Chapter 944: Cold Night, Blood Rain
In the darkness beyond the city, the roars were deafening, growing louder and louder, as massive monsters emerged from the shadows.
The people in the city tensed up. The monsters looked like demons from nightmares—the ugliest, most vicious things imaginable. Some were like humans covered in tentacles, others had bodies crawling with eyes, some resembled flowers made of flesh and blood, and still others were hybrids of plants and humans—bizarre and grotesque in every conceivable way.
But those coming from behind were ancient gods with bird heads on human bodies, ox heads on human bodies, beast heads on human bodies, along with enormous evil dragons, multi-headed serpents, and pot-bellied giants.
There were also strange, bizarrely modified creatures—giants with sharp drills for arms, others with blades and swords growing from every part of their bodies, walking siege engines.
Toot toot—
A massive ship made of flesh and blood belched thick smoke, its deck covered in long arms, its hull supported by countless legs. The ship was also covered in half-bodied humans, beating drums, clanging gongs, playing flutes and strings.
The flesh-and-blood ship danced and swayed to the music, its bow opening into a gaping maw, teeth like rows of steel blades opening and closing, cheerfully advancing toward this city of the Creator.
The moon rose in the sky, casting its light down.
Eerie laughter came from above. Qin Mu looked up and saw that the moon actually had a human face, emitting a bizarre cackle.
Not only that—the moon even grew arms, pulling out a flute from somewhere. It was a flute carved from the leg bone of a Creator, and the face in the moon brought it to its lips, playing a cheerful tune!
Qin Mu looked away. The night of this Taixu Land was like a strange dream, filling one with a sense of absurdity and weirdness.
Whoosh—
A colossal creature descended from the sky, landing on the city wall. It was a giant bird covered in human faces, its wings made of white bones, collapsing half the watchtower.
The faces on the bird's body stared excitedly at the few people in the city, making all sorts of strange noises.
The bones forming the bird's wings were hollow. Suddenly, all the bones simultaneously blasted out air and flames, producing sharp, piercing whistles. The air and fire propelled the strange bird upward, launching it into the sky!
Amid the whistling, the nightmare monsters outside the city all began to move, thundering toward this city of the Creator!
"Oh heavens…"
A female true god trembled, staring blankly at the scene. "What kind of world is this?"
This was a world created by the Creators of Taixu.
This world was made of divine consciousness. The Creators used their divine consciousness to visualize the entire world into existence, creating all things and all civilizations. But because of foreign invasion, one of the worlds had been damaged, causing the Taixu heart demons to breed.
Although the Taixu Land itself remained intact, there was no Youdu here—no place for the dead to go—which led to another consequence.
The dead had nowhere to go, so they could only wander through Taixu, merging with the divine consciousness of the Creators, giving birth to lifeforms unlike anything in the mortal world.
These Taixu monsters were formed not only from dead Creators, but also from the gods and demons of the Heavenly Court who had died in Taixu.
Boom!
A violent tremor shook the ground as the Taixu monsters outside the city slammed into the city walls. The seemingly indestructible walls of the Creator city shook violently, cracks appearing across their surface—a shocking sight.
But since the city was a creation of the Creator's divine consciousness, the cracks quickly repaired themselves, letting everyone in the city breathe a sigh of relief.
Boom! Another impact. Dull yet massive, the impacts came one after another. The mirror-like walls couldn't repair themselves fast enough. Suddenly, the southern gate collapsed, and the Taixu monsters outside poured into the city like a flood!
"Prepare to fight!" someone shouted.
At that moment, the northern gate also collapsed with a thunderous crash, followed by the eastern and western gates—all flattened by the Taixu monsters. The colossal monsters rampaged through the city that now belonged only to them, toppling buildings wherever they went!
Thousands upon thousands of Taixu monsters surged forward like a tide. The people stood on high ground, their hearts turning cold.
On an arrow tower, a woman screamed, leaped into the air, and flew skyward, trying to escape this nightmare city from above.
But as she rose into the sky, the moon-faced orb above let out a piercing shriek, and a bone-winged bird with a human face swooped toward her.
Countless strange birds flew out from the moon-faced orb, blotting out the sky in a dark mass. The moonlight itself became eerie—the moon turned blood-red, like a bleeding human face.
The tune played by the moon-faced orb became even more cheerful, almost playful.
The melody drifted down from the sky, and the Taixu monsters below grew frenzied with excitement.
Soon, the woman who had flown into the sky was torn to shreds by the flock of birds. Blood fell from above—first a light drizzle, then a torrential downpour.
Blood rain poured from the sky. The moon was bleeding. The sky looked like a painting stained with blood, plasma flooding everything!
The strange birds in the sky dove downward, and the crowded horde of monsters quickly reached Qin Mu and the others, engulfing them!
At this moment, no one cared about their grudges with one another, nor about following their masters' orders to kill Mu Tianzun. Their only thought was survival!
Qin Mu immediately activated the Gate of Chengtian, but to his dismay, the gate would not open.
Since these monsters were formed from the vengeful souls of those who died in Taixu, spells and divine abilities targeting souls would be most effective against them. But Taixu and Youdu existed in different times and spaces, so the gate could not be opened.
"If I could open the Gate of Chengtian, fighting our way out would be effortless. Unfortunately…"
He activated his Youdu divine abilities, combining his primordial energy with divine consciousness to visualize a white banner. Facing a monster in the form of an ancient god charging at him, he swung the banner with all his might!
"But even though I'm not my brother, in this world, there are fewer than five people who surpass me in Youdu divine abilities!"
The soul inside that monster immediately flew out and fell into the white banner. The banner had been blank, but now a man appeared on it.
The man was dazed, his face twisted, struggling to fly out of the banner. Though the banner was made of primordial energy and divine consciousness—thin as it was—it seemed to contain a space within.
The man's twisted face pushed out from the banner, deforming the space inside.
Qin Mu slammed the banner into the ground, a low growl rumbling from his throat: "Where my body stands—that is Youdu!"
Boom—
His primordial energy exploded, surging out as rolling demonic Youdu energy, sweeping across a hundred acres in an instant, transforming the area into a world of darkness.
In his Lingtai Divine Treasury, the Lingtai Primordial Spirit stomped its foot heavily, and the Taiji beneath it churned. Heaven and earth spun—the sky below, the earth above—and the ground transformed into the world of Youdu!
Qin Mu's body merged with his primordial spirit, and he transformed into the three-eyed form of Tuba, his body swelling to a hundred zhang tall, towering like a mountain—no smaller than the monsters around him.
He held a whip of flame in his hand, cracking it out to wrap around the neck of a charging monster. With a sharp flick, the soul inside the monster flew out, caught by the whip.
The whip retracted, striking the white banner, and another twisted-faced soul appeared on it.
The eye on Qin Mu's forehead opened wide, a pillar of fire shooting forward, blasting the soul of another Taixu monster into oblivion.
A monster charged at him from behind. Qin Mu kicked up his hoof, striking the monster square in the face. Demonic Youdu fire blazed from the bottom of his hoof, burning the monster's soul to ashes.
Another monster rushed up behind him, but Qin Mu's tail lashed out, coiling around its throat. He hoisted it into the air, flipped it upside down, and slammed it hard into the ground.
The monster was dazed and reeling. As it tried to scramble back up, Qin Mu's other ox hoof came down, crushing its skull.
The monster's head burst with a wet pop.
Strange birds wheeled in the sky, diving down with claws extended. Before they could land, the two Tuba horns on Qin Mu's head blazed with brilliant light, transforming into two winding Yellow Springs that locked onto the birds, burning them into flaming birds that shrieked in agony.
Suddenly, a monster slammed into him from the side. A series of cracking sounds came from Qin Mu's chest—countless bones breaking. He tumbled and rolled, crashing through a palace, then through another Creator palace, smashing through massive pillars before finally coming to a stop.
His Tuba form was broken. He immediately reverted to his true body and rapidly activated the Wulou Zaohua Xuanjing to repair his physical injuries.
Loud crashes came from ahead. The monster that had rammed him collapsed two great halls as it chased after him, about to slam into him again. But Qin Mu suddenly seemed to melt, flattening against the ground and streaking away as a dark shadow.
The monster hesitated for a moment, then frantically chased after his shadow.
Luo Wushuang was using primordial energy as a blade to cut down monsters, but he was struggling. He glanced around and saw that everyone in the city was in dire straits—some dead, some wounded.
Even the disciples of the Heavenly Venerables, true gods who had comprehended the Lesser Heavenly Court technique, could barely resist this onslaught.
Suddenly, another scream rang out—a true god was torn to shreds!
And after that true god died, his soul drifted in the air. The next moment, flesh and blood rapidly grew around the soul, quickly forming a new Taixu monster that attacked the others, showing no mercy to friend or foe!
Moreover, Luo Wushuang noticed that even when they shattered the monsters or burned them to ashes, they would immediately regenerate their bodies and continue fighting.
Only by blasting these monsters' souls into oblivion could they be truly killed.
But facing such a dense horde, shattering their souls was no easy task—there were too many monsters, too many attacks. There was simply no opportunity!
"It seems I have no choice but to pull out the Wood Core. Even if it means destroying my Heavenly Palace and scattering my soul, I'll fight to the death!"
Luo Wushuang gritted his teeth and was about to pull the Wood Core from his brow when suddenly a dark shadow slid to his feet.
The shadow stood up straight, shook itself, and transformed into Qin Mu. He reached out and pulled the Wood Core from Luo Wushuang's brow, shaking it in the wind. The Wood Core instantly expanded.
A staff about one zhang long appeared in Qin Mu's hand. He blew on it: "Grow big—"
The staff hit the ground and instantly swelled!
Boom!
Luo Wushuang only heard a thunderous roar as Qin Mu grabbed him and leaped. Looking down, he saw a horrifying sight.
The Wood Core had transformed into an incredibly massive pillar, stretching from one end of the Creator city to the other—eight hundred li long.
The pillar lay across the center of the city, its diameter over a thousand zhang, crushing countless monsters into pulp!
The Creator palaces and other buildings the pillar passed through were also flattened to the ground!
The two of them fell, and above their heads, countless strange birds beat their bone wings, hollow bones blasting flames, moving at terrifying speed.
Qin Mu brought Luo Wushuang down, and the Wood Core shrank smaller and smaller, quickly becoming a wooden needle that landed in Qin Mu's hand.
Qin Mu casually inserted the Wood Core back into Luo Wushuang's brow. The Wood Core pierced through his Heavenly Palace, continuing to channel medicinal power to heal the damage there.
Luo Wushuang grunted. He hadn't been afraid when the Wood Core was in his brow before, but now that he'd seen the power of this little wooden needle, he felt a chill of fear: "Aren't you worried that one wrong move might crush my Heavenly Palace too…"
The two of them sprinted forward along the path flattened by the Wood Core, trying to escape the city. But the monsters that had been crushed moments ago were already reassembling their flesh and rising again.
Not only that—the palace buildings crushed by the Wood Core also rapidly restored themselves, blocking their path.
Qin Mu frowned. He reached out and pulled the Wood Core from Luo Wushuang's brow again.
Luo Wushuang was already numb to it. He followed Qin Mu, leaping into the air.
Boom.
The Wood Core displayed its power once more, crushing the monsters that had risen again.
The two landed, and Qin Mu retrieved the Wood Core, stabbing it back into Luo Wushuang's brow.