Chapter 964: The Void Carefree Haven
Qin Mu opened the door on the right for the second time. As he opened it again, the scenery inside the room shifted once more, pitch black, with nothing visible.
Suddenly, the darkness split open violently, and a colossal eye filled the entire room!
Qin Mu slammed the door shut, his heart pounding wildly. "Opening the room at the end of the Void Bridge is really thrilling—it scares the hell out of you every time!"
He opened the door again, and this time, a black hole was erupting inside, sending chills down his spine. He quickly shut the door.
After several attempts, Qin Mu finally found a room where a lotus flower appeared.
Qin Fengqing was listening intently again, clearly being guided by someone nearby. He said, "Now, left two, right one, center five, right three, center one, right two, left four, center seven..."
He seemed to be reciting some strange code. Qin Mu listened carefully, memorizing his words, and felt a surge of shock. If this was the sequence for opening the doors, then there was truly no way to find the Carefree Haven!
Ordinary people who came here would only enter the doors, never thinking to test opening and closing them.
But entering a door would lead them into the traps set by the Creators, just like Fire Heavenly Venerate and Void Heavenly Venerate, who were trapped. Even if they managed to escape, without knowing the sequence for closing the doors, they would be helpless.
More critically, opening and closing the doors had to be done multiple times, requiring constant experimentation. And each time a door was opened, what lay behind it were extremely dangerous places—the Heavenly Emperor's harem, before the Earth Lord, near the Primordial Tree, and various other perilous sites. One misstep could mean being killed by the beings behind the doors!
Of course, when the Void Creators created this strange realm and these three houses, the Earth Mother Primordial Lord was still alive. Now that she was dead, opening the door to the Primordial Tree in the Yuan Realm wasn't as dangerous, at most drawing a group of divine guards who would attack.
Cracking the mystery of the door-opening sequence in a short time was nearly impossible. The most likely outcome was being wiped out by the terrifying beings behind the doors after repeated attempts.
"These Void Creators are truly formidable. How did the Kai Emperor know the door-opening sequence?"
Qin Mu thought for a moment and came up with a guess.
The map of the Void Realm that Cloud Heavenly Venerate had given to the Kai Emperor likely contained the door-opening sequence.
Cloud Heavenly Venerate had worked with the Void Creators to set a trap and ambush the Grand Emperor, showing that his relationship with them was excellent. It was possible that when those Creators left the Void Realm, they told him the sequence.
Qin Fengqing recited the door-opening sequence once more, speaking with great seriousness: "You must remember the sequence clearly—no mistakes allowed, or you won't be able to open the door to the Carefree Haven. Also, once you enter the Carefree Haven, don't wander around. Father and Mother said they've already prepared a ship and will come to pick you up after breaking through the encirclement."
Qin Mu nodded.
Qin Fengqing's phantom faded, his voice growing distant: "...Remember, don't wander around. Those tasty Creators are very ferocious..."
His phantom disappeared. Qin Mu let out a breath of turbid air, walked over to the door on the left, and said with a smile, "Brother Luo, come take a look."
Luo Wushuang, suspecting nothing, stepped forward. Qin Mu pushed open the door, revealing the Primordial Tree in the Yuan Realm. The divine guards watching over the heavenly palace in the tree's canopy immediately activated their divine arts and summoned their divine weapons, charging with earth-shaking shouts.
Qin Mu gave Luo Wushuang a hard shove from behind, pushing him through the door, and said with a laugh, "Brother Luo, you go back to the Yuan Realm first. I'll come see you in a few days."
Caught off guard, Luo Wushuang stumbled into the Yuan Realm, only to be met by thousands of divine beings charging at him. His scalp tingling, he cursed and looked back, but the door had already closed.
He had no choice but to brace himself and face these gods and demons, thinking to himself, "This is the territory of one of the Heavenly Venerables, a heavenly palace established in the Yuan Realm. If I kill the divine guards stationed here, I'll probably offend that Heavenly Venerable... Among the Ten Heavenly Venerables, I've already offended Empress Yuanmu and Void Heavenly Venerable. Hao Heavenly Venerable definitely won't let me off either. I've offended four Heavenly Venerables now—what's one more?"
He condensed his primal energy into a divine blade and met the divine guards defending the heavenly palace, striking with lethal intent, thinking, "If I don't kill them, it'll be hard to survive and break out of here!"
"Brother Luo seemed to curse me."
Qin Mu opened and closed two doors, then walked over to the door on the right, opened it once, and then went to the central door, thinking, "This guy has offended so many Heavenly Venerables and heard so many secrets. He's almost offended all of the Ten Heavenly Venerables in the Heavenly Court. Now he's offended me, Mu Heavenly Venerable, as well. Hmph..."
It wasn't that he didn't trust Luo Wushuang, but the Carefree Haven was too important. The fewer people who knew its location, the better, so he sent Luo Wushuang away first.
Following the door-opening sequence Qin Fengqing had given him, he opened and closed the doors one by one. After a long time, he finished all the steps and then stood before the central door, pulling both panels open.
Bright sunlight streamed in from behind the door, making him squint. He raised a hand to shield his eyes, only lowering it once they had adjusted.
Before him, dense forests stretched out, with towering trees piercing the clouds. Huge birds with six wings flew through the sky, passing by a beautiful divine mountain.
The divine mountains stretched in an unbroken chain, varying in height, with seas of white clouds drifting between them.
Those six-winged birds flew over the peaks and plunged into the cloud sea, from which came high-pitched calls.
Qin Mu stepped through the door and took a deep breath. The air here was incredibly fresh, carrying a faint hint of moisture.
He heard the sound of water and turned to look, seeing the three houses behind him.
The house at the end of the Void Bridge was built on the summit of a mountain peak. The three rooms stood behind Qin Mu, next to a waterfall. Water flowed from beside the house down the cliff, crashing onto a massive rock jutting out from the mountainside, splitting the waterfall into two streams that cascaded down like flying jade.
Looking down from above, Qin Mu saw two rainbows hanging halfway up the mountain.
"I walked into the central room, but when I arrived here, I walked out of the house. How strange."
He couldn't help but marvel at the Creators' ingenuity, able to envision such a wondrous house. It was almost on par with Moon Heavenly Venerable's spatial techniques!
"Is this the Carefree Haven?"
Qin Mu sensed that this realm was filled with an extremely dense divine consciousness, likely a world created by the Creators' imagination. But it hadn't suffered the terrifying destruction of the Void Realm, nor did it have its eerie and dangerous qualities. It was incredibly peaceful.
With a thought, a cup of fine wine appeared in his hand.
Qin Mu drank the wine and tossed the cup away, which vanished into thin air.
"What a strange place. I didn't use my supreme divine consciousness or much of my consciousness at all—I just thought of it, and wine appeared. This is incredible!"
Qin Mu couldn't help but admire, thinking, "Wouldn't the people living here not need to work? They could just think of fine wine and delicacies, or imagine jade halls and grand mansions? If that's the case, then this place truly deserves to be called the Carefree Haven!"
That said, to achieve the level where imagining something brings it into existence, one still needed a certain level of proficiency in divine consciousness.
Qin Mu's main advantage was his own immense divine consciousness. With a mere thought, he could mobilize an astonishing amount of consciousness, far beyond what ordinary cultivators could match.
He turned back and closed the door, sitting at the top of the waterfall, muttering to himself, "Brother told me to wait here, that Father and Mother are on their way. So I'll wait here and absolutely not let my curiosity drive me to wander around!"
He sat with his eyes fixed on his nose and his nose fixed on his heart, like an old monk in meditation, when suddenly a thought popped into his head: "If everything is available here, then why did Mother say the Carefree Haven is extremely dangerous and didn't want me to go? And the scholar Celestial Master Yan Yunxi also didn't want to tell me where the Carefree Haven is, didn't want me to return."
"Brother just said that ever since he came to the Carefree Haven, he's been fighting every day and eating gods and demons every day. Has the Carefree Haven gone to war with the Creators here?"
"The Kai Emperor came with Cloud Heavenly Venerate's map. Given Cloud Heavenly Venerate's friendship with the Creators, shouldn't those Creators have spared the Carefree Haven trouble for his sake? Why would they go to war with it?"
...
All kinds of thoughts flooded his mind, and he could no longer maintain his meditation. Just then, a rumbling sound of footsteps came.
Qin Mu immediately stood up and looked, suddenly seeing a massive head emerge from below the waterfall. The giant's face was right in front of him, and the air from its nostrils formed two gales that whipped his clothes.
Qin Mu's heart tightened. The giant's forehead was embedded with a vertical, diamond-shaped crystal, like a third eye on its brow.
This was a Creator!
A Creator of such immense size must have unfathomable power!
"Motuo—"
The giant spoke, its voice like thousands of thunderclaps exploding in Qin Mu's ears, making them ring. The Creator showed anger, raised a hand the size of a thousand acres, and was about to strike him down!
Qin Mu's two eyelids on his brow parted left and right, revealing his eye. When the giant saw his eye, it immediately withdrew its hand, looked him up and down, and a wave of incredibly powerful divine consciousness transmitted into Qin Mu's mind: "Whose child are you? How old are you? Why are you here?"
Qin Mu sighed in relief, the goosebumps on the back of his neck fading. He transmitted his consciousness to communicate with the Creator: "I'm almost two years old. I wandered here by accident and saw these three houses, so I came to take a look. Which tribe are you from, elder?"
"I am Xiu Zhong of the Xiu Min tribe. I sensed an anomaly here and came to investigate."
The Creator Xiu Zhong transmitted his consciousness, praising, "Your divine consciousness is quite strong. For someone under two years old to have such achievement, you're even stronger than an adult. Who is your master?"
"My teacher is Shu Jun." Qin Mu answered honestly.
Inside the Primal Chaos Primordial Stone in his third eye, Shu Jun's big head was smug, his two eyes bouncing around in their sockets, chuckling, "You little brat, calling me teacher and taking advantage of me, but I don't mind. Heh heh, if you throw my name out there, this Xiu Zhong will probably be scared shitless and kowtow repeatedly! I am one of the Three Kings of the ancient era!"
"Shu Jun?"
The Creator Xiu Zhong's three eyes all showed confusion. His third eye was a Primal Chaos Divine Stone, but it could also express emotions like a real eye. He shook his head and said, "Never heard of him. But your divine consciousness is strong, so he's probably not unknown. This place is very dangerous, with villains often lurking around. Come with me, I'll take you to a safe place."
He extended his hand, palm flat on the waterfall, signaling Qin Mu to jump up.
Qin Mu hesitated, feeling reluctant.
But with a thought from the Creator Xiu Zhong, Qin Mu involuntarily flew up and landed in his palm, feeling a chill of fear.
Xiu Zhong's divine consciousness was a thousand times stronger than his own, binding him so tightly that even his primal energy couldn't move!
Qin Mu's divine consciousness, though not as strong as the Heavenly Court's top divine consciousness expert Yan Shaoqing, was of higher quality.
Yet Xiu Zhong's divine consciousness was a thousand times greater, and its quality was even stronger than Qin Mu's. This showed just how terrifying this person's divine consciousness was!
Xiu Zhong was likely not an ordinary Creator but a high-ranking figure among the Void Creators!
"You're only two years old—how can you run around like this? That Shu Jun is too irresponsible, not afraid those demon monsters will snatch you away. Their divine consciousness is even stronger than yours."
The Primal Chaos Divine Stone on Xiu Zhong's brow glowed, and a massive chariot appeared out of thin air. He took Qin Mu aboard, and nine dragons, each a hundred miles long, pulled the chariot into the sky.
"If you run into those villains, you'd be dead for sure."
Xiu Zhong waved his hand lightly, and the sun set, countless stars emerging to form a Milky Way. The nine dragons pulled the chariot joyfully along the galaxy. "Those villains are utterly unreasonable, especially their leader, that bastard named Qin Ye, who is vicious and arrogant beyond compare."
Through Qin Mu's third eye, Shu Jun saw the scene outside the chariot and felt a chill. He quickly transmitted his consciousness: "Kid surnamed Qin, you need to be careful! This Creator's strength isn't much weaker than mine back in the day!"