Chapter 1525: The Sound of the Qin from the Long River
The Golden Ship of Salvation arrived above the Chaotic Long River formed by the Fourth Universe, its speed slowing down. Qin Mu stood at the bow, looking down, carefully searching for traces of Taiyi.
Taiyi had been struck down into the Fourth Universe. Trying to find his whereabouts by searching an entire universe was like looking for a needle in a vast ocean.
However, during the Great Extinction Calamity, the universe collapsed, all living beings perished, and the entire universe continuously shrank. Space turned into nothingness, matter turned into energy. The only space left that could still be moved within was probably near the World Tree in the Ancestral Court.
Therefore, Qin Mu only needed to observe the remaining powerful beings of the Fourth Universe to find Taiyi.
However, Taiyi was proficient in transformation. The fact that he was struck into the Extinction Calamity by the Master of Miluo Palace and the powerful beings of the Fourth Universe indicated that there were existences in the Fourth Universe capable of matching him.
Moreover, from what Wei Suifeng had revealed, Taiyi was severely wounded by the Master of Miluo Palace. He most likely changed his appearance immediately after falling into the Fourth Universe. Thus, Qin Mu had to lock onto Taiyi's transformations from the very beginning of the Extinction Calamity to find out what he had turned into.
Qin Mu searched carefully all the way, the Golden Ship of Salvation advancing at a leisurely pace. After who knew how many days, suddenly Qin Mu saw Taiyi's body rapidly falling from beneath the river surface into the Chaotic Long River!
His spirits lifted greatly.
This was exactly the scene of Taiyi being struck down into the Fourth Universe!
He concentrated intently, his vertical eye on his forehead tightly locked onto Taiyi's falling figure.
The ones who pulled Taiyi into the Chaotic Long River were two Dao Achievers. The three of them continued to fight fiercely as they fell, their figures spinning like a revolving lantern, dazzling to the eyes.
The Golden Ship continued forward. As the ship advanced, the battle below also seemed to speed up countless times.
One could see that the giant Taiyi, because his injuries were too severe, could hardly withstand the two Dao Achievers. However, he changed his form, transforming into a young man, and the injuries on his body vanished without a trace.
But the young man Taiyi's strength was no match for the two, and he kept getting wounded. Whenever his injuries worsened, Taiyi would change his form again, leaving the two Dao Achievers helpless.
Suddenly, Taiyi transformed into a wisp of Chaotic Qi and fled far away, with the two Dao Achievers chasing and fighting all the way.
On the Golden Ship, Qin Mu tightly locked onto the figures of these three, but saw that they fought all the way to the World Tree during the Extinction Calamity. Even standing on the tree, they kept moving their positions, attacking each other.
As the Golden Ship moved, getting closer and closer to the opposite shore, one could see that the universe below had almost completely annihilated. Nearly all matter had turned into energy, compressed together. Chaotic Qi swirled around the World Tree, utterly terrifying!
Such terrifying energy would mean even Dao Achievers could not escape death. Only the World Tree remained as before, slowly stretching its root-tendrils in this intensely concentrated Extinction Calamity, absorbing the energy of the great destruction.
There was no longer a trace of soil on the root-tendrils of this World Tree. The entire Ancestral Court had turned to ashes. Many Dao Achievers who could not make it to the World Tree in time turned into calamity ashes one after another.
However, some Dao Achievers did make it to the tree, attempting to burrow into the World Tree's root-hairs, trying to crawl from this destroyed universe into the next life, the future universe.
On the World Tree, the three locked in combat also found it hard to withstand the intensely concentrated Extinction Calamity, and one after another they burrowed into the World Tree's root-hairs.
The entire Fourth Universe was completely annihilated, leaving only the World Tree floating in the Chaotic energy, brewing to once again open the heavens and evolve the universe into primordial chaos.
At this moment, Qin Mu saw Jade Capital City and was momentarily stunned.
He saw an extremely magnificent divine city continuously collapsing in the ultimate calamity of universal destruction, yet it was not completely destroyed!
In this divine city stood a lush Dao Tree, stabilizing the Chaotic energy. Beneath the Dao Tree stood a figure, not heading toward the World Tree.
He stood alone in the completely destroyed universe, his eyes filled only with grief and desolation, as if mourning the destruction of this universe.
"Master of Miluo Palace!"
The Golden Ship of Salvation paused slightly, arriving at the opposite shore. A stretch of ruins of Jade Capital City from the Fourth Universe appeared before him.
Qin Mu pondered for a moment, his brows furrowed tightly.
After observing for so long, he still could not discern any distinctive trait of Taiyi!
A person's traits are hard to change, yet every time Taiyi changed his form, his traits also changed, with absolutely no identical traits!
Whether it was his words and deeds, subtle expressions, or his divine powers, none of them repeated at all!
"Thinking back carefully, when we were at the Great Black Mountain, Taiyi also seemed to have no traits."
Qin Mu let out a turbid breath, urging the Golden Ship to fly over the ruins of Jade Capital City between the two Chaotic Long Rivers, and said in a low voice: "When I recall everything about him now, although every time leaves a deep impression, when I try to remember his face, it's all chaos. This is the trait of Chaos, isn't it?"
But the key problem also lay in this point: although he had tightly locked onto Taiyi during the Extinction Calamity of the Fourth Universe, he had absolutely no idea what Taiyi had transformed into during the Extinction Calamity of the Fifth Universe.
If he could not find Taiyi's traits, he could not find Taiyi's traces in the Fifth Universe.
As for the Sixth Universe, the Seventh Universe afterward, there was even less way to find him!
"He told me to find him through the map—could it be related to that geographical map?"
Qin Mu pondered. The geographical map left by Taiyi's walking stick was extremely complex, a place he had never seen before. Moreover, Qin Mu did not know whether this geographical map was even a map of the current universe!
If it were a map of a prehistoric universe, then there would be even less way to search for it!
"Wait a moment, Taiyi has one obvious trait!"
Suddenly Qin Mu's eyes lit up, and he clapped his hands and laughed: "Every time he changes, his voice, appearance, mannerisms, habits, and divine powers are all different, but there is one form he has used more than once! That is the giant Taiyi!"
He became excited. The giant Taiyi should be his first body, the body that wielded the Chaos Axe, his companion treasure, and also the body with his strongest strength.
Taiyi had used this body when he was felling the World Tree. Later, when the World Tree revived, he once again transformed into the giant Taiyi, carrying the Chaos Axe to prepare to fell the tree.
And in the Fourth Chaotic Long River, when Taiyi was struck down into the Fourth Universe, the body he used at the start was also that one!
"In other words, this is Taiyi's trait! I don't need to care about any of Taiyi's transformations. As long as I see the giant Taiyi in the later universes, then that person must be him!"
Qin Mu eagerly drove the Golden Ship of Salvation ashore, flew over the ruins of Jade Capital City of the Fourth Universe, and headed toward the Chaotic Long River of the Fifth Universe.
He looked down and unconsciously thought of that towering figure standing in the ruins of the divine city, and the grief in his eyes.
"The Master of Miluo Palace must have started building Jade Capital City at that time, hoping to create a divine city that could shelter the weak. In his dream, this divine city was also to be the source of civilization for the next universe."
He suddenly understood a bit why the Master of Miluo Palace's heart had died, why he had returned to the universe where he was born, and why he had chosen to dissolve into the Dao.
From the First Universe to the Sixteenth Universe, the Master of Miluo Palace had always dreamed of saving everyone, yet every time he failed.
He settled for the next best thing, dreaming of creating a sheltering divine city, bringing the seeds of civilization from past universes to the future universe—but these became tools for the young masters of Jade Capital City to fight over power.
He could find no hope, so his heart died. He returned to the era of his birth, placed Miluo Palace there, and chose eternal death.
"A person worthy of respect..."
Qin Mu jumped down from the Golden Ship, walking through the ruins of this Jade Capital City, mourning that towering existence. His chest surged with emotion, finally turning into reverence.
He paid his respects to these ruins, then leaped up and returned to the Golden Ship of Salvation.
The Golden Ship sailed into the Chaotic Long River of the Fifth Universe, heading straight for the moment of the Fifth Universe's complete destruction. When the entire universe was utterly destroyed, he finally found Taiyi's true identity.
When Taiyi fell into danger, he still could not help but use his strongest physical body!
However, this time, searching for Taiyi's traces was no longer the main purpose of his journey. More of his time was spent with his gaze on the Master of Miluo Palace.
The Master of Miluo Palace had built another Jade Capital City, but this time he was not alone. He had several followers by his side, maintaining the Jade Capital City together with him, attempting to survive the Extinction Calamity without relying on the power of the World Tree.
This calamity was no different from the last—Jade Capital City still became ruins.
Whether those followers of the Master of Miluo Palace survived, Qin Mu did not know. By the time the Fifth Universe was completely annihilated, he had already come ashore and could not see the final outcome.
The Golden Ship of Salvation sailed over the Extinction Calamities of one universe after another. Beneath the Chaotic Long River, many withered-bone giant hands reached toward the ship, trying to board it and cross the calamity.
Qin Mu drew his Calamity Sword and slashed all the way, cutting down those Dao Achievers who tried to board the ship.
He found traces of Taiyi in universe after universe, and also saw the persistence of the Master of Miluo Palace, and saw his followers growing more and more numerous.
The divine cities they built became more and more complete, more and more solid, and in failure after failure, they got closer and closer to the Jade Capital City of later generations!
"The Jade Capital City of today was built by the Master of Miluo Palace through failure after failure—it was not built in a single day."
Qin Mu could not help but admire inwardly. From the process of the Master of Miluo Palace building Jade Capital City, it was clear that there was indeed no Jade Capital trap!
The real traps were the Lingxiao trap and the Zixiao trap!
The Golden Ship of Salvation arrived at the Extinction Calamity of the Tenth Universe. Here all was calm, with no Dao Achievers trying to board the great ship.
Qin Mu raised an eyebrow, secretly speeding up the Golden Ship of Salvation, his heart on guard.
Last time, it was here that he had encountered the Fourth Young Master of Miluo Palace, that emperor-like Dao Achiever sitting beneath a tree reading a music score!
That time, Nanxiang Yuanjun had come under the false name of the Master of Miluo Palace, and the Fourth Young Master had let them pass.
But the Fourth Young Master had never said he would let Qin Mu come back!
Even more terrifying was that other Dao Achievers could not walk out of the Chaotic Long River alive, yet this Fourth Young Master of Miluo Palace stood safely on the Long River, his physical body, Dao Fruit, and Dao Tree all completely intact!
If he appeared again to block the way, even with the Golden Ship of Salvation, Qin Mu had no full confidence in escaping!
The speed of the Golden Ship of Salvation grew faster and faster, gradually reaching its limit. The ship was getting closer and closer to the opposite shore, and Qin Mu's tense nerves gradually relaxed.
Just then, a mass of Chaotic mist surged from ahead, and from within the mist came the faint, intermittent sound of a qin.
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