Chapter 903: When Falsehood Is Taken for Truth, Truth Becomes Falsehood
Yan Shaoqing looked around, his heart turning cold. Not far away, a prison warden was carrying a large wooden basin to replace the one filled with the divine blood of gods and demons.
In the nearby River of Blood, monsters were spawning from the filthy gore, crawling out and stealthily climbing onto a prisoner to suck his blood.
Yan Shaoqing withdrew his gaze. Qin Mu was right beside him, chatting cheerfully with the Yan Kang National Teacher and Emperor Yanfeng, his face full of smiles, as if nothing had happened.
Long Qilin lay curled up at Qin Mu's feet, snoring loudly. On his head stood a plump little blue sparrow, preening its feathers out of sheer boredom.
Yan Shaoqing narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "Heavenly Venerable, visiting hours are over. The Heavenly Venerable should leave now!"
Qin Mu said, "Your Majesty, Junior Brother, stay here safely. The day will come when you can leave. I'll take my leave now."
"Take care!" Emperor Yanfeng and the National Teacher bid him farewell.
Qin Mu returned the courtesy. Yan Shaoqing followed closely behind him, on high alert to prevent any further tricks.
At the prison gate, Yan Shaoqing inspected the runic lock on the wooden door again, even more meticulously this time, but found nothing unusual.
He didn't bother to escort Qin Mu out of the city. Instead, he immediately flew to the Judge's Divine Hall and flipped through the official records. Seeing that the handwriting was still intact, he breathed a sigh of relief before going to see Qin Mu out of the city.
Outside the city, Qin Mu turned and smiled. "Left Assistant Minister, no need to see me off any further."
Yan Shaoqing bowed. "I respectfully see off the Heavenly Venerable…"
He froze. The words he had just spoken were exactly the same as those he had said last time, when Qin Mu had toyed with him using divine soul techniques!
Cold sweat broke out on Yan Shaoqing's forehead. His divine soul erupted, and he roared, "Break for me!"
The world lost its color again, turning black and white. The black and white faded, and the real world emerged. Yan Shaoqing opened his eyes and looked around, his forehead drenched in cold sweat.
He was still standing in the prison. Not far away, the warden was changing the wooden basin to collect blood. Monsters were spawning in the River of Blood, stealthily climbing onto prisoners in their cages to suck blood.
Long Qilin was still sleeping soundly. Yan'er was still preening her feathers. Qin Mu was still talking to the National Teacher and Emperor Yanfeng.
Sweat beaded on Yan Shaoqing's forehead like peas. His voice hoarse, he said, "Jiang Baigui! Does the Three-Yuan Divine Soul Indestructible Art you taught me have a hidden flaw?"
In the cage, the National Teacher turned his head. His gaze was dull and empty, like a walking corpse, his mouth opening and closing like a puppet: "The divine arts of the Heavenly Court are too outdated. The flaw lies not only in the Three-Yuan Divine Soul Indestructible Art but also in the Left Assistant Minister himself. Left Assistant Minister, you were born early. The Dao techniques and divine arts you learned in the past are all wrong by today's standards. Take the Divine Treasures, for example."
In another cage, Emperor Yanfeng also turned his head. His gaze was equally dull and empty, his mouth opening and closing mechanically: "The Divine Treasures you cultivated in the past were Spirit Embryo, Five Radiances, Six Harmonies, Seven Stars, Heavenly Human, Life and Death, and Divine Bridge. But the Divine Treasures reformed by the Yan Revolution are vastly different. You have already reached the Lingxiao realm, and your cultivation base is fixed. You cannot change the foundational Divine Treasures, and with your high realm, you don't need to. However, this leaves a flaw in your techniques."
The National Teacher said woodenly, "The same applies to the Red Emperor's Three-Yuan Divine Soul Indestructible Art. This technique also relies on the Divine Bridge for cultivation. Compared to the current Yan techniques, it has a massive flaw."
Emperor Yanfeng revealed a simple-minded smile. "The Three-Yuan Divine Soul Indestructible Art I taught you has not been tampered with. However, the Indestructible Art I passed on is the Red Emperor's version, not the one based on the Heavenly River Divine Treasure."
"If the foundation is unstable, the earth shakes and the mountains topple!"
"I started from the flaws in your techniques!"
"If your techniques have flaws, then your divine arts are full of holes!"
"If you want to break my divine arts, you can do so by abolishing the Divine Bridge Divine Treasure, opening the Heavenly River Divine Treasure, and cultivating from scratch!"
…
In the two cages, the National Teacher and Emperor Yanfeng took turns speaking, explaining the matter clearly.
Yan Shaoqing's divine soul erupted, and he roared, "You want me to destroy my own cultivation? I am a being at the Lingxiao realm, only half a step away from the Imperial Throne! My cultivation and magical power far surpass yours! I can crush all your divine arts with sheer power alone! No matter how exquisite your techniques are, they cannot trap me!"
"Break for me—!"
Boom!
A violent tremor spread. The world lost its color again.
Yan Shaoqing was drenched in sweat, as if he had just been pulled out of water. He was still standing in front of the cages. The National Teacher and Emperor Yanfeng were still inside. Long Qilin was still sleeping. Qin Mu was still talking to Emperor Yanfeng and the National Teacher. It was as if time had flowed back to that moment, and nothing had changed.
"Break for me!"
Yan Shaoqing repeatedly activated his divine soul techniques, roaring, "Let's see which is faster—your divine arts or mine!"
He frantically activated his techniques. The world lost its color again and again. Before the new world could fully form, it was shattered again. Space became chaotic, and the fading world became covered in more and more cracks.
Finally, Yan Shaoqing activated his techniques thousands of times in an instant, exceeding the limits of this world. The entire world shattered into pieces!
Yan Shaoqing panted heavily, looking around.
Qin Mu stood in front of the cages, his face pale with terror, staring at him in fear. Countless monsters and wardens in the prison had been knocked unconscious by the impact of Yan Shaoqing's divine soul techniques.
Long Qilin, at Qin Mu's feet, was also unconscious. Only the plump little blue sparrow remained awake.
Yan Shaoqing reached out and grabbed Qin Mu, his anger boiling over. He shouted, "You are the Heavenly Venerable, so I won't kill you. Please leave immediately!"
His primordial energy swept up Long Qilin as he rushed out. The blue sparrow flapped its wings and followed him, shouting, "Let go of the young master, or I'll get rough with you!"
Yan Shaoqing ignored her. He carried Qin Mu out of the prison, out of the White Bone Divine City, and only then set him down. He said coldly, "Pastoral Heavenly Venerable, we part ways here. May we never meet again!"
Qin Mu smiled. "You're too serious. You imprisoned Tian Shu Heavenly King Tian Shu in the Imperial Que Divine Blade for millions of years, and I was trapped inside for several years. Did you see me get angry?"
Yan Shaoqing's face darkened. He turned and walked back to the prison. Entering the Judge's Divine Hall, he picked up his brush and recorded Qin Mu's prison visit.
He breathed a sigh of relief, but suddenly felt uneasy. He got up and walked toward the prison's wooden door, thinking, "Did I really break his Indestructible Art? I should check again. There must be no mistakes…"
He walked deep into the prison and suddenly froze. Several wardens were dragging out a wooden basin filled with divine blood and replacing it with a new one. Beside them, monsters were spawning in the River of Blood, crawling into cages to suck blood.
Yan Shaoqing's body turned cold. He trudged forward and saw Long Qilin lying in front of the cages of the National Teacher and Emperor Yanfeng, snoring. On Long Qilin's head, the blue sparrow was preening her feathers out of boredom.
And Qin Mu was standing in front of the cages, talking to the National Teacher and Emperor Yanfeng.
Yan Shaoqing shook his head, feeling dizzy. His legs grew heavier and heavier, and he had to lean on a cage for support.
"What is going on?"
He felt like he couldn't breathe. He slumped to his knees, muttering, "Why are you still here? Why… My cultivation far surpasses yours, so why can't I break your divine arts…"
Beside him, a demon god imprisoned in a cage suddenly opened its eyes. Its expression was wooden, like a controlled puppet, its mouth opening and closing stiffly: "Because your foundation is wrong. The biggest change in the Yan Revolution was the foundation—from the foundational runes to the foundational divine arts to the foundational techniques. You got everything wrong! If you want to break this mental divine art, you must first destroy your cultivation!"
Yan Shaoqing was furious. He reached out and crushed the demon god into pieces!
In the cage ahead, a deity imprisoned there suddenly opened its eyes and said woodenly, "Yan Shaoqing, I was trapped in the Imperial Que Divine Blade for several years. You've only been trapped for a few days, and you can't bear it?"
Yan Shaoqing, enraged, killed that deity as well.
A warden passing by suddenly stopped, looked up, and said woodenly, "Yan Shaoqing, my divine arts are not just the Indestructible Art. There's also the Infinite Calamity Sutra. If you think everything is just an illusion created by my divine soul, you're sorely mistaken."
Yan Shaoqing punched the warden into pieces and walked toward Qin Mu ahead.
Another warden's face twisted as he stared straight at Yan Shaoqing. "Yan Shaoqing, I saw the flaw in your foundation and planted the Infinite Calamity Sutra inside you. To break it, you only need to abolish the Divine Bridge."
Yan Shaoqing's face turned ashen. He grabbed the warden's head and slammed it into the ground, turning it into a bloody mess.
Qin Mu looked up and said woodenly, "Doing this is useless."
Yan Shaoqing tore the Qin Mu in front of him to shreds. The world turned black and white again, still the same scene, unchanged.
Yan Shaoqing slumped to the ground in despair, muttering, "There must be a way to break it. There must be a way that doesn't require abolishing the Divine Bridge Divine Treasure…"
He closed his eyes and fell into deep thought.
He sat there for who knows how many days. His hair turned white, but he still couldn't find a solution.
Suddenly, a warden's voice came from outside: "Judge Yan, the Envoy of the Netherworld has arrived!"
Yan Shaoqing was startled, then burst into wild laughter. "So that's it! That's it! I can't break your divine arts on my own, but as long as an external force intervenes, your divine arts will unravel on their own! Pastoral Heavenly Venerable, even if your divine arts can suppress me, as long as someone comes from outside, they will become a variable in your divine arts! The more people, the more flaws your divine arts will have!"
He looked toward where Qin Mu had been, but Qin Mu, Long Qilin, and the plump blue sparrow had vanished without a trace, having slipped away at some point.
However, the National Teacher and Emperor Yanfeng were still in their cages.
Yan Shaoqing felt a little relieved and sneered, "He ran away, as expected!"
He walked out to welcome the Envoy of the Netherworld. But the envoy had already entered the prison. A voice came, saying, "Left Assistant Minister, disciples from various heavenly palaces came to your place to deal with Pastoral Heavenly Venerable. They haven't returned for a long time, so my superiors sent me to investigate."
Yan Shaoqing stepped forward and saw that the visitor was Lou Yunqu, a disciple of the Nether Emperor. He quickly said, "So it's Brother Lou. The disciples from the various heavenly palaces have all met with misfortune and died at the hands of Pastoral Heavenly Venerable."
He was quite familiar with Lou Yunqu.
The Nether Heavenly King Tian Shu and the Nether Emperor were mortal enemies. The Nether Emperor had personally acted to deal with Tian Shu but failed. Later, Tian Shu cut off the Earth Lord's horn, and his physical body was crushed by the Earth Lord, leaving only his primordial spirit. The Nether Emperor had asked Yan Shaoqing to trick Tian Shu into the Imperial Que Divine Blade to suppress him.
Lou Yunqu's face changed. He exclaimed, "All the disciples from the various heavenly palaces are dead?"
Yan Shaoqing nodded.
Lou Yunqu stamped his foot. "How are we going to explain this? With the disciples of the various heavenly palaces dying here, you're in big trouble! Among the dead are several of my junior brothers, favored disciples of Teacher Black Emperor!"
Yan Shaoqing was unconcerned. "The Heavenly Court has never had a complete divine soul technique for the Imperial Throne realm. As long as I don't reach the Imperial Throne realm, who in the various heavenly palaces would dare to touch me? Brother Lou, did you see Pastoral Heavenly Venerable on your way here? He just escaped from here."
Lou Yunqu shook his head. "I didn't see him."
Yan Shaoqing's eyes flickered. He suddenly said, "Since Brother Lou was sent by the Black Emperor's orders, you must have his written decree. Please show it to me."
Lou Yunqu laughed. "When did the Left Assistant Minister become so cautious? Do you think I might be Pastoral Heavenly Venerable in disguise?"
Despite his words, he still took out the Nether Emperor's decree.
Yan Shaoqing examined it carefully. It was indeed the Nether Emperor's handwriting, so he felt a little relieved.
Lou Yunqu said, "I have clashed with Pastoral Heavenly Venerable several times and know his cunning well. Since he came here, he will likely try to break the prisoners out and rescue the National Teacher and Emperor Yanfeng. Are they still here?"
Yan Shaoqing said, "They are still in their cages."
Lou Yunqu went to check. He stood outside the cages for a long time without moving. Yan Shaoqing looked at the cages. Emperor Yanfeng and the National Teacher were both inside. He couldn't help but laugh. "Brother Lou, what's wrong?"
Lou Yunqu's face was pale. His voice hoarse, he said, "These two cages are empty. Can't you see that? The two important prisoners have escaped!"
Yan Shaoqing's heart shook violently. He carefully examined Emperor Yanfeng and the National Teacher but couldn't see anything unusual.
He quickly opened the cage and reached out to touch them. Emperor Yanfeng and the National Teacher were indeed flesh and blood. He couldn't feel anything wrong.
Yan Shaoqing's mind buzzed. "I used my divine soul technique to turn wine into something that could get even a Lingxiao realm genius like Tian Shu drunk. Pastoral Heavenly Venerable's mental divine art is rooted in my Divine Treasures, making me feel air as if it were a real person when I touch it… I'm done for. I'm really done for…"
After a long while, he came to his senses. He looked back, but Lou Yunqu had already left, presumably to report to the Nether Emperor.
Yan Shaoqing was utterly despondent. He locked himself in a cage and waited silently.
Not long after, a deity descended from the heavenly palace in the Yuan Wood canopy and arrested him. At the Execution Platform of the Yuan Realm Heavenly Palace, Yan Shaoqing was beheaded. The Heavenly Emperor personally oversaw the execution, wielding the weapon "Imperial Heavenly Venerable."
The blade flashed. The Execution Divine Blade severed his head.
Yan Shaoqing's head rolled to the ground. His primordial spirit gradually withered. His three eyes slowly closed, and the world fell into darkness.
Who knows how long passed? He seemed to wake from a dream. Qin Mu's voice came to his ears: "Left Assistant Minister! Left Assistant Minister!"
Yan Shaoqing suddenly opened his eyes. He was lying on the ground. Not far away, a warden was dragging away a large wooden basin filled with divine blood and replacing it with a new one.
In the River of Blood, a monster spawned, crawled into a cage, and began sucking a prisoner's blood.
In front of him, Long Qilin was sleeping soundly. The plump blue sparrow was preening her feathers. The National Teacher and Emperor Yanfeng were in their cages, bidding farewell to Qin Mu.
Qin Mu said with concern, "Left Assistant Minister, how did you fall asleep? I've finished my prison visit and am satisfied. It's time for me to leave."
Yan Shaoqing sat woodenly on the ground. Suddenly, he let out a piercing laugh, like crying or wailing: "Fake! Everything is fake! Even now, it's fake!"