Chapter 1376: Nine Prisons Lock the Heart, the Dao Endures (Third Update)
The cultivation strength that Qin Mu could utilize gradually increased, and his walking pace also quickened. The mysteries of the Nine Prisons Platform realm were being developed by him bit by bit.
Within his celestial palace, the Nine Prisons Platform gradually materialized. Based on his own understanding of how the Nine Prisons Platform locked the Dao heart with its prison chains, he was reconstructing the celestial prison of the Heavenly Court, transforming the celestial prison into a realm.
With his own intelligence and talent alone, it would certainly be difficult to develop all the mysteries of this realm. He would still need the efforts of other deities and countless people of later generations before this realm could become a mature one.
However, for now, he could first establish this realm.
Moreover, he had personally experienced the Nine Prisons Platform and personally undone its seals, which surpassed the experiences of countless future deities.
The Nine Prisons Platform was far too dangerous, far too treacherous. Very few people could enter the Nine Prisons Platform, reassemble their Dao heart, and survive. The path for the future would be for Qin Mu to develop this realm and then teach others how to open the Nine Prisons Platform, allowing the world to cultivate this realm.
Basically, all deities would continue developing the mysteries of the Nine Prisons Platform based on his foundation. Therefore, their comprehension would not be as exquisite as directly entering the Nine Prisons Platform.
Of course, if one had the ability to enter the true Nine Prisons Platform, they could also comprehend it like he did, using it to temper themselves, and their achievements would not be lower than his.
But very few people could accomplish this step. Even among the Ten Heavenly Honored Ones, those who could step into the Nine Prisons Platform and obtain its mysteries probably numbered fewer than five.
It was even more likely that the Nine Prisons Platform could not lock down the Ten Heavenly Honored Ones. They would enter this place, then leave, having gained nothing.
The Nine Prisons Platform had far too high a requirement for the Dao heart. With the slightest carelessness, one could very likely sink forever within the prison.
To walk out of the Nine Prisons Platform alive required an extremely high level of attainment in the Dao realm cultivation. At minimum, one needed the twenty-fourth level of the Dao realm!
But even the twenty-fourth level of the Dao realm was not enough to guarantee one could walk out alive. Qin Mu could walk out because of his unique encounters; others might not have the same fortune.
Currently, deities all followed the Divine Treasury Celestial Palace system. Gods and demons only focused on power, with low attainments in the Dao realm. Therefore, falling into the prison meant only a dead end.
As time passed, Qin Mu undid more and more seals. Within his Spiritual Fetus Divine Treasury, the Ancestral Court had completely regained its vitality, with the Great Dao flourishing.
The nineteen celestial palaces each recovered as well. One primordial spirit after another stood within the celestial palaces, possessing vast supernatural powers.
Meanwhile, the myriad worlds such as the Divine Treasury's Dark Capital, Nether Capital, and Primordial Capital were also slowly being unsealed.
Qin Mu's cultivation became purer and purer, and his Dao heart operated with increasing clarity and brightness.
He fell into a wondrous state. The Dao wonders of the Nine Prisons Platform transformed into Dao sounds and Dao rhythms, which in turn, as his vital energy and Great Dao broke through their seals step by step, transformed into strange Dao patterns, forming the celestial prison's Nine Prisons Platform in each of his celestial palaces.
Not only that, Qin Mu even mobilized his newly increased cultivation, preparing not only to open the Nine Prisons Platform within his celestial palaces but also to open a Nine Prisons Platform on the reverse side of his Ancestral Court!
His ambition did not stop there. He also wanted to erect four Heavenly Gates within his Ancestral Court, manage the Jade Pool and Jade Terrace, and forge his own Divine Execution Platform and Jade Capital City!
Within that tiny square-inch space, his cultivation grew increasingly profound, and his walking speed grew faster and faster!
That square-inch space, in his eyes, was like an endless journey to temper his Dao heart. From within his body came crackling explosions as the sealed divine consciousness and Great Dao continuously broke free.
His blood energy surged like a tidal wave, pouring out from the Ninth Prison, filling the Eighth Prison, the Seventh Prison, and the Sixth Prison!
After a moment, suddenly from the Nine Prisons Platform came the sound of surging tides, each sound louder than the last, each wave higher than the previous. Amidst the earth-shaking roar, a vast ocean of blood energy surged out, filling the celestial prison and transforming it into a sea of blood energy!
Boom—
A celestial palace leaped out from the ocean of blood energy of the Nine Prisons Platform, settling upon the sea's surface. Ten thousand beams of Dao light shot out in all directions from the celestial palace.
At the same time, one celestial palace after another leaped out, suppressing the sea of blood energy, connecting into a stretch of Heavenly Court. A thousand palaces and ten thousand halls were arranged in perfect order!
Qin Mu's figure rose slowly from the sea of blood energy. His stature was majestic, his bearing vigorous yet steady, as he slowly walked out of the sea of blood energy.
Within his body, nearly two thousand ancient god imprints resided in the various acupoints of his physical form, with clear divine essence and pure Dao, the Great Dao pure and unified!
This was a phenomenon he had never experienced before.
His understanding of the ancient gods' Great Dao mainly came from the records of the Guardian Pavilion, combined with analysis through microscopic numerology, as well as the Great Emperor's Grand Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness.
He had thus forged nearly two thousand ancient god imprints, stored within the various acupoints of his body to enhance his physical strength. However, these imprints were all incomplete, and their Dao was impure.
Especially the Grand Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness—he had not received the Great Emperor's personal teaching but had instead refined the Great Emperor's divine consciousness and forcibly seized his memories. Moreover, he had never seen those ancient gods who had vanished into history, so he could not refine his physical body to the Great Emperor's level.
But this time, after the prison locked his Dao heart and his Dao heart was recast, the Great Dao contained within those ancient god imprints was also baptized anew. His comprehensions deepened, and his insights into the Dao became purer.
Although his physical body was still far inferior to the Great Emperor at his peak, he now possessed the potential and latent ability to match or even surpass the Great Emperor!
His main primordial spirit rose, vast and boundless, seated within the Heavenly Court. One attached primordial spirit after another flew out, landing in their respective celestial palaces.
The main primordial spirit commanded all the attached primordial spirits, like a great emperor commanding the realm, marshaling the emperors who guarded the various Great Daos and the various heavens and earths!
The sea of blood energy boiled, gradually rising and merging into his physical body.
Qin Mu looked down at the Nine Prisons Platform. He saw that the Ninth Prison was completely empty, yet in his eyes, he could see his former locked Dao heart.
The Ninth Prison was beneath his feet, yet in the Ninth Prison within his heart, he himself was there, diligently walking forward, steps heavy, measuring his own square-inch heart one step at a time.
A realization dawned in his heart. Although he had leaped out of the Nine Prisons Platform, his Dao heart was still within the prison, constantly being tempered.
"The mortal world is a great prison cage. Everyone is within the prison, forging ahead through hardship. The thorns within the Nine Prisons Platform are the trials one must face in life—sharp thorns that pierce one's physical body with a thousand holes, that pierce one's Dao heart with a thousand holes."
"The weak suffer and wail, but the strong strive forward, never retreating. The weak curl up within the prison, no longer advancing, while the strong attempt to break free."
His Buddhist Dao celestial palace suddenly became complete. The Buddhist Dao primordial spirit was solemn and dignified, dressed in white robes with bare feet, wearing a smile that came from enduring countless hardships.
Buddhism had no cultivation method. Great Brahma Heaven had not passed down a method to him, and Master Ma had not taught him the Buddhist Dao celestial palace either.
Buddhism was a study of the mind. Once one comprehended it, the Buddhist Dao celestial palace would naturally be cultivated.
He looked at the Nine Prisons Platform. Although he had leaped out, his heart remained within the prison.
And although he had leaped out of the Nine Prisons Platform, was the mortal world not another Nine Prisons Platform?
He let out a long laugh, his Dao heart refined and accomplished. In his state of enlightenment, he involuntarily unleashed the twenty-fifth level of the Dao realm that he had comprehended.
Nine Prisons Lock the Heart, the Dao Endures!
He stepped upon the Nine Prisons. The countless thorny Dao spikes of the Nine Prisons Platform spun madly—large and small spikes alike—imprisoning the enemy's Dao heart!