Chapter 1467: Two Dao Fruits (Third Update)
The crippled man hesitated, then said in a low voice: "This schoolteacher is strange. I'll go in first, you stay outside, and we'll see what trick he's up to." With that, he pushed open the door of the private school and walked inside.
Qin Mu and Lan Yutian stood outside watching, and saw that after the crippled man entered the private school, the schoolteacher struck his palm once with a teaching whip, and he actually sat down, reading aloud together with the people suppressed there, fluently and rhythmically, as if he had read it many times before.
The two of them felt their hair stand on end.
Lan Yutian whispered: "Brother, why did Crippled Grandpa also sit down?"
Qin Mu had never encountered such a strange situation either. He immediately opened the vertical eye on his brow and surveyed the private school. He saw that most of the people sitting there were souls or primordial spirits, with only the crippled man possessing a physical body.
And that schoolteacher was merely a phantom, not a real existence.
Qin Mu searched carefully, tracing the source of this phantom. After a moment, his gaze fell upon a painting behind the schoolteacher.
In that painting, an ancient tree with gnarled roots stood, ancient and weathered, its crown supporting the blue sky.
On the tree there were flowers blooming and fruits hanging. Beneath the tree, a person sat on a stone, holding a book and reading.
Qin Mu's eyes flickered. He pondered for a moment, then handed the divine bow to Lan Yutian, sending a telepathic message: "I'm going in for a look. You stay outside. If I also fall into it, don't come in—use this bow to shoot at the dao fruit on that tree."
Lan Yutian acknowledged.
Qin Mu pushed open the door and walked in. The schoolteacher raised his hand, and the teaching whip struck toward Qin Mu's palm!
Qin Mu laughed loudly, his voice like thunder: "I am the esteemed Mu Tianzun, having dominated past and present for a million years—how could I fall for your trick?"
Smack—
Qin Mu's palm received a strike. How the teaching whip had come, how it had landed on his palm, he simply hadn't seen!
It was as if he had unconsciously extended his hand and actively taken the blow!
With that strike of the whip on his palm, Qin Mu's three insights were immediately obscured, his seven consciousnesses severed, his dao heart sank, and he became dazed and confused. When he woke again, he was already sitting on a cushion, right next to the crippled man, swaying his head and reciting scriptures along with him!
"My dao heart has been suppressed?"
Cold sweat broke out on Qin Mu's forehead. His dao heart was extremely strong, his dao realm extremely deep—he had already cultivated to the twenty-seventh heaven of the divine ability dao realm. How could it be suppressed in an instant?
Even if Emperor Kaihuang made a move, he wouldn't have this ability, would he?
"It's the dao fruit!"
Qin Mu struggled to raise his head, though his mouth continued reciting scriptures. His gaze shifted toward the painting behind the schoolteacher, and he thought to himself: "The tree in that painting is a dao tree, the flowers on it are dao flowers, and the fruits are dao fruits! This schoolteacher is a projection of the dao tree and dao fruit in the painting!"
His recitation voice was loud and clear: "...Zhong ye zhe, tian xia zhi da ben ye; he ye zhe, tian xia zhi da dao ye! Zhi zhong he, tian di wei yan, wan wu yu yan..."
At that moment, Qin Mu saw the figure of the person beneath the tree in the painting gradually becoming clearer, as if with their chanting, the person in the painting could slowly step out of it.
Qin Mu's heart tightened. Those in the private school were all souls and primordial spirits, without physical bodies, and not powerful. After all this time of chanting, the person in the painting still hadn't been able to step out.
But Qin Mu and the crippled man were living people. The crippled man's cultivation wasn't high, but Qin Mu's cultivation and magical power were equivalent to three to five great emperors at the Imperial Throne realm!
His cultivation and strength surpassed even the souls of Southern Emperor Zhuque and Emperor Minghuang!
In this private school, his strength alone was several times greater than the combined total of everyone else!
Qin Mu's arrival accelerated the person in the painting's escape from it!
Cold sweat broke out on Qin Mu's forehead. He tried to activate the Overlord Three Elixirs Art, but his dao heart was scattered, suppressed to the point where he couldn't gather his dao heart. When he tried to activate the art, his primordial energy also struggled to circulate, chaotic and disordered.
He strained to gather his dao heart, slowly raising his palm. In his hand was pinched a leaf—the leaf from the Taiyi Dao Tree.
His palm rose with extreme difficulty, every inch of progress seeming to bear tremendous pressure. Finally, the leaf reached his brow.
The schoolteacher stood up and came to his side, raising the teaching whip to strike his head, saying angrily: "Not paying attention in class—asking for a beating!"
Qin Mu took the strike, and the dao tree leaf in his hand immediately drifted down, landing on the ground. The dao heart that had just barely gathered into a thread scattered once again.
At that moment, a thunderous boom sounded—a beam of arrow light shot in from outside the private school and struck the painting with a thud.
Qin Mu's eye twitched: "Lan Yutian, you missed..."
Lan Yutian's arrow had failed to hit the dao fruit on the ancient tree, only embedding itself in the trunk.
The power of this arrow was extremely strong. Though it couldn't kill an Imperial Throne realm expert, it was still no small matter. Yet when the arrow entered the painting, its power seemed to become very small, not stirring up much of a disturbance.
Qin Mu's eye twitched again: "There's more than just a dao tree in that painting—there's also a fragment of the Great Luo Heaven. An expert from the previous cosmic era refined the Great Luo Heaven fragment into a painting, attempting to sneak across..."
He couldn't help but worry about Lan Yutian. But at that moment, two more arrows whistled into the private school. Lan Yutian had clearly never learned archery—his first arrow had missed—but his second and third arrows struck the dao fruit on the tree with remarkable accuracy in succession!
His talent was simply too high. The first arrow had already allowed him to master the techniques of using the bow, and the next two arrows went straight for the bullseye!
The power of these two arrows was immense. Two consecutive shots knocked the dao fruit down from the tree!
The schoolteacher turned around and saw the dao fruit fall, his expression changing slightly. Then his form dispersed with a pop and vanished.
At the same time, the scholar beneath the tree also showed a surprised expression, looking up toward the tree!
"Brother, I shot down that dao fruit."
Lan Yutian carried the divine bow and walked into the private school, smiling: "The power of this divine bow is indeed formidable..."
"Don't come in!"
Qin Mu suddenly shouted loudly, bending down to pick up the leaf, his voice rolling like thunder: "There's more than one dao fruit on that tree!"
Lan Yutian's smile froze on his face. His peripheral vision fell on the painting, and he saw the ancient tree in the painting rotating unhurriedly. The back of the tree turned to the front, and hanging on the tree was—another dao fruit!
As this dao fruit rotated to the front, the schoolteacher suddenly reappeared in the private school, came before Lan Yutian, and said with a stern face: "Disrupting the class—extend your hand!"
Lan Yutian smiled: "I'm not your student..."
Smack!
His palm received a strike, and he walked dazedly to an empty cushion and sat down. At that moment, Qin Mu had already picked up the leaf and pressed it to his brow. His dao heart immediately surged back. At the same time, the dao fruit that had been shot down beneath the tree wobbled as it flew up, about to hang back on the dao tree!
Qin Mu reached out and grabbed behind the crippled man, seizing the Liuli Qingtian Streamer. With a thud, he planted it in the center of the classroom. Both hands exerted force, spinning it violently, and he shouted fiercely: "Open—"
Hum—
The canopy of the Liuli Qingtian Streamer whirled and spun, the Twenty-Eight Heavens buzzing as they bloomed outward, instantly enveloping everyone in the private school. Within the Twenty-Eight Heavens, sun, moon, and stars emerged. The power of countless heavy artifacts and treasures meticulously forged by the Blind Man and the Mute erupted, and with a thunderous crash, the entire private school was shattered and destroyed, reduced to powder!
Qin Mu roared in fury, lifting the Liuli Qingtian Streamer together with the Twenty-Eight Heavens, using the streamer as a hammer, and swept it toward the one wall that hadn't been destroyed and the painting on it!