Chapter 1112: Linh Tôn Thiên's Handbook (Second Update!)
Western Heaven.
Cloud Luo Heavenly Palace, Spirit Energy Bridge, a beam of light descended and materialized into the Heavenly Dragon Chariot on the bridge.
Qin Mu stepped out of the chariot and looked around. The Cloud Luo Heavenly Palace was in complete disarray, with collapsed palaces everywhere. Some palaces had even had their divine gold and divine materials stripped away, leaving only crumbling walls and ruins.
The place looked like it had been ransacked. Everything of value had been scraped clean, not even a single tile remaining.
In the current Cloud Luo Heavenly Palace, only a few elderly divine beings remained to guard the place. Their hair was white, their faces sallow, and their clothes were tattered. Seeing Qin Mu's carriage from afar, they peeked nervously but dared not approach.
Yan'er flew over, and those divine beings immediately turned and ran, but the next moment they were caught by Yan'er and thrown to the ground.
"Great god, spare us!" The divine beings kowtowed frantically.
Qin Mu frowned slightly and asked, "Why has the Cloud Luo Heavenly Palace fallen to such a state?"
"Great god, you wouldn't know. After the previous Cloud Luo Emperor's incident, the Heavenly Court never sent a new Cloud Luo Emperor to guard this place. Bandits from the Three Pillar Heavens and the Nine Provinces ran rampant, attacking the Cloud Luo Heavenly Palace and looting it countless times."
One divine being in tattered robes cried out, "Originally there were many brothers stationed here, but they were all captured and made slaves. Only us old, weak, and disabled ones remain. Two days ago, another group of thieves came and ransacked the place again. When they couldn't find anything of value, they bled us old brothers, draining our divine blood, saying they wanted to use it to refine treasures..."
Qin Mu was stunned and asked, "Why didn't you report this to the Heavenly Court?"
"We didn't dare."
The old divine beings wept, "Those demon kings said that if we dared report to the Heavenly Court, they would kill us and make us into wine!"
Qin Mu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Standing above the Cloud Luo Heavenly Palace, he looked around. The palace was situated between Pillar One, Pillar Two, Pillar Three of the Western Heaven and the Nine Provinces, at a very high elevation, allowing a panoramic view of the Nine Provinces and the Three Pillar Heavens.
The so-called Pillar One and Pillar Two referred to the Pillar Heavens.
The Pillar Heavens were pillar-shaped worlds. Qin Mu could see from afar that three pillar heavens floated above the Nine Provinces, formed by converging stars—celestial pillar worlds made of starlight.
The Nine Provinces of the Western Heaven were: Southeast Shen Province, called Chen Tu; South Ang Province, called Shen Tu; Southwest Rong Province, called Tao Tu; West Yan Province, called Kai Tu; Central Ji Province, called Bai Tu; Northwest Zhu Province, called Fei Tu; North Xuan Province, called Cheng Tu; Northeast Xian Province, called Yin Tu; and East Yang Province, called Xin Tu.
Each of these nine provinces had its own ancient god, and the three pillar heavens also housed ancient gods, known as the Three Pillar Gods.
The Cloud Luo Heavenly Palace was built between the Three Pillar Heavens and the Nine Provinces.
In the mid-to-late Dragon Han Era, the Heavenly Court ascended and left the Primordial Realm. The Dragon Han split apart, and the Star Lords and the Four Ancient God Emperors each left the Primordial Realm and the Heavenly Court, migrating to various parts of the universe.
Among them, the Four Extremes Heavens were where the Four Ancient God Emperors resided, while the Western Heaven, Eastern Heaven, Southern Heaven, and Northern Heaven were ruled by the White Emperor, Azure Emperor, Red Emperor, and Black Emperor.
These four emperors were called the Four Color Emperors, distinguished by the colors in their titles. Unlike the Four Ancient God Emperors, they were cultivated from post-heaven beings or demigods.
The Four Emperors wielded immense power, each commanding four great heavenly palaces. The Cloud Luo Heavenly Palace was one of the four great palaces of the Western Heaven, a vassal state under the White Emperor.
From the Dragon Han Era to the present, wars had been constant, and the Four Color Emperors had been replaced time and again. Whenever one died in battle, the Heavenly Emperor would promote a Throne Realm powerhouse to take their place.
—The only one who had never been replaced was the Black Emperor Yin Chaojin, also known as the Nether Heavenly Son, who had firmly held his position as Black Emperor, ruling the Northern Heaven and establishing the Nether Capital.
The territory guarded by the Cloud Luo Heavenly Palace was only part of the Western Heaven. There were three other great heavenly domains, which together were called the Western Heaven.
"Senior Brother alone is holding back twelve ancient gods—that's truly remarkable."
Qin Mu looked down at the Nine Provinces world. The nine provinces were connected, filled with demigod races and post-heaven beings. Gazing into the distance, Qin Mu saw killing intent soaring to the heavens and blood light rushing skyward. Wars raged everywhere in the Nine Provinces world!
From this vantage point, he could see terrifying fluctuations caused by divine abilities, mushroom clouds rising one after another, accompanied by intense divine light.
"The Nine Provinces world and the Three Pillar Heavens all have ancient gods guarding them—why is it still so chaotic?" Qin Mu asked.
An old divine being with white hair shook his head and said, "The twelve ancient gods guarding this place pay no attention to worldly affairs. Why would they care? When the villains below go to war, they offer blood and flesh as sacrifices to the ancient gods, and then they descend and slaughter everything in sight."
Qin Mu frowned slightly and asked, "What about the Cloud Luo Emperor's disciples?"
"After the Cloud Luo Emperor was captured, they fled. They're probably causing trouble down in the lower realms as demons and monsters. I suspect that some of those who ransacked the Cloud Luo Palace were among them."
Another old god said, "A few days ago, people from the Heavenly Court also came, looking for them. When they didn't find them here, they went down to the lower realms to search. They haven't returned yet."
Qin Mu waved his hand, dismissing them. Yan'er couldn't bear to see them suffer and gave these divine beings some spirit pills to fill their stomachs.
These divine beings thanked her profusely, hurriedly ate, and wept, saying, "It's been so long since we've tasted such delicious food. In recent years, we've been chewing on tree bark and leaves from the palace grounds. Not long ago, those damned thieves came up and carried off the divine tree too—now we don't even have bark to chew..."
Speaking of their sorrow, these aged divine beings embraced each other and wept bitterly.
Qin Mu took out Wei Suifeng's geography chart and compared it with the geography of the Cloud Luo Palace. He found the marked location, but there was nothing there—just a pile of rubble.
Qin Mu frowned slightly. He raised his hand and swept it across, and the rubble floated into the air, reassembling into a great hall that slowly descended.
Qin Mu walked into the hall and scanned the area. He saw a fragmented star chart on the ceiling.
He stood beneath the star chart and examined it closely. The chart was already incomplete, making it difficult to discern what the complete star chart looked like.
Qin Mu pondered for a moment, then his primordial energy surged, transforming into stars to fill in the missing parts of the chart.
He had some understanding of Wei Suifeng's Heavenly Dipper Dao Art—it was also derived from the Great Nurturing Heavenly Demon Sutra, so completing his star chart wasn't difficult.
Once the star chart was completed, an object fell from it—a potted plant.
Qin Mu reached out and caught the pot. The flowerpot was rectangular, containing miniature rockeries and trees, surrounded by water. Beside the central rockery stood a small pine tree with gnarled, ancient branches. Beneath the pine tree was a small house with a courtyard.
The small house had three rooms on each side, three main halls in the center, complete with doors and windows. Through the windows, lamplight could be seen, with stacks of papers on the tables and chairs, and a pot of tea whose cup still emitted wisps of steam.
"Linh Tôn Thiên's Handbook!"
Qin Mu's heart burned with excitement. This potted plant wasn't really a plant—it was Wei Suifeng using spatial divine abilities to shrink Linh Tôn Thiên's former residence and pack it into the pot!
Linh Tôn Thiên's residence was very simple and modest. After Linh Tôn Thiên died, all her manuscripts were taken by the Heavenly Court, and even her former residence was moved away.
Later, the residence was stolen—and the thief was Wei Suifeng!
"Finally, I've found Linh Tôn Thiên's handbook!"
Qin Mu's heart pounded wildly. He looked at the other rooms—the manuscripts inside were piled high, clearly showing that Linh Tôn Thiên had expended tremendous effort researching the Dao of Creation and the Unchanging Divine Ability.
"With these handbooks, I can comprehend Linh Tôn Thiên's Unchanging Divine Ability and Creation Divine Ability. I can even reverse-engineer the Great Dao runes of the Primal Origin Egg based on the Unchanging Divine Ability, thereby cracking the Unchanging Divine Ability!"
—Zhai Zhu has gone to Lu Xun Academy to study. This is an automated update~