Chapter 904: When Nothing Becomes Something, Something Returns to Nothing
He suddenly seemed to have gone mad, laughing and crying at the same time. Many prison guards hurriedly set down their work and rushed over to support Yan Shaoqing.
Yan Shaoqing shouted, shaking off the crowd, and said hoarsely: "Fake! All of you are fake!"
He injured several prison guards and killed a few more, then suddenly his body stiffened like a puppet, standing there woodenly, staring blankly at his own hands, which were covered in blood.
After a long while, he turned his head with difficulty and said to Qin Mu: "Mu Tianzun, is this real or fake now?"
Qin Mu sighed and said: "Zuo Shaobi, I plan to leave. Won't you see me off?"
Yan Shaoqing's facial muscles twitched wildly, his face contorted.
He followed behind Qin Mu, walking outward.
Not long after, he escorted Qin Mu and the others out of the great prison. Qin Mu turned around and smiled: "Zuo Shaobi, no need to see me off further."
Yan Shaoqing bowed, and said woodenly: "Respectfully seeing off the Tianzun."
Qin Mu smiled, slowly sat down, and fire clouds rose beneath Long Qilin's feet, carrying him as he prepared to leave.
"Mu Tianzun, is this real or fake now?" Yan Shaoqing's voice came from behind.
Qin Mu patted Long Qilin's head, and Long Qilin hurriedly stopped.
Qin Mu smiled: "When truth becomes false, false becomes truth; when nothing becomes something, something returns to nothing. Zuo Shaobi, you are the number one master of divine consciousness divine abilities in the Heavenly Court. Is true or false, is existence or non-existence, really that important? Please return."
Yan Shaoqing's body trembled slightly, and he looked up at him.
Long Qilin carried Qin Mu into the distance.
Yan Shaoqing's eyes twitched, and he saw Qin Mu's shadow on Long Qilin's head writhing, splitting from one shadow into three shadows!
His mind roared, and he immediately turned and ran back, rushing into the great prison, flying to the cages holding Yan Kang Guoshi and Yan Feng Emperor.
He stood there woodenly. Both cages were completely empty—neither Yan Feng Emperor nor Yan Kang Guoshi was inside!
"So that's it, so that's it..."
Yan Shaoqing laughed softly: "So it was I who taught you how to undo the seals on the cages. So this is not a dream now, not an illusion of divine consciousness... When truth becomes false, false becomes truth; when nothing becomes something, something returns to nothing. What a brilliant move, what a brilliant move..."
Suddenly, a prison guard passed by, saw the empty cages, and let out a scream, shouting harshly: "The prisoners have escaped!"
Yan Shaoqing turned to look at him, and said with a smile: "The prisoners are clearly still in the cages. Where did they escape to?"
The prison guard was stunned for a moment, then looked at the cages again. Yan Feng Emperor and Yan Kang Guoshi were indeed both in the cages.
The prison guard showed a confused expression. Yan Shaoqing said: "Making a fuss over nothing. Go do your work... Wait a moment, how long did Mu Tianzun's prison visit take?"
The prison guard said: "Less than a quarter of an hour."
"Less than a quarter of an hour?"
Yan Shaoqing's heart sank. He felt as if several months had passed. He waved his hand, letting the prison guard leave.
Yan Shaoqing slowly walked outward, his hands and feet ice-cold, silently thinking to himself: "You kidnapped Yan Feng Emperor and Jiang Baigui, yet I have to help you cover it up. With my divine consciousness divine abilities, even if the Heavenly Court sends people to investigate, as long as they are not at the Emperor Throne realm, they won't be able to see that the Jiang Baigui and Yan Feng Emperor in the cages are both my mental illusions. You know I won't chase after you to demand the return of Yan Feng Emperor and Jiang Baigui, because you know I can't break your divine abilities. Even if I chased you, I would only fall into your illusions and dreams again."
"You also know I will help you cover it up, because I've already been dragged to the Divine Execution Platform once. To save my own life, I must help you cover it up. You even deliberately revealed a flaw, letting your shadow split into three. Those two shadows are Yan Feng Emperor and Jiang Baigui, aren't they?"
"Mu Tianzun, oh Mu Tianzun, you have become so terrifying..."
He arrived at the Judge God Hall, opened the official documents, picked up his brush and wrote the words "Mu Tianzun's prison visit, everything as usual," then set down the brush and stared blankly into space.
Suddenly, he clenched his fist tightly, his fingernails piercing his palm, blood flowing from his hand. But then he weakly released his grip, let out a bitter laugh, and continued handling official business.
"I have lost, but your divine consciousness divine abilities are not invincible. Your cultivation is low—breaking your divine abilities is too simple. All it takes is an outsider's intervention, and your divine abilities will dissolve on their own. Your divine abilities can only last less than a quarter of an hour."
"Aren't you going to the Heavenly Court? If you use this divine ability in the Heavenly Court, you will surely die! However..."
He stopped writing, fear appearing on his face, and shivered several times: "However, if you cultivate to the Emperor Throne realm, combining divine consciousness divine abilities, the Infinite Tribulation Sutra, and the Netherworld Great Dao, that would be too terrifying!"
He didn't dare imagine how terrifying that scene would be!
He continued writing official documents, then suddenly his brush tip stopped. His eyes were twitching.
"How do I know that the current me has truly escaped from his dream illusion?"
Yan Shaoqing's pupils suddenly contracted: "What if this is also an illusion right now? Am I in a dream now, or in reality?"
Despair flowed from his eyes: "Could it be as he said—that I must abolish my Divine Bridge Divine Treasury and accept the Yan Kang Reform to completely escape his dreams? If that's the case, then what difference is there between me and those rebels of Yan Kang..."
The fear on his face grew thicker and thicker.
Although Qin Mu had left and the divine abilities had stopped, the influence of the divine consciousness divine abilities was like a demonic seed taking root and sprouting in the depths of his heart.
Yan Shaoqing knew he had to walk out, had to abolish his Divine Bridge Divine Treasury, accept the Yan Kang Reform, and cultivate the Heavenly River Divine Treasury. Otherwise, he would be forever tormented, unable to distinguish between dreams, reality, and illusions. The flaw in his Dao heart would also make it impossible for him to cultivate to the Emperor Throne realm!
However, the Heavenly Court strictly forbade reform. If he accepted the Heavenly River Divine Treasury, then he would be one of the reform rebels.
"Abolishing my Divine Bridge Divine Treasury—my Heavenly Palace will come crashing down, and I will die... Jiang Baigui told me that he created a method to seal the Southern Heavenly Gate, allowing one to abolish the Divine Bridge Divine Treasury without dying... Why did he tell me this?"
Yan Shaoqing suddenly realized: "They, master and disciple, conspired together to set a great trap for me! A trap within a trap... I need to understand the Yan Kang Reform. I'll secretly understand it. I won't participate in Yan Kang's reform, I'll just secretly understand..."
Qin Mu traveled far from the great prison, had Long Qilin stop, and smiled: "Yan Shaoqing didn't chase after us. The prison break is settled. You can come out now. Yan Shaoqing is a smart man—he will use his divine consciousness divine abilities to help us cover this up. No one will know you've already escaped."
There were three shadows beneath his feet. Two of them writhed, stood up, and then slowly transformed into Yan Kang Guoshi and Yan Feng Emperor.
Yan Feng Emperor greedily breathed in the outside air, still somewhat incredulous, murmuring: "I actually managed to come out alive. I thought I would die in there..."
Yan Kang Guoshi bowed to Qin Mu: "Thank you, Senior Brother, for the rescue!"
Qin Mu hurriedly returned the bow, smiling: "If you hadn't taught him the Three Primordial Immortal Divine Consciousness, I wouldn't have been able to so smoothly find the flaw in his technique and plant a demonic seed in his Dao heart. To make the Three Primordial Immortal Divine Consciousness, an Emperor Throne technique, keep up with the times, we spent no small amount of manpower and intelligence studying the flaws of this technique."
Yan Kang Guoshi said solemnly: "But being able to restrain him so thoroughly is not something easily accomplished."
"I used Great Brahma Heavenly King Buddha's Infinite Tribulation Sutra to enter dreams. In a short time, I deduced countless possibilities and found the simplest method to restrain him. Then, using the Netherworld Great Dao to plant a demonic seed in his Dao heart, the demonic flower bloomed in his Dao heart, plunging him into dreams and illusions."
Qin Mu said: "My divine ability invaded his divine treasury from his Dao heart and took root there. For him to jump out of the dreams and illusions I created for him is too difficult. Every time he forcibly breaks through an illusion, he actually sinks deeper into the dream. Each time he tries to break my divine consciousness divine ability, it instead makes him fall deeper into the Infinite Tribulation, experiencing tribulation after tribulation."
Yan Feng Emperor and Yan Kang Guoshi praised him endlessly.
The Infinite Tribulation Sutra was Great Brahma Heavenly King Buddha's Emperor Throne true scripture. The Immortal Divine Consciousness was Emperor Chi's Emperor Throne technique. And planting the demonic seed in the Dao heart was a method from Woodcutter Sage's Great Nurturing Demon Heavenly Sutra.
Qin Mu fused these three techniques and divine abilities together, catalyzed by the Yan Kang Reform, and was actually able to trap even a terrifying existence at the Lingxiao realm. Truly miraculous skill.
Yan Kang Guoshi's eyes flickered, and he said: "Yan Shaoqing might become our Dao companion in the future. I have already pointed out a path for him. Now it depends on whether he will walk that path."
"Although you two are now free, you cannot show your true faces. You must change your appearances." Qin Mu reminded them.
Yan Feng Emperor and Yan Kang Guoshi nodded. They had cultivated the Three Primordial Immortal Divine Consciousness and the Leakless Creation Mysterious Sutra, two pinnacle works of creation arts. Changing their appearances or even altering the structure of their primordial spirits was simple for them.
Qin Mu took out a mirror and handed it to Yan Kang Guoshi, saying: "Inside this mirror are the Heavenly Court's research results on ancient gods over the past million years. The Dao Ancestor gave it to me. The Heavenly Court also used the knowledge inside to recreate weapons like Imperial Tianzun. Study it well."
Yan Kang Guoshi examined it carefully. The mirror contained a world within, filled with countless jade slips inscribed with various runes.
"You're giving this to us? What about you?" Yan Kang Guoshi asked.
"The mirror was refined by me. Making a few more is no problem at all."
Qin Mu flipped his hand and produced another mirror, smiling: "Two identical mirrors facing each other can copy the jade slip imprints into the other mirror. I still have several more mirrors here. Don't worry about me. You two, farewell!"
He bowed: "I will go to the Heavenly Court. This journey, I know not when I shall return. I have an agreement with Yan Xiu Emperor, setting a one-year period. Within a year, I will return to see her. If you two return to Yan Kang, report my safety for me!"
Yan Kang Guoshi said: "You're not going back? You really are going to the Heavenly Court?"
Qin Mu smiled: "I want to see whether the Heavenly Court truly has weaknesses. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. If I don't go to the Heavenly Court, I won't know its true strength! So I must go!"
Yan Feng Emperor suddenly said: "Did you marry Yuxiu? Did you become her empress?"
Qin Mu's face turned red, and he hurriedly waved his hands: "Your Majesty, why would you say that? We are innocent!"
Yan Feng Emperor spat, sneered, and said: "I... as Yan Xiu Emperor's father, I certainly don't want you two to be innocent. You rascal, I'm worried you won't find a wife, it's not like I'm selling my daughter to you. Why are you so scared? I'm not going to cut off your head! You and the Guoshi are the same—both of you are too skilled to find wives. If I hadn't bestowed a wife upon the Guoshi back then, look at him now, still a lonely old man..."
Yan Kang Guoshi coughed once, reminding him: "Your Majesty, it's time to go."
Yan Feng Emperor sighed and said: "I'm not the emperor now. Yuxiu is the emperor. You're not the Guoshi anymore either. I wonder which bastard is the new Yan Kang Guoshi."
Qin Mu reminded him: "That bastard is standing right in front of you, and that bastard just saved the two of you."
Yan Feng Emperor laughed heartily and waved goodbye.
Qin Mu was in high spirits and shouted: "Long Fatty, let's go—"
Yan Feng Emperor and Yan Kang Guoshi watched him go into the distance. After a long while, Yan Feng Emperor changed his appearance and said: "Yuxiu became emperor, and he became Guoshi. What a twist of fate. I originally hoped the two of them would end up together."
"Actually, didn't Your Majesty already envision this future long ago?"
Yan Kang Guoshi also changed his face, walking eastward, and said calmly: "We had already planned this long ago. If the reform failed and we died, someone would need to carry on our will. The person Your Majesty chose was precisely Yan Xiu Emperor and Sect Leader Qin."
Yan Feng Emperor caught up with him, silent for a moment, then said: "At that time, I was the emperor. I didn't think about Yuxiu's happiness. I only wanted her to carry on our cause. Now I'm not the emperor, but a father. I don't want her to bear that burden. I only hope she can find a good husband and live a peaceful, happy life. Now that she has become emperor, the possibility of her being with Qin Mu is minuscule. This kid can't possibly become her empress, and an emperor cannot marry out. The two of them..."
He shook his head and didn't continue.
Yan Kang Guoshi understood what he meant.
Ling Yuxiu inherited the throne and became Yan Xiu Emperor. Qin Mu became the new Yan Kang Guoshi. The two of them would never have the chance to be together again.
Ling Yuxiu should have realized this result when she inherited the throne, but she still accepted the crown.
Qin Mu also realized this result when he agreed to become her Yan Kang Guoshi, but he still became her Guoshi.
In silence, both of them had abandoned some feelings in their hearts, only neither had ever spoken of it.