Chapter 879: Old Acquaintance from the Heavenly River
"Not saving him!"
Qin Mu threw the parchment to the ground, stomped on it hard twice, twisted his toes, and sneered, "Save nothing! You're so capable, you don't listen to anyone—save yourself!"
He turned to leave, then thought better of it, picked up the parchment, brushed off the dust, and stuffed it into his glutton sack, grumbling, "If you want me to save you, at least tell me where you're trapped. If you don't make it clear, how am I supposed to save you?"
He walked out of the Black Palace and entered the Flower World. Dragon Qilin hurried over, craning his neck to look around, and asked, "Cult Leader, what about that female corpse?"
"She just reanimated, so I tossed her to my brother to take care of."
Qin Mu studied the blue sparrow perched on Dragon Qilin's head. The bird seemed to have inflated like a balloon—once a cute little bird, now it was round and plump, but still adorable.
"Master, I'm Yan'er," said the round blue sparrow.
Qin Mu smiled. "Sister Yan'er, of course I recognize you. Did you eat the Beauty Snake?"
He looked around the Flower World and noticed that the thick, straight pistils had vanished, pulled clean out. He chuckled, "Are ancient gods hard to digest?"
"The big worm tasted excellent."
The round blue sparrow's voice was crisp, tinged with a bit of embarrassment. "It took me a long time to finish it. I forgot to leave some for you to try, and Fatty Dragon didn't want any, so I ate it all."
Qin Mu's eyes widened. Ate it all?
The Beauty Snake had been formed from the pistils of the Flower World, each one like a pillar supporting heaven and earth—and she'd eaten them all?
Dragon Qilin muttered quietly, "I'm not fat at all, but you..."
The blue sparrow pecked his forehead with a clang, and Dragon Qilin winced, quickly shutting up.
Qin Mu looked toward the sky beyond. The dome of the Flower World was still sealed, meaning they were likely still within the Great Abyss. They'd have to wait for the undercurrent to surge before they could leave.
He took out the geographical maps he'd drawn and spread them all out. These maps were left for him by Wei Suifeng in the canyon outside the Ark of the Other Shore. He'd already visited some of the locations marked on a few of them.
For example, the Dragon Village map, where he'd obtained the Feather Forest Army token from Qinghuang the Elder; the Alien Star map, where he'd met the Red Creek Divine on the God-Slaying Platform and acquired the God-Slaying Mysterious Blade; and the Tai Ming Heavenly Wasteland City map, where he'd encountered Ying Zhao's strongest divine brain and the blueprints for the Ark of the Other Shore deep underground.
There was also the Guixu Great Abyss map, where he'd obtained Ling Tianzun's peachwood hairpin.
In truth, it was Senior Brother Wei Suifeng's geographical maps that had gradually led him here.
Qin Mu set aside the maps he'd already explored and studied the others, trying to figure out where Wei Suifeng was trapped.
Meanwhile, Yan'er and Dragon Qilin were whispering to each other. "Master said earlier that he handed the female corpse to his brother to take care of. Does Master have a brother? I've never seen one."
Dragon Qilin glanced at Qin Mu, raised a paw to point at his own head, and lowered his voice. "The Cult Leader's brother is actually the Cult Leader himself. He always imagines he has a very powerful and ruthless brother. Don't expose him."
Yan'er lifted her wing and traced a circle around her tiny head with its tip, looking incredulous. "You mean Master's head..."
Dragon Qilin nodded.
Yan'er looked at Qin Mu, who was studying the maps, her gaze filled with sympathy. "Master is too lonely, to the point of having hallucinations."
After studying for a while, Qin Mu found these maps completely unfamiliar. He couldn't tell where Wei Suifeng was trapped, let alone how to find him.
"Last time I showed the maps to Teacher Woodcutter, he seemed to recognize many of them. Maybe I can go find him. If I'm looking for his eldest disciple, he'll definitely take it more seriously."
Qin Mu put away the maps and took out Ling Tianzun's peachwood hairpin, examining it.
The hairpin was the simplest, most ordinary peachwood one, with nothing unique about it. It bore no runic inscriptions, and after probing it, Qin Mu found no hidden divine abilities or great Dao within.
He applied a little force, and the hairpin bent slightly, as if it might snap at any moment.
"This hairpin doesn't contain any of Ling Tianzun's divine abilities either. How can something belonging to a Tianzun be so ordinary?"
Qin Mu tried channeling his mana, pouring his primal energy into the hairpin, but still nothing changed. However, he sensed an incredibly powerful and peculiar force hidden within it.
With a thought, he used the Art of Creation. The red hairpin seemed to return to spring, sprouting branches and leaves, growing in his hand until it became a peach tree.
The tree blossomed, bore fruit, and the peaches ripened.
Qin Mu picked a peach, rubbed off the fuzz, and took a bite. It was very sweet.
"But I haven't activated that force yet. Maybe I need a more advanced Creation Art..."
Suddenly, the peach tree flashed with light and vanished, turning back into a hairpin that fell at his feet.
"Immutable Matter!"
Qin Mu's heart stirred as he picked up the hairpin. He had used the Creation Art to change the hairpin's material structure, making it grow, but a peculiar force within the hairpin had reverted it to its original state.
This was the hallmark of Immutable Matter!
Not only did the peach tree revert to a hairpin, but Qin Mu also noticed that the peach pit and even the peach he'd eaten had vanished, returning to their original material form.
"This hairpin has become Immutable Matter, eternal and unchanging, impossible to damage no matter what!"
Qin Mu used the Creation Art again. Suddenly, a torrent of water surged from the hairpin, vast and mighty, forming a hanging Heavenly River. It was incredibly heavy, and where it struck, even the Flower World swayed unsteadily!
Nearby, Dragon Qilin and Yan'er lost their footing, swept away by the Heavenly River. The next moment, they were flung to the edge of the Flower World, crashing into the flower wall with a boom.
The pressure from the Heavenly River was too strong. Dragon Qilin couldn't hold out and was nearly crushed. Yan'er quickly spread her wings to shield him.
Suddenly, the Heavenly River retracted and vanished, all the water disappearing as if it had never existed, leaving only Qin Mu curiously examining the peachwood hairpin, muttering to himself.
Dragon Qilin and Yan'er fell from the flower wall at the edge, bewildered. Then the Heavenly River reappeared, slamming them back against the wall!
Yan'er shielded Dragon Qilin again, feeling the pressure intensify. Then the river vanished once more, and they fell to the ground.
Yan'er let out a sharp cry, transforming into a Dragon Sparrow, huge and plump, raising her two massive wings in front of her, warily watching her surroundings.
Suddenly, the Heavenly River struck again, nearly extinguishing the Vermilion Bird sacred flame on her body, and slammed them against the flower wall once more.
"Strange, where does this Heavenly River water come from?"
Qin Mu experimented again, and Yan'er and Dragon Qilin were tortured to the brink of death.
Meanwhile, in the ruins of the Upper Emperor Heavenly Court at Fallen God Valley, the blind old man Yi Shisheng was fishing Ling Tianzun's corpse from the Heavenly River. He had been here for over forty thousand years.
Suddenly, the blind old man showed a look of surprise, muttering, "The Heavenly River's water level has dropped... It's never decreased before. Why is it suddenly getting shallower?"
He grew excited. "Could it be that Teacher is about to break free? To be released from endless death?"
After a moment, the Heavenly River's water returned to its original level.
Yi Shisheng was stunned.
A little while later, the water level dropped again, then returned to normal, then dropped once more.
Yi Shisheng stood by the riverbank, the blind old man utterly confused, not knowing what was happening.
Back in the Flower World of the Guixu Great Abyss, Qin Mu finally stopped experimenting, scratched his head, and muttered to himself, "The hairpin's power is strong enough, but this can't be why Ling Tianzun gave it to me. She wouldn't hand over this treasure for no reason. But how should I activate its true power? Immutable Matter, Immutable Matter..."
He paced back and forth, deep in thought. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he said urgently, "What if I use Ling Tianzun's divine ability to activate the hairpin? When Immutable Matter meets the Immutable Art, something else must happen!"
He had made some progress deducing Ling Tianzun's divine ability on the ghost ship, but he was still far from replicating it.
And back then, Ling Tianzun's divine ability had only just taken its initial form. It was easy to imagine how complex her Immutable Matter Art truly was.
Qin Mu gripped the peachwood hairpin and tried to execute the fragmentary remnants of Ling Tianzun's divine ability.
Yan'er and Dragon Qilin saw him holding the hairpin again and felt their scalps tingle, quickly dodging away.
This time, the Heavenly River appeared, but it wasn't as terrifying as before. A section of the river's surface materialized in the sky, seeming very far away.
The river was shrouded in thick fog, and on its surface, a woman in a leopard-skin skirt and straw sandals stood faintly visible in the mist.
"Ling Tianzun!" Qin Mu called out loudly.
The woman in the leopard-skin skirt seemed to hear him. She turned to look, her surprised expression melting into a smile.
She opened her mouth to speak, but at that moment, an enormous shadow emerged from the fog behind her.
Qin Mu's face changed drastically. "Watch out behind you!"
A flash of light appeared, piercing through Ling Tianzun's chest, lifting her up, and then slamming her heavily onto the Heavenly River.
Qin Mu stood frozen, his body turning ice-cold.
On the river, Ling Tianzun's face was still turned toward him. The spear that had pierced her body was held by that massive shadow.
The smile on her face hadn't faded. A faint voice reached him: "Save me."
The shadow in the fog drew closer, as if trying to break free from the constraints of Ling Tianzun's divine ability and charge toward Qin Mu. It wanted to escape the endless cycle.
"Who are you?"
Qin Mu shouted, "Let me see your face!"
The figure rushed to the edge of the river's severed section and leaped, trying to jump out. But at that moment, the Heavenly River surged, sweeping him and Ling Tianzun away, vanishing.
Qin Mu stood stunned. He raised the peachwood hairpin again and activated the divine ability. The severed section of the Heavenly River reappeared, but the scene repeated just as before.
Ling Tianzun was killed again, and the shadow in the fog charged toward the severed section again, only to be pulled back into the cycle by Ling Tianzun's Immutable Art. But this time, it was a bit closer to the edge, and Qin Mu could vaguely make out its face, though not clearly.
This figure was trapped by Ling Tianzun's divine ability, unable to leap out of the Heavenly River or escape the cycle.
"Master, the Great Abyss's undercurrent is surging!"
Yan'er's voice called out, snapping Qin Mu awake. "The Flower World is rising! We need to leave here!"
Qin Mu ignored her and activated the divine ability again. The Flower World rose, the sky split open, and the twin lotuses were about to bloom.
Before him, the surging Heavenly River raged. The enormous shadow in the fog reenacted the scene of killing Ling Tianzun, covering heaven and earth as it charged toward the severed section, rushing at Qin Mu.
The Flower World fully bloomed, revealing the Guixu outside. The dark Heavenly River hung still in the air, and in the river, the twin lotuses—one red, one black—looked incredibly serene.
Yan'er and Dragon Qilin looked anxiously at Qin Mu. Dragon Qilin said, "Cult Leader, if we don't leave now, who knows how long we'll have to wait for the next undercurrent eruption!"
Finally, the massive shadow in the Heavenly River reached Qin Mu. Its face slammed violently against an invisible barrier, still unable to break through Ling Tianzun's Immutable Art.
It let out a roar and was swept away by the river again, falling into the next cycle.
Qin Mu stared blankly at that face. This time, he finally saw its owner clearly.
Yan'er rushed over, transformed into a big fat bird, grabbed him and Dragon Qilin, and flew toward the closing sky.
She barely made it out of the Flower World just before the twin lotuses sealed shut.
Outside, the dark Heavenly River began to flow backward, its speed increasing. The Great Abyss's gravitational pull grew stronger. Yan'er pushed her limits, activating her primordial spirit as a Dragon Sparrow holding the sky, resisting the pull and pressure as she flapped her wings outward.
Boom—
She crashed into the Empress Dowager's detached palace, knocking down countless halls and corridors before finally stopping.
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