Chapter 958: The Other Shore of the Void
The golden desert was truly vast. Qin Mu and Luo Wushuang had traveled for over ten days without reaching its end.
Many strange events occurred in the desert. At night, the sky was dark and moonless—the moon of the Tai Xu Realm had been knocked out of the sky by Qin Mu using the Wood Element Core.
In the deep night, the sound of a woman crying came from the desert, circling around them, sometimes near, sometimes far.
Luo Wushuang's primordial spirit left his body, transforming into a thousand-zhang divine being radiating divine light ten thousand zhang in all directions. He walked with his blade drawn, and only then did the sound keep its distance.
"It must be the weeping of lost souls," Qin Mu said, puzzled. "Lost souls in the desert—why haven't they turned into Tai Xu demons?"
In the night, there were also piercing screams and melodious, lingering songs.
There were no stars in the sky, nor any moon, making it impossible to discern direction. When the two decided to rest, a ghostly flame drifted slowly ahead of them in the darkness.
They followed the ghost flame. When they stopped, it stopped; when they moved, it moved.
At daybreak, the ghost flame disappeared. However, when Qin Mu took out the geographical map drawn by Yue Tingge, he found that the path they had taken matched the map perfectly. He couldn't help but marvel.
On the second night, the ghost flame reappeared, guiding them on their way.
On the third night, under the ghost flame's guidance, they encountered an extremely magnificent city in the desert. In the darkness, the city was brightly lit, bustling even in the dead of night. The streets were filled with vendors, and crowds of people came and went—all giants standing ten zhang or even a hundred zhang tall.
The ghost flame drifted into the city, landed, and transformed into a giant who respectfully invited them to enter.
The giants in the city were extremely hospitable and entertained them warmly.
Qin Mu opened his third eye on his forehead, glanced around, saw through the true forms of these Creator Gods, and remained silent.
Whenever the giants offered him wine, he accepted without refusal. Luo Wushuang had been very cautious at first, wary of a trap, but seeing Qin Mu eating, drinking, and enjoying himself, he also let loose.
Since arriving in Tai Xu, everything had gone wrong for him. He had been forced to rebel against the Heavenly Court, suffered defeat at Qin Mu's hands, and burdened by his thoughts, he ended up dead drunk.
After Qin Mu had eaten and drunk his fill, he bowed to the giants and said, "Thank you all for your hospitality. If I achieve anything in the future, I will surely establish a Nether Realm in Tai Xu, allowing you all to be reborn."
Hearing this, the giants beamed with joy. The city lord, a thousand-zhang giant, had everyone gather in his palm to sing and dance.
They played and partied late into the night, and Luo Wushuang fell asleep drunk.
When dawn came, Qin Mu woke him. Luo Wushuang got up and found himself lying in the palm of a thousand-zhang giant, surrounded by nothing but bones.
Startled and uncertain, Luo Wushuang stood up and looked down from his high vantage point. The city was filled with bleached bones, not a single living person. His heart trembled. "What were we eating and drinking last night?"
Qin Mu bowed to the giant's corpse and said, "Rest assured, lords. The promise I made yesterday, I, Qin, will surely fulfill. Brother Luo, let's go. We need to continue our journey."
Luo Wushuang followed him out of the Creator God city. Looking back, he saw wind and sand rise, quickly burying the eerie city beneath the golden sands.
Luo Wushuang remembered that when they had encountered the city the night before, the wind had also kicked up sand in the desert, and then the city had appeared.
He was truly unnerved, wondering what exactly he had gorged himself on the night before.
On the seventh night, they encountered an old woman blocking their path. She held a child by the hand and carried a basket on her other arm. Kneeling on the ground, she pushed the basket to Qin Mu's feet and kowtowed repeatedly like a garlic press.
Qin Mu said, "Madam, rest assured. I accept what's in the basket. In the future, when I establish the Nether Realm here, you will all have a place to go."
The old woman looked up, grinned, and, leading the child by the hand, turned into a gust of yin wind and vanished into the darkness.
Luo Wushuang was baffled and asked, "Qin Overlord Body, what's the deal with these Creator Gods we've encountered on the road? Why do you keep telling them you'll establish a Nether Realm here?"
"They are Creator Gods who died in the desert," Qin Mu said, lifting the basket and uncovering the cloth that covered it. "They died here with no place for their souls to return. During the day, they suffer under the scorching sun, and only at night can they come out. Establishing a Nether Realm will give them a home."
Luo Wushuang was still confused. "The laws of heaven and earth in Tai Xu are incomplete. Creator Gods who die here usually turn into Tai Xu demons. Why haven't the souls of these Creator Gods turned into demons?"
"Probably because they are too powerful. The Creator God city lord from the ghost city earlier, and the old woman who blocked our path—after death, their heroic spirits and divine consciousness did not dissipate. They can protect themselves and even their clans from being corrupted by Tai Xu. The reason I said I would establish a Nether Realm here is also because they are too strong."
Qin Mu took out the contents of the basket. It was a small bottle, with almost solidified divine consciousness flowing at its mouth, sealing whatever was inside. He smiled and said, "If I hadn't agreed to them, we probably wouldn't have made it out of this desert alive."
Luo Wushuang's heart tightened. He hadn't considered that.
"So, will Qin Overlord Body actually help them establish a Nether Realm?" he asked. "Promising to establish a Nether Realm was just a temporary expedient. Establishing a Nether Realm in Tai Xu is as difficult as ascending to heaven."
Qin Mu examined the bottle and said, "The reason they stopped us is precisely because I can establish a Nether Realm."
Luo Wushuang didn't understand.
Qin Mu didn't explain. Hidden in his third eye was the Qin Continent, forged from a fragment of the Earth Lord's horn. For others, establishing a Nether Realm was impossible, but for him, it wasn't entirely out of reach. After all, the Nether Realm and the Fengdu Realm were both forged from fragments of the Earth Lord's horn, just like the Qin Continent.
However, Qin Mu didn't yet have the power to transform the Earth Lord's horn into a world, and he wasn't the Nether Realm's divine son. If Qin Fengqing were here, it would be much simpler.
He observed the divine consciousness seal at the bottle's mouth. The seal was special, made of divine consciousness. Through the seal, he could see that the bottle seemed to contain a vast ocean. When he gently shook it, waves surged, storms raged, and it was terrifying.
Qin Mu tried to probe the bottle with his yuan qi, but the divine consciousness seal at the mouth blocked him.
"Ah, right. They are Creator Gods, so I should use divine consciousness."
He mobilized his divine consciousness, which passed through the seal. Inside the bottle was indeed an ocean. When he had shaken the bottle earlier, it had stirred up hurricanes and giant waves on the sea's surface, roaring and accompanied by lightning and thunder!
His divine consciousness looked upward and saw a sky full of stars at the bottle's mouth, with a river of stars spiraling around it, containing six star vortices.
His divine consciousness flew across the ocean and reached the bottle's wall, only to find that the wall was actually land perpendicular to the sea, forming a ring shape.
The land was vast, with mountains, rivers, and everything one could imagine!
Just then, he saw a sun leap out from the sea!
"This small bottle actually contains a world!" Qin Mu was startled. Strangely, despite containing a world, the bottle didn't feel heavy at all.
"That old woman was the chieftain of the Cangshan Clan," Shu Jun's voice sounded in his mind. "The Cangshan Clan was a large tribe in ancient times. Their Creator Gods were skilled at creating heavens. This bottle of yours is actually a heaven world."
Qin Mu was shocked, finding it hard to believe. A heaven world was enormous—how could this small bottle contain one?
Moreover, when his divine consciousness had entered the bottle, he had seen that the world inside was larger than many heaven worlds in various realms.
"In ancient times, the Cangshan Clan visualized countless heavens," Shu Jun said. "The heaven she gave you should be the Gourd Heaven. The bottle containing the Gourd Heaven is called the Gourd Heaven Bottle, a rare treasure. She gave you the Gourd Heaven Bottle, which shows how much she values you."
Qin Mu solemnly stored the Gourd Heaven Bottle in the Qin Continent, placing it alongside the crystal coffin and Yun Tianzun's physical body.
The Gourd Heaven Bottle was extremely important. If the Yinkang Reformation failed in the future, they might need to find a backup plan. This bottle could serve as a refuge for the people of Yinkang.
"But that old woman is no pushover. Her gifts come with strings attached," Shu Jun chuckled. "You've accepted her treasure, so you must fulfill your promise to her. That old woman was a formidable figure in ancient times. Even though she's dead, her divine consciousness remains. If you fail to do what you promised, you'll die a miserable death!"
There was a hint of schadenfreude in his voice. "When you took the basket, her divine consciousness was planted on you. She has countless ways to kill you!"
Qin Mu's face darkened. "For example?"
"For example, visualizing all sorts of things inside your body, making countless needles grow in your stomach, making you unable to see your opponent's moves in battle, or visualizing a sun inside you to burn you to death, or an ocean to drown you. Killing you is too easy," Shu Jun said with a chuckle.
Qin Mu's scalp tingled. He took out paper and pen and wrote down the matter of the Cangshan Clan in his notebook, so he wouldn't forget.
Ten days later, they reached the end of the desert.
Along the way, they had seen more ruins buried by the sand. What they had encountered earlier were cities, then simple stockades, and finally hastily built camps.
The wind blew the golden sand, revealing bones everywhere beneath the desert.
This was likely the aftermath of the Great Emperor's attack on Tai Xu. His divine consciousness was immensely powerful, covering the entire Tai Xu region, manifesting as various attacks to hunt down the Creator God tribes.
The environment of Tai Xu had also become increasingly harsh. Creator Gods could manipulate nature according to their will, but after the Great Emperor's destruction, Tai Xu was filled with ownerless divine consciousness and Tai Xu demons, making it nearly impossible for Creator Gods to survive.
These were probably the last batch of Creator Gods in Tai Xu. They had fled here, leaving behind countless corpses of their clansmen.
"The migration of the Tai Xu Creator Gods should have occurred during the time the Great Emperor was killed, which is the middle to late Long Han Era," Qin Mu mused. "In that era, the Heavenly Court had no idea there was another world or a bloody war. The only one who knew about it was Yun Tianzun."
For some reason, the Great Emperor had massacred Tai Xu. Yun Tianzun must have come here, conspired with the Tai Xu Creator Gods, and trapped the Great Emperor to death in the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain.
"But why did Yun Tianzun's physical body appear in the Great Emperor's forehead?" Qin Mu was puzzled. Yun Tianzun shouldn't have died in this battle. He died in the struggle for control of the Heavenly Court. His physical body couldn't have appeared here.
Moreover, the bloodline curse of the Yun family should have been placed by the Creator Gods at the time of Yun Tianzun's death, but by then, the Great Emperor was already dead in Tai Xu.
He sighed. The more secrets he uncovered, the more questions he had.
Although he had visited the Long Han Era, it still hung before his eyes like a fog.
He had too many questions he wanted Yun Tianzun to answer.
"Once I leave Tai Xu, I'll borrow the power of the Heavenly Lord and the Earth Lord to resurrect Yun Tianzun!"
Qin Mu looked ahead and saw the edge of Tai Xu. Beyond the end of Tai Xu was an endless dark void, with no land in sight.
The final gathering place of the Creator Gods, as described by Yue Tingge, was built there: a simple city wall and a towering altar, with some residual light flickering on the altar.
Those Tai Xu Creator Gods must have created another void here, with a void bridge connecting to the world they had created, and migrated there.
Qin Mu and Luo Wushuang arrived at the gathering place. It was already empty, leaving only the ancient altar.
The light on the altar formed a fragmented bridge, leading to an unknown destination. However, the void bridge was very unstable. The bridge formed by the light would collapse from time to time and then reform. Outside the bridge was a scene of apocalypse!
Qin Mu frowned, looking at the void bridge, calculating how to cross it. Suddenly, he saw a woman crossing the bridge from the other end!
Around her was a scene of destruction—the void twisted and collapsed, terrifyingly. Behind her floated a series of heavenly palaces, forming a fragmentary Heavenly Court, attempting to cross the void and reach the other shore of the void bridge!
"Void Heavenly Lord!" Luo Wushuang said in a low voice.
—Zhaizhu has a cold, his nose running like a broken faucet, can't show off anymore~ Taking a taxi home tomorrow, will try my best to ensure updates, weakly begging for monthly votes~