Chapter 1660: The Eighth Tree
"The positions of the World Tree and the Guixu in the universe are eternally unchanging."
The old man said, "Once the positions of the World Tree and Guixu are confirmed, we can use them as reference points to map the Dao Tree distribution chart of the Sixteenth Era onto the Ultimate Void of the Seventeenth Era. With these, finding where Taiyi is should not be difficult."
Qin Mu nodded, his heart at ease, and smiled, "Once we find Taiyi, he should have a way to wake the paralyzed man. Once I resolve this forest of steles, I can rescue him."
Although he spoke lightly, both the old man and the old woman understood the difficulty involved.
Taiyi was not suppressed here—he was certainly suppressed elsewhere. Here, Taiyi had broken through the restrictions, but there, he had not. Therefore, Qin Mu would need to break those restrictions himself.
"This journey may be dangerous. Have Xiao Shang accompany you."
The old man said, "Although Xiao Shang attained the Dao through slaughter, he is not one who kills indiscriminately. With him by your side, your journey will have far fewer dangers. Moreover, he is familiar with the distribution of Dao Trees and can help you find Taiyi faster."
Qin Mu nodded. Taking Shang Jun away from here should not be too difficult for him.
"Then—"
He looked around and smiled, "Can you all tell me now whose Dao Tree the eighth one is?"
Counting the pig and the paralyzed man, there were only seven people in the village, yet there were eight Dao Trees. Clearly, besides these seven, there was an eighth person here.
The woman laughed, "Young master, you jest again. There are only us here—where is this eighth person?"
Qin Mu was surprised and looked at the others. The girl with the horn-shaped braids said, "Indeed, there is no eighth person here."
The pig head in the plate said, "We would not deceive you, young master. There truly is no eighth person you speak of. Not only is there no eighth person, there is also no eighth Dao Tree."
The old woman's heart stirred, and she quickly said, "Young master, you kept saying there were eight Dao Trees earlier—could it be that you were not bluffing us?"
Qin Mu laughed, "I told you long ago that I am charitable, a great good man full of compassion. Why would I bluff you... Wait—you all didn't know there are eight trees in your village?"
The old woman's expression turned grave, and she nodded.
The others nodded as well, and the atmosphere grew somewhat oppressive.
The old man said, "All along, we thought you were bluffing us, which is why you said there were eight trees. But in our eyes, there are only seven trees here, and only seven of us are suppressed here."
A sense of unease rose in Qin Mu's heart, and he asked in a low voice, "You cannot see the eighth tree?"
Everyone shook their heads.
The atmosphere became even more oppressive.
Qin Mu could see that Dao Tree because the vertical eye on his forehead was truly powerful—it could even see through chaos. But they did not possess such powerful divine eyes.
The girl suddenly laughed, "Young master, you're joking, right? Don't scare Yaya..."
The pig head in the plate suddenly shuddered, its two pig ears pressing against its eyes, but leaving a gap to secretly glance around.
Qin Mu had a thought and withdrew his sword Dao. The pig deity immediately felt the sword wounds blocking his body's restoration disappear, and hastily pieced his body back together.
Qin Mu smiled, "Most likely my divination was taught by the Martial Combat Heavenly Master Zhuo Cha, and I calculated wrong. I can take one person out of here, but to bring all of you out, I would need to break the obelisk forest. I don't have that strength yet. I can only ask you all to remain here for now. Once I have enough strength, I will return to break the obelisk forest and rescue you all."
The old man walked to a tree, his brows furrowed, and said with a bitter smile, "The reason I stay here is to guard the paralyzed man. If he doesn't wake, I cannot leave. Even if you break the stele forest, I cannot leave this place."
He sat on a stone, lit his tobacco, and puffed on his water pipe, his dim old eyes occasionally glancing at Qin Mu.
The old woman tottered over to another tree and chuckled, "Old fiend, I'll stay here to keep you company." She sat down, lazily basking in the sun, and reached up to remove the hairpin from her head.
Shang Jun walked toward the village entrance and said, "I'll wait for you outside the village, young master. Don't take too long."
Zhu Santong hoisted his Dao Tree onto his shoulder and laughed, "This battle was one where we fought and became friends. This old Zhu has wronged you before, young master. Please forgive me. I'll go plant my tree first."
The girl, holding her Dao Fruit, hopped and skipped to her Dao Tree and laughed, "I still need to hang my Dao Fruit on my tree."
The woman sighed, "I originally wanted to invite you for a meal, young master, but so many things have happened. Young master, I need to tidy up the paralyzed man's clothes. Once his clothes are washed, I'll hang them on his Dao Tree to dry."
She picked up a basin, walked to the paralyzed man's Dao Tree, and hung his clothes on it.
After doing this, the woman walked to the tree by the old well and took out a wooden mallet to beat other clothes.
At the village entrance, Shang Jun stood beneath his Dao Tree, veins bulging on his hands. In his hand was only half a blade. Although the sword had been severed by Qin Mu, it had little impact on his strength.
The girl poked her head out from the canopy of her Dao Tree, her expression tense, staring intently at Qin Mu's movements.
The old man puffed on his water pipe, the old woman combed her hair, Zhu Santong planted his Dao Tree and transformed into a black wild boar, using his snout and tusks to push dirt and tamp it down, while his small eyes rolled around slyly.
The woman beat the clothes with a rhythmic motion but forgot to add water.
In their eyes, Qin Mu moved his steps and came to an empty space. There was nothing there, yet Qin Mu raised his hand and gently reached forward.
Everyone's spirits became highly tense. Suddenly, Qin Mu seemed to touch something.
The hidden eighth Dao Tree!
The moment Qin Mu's fingertip touched that Dao Tree, six figures suddenly burst into action!
The girl pounced down from the tree like a swallow skimming water, her body hugging the ground, her toes touching down before she flew up again. She bit her tongue, spraying Dao blood onto the Dao Fruit in her hand, and the fruit blazed with light!
The woman swung her wooden mallet, her steps shifting, her body spinning like the wind, shouting fiercely as she brought the mallet crashing down toward where Qin Mu had touched!
Zhu Santong roared, uprooting the Dao Tree he had just planted, transforming into a towering black wild boar standing upright, swinging the Dao Tree toward where Qin Mu's finger pointed!
At the same time, Shang Jun's broken blade, the old man's water pipe, and the old woman's hairpin all struck simultaneously!
The six unleashed their full power, their momentum no less ferocious than when they had surrounded Qin Mu earlier!
They knew they only had one chance. This Dao Tree hidden among them had been concealed for billions of years without any of them noticing—clearly, its owner's strength was truly unfathomable!
If the other party was on guard, even combined, they might not be able to do anything to them!
Therefore, this strike—they must destroy the other's Dao Tree, destroy their Dao Fruit, destroy their cultivation!
Boom!
An incredibly violent fluctuation came, a storm sweeping through, causing Qin Mu's clothes to flap wildly as he stood beside that Dao Tree, forced to retreat step by step!
Qin Mu retreated continuously, resisting this powerful impact. When the storm subsided, he found himself already outside the village.
He opened his vertical eye to look, and saw that the Dao Tree still stood there, unmoving, with no figures around it.
Qin Mu was startled and searched carefully. He saw the girl hanging from her own Dao Tree, one foot exposed, still clutching her Dao Fruit, unconscious.
The woman had fallen into her own well, desperately gripping the mallet, which was stuck at the mouth of the well.
Shang Jun sat sprawled beneath his Dao Tree, blood flowing from the tiger's mouth of his sword hand, his eyes dazed, the broken blade in his hand completely shattered, the hilt reduced to splinters.
The old woman's hairpin was stuck in her own brow, her breath faint. The old man's water pipe was broken, and his head had struck the large stone he always sat on, bleeding profusely.
And Zhu Santong's tusks were all broken, hugging his Dao Tree as he passed out.
Qin Mu was stunned. In that brief instant, all six Dao-Attainers had been defeated, all injured!
"Eldest Young Master!"
The old man sat up trembling, his arms shaking as he tried to fill his pipe with tobacco, but the water pipe was broken, and the water leaked out.
His voice was hoarse, his eyes filled with both fear and anger: "It's Eldest Young Master's Dao Tree! He's been here all along! Heh, that old yin bastard..."
Qin Mu looked around, and his gaze suddenly fell upon the sun hanging high in the sky.
That sun blazed with fierce fire, having burned for perhaps ten cosmic eras, countless billions of years, from the Seventh Era all the way to now!
According to the laws of nature, the sun should have long since extinguished, died, evaporated, and eventually become void. Yet this sun still lived on—one could not help but be suspicious.
"Eldest Young Master is not here."
Qin Mu suddenly said, "He merely left his eye and his Dao Tree here."
The old man struggled to his feet, looked up at the sun in the sky, and let out a dejected sigh, his voice hoarse: "I have been suppressed here for too long, far inferior to him now. Heh, in the old days I was his equal, but now I can't even match one of his eyes..."
He was very despondent.
Because of a promise, he had guarded the paralyzed man for ten cosmic eras. In those ten cosmic eras, he had neglected his cultivation, falling far behind the Eldest Young Master who had once been his equal. The loss in his heart was understandable.
In fact, Qin Mu could also tell that the old man, revered as the Old Fiend by the people here, must have been an extremely famous figure in his era, so much so that many people had heard his legends.
Yet among everyone in this small village, the strongest was not him, but Shang Jun.
Although Shang Jun had only one Dao Fruit and one Dao Tree, his strength already surpassed all the other Dao-Attainers in the village!
This was also the reason Qin Mu wanted to bring Shang Jun with him.
Qin Mu stepped forward, pulled the hairpin from the old woman's brow, gave her a simple treatment for her wounds, and patted the old man's shoulder.
The old man came back to his senses and said desolately, "I cannot see you off, young master."
The others struggled to their feet and escorted Qin Mu to the village entrance.
Shang Jun barely stood up, was silent for a moment, then said, "I no longer have a blade. I'm afraid I won't be able to help you much. Moreover, my killing nature is too heavy, and I have many enemies. I will only bring disaster upon you."
Qin Mu smiled, "What a coincidence. I also have many enemies—probably far more than yours."
Shang Jun hesitated. Qin Mu looked at him calmly: "Shang Jun, who attained the Dao through slaughter, you are afraid. The reason you fear the outside world is not because you lost to Eldest Young Master, but because you fear returning to it."
Shang Jun was silent.
"Even though you attained the Dao through slaughter and cultivated the Thirty-Six Heavens of the Killing Dao, your Dao heart still has a flaw."
Qin Mu's gaze was sharp, and he said, "You feel that the Sixteenth Era was destroyed by your hands, and you feel guilt, self-blame, and shame to leave this place. What sealed you, what suppressed you, was not Eldest Young Master—it was the cage you built for yourself, imprisoning yourself. You are no longer the Shang Jun who attained the Dao through slaughter. Even if you leave here, you can no longer imprint your Dao upon the Ultimate Void and become a Dao-Attainer."
Shang Jun's voice was hoarse: "Then do you still need me?"
Qin Mu walked past him and smiled, "Naturally. I need you to help me find Taiyi, and I need the sharpest blade in the world. You are no longer that blade now, but I can grind you into one. Follow me, and I can help you walk out."
Shang Jun followed him step by step, like his shadow.
Soon, they entered the obelisk forest. Shang Jun hid in his shadow, their footsteps in sync, both stepping forward at the same time, landing at the same time, moving with the same rhythm, gradually disappearing into the forest of steles.
Outside the village, everyone watched the two disappear. Zhu Santong suddenly said, "Seventh Young Master of the Miluo Palace is a strange person."
"He truly is a strange person."
The old woman sighed, "Clearly he's from an enemy faction, yet it's hard to hate him. Not only can't you hate him, you actually want to be friends with him."
The woman laughed, "Such a strange person—this is the first time I've seen one. What a pity he's already married, otherwise Yaya could have found a good husband..."
The girl spat, blushing as she hid behind the tree.
Everyone laughed, but as they laughed, they coughed violently.
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