Chapter 1741: A String Connecting the Past
When the light bursting from the Grand Primordium's coffin faded, the starry sky was filled with severed root tendrils everywhere, writhing like giant snakes that had been cut in half.
Hall Master Long Wind was very difficult to kill. Even so, his root tendrils continued to writhe incessantly, trying to gather back together.
However, when two root tendrils touched, they immediately triggered the Dao wounds left by the Burial Dao Divine Coffin. The residual might of the coffin's divine power erupted, blasting the tendrils full of holes.
Seeing this, Qin Mu let out a sigh of relief.
As he relaxed, pain erupted throughout his entire body. He had been wounded ever since his battle with Hall Master Chu Ge. The correct decision should have been to rest for a while, recover to his peak state, and then deal with Hall Master Long Wind.
But time was of the essence. If Hall Master Long Wind managed to rendezvous with Hall Master Huan Xi, he would not be a match for the two hall masters combined.
Moreover, neither of these two hall masters had fully descended yet. Once they fully descended and then anchored themselves in the void, whether Qin Mu could defeat them one-on-one was still unknown.
Therefore, he had no choice but to fight while wounded. Fortunately, he had managed to scare off Hall Master Huan Xi on the way. If Hall Master Huan Xi had come to join Hall Master Long Wind, this battle would likely have ended in total defeat.
"Grand Primordium definitely won't hate me, right?"
Qin Mu suppressed his injuries. The Dao wounds left by Hall Master Long Wind were not troublesome, but the Dao wounds inflicted by the Burial Dao Divine Coffin were much trickier and would be difficult to heal in a short time.
He walked to the Grand Primordium's coffin. The fluctuations of the Burial Dao Divine Coffin had calmed down. Despite having been disturbed twice, this divine coffin remained completely unharmed, sturdy and solid—truly excellent coffin material.
Qin Mu gently stroked the coffin, then struggled to drag it, pulling it toward the World-Crossing Golden Ship.
"Grand Primordium is so strong. A mere Burial Dao Divine Coffin can't do anything to him."
Qin Mu was full of confidence in Grand Primordium. His voice hoarse, he called out: "Brother Yu, come out quickly. I'm exhausted."
From somewhere unknown within the World-Crossing Golden Ship, Lan Yutian's voice came: "Brother, give me a little more time."
Qin Mu couldn't drag the Grand Primordium's coffin onto the ship, so he had to stop and rest. After a while, Lan Yutian still hadn't appeared.
"Brother Yu, why aren't you out yet?" He felt puzzled.
"Wait a little longer! I think I'm almost finding my way out!"
Qin Mu waited a while longer until he grew impatient, thinking to himself: "Could Lan Yutian have gotten lost again?"
Lan Yutian had an extremely high comprehension of the Dao, a person naturally close to the Dao. But his flaw was a habitual tendency to get lost. In the past, he had gotten lost and wandered to the Western Lands, spending time with Xu Shenghua. After leaving Xu Shenghua, he had gotten lost all the way to the outer reaches of the Great Void, where he muddle-headedly took in a group of disciples. Fortunately, he encountered Qin Mu, who picked him up and brought him back.
The World-Crossing Golden Ship contained a vast number of golden halls. Qin Mu had once performed a massive and complex calculation to determine the number of golden halls while searching for the location of Emperor Kai Huang, arriving at a shocking figure. Qin Fengqing had then used the Underworld's methods to transform into billions of incarnations to search through all those halls.
If Lan Yutian weren't directionally challenged, he could have figured out a way to find his way out. Unfortunately, he was.
He had used the ship's special properties to preserve himself and trap Hall Master Long Wind, but he hadn't expected to get himself lost in the process.
"Brother Yu probably won't find his way out for tens of thousands of years. I can't count on him."
Qin Mu mustered every last bit of strength to drag the Grand Primordium's coffin onto the ship, then lay on the deck gasping for breath, utterly exhausted. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted into a deep sleep.
Countless tiny Qin Mus crawled in and out of the wounds on his body, chattering away in "Maha maha" and "Guji guji" as they examined the Dao wounds, deducing the divine powers and Dao principles contained within them.
Before long, a deeper layer of the dream spread outward, and many more tiny Qin Mus walked out, carrying axes and chisels. Unlike the other Qin Mus, these tiny ones had flesh and blood—they were manifestations of Qin Mu's Great Dao and Primordial Chaos primordial qi.
Each Qin Mu was like the most industrious worker bee or ant, clustering around Qin Mu's wounds, hammering and chiseling, using their own Dao techniques and divine powers to refine and erase the Dao wounds.
The other tiny Qin Mus curiously examined these new companions, asking one after another: "Maha maha?"
"Guji guji?"
The new companions wore stern expressions, ignoring them. Only when annoyed did they respond: "Aba, aba!"
The other tiny Qin Mus widened their eyes, looking as if they understood, but in truth they understood nothing at all.
There were also some tiny Qin Mus dressed as physicians, either carrying medicine chests, shouldering medicine baskets, or holding alchemy furnaces in their hands, diligently patching and repairing the Dao wounds.
Those tiny Qin Mus swarmed over to ask questions again, but were poisoned by the physician Qin Mus, foaming at the mouth and twitching uncontrollably.
The other Qin Mus pointed at them and laughed heartily, looking smug: "Aba!"
Just as Qin Mu was about to wake from his great dream, these tiny Qin Mus hurriedly dove back into Qin Mu's brain, disappearing one after another.
Qin Mu stretched his body, feeling refreshed after waking from his sleep. The Dao wounds on his body had vanished completely.
He stood up and inspected the Grand Primordium's coffin once more, but saw that Lan Yutian still hadn't managed to emerge from the golden halls.
"Brother Yu is probably truly lost."
During the time he had spent healing in his dream, the World-Crossing Golden Ship had traveled for over ten days, drifting toward the Ancestral Court. They were already very close to it.
Qin Mu frowned slightly. This golden ship moved according to his will, and it had drifted away from the Primordial Realm, approaching the Ancestral Court. While he slept, the world within his dreams was strange and magnificent, and his thoughts were uncontrollable, galloping freely like a horse without reins. Thus, the golden ship had chosen the destination he longed for most in his heart.
"I wonder if Hall Master Long Wind's root tendrils will become a hidden danger."
He felt somewhat uneasy. He should have stayed behind, waited until his wounds healed, and completely eradicated all of Hall Master Long Wind's root tendrils to ensure there would be no lingering problems.
But the golden ship had already come this far. It was too late to turn back now. Indeed, as the ship's direction indicated, his worries about the Ancestral Court were greater.
"Hall Master Long Wind's root tendrils were severely wounded by the Burial Dao Divine Coffin. Every single tendril carries Dao wounds left by the coffin. He doesn't have my vision and insight, so he won't be able to erase those wounds. The problem shouldn't be too serious."
Qin Mu was still somewhat weakened. Clashing head-on with hall master-level existences twice had consumed a great deal of his cultivation. That kind of depletion couldn't be restored just by sleeping.
He rested for a moment, then with a thought, the golden halls on the ship began to disappear one by one. The halls vanished at a moderate pace, giving Lan Yutian enough time to run from one hall into another.
After a long while, the Ancestral Court came into view ahead. In the distance, he could see the allied forces of Yan Kang and the myriad worlds. Only one golden hall remained on the World-Crossing Golden Ship.
Lan Yutian cautiously pushed open the hall door and poked his head out to look around. Seeing that the World-Crossing Golden Ship had shrunk to only about a hundred zhang in length, he breathed a sigh of relief and stepped out of the hall.
"Brother Yu, do you see it?" Qin Mu stood at the bow of the ship, pointing toward the distant Ancestral Court. Behind him stood the upright coffin of Grand Primordium.
Lan Yutian walked forward, glanced at the Grand Primordium's coffin, and saw that Grand Primordium had been placed head-down, feet-up on the ship again. He quickly lifted the coffin and flipped it around.
He walked up beside Qin Mu and looked in the direction his finger pointed. The Ancestral Court was churning with wind and clouds, magnificent and awe-inspiring. The Heavenly Court floated in the sky above the center of the Ancestral Court, its divine might surging, divine light forming clouds, golden radiance blazing—far more spectacular than the Heavenly Court of old!
The canopy of the World Tree had grown to the point of covering the heavens. The Dao spread like rosy clouds, surging forth from the canopy, causing the heavens and earth of the Ancestral Court to grow ever wider.
Beneath the World Tree's canopy, magnificent divine cities floated. Chains of Dao descended from the sky, piercing through the earth and connecting to mountains and rivers, seemingly locking these divine cities in place to prevent them from flying beyond the heavens.
In just a few decades, the Ancestral Court had changed enormously. Prehistoric powerhouses and Dao-achievers had snuck over, transforming heaven and earth, bringing a strange beauty to the Ancestral Court—a breathtaking, heart-stopping beauty.
"Brother, what do you see?" Lan Yutian looked for a long time but didn't know what Qin Mu was referring to.
The Ancestral Court was too vast, with far too many places worthy of attention. The World Tree, the sacred grounds of the Ancestral Court, and the five Dao trees above the Heavenly Court were all eye-catching.
"A string."
The direction Qin Mu pointed was precisely the location of the Ancestral Court's Jade Capital City. His voice deep, he said: "A string that has traveled through time and space from the Sixteenth Era. This string comes from the Chaos River of the Sixteenth Era. It was pulled by Heavenly Venerate Hao, who drew it out of the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court."
The eyesight of his vertical brow eye was astonishing, capable of penetrating time and space, perceiving chaos, and seeing into the past.
What he saw was this string extending from the universe of the past, growing longer and longer as Emperor Hao Tian walked out of the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court, crossing vast stretches of time—spanning this universe's six billion years of history—arriving at the present, following Heavenly Venerate Hao toward the Heavenly Court.
This string was nearly impossible to detect. Only Qin Mu's eyes could see it. No one else could even notice its existence.
"Emperor Hao Tian no longer exists. Only the lackey of the Jade Capital City's gate remains."
Qin Mu exhaled a turbid breath and said in a deep voice: "What Heavenly Venerate Hao intends to do is lead this string to the Heavenly Court, subdue the five Dao-achievers there, and bring that force under his own command!"
Ahead of the golden ship, Heavenly Venerate Yue, Heavenly Venerate You, and the others had already stabilized the army. They had not launched an offensive against the Ancestral Court but instead arrayed themselves outside it. These past days, they had been constructing spiritual energy transfer bridges outside, building large-scale transfer bridges to facilitate travel between there and Yan Kang.
—The situation in the Ancestral Court was not yet clear. Attacking now would only be asking for trouble.
As the golden ship sailed in, Jiang Baigui, Heavenly Venerate Yue, Heavenly Venerate You, Xu Shenghua, Lang Wan, Dragon Qilin, the Black Tortoise and Vermilion Bird Emperors, and many others came to greet him. Qin Mu put away the Grand Primordium's coffin and walked down from the golden ship. Someone immediately came forward to moor the vessel.
"Pastoral Heavenly Venerate, the Ancestral Court has fallen into the hands of prehistoric powerhouses. Emperor Hao Tian's remnant forces have fled into the Ancestral Court. With our strength, we are no match for either side."
Lang Wan's beautiful eyes glanced around as she asked: "Does the Heavenly Venerate have any plans?"
Qin Mu's gaze fell upon her, and his heart stirred slightly. He felt that Lang Wan seemed somewhat different today—no longer as cold and aloof as before. But exactly what had changed, he couldn't quite put his finger on.
"Naturally, I have plans."
Qin Mu laughed heartily: "I will go to the Heavenly Court to pay a visit to the five Dao-achievers there, and while I'm at it, meet Heavenly Venerate Hao and Hall Master Huan Xi, as well as that string behind him!"
Lang Wan smiled: "I'll go with you."
Not far away, Emperor Yan Feng looked somewhat surprised. He stroked his beard and turned his head to Jiang Baigui, saying: "Imperial Preceptor, there's something fishy here. I think this Creator wants to poach from my Ling family."
Jiang Baigui kept his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart, saying: "Your Majesty is overthinking things."
Emperor Yan Feng remained skeptical.
————Wishing Alliance Master Zi Mu a happy birthday!