Chapter 1508: A Lifetime of Wounds
Qin Mu was also afraid of completely falling out with her. The two of them were currently on the same small boat, and this boat was simply too small, with no room to maneuver. If Qiang Tianfei was determined to drag him down into the water, then he would have no way to avoid it—he would definitely fall in.
And when that happened, no one would be able to save him!
"Your Majesty's reprimand is correct. I was reckless."
Qin Mu readily admitted his mistake, speaking with sincere earnestness: "In this time of crisis, the two of us should unite against the nine great Celestial Venerables. As for matters in the future, we can discuss them later!"
He thrust his sword out, meeting the divine consciousness of the three great Celestial Venerables. Sword light flashed brilliantly, severing the divine consciousness attacks of Xiao Celestial Venerable, Langxuan Shenhuang, and Gong Celestial Venerable!
Divine consciousness was difficult to sever, but his sword technique was extremely exquisite. Wherever the sword light passed, chaos was split open, and layers upon layers of lotus-shaped void emerged, causing the divine consciousness of the three great Celestial Venerables to develop gaps, unable to connect with the divine consciousness that had invaded Qiang Tianfei's mind.
Blossom after blossom of sword flowers bloomed in the void, like flower buds spinning their petals outward, layer upon layer, causing the divine consciousness of the three great Celestial Venerables to dance around the petals, unable to break through his sword light for a time.
This was the manifestation of the great divine ability "Tai Su Suddenly Opens the Chaos Bud" in the way of the sword!
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Qiang Tianfei immediately used her Divine Consciousness Great Luo Heaven to grind away and refine the divine consciousness of the three great Celestial Venerables. At the same time, Qin Mu stamped his foot, and the small boat sped away.
By the time the three great Celestial Venerables broke through the void formed by his sword light, the small boat was no longer in its original position.
The three great Celestial Venerables' divine consciousness searched in all directions, detected the ripples of the small boat on the river surface, and gave chase closely.
"Mu Celestial Venerable, this wicked one—he apologizes with incredible swiftness, admits his mistakes with great alacrity, making it hard for people to hold any resentment against him."
Qiang Tianfei escaped the predicament and couldn't help but sigh inwardly: "This wicked one must have practiced this many times. If apologizing could constitute entering the Dao, then he must be close to achieving the Dao by now!"
The small boat sped forward when suddenly flames surged. Qiang Tianfei's heart jumped, and she saw blazing fire distorting the chaotic air above the river surface, coiling into a massive oval great wheel.
Fire Celestial Venerable's figure appeared on the right side of the small boat. Fire Celestial Venerable stood atop the Dao tree within the wheel of flames. The three of them came face to face, and both Fire Celestial Venerable and Qiang Tianfei's faces showed expressions of surprise.
Only Qin Mu's expression remained as calm as ever. The Calamity Sword in his hand was drawn with a fierce motion as he charged at Fire Celestial Venerable.
"That's right—Mu Celestial Venerable's eyes must be able to see through chaos, to perceive that Fire Celestial Venerable is here."
Qiang Tianfei immediately guessed that Qin Mu could see through chaos and had deliberately steered the small boat near Fire Celestial Venerable. Fire Celestial Venerable and Mu Celestial Venerable had never gotten along; the two were as incompatible as fire and water. Whenever Fire Celestial Venerable had the chance, he would try to kill Qin Mu, and now, Qin Mu's opportunity for counterattack had come.
"This fellow is full of wicked schemes, rotten to the bone. He intends to use my power to eliminate Fire Celestial Venerable in one stroke!"
However, for Qiang Tianfei, this was also a rare opportunity to severely wound Fire Celestial Venerable!
Opportunities came and went in an instant. Those who accomplished great things must seize every fleeting opportunity!
Just as Qin Mu struck with his sword, her divine consciousness erupted, surging toward Fire Celestial Venerable!
Her divine consciousness was released later but arrived first, crashing violently into Fire Celestial Venerable's brow before Qin Mu's sword light even reached him!
Fire Celestial Venerable's reaction speed was by no means slow. The layers of flame wheels around him immediately rotated forward. Within the flame wheels, layer upon layer of heavens spun and bloomed, slightly blocking Qiang Tianfei's divine consciousness and delaying the time it took to impact his brain.
His layers of flame wheels collapsed continuously under the assault of Qiang Tianfei's divine consciousness, one after another.
At the same time, Fire Celestial Venerable immediately retreated backward. Behind his head, new flame wheels continuously spun and expanded, surging forward from around his body with a roar.
However, Qin Mu's sword light passed through Qiang Tianfei's divine consciousness, its sharp and piercing radiance stabbing through layer after layer of flame wheels!
Fire Celestial Venerable let out a cold snort. His cultivation of the Dao Fire had already reached the twenty-fourth level of the Dao Realm. Nothing could resist its transformation, nothing could resist its burning. Even without the Dao Fire Ancestral Land, he was still the strongest in Dao Fire mastery!
Even if Qin Mu had obtained the Dao weapon of an accomplished Daoist, he was still confident he could melt that Dao weapon!
Qin Mu's Calamity Sword passed through twenty layers of flame wheels in an instant. The divine sword was scorched red by the Dao Fire, and in the next moment, it successively passed through the Dao Fire within the twenty-first, twenty-second, and twenty-third layers of Dao wheels.
Fire Celestial Venerable showed a look of surprise. When the tip of that divine sword was burned until it emitted a dazzlingly bright light, passing through the twenty-fourth layer of flame wheels and arriving at his brow, the surprise on his face still had not faded.
"A Dao weapon can actually block my World-Burning Sacred Flame?"
His palm raised, two fingers clamping onto the sword tip, attempting to snap the divine sword in two.
But when he exerted force to snap it, he discovered that the hardness of this divine sword was beyond imagination. Even burned to such a state, it showed no sign of softening!
Under the intense heat of the flames, any divine weapon—even if it wouldn't melt—would soften from the heat. Yet Qin Mu's sword showed no sign of softening whatsoever.
What he didn't know was that this sword was not the Dao weapon of an accomplished Daoist, but rather a supreme treasure of a prehistoric Celestial Venerable-level existence that Qin Mu had taken and melted down to forge.
And the furnace used to cast this sword was the Dao Fire Ancestral Land itself!
This sword had been forged in the ninth heaven of the Dao Fire Ancestral Land. By the end of the forging, even the Dao Fire Ancestral Land itself could no longer melt it or soften it!
Qin Mu twisted the sword, and Fire Celestial Venerable's two right fingers flew off, turning to powder amid the hissing sword light.
Fire Celestial Venerable felt the pain. The sword tip moved again. Yin and yang energies coiled like dragons, and the sword light merged with the yin and yang energies, drawing a great circle around him!
Fire Celestial Venerable's heart leaped. He saw countless sword lights cascading within that great circle, ringing as they gathered from the outer edge toward the inner circumference, quickly filling most of the circle and still spreading toward him at the center!
Not only that, but a peculiar transformation was occurring in this Tai Chi Diagram that was taking form. The sword light itself divided into yin and yang paths—a pure white great ball of sword light appeared within the black sword light, and a pure black great ball of sword light appeared within the pure white sword light.
These two sword orbs within the Tai Chi Diagram seemed to possess a mysterious attractive force, pulling at each other as they revolved around him!
As the two sword orbs rotated, the dragon-pattern lines of the Tai Chi Diagram emerged.
It was a supreme sword energy that combined the way of yin and yang to transform into the way of Tai Chi—unbreakable, unstoppable. With a hiss, it severed the Dao tree beneath his feet!
Fire Celestial Venerable's heart leaped. He rose higher and higher, ascending to the very top of the Dao tree, avoiding that astonishingly formidable Tai Chi sword path.
For a moment, he couldn't see through the depths of this technique, so he could only evade. However, his pair of fiery eyes were closely observing the mysteries of this sword stroke, searching for a way to break it.
Despite having two fingers severed, despite having his Dao tree cut down, he remained composed and unhurried. Even with Qin Mu's sword path being so formidable, it did not cause him the slightest panic.
On the small boat, Qin Mu stamped his foot heavily, and the boat immediately accelerated, charging with a roar into the layers of flame wheels. Qiang Tianfei let out a shriek and angrily said: "Mu Celestial Venerable, have you lost your mind?"
Those layers of flame wheels were Fire Celestial Venerable's great divine abilities of the Dao Realm. Passing through them was certainly the shortest path to close in on Fire Celestial Venerable, but it was also the most dangerous path.
Fire Celestial Venerable was not only the strongest existence in Dao Fire mastery under heaven, but also one of those with the most formidable magical power.
He had almost completely devoured and refined all of Southern Emperor's cultivation and great Dao. This body of magical power was overbearing and unmatched. Moreover, as one of the seven Celestial Venerables of Longhan, his foundations were unfathomably deep.
Qin Mu actually attempted to pass through his twenty-four Dao Realm great divine abilities—this was staking his very life!
This was perhaps the greatest difference between Tai Emperor and Qin Mu.
In the ancient era, although Tai Emperor was invincible in the world, he rarely staked his life.
This was of course due to his status being too high and his opponents too few, but it was also a matter of temperament.
After the ancient era ended and the Creator race declined, in the fierce battle between the ancient gods of the Blood Rust Zone and the Creators, Tai Emperor also did not fight desperately. Seeing the situation turn unfavorable, he drifted away gracefully, leaving the various Creator races to die.
Looking across the million years from Longhan to the present, he had rarely fought desperately. That was why Yun, Yue, and Ling, the three Celestial Venerables, were able to destroy his true body and trap him in the Supreme Divine Consciousness Domain of the Tai Xu Land. That was also why his primordial spirit was sealed by Ling Celestial Venerable within the Unchanging Divine Ability.
He had never truly fought for his life in the real sense.
But now, with Qiang Tianfei and Qin Mu on the same boat, she could not afford not to fight desperately.
Qiang Tianfei activated her two baleful qi divine blades, slashing at the layers of flame wheels, splitting open Fire Celestial Venerable's twenty-four levels of Dao Realm. The blazing flames burned the blood-red God-Slaying Mystic Blades until they reeked of scorched odor.
Fire Celestial Venerable's magical power was too strong, making the power of his Dao Fire terrifyingly formidable as well.
By the time the twenty-fourth layer of flame wheels was split open, Qiang Tianfei's arms were already numb from the shock, and both hands were scorched black as charcoal from the heat transmitted through the God-Slaying Mystic Blades.
"That Mu Celestial Venerable kid loves gambling with his life too much..."
Before Qiang Tianfei could even breathe a sigh of relief, she heard the booming resonance of Dao sounds. Fire Celestial Venerable stood at the treetop of the Dao tree, and behind his head, palace after palace of heavenly courts materialized. Within the heavenly courts, hall after hall of precious palaces blazed with light!
Qiang Tianfei let out a mournful sigh, and a feeling of jealousy involuntarily arose in her heart.
They had entered Yujing City for over two years now. The ten Celestial Venerables had been contemplating the precious halls of Yujing City, trying to find deeper principles to stabilize their Heavenly Court Realm.
However, Qiang Tianfei's gains were not many. In two years, she had only comprehended twenty and a half precious halls, while Fire Celestial Venerable was now displaying as many as thirty-four halls!
He essentially had one precious hall corresponding to each heavenly court, allowing his cultivation to make another astonishing leap!
The Fire Celestial Venerable of today was already very close to that supreme realm of the Heavenly Court.
If he advanced even one step further, even Tai Emperor at his peak might be slightly inferior to him.
"Fire Celestial Venerable's aptitude is too high. No matter what, he must be severely wounded!"
By the time Qiang Tianfei thought this, Fire Celestial Venerable had already struck out fiercely, using his supreme magical power to directly fix the rotating Tai Chi Diagram in place, shattering that continuously spinning Tai Chi sword diagram into pieces!
He wasn't relying purely on brute force. Rather, he had seen that Qin Mu's Tai Chi path had not reached a state of perfection, and struck directly at the strongest point, beginning his dismantling from that dragon-pattern line.
From this single point alone, one could see the ruthlessness and acuity of his vision, and one had to admire it.
The Tai Chi evolution collapsed, and the Calamity Sword flew out with a whistle. The next moment, it was caught in the hand of Qin Mu, who had passed through the twenty-four layers of Dao Fire, and thrust out in a single stroke.
This sword stroke met Fire Celestial Venerable's palm that had broken through the Tai Chi evolution. Fire Celestial Venerable's palm unleashed all his skills—the way of fire surged and spread, and between his five fingers, Dao Fire spun like wheels, roaring as they revolved, the great Dao flourishing!
His fingerprints were like individual worlds, and his palm lines like vast earth and towering mountains.
This was his strongest strike. Even after breaking through the Tai Chi evolution, its might remained overwhelming.
But when Qin Mu's sword pierced into his palm, the sword technique became incredibly fine and delicate. The sword light within Fire Celestial Venerable's palm became slender beyond measure, severing Dao chains, breaking Dao patterns, dismantling runes. In an instant, Fire Celestial Venerable's palm was reduced to white bone!
Fire Celestial Venerable was greatly alarmed and hastily withdrew his palm, only to see the sword light coiling up along his wrist.
Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss—
The sword light revolved around his arm, climbing upward at tremendous speed. By the time it reached his shoulder, not a trace of flesh and blood remained on the entire arm!
Even more terrifying was that his great Dao was directly severed, transformed into pure energy, ceasing to exist!
The thirtieth level of the Dao Realm—Breaking Calamity!
Seeing the situation turn unfavorable, Fire Celestial Venerable's eyes blazed with fiery light, transforming into two fire dragons that flew out from his eyes, crossing and slashing through!
Qin Mu turned his sword back to sever the fire dragons, while Qiang Tianfei's two God-Slaying Mystic Blades struck Fire Celestial Venerable's other arm. This arm immediately withered, and soon the blood and qi within the arm was drained dry by the God-Slaying Mystic Blades.
Without a word, Fire Celestial Venerable raised his left arm, now nothing but white bone, and used his hand as a blade, chopping down in a single stroke to sever his own right arm, lest the God-Slaying Mystic Blades drain all the blood and qi from his body.
Behind him, his primordial spirit leaped up from the Heavenly Court, throwing a punch. Even the chaotic air above the river surface was scorched red, showing a strong tendency to be assimilated and transformed into the way of fire!
Qin Mu's foot swept, turning the boat around, and Qiang Tianfei at the stern immediately faced Fire Celestial Venerable's overwhelming strike head-on.
Qiang Tianfei cursed inwardly, but she had no choice but to muster all her magical power. Her primordial spirit rose behind her, and her heavenly courts staggered into formation as a Heavenly Court, meeting Fire Celestial Venerable's heaven-shaking strike!
Boom—
Qiang Tianfei was blasted off the small boat, flying backward through the air. However, her divine consciousness flew out from her brow, transforming into countless long ropes that coiled around Qin Mu's body.
Qin Mu inverted the sword hilt, bowing in a salute. Fire Celestial Venerable's face exploded, the flesh and blood on his face transforming into chaotic air that scattered in all directions. Involuntarily, he was blasted off the Dao tree.
Qin Mu was pulled along by Qiang Tianfei as she flew backward, and the small boat involuntarily retreated at tremendous speed. Gritting his teeth, Qin Mu stood steadily on the rapidly retreating boat, and once again inverted the divine sword, pushing forward with a bow.
Fire Celestial Venerable's face exploded once more. His scalp remained, but not a trace of flesh and blood was left on his face, revealing the ghastly white bone beneath.
His body couldn't stop flying toward the chaotic mist, about to disappear.
Qin Mu bowed a third time with the "Hunyuan One Qi Traveling Together" technique, and the bones of Fire Celestial Venerable's face shattered with crackling sounds. His body fell toward the Chaotic Long River. At that moment, a great hand reached out from the chaotic mist, catching Fire Celestial Venerable's falling form.
Qin Mu's vertical eye fixed on the owner of that great hand. Hao Celestial Venerable stood atop a Dao tree, his gaze meeting Qin Mu's.
"Fire Celestial Venerable, the wound I leave you today is a wound for a lifetime. No one can heal it—not even Tai Su."
With a clang, Qin Mu sheathed the Calamity Sword into its wooden scabbard, relaxed his body, and was pulled backward along with the boat by Qiang Tianfei. Under Hao Celestial Venerable's gaze, his face disappeared into the chaotic mist.
Zu Shenwang charged over, sweeping the mist with his Heavenly Dao Supreme Treasure, but found no trace of Qin Mu. Alarm rose in his heart.
"Zu Shenwang, you're next." Qin Mu's voice came from somewhere unknown.