Chapter 982: The Truth of Carefree Haven
"Twenty Swords, Twenty Swords..."
The Kai Emperor raised his sword, his eyes filled with a blank daze. The Carefree Sword in his hand traced aimlessly left and right, attempting to find the Twenty Sword Style.
Yan Yunxi's gaze flickered. "Your Majesty, you are reverse-engineering the various sword techniques and insights of the Shepherd Heavenly Venerate from his sword style. What do you think the Shepherd Heavenly Venerate is doing right now?"
"Infiltrating Carefree Haven."
The Kai Emperor answered without hesitation. "He will start searching from the Supreme Heavenly Realm, seeking the secrets of my sword techniques and divine abilities, searching for a way to defeat me. The reason he proposed a two-month deadline is not to wait for Feng Qing to establish the Nether Capital, but to gain an understanding of my sword techniques within those two months."
"The Qin Heavenly Venerate and the Shepherd Heavenly Venerate—truly from the same family, thinking exactly alike."
Yan Yunxi chuckled and withdrew, saying, "Your servant shall not disturb Your Majesty's contemplation of the Twenty Sword Style. I wish Your Majesty a swift success."
In the Supreme Heavenly Realm of Carefree Haven, Shu Jun followed Qin Mu, but noticed that Qin Mu did not head directly to the academies and schools there. Instead, he wandered through the forests and mountains, examining the soil, water, and mountain ranges.
Qin Mu even transformed his primal qi into a sword, using the Drilling Sword Style to bore into the mountains and deep into the earth.
"Sacred Infant, what are you searching for?" Shu Jun asked, puzzled.
"Why do you also call me Sacred Infant?" Qin Mu said, half laughing, half crying.
Shu Jun replied, "I am a Creator, so naturally I must call you Sacred Infant. It is the proper form of address among the Creator race. What exactly are you looking for?"
Qin Mu used his primal qi to form a sword, drilling deep into the earth to bring up fragments of rock. He grabbed a handful, squeezed it in his palm, and said, "The Kai Emperor's single sword strike transformed into thirty-three heavens, carving off nearly half of the Other Shore. This matter reeks of strangeness."
Shu Jun was confused.
"We have been in the Other Shore for some time now. The continents where the Creators live, including the mountains, rivers, lakes, and oceans on the land, were all visualized by the Creator race. These lands float in the void and are not connected."
Qin Mu again used his primal qi to form a sword, stabbing into a towering mountain in the Supreme Heavenly Realm of Carefree Haven. The sword qi drilled deep into the mountain's core. "A single sword strike transforming into thirty-three heavens sounds terrifying. If the Kai Emperor thrust out his sword and directly cut off thirty-three continents from the Other Shore, merging them into thirty-three heavens, then all the Creators combined, even with the Divine King Lang Wan, would not be his match. So how could the Creator race have resisted Carefree Haven for twenty thousand years?"
Shu Jun was taken aback. "A single sword strike transforming into thirty-three heavens naturally means the Kai Emperor thrust out his sword, and the thirty-three heavens formed under his blade, occupying half of the Other Shore. It doesn't mean he cut the Other Shore in half with one strike."
Qin Mu retrieved some stone fragments from inside the mountain and smiled. "Divine King Shu Jun, you are too honest. You don't realize that the Kai Emperor, though he seems honest, is actually quite cunning."
He pinched the stone fragments, noticing some metallic powder among them.
Qin Mu blew on the fragments, sending the stone dust flying, while the metallic powder remained in his palm. "If a single sword strike could form thirty-three heavens with mountains, rivers, lakes, and oceans, then the Kai Emperor would not be the foremost in the sword path—he would be a Creator! Perhaps the Grand Emperor had that power, but his mastery of divine consciousness was definitely not that high. This can only mean..."
Qin Mu raised a finger and lightly drew it across the towering mountain before him. A sword light split the mountain in two, and he laughed, "The thirty-three heavens of Carefree Haven were forged in advance!"
The mountain split apart under his sword light, revealing the massive metallic and stone structures inside!
Shu Jun's heart shook violently as he stared in shock at the intricate construction within the mountain.
Inside the mountain, divine gold and divine materials had been used, forged into various components with rune imprints, like parts of an enormous machine!
At the mountain's base, the divine gold and materials extended deep into the earth!
Clearly, the entire Supreme Heavenly Realm of Carefree Haven was a colossal man-made object, forged from divine gold and divine materials!
This Supreme Heavenly Realm of Carefree Haven was a heaven built by countless master craftsmen!
"As I suspected."
Qin Mu clapped his hands together, and the split mountain slammed shut. "I once heard someone say that at the end of the Kai Emperor's era, he ordered the Indra Heavenly King Li Youran to lead all the master craftsmen of the world in building Carefree Haven. The Woodcutter Sage opposed its construction, but the Kai Emperor did not heed his advice and still ordered Li Youran to build it."
Shu Jun's mind was reeling. He muttered, "Carefree Haven should have been created by the Kai Emperor's single sword strike. The Divine King Lang Wan could not have been mistaken. How could it have been built by Li Youran..."
"The Indra Heavenly King Li Youran was known as the War Heavenly King in the Kai Emperor's heavenly court. He earned that title not because he was a great military commander, but because he excelled at crafting all kinds of divine artifacts, especially war artifacts."
Qin Mu explained, "When he built Carefree Haven, he actually gathered all the master craftsmen to forge thirty-three enormous divine artifacts. These thirty-three artifacts concealed the sword principles within the Kai Emperor's sword path. In other words, these thirty-three artifacts were the materialization of the Kai Emperor's Thirty-Three Heavens Sword Path!"
He looked at the geography of the Supreme Heavenly Realm of Carefree Haven. "The flow of rivers here, the layout of mountains, and even every geographical feature—including divine cities, villages, and divine statues—are all manifestations of his sword techniques."
Shu Jun was still dazed. "Impossible! He created thirty-three heavens with a single sword strike, witnessed by countless Creators and even Divine King Lang Wan. If he had moved the thirty-three heavens of Carefree Haven here, he could never have fooled Divine King Lang Wan and those clan leaders and elders. Pulling off such a trick under their noses would be too difficult. Not to mention Divine King Lang Wan, even the clan leaders of each race were no weaker than I was back then."
Qin Mu walked toward the nearest divine city and laughed. "I once obtained the Carefree Sword, the Kai Emperor's personal blade. I didn't know this at first; I only felt the sword was very light and exceptionally handy. Later, I learned it was the Kai Emperor's sword—an emperor's sword! Isn't it strange that an emperor's sword is so light?"
Shu Jun quickened his pace to keep up. "Refining a treasure to be very light shouldn't be difficult, right?"
"Li Youran was the greatest master craftsman in the world. He could indeed make the Carefree Sword very light. But I could rarely unleash its full power, which is strange."
Qin Mu said, "Logically, I should be able to activate the rune imprints inside the Carefree Sword, but I almost never could bring out its true might. This heavenly emperor's sword seemed empty."
Shu Jun finally understood. He exclaimed, "You mean that back then, the Kai Emperor hid the thirty-three heavens of Carefree Haven inside the Carefree Sword. When he came to the Other Shore and thrust out his sword, Carefree Haven flew out from within the sword, forming the thirty-three heavens?"
Qin Mu nodded. "The Kai Emperor had many capable people under his command. My master, Wen Tiange, was his Woodcutter Heavenly Master, revered as a sage. The Zixi Heavenly Master was a master of formations. The Indra Heavenly King Li Youran was the greatest craftsman. With their wisdom and skill, folding Carefree Haven and hiding it inside the Carefree Sword should have been possible. After all, they had already done a similar experiment once."
He thought of the Nether Capital Heavenly King Tian Shu's Divine Que Divine Blade, which contained various folded spaces inside.
"Bastard!" Shu Jun cursed angrily.
Qin Mu grew furious and smacked him hard on his big head. "That's my ancestor! Only I can curse him—you cannot!"
Shu Jun clutched his head in anger. "Can't I even say that?"
They entered the city, and Qin Mu asked the people of Carefree Haven about the academies. Shu Jun was puzzled. "Since you've realized that the thirty-three heavens of Carefree Haven are the Kai Emperor's sword techniques—the Thirty-Three Heavens Sword Path—why bother going to the academies to study?"
Qin Mu walked into the academy of the Supreme Heavenly Realm. He opened his third eye, and both the divine beings and cultivators in the academy were oblivious to them, allowing them to wander in freely.
It was an illusion created by his divine consciousness, covering the entire academy.
Qin Mu's divine consciousness was now stronger than ever. Even true gods at the Jade Terrace realm and divine demons at the Execution Platform and Jade Capital realms found it hard to see through his divine consciousness illusions.
Of course, this was only when he harbored no hostile intent. If he showed hostility, he would still be detected.
"Examining the Kai Emperor's sword techniques and divine abilities is only one of my goals. My other goal is to see how much Carefree Haven's techniques and divine abilities have progressed over the years."
Qin Mu said calmly, "Twenty thousand years ago, the Kai Emperor's era saw an explosion of techniques and divine abilities, with countless new abilities and methods emerging. I want to see if this wave of reform and change has stagnated after they retreated into Carefree Haven."
He arrived at the academy's scripture repository and walked in right under the nose of the god guarding the building. "The Woodcutter Sage said his greatest regret was not stopping the Kai Emperor from entering Carefree Haven. I want to see if his judgment was correct."
The scripture repository was bustling with people, many cultivators coming and going. Qin Mu stood before a bookshelf, fell directly into a dream, and countless tiny versions of him flew out of his dream, running around everywhere, flipping through various texts, chattering and making noise.
Yet everyone in the repository seemed unable to see this scene, going about their own business.
Shu Jun also browsed through the books, but his method was different—he used his divine consciousness to scan, which was also very fast.
However, Qin Mu's Dream Entry into the Dao not only allowed him to quickly read through the texts in the repository but also let the tiny versions of him in the dream practice and test the techniques recorded in the books—something Shu Jun could not match.
In just half a day, Qin Mu had read through all the texts there.
Shu Jun was still not finished. Qin Mu left the repository and wandered around, observing the students in the academy practicing their techniques and divine abilities.
He saw many students visualizing, merging their divine consciousness with their primal qi. Many of the techniques and divine abilities he had just read also followed this path of merging divine consciousness with primal qi.
Clearly, after the people of the Kai Emperor's era arrived here, just as the Creators had accepted the Divine Treasury Heavenly Palace system, they too adopted the divine consciousness cultivation system.
This was a form of reform.
However, Qin Mu did not see the kind of reform he had hoped for, like the one in Yan Kang.
The Yan Kang reform had introduced dozens or even hundreds of new rune systems beyond those of the Kai Emperor's era, such as the Nether Yin runes and the Magnet runes, which were early products of the Yan Kang reform.
In addition, there were the Ancient God Dao rune systems that Qin Mu had brought from the Heavenly Court.
The Yan Kang reform, using the Supreme Micro Calculation Classic, had recalculated and produced hundreds of Ancient God Dao rune systems!
None of these existed in Carefree Haven.
In terms of basic rune research, the Kai Emperor's heavenly court seemed to have come to a halt after relocating to Carefree Haven.
"This phenomenon is worth studying..."
Qin Mu blinked as he looked at the students studying in the academy. These students were all cultivators. He observed their spirit and energy, followed them to see what they did daily, and even extended his divine consciousness into their thoughts to see what they were thinking.
He was very puzzled. When the reform and change in the Kai Emperor's era were at their most intense, why did this process suddenly stop after they moved to Carefree Haven?
Just as he was observing these cultivators, Qin Mu suddenly noticed a middle-aged Daoist in the Supreme Heavenly Realm academy curiously watching him, staring intently.
Qin Mu was slightly startled. The entire academy was under the cover of his divine consciousness, so everyone should have been oblivious to him. Yet this middle-aged Daoist kept looking at him, as if he could actually see him!
Qin Mu smiled at the Daoist, who smiled back.
"How should I address you, fellow Daoist?" Qin Mu walked up to the Daoist and greeted him.
The Daoist hurriedly returned the greeting. "Su Maiqing, a discarded disciple of the Dao Sect. Greetings to the Shepherd Heavenly Venerate."
"A discarded disciple of the Dao Sect?"
Qin Mu probed, "Su Maiqing, what is your connection to the Dao Sect of the Yuan Realm?"
The Daoist flicked his whisk and grinned. "I am the one who founded it."