Chapter 1810: The Third Immutable Substance
The might of the Ancestral Court Primordial Cauldron came roaring through the collapsed city gates of Jade Capital City, its power vast and overwhelming, destroying the buildings of Jade Capital City with devastating force as it passed!
Within the city, one by one, the Dao-achievers and Hall Masters stepped forward, activating their Dao Fruits. Over twenty thousand Dao Fruits floated in the air, stabilizing the might of the Primordial Cauldron!
One precious hall after another stood guard at the front, the bodies of fifty-six Hall Masters standing tall and firm.
Suddenly, the Ancestral Court began to shrink rapidly.
Over these three and a half billion years, the Ancestral Court had already shrunk to one percent of its original size. But now, the Ancestral Court was visibly contracting at a speed visible to the naked eye. The four walls of the Ancestral Court Primordial Cauldron continuously pressed toward the center, mountains and rivers shrinking at tremendous speed, gradually becoming miniature. This caused the power of this great cauldron to become increasingly concentrated, its might growing stronger and stronger!
The city walls on all four sides of Jade Capital City were shaken until they continuously crumbled, showing signs of complete collapse.
Young Master Purple Void raised his hand, drawing his Dao Sword from his ancient zither, his expression calm as he gazed at Qin Mu standing at the center of the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel.
Qin Mu strode forward. On the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel, the Dao weapons of three thousand Yan Kang Dao-achievers flew about, divine abilities shooting in all directions, attacking the thousand palaces and ten thousand halls of Jade Capital City. They sought to coordinate with the might of the Ancestral Court Primordial Cauldron to raze this divine city—a city that even the Destruction Calamity and Creation Calamity could not destroy—to the ground!
The Six Paths Heavenly Wheel revolved around Qin Mu as its center, forming a strange formation. The Yan Kang Dao-achievers standing on the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel seemed to be perpetually trapped in reincarnation, and others found it difficult to discern the mystery within.
But Young Master Purple Void and Young Master Ling Xiao could see the hidden workings of the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel in motion.
These Yan Kang Dao-achievers, each time the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel completed one revolution, seemed to undergo rebirth. Whether it was their cultivation, magical power, physical body, or primordial spirit, all were renewed anew!
With the wheel in motion, they could remain at their peak state at all times—their bodies never knowing fatigue, their magical power never exhausted!
The Six Paths Heavenly Wheel had two great functions. The first was to cast Dao-achievers into the Six Paths of Reincarnation, stripping them of their physical bodies, stripping them of their magical power, and changing their species.
Those struck by the Path of Reincarnation would most likely die without even knowing how.
The other function was the one currently displayed by the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel—keeping the Yan Kang Dao-achievers forever at their peak state, undying and indestructible!
Young Master Purple Void had once crossed hands with Qin Mu, but that had been Seventh Young Master Qin Mu, not the current Qin Mu.
At that time, Seventh Young Master Qin Mu's vertical eye on his forehead had opened, severing one of his zither strings. Third Young Master Ling Xiao had also crossed hands with Qin Mu, who sat motionless while a single Dao Fruit on the World Tree met Young Master Ling Xiao's full-powered strike, forcing Young Master Ling Xiao to retreat in the face of difficulty.
At that time, neither of them had been able to probe the depths of Qin Mu's abilities.
Even across the past sixteen cosmic epochs, no one knew how many Dao Fruits Qin Mu possessed, nor what divine abilities he had. Even though Qin Mu had written down his method of achieving Dao through Chaos and placed it in the Mirage Palace, no one could understand it.
Even more terrifying was that in the past universe, almost no one had personally witnessed Qin Mu making a move!
Perhaps Qin Mu had made moves before, but those who saw him act were most likely already dead.
Even the Master of Mirage Palace himself had once said that he could not quite understand the divine abilities of Seventh Young Master Chaos.
Because of their lack of understanding of Qin Mu, Young Master Ling Xiao and Young Master Purple Void could not deduce Qin Mu's Dao techniques and divine abilities from the Seventh Young Master. Fortunately, over these three and a half billion years, they had researched Qin Mu's Dao techniques and divine abilities quite thoroughly.
Qin Mu's Six Paths Heavenly Wheel, though exquisite, did not pose much of a threat to them—it could not cast them into reincarnation. But the other function of the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel posed a fatal threat to Jade Capital City.
As long as the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel existed, the Yan Kang Dao-achievers would be undying and indestructible, always at their peak, nearly impossible to kill. One could say that the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel had transformed these Dao-achievers into three thousand types of immutable substances!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The tremors from outside the city grew increasingly violent. The Ancestral Court had already shrunk to one-thousandth of its original size and was still contracting. It seemed that the four walls of this great cauldron were already very close to Jade Capital City.
Of course, this was an optical illusion. The Ancestral Court was extremely vast—even shrunk to only one-thousandth of its original size, it was still extremely far from Jade Capital City.
However, at this rate of contraction, it would not be long before the four walls of the Ancestral Court Primordial Cauldron reached the edge of Jade Capital City!
By then, all the might of the Primordial Cauldron would be concentrated in a narrow space, striking directly upon Jade Capital City!
With the terrifying power of this heavy artifact refined from the Ancestral Court, it would likely be able to blast Jade Capital City to pieces!
The fifty-six Hall Masters and the eighteen thousand Dao-achievers were now wavering internally, repeatedly glancing toward the two Young Masters. But Young Master Ling Xiao and Young Master Purple Void remained calm and composed, watching with indifference as Qin Mu drove the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel rampaging through the city, destroying the buildings of Jade Capital City, drawing closer and closer to them!
Rumble!
The city walls on all four sides of Jade Capital City trembled, and more sections collapsed. Standing within the city now, one could clearly see the mountains and rivers on the four walls of the Primordial Cauldron—could even see the trees on the mountains!
The four walls of the Primordial Cauldron were already very close to Jade Capital City.
Finally, the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel arrived before the forest of Dao Trees within the city. Behind the forest of Dao Trees lay the rivers of Chaos.
Within the forest of Dao Trees, the many Dao-achievers of Mirage Palace felt a wild sense of oppression!
Yes, it was a wild and unrestrained sense of oppression.
They had all met Seventh Young Master Qin Mu before, but their interactions had been few. In their understanding, Seventh Young Master Qin Mu had always been gentle and refined—though quite wicked, he carried himself with elegance and grace.
But the Qin Mu before them now displayed nothing but wildness and overbearing dominance!
Qin Mu looked toward the two Young Masters ahead from the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel, his gaze indifferent. The rotation of the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel gradually came to a stop.
Behind him, the Ancestral Court's Jade Capital City was already in shambles—not a single intact building could be found.
The two Young Masters stood before the forest of Dao Trees. The Chaos runes around Young Master Ling Xiao's Dao Spear were still howling as they spun, holding up the Chaos Sea in the sky, preventing it from pressing down.
At this moment, the Chaos Sea had also shrunk countless times, becoming increasingly dense and heavy. It pressed down on the Dao Spear, bending it more and more, nearly reaching the spear's limit!
Boom!
Another terrifying tremor came. A section of Jade Capital City's city wall collapsed, countless bricks and stones flying in all directions. The Chaos runes imprinted on the bricks were also blasted to pieces!
The four walls of the Ancestral Court Primordial Cauldron were now only a hundred li away from Jade Capital City.
Even the oppressive pressure of this heavy treasure alone made it difficult for the many Dao-achievers in the city to breathe!
The fifty-six Hall Masters could no longer sit still, continuously glancing toward the two Young Masters, beads of sweat forming on their foreheads.
Young Master Purple Void and Young Master Ling Xiao remained calm and composed, utterly unconcerned.
From outside the city came a piercing creaking sound—the sound of Jade Capital City's city walls being pressed by terrifying pressure, on the verge of collapse.
Suddenly, the city walls on all four sides of Jade Capital City collapsed in large sections, and the four walls of the Ancestral Court Primordial Cauldron finally arrived before Jade Capital City!
Everyone in the city felt as though they were inside the great cauldron, as if they might be buried beneath its might at any moment!
"Young Master!" a Dao-achiever cried shrilly.
Young Master Purple Void plucked his zither, and the music became wildly agitated. Countless Otherverse Grand Luo Heavens enveloped the surroundings of Jade Capital City, resisting the might surging from all directions of the Primordial Cauldron. The Otherverse Grand Luo Heavens continuously came into being and perished, yet never broke.
Qin Mu raised an eyebrow.
"Old Seventh, do you know?"
Young Master Ling Xiao's hand fell upon his Dao Spear. The spear, which had been nearly bent to breaking under the weight of the Chaos Sea, suddenly straightened with a snap. The spear's might pierced through the Chaos Sea, and the madly spinning Chaos runes spilling from the spear shaft tore the Chaos Sea apart!
Around the Dao Spear, a terrifying vortex formed, howling as it spun.
Young Master Ling Xiao said coolly: "Jade Capital City was refined by our teacher to carry all living beings through the Destruction Calamity and the Creation Calamity. This divine city can be said to be the third type of immutable substance across all seventeen universes, past and present."
He suddenly spun the Dao Spear, and the collapsed city walls and towers of Jade Capital City were all instantly restored!
Jade Capital City expanded with a howl, spinning along with his Dao Spear!
A terrifying upheaval came—the Ancestral Court Primordial Cauldron was torn apart from within by the expanding, spinning Jade Capital City!
Young Master Ling Xiao reached out and pulled up his Dao Spear. Jade Capital City rapidly shrank and descended. A cataclysmic sound like heaven and earth splitting apart came as the ground of the Primordial Cauldron cracked open under violent tremors, a great hole smashed through it!
Around Jade Capital City, countless shattered continents flew in all directions.
Young Master Ling Xiao brandished his long spear, and Jade Capital City suddenly halted its descent, shooting upward to meet the descending Chaos Sea!
Boom!
Jade Capital City smashed straight through the Chaos Sea, shattering it into pieces!
The Ancestral Court's Jade Capital City—the reason it bore the name "Ancestral Court" was because it sat within the Ancestral Court, not because it was part of the Ancestral Court.
In fact, this divine city had begun its refinement from the Second Epoch. One cosmic epoch after another passed, and it had long since become even vaster than the Ancestral Court!
Jade Capital City flew out of the Ancestral Court Primordial Cauldron. Below, the Ancestral Court had shattered into countless continents, with earth, water, fire, and wind erupting and howling—like the end of days for the Ancestral Court itself!
This was the might of the third immutable substance—Jade Capital City, the protector of countless Dao-achievers!
The first immutable substance was the World Tree. Because the Master of Mirage Palace had attained enlightenment beneath the tree, the World Tree gave birth to sentience, and Elder Wuya was born from within the World Tree.
The World Tree naturally ignored the Destruction Calamity and Creation Calamity, becoming the best channel for prehistoric powerhouses to sneak across.
The second immutable substance was the Guixu Abyss, where Young Master Wuji was born.
Each time an epoch passed, Guixu gained another abyss, providing a passage to the next epoch. But Young Master Wuji had devoured the other Guixu Goddesses and seized control of the abysses. Apart from the Heaven-Opening Multitude, no one dared to borrow passage through there.
The third immutable substance was Jade Capital City, created by the Master of Mirage Palace!
This divine city was indeed, as Qin Mu had said, forged solely to resist the Destruction Calamity and Creation Calamity, possessing little offensive power. But at the same time, it was a divine city refined by the Master of Mirage Palace!
It did not need overwhelming power—it only needed three simple collisions to shatter the Ancestral Court Primordial Cauldron and the Chaos Sea that Qin Mu had painstakingly built over three and a half billion years!
This was the reliance and capital of Young Master Ling Xiao and Young Master Purple Void!
This divine city could never be broken!
Within the Six Paths of Reincarnation, Qin Mu suddenly let out a long cry. The shattered Primordial Cauldron immediately began to reassemble!
Young Master Purple Void smiled faintly. Behind him, the Purple Void Dao Hall blazed with purple light. Jade Capital City became even more magnificent and vast, and the countless fragments of the Ancestral Court flying toward it were all absorbed into Jade Capital City.
The corner of Qin Mu's eye twitched. The Primordial Cauldron reassembled once more—but this time, it did not seek to contain Jade Capital City. Instead, it found itself within the cauldron.
"Old Seventh, today is the day you set out on your journey."
Young Master Ling Xiao gripped his Dao Spear tightly, his body sinking slightly: "Please."
Qin Mu's brows rose. He stepped out from the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel and said in a deep voice: "Brother, I leave it to you."
Qin Fengqing immediately extricated himself from the wheel, stepping between the Six Paths to take control of the wheel: "Be careful! Don't let yourself get killed! If... if you can't hold on, then go back to the past."
Qin Mu grinned. The Chaos Hall rose into the air, and the Chaos Sea flew toward it, surging into the hall with a howl. He laughed: "This battle—there is absolutely no way I can lose!"
The moment his words fell, the Chaos Hall vanished. Sixteen rivers of Chaos spun around him, revolving with a howl!