Chapter 1290: The Dark Side of the Ancestral Court (First Update)
Without Nguyệt Thiên Tôn's lantern, even using teleportation divine abilities, they would still need several days to return to Đại Hắc Mộc's Hundred Thousand Black Mountains. Tần Mục casually found a divine mountain and settled down there.
Inside the egg, Thái Thủy imparted the Thái Thủy Dao that he himself had comprehended, saying: "Without fully absorbing the power of the Thái Thủy mineral vein, even my own understanding of the Great Dao is incomplete. I am a god born from the Thái Thủy Dao, but I am not the Thái Thủy Dao itself. Only by fully absorbing the power of the Thái Thủy mineral vein and achieving true transcendence can I be considered the real Thái Thủy. Otherwise, I am no different from other ancient gods."
Even so, the Thái Thủy Dao that the Thái Thủy in the egg had comprehended was far beyond what Tần Mục had figured out on his own. Even just the runes of the Thái Thủy Dao, Tần Mục had not fully organized them.
The Thái Thủy runes he had comprehended using the Bất Dị thần thông runes only accounted for one-third of the true Thái Thủy runes, and among them there were still quite a few errors.
Only through the Thái Thủy in the egg's instruction was he able to correct these mistakes.
The Thái Thủy Dao was extremely profound and mysterious, difficult to comprehend, and at the obscure and abstruse points, even when Tần Mục activated his dream-entry into the Dao, using countless versions of himself to comprehend it, progress was still slow.
Dream-entry into the Dao transformed him into countless dream worlds within his dreams, and within those dream worlds there were countless Tần Mục using their own intelligence and wisdom to comprehend the difficult problems.
This was Tần Mục's infallible method, one that even Đại Phạm Thiên Vương Phật envied but could not replicate or learn.
However, when comprehending the Thái Thủy Dao, he encountered difficulties.
The most terrifying thing about comprehending the Thái Thủy Dao was virtualization.
If one accidentally entered a state of Dao enlightenment, one's form and spirit would often transform together into a Thái Thủy state—having form but no substance, possessing only shape but no true body.
Even the primordial spirit, vital energy, consciousness, and thought would all be virtualized, leaving only their form without their substance!
Even divine consciousness would be completely wiped away!
Vật chất bất dị restrains the Dao of divine consciousness, and the Thái Thủy Dao restrains vật chất bất dị, so the Dao of divine consciousness had no resistance whatsoever before the Thái Thủy Dao.
One by one, his dream worlds were destroyed in this bizarre state of enlightenment, turning into nothingness, and in the end, even these dreams could not wake him, and his divine consciousness could not be retrieved!
He couldn't help but feel a lingering fear—if his true body had been the one comprehending, it would likely have turned into nothingness as well, becoming a ethereal thing without knowledge, desire, or longing.
He could only rely on dream-entry into the Dao to slowly explore, carefully comprehending. Even within the dream-entry, he needed to arrange for some dreams not to comprehend the Thái Thủy Dao but to stand guard on the periphery, waking himself up in time to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control and dragging his entire being into a state of enlightenment.
He comprehended for over ten days, and although progress was slow, he gained much, gradually uncovering some of the mysteries of the Thái Thủy Dao.
One day, while he was still in his dreams, suddenly tender green traces began to grow from the rock surfaces of this bare divine mountain—these were green grass and saplings.
The green deepened, and the saplings slowly grew. Tần Mục's heart sensed something, and he immediately woke from his dreams.
The Thái Thủy egg was right beside him, and it too became alert. One person and one egg stood atop the mountain, looking around. They saw the trees gradually growing taller, and around the divine mountain, the wasteland was also covered in deepening grass and vegetation.
The green spread like a plague, visibly extending in all directions, reaching the banks of the rivers and climbing up one mountain after another.
Thick root systems traveled beneath the earth, like earth dragons writhing and twisting underground. Occasionally, enormous roots would break through the surface, then slowly sink back into the ground, concealing their traces.
"Địa Mẫu Nguyên Quân!"
Tần Mục's expression turned grave. The evilized Địa Mẫu Nguyên Quân had truly come to the Ancestral Court!
Địa Mẫu Nguyên Quân had many enemies, but when it came to the person she hated most, Tần Mục undoubtedly held a place!
"Her strength is far inferior to what it once was, but after the Huyền Đô battle and her evilization, she devoured the essence of countless gods and demons of Huyền Đô. Her current strength is likely far above mine as well!"
Tần Mục took a long breath and was about to vanish into the void to hide, when suddenly he saw the ground at the foot of the mountain tremble slightly. Countless trees grew wildly, vines grew thicker and thicker, intertwining like flood dragons, weaving together with the trees!
In no time, the hundred-li forest at the foot of the mountain transformed into a grand-scale tree altar!
Tần Mục stared intently. The veins and patterns on every single leaf of this green altar formed strange Nguyên Đô Great Dao!
And how many leaves were there composing this altar?
Such a complex and intricate altar—this was the first time he had ever seen one!
Even stranger, what flowed through these trees and vines was not water, but divine blood!
Divine blood flowed through the branches, trunks, and vines, emitting divine light that made the trees nearly transparent, giving the entire altar a bizarre atmosphere!
As the divine blood flowed, countless runic patterns surfaced on the surfaces of the branches, trunks, and vines. These runic patterns grew clearer and brighter.
Tần Mục's heart stirred, and he immediately put away the Thái Thủy egg, leaping backward. He vanished from the divine mountain, taking the Thái Thủy egg with him as he fled into the void.
His attainments in the Thái Sơ Dao were still far greater than in the Thái Thủy Dao, so hiding his physical body in the void was not difficult.
Just as he vanished into the void, the green altar suddenly split open along a line, and a woman rose slowly from within.
The altar closed, supporting the woman at its center. That woman was none other than Địa Mẫu Nguyên Quân!
But at this moment, Địa Mẫu Nguyên Quân had completely lost her former bearing as the Earth Mother who carried all things with virtue. Instead, baleful aura coiled around her body, and killing intent radiated fiercely.
The blood baleful energy on her was extremely dense—this was because too many wronged souls had died by her hand.
These dead wronged souls were all deities stationed in Huyền Đô by the Heavenly Court, and Địa Mẫu knew nothing of the U Đô Great Dao. She simply could not dissolve this baleful energy.
And the baleful energy would affect her judgment, which in turn would affect her life.
Địa Mẫu Nguyên Quân stood on the altar and immediately began her ritual.
Tần Mục hid in the void, observing for a moment. Địa Mẫu Nguyên Quân's strength was far from recovered at this point. Her combat power should be equivalent to a Đế Tọa realm expert with six or seven heavenly palaces. Of course, she was still an ancient god and still possessed a portion of her Nguyên Mộc physical body.
But her strength could not be fully measured by the Thần Tàng Thiên Cung realm system.
Tần Mục observed carefully. Địa Mẫu Nguyên Quân's summoning altar was similar to the Creator's summoning altar—the two were quite alike, except Địa Mẫu Nguyên Quân's altar was far more complex.
"Địa Mẫu Nguyên Quân has delved deeply into the Nguyên Đô Great Dao. The Creators must have created the summoning altar, and because Địa Mẫu was an ancient god, she couldn't learn it, so she used the Nguyên Đô Great Dao to re-derive it."
Just as he thought this, light flashed beyond the heavens, and one powerful ancient colossal beast after another was summoned by her from the reverse side of the world, descending upon the Ancestral Court!
The beasts Địa Mẫu had summoned before were only juvenile beasts, but the ones summoned this time had even larger bodies and were even more ferocious!
"What exactly does Địa Mẫu want to do?" Tần Mục was puzzled.
At that moment, the sky suddenly became extremely dark. Tần Mục looked up and saw the sky filled with enormous scales. A head like a dragon's was being summoned by Địa Mẫu Nguyên Quân from the reverse side of the world!
"Long Hào, the mount of Bá Dương, one of the three great ancient god kings, the overlord who dwells in the dark side of the Ancestral Court—descend from that world!"
Địa Mẫu's voice rang out, and the sky grew even more turbulent. The dragon-headed colossal beast slowly opened its eyes, making the sky incredibly bright, as if two extra suns had suddenly appeared!
Then the turbulence in the sky grew even more intense, and another enormous head poked out, followed by a third, a fourth...
Nine heads in succession filled the sky. Long Hào's nine heads opened their eyes, and it seemed as though eighteen suns had suddenly appeared in the sky, scorching the mountains and rivers dry!
Tần Mục's scalp went numb, cold sweat beading on his forehead: "No wonder among the three ancient god kings, Bá Dương was the elder brother and Thúc Quân was the younger brother. So Thúc Quân was only the youngest of the three kings..."