Chapter 1008: Ambushing the Grand Emperor
Qin Mu nodded, a faint, ambiguous smile on his face.
Five years ago, Xing Han had used the token of Celestial Venerable Qin to scheme against him, luring him to the Fallen God Valley. The Fallen God Valley was merely a passage leading to the Upper Sovereign Heavenly Court, where Yi Shisheng, a disciple of Ling Celestial Venerable, was constantly collecting the remains of his master.
Back when Qin Mu first arrived at the Fallen God Valley, disciples of the Heavenly Emperor like Yan Qiling and Mu Qiubai had also come there, along with the Heavenly Dragon King under Earth Mother's command, and the Divine Artifact Imperial Celestial Venerable who had secretly infiltrated.
The hanging coffins in the Fallen God Valley bore the inscription "Opens in the presence of Qin Mu," which in truth meant "Opens in the presence of Qin Celestial Venerable and Mu Celestial Venerable."
Qin Mu had been puzzled at the time—before he went to the Fallen God Valley, no one had bothered to explore it, but the moment he arrived, a crowd of people rushed over. It seemed too coincidental.
Now, looking back, it was merely the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor and the Grand Emperor scheming against him—and of course, Earth Mother Primordial Sovereign was also part of it.
The Qin Mu of five years ago couldn't see through their schemes. It was only now that he finally understood the true nature of the Fallen God Valley incident.
The Heavenly Emperor, the Grand Emperor, and Earth Mother Primordial Sovereign knew that only by combining the tokens of Qin Celestial Venerable and Mu Celestial Venerable could the passage to the Fallen God Valley be opened. So they had been waiting for Qin Mu to arrive and pave the way for them.
However, despite their cunning and treachery, they hadn't anticipated that the Grand Emperor's Divine Artifact Imperial Celestial Venerable would be killed by Qin Mu, and that Xing Han would then seal and suppress the Celestial Venerable's consciousness within the Divine Artifact Imperial Celestial Venerable's body, seizing the artifact and fleeing.
The Heavenly Dragon King and his group under Earth Mother's command were all wiped out, and only Yan Qiling survived among the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor's disciples.
Earth Mother Primordial Sovereign suffered heavy losses, the Heavenly Emperor failed to recover his true body, and the Grand Emperor couldn't verify whether Ling Celestial Venerable was truly dead, nor could he reclaim the divine consciousness he had used to control the Heavenly Emperor's body.
Qin Mu gained nothing either. Only Xing Han obtained the Divine Artifact Imperial Celestial Venerable and suppressed the Grand Emperor's consciousness within it.
The big winner of that battle appeared to be Xing Han.
But fate played its tricks. Xing Han obtained the Divine Artifact Imperial Celestial Venerable, usurped the nest, and claimed the body as his own—yet he wasted five years on the Ancient God's Dao runes, and all that effort was in vain. As for the most crucial Grand Emperor consciousness, he could never refine it, and in the end, it fell into Qin Mu's hands.
Qin Mu looked at the jade bottle, a smile spreading across his face. The smile grew wider and wider until he couldn't help but burst into laughter, the sound growing more and more joyful!
"Five years ago, who could have imagined that I would be the ultimate victor?"
He laughed heartily, his primordial energy and divine consciousness swirling around him, transforming into various runes. Qin Mu adjusted the runes, then took out various computational spirit artifacts, continuously calculating and modifying the runes.
Lang Wan Divine King watched him scribbling and revising, her expression shifting slightly. "Holy Infant, do you need my help refining the Grand Emperor's consciousness? The consciousness in the jade bottle is quite weak—it shouldn't be difficult to refine."
"Not for now."
Qin Mu was deeply focused on his calculations, not lifting his head as he said, "Once I perfect this divine technique, I'll trouble Divine King Sister."
Lang Wan Divine King studied the runes formed by his divine consciousness and primordial energy. These runes were extremely intricate and complex, but she couldn't understand them.
Shu Jun couldn't understand them either, so he asked Dragon Qilin. Dragon Qilin glanced over and said, "The Sect Master is modifying the Soul Tethering Incantation. The Soul Tethering Incantation is used to pull souls—judging by the runes he's modifying, he's probably planning to change it from pulling souls to pulling divine consciousness."
"Pulling divine consciousness?"
Lang Wan Divine King and Shu Jun Divine King were greatly puzzled. Was there such a thing as a divine technique that pulled divine consciousness?
Dragon Qilin thought for a moment, then said, "The Soul Tethering Incantation should actually be called the Soul Seizing Incantation. It can seize souls from the Netherworld and summon the souls of the dead back to the mortal world. Later, after the Sect Master improved it, even shattered souls could be summoned. The Sect Master probably wants to further improve this technique to summon the divine consciousness that the Grand Emperor scattered across the Primordial Realm."
After a long while, Qin Mu finally finished his calculations. Everyone looked at the various magnificent runes spread across the interior of the divine carriage, all wearing bewildered expressions.
Qin Mu carefully inspected everything, corrected a few calculation errors, and only then felt satisfied.
He took the jade bottle and went outside the carriage, placing it on the ground of the Fallen God Valley, which had been leveled to the ground.
Suddenly, his magical power surged almost violently as he activated the improved Soul Tethering Incantation. Countless runes flew and swirled around the jade bottle!
His primordial spirit emerged—a majestic figure standing in the main heavenly palace atop the Taiji Diagram, beneath the Southern Heaven Gate. Heavy Dao words came from his mouth as he chanted the mysterious Netherworld language, and runes of the Tianyin Realm lit up all around him, flickering between brightness and darkness!
"This time when I descended to the mortal world, the Grand Emperor wanted to kill me and deployed the eleventh Celestial Venerable's physical body. But on the way, he encountered Emperor Kaihuang and was slain by a single sword strike."
Qin Mu's primordial spirit was activating the improved Soul Tethering Incantation, while his true body smiled and said, "The Grand Emperor's consciousness was piloting the Celestial Venerable's corpse. Emperor Kaihuang didn't know how to gather the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness, so he simply killed him outright, and the Grand Emperor's consciousness was scattered by Emperor Kaihuang's strike. Earlier, I had no item belonging to the Grand Emperor, so I couldn't summon his soul. But now, with the consciousness in this jade bottle, I can try to see if I can summon the Grand Emperor's consciousness!"
Lang Wan Divine King followed him to the flat ground and saw that the ground around Qin Mu was also imprinted with countless runes, continuously lighting up and spreading in all directions, covering an increasingly wide area.
Soon, the runes covered a radius of a hundred li, forming a massive formation diagram!
Lang Wan Divine King pondered, "The Grand Emperor's divine consciousness in the Celestial Venerable's corpse—even if scattered by Emperor Kaihuang—would eventually reassemble. He's most likely already collected his consciousness."
"Divine King Sister, rest assured. Emperor Kaihuang used Sword Twenty and then the Thirty-Four Heavens Sword Dao to slay him. His divine consciousness cannot reassemble in a short time. Moreover..."
Qin Mu's primordial spirit fully activated the Soul Tethering Incantation. Countless magnificent runes swirled around the jade bottle, each one imprinting onto it in succession.
Wave after wave of obscure fluctuations entered the jade bottle, then radiated outward from it, spreading in all directions with a strange rhythm.
This rhythm was imperceptible to ordinary people—even Lang Wan Divine King and Shu Jun Divine King could barely detect it.
"Moreover, he came this time to kill me. Would he so easily withdraw his divine consciousness?"
Qin Mu's expression grew tense as he said in a deep voice, "His divine consciousness must not have left the Primordial Realm. Instead, it's possessing the gods and demons of the Primordial Realm, continuing to search for my trail. Two Divine Kings, I'm about to establish a connection with the Grand Emperor—are you ready?"
Lang Wan Divine King hurriedly activated her divine consciousness. Her divine consciousness was incredibly powerful, spreading across the Thirty-Fifth Layer of Void, forming various divine consciousness refining techniques!
Shu Jun hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and said, "Holy Infant, how powerful is the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness? Ambushing him will likely offend him to the core. Moreover, his Divine Consciousness Great Luo Heaven is hidden in the Ultimate Void. If you summon his divine consciousness, he can lock onto our position and attack from the Ultimate Void..."
"Shu Jun Divine King, I've already offended the Grand Emperor to the point of no return. Offending him once more is just adding icing on the cake."
Qin Mu's Soul Tethering Incantation established a connection with the consciousness in the jade bottle, immediately tracing it back to its source and sensing waves of terrifying divine consciousness fluctuations. He laughed heartily, "The Grand Emperor's divine consciousness is about to be summoned by me! We're striking with preparation against his unpreparedness—we'll ambush him and then flee. He won't be able to do anything to us!"
Shu Jun Divine King's scalp went numb. He immediately sensed the terrifying fluctuations in the void and decisively unleashed all his divine consciousness to help Lang Wan Divine King set up the Void Refining Grand Formation.
Although he hadn't recovered to his peak state, his insight and experience were still there, and he could help Lang Wan Divine King compensate for some deficiencies in her refining techniques.
"Lang Wan Divine King, we must seal the Thirty-Fifth Void. We cannot let the Grand Emperor descend from the Ultimate Void!"
Shu Jun Divine King guided Lang Wan Divine King, and the two Divine Kings joined forces to seal the Thirty-Fifth Void around them.
Lang Wan Divine King inwardly praised him. Although Shu Jun was a Creator God Divine King from the ancient era and much of his knowledge was outdated, his insight and experience were extremely high, with unique merits.
The two had just finished setting up the refining grand formation in the Thirty-Fifth Layer of Void when an incredibly terrifying fluctuation responded to Qin Mu's Soul Tethering Incantation and was summoned forth!
At the source of the Yong River in the Primordial Realm, the chunks of the Grand Emperor's Celestial Venerable corpse had fallen into deep mountains and great marshes. The Grand Emperor's bronze coffin had also fallen into a mountain stream, its lid open, billowing with thick corpse qi.
At this moment, many strangely dressed gods had arrived here. These gods were draped in white robes, their heads and faces also covered by the robes. They had come from the Heavenly Court, and each white-robed god carried a large cinnabar-red gourd on their back.
Every time a white-robed god walked up to a chunk of flesh, the large gourd would emit billowing rosy light, extracting the divine consciousness from within the flesh.
Those chunks of flesh still contained Emperor Kaihuang's sword dao, which suppressed the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness and continuously eroded it. If this continued, the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness would inevitably be completely destroyed by Emperor Kaihuang's sword dao.
However, these white-robed gods' cinnabar-red gourds possessed miraculous properties, able to extract the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness without triggering the residual power of Emperor Kaihuang's sword dao.
Even so, they had to be extremely careful, not daring to touch the flesh chunks lest they provoke Emperor Kaihuang's divine techniques.
They had already collected most of it when, suddenly, an inexplicable force surged forth, pulling all the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness away with a whistling sound!
Even the divine consciousness that had already been collected into the gourds was pulled out. Rosy light burst from the mouths of the gourds, spraying out and transforming into thousands of brilliant streams of light in midair, rushing away!
"Damn it!"
The Grand Emperor's divine consciousness trembled, like ten thousand thunderclaps sounding simultaneously, blasting the white-robed gods into a daze: "Quickly! Seal the Heavenly Consciousness Divine Gourds!"
The white-robed gods immediately capped their divine gourds, but the strange summoning was too powerful—it even pulled the Heavenly Consciousness Divine Gourds themselves into the air, flying eastward!
And from the Celestial Venerable's flesh chunks, the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness flew out uncontrollably, seized by Qin Mu's improved Soul Tethering Incantation!
The many white-robed gods each hugged a large gourd, activating their magical power to hold their ground, but still, quite a few Heavenly Consciousness Divine Gourds flew away.
"Useless things!"
Suddenly, the divine consciousness from one Heavenly Consciousness Divine Gourd flew out and drilled into the body of a white-robed god. After the Grand Emperor borrowed that body, he too was immediately carried into the air by Qin Mu's Soul Tethering Incantation, flying eastward.
At the same time, the other divine gourds exploded, and the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness within them flew out, all rushing into the body of the possessed white-robed god.
That white-robed god was a True God and couldn't resist Qin Mu's summoning. He was dragged madly toward the Fallen God Valley.
The Fallen God Valley was extremely far from here, but at this summoning speed, it wouldn't take long before he was pulled into the valley and refined by Qin Mu!
"You little bastard, do you think you can seize my divine consciousness? You underestimate me!"
The white-robed god flew into a rage, desperately activating the magical power within this body to resist, but he was still dragged eastward.
A divine city appeared ahead—the garrison of the Heavenly Court's god-demon army stationed in the Primordial Realm. The white-robed god's eyes lit up. Suddenly, he opened his mouth wide, and rosy light sprayed forth like a waterfall torrent, rushing toward that divine city!
The rosy light howled as it arrived, brilliant and dazzling, sweeping across the entire city.
The more than a hundred thousand gods and demons in the city had no time to react before they were drowned in the rosy light. The light was like ten thousand tentacles, drilling into the eyes, ears, mouths, and noses of these gods and demons. Instantly, all of them were moved by the Soul Tethering Incantation, leaping into the air and flying toward the Fallen God Valley!
The main general guarding the divine city was a master at the Lingxiao Realm. He immediately activated his divine techniques, but the next moment, he too was possessed by the Grand Emperor's divine consciousness.
The Grand Emperor controlled more than a hundred thousand gods and demons as they simultaneously rose into the air. In midair, the hundred thousand gods and demons arranged themselves in staggered formation, forming a great slaughter formation. The slaughter formation flew through the air—a truly grand and awe-inspiring spectacle!
"Mu Celestial Venerable, you have provoked me time and time again. Today, I shall show you the majesty of an ancient ruler!"