Chapter 1051: The Subverter of Realms
Among his fifteen celestial palaces, the one ranked first was the main celestial palace, transformed from the Great Dao contained within the Spiritual Embryo Divine Treasury.
Ranked second was the Great Luo Divine Sense Celestial Palace, followed by the Sword Celestial Palace, Dragon Celestial Palace, Demon Celestial Palace, Creation Celestial Palace, Martial Dao Celestial Palace, and Painting Dao Celestial Palace.
These eight celestial palaces were complete.
The other celestial palaces—the Blade Celestial Palace, Medicine Celestial Palace, Divine Power Celestial Palace, Forging Celestial Palace, Buddha Celestial Palace, Thief Celestial Palace, and Formation Celestial Palace—these seven were incomplete and defective.
This time, Qin Mu attempted to have his primordial spirit break through the Southern Heaven Gates of the eight complete celestial palaces. If he succeeded, he would be considered to have stepped into the True God realm, though incomplete.
Once Butcher, Old Horse, and the others achieved accomplishments in their cultivation and comprehended cultivation techniques that could directly reach the Imperial Throne realm, Qin Mu could directly learn their techniques from them and perfect the remaining seven celestial palaces.
His Overlord Body Three Elixir Art could now be considered a Lesser Heavenly Court cultivation technique, still some distance away from the Great Heavenly Court technique of eighteen celestial palaces.
Qin Mu activated the Overlord Body Three Elixir Art, his primordial spirit standing before the Southern Heaven Gate of the main celestial palace. Suddenly, his primordial spirit split apart, dividing into sixteen, and sixteen primordial spirits appeared within the sixteen celestial palaces.
This was the primordial spirit division technique from the Three Primordial Spirits Indestructible Divine Sense.
Chì Hoàng's Three Primordial Spirits Indestructible Divine Sense had been improved by him and integrated into the Overlord Body Three Elixir Art. Unlike others who cultivated Heavenly Court techniques—such as Nguyên Mỗ Phu Nhân and Đế Hậu Nương Nương, whose Great Heavenly Court techniques used primordial spirit projection, projecting their primordial spirits into each celestial palace rather than using true primordial spirits—
Qin Mu used primordial spirit division, employing true primordial spirits.
Qin Mu's sixteen primordial spirits advanced side by side, stepping into the Southern Heaven Gates together.
Invisible pressure assailed them. The pressure of the Southern Heaven Gate was strange, coming from all directions. Every inch of the primordial spirit's skin surface bore immense pressure, and moreover, even every corner within the primordial spirit's body endured pressure from all sides.
In the past, Qin Mu had not understood where this pressure came from, but now he knew—this was Dao pressure.
The celestial palace realm imitated the structure of the Heavenly Court. The Southern Heaven Gate was the Heavenly Court's Southern Heaven Gate, and that gate was transformed from the Great Dao of the Ancient Gods.
It could be said that for every divine being who entered the Divine Realm, their Southern Heaven Gate was a projection of the Heavenly Court's Southern Heaven Gate. Entering through the gate and enduring the Dao pressure, walking into the celestial palace, only then were they considered True Gods.
However, within Qin Mu's celestial palaces, there were Southern Heaven Gates transformed from Acquired Great Dao. The four celestial palaces—Sword Celestial Palace, Creation Celestial Palace, Martial Dao Celestial Palace, and Painting Dao Celestial Palace—each brought different pressure, unlike the pressure of traditional celestial palace Southern Heaven Gates.
The Southern Heaven Gate of the Sword Celestial Palace seemed as if countless flying swords were piercing into his primordial spirit from all directions, destroying his primordial spirit's sword dao, forcing him to activate his sword dao to resist.
He felt as though he were facing Khai Hoàng, that Sword Dao Great Emperor. His primordial spirit involuntarily executed various sword techniques, contending with that invisible Khai Hoàng.
Within the Southern Heaven Gate of the Painting Dao Celestial Palace, he seemed to walk into countless bizarre painting dao worlds. Every step forward was like passing through myriad worlds, experiencing all kinds of trials and tribulations.
His primordial spirit used Dao as the brush, primordial qi and divine sense as ink, painting one fantastical world after another within the Southern Heaven Gate, as if contending with the Deaf Man, that Painting Sage, using painting dao to resist painting dao.
Within the Southern Heaven Gate of the Creation Celestial Palace, he seemed to encounter the two great masters Xích Hoàng and Minh Hoàng, contending in the way of creation with the most majestic Creation Great Emperor!
Within the Southern Heaven Gate of the Martial Dao Celestial Palace, he seemed to contend with the most powerful Martial Dao Great Emperor, as if facing Võ Đấu Thiên Sư himself!
Qin Mu's eight primordial spirits simultaneously stepped forward, the pressure of the Southern Heaven Gates growing ever greater, causing his primordial spirits to gradually shrink.
He made a decisive decision, mobilizing his physical body's functions, unifying spirit and flesh to resist this pressure and advance with difficulty.
Resisting the traditional Southern Heaven Gate was the simplest, but resisting the celestial palaces formed by Acquired Great Dao was the most difficult.
Because the Ancient God Great Dao had been thoroughly studied, while Acquired Great Dao was just beginning.
His main primordial spirit, Great Luo Divine Sense primordial spirit, Dragon primordial spirit, and Demon primordial spirit each safely passed through their Southern Heaven Gates. However, the Sword primordial spirit, Martial Dao primordial spirit, Painting Dao primordial spirit, and Creation primordial spirit were still trapped within their Southern Heaven Gates.
The treasure carriage traveled deep into the starry sky. Before they knew it, they arrived at the Heavenly River once more. Long Qilin controlled the direction of the carriage, while Yan'er diligently tried to digest the Ancient God she had devoured.
"At this speed, it should take about half a year to reach the location the Giáo Chủ mentioned."
Long Qilin looked forward and saw that the current Heavenly River's course was vastly different from that of later ages. He could see a silver river falling from the high and distant places of the universe, then flowing toward the four extremes of the cosmos.
Countless stars revolved around this silver river. Presumably, the waters of the Heavenly River flowed out from Huyền Đô, and at the top of that silver river should be Huyền Đô.
The direction of the Heavenly Dragon Treasure Carriage was precisely toward the bottom of the silver river.
The carriage's interior was spacious. Qin Mu was cultivating and had no time to pay attention to others. Đại Hồng and Cổ Hiểu were trying to pry information from La Tiêu, but despite their silver tongues, La Tiêu never revealed where Thái Hư actually was.
Time passed slowly. One day, the Heavenly Dragon Treasure Carriage finally arrived beneath the silver river. It no longer continued forward but advanced deeper into the place where the river fell.
At this moment, Qin Mu finally broke through the Southern Heaven Gate of the Sword Celestial Palace. Not long after, he broke through the Southern Heaven Gates of the Martial Dao Celestial Palace and the Creation Celestial Palace, leaving only the Painting Dao one unbroken.
"Giáo Chủ, the destination is almost here!" Long Qilin's voice came.
Qin Mu opened his eyes and exhaled a turbid breath. The Painting Dao primordial spirit withdrew from the Southern Heaven Gate of the Painting Dao Celestial Palace, not persisting further.
His painting dao was still far inferior to the Deaf Man's. Even if he continued to persist, he did not have full confidence in breaking through this Southern Heaven Gate and becoming a Painting Dao True God.
"Three elder brothers, we are almost at the Ancestral Court. Let us go outside." Qin Mu said to Đại Hồng and the others.
Đại Hồng, Cổ Hiểu, and La Tiêu came forward, each looking at Qin Mu with expressions of surprise.
The Qin Mu before them now was vastly different from the Qin Mu of several months ago. The aura he emanated carried a strange Dao rhyme. Standing there, he seemed isolated from the world.
This feeling was as if Qin Mu contained a universe within his body, isolated from the external universe. Within his internal universe, he had his own heavenly dao and earth dao, his own cosmic primeval chaos.
"His cultivation path is definitely different from other divine ability users and gods!" Cổ Hiểu and Đại Hồng thought to themselves.
Qin Mu's cultivation path was unique.
Before Long Hán, there was no such thing as realms. In the long period from the extinction of the Creator race to the founding of the Heavenly Court in the early Long Hán era, it was a time when demigod races grew stronger.
During this period, people did not cultivate; strength was determined by bloodline.
Whoever had stronger bloodline and better lineage had greater power.
During this time, the children of Ancient Gods ruled over the various races of the world. Demigods like Lang Hiên Thần Hoàng and Tổ Thần Vương were the leaders among them.
Around the beginning of the Long Hán era, the Seven Heavenly Venerables created the Seven Divine Treasury Realms. After Ngự Thiên Tôn died, Qin Mu improvised on the spot, comprehending the method of immortality to become a god, and together with Hạo Thiên Tôn, taught the Seven Celestial Palace Realms and the Heavenly Court Realm to the world.
From then on, the concept of realms came into existence.
Therefore, it was not an exaggeration to say that realms were created by Qin Mu together with the other Heavenly Venerables.
Many people in later generations never thought about this point. Recklessly using realms to measure Qin Mu would only lead to erroneous conclusions about his cultivation and strength, and not a few gods and demons had died at his hands because of this.
For the people of the early Long Hán era, the Divine Treasury Celestial Palace cultivation system established by Qin Mu and the Seven Heavenly Venerables had not yet taken deep root. The demigods and other races of this era cultivated the Divine Treasury Celestial Palace system more for the purpose of immortality like the Ancient Gods.
Demigods cultivated the Divine Treasury Celestial Palace only for immortality; bloodline determined strength.
However, in the long years that followed, more and more people would discover the power of the Divine Treasury Celestial Palace system, gradually marginalizing bloodline theory.
Bloodline no longer represented strength. This was the subversion of demigods and Ancient Gods, which was why the changes of the Long Hán era were called the Long Hán Revolution.
What was being revolutionized was the fate of demigods and Ancient Gods.
In the even longer years that followed, the Divine Treasury Celestial Palace system became deeply ingrained, so deeply that people did not question it, did not ponder why the system made people so powerful.
However, for Qin Mu and others born a million years later, he, along with pioneers of the Diên Khang reforms such as Giang Bạch Khuê, Diên Phong Đế, Hư Sinh Hoa, Vương Mộc Nhiên, and Lâm Hiên, had already begun to question this truth.
And so the Heavenly River Divine Treasury came into being, subverting the Divine Bridge Divine Treasury.
Qin Mu was the greatest subverter of the Divine Treasury system and the Celestial Palace system in this reform movement.
After the Diên Khang Calamity, he had no soul and no spirit, relying on divine sense to keep his life hanging by a thread, temporarily avoiding death. So he created the Calamity-Responding Sword, sweeping away his own celestial palaces and seven great divine treasuries with a single sword stroke, then reopening his Spiritual Embryo and regaining his soul and spirit.
He used a single Spiritual Embryo Divine Treasury to evolve the cosmic primeval chaos, to evolve the Ancient Gods of all heavens, completely surpassing the Divine Treasury cultivation system. He had already walked out a path completely different from his predecessors and sages.
Simply using realms to measure his achievements had become very difficult.
The Divine Treasury Celestial Palace realms known to the world were created by him and the Seven Heavenly Venerables, but they were also broken by him.
After he reopened his Spiritual Embryo Divine Treasury, his cultivation could already rival True Gods and even Yao Chi realm Heavenly Gods!
He could even completely abandon the Celestial Palace Heavenly Court system and seek his own path to continuously advance, all the way to an indescribably wonderful realm!
However, in order to grow quickly, he still abandoned this path and returned to the Celestial Palace Heavenly Court system.
But having undergone that transformation, he had also become very different from the divine ability users and deities of the Divine Treasury Celestial Palace system.
For him, from beginning to end, he had only one realm—the Spiritual Embryo realm.
Because his celestial palaces or heavenly court were not above the Spiritual Embryo Divine Treasury, but within the Spiritual Embryo Divine Treasury!
The Celestial Palace realm and the Heavenly Court realm were merely two minor realms within his Spiritual Embryo realm!
The seven realms within the Celestial Palace realm were minor realms within minor realms!
This was the greatest difference between him and other divine ability users and deities.
All his celestial palace realms and even the Heavenly Court realm were a single whole, unified within the Spiritual Embryo realm.
Others were students who followed step by step, while he had already transcended the realms he himself had created after the Diên Khang Calamity.
Things like realms were frameworks that creators used to teach mediocre people to cultivate. As a creator, he tried to leap beyond the constraints of realms.
Of course, Qin Mu still needed to draw upon the wisdom of a million years of humanity, and even the wisdom of the reformers, to advance further.
This was also the reason he did not abandon the Celestial Palace Heavenly Court system.
He needed the wisdom of these people to help himself grow.
Only in this way could he cultivate to a level capable of contending with the Ten Heavenly Venerables in the shortest possible time.
From this perspective, he was not a thorough subverter.
Thorough subversion was revolution. Without thorough subversion, only patching and mending—that was reform.
The Long Hán era was a revolution, subverting the former bloodline determinism and making cultivation mainstream.
The Xích Minh era was a revolution, subverting the advantage demigods had over humans. Humans could be as powerful as gods.
The Thượng Hoàng era was a revolution, subverting human reverence for gods, proposing the concept that human life is greater than heaven, and putting it into practice.
The Khai Hoàng era was reform, continuing the results of the Thượng Hoàng era. Had the Khai Hoàng era achieved the branding of Acquired Great Dao into the void, with Khai Hoàng, Võ Đấu Thiên Sư, and others becoming a new generation of Ancient Gods, then it would have been a revolution rather than reform.
Diên Khang did not subvert previous generations but rather improved and perfected the Divine Treasury and Celestial Palace systems. This was also the reason why the Diên Khang reforms could not be called the Diên Khang Revolution.
The efforts of humans and gods across five eras, generation after generation using their lives and blood, made the Divine Treasury and Celestial Palace systems perfect, advancing people's concepts continuously.
Qin Mu was an outlier in this revolution and reform that spanned a million years.
Qin Mu walked out of the treasure carriage and looked ahead. There was only a stretch of void—no stars, no nebulae, no light, nothing at all. It was like a dark region in the starry sky!
"The Ancestral Court is right here." His heart surged with emotion.
Cổ Hiểu looked at him and said in a low voice, "Brother Mục, are you a Creator?"
Qin Mu shook his head.
"Then do not release the demon." Cổ Hiểu looked at that stretch of void and said softly.
Qin Mu was momentarily stunned. La Tiêu, however, excitedly came to the front of the carriage, performing divine sense visualization. A stretch of void opened behind him, and an altar flew out from within the void.
"Whether this is the Ancestral Court can be verified easily!" he said loudly.
"How do we verify?" Qin Mu asked.
La Tiêu could barely contain his excitement: "Summon a Void Giant Beast!"