Chapter 1183: The Four-Faced Divine Domain (First Update!)
Cao Hoài Đồng and the others retreated. Tần Mục strode down, standing before Sơ Tổ Nhân Hoàng. His body trembled, and behind him, sixteen celestial palaces swayed, radiating brilliant light, with the sound of the Dao rumbling and shaking — causing countless gods and demons under Hiểu Thiên Tôn's command to be dazzled and secretly alarmed.
Sơ Tổ Nhân Hoàng frowned and said, "At the same cultivation level, I am no match for you."
Tần Mục smiled and said, "At the same level, only the Ten Heavenly Venerables can contend with me, but even they are not my opponents. Sơ Tổ, I will yield three realms to you."
He raised three fingers and said, "The Dao Pool, the Execution Platform, and the Jade Capital — these three realms. As long as you can reach my side and strike me, you win."
Sơ Tổ Nhân Hoàng raised an eyebrow and asked, "If I strike you, I win?"
Tần Mục nodded and said leisurely, "That's right."
He glanced around and smiled, saying, "All you junior nephews, the same applies to you. As long as you can get close to me and strike my true body, you win."
Hiểu Thiên Tôn's many disciples hesitated, then looked toward Cao Hoài Đồng. Cao Hoài Đồng hesitated for a moment, his gaze falling on Yến Khấp Linh.
Yến Khấp Linh's eyes flickered, and she smiled, saying, "Worth a try."
Cao Hoài Đồng nodded lightly to his other junior brothers and sisters.
Tần Mục smiled faintly and said in a low voice, "Open —"
His body trembled again, and suddenly the sound of the Dao became incomparably resounding. Countless stars burst forth from between his brows, rising into the air, and in an instant transformed into a vast river of stars and constellations. Huyền Đô towered high above, and a Heavenly Duke with white brows and white beard, bearing Tần Mục's face, appeared atop the celestial stars.
Among the stars large and small, divine cities stood in rows, each with an ancient god bearing Tần Mục's face seated within.
At the same time, the earth divided into yin and yang, the two qi of yin and yang swirling like an ancestral court. A primordial tree rose from the ground, lush and verdant, reaching to the heavens!
Beneath yin and yang, U Đô emerged, with Thổ Bá treading upon Quy Khư, controlling the souls of countless beings in the world.
The Four Extremes Heavens divided this miniature universe into the four directions of east, south, west, and north. Beneath the Heavenly Duke's feet, the Thiên Âm Realm appeared, and within Quy Khư, twin lotuses bloomed faintly.
Outside this Thái Sơ mine, it was as if they had entered another world. Everyone could only see this world, but could not see the outside.
Cao Hoài Đồng's expression changed slightly, and he said in a low voice, "A domain..."
He looked toward Tần Mục and saw Tần Mục's front face. Yet standing anywhere in this domain, no matter which direction one looked at Tần Mục, one would see his front face!
Tần Mục was like a four-faced deity — no back, no back of the head!
Even looking from above, or from beneath the earth looking up, one would still see his front!
A four-faced god with no weaknesses whatsoever.
"Take him down!" Nhị Tổ shouted loudly.
The Human Sovereigns attacked first, charging toward Tần Mục at the centerline of the yin-yang taiji!
Cao Hoài Đồng had originally planned to first observe what methods Tần Mục possessed, but Yến Khấp Linh had already led the many disciples of Hiểu Thiên Tôn charging forward.
He had no choice but to steel himself and charge forward as well.
Suddenly, Lam Phách Nhân Hoàng was smashed to the ground by the Heavenly Duke, unable to move. Khổng Hiền Nhân Hoàng was beaten to the ground by the seventy-two earthly demon gods. Ngũ Tổ Nhân Hoàng charged forward with the Five Thunder Sky-Supporting Bell overhead, only to be dragged into U Đô by Thổ Bá. Nhị Tổ was seized by Nam Đế Chu Tước and suppressed at the South Pole Heaven. Lục Tổ was trapped by Bắc Đế Huyền Vũ at the North Pole Heaven!
The Human Sovereigns at the forefront fell one after another, and Hiểu Thiên Tôn's disciples also suffered unpredictable, ghostly attacks, being suppressed one after another without the power to resist.
However, Yến Khấp Linh and the others were after all immensely powerful. They soon rushed near the taiji diagram and looked up to see celestial palaces arranged in elegant disorder.
Sixteen celestial palaces, sixteen of Tần Mục's primordial spirits — some standing beneath the Southern Heavenly Gate, some standing among the layered palaces, already not far from ascending the Dao Terrace to drink the heavenly dew.
The Dao Pool realm had a great benefit: one could ascend the Dao Terrace and drink the heavenly dew, which for those who had cultivated to the divine realm was a transformation of rebirth.
However, some of Tần Mục's celestial palaces were incomplete — the Medical Dao Palace and the Buddhist Dao Palace both had deficiencies, making it difficult to fully enter the True God realm. Therefore, crossing into the Dao Pool realm was also extremely difficult for him.
The primordial spirits of Tần Mục in the sixteen celestial palaces each unleashed their divine abilities, attacking the crowd. The various techniques transformed in countless ways, dazzling the eyes, and several more people collapsed to the ground.
By this point, only Yến Khấp Linh, Sơ Tổ Nhân Hoàng, Cao Hoài Đồng, and two others remained.
Cao Hoài Đồng simultaneously resisted the attacks coming from the sixteen celestial palaces, helping Yến Khấp Linh charge forward. Yến Khấp Linh had just rushed into the yin-yang taiji diagram when she saw Tần Mục standing within the diagram reach out his great hand, divine power descending.
Her strength was also extremely formidable — what Hiểu Thiên Tôn had taught her were all supreme divine techniques and Dao methods. Yến Khấp Linh clashed head-on with one of Tần Mục's strikes, the primordial one qi converging ten thousand Dao, yet even so she could not block it and was sent flying out of the yin-yang taiji diagram by Tần Mục.
At that moment, Sơ Tổ Nhân Hoàng charged into the yin-yang taiji diagram.
His cultivation realm was very high, but upon entering Tần Mục's domain, he immediately sensed that heaven and earth here were one with Tần Mục — he had no external force to borrow. Therefore, he used the Dao-realm divine abilities he had employed against Cao Hoài Đồng, breaking through layer by layer until he burst into this place.
He and Yến Khấp Linh had entered from different points, their positions exactly opposite, yet what they faced was also Tần Mục's front face. He took one of Tần Mục's strikes head-on and was also sent flying.
Cao Hoài Đồng broke through the obstruction of the sixteen celestial palaces and slaughtered his way into the diagram, while Yến Khấp Linh and Sơ Tổ Nhân Hoàng also charged into the diagram simultaneously. The three of them attacked Tần Mục from three directions at the same time!
On the taiji diagram, three figures moved like rising and falling birds, their forms and positions constantly shifting, dazzling to behold — yet they could never get close!
Tần Mục seemed to have no flaws, no weaknesses, no trace to follow. He blocked all their divine abilities, and the force of his counterattacks only grew stronger!
"Attack from a single direction!" Sơ Tổ Nhân Hoàng suddenly said.
The other two understood. The three formed a line, each person unleashing only one divine ability before immediately retreating to give the others a chance.
Meanwhile, one of the other two would split off to defend against the divine attacks coming from the Heavenly Duke, Thổ Bá, Địa Mẫu, the various celestial palaces, and the gods of the heavens.
Finally, they drew closer and closer to Tần Mục. But then Sơ Tổ Nhân Hoàng, in a moment of carelessness, was sent flying by Tần Mục.
Without him, the other two fell into chaos. Cao Hoài Đồng roared, doing everything in his power to protect Yến Khấp Linh, but was struck by dozens of divine abilities and knocked to the ground.
Suddenly his body rose higher and higher, unable to move, hung in the sky.
Yến Khấp Linh seized this opportunity, killing her way to Tần Mục's side, mustering all her cultivation to attack him!
Tần Mục had no choice but to raise his hand to block. The moment their palms touched, Tần Mục gently grasped Yến Khấp Linh's small hand and smiled, saying, "You touched me. I lose."
Yến Khấp Linh felt her divine ability suddenly lose all its power. He held her hand, and she tried to pull it back but couldn't. Her face flushed slightly, and she said in a low voice, "Let go. They're watching."
Tần Mục gently released her hand and dispersed his divine treasury domain, thinking to himself: "If I could thoroughly study the Dao runes contained within that divine egg of the Lưu Ly Thanh Thiên Tràng, then they would never be able to get close. If they did get close, I could directly evolve the heavens, transforming this domain into sixteen layers of heavens, forming a formation like the Lưu Ly Thanh Thiên Tràng, with gods guarding each heaven, changing at will. That would bring them eternal despair!"