Chapter 1520: A Single Tear
The Miluo Palace fell into silence.
Qin Mu stood there quietly, not making a sound for a long time, and the Master of Miluo Palace did not continue speaking either, seemingly waiting for him to wake from his shock.
"Hahahaha!"
Suddenly Qin Mu burst into laughter, the sound of his laughter echoing back and forth within the Miluo Palace. After a long while, his laughter gradually faded.
"Dao brother, do you think I would believe you?"
His expression turned serious, and he said solemnly: "Taiyi is not the real Taiyi—what evidence do you have? If he were not the real Taiyi, then why would he risk coming to find you? Why would he leave behind the Geography Map for me to follow in order to save him? Was he not afraid that I would come here, meet you, and you would expose his identity? If he were an Ascender who had already come ashore, why would he obstruct other Ascenders from coming ashore? Why would he stubbornly guard the severed World Tree, why would he guard that place for billions of years?"
The voice of the Master of Miluo Palace came through, leisurely: "Do I have any reason to deceive you, Heavenly Venerate Mu? If I harbored ill intentions, why would I need to lie to you? Taiyi has already been struck down by me into the Fourth Universe—do you think you are stronger than him?"
Qin Mu pressed his lips together, pursing his thin lips, and said nothing.
Compared to Taiyi, he was indeed very weak, and the Master of Miluo Palace truly had no need to deceive him.
If he harbored ill intentions, he could simply eliminate him directly!
"If you want evidence, then go to the outermost mining area of the World Tree to search. When an Ascender uses the World Tree to sneak across, they leave behind a mine pit. Go to the outermost reaches of the World Tree—there lies the mine pit he left when he came ashore."
The Master of Miluo Palace said unhurriedly: "As for why he risked coming to see me, it is because the appearance of the Miluo Palace made him realize that his identity was in danger of being exposed. Therefore, he had to come here no matter what. His purpose was only one—to make you dare not come."
Qin Mu was stunned for a moment, then said: "But I came."
"Even an Ascender of his caliber fell here. Anyone else would certainly not dare to come and investigate the truth. He left the Geography Map for you, letting you follow it to save him. If it were anyone else, they would definitely search everywhere, looking for the location marked on the Geography Map. But you are different."
The Master of Miluo Palace continued: "You are the one person he could not see through. He thought you would not dare to come, but he never expected that you still came, and passed through all kinds of dangers to reach me, exposing his identity. He did not expect that your courage would be this great."
Qin Mu thought for a moment. From a logical standpoint, the Master of Miluo Palace's words did have that possibility.
He walked forward, trying to pass through the incredibly dense Primordial Vitality to approach the Master of Miluo Palace. He wanted to see the figure within the purple energy.
But no matter how long he walked, no matter how far he went, he still could not approach the figure within the purple light.
In terms of divine arts, the entire universe, including the Ten Heavenly Venerates, could not match the subtlety of his divine arts. But what kind of divine art the Master of Miluo Palace used, he could not discern.
"As for him blocking other Ascenders from coming ashore, that is even simpler. He has witnessed the Great Annihilation of the universe and does not want this universe to repeat the same tragedy. And the more Ascenders there are, the faster the universe collapses. He not only wants to block Ascenders from coming ashore, but also wants to block others from achieving Dao."
The Master of Miluo Palace said: "Your universe has existed for 6.1 billion years so far. In all that time, apart from him, there have been no other Ascenders. If he truly wanted to resist the invasion of prehistoric Ascenders, why would he need to stubbornly guard beneath the World Tree? He only needed to nurture a few Ascenders, and they could help him resist the invasion of prehistoric Ascenders. Did he do that?"
Qin Mu struggled forward, was silent for a moment, then shook his head: "No."
He could not help but defend Taiyi, saying: "Taiyi stands aloof from the world, transcendent and detached. He is an existence that has achieved Dao. He would not interfere in any worldly affairs! He only observes the development of the world from the perspective of a bystander, watching the rise and fall of dynasties..."
"Really?"
The Master of Miluo Palace asked: "Has he truly not interfered in anything? Then how did the Creator race become extinct? How did you become the master of the World Tree? And the eye on your brow—how is it that it can see through Chaos?"
Qin Mu fell silent once again.
From these perspectives, Taiyi had indeed interfered in worldly affairs, not being so transcendent after all.
Taiyi had made the ancient gods of the primordial era mistakenly believe that the Great Dao wanted to eliminate the Creator race. Therefore, Heavenly Emperor Taichu launched a war against the Creator race, causing their extinction.
That once-brilliant race, only a small number of them managed to escape to the Great Void, surviving in hiding.
Qin Mu's successful planting of the World Tree also relied on a bucket of Dao Dew from Taiyi, and Taiyi had even lent him the Chaos Axe to chop down the tree.
And the vertical eye on his brow was thanks to Taiyi's eggshell and a drop of Dao Dew.
The Master of Miluo Palace said: "He did not allow the Five Primordials of your universe to be born smoothly. If he had allowed Taichu, Taishi, Taisu, and Taiji to be born smoothly, how could the later events have happened? At the very least, you would have had five Ascenders, protecting your universe and preventing prehistoric Ascenders from ever descending. Did he do that? No, he did not."
"Taichu was crippled, Taishi could not be born, Taisu was refined into a treasure, and Taiji fled and hid. The Four Primordials who originally had the most hope of achieving Dao—none of them achieved Dao. Taiyi stubbornly guarded the World Tree, but what he was really guarding was only his own life."
He said leisurely: "Those who appear to be the most selfless are often the ones with the heaviest selfishness."
Qin Mu suddenly burst into loud laughter.
The Master of Miluo Palace stopped speaking, quietly waiting for his laughter to subside.
"I cannot refute you, but neither will I suspect Taiyi because of this! The one I should suspect most is you!"
Qin Mu continued to walk toward him with unyielding persistence, his voice echoing through the Miluo Palace, speaking loudly: "Dao brother, you are also a person who appears to be selfless. According to your own reasoning, you are also the one with the heaviest selfishness!"
The Master of Miluo Palace was silent for a moment, then said: "That could also be said. The universe is fair. When the great limit arrives, all life must die, and Ascenders are no exception. Yet I want to survive, I want to save people—this is indeed selfishness."
Qin Mu continued walking toward him, shaking his head: "That is not what I mean. I mean the Ancestral Court Altar! The entire Ancestral Court is a massive blood sacrifice altar. Dare you say it has nothing to do with you? You have been trapped here all along, and you too have been waiting for an opportunity—an opportunity to come ashore! Therefore, you set up the blood sacrifice altar!"
The Master of Miluo Palace fell silent once more. After a moment, his voice came through the dense purple light: "The Ancestral Court Altar has nothing to do with me, but it does have something to do with the Miluo Palace. Over these sixteen epochs, I have witnessed the destruction of sixteen universes, the joys and sorrows of countless living beings, the ambitions and obsessions of countless geniuses—all ultimately turning to ashes of tribulation in the Great Annihilation. I no longer wish to come ashore, nor do I wish to ferry others across. But not everyone in the Miluo Palace shares the same thoughts as I do."
Qin Mu found it difficult to comprehend the insight in his words, and also difficult to discern the truth or falsehood of his words.
Logically speaking, the Master of Miluo Palace had no need to deceive him, but in his heart, he truly did not want to believe the Master of Miluo Palace's words.
He did not want to believe that Taiyi had been deceiving him all along, using him all along.
"I still remember Taiyi saying to me that when I gave up my own path back then, he transformed into a tear at the corner of my eye." Qin Mu murmured.
This gave him a tremendous shock, shaking his very soul.
"However, tears are the cheapest thing."
The Master of Miluo Palace said: "If this can move you, then I can give you even more tears. How many tears do you want?"
Qin Mu stubbornly walked forward, saying in a deep voice: "Then let me see your tears!"
He took a step forward, and suddenly the dense purple energy ahead scattered, and he finally arrived before the Master of Miluo Palace.
Before him stood a majestic Dao Tree, like the World Tree itself, lush and verdant, seemingly standing amidst the annihilation tribulations of sixteen universes, not destroyed by the calamity of universal destruction.
On that Dao Tree hung sixteen Dao Fruits, each one displaying a different Great Dao, with Dao sounds swirling around and Dao light shimmering.
Standing before this Dao Tree, Qin Mu felt himself as tiny as an ant, utterly insignificant.
He strained to look beneath the Dao Tree and saw a towering figure sitting beneath it.
That person sat there with hands forming mudras, in a peculiar posture, as if he had never moved.
It was a skeleton.
A skeleton with only bones remaining.
The Master of Miluo Palace had not a trace of flesh and blood on his body. No physical body, no primordial spirit, no aura of the Great Dao—only a withered skeleton sitting in the palace.
"Heavenly Venerate Mu, the tears you asked for."
On the majestic Dao Tree, the Dao Fruits swayed, and a drop of Dao Dew dripped from a leaf, landing on the brow of Qin Mu, who was looking up.
"Is this single tear enough?"
The voice of the Master of Miluo Palace came from the Dao Fruits on the tree: "Or do you need more?"
Qin Mu's mouth was slightly open, unable to describe the shock this scene brought to his soul.
He had always believed that the Master of Miluo Palace was the one orchestrating all of this—orchestrating the invasion of prehistoric Ascenders, orchestrating the Ancestral Court Altar, orchestrating the Jade Capital trap!
But he had never expected that the Master of Miluo Palace had long since died.
He had already transformed into Dao and disappeared.
Only this withered skeleton remained, only this Dao Tree.
Only his Dao remained.
Perhaps, when he discovered that he could never save the world, he died.
Qin Mu closed his eyes, and the vertical eye on his brow slowly closed as well.
All along, it was not the Master of Miluo Palace who had been speaking with him, but the Dao into which the Master of Miluo Palace had transformed that was conversing with him.
An Ascender could lie, but Dao could not.
After a moment, he opened his eyes and turned around, walking toward the exit of the hall.
"I don't believe it."
He murmured: "I absolutely do not believe it!"
His legs grew heavier and heavier, but he still walked out with strength: "I absolutely do not believe that Taiyi is a prehistoric Ascender. This is only your one-sided statement... Even if he is a prehistoric Ascender, what does it matter? After all, he has protected this universe. After all, he is a good person... He is like a World Tree, holding up the blue sky of this universe..."
He walked to the gate of the Miluo Palace, and suddenly his legs gave way, and he collapsed to the ground, his eyes vacant, murmuring: "He is the sky of this universe... I must go see him in person, to ask him!"
He struggled to rise, supporting himself against the palace door, trying to push it open.
Creak—
The gate of the Miluo Palace slowly opened, revealing a sliver of light.
"You are wrong."
The voice of the Master of Miluo Palace came from behind him: "The one who has held up your universe was never Taiyi. Heavenly Venerate Mu, the ones who held up your universe—in the past it was Taidi, then Taichu, then the Ten Heavenly Venerates, Heavenly Venerate Yun, Heavenly Venerate Yue, Heavenly Venerate Ling, then Emperor Chi, Emperor Ming, the Upper Emperor, then Emperor Kai, Emperor Yanfeng, Emperor Yanxiu, and then it was you yourselves, Heavenly Venerate Mu—"
"No one has ever helped you hold up your sky!"
Qin Mu staggered out of the Miluo Palace, and the gate behind him slammed shut with a boom.
————End of the month, urgently calling for monthly ticket support!!