Chapter 1702: The Hunter of the Seventeenth Era
Beneath the World Tree, waves of tremors came, urgent and violent. Qin Mu sensed this tremor from afar, and his heart gradually sank.
He could sense from the fluctuations of the divine abilities which one was Xu Shenghua's divine ability and which one was Ling Guan's divine ability.
Ling Guan's two ancient god avatars were currently using a strange combined attack technique to besiege and kill Xu Shenghua. These two ancient gods sometimes merged, sometimes separated, and the two ancient gods each mastered different Great Daos, but each of their Great Daos was a Great Dao that resonated with the Dao Flower and Dao Fruit.
The Palace Master of Ling Guan Hall had indeed put great effort into breaking the Great Black Mountain!
He had achieved enlightenment four times in total, forming three Dao Fruits and blooming one Dao Flower. Earlier, Qin Mu had destroyed one of them, and just now another had been used to block Qin Mu, also being destroyed. For the remaining Dao Fruit and Dao Flower, he chose avatars whose Great Dao resonated with the Dao Fruit and Dao Flower's contained Great Dao, allowing him to unleash the maximum power of the Dao Fruit and Dao Flower!
The strength those two avatars possessed was likely infinitely close to that of an Enlightened One!
"Xu Shenghua, you absolutely must not die..."
Qin Mu tried to quicken his pace, but his steps grew heavier and heavier. In that battle just now, his magical power had been completely drained, and his physical body had long since reached its limit. His legs felt as if they weren't his own, and his body seemed to be carrying the weight of all worlds, moving forward with great difficulty.
Continuously rushing about, crossing battlefields one after another in the shortest time, killing the ancient god avatars of the Palace Master of Ling Guan Hall amidst the chaos of war at the fastest speed with the least cost—this was also an unimaginable challenge for him.
In the battle he had just fought in Ling Guan's treasure hall, he had already been severely overdrawn, his primordial energy exhausted. Ling Guan's avatar had even been able to cause physical damage to his body.
The fluctuations of divine abilities coming from the Great Black Mountain continued to arrive, growing even more urgent. Clearly, Xu Shenghua's great battle against Ling Guan's two avatars had reached its most critical moment.
Qin Mu's figure still moved with lightning speed, but his body staggered, and his speed was already immeasurably slower than before.
At this moment, he sensed something unusual in the fluctuations of the divine abilities.
Qin Mu raised his head and looked toward the Great Black Mountain ahead. There, another World Tree was rising slowly—that was Xu Shenghua's World Tree.
Back then, when the World Tree had been reborn, Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian had sat beneath the tree, attempting to analyze the Great Dao contained within the World Tree, treating the World Tree as a realm.
Qin Mu had also sat beside them contemplating, but hadn't comprehended anything, so he thought of a clever trick—he borrowed the divine axe from Taiyi to chop down the World Tree and transplanted it into his own Divine Treasury.
Later, a new tree grew, and Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua still sat beneath it, tirelessly attempting to deconstruct the World Tree.
Now it seemed that over the years, Xu Shenghua had already achieved some accomplishments.
"Thirty-three Heavens Dao Realm..."
Qin Mu didn't stop walking. The vertical eye on his forehead opened wide. Xu Shenghua's Dao Realm was connected to his World Tree, which put him somewhat at ease.
Xu Shenghua was now already half an Enlightened One. He and Lan Yutian were creating a new cultivation system for the future, and now this cultivation system was nearly complete!
What he and Lan Yutian had chosen was a shortcut. In the traditional cultivation system, whether it was the Heavenly Palace Heavenly Court system or the Dao Realm system, both were accumulations of quantitative change.
Even if one cultivated a perfect Heavenly Court, one still needed to imprint upon the Ultimate Void to achieve qualitative change. Even if one cultivated the thirty-six heavens of the Dao Realm, one still needed to go to the Ultimate Void to imprint one's own Great Dao.
But in this system of Xu Shenghua and Lan Yutian, they merged the Dao Realm system with the World Tree, making the World Tree equivalent to one's own Dao Tree.
When a divine ability practitioner cultivated to the Five Supremes realm and began to condense the World Tree, they had already essentially stepped into the realm of an Enlightened One. Each deeper layer of the Dao Realm brought them one step closer to a perfect Enlightened One.
The benefit of this cultivation method was that it scattered the qualitative change into quantitative changes, distributing it into each Dao Realm.
"Xu Shenghua's strength is roughly comparable to a single Ling Guan avatar, but with two Ling Guan avatars combined with the Dao Flower and Dao Fruit, they would far surpass him. All he can rely on is his divine abilities."
Qin Mu was getting closer and closer to the Black Mountain. The divine abilities coming from within the Black Mountain had also become extremely dense, and they came from different directions, indicating that the three were moving at extremely high speed: "Xu Shenghua's strength lies in the fact that he grows stronger when facing the strong. His mind is too flexible; he can always think of a way to counter the opponent's divine abilities and techniques during battle. But there is a prerequisite—whether his knowledge reserve can reach a level to contend with Ling Guan!"
If his knowledge reserve couldn't contend with Ling Guan, then no matter how clever he was, he would still lose!
Ling Guan's knowledge reserve came from the past four cosmic eras, as well as the Miluo Palace!
The Miluo Palace could be said to be the most glorious and grandest holy land in the sixteen cosmic eras, and also the supreme holy land!
Although it was impossible for Ling Guan to have learned all of the Miluo Palace's heritage, it was still no small matter. This Palace Master could contain almost all ancient gods within his physical body, which showed that he had astonishing attainments in these innate Great Daos.
For Xu Shenghua to surpass him in knowledge reserve was almost impossible!
Qin Mu charged into the Great Black Mountain. The geographical scope of the Great Black Mountain was extremely vast. Qin Mu climbed to the top of a mountain and looked out—he saw mountains splitting apart everywhere. An unimaginably fierce battle had taken place here, blasting the mountain peaks apart!
Suddenly, the fluctuations of divine abilities subsided.
Qin Mu's heart sank. Dragging his exhausted body, he struggled toward the place where the last fluctuations had come from. Just then, he suddenly saw several grave mounds at the foot of a black mountain, with tombstones standing before them.
Qin Mu was slightly startled. He opened his vertical eye, barely managing to activate it, and looked into the graves.
His expression was one of surprise, then he broke into a smile: "Xu Shenghua, you rascal—I thought you wouldn't engage in robbing the dead... In terms of knowledge reserve, Ling Guan might not even match him!"
He looked toward the other black mountains and saw grave mounds and stone tablets everywhere. The number of graves here was somewhat beyond Qin Mu's expectations.
He slowed his pace and continued forward.
Among the prehistoric strong ones who had secretly crossed over through the World Tree, very few were Enlightened Ones. A large portion of the Enlightened Ones were gathered in the ancestral court's Yujing City, which was the holy land of Enlightened Ones, where Dao Trees grew in forests.
Those prehistoric strong ones who chose to secretly cross over through the World Tree were mostly those who had no chance of achieving enlightenment and had no qualification to enter the ancestral court's Yujing City. Therefore, to survive, they could only cross over through the World Tree.
Back then, because of the lame man's death, Qin Mu, in his fury, had gone deep into the Great Black Mountain's mineral veins in a single night and killed more than a hundred prehistoric strong ones in succession.
Xu Shenghua's achievements probably weren't from a single night, but rather from doing similar things every day for the past thirty-plus years. In other words, he fought against these prehistoric strong ones every day, honing himself, and his understanding of prehistoric Dao techniques and divine abilities was probably even above Ling Guan's!
This was the opportunity for Xu Shenghua's victory!
"He secretly drank a lot of Dao Dew. This Dao Dew greatly enhanced his cultivation. Drinking a little every day, releasing one prehistoric strong one at a time—small amounts adding up to make up for his short cultivation time. If I were him, the moment I saw Ling Guan arrive, I would decisively drink all the Dao Dew in one gulp, using the power of Taiyi's Dao Dew to contend with Ling Guan!"
"Xu Shenghua will do the same! He's just as clever as I am!"
Even so, Qin Mu still struggled forward. He had to see Xu Shenghua with his own eyes before he could rest assured.
Finally, Qin Mu arrived at the place of the last divine ability fluctuations. He saw the two ancient god avatars of the Palace Master of Ling Guan Hall, their bodies towering, standing in a mountain valley. All around were remnants of divine abilities, still emanating deadly aftershocks.
These divine abilities were derived from the Miluo Palace's techniques. The Dao Chains were extremely blazing, forming a heavenly net that sealed off this place!
And Xu Shenghua was currently lying between those two ancient god avatars, surrounded by traces of blood. He wasn't moving at all.
"Could it be..."
Qin Mu's heart sank. Ling Guan's Dao Fruit was still there, and the Dao Flower was still there too—although tattered, they weren't completely destroyed. It was precisely the Dao Fruit and Dao Flower that maintained the heavenly net formed by the Dao Chains!
Qin Mu walked forward, his gaze falling upon Ling Guan's two ancient god avatars. He was slightly startled.
He walked straight toward the heavenly net, passing through the terrifying Dao Chains. The power of the Dao Chains erupted, extremely fierce.
Qin Mu let out a muffled groan. He no longer had magical power to resist, so he relied on his powerful Hongmeng body to forcefully withstand this final divine ability and walked into the heavenly net.
Boom, boom.
Two loud sounds came. Ling Guan's Dao Fruit exploded, the Dao Flower exploded, and then the two ancient god bodies swayed and collapsed to the ground.
Xu Shenghua looked up, then lowered his head again, gasping for breath a few times, and said in a hoarse voice: "Qin Sect Master, you've come. I could no longer break through his final divine ability. He used his last strength to seal me here, waiting for nightfall. Then this place will become a paradise for prehistoric strong ones, and they will kill me..."
Qin Mu came to his side and examined the wounds on his body. Xu Shenghua had an extremely large number of wounds, and these wounds hadn't healed, containing residual Dao techniques from the Miluo Palace within them.
Qin Mu tried to heal him, but he no longer had any primordial energy in his body to use.
"I've already tried my best to avoid fatal wounds."
Xu Shenghua rarely showed a smile, saying: "You're in even worse shape than I am. Treat yourself first. As long as I can climb up to the World Tree and wait for Taiyi's Dao Tree to appear, I can catch some Dao Dew and should be able to preserve my life..."
Suddenly, he felt water splashing onto his face.
Xu Shenghua was startled, seeing tears falling like rain from Qin Mu's eyes.
Xu Shenghua quickly said: "Qin Sect Master, what's wrong with you? I'm still alive and well..."
Qin Mu suddenly burst into loud sobs, staggering to his feet and struggling to walk outward: "I can't save Cloud Heavenly Venerable anymore. I won't make it back in time... I have to get back, I have to get back as quickly as possible..."
Xu Shenghua raised his hand, struggling to grab his ankle, and said in a hoarse voice: "Calm down! Your condition right now isn't much better than mine. Even if you force yourself to rush back to the Primordial Realm, you won't make it in time, and you'll only waste more time. Calm down. Night is approaching. Rest for a while. When Taiyi's Dao Tree comes out, drink some Dao Dew, recover some of your cultivation, and you'll actually get back to the Primordial Realm sooner!"
Qin Mu stopped, was silent for a moment, then bent down to help him up, but stumbled, and both of them nearly fell to the ground.
The two supported each other, struggling forward, walking toward the World Tree.
The two most outstanding experts of Yankang were now like two old men, walking forward with faltering steps.
The sun was setting in the west.
They only reached the foot of the World Tree when the sun went down. Qin Mu recovered a trace of his cultivation, activated his magical power, and brought Xu Shenghua to the top of the World Tree.
The two sat on the highest leaf, looking up. The starry sky of the ancestral court was brilliant, the stars moving unpredictably like a revolving lantern, constantly shifting. The cause of this strange phenomenon was in the Mystic Capital.
Ancestral God King was leading the star deities of the Mystic Capital, commanding the Sun Guard and Moon Guard armies of the Mystic Capital to attack the Land of No Worries and Yankang. The star deities and the Sun Guard and Moon Guard were all star gods, which would naturally cause disturbances in the celestial phenomena.
The great chaos in the celestial phenomena indicated that the Mystic Capital's armies had essentially been fully deployed!
Taiyi's Dao Tree emerged from the Ultimate Void. Qin Mu and Xu Shenghua staggered to their feet and caught the falling Dao Dew.
"Can Yankang be preserved?" Xu Shenghua suddenly asked.
"Yankang can be preserved, but the Land of No Worries cannot."
Qin Mu swallowed the Dao Dew, struggling to activate his cultivation technique to refine it, and said: "However, for the Heavenly Court to take the Land of No Worries, they will have to pay an enormous price. The Land of No Worries is a weapon—a weapon forged with the wealth of an entire era during the Kaihuang Era."
Xu Shenghua was somewhat puzzled.
"I've been to the Land of No Worries and examined the internal structure of its layers of heavens. The exteriors of those heavens are ordinary earth and mountains, but the interiors are forged from divine gold and divine iron, like an extremely intricate machine." (See Chapter 982: The Truth of the Land of No Worries)
Qin Mu continued catching the Dao Dew, saying: "Kaihuang Qin Ye's Sword of No Worries is hollow, and the thirty-three heavens of the Land of No Worries are the sword heart of the Sword of No Worries. The complete Sword of No Worries should have the Land of No Worries hidden within it. The Sword of No Worries' power has never been very high, and it's easily broken—the main reason lies in the sword heart. Without the Land of No Worries as the sword heart, the Sword of No Worries' power cannot be unleashed to its fullest."
Xu Shenghua was silent for a moment, then said: "Kaihuang endured so much."
Qin Mu nodded and said: "That's the kind of person he is. The Land of No Worries is his final means of harming the enemy. When the Heavenly Court's armies occupy the thirty-three heavens of the Land of No Worries, the secret of the Land of No Worries will be detonated."
He had recovered some of his cultivation and immediately began treating Xu Shenghua's Dao wounds, saying: "Tonight, I cannot act. I need to conserve my strength to rush back to the Primordial Realm at dawn. Can you hold out?"
Xu Shenghua said calmly: "I've been killing here for thirty years and have gained some reputation in the prehistoric universe. A few stowaways call me the Hunter of the Seventeenth Era. My reputation is no less than that of the Seventh Young Master of the Miluo Palace. In the first half of the night, no one should dare to come..."
He coughed violently, and it took a moment before he calmed down, continuing: "In the second half of the night, there will probably be a wave of probing. The second night will be the real attack. Don't worry. After you leave, if I can't win, I'll leave."
Qin Mu nodded silently, refining the Dao Dew and struggling to recover his cultivation, saying: "What I'm more worried about is that Heavenly Venerable Hao has taken away almost all the holy lands in the ancestral court. In the past, with these holy lands suppressing things, there wasn't much of a problem. But now, if even the Great Black Mountain falls, some existences might take the opportunity to crawl out."
His gaze was deep, and he said in a low voice: "The prehistoric universe doesn't only have the Miluo Palace as a holy land. There are other forces. Even if they're not as good as the Miluo Palace, they're still no small matter."
————Big chapter! Begging for monthly tickets!