Chapter 909: The Creator Gods of Prehistory
Qin Mu pried off another diamond-shaped crystal. The crystal was about as tall as he was. Standing behind it and looking forward, the world he saw was different from usual, but that was merely an effect of the diamond crystal's refraction.
"The world seen through this crystal as an eye differs from what the naked eye sees, but surely this crystal has more uses than just this?"
Qin Mu touched his brow. There was a small raised bump there.
During the catastrophe of the Prime World, he had gouged out his third eye and cast it into the Netherworld. The wound on his brow had healed, leaving a small, fleshy bump.
"In the past, my third divine eye was used to connect with the Netherworld, relying on that eye to unleash the great Netherworld Dao techniques. The prehistoric giants embedded crystals in their brows—could they also have been trying to unleash some kind of technique?"
He was deeply puzzled, then came to the center of the altar and looked at the pool of luminous liquid. The liquid flowed like water, slowly condensing.
Earlier, Red Emperor Qi Xiayu had activated the Phoenix Ship to shatter that strange "Heavenly Duke," exhausting the luminous liquid. But now the liquid was slowly gathering again.
If this altar were filled with that strange luminous liquid, it would most likely condense another "Heavenly Duke" to guard this place.
"What exactly is this luminous liquid?"
Qin Mu carefully scooped up a clump of the luminous liquid. Divine light swirled in his eyes as he examined it closely, but the liquid contained no runic Dao patterns, seemingly nothing unique about it.
"Why can this liquid form a powerful Heavenly Duke spirit body?"
He carefully channeled his primordial energy, making contact with the liquid. Suddenly, the clump of liquid condensed, transforming into a small Heavenly Duke only five or six inches tall, which threw a punch at him.
Qin Mu was caught off guard. He let out a muffled groan as the sound of breaking bones came from his chest. His entire body flew backward, crashing through one prehistoric giant's withered skeleton after another with bang bang bang sounds.
The next moment, he slammed against a prehistoric structure. The immense force from that tiny Heavenly Duke's punch caused the building behind him to crack.
That force continued to surge, vast and unstoppable, pressing him straight through the building!
Qi Jiuyi shouted sharply: "On guard! Protect my second brother!"
The nine divine beings stood guard around the Dragon Qilin, on high alert as if facing a great enemy.
On the altar, that five or six-inch-tall Heavenly Duke leaped into the air, palms drawing inward, hands rotating inward, forming a pattern resembling the character "Mao."
Qin Mu landed, his ten fingers flying as he quickly reconnected his broken bones. He looked up to see this tiny Heavenly Duke striking with both hands, and his face changed dramatically. He blurted out: "The Fourth Heavenly Dao, Heavenly Seal?"
That was the fourth of the Heavenly Daos. Yan Qiling had once said that the Dao Ancestor had organized the various heavenly and earthly Daos for the Heavenly Court, dividing them into different sequences. Among them, the Dao Ancestor had organized forty-nine types of Heavenly Daos based on the Dao runes on the Heavenly Duke's body.
Qin Mu had obtained the jade slips containing the ancient god Dao runes from the Archive Pavilion and knew these forty-nine Heavenly Daos. The fourth was called the Heavenly Seal.
And this tiny Heavenly Duke formed from luminous liquid was unleashing the Fourth Heavenly Dao—the Heavenly Seal!
The tiny Heavenly Duke's twin seals flew toward him, their power immense—truly yin and yang embracing each other in mutual generation, filling heaven and earth, leaving no room to dodge.
The delicate little Heavenly Duke's Heavenly Seal had already reached Qin Mu's face. As the twin seals struck out, suddenly Yan'er flapped her wings from Qin Mu's shoulder, extending a bird claw that grabbed the tiny Heavenly Duke's face.
The tiny Heavenly Duke roared in fury, striking forward with his Heavenly Seal, but couldn't reach her. His rage grew ever more intense, his roars like heavenly thunder.
"Sister Yan'er, don't kill him."
Qin Mu quickly said: "Seal him up! I want to study him carefully! This Heavenly Duke spirit body is strange!"
Yan'er extended both wings, drawing a circle in front of her. The ring looped around the tiny Heavenly Duke.
The tiny Heavenly Duke roared, struggling to break free. Suddenly, blazing heavenly fire erupted around his body—he actually intended to burn through the ring using the Heavenly Fire Dao.
Qin Mu marveled, picking up the tiny Heavenly Duke and examining him from all angles.
The tiny Heavenly Duke glared at him viciously, but bound by Yan'er, a great expert at the Lingxiao realm, he couldn't move.
"Master, what is this little Heavenly Duke?"
Yan'er asked curiously: "Is he the Heavenly Duke's son?"
"No, it's a kind of spirit body—a spirit body formed from luminous liquid."
Qin Mu examined him closely, saying: "No soul, no physical body, just a mass of pure energy. There's no Dao inside him either, no runes, no consciousness... Strange, how can he unleash the Heavenly Dao? What exactly is he?"
He inspected more carefully, but his confusion only grew.
No soul, no body, no thought or consciousness, no Dao or runic imprints—how could something like this be so powerful?
This completely defied common sense!
"The luminous liquid had no abnormalities before. It was my primordial energy touching the liquid that caused it to change, transforming into a tiny Heavenly Duke... This little fellow's strength is too great—he even broke my ribs."
The more Qin Mu thought about it, the angrier he became. He picked up the tiny Heavenly Duke and gave him two heavy smacks on his little bottom.
The tiny Heavenly Duke grew even more furious, jumping and hopping, but couldn't break free from his bonds, only getting angrier and angrier.
Suddenly, he burst apart with a bang, scattering as a cloud of light.
Qin Mu's hand was empty, leaving only Yan'er's ring behind.
Qin Mu was stunned, lost in thought. He walked around the altar, noticing that all the prehistoric giant corpses faced the altar. Yet the altar itself had no runic imprints—it was just built from ordinary stone.
He really couldn't figure out how these giants of the Primordial Era had produced such strange energy as the luminous liquid.
"Since the senior brother left a geographical map of this place, he must have discovered something!"
Qin Mu's spirits lifted. He walked toward the location marked on the geographical map. The Dragon Qilin quickly followed him, and Qi Jiuyi had no choice but to steel himself and follow, filled with worry.
Qin Mu's abilities were extremely powerful, yet he had nearly been killed by a tiny Heavenly Duke formed from luminous liquid—one could imagine how dangerous this place was!
"The place the senior brother marked is right here."
Qin Mu rolled up the geographical map and looked ahead. The location Wei Suifeng had marked on the map was a magnificent hall. Though it had fallen into ruin, it still exuded grandeur.
It was an open-air hall without a ceiling, extremely vast inside. Qin Mu stepped in first, seeing various reliefs carved into the rock-polished walls.
Qin Mu looked at them one by one. These relief murals depicted prehistoric giants ruling over a vast, boundless continent.
These giants had enormous bodies, capable of plucking stars and grasping moons, possessing astonishing strength.
The continent they inhabited was also unimaginably vast. The giants lived in different places, belonging to different races and tribes. The environment there was harsh, filled with all kinds of extremely powerful prehistoric beasts.
The giants fought with beasts, and they also fought among themselves over territory and population, killing and battling constantly.
"The prehistoric giants in the reliefs don't have three eyes!"
Qin Mu examined closely—the giants in the reliefs had no diamond crystals on their brows either.
These reliefs recorded scenes of the giants hunting and fighting. Qin Mu looked at them one by one. The prehistoric giants didn't understand Dao techniques, didn't cultivate divine powers—they relied purely on brute force and powerful physical bodies to fight, at most wielding large bone clubs or simple bronze weapons.
The battle scenes on the reliefs were naturally crude and unrefined to a grand master of Dao techniques and divine powers like Qin Mu.
But as he walked deeper into the open-air hall, the content of the reliefs gradually became more interesting.
Qin Mu stopped before a relief mural. The relief showed a burly prehistoric giant holding a diamond-shaped crystal between his thumb and index finger, examining it against the sunlight.
"The crystal in the painting is almost identical to the ones in the brows of those corpses outside!"
Qin Mu's heart stirred. He walked to the next relief. This one depicted the same giant from the previous relief, but with a difference—he had embedded the diamond crystal he'd found into his brow.
The other giants knelt before him, prostrating themselves and kowtowing, trembling with fear.
This giant's physique appeared much larger than the others'. He held a golden scepter in one hand, wore a horned helmet on his head, and raised his other hand, pointing forward.
The crystal on his brow emitted a pattern of light. Qin Mu thought for a moment, not quite understanding what it meant.
Qi Jiuyi and the others also came over to view the reliefs.
"Lord Qin, these are just barbaric, primitive natives. What's so interesting about them?" Qi Jiuyi was greatly puzzled.
Qin Mu walked toward the next relief, saying: "It was these primitive natives who created that strange Heavenly Duke that nearly destroyed the Red Emperor's Phoenix Ship."
Qi Jiuyi snorted.
Qin Mu let out a soft exclamation of surprise, examining the relief before him with a look of astonishment.
The content of this relief showed the giant becoming even more massive. Many other giants had also, like him, found similar diamond crystals from somewhere and embedded them in their foreheads.
What was strange about this relief was that these giants with embedded diamond crystals had glowing crystal eyes on their brows. Not only that, Qin Mu also saw all sorts of strange and wonderful things in the light!
Some lights contained a prehistoric beast, others a plate of food, and still others weapons like blades, spears, clubs, and staves!
Some giants' "third eyes" even shone with the image of a beautiful woman!
"This is..."
Qin Mu was stunned. He immediately took out the crystal he had collected, but this crystal was too large to place on his brow.
"Sister Yan'er, do you have any knowledge of spatial arts? Can you shrink this crystal?"
Yan'er examined it and said: "Spatial arts can only make it appear smaller—it's actually compressing space, hiding it within a mustard seed, not truly shrinking it. If you want to embed it in your brow, and the spatial art fails, it would blow your head apart!"
Qin Mu laughed: "I just want to hold it in front of my brow to see if anything wonderful happens."
Yan'er had studied under Moon Heavenly Venerable for many years, so it wasn't long before she shrank the diamond crystal to about an inch in length.
Qin Mu pinched the crystal, placed it against his brow, and tried channeling his primordial energy. The crystal had no effect.
He refused to give up, mobilizing his blood energy. Still no change.
He concentrated his mind. Still nothing.
"Is this crystal useless for us humans? Why did the senior brother want me to come here?"
The moment this thought crossed his mind, the crystal suddenly emitted light, and within the light appeared the figure of Wei Suifeng.
Qin Mu was startled. His thought faded, and Wei Suifeng's figure in the light vanished.
"Could it be..."
Qin Mu immediately focused his mind, concentrating his divine consciousness, imagining the form of the Heavenly Duke. The crystal once again burst with light, and within the light, a tiny Heavenly Duke materialized!
Qin Mu's heart shook violently. He immediately sensed that what he imagined was becoming real through this strange crystal!
His consciousness dispersed, and the Heavenly Duke in the light vanished instantly, not preserved.
"Is it because my divine consciousness isn't strong enough? What I cultivate is the Indestructible Divine Consciousness!"
Qin Mu activated his Indestructible Divine Consciousness. This time he imagined the form of the Earth Count. Light burst from the crystal, reflecting a tiny Earth Count.
The little Earth Count in the light grew increasingly real, gradually developing flesh and blood. Before long, an Earth Count the size of a palm appeared before everyone!
Qin Mu dispersed his Indestructible Divine Consciousness. The tiny Earth Count landed, opened its mouth and roared, emitting mooing ox sounds.
Everyone was terrified. When they heard the ox sounds coming from the Earth Count's mouth, they wanted to laugh but didn't dare.
"He's not the real Earth Count. You can laugh freely—no need to fear him." Qin Mu said.
Qi Jiuyi said with a trembling voice: "This really is creation from the void! How is this possible? Just by relying on a stone, you can create from the void—were these giants the Creator Gods of prehistory?"
Qin Mu played with the crystal, saying leisurely: "They might be the Creator Gods of prehistory, but their ability to create was achieved through this crystal. I just tested it—this crystal can amplify divine consciousness many times over. If one's divine consciousness is strong enough, one can create from the void! Even so, not many could use this crystal to achieve creation from the void."