Chapter 1732: Ultimate Cold Silence
In the final Dao words of the eldest young master Thai Thuong, he revealed the scene of the ultimate void expanding infinitely.
The myriad heavens and myriad worlds, the ancestral court, the four extreme heavens, Huyền Đô and U Đô, all expanded along with the infinite expansion of the ultimate void, until ultimately everything became planar, became void, transforming into a membrane of void with no thickness and no mass whatsoever.
All matter would be infinitely decomposed with the infinite expansion of the void. The smallest particles would shatter, and after eight hundred billion years, they would break down to the level of Hồng Minh runes.
Hồng Minh runes were already the smallest structure of the Dao. After eight hundred billion years, the Hồng Minh runes would also shatter with the expansion of the void. With the shattering of Hồng Minh, all great Daos would cease to exist, and every Dao technique and divine power would dissolve into nothingness!
By that time, any cultivator who had attained the Dao—their Đại La Thiên would also expand infinitely and collapse, their Dao trees, Dao flowers, and Dao fruits would all turn into void and cease to exist!
The scene depicted by the eldest young master Thai Thuong was the cold silence that followed the infinite expansion of the ultimate void.
The myriad heavens and myriad worlds, the ancestral court, the four extreme heavens, Huyền Đô and U Đô—all life, all matter—would become mere ornaments on this infinitely vast membrane of void, invisible and untouchable.
Any great Dao would have no place to depend on.
Even the World Tree itself would become void, endlessly unfolding into the void, ultimately transforming into a massless membrane of void.
All energy in the universe would be extinguished, and all mass would disappear.
In the end, even the Quy Khư abyssal chasm would exhaust all its energy, evaporate completely, and cease to exist!
Ultimate cold silence.
Tần Mục sat there quietly, not moving for a long time.
The result deduced by the master of Di La Cung that the eldest young master Thai Thuong had shown him was highly likely to happen—one could even say it was certain to happen!
Because when Tần Mục first came to the ultimate void, he had discovered that the ultimate void was constantly expanding and growing on its own!
Moreover, even without entering the ultimate void, one could see this expansion from the trajectory of history.
In the ancient era, the universe experienced the transformations of the five primordial phases, evolving the ancestral court and giving birth to the Creator race, who lived within the ancestral court. At that time, whether it was the myriad heavens and myriad worlds or the four extreme heavens, they were all very close to the ancestral court. In the beginning, the four extreme heavens were even four sacred lands within the ancestral court!
At that time, "reaching out to pluck stars" was not an empty saying.
As time passed, with the expansion of the ultimate void, the four extreme heavens gradually drifted away from the ancestral court. The stars in the sky grew more numerous, the universe grew larger, Huyền Đô continuously expanded, and the universe continuously grew.
By the early years of Long Hán, the territory of the universe was already countless times larger than in the ancient era!
If one used the four extreme heavens and the ancestral court as observation points, one would discover that the space between the four extreme heavens and the ancestral court was still continuously expanding!
The root cause of all this was the continuous growth of the ultimate void.
The ultimate void pushed the unfolding of layer after layer of void, and these layers of void in turn pushed the continuous unfolding of the entire universe, ultimately causing the space between heavens to stretch endlessly and the distance between stars to grow ever greater.
This was the omen of ultimate cold silence.
"Formation, abiding, destruction, and emptiness do not necessarily appear in sequence. It is also possible that only the two stages of formation and emptiness will appear."
The eldest young master Thai Thuong's Dao words became much simpler, no longer containing such complex information. He said dryly: "The result of the teacher's deduction was that the seventeenth epoch has only the two stages of formation and emptiness. He could not find a way to resolve it, and thus fell into utter despair."
In the past, the evolution of the universe was formation, abiding, destruction, and emptiness—the universe forms, stabilizes, decays, and perishes. Then it undergoes the calamity of rebirth, re-evolving the primordial chaos of the universe, repeating the cycle of formation, abiding, destruction, and emptiness.
The World Tree and Quy Khư made the cycle of formation, abiding, destruction, and emptiness extremely stable.
But the universe of the seventeenth epoch might be perpetually in the process of formation, ultimately transforming into void.
Tần Mục sat there in a daze. After a long while, he suddenly laughed and said: "Senior brother Thai Thuong, what connection does what you speak of have with my coming here to rescue Thái Dị?"
The eldest young master Thai Thuong was like one who had entered nirvana, with not a trace of life force. He continued to answer in Dao words: "The reason the teacher eliminated Thiên Đô was also because of this. Thiên Đô opened the heavens and created the universe in the seventh epoch, evolving the cosmos and the world. The final result was the ultimate cold silence. The teacher calculated the ultimate cold silence, and so when persuasion failed, he had no choice but to act. Thiên Đô is Thái Dị."
Tần Mục fell silent.
The two faced each other, each saying nothing.
The eldest young master Thai Thuong had made clear the reason he had suppressed and imprisoned Thái Dị. Releasing Thái Dị might cause the seventeenth epoch to eternally evolve toward ultimate cold silence, so he would not agree to Tần Mục's request to release Thái Dị.
Tần Mục was also aware of this, but he did not have sufficient confidence to rescue Thái Dị, so he could only remain silent.
After who knows how long, Tần Mục slowly said: "The teacher could not solve it, so he entered nirvana. If you keep Thái Dị, can you solve it?"
The eldest young master Thai Thuong shook his head.
If keeping Thái Dị could solve the problem of everything turning to emptiness, then the master of Di La Cung would not have needed to enter nirvana.
Tần Mục said unhurriedly: "If that is the case, why suppress Thái Dị? He has nothing to do with the emptiness of the seventeenth epoch. Suppressing him will not help matters."
The eldest young master Thai Thuong opened his eyes. In his gaze, purple qi pervaded, and within the purple qi appeared a scene of the heavens and earth first opening, the universe in primordial chaos. He said: "He is an enemy of Di La Cung."
Tần Mục laughed: "Then, am I considered an enemy of Di La Cung?"
The purple qi in the eldest young master Thai Thuong's eyes completely turned into chaos, as if he had fallen into confusion. Even he did not know whether Tần Mục counted as a disciple of the master of Di La Cung or an enemy of Di La Cung.
Tần Mục laughed: "Di La Cung is actually just a gathering place for Dao attainers who share the same ideals. The teacher was like this, you are like this, and I am like this. There is no difference in our ideals. Our goals are all to save the world. You uphold the teacher's ideals, and every move you make is a manifestation of the teacher's ideals. I am the same. Senior brother, the teacher did not kill Thái Dị, nor did he suppress him. Do you think that if the teacher truly wanted to keep him, he could have left Di La Cung?"
The eldest young master Thai Thuong shook his head: "If the teacher wanted to kill him, then the last time he entered Di La Cung to provoke, he would have been kept in the palace, rather than being cast down to the fourth epoch."
Tần Mục breathed a sigh of relief and laughed: "On the contrary, the ones who violated the teacher's ideals are not you or I, nor Thái Dị, but the third and the fourth. The third and the fourth, for their own selfish desires, tried to forcibly enter the seventeenth epoch. Perhaps it was precisely their actions that led to the ultimate cold silence of the seventeenth epoch. I am releasing Thái Dị also to stop them."
His eyes were bright, and he said excitedly: "Senior brother Thai Thuong, think about it carefully. Isn't this the logic? It was precisely the third and the fourth who stirred up all of this! Senior brother Thai Thuong should not only release Thái Dị, but also join hands with us to block these two unfilial disciples! We senior brothers should join forces and teach them a good lesson. They violated the teacher's ideals—they are the true betrayers and enemies!"
His powers of persuasion and influence were extremely strong, yet the eldest young master Thai Thuong remained completely unmoved. He said dryly: "The third and the fourth have no selfish motives. What they uphold is also the teacher's ideals."
Tần Mục sneered: "Upholding the teacher's ideals means they can destroy the lives of the seventeenth epoch and manipulate the living beings of the tenth epoch to slaughter wantonly? How much suffering have they caused? How many people have died because of them? Senior brother Thai Thuong, are you even unable to distinguish right from wrong?"
He stood up and said coldly: "Is this what Di La Cung does? Is this what the teacher does? If so, how can he speak of making the Dao attainers of each cosmic epoch willingly help him? Senior brother Thai Thuong, if the teacher were here, he would definitely not allow the third and the fourth to act so recklessly!"
The eldest young master Thai Thuong was silent.
Tần Mục paced back and forth in front of him: "If it were not for Thái Dị seizing a body and entering this universe, cutting down the World Tree, the seventeenth epoch would have been destroyed long ago! This is the reason I want to save him! From the opening of the seventeenth epoch to the present, how many people have died? The third and the fourth manipulate the changes and progress of the entire universe, sacrificing the living beings of the seventeenth epoch. These living beings have nothing to do with you, but they have everything to do with me! Senior brother Thai Thuong, if you cannot help, then at least you must not take sides!"
He stopped walking, breathing heavily, his face almost pressed against the eldest young master Thai Thuong's face, and shouted loudly: "Since you uphold the teacher's ideals, then act more like him! You don't favor me, but you also cannot favor them! Today, no matter what, I am taking Thái Dị away! Will you let me or not?"
The eldest young master Thai Thuong remained silent.
Tần Mục straightened his waist, activated the Dao of Thái Dị to transform into the Thái Dị divine axe, and walked toward the thatched hut, his aura blazing.
Now he was completely turning his back to the eldest young master Thai Thuong. If Thai Thuong were to strike at this moment, he would have no way to defend.
Not only that, he also did not have full confidence in opening this Thái Thượng thatched hut, but he had to try!
"Chaos."
The voice of the eldest young master Thai Thuong came from behind him. Tần Mục stopped in his tracks. The eldest young master Thai Thuong closed his eyes and said: "The teacher said that you attained the Dao through chaos, which made him somewhat unable to understand you. Perhaps you will solve the difficult problems that the teacher and I could not solve. I will not help you open the door, nor will I help Lăng Tiêu and Tử Tiêu. In your struggles, I will not help anyone. But when Di La Cung is in danger, I will act."
A smile appeared on Tần Mục's face, and he said: "I understand."
The eldest young master Thai Thuong stood up, walked past him, opened the firewood door and went inside, then closed the firewood door from within, carefully locking it.
His voice came from within the Thái Thượng thatched hut: "Whether you can rescue Thái Dị depends on your own ability. I will not interfere."
Tần Mục laughed heartily, his aura fully exploding. Behind him, the World Tree suddenly appeared, standing tall to support his inner universe. Beneath his feet, the Quy Khư abyssal chasm spun, elevating his strength to the extreme!
Behind his head, the Hỗn Độn Hall materialized, vast and chaotic, with Dao sounds resounding. Tần Mục's feet shifted apart and braced, steadying his stance. He activated the Thái Dị divine axe and struck levelly toward the firewood door of the thatched hut!
The Thái Thượng thatched hut was the true Thái Thượng Hall, condensed from the Dao cultivation of the eldest young master Thai Thuong. It could be called the supreme Dao within Di La Cung!
The moment his Thái Dị divine axe fell upon the firewood door, every strand of thatch on the hut lit up, the Dao transformed, Hồng Minh runes flowed, and he felt an unparalleled pressure!
Tần Mục roared. The chaotic qi overflowing from the Hỗn Độn Hall behind him grew increasingly intense. Suddenly, a tremor sounded, and within that hall seated amidst chaos, a gate emerged!
—Wishing the alliance leader Trọng Kiếm Vô Phong Tuyệt Hồn a belated happy birthday yesterday. I'm ashamed—I forgot when uploading last night. Please don't hit me...