Chapter 1072: Long-Blood Treasure Tree Protects the Soul (Second Update!)
On the ghost ship, Wei Suifeng's expression was grave as he examined the injuries to Qin Mu's mind. He immediately began moving his ten fingers in rapid succession, tapping swiftly, using the seven chapters of Creation from the Great Nurturing Demon Sutra to seal Qin Mu's soul and spirit embryo, preventing his spirit and soul from leaving his body.
Immediately after, his body suddenly transformed into a tiny shadow and, with a whoosh, entered the spirit embryo divine treasury within Qin Mu's brow.
The Great Nurturing Demon Sutra was a technique he had comprehended from the stone-carved scriptures left by the Woodcutter Sage. Every generation of Heavenly Sage Sect Masters had cultivated the techniques he had passed down.
Transforming the body into a black shadow was called the Demon Shadow Illusion Art. Besides the Demon Shadow Illusion Art, there was also the Mirror Image Art, which allowed the body to transform into a mirror image.
Wei Suifeng arrived at Qin Mu's spirit embryo divine treasury and looked around, startled by what he saw. Qin Mu's spirit embryo divine treasury was vastly different from anyone else's—it was vast and boundless, like the primordial universe itself!
"No wonder Junior Brother is so powerful!"
He didn't have time to examine it closely. He saw that Qin Mu's spirit embryo divine treasury was collapsing, celestial phenomena in chaos, geography overturned, with heaven and earth crumbling everywhere. The yin-yang, four phases, five elements, and seven stars were all in complete disarray.
"Celestial Combat Dao Art!"
Wei Suifeng shouted softly, raising his own celestial palace to suppress the surging earth, water, wind, and fire, calming the geography. With a wave of his hand, the celestial phenomena ceased their chaos and the stars returned to their positions.
He then separated yin and yang, stabilized the five elements, and finally stopped Qin Mu's condition from worsening.
Suddenly, he saw a massive gaping wound in Qin Mu's spirit embryo divine treasury—a scar left by a great spear piercing through.
"Formidable!"
Wei Suifeng's heart tightened. He erased the divine power hidden within that spear wound and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Qin Mu's spirit embryo and soul were tattered, his celestial palaces in ruins, his spirit embryo and soul barely clinging to life.
Wei Suifeng frowned. This kind of injury was beyond his ability to heal.
Qin Mu's divine consciousness fluctuated weakly, his voice like a thread: "Senior Brother, there's a jade bottle hanging around Long Pi's neck. Inside the bottle is Primordial Chaos Essence..."
Wei Suifeng quickly flew out of his divine treasury, took the Sky-Containing Bottle hanging around Dragon Qilin's neck, flew inside, retrieved some Primordial Chaos Essence and placed it in a large golden vat, then submerged Qin Mu's head in the vat.
"Lord Wei seems to have put in too much essence..." Dragon Qilin looked at the essence in the vat and thought to himself, "He probably doesn't know this Primordial Chaos Essence is used to water the body of Earth Mother Primordial Sovereign. Putting in this much essence—will there be a problem?"
Qin Mu's head began to absorb the Primordial Chaos Essence. His spirit embryo divine treasury seemed to undergo a new wave of creation. Shattered stars began to recover, the broken Taiji Diagram rapidly restored itself, the sun and moon resumed their courses, severed mountains rose from the earth, sweet dew fell from the heavens, and phantom images of ancient gods revived one by one.
Qin Mu's spirit embryo and soul were also rapidly recovering, his flesh and blood growing at tremendous speed.
Wei Suifeng held the Sky-Containing Bottle, ready to add more Primordial Chaos Essence to the vat at any moment. He watched as the essence in the vat decreased bit by bit, and each time it decreased, he added more.
He felt it still wasn't enough, so he pinched Qin Mu's mouth open and poured Primordial Chaos Essence down his throat in great gulps.
Dragon Qilin was startled and quickly reminded Wei Suifeng, saying, "Great Lord, Primordial Chaos Essence can't be consumed in excess—it will burst him. This is a treasure meant for watering the World Tree!"
Wei Suifeng gave him a heavy knock on the head: "Are you the Sect Master or am I? I'm an old hand at this—I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice. I know what I'm doing..."
Before he could finish, he saw Qin Mu's body in the golden vat gradually growing larger, and soon he was much taller than Wei Suifeng himself!
Wei Suifeng was startled. Dragon Qilin said, "Great Lord, the salt you've eaten might not really be more than the rice I've eaten. My rice is spirit pills..."
Wei Suifeng knocked him on the head again and stared nervously at Qin Mu in the vat. The golden vat was large enough, but it was gradually becoming too small to contain Qin Mu's body.
"Junior Brother!"
Cold sweat broke out on Wei Suifeng's forehead. He roared, "Your newly regenerated body isn't like your old one—it needs tempering! Quickly activate your cultivation technique, or else you'll be big but weak!"
Qin Mu was in a daze. He opened his eyes and glanced at him, then closed them again.
Wei Suifeng frowned, pacing around the golden vat, and said, "His physical body is uninjured, and the injuries to his spirit embryo divine treasury and celestial palaces are mostly healed. So why hasn't he woken up?"
As he pondered, Qin Mu's height suddenly grew by several more zhang, like a young Creator God.
Wei Suifeng immediately extracted the excess essence from the golden vat, but the essence he had poured into Qin Mu's stomach was beyond his control. Moreover, Qin Mu's injuries were too strange—he couldn't pinpoint exactly where Qin Mu was hurt.
"Who did he fight to be injured this badly?" Wei Suifeng asked urgently.
Dragon Qilin quickly replied, "Great Lord, it's suspected to be the borrowed-body vessel of the Great Emperor, likely the later-era Hong Heavenly Venerable."
"The Great Emperor! Then the most severe injuries are in his divine consciousness. My divine consciousness isn't strong—I'm afraid I can't help treat that."
Wei Suifeng attempted to activate his divine consciousness and touch Qin Mu's. The moment their divine consciousness made contact, Wei Suifeng immediately sensed that Qin Mu's divine consciousness was extremely disordered. He quickly said, "Junior Brother, how do I heal injuries to the divine consciousness?"
Qin Mu managed to stay awake for a brief moment: "Find Palace Master Gongyun—she owes me a favor..." With that, a blood-red treasure tree flew out from between his brows and landed beside the golden vat.
The branches of the blood-red treasure tree fluttered, emitting pleasant Dao sounds. Seeing this, Wei Suifeng breathed a sigh of relief. Qin Mu's remaining divine consciousness flew out and lodged itself within the blood-red treasure tree, using the tree's Dao resonance to keep himself temporarily lucid.
Meanwhile, Qin Mu in the golden vat stopped growing. Around his body, nearly two thousand halos of light revolved around him, each halo containing a small phantom image of an ancient god.
These ancient god phantoms resided throughout Qin Mu's physical body, together refining and consuming the excess Primordial Chaos Essence within him.
Wei Suifeng marveled at the sight. The blood-red treasure tree that Qin Mu had stolen from the Heavenly Emperor's Zhaoyang Hall happened to be exactly what was needed to sustain a sliver of Qin Mu's divine consciousness.
"Where can I find Palace Master Gongyun?" Wei Suifeng asked.
His primordial energy flew out, lifting Qin Mu from the golden vat and placing him beneath the blood-red treasure tree. Qin Mu had no clothes—his garments had been destroyed by the Great Hong.
Wei Suifeng took off his own robe, and Dragon Qilin hastily dressed Qin Mu in it.
Qin Mu sat slumped in place, motionless, continuing to activate the Overlord Three Elixirs Art to protect his physical body. From within the blood-red treasure tree came the fluctuation of his divine consciousness: "Six hundred thousand years ago, when the Dragon Han Heavenly Court split apart—that great event—Palace Master Gongyun shouldn't miss it."
Yan'er asked, "Why can't we go back to the moment when Achou Earth Bo caused havoc in the Heavenly Court? That was when Palace Master Gongyun tied up the Great Hong and whipped him—easy to find her."
Wei Suifeng shook his head, activating the ghost ship. Thick fog surrounded the ship outside. He said, "You were there at that time too. Two versions of the same person can't exist simultaneously, unless one of them disappears. We can't go back."
He was just about to send Qin Mu and the blood-red treasure tree to the treasure carriage when suddenly light flickered, and a massive canopy appeared on the carriage. It was the canopy that guarded the Xiaohan Heavenly Court—when night fell, it returned to the ghost ship on its own.
This treasure carriage had already endured the desperate battle between Qin Mu and the Great Hong. When the canopy crashed down, the carriage could no longer hold and shattered into pieces.
Wei Suifeng frowned. With a light sweep of both hands, countless runes and Dao patterns formed a great circle, drawing the blood-red treasure tree and Qin Mu into the circle.
He lightly patted, and this ring landed behind Yan'er's head, like a halo formed by the blessing of an ancient god.
Wei Suifeng then summoned Lin Xiao and said, "Pick another lantern! Wait—pick several more, so they don't get smashed again!"
A chicken-dragon beast came running over, nine lanterns hanging from its beak.
Wei Suifeng took the lanterns and distributed one to each of the six heavenly dragons, Dragon Qilin, and Yan'er, with one more hung on the blood-red treasure tree. He instructed Dragon Qilin, "We have already transformed into immutable matter and cannot leave the ghost ship. I don't know if the outside world is truly six hundred thousand years ago, or if there's danger. You must all be cautious!"
He paused for a moment, then said, "If it truly is six hundred thousand years ago, then go see Youming, the son of the Northern Emperor, and steal his Lapis Lazuli Azure Sky Banner—that will be enough to protect yourselves!"