunned. "Could it be..."
At that moment, mist began to drift down from the sky, seeping through the cracks in the flower world, gradually filling it.
Yan'er and the flower-stamen-turned-snake-woman were still locked in battle, their figures flickering in and out of the mist.
After a while, the mist dissipated, and the water sound vanished. A loud rumbling echoed as the flower world trembled violently. Qin Mu felt the two giant flowers slowly rising!
"The two flowers are about to emerge from the Guixu!"
Qin Mu's heart stirred. He immediately turned back into the Red Palace, grabbed Dragon Qilin, and pried him off the coffin lid.
He closed the crystal coffin and said, "Fatty Dragon, stop trembling. I'll give you an extra meal. Go call Sister Yan'er quickly. We'll leave this place while the flowers float out of the Great Abyss!"
Dragon Qilin perked up, rushed out of the Red Palace, glanced around, and shouted, "Chief, the flowers are blooming! Sister Yan'er and that ancient god have fought into the dark world! It's too dark in there—I don't dare go in!"
"Two extra meals!"
Dragon Qilin charged into the dark world to find Yan'er. Qin Mu hoisted the crystal coffin onto his shoulder and chuckled, "I don't know what tricks the Empress and her sister are playing, but once I carry this coffin out, I'll know if you're alive or dead..."
As he stepped out of the Red Palace, he came face to face with a middle-aged man walking toward him. The man wore coarse cloth clothes, travel-worn, with large hands and feet, thick eyebrows, and big eyes. A rough hemp rope was tied around his waist, and a piece of sheepskin paper floated before him, moving as he moved.
In front of the sheepskin paper, a brush was automatically writing and drawing, mapping the geography of the flower world.
The two met, both momentarily stunned.
"Founding Ancestor... Senior Brother!"
The coffin slipped from Qin Mu's shoulder and crashed to the ground. He stared blankly at the middle-aged man, stammering, "Wei, Wei Suifeng!"
"Who are you?"
The middle-aged man was startled. His gaze shifted to the crystal coffin on the ground. The coffin had been opened, and a female corpse had rolled out, face down. The back of her head had a hole, with a peach wood hairpin stuck in it.
The middle-aged man grew alert and immediately put away the sheepskin scroll, brush, and ink: "Who are you? How do you know me? What are you planning to do with this corpse?"
Qin Mu's mind was in chaos. The sudden mist, the sudden appearance of Senior Brother Wei Suifeng, the peach wood hairpin in the younger sister's head—a series of unexpected events left him unable to sort things out.
The middle-aged man was indeed the founding ancestor of the Heavenly Saint Cult, Wei Suifeng. His portrait hung in the cult's main hall at Holy Mountain, and every chief had to undergo the Saint Teacher's Preaching Stone initiation, which showed them the scene of Wei Suifeng listening to the woodcutter sage's teachings.
He couldn't be mistaken.
"The water sound just now was the Tianhe River reappearing, and then the mist erupted, bringing this place back to twenty thousand years ago."
Qin Mu's mind cleared, and he quickly pieced things together.
Ling Tianzun's divine art had sent him back twenty thousand years. At this time, Wei Suifeng, in his quest to achieve sagehood through establishing teachings, establishing merits, and establishing words, had begun exploring past mysteries. He had come to the Guixu.
And the peach wood hairpin in the younger sister's head meant that Ling Tianzun was the one who killed her, not the Empress.
It was Ling Tianzun who hid the younger sister's body here!
"Why aren't you speaking?"
The middle-aged man had various weapons strapped to his back. Suddenly, he shook his body, and all the weapons clattered to the ground, rapidly assembling. He watched Qin Mu warily and said, "How do you know me? Are you someone left behind by the Outer Heavenly Court, or a grave robber?"
His weapons were peculiar—various parts that could be freely combined into different forms.
Qin Mu had figured out the key point and smiled, "Senior Brother, I am your second junior brother. We are fellow disciples, both apprenticed to the Woodcutter Sage..."
The middle-aged man reached behind him, grabbed the divine weapon he had just assembled, and sneered, "You, my junior brother? The Saint Teacher has never taken any other disciples! Who are you really?"
The weapon in his hand looked like a bamboo hat, but that was likely just one of its forms.
"I am your junior brother from twenty thousand years in the future."
Qin Mu quickly said, "The Woodcutter Teacher took me as his disciple twenty thousand years from now. I am also the chief of the Heavenly Saint Cult, separated from you by twenty thousand years. Did you just encounter the mist? That mist is the reason I traveled back twenty thousand years. I followed the geographical map you left for me and found this place. This coffin and the woman inside are both things you left for me to discover the truth of history. This woman is the younger sister of the Empress of the Outer Heavenly Court..."
As he spoke, he couldn't continue.
If he were in the other's shoes, he wouldn't believe a word of this!
It was too absurd, too bizarre!
Qin Mu sighed and said, "I know you don't believe me, right?"
"Do you think I would believe you?"
The middle-aged man's sneer grew colder. "Leave the coffin and the corpse, and I'll let you go."
Qin Mu sighed again. "The Teacher said you are very stubborn. Once you make up your mind, not even nine oxen can drag you back, and no one can change it. It seems the only way is to fight. Once I beat you, you'll admit I'm your junior brother. Among us three brothers, we've never actually sparred."
The middle-aged man's appearance was very plain. Hearing this, he laughed, "I also have a third junior brother? Today, I come to this treacherous Guixu, and suddenly I gain two junior brothers. How strange."
Qin Mu said seriously, "In the future, you will meet us. But today..."
Before he could finish, Wei Suifeng suddenly tossed the bamboo hat into the air. It spun and hovered, then vanished in an instant. Qin Mu looked up to see countless stars shining above his head!
The starlight of thousands of stars intertwined, pressing down on him.
"Star sand? No, it's the myriad divine arts from the Great Yu Demon Sutra!"
The moment he thought this, he was engulfed by countless stars!
Wei Suifeng reached out, caught the bamboo hat as it fell back into his hand, and said calmly, "Fight me? Capturing you is no more than a wave of my hand..."
Boom—
The bamboo hat in his hand suddenly exploded, sending divine weapon parts flying everywhere. Qin Mu burst through the hat, soaring into the air, and laughed, "Senior Brother, using the Teacher's techniques against me won't..."
Wei Suifeng's expression changed. The countless divine weapon parts reassembled before Qin Mu could rise further, forming a cauldron that trapped him inside once more!
"Star River Burial Heaven!"
Galaxies swirled around him, and suddenly a vast river surged, countless stars rushing into the cauldron!