Chapter 1057: The Death of La Tieu
Tần Mục repeatedly attempted to sense the altar outside the ancestral court, yet failed time and time again. There was always some force in this void interfering with his divine consciousness.
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. That interference came precisely from within the mineral vein — clearly Đại Hồng was sabotaging his reverse summoning.
Suddenly, he felt the interference vanish. His spirits soared as his divine consciousness finally established contact with the altar outside the ancestral court!
Tần Mục was overjoyed. He immediately activated the reverse summoning divine ability, his vital energy and divine consciousness intermingling as he remotely activated the altar beyond the ancestral court.
At that very moment, he seemed to hear a melody — graceful and melodious, yet also mournful, desolate, and plaintive — like a forsaken woman singing by the riverbank, walking into the water as she sang, slowly vanishing beneath the cold currents.
He turned to look and saw an elegantly dressed empress carrying Đại Hồng, walking toward him.
Tần Mục's vision blurred. The ancestral court before his eyes vanished, and he heard the sound of flowing water.
The scenery before him shifted. A river appeared in front of him, thin mist rising from its surface. A sorrowful woman was walking toward the center of the river, her body gradually being swallowed by the water.
She hummed a mournful ballad, but the lyrics were unintelligible.
"Illusion!"
Tần Mục suddenly surged his divine consciousness, shouting angrily: "A divine consciousness illusion! Daring to show off before me — I am a grandmaster of divine consciousness illusions!"
He heard a woman's voice whisper softly in his ear: "I am the ancestor of divine consciousness illusions."
Tần Mục gritted his teeth, activated the Bá Thể Tam Đan Công, mobilized his Đại La Vô Thượng Thần Thức, Vô Lượng Kiếp Kinh, and employed every divine consciousness divine ability he knew, trying to break through this sudden illusion.
Yet he felt his body and primordial spirit moving as if beyond his control, continuing the reverse summoning divine ability, the connection with the altar outside the ancestral court growing ever tighter.
Cold sweat beaded on Tần Mục's forehead. Cung Duẫn Thần Vương's divine consciousness illusion had already invaded his physical body, forcing him to carry both himself and Đại Hồng away from this place.
He attempted to break free, but clearly Cung Duẫn Thần Vương's divine consciousness surpassed his own, steadily keeping him suppressed.
The reverse summoning activated. The void trembled, and another altar emerged from the depths of the void.
Light blazed brilliantly!
Tần Mục clenched his jaw, desperately resisting Cung Duẫn Thần Vương's divine consciousness illusion. The river and the woman within it flickered in and out of existence, shifting from clarity to obscurity, then from obscurity back to clarity, again and again.
The desolate song faded into the distance, then gradually drew near once more, assaulting and breaking down Tần Mục's divine consciousness time after time.
Suddenly, the woman's voice came to his ear: "Are you Mục Thanh? The divine consciousness divine abilities of later generations are truly extraordinary. Perhaps we shall meet again in the future — if you do not die..."
The voice grew increasingly distant. All illusions before Tần Mục's eyes vanished. Light blazed all around him, and the Thiên Long Bảo Liễn appeared on the altar outside the ancestral court.
The lights were those of the Thiên Hà Thủy Sư's great tower ships!
Countless tower ships surrounded this place on all sides, banners fluttering and unfurling from the vessels. Countless heavenly soldiers and generals of the Heavenly Court stood upon the altar. Besides the Thiên Hà Thủy Sư, there were also the great armies of Nam Lạc Sư Môn.
After they had entered the ancestral court, these two great armies had pursued them all the way here, lying in wait outside the altar, attempting to catch them like turtles in a jar!
La Tieu was already driving the void giant beast toward the encirclement, trying to fight his way out, shouting loudly: "Brother Mục, follow me and charge out together!"
Countless heavenly soldiers and generals activated their formations, surrounding him completely. Countless divine weapons flew up from the ships, countless divine abilities thundering toward him.
Meanwhile, countless more heavenly soldiers and generals trapped the altar, surging toward it in attack.
Tần Mục looked around but saw neither Cung Duẫn Thần Vương nor Đại Hồng.
For that ancient god king, even greater numbers of troops could not hold her back, because even Tần Mục's divine consciousness could not break through her divine consciousness illusion.
She came and went through the armies of the Thiên Hà Thủy Sư and Nam Lạc Sư Môn as if passing through empty land.
This goddess king had departed with Đại Hồng. What awaited Đại Hồng would be endless torment and humiliation.
"Cung Duẫn — could she be the Cung Thiên Tôn of later generations?" Tần Mục wondered inwardly.
His gaze passed over the countless gods and demons surging toward him, landing on La Tieu, who was fighting desperately. La Tieu had already fallen into heavy encirclement. The Thiên Hà Thủy Sư and Nam Lạc Sư Môn had cast an inescapable net — even Tần Mục would find it difficult to escape this encirclement.
"La Tieu!"
Tần Mục's divine consciousness surged outward as he rushed toward him, yet his divine consciousness kept shattering amidst the might of countless divine abilities and divine weapons: "Don't take the void beast back to Thái Hư! That void beast wasn't subdued by you — it was subdued by Thái Đế, deliberately given to you! Don't take it back to Thái Hư!"
Countless divine weapons howled through the air, a dark mass completely sealing off the altar.
Yên Nhi hastily raised her lantern, her face pale as she watched the scene, urging: "Young master! If we don't leave now, it will be too late!"
Tần Mục's divine consciousness surged once more, but still he could not push it through to reach La Tieu's side.
"Yên Nhi."
Tần Mục stopped trying. He closed his eyes and said softly: "Extinguish the lantern."
Yên Nhi blew out the lantern, yet the radiance of divine weapons and divine abilities made the area around the altar bright as day. They still could not leave this place and return to the ghost ship.
Yên Nhi, Long Kỳ Lân, and the six heavenly dragons looked in despair at the divine weapons and divine abilities thundering toward them, unable to help but close their eyes.
"Where my body stands, there is U Đô." Tần Mục said softly.
Swish.
Boundless darkness radiated outward from him as the origin point, quickly enveloping the altar.
The darkness came quickly and vanished just as quickly. Then it was dispelled by the light of divine weapons and divine abilities — but the Thiên Long Bảo Liễn on the altar, along with Tần Mục, Long Kỳ Lân, and Yên Nhi upon it, had all vanished.
The waves of the Thiên Hà surged mightily, the river waters deep and dark, threading through all heavens and the ages. A ghost ship suddenly appeared, leaping up from beneath the water's surface and floating upon the river.
Banners fluttered, their surfaces embroidered with the two characters "Vũ Lâm."
Ngụy Tùy Phong stood at the bow, gazing at the layers of dense fog ahead. He turned back and said: "Junior brother, you were gone for so long — what did you encounter?"
Tần Mục stepped down from the Thiên Long Bảo Liễn, quietly gazing at the mist on the surface of the Thiên Hà. He savored the moment for a long while before speaking: "I encountered history."
"History is just like this."
Ngụy Tùy Phong understood his words, speaking leisurely: "It will not change because of your interference or your experiences. All your efforts will become part of the past's history. I feel this deeply."
Tần Mục came to his side. The two of them gripped the ship's railing and gazed outward, as if trying to see through the fog of history.
Ngụy Tùy Phong had experienced more, possessing a simple, unadorned sedimentation that had settled into his dao heart, making him no longer as wild and unrestrained as before.
"Junior brother, where is your next destination?" he asked.
"Next destination?"
Tần Mục's gaze was deep and distant, his expression calm as he said: "I want to go find Nam Đế Chu Tước. I still haven't encountered her, so I must still go find her. Can this ship travel to more ancient eras? I want to go to the early years of Long Hán to see her."
"Can't go there."
Ngụy Tùy Phong said: "Vật chất bất dịch — the farthest we can go is to the era when this ship was built. We cannot go to eras before that. Because before that, this ship did not yet exist. Lăng Thiên Tôn's divine ability works the same way — the mists of the Thiên Hà can at most take you to the era after Lăng Thiên Tôn was born. For more ancient eras, she is powerless as well. The ghost ship was built around a thousand years after the early years of Long Hán. The most ancient era is the one you traveled to last time."
Tần Mục nodded gently, saying: "Then let us remain in the Long Hán era."
Ngụy Tùy Phong looked at him, puzzled: "I observe that you, junior brother, always carry some melancholy. Why is this?"
"I made a brother. He is very simple and sincere to others, yet I cannot save him."
Tần Mục said gloomily: "I know his ending clearly. Time and again I tried to change his fate, yet time and again I discovered that he was destined for that ending. I am thinking now — where is he at this moment? What dangers will he face? I am also thinking that perhaps when he encounters me again in the future, he will go mad, will hate me for deceiving him..."
The ghost ship drifted along the river's surface, about to emerge from the fog.
Ngụy Tùy Phong urged: "You should be on your way. Lift your spirits — you are Mục Thiên Tôn!"
Tần Mục rallied his spirits and stepped onto the Thiên Long Bảo Liễn.
Ngụy Tùy Phong stepped forward, taking hold of the reins, looking up at him, and said: "You have traveled far and grown weary. I should keep you aboard to rest, but I cannot keep you. These soldiers and I have already merged with the ghost ship. We have become bất dịch vật chất. The longer you remain on the ghost ship, the greater the chance you will be assimilated. By then, you will be unable to leave the ghost ship, and in the end, you will become like us — wild ghosts of time and space."
Tần Mục's gaze fell upon his face, and he said calmly: "Then how many more times can I borrow the ghost ship?"
"No more than five times."
Ngụy Tùy Phong said: "On the sixth time, you will be assimilated by the ghost ship into bất dịch vật chất. By then, we will all be doomed beyond redemption! Junior brother, you must cherish these five opportunities. After five times, I will send you back to Diên Khang!"
Tần Mục nodded.
The Thiên Long Bảo Liễn drove out of the ghost ship and into the mist.
Near the altar outside the ancestral court, La Tieu, after countless battles, had escaped time and again from the encirclement and suppression of the Thiên Hà Thủy Sư and Nam Lạc Sư Môn's divine soldiers and generals.
"How is brother Mục doing?"
He fled to the Thiên Hà, dazed and confused, his oil spent and his lamp dry. He could no longer hold on. His physical body was on the verge of death, and he relied on his final conviction to escape to this place.
He wanted to return to Thái Hư, to tell his people there the three prophecies.
He lay sprawled on the back of the void beast, sensing death descending step by step, drawing closer and closer to him.
"I must return alive — this is the last hope of the creators of Thái Hư..."
His vision grew hazy. The death of his physical body was slowly turning his eyes blind. He could still rely on his vertical eye at the center of his brow to observe his surroundings, though everything appeared blurry.
The young creator sensed enemies pursuing him once more. He could only muster his final divine consciousness to drive the void beast in flight.
At last, he vaguely saw a ship on the Thiên Hà sailing toward him. The void beast had also exhausted its strength and collapsed upon the water's surface.
The ship came to a stop, and a young man walked down from it.
"Who are you?" La Tieu heard his own voice asking.
"My name is Vân. Others call me Vân Thiên Tôn."
The young man said: "Your wounds are too severe. I can no longer save you. Brother, do you have any last wishes?"
"Vân Thiên Tôn!"
La Tieu felt himself gripping this young man's wrist with ice-cold hands. Two lines of tears slid down from his eye sockets — the tears were ice-cold as well.
His heart had already stopped beating. His body had already grown cold.
But he thought of the first prophecy.
"Vân Thiên Tôn, I will tell you where Thái Hư is. Take me to Thái Hư, to see my people. My divine consciousness is about to fall silent — there, it will awaken!"
La Tieu stared with wide eyes, though his pupils had already turned gray-white: "I will gouge out the eye at the center of my brow and give it to you. It is a divine stone, a token of my people. When they see this stone, they will believe you!"
"And what of your corpse?" Vân Thiên Tôn asked.
"The Thiên Hà Thủy Sư and Nam Lạc Sư Môn are pursuing me. They will not rest until they see my corpse."
La Tieu struggled to stand, raised his palm, gathered his final divine consciousness, and forcibly gouged out his vertical brow eye. He held it in the center of his palm, told him the geographical location of Thái Hư, then bowed deeply: "I entrust this to you, Vân Thiên Tôn!"
His breath was completely gone, yet he still stood upon the Thiên Hà.
Vân Thiên Tôn stared at him in a daze, and finally accepted the Thái Sơ thần thạch: "I promise you, brave one."
La Tieu revealed a smile, then fell backward, his corpse carried downstream by the waters of the Thiên Hà.
Vân Thiên Tôn returned to the ship with that divine stone. The void beast followed him onto the ship and crouched down quietly.
Vân Thiên Tôn glanced at this void beast, shook his head, and simply took it to be La Tieu's mount.
A few years later, Vân Thiên Tôn finally found Thái Hư. He entered Thái Hư and encountered some simple, honest creators.
He took out the Thái Sơ thần thạch from La Tieu's brow and presented it to the clan chief there.
The creators received him with great hospitality. They held a grand sacrificial ceremony, allowing La Tieu's divine consciousness to transform into an ancestral spirit.
"He is a hero."
Vân Thiên Tôn encountered a girl as lovely as ice and snow. The girl was also a creator, deeply admiring La Tieu, and deeply admiring Vân Thiên Tôn as well.
"Only a hero among creators could subdue such a void giant beast!"
Though the girl was young, she was already taller than Vân Thiên Tôn. Looking at the void giant beast that had come to Thái Hư with Vân Thiên Tôn, she said in a crisp, clear voice: "When I grow up, I also want to become a creator like Ancestral Spirit La Tieu."
"What is your name?" Vân Thiên Tôn looked at her delicate, handsome features, momentarily lost in thought.
"Lãng Oản!"
"You are truly beautiful."
"Yes, everyone says so!"
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