Chapter 1403: The Path of Enlightenment in the Mortal World
Empress Dowager looked at Qin Mu, whose expression remained calm, as if he had long known about this matter and was not surprised at all.
Empress Dowager steadied herself, pondered for a moment, then said, "My late husband was born prematurely, dug out by Grand Emperor to be sacrificed, and therefore had great deficiencies in both cultivation and strength. But you, Dao Brothers, have been dormant here for who knows how many billions of years. Presumably your cultivation is complete and you won't encounter my late husband's condition. Why are you two also so fearful of the future?"
Her words actually asked the Taiji Ancient Gods why they were hiding here, peacefully absorbing the power of the mineral veins. Given how much time had passed, they should have been able to emerge perfectly. Why hadn't they done so now?
But after all, she was the Empress Dowager, so her question was rather tactful.
"By normal reasoning, we indeed could emerge. Such a long span of time should have been enough for us to absorb all the power and Dao of the mining area."
A male voice spoke from within the egg: "However, the Ancestral Court has restricted our emergence."
Empress Dowager was greatly puzzled, and Qin Mu also became curious, his body unconsciously leaning forward slightly.
A female voice from within the egg said: "We have been continuously absorbing the power of the Taiji mineral veins since the beginning of the universe, never ceasing. When the Creator race rose, they began mining the veins, and all five major veins were excavated. One Dao Brother emerged before the Creators, leaving behind an empty mining area, free and unfettered. When he emerged, there was no worldly disturbance, his Great Dao was pure, and he transcended immediately upon emergence, achieving the Dao."
The male voice from within the egg said: "Then came Dao Brother Taichu. Dao Brother Taichu had hoped to achieve the Dao after him. Unfortunately, he only grew to half completion before being dug out and treated as a treasure by the Creators for sacrifice. Before he was even born, he had already been polluted. For him to achieve the Dao is extremely difficult—he must sever the sacrificial power the Creators placed upon him and also recover all the power of the Taichu mineral veins."
"The third Dao Brother was Taishi. He was dug out by people and also treated as a great treasure, worshipped and sacrificed to by the world. But later he fell into the hands of Grand Emperor Juyushi. After Grand Emperor was defeated, he fell into Taichu's hands. Taichu was no longer in his egg state and had developed desires for power. Fearing that Taishi's perfect emergence would threaten his position, he imprisoned him."
"Taisu was also a pitiful soul. She was dug out from the mineral veins by the Creator Nüxin, then brought to Juyushi, and later fell into the hands of Northern Emperor Xuanwu, who treated her as a treasure and refined her into the Liuli Qingtian Banner. She desperately sought the path of transcendence, but she met an unworthy person who brought her to the previous universe, forcing her to emerge prematurely."
"For her to achieve the Dao, the karmic consequences are enormous. Not only must she avenge the grievances against Nüxin and Juyushi, and the grievance of being refined into a treasure, but also the grievance of premature emergence, and the karmic ties of the previous cosmic era that still need to be resolved."
When Qin Mu heard this, his heart turned cold.
The "unworthy person" the Taiji Ancient Gods spoke of—that person was him.
He had traveled out at night from the Great Blackwood, carrying the Taisu egg, and inadvertently arrived at the moment of the previous cosmic era's destruction. He had no choice but to raise the Taisu egg high, trying to return beneath the World Tree, and it was at that moment Taisu emerged!
Taisu's emergence had a great deal to do with him.
"As for us, we too have been polluted by the mortal world."
The female voice from within the egg sighed: "After observing the misfortunes of our Dao Brothers, we first developed a sense of wariness. Once we had wariness, our Dao hearts were no longer pure. From that moment, we took a step further away from achieving the Dao."
"But at the time, we didn't foresee this. We created fake mineral veins to deceive the Creators, while hiding the real veins. In doing so, we took another step away from achieving the Dao."
The male voice from within the egg sighed: "We mobilized the Taiji star domain to slaughter the Creators and other beings who entered the mining area, protecting ourselves. We developed killing intent, moving even further from achieving the Dao. At that time, we didn't realize this and thought ourselves clever."
The female voice from within the egg said: "We hid ourselves away, living in constant fear and anxiety, always worried that Grand Emperor would discover us, that Taichu would discover us. Only when Taichu led the other Ancient Gods to seal the Ancestral Court did we feel at ease, thinking we could absorb the Taiji mineral veins and achieve the Dao."
The male voice from within the egg sighed: "Only then did we realize that we had long been polluted by the mortal world. Although the disturbances of the mortal world were gone, we were drifting further and further from achieving the Dao. Not only that, we also discovered another terrifying thing."
Both the male and female voices fell silent.
Qin Mu's heart stirred, and he had a terrifying guess. He opened his mouth to ask but held back.
Empress Dowager was more composed than him, still waiting quietly.
After a moment, the male and female voices from within the egg overlapped, speaking in unison: "Although the Ancestral Court was sealed, we discovered that we were not the only ones in the Ancestral Court—there were others!"
Qin Mu's heart shook violently, and he thought to himself: "It's exactly as I guessed!"
"The Ancestral Court was sealed, but that couldn't seal the Dao Brother who emerged early. He appears and disappears mysteriously, unfathomably deep. But the others in the Ancestral Court are not him."
"The others come from beneath the earth, yet not truly from beneath the earth—they are remnants of the previous cosmic era. They come from the previous cosmic era."
"They had prepared long in advance, setting up layers of traps and schemes throughout the Ancestral Court. Even our Taiji mining area has been caught in their schemes."
"When you sealed the Ancestral Court and all left, we sensed a terrifying prehistoric relic moving into our mining area, locking down our ability to absorb the mining area's power and Great Dao, causing our progress to slow greatly over these years."
The Taiji Ancient Gods' voices from within the egg carried a hint of fear: "We developed fear in our hearts, taking another step away from achieving the Dao. That is why, when an uninvited guest visited the mining area, we lent out the Taiji Primal Stone—because for the past million years, we have been unable to draw much power from the Primal Stone or the mining area. Lending it to him for a while was no loss."
Qin Mu immediately opened his vertical eye on his forehead, looking toward the depths beneath the mining area. His divine eye was unmatched, capable even of penetrating to the Great Luotian fragments beneath the Yao Pool. He immediately saw everything beneath the Taiji mining area.
Beneath the vast and boundless Taiji star domain, an ancient fragment of the Great Luotian was devouring the star domain, encroaching upon the Taiji mining area. There, a mysterious relic sat directly beneath the Taiji mining area. The relic bore strange architecture built from the finest divine metal. Though covered in mottled rust, ripples of the Great Dao could still be seen flowing across its surface.
That should be a relic left behind by a highly advanced civilization—a divine city built from supreme divine metal, attempting to survive the great destruction of the universe, to endure the cataclysm and arrive in the new universe.
But Qin Mu saw no living beings there, as if all life had been destroyed. Yet since it was a fragment of the Great Luotian, it surely couldn't be that simple.
Empress Dowager, however, could not see this scene and did not understand the Taiji Ancient Gods' fear. She said, "Dao Brothers, since you are locked down and cannot improve your cultivation or Dao here, then you should not be able to emerge perfectly. You have stopped growing—so how can you speak of helping me?"
She said coolly: "Forgive my bluntness, but interests come first. If I don't stand to gain enough, why should I cooperate with you? If you cannot help me, then allying with you to jointly face the coming calamity is nothing but a joke."
Qin Mu's eyes flickered, and he said, "So, Dao Brothers, you intend to emerge prematurely?"
Empress Dowager's heart shook. With his reminder, she too immediately thought of the key point.
The reason the Taiji Ancient Gods had sought her out was likely because they intended to emerge prematurely!
If the Taiji Ancient Gods emerged and left the mining area, they could indeed become her support!
The Ancient Gods within the egg praised: "Mu Heavenly Venerable is indeed exceptionally clever—hearing the string and knowing the melody. Unfortunately, your strength is insufficient. Otherwise, we would definitely choose you as our ally rather than Empress Dowager. You guessed correctly—we have indeed developed the intention to emerge."
The female voice from within the egg said: "We are trapped here, possessing the mining area yet unable to draw power or comprehend the Great Dao. Our Dao hearts have been corrupted and disturbed by the mortal world. Rather than guarding the Taiji mining area forever, it's better to simply emerge ahead of time and walk a path through the mortal world."
The male voice from within the egg said: "The trivialities of the mortal world have damaged our Dao hearts, giving us cunning hearts, fearful hearts, joy and anger, sorrow and happiness, greed and worry, killing and scheming, power and desire, profit and cunning, deception and plotting—all these negative emotions that delay our achievement of the Dao. Since it was the mortal world that gave us these, we must walk a path through the mortal world."
The female voice from within the egg said: "Only by walking a path through the mortal world can we see through greed, worry, power, desire, and profit. Only then can we shed our cunning hearts and fearful hearts, allowing our Dao hearts to return to the simplicity that existed before the emergence of sentient beings, thereby achieving the Dao and attaining liberation."
The words of the Taiji Ancient Gods brought different stirrings to Qin Mu and Empress Dowager, each of their souls gaining different insights.
Empress Dowager thought of the time of her birth, when the Dao of the Guixu had given her consciousness. At that time, her consciousness was pure and simple, most in harmony with the Dao of Guixu.
The Dao heart is my heart.
She was born from the lotus in the great abyss of Guixu, tranquil and beautiful.
But when did all this begin to change?
Was it when the Creators discovered her, this Dao-born Ancient God, sensed her power of fertility, and began to worship her, praying for her protection, asking that their race be blessed with many children?
Was it when the Creators attempted to use her power to eliminate their rivals?
Was it when Taichu met her and they fell in love?
Or was it when she felt the worship of the Creators, the worship of all beings, and began to enjoy power and desire?
It was just that she didn't have the same level of enlightenment as the Taiji Ancient Gods. She hadn't realized this herself, and so she had sunk into the mortal world.
Qin Mu, however, thought of something else.
He felt that the Taiji Ancient Gods' approach of tempering their Dao hearts in the mortal world was indeed a viable path. After all, he himself had grown bit by bit through struggling in the human world. His Dao heart had continuously grown along the way, and his Dao realm had slowly improved as well.
He also thought of another matter—Lan Yutian.
The former Yu Heavenly Venerable had been disturbed by the trivialities of the mortal world, and thus his Dao heart was not as pure as Lan Yutian's. But the current Lan Yutian, though walking through the mortal world, was more like an egg-born Ancient God from before the emergence of sentient beings—without ambition, without desire for power, without those distracting thoughts. Only an incomparably pure Dao heart remained.
Compared to the other egg-born Ancient Gods except Taiyi, he was more like an egg-born Ancient God, silently drawing nourishment from the vast mining area of the mortal world, improving himself.
He was the one closest to achieving the Dao.
And in Qin Mu's Spiritual Fetus Divine Treasury, Taishi within the egg also had his own insights. Unconsciously, he stopped absorbing the power of the Taishi Primal Stone and the Taishi mineral veins, quietly contemplating his own future path.
"Although the Taiji Ancient Gods formed after me, their understanding of the Dao has already surpassed mine."
He couldn't help but sigh, feeling he had gained much: "Empress Dowager has occupied my Taishi mining area. Even if I can reclaim it through Mu Heavenly Venerable's hands and fully absorb the mining area's power, I still cannot achieve perfection, cannot achieve the Dao, cannot transcend. I too need to walk a path through the human world like the Taiji Ancient Gods, tempering my Dao heart, before I can reach the level of Dao Brother Taiyi."
Each of them gained something, each comprehended something different, and the things they understood were all distinct.
The Taiji Ancient Gods within the egg said: "The reason we invited you, Empress, here this time is that our power is insufficient to break open the divine egg. We ask for your assistance."
Empress Dowager stood up and said solemnly: "It is only proper that I assist."
Qin Mu also stood up and said solemnly: "Dao Brothers within the egg, after you emerge, how will you treat me? I wish to know your positions."
Empress Dowager looked at him, a flash of killing intent passing through her beautiful eyes: "Mu Heavenly Venerable, you and we Ten Heavenly Venerables are grasshoppers tied to the same rope. You should recognize your own weight and know your place. Don't have too many thoughts. Otherwise, you will only invite death upon yourself. Guixu is one of the few places in the world that can annihilate you, and the Great Dao of Guixu is one of the few Great Daos that can break through the Divine Art of Material Indestructibility!"
Qin Mu laughed heartily, murderous aura surging: "If in the future the two Dao Brothers intend to become my enemies, then today I will fight to the death! Dao Brothers, think carefully!"
He turned around: "Empress Dowager, if you think the divine arts of Guixu can annihilate me, feel free to try!"