Lynn Ling darted out from the cabin of the tower-vessel, having noticed something off as well. She whispered, "Cowherd, the keel of this ship—it's made from a real dragon's spine!"
Quinn Shepherd was taken aback and followed her into the cabin, where he found the ship's keel was indeed a colossal divine dragon skeleton. When the vessel soared, the dragon bones swayed side to side like a serpent.
Quinn Shepherd looked back at the path they’d traveled and was shocked—he could see the Great Ruins, shrouded in darkness!
The tower-vessel passed through the World Bridge and arrived at Taeming Heaven. When they reached Departure City, Quinn Shepherd disembarked to ask around, but the Imperial Preceptor of Everpeace had not returned.
"Forging ships from the flesh and blood of gods and demons, crafting treasures from their heads—the Chiming Era was truly barbaric."
Quinn Shepherd and Lynn Ling shivered several times. By now the tower-vessel had already set sail, heading toward the World Bridge. Quinn went up on deck, where Ben Coates was examining the planks. Quinn studied them closely, looked up at Ben, and Ben looked back. The two shared a tacit understanding and said in unison, "Bone-plated hull!"
Quinn Shepherd arrived at the altar where the Woodcutter Sage was. Victor Keane, the First Ancestor, grew excited, but as soon as the Woodcutter Sage saw him from afar, he turned away and refused to look.
Victor Keane, the First Ancestor, looked dejected.
Victor Keane, the First Ancestor, was examining the towers on the ship and shook his head. "To forge a vessel like this, you’d probably have to kill thousands of gods and demons."
From his vantage point, all these worlds seemed tiny and close, but Quinn Shepherd knew they were actually incredibly far away. Those tiny points of starlight were, in truth, gigantic suns!
"This is Xuandu, the dwelling of the Heavenly Lord, corresponding to Youdu," Victor Keane, the First Ancestor, said softly.
Quinn Shepherd hurriedly looked around. "Where is the Heavenly Lord?" he asked.
Quinn Shepherd said, "The people of the Chiming Era are fierce and wild. If I follow their customs, I might end up killing someone."
The Woodcutter laughed. "That’s why, if you can’t win, just take off the willow leaf. Even if you cause a huge disaster, isn’t there still Tu Bo?"
Chi Creek sneered, "For example, that Taotie Pouch you carry—wasn’t it refined from the flesh of a Taotie beast?"
Quinn Shepherd looked back and saw Victor Keane, the First Ancestor, standing silently at the bow, saying nothing.
The Woodcutter Sage called Lynn Ling over and smiled. "Girl, you’re much more promising than your father. When you ascend the throne in the future, you must treat all beings with kindness—and be good to my disciple. Obey him in all things."
Lynn Ling glanced at Quinn Shepherd, overjoyed. "I will."
Quinn Shepherd recalled his own mysterious journey—Queena White and her brother didn’t seem the type to kill for treasures, but judging by what he experienced in the Qu Mountain God Temple, the Qu Mountain God must have also slain a Taotie divine beast to refine treasures and palaces.
A thought struck him. He took out the Lunar Jade Eye and Solar Jade Eye from his Taotie Pouch and said, "Senior Chi Creek, these two treasures should be from the Shanghuang Era, right?"
Chi Creek looked them over and said, "They should be. If they're truly from the Shanghuang Era, then these two eyes aren’t made of jade, but are actual eyes of gods and demons—probably Taotie eyeballs."
Qin Mu was startled, but when he touched the jade eyes, they clearly felt like jade, with no trace of flesh. "Could it be that the Shanghuang Era was as brutal as the Chiming Era? But from the way Bai Qiu'er and her brother act, they don’t seem cruel at all. So how did the Shanghuang Era deal with having too many gods and demons?"
The tower ship passed through the Lingneng Migration Bridge and arrived at Taihuang Heaven. When they reached Licheng, Qin Mu disembarked to ask around, but the National Preceptor of Yankang had not returned.
"Then the National Preceptor must have followed the Woodcutter Sage to train in the Demon Race’s Luofu Heaven."
They headed to Luofu Heaven. This world in ruin was utterly deserted, with altars rising everywhere and gods and demons standing guard, sleepless, leaning on their divine weapons.
Qin Mu arrived at the altar where the Woodcutter Sage was. The First Ancestor Human Emperor grew excited, but as soon as the Woodcutter Sage saw him from afar, he turned away and refused to look.
The First Ancestor Human Emperor looked dejected.
Chi Creek glanced at the Woodcutter, sneering all the while.
Qin Mu climbed onto the altar and explained his purpose. The Woodcutter Sage said, "Your junior is still in closed-door training and won’t emerge for a while. If you wait, it could be half a year or more before he comes out."
Qin Mu shook his head. "There’s no time. Since my junior is in seclusion, can teacher tell me what I should watch out for on this trip?"
The Woodcutter Sage gave him a deep look and smiled. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Watch what people say and do; follow their example. If you can’t win a fight, pull off that willow leaf on your forehead."
Qin Mu said, "The people of the Chiming Era are fierce and wild. If I follow their customs, I might end up killing someone."
The Woodcutter laughed. "That’s why, if you can’t win, just take off the willow leaf. Even if you cause a huge disaster, isn’t there still Tu Bo?"
Qin Mu’s face turned black as coal.
The Woodcutter turned his back to the First Ancestor Human Emperor and said calmly, "Besides, you can’t trust a deserter. If someone runs once, they’ll run again."
Qin Mu looked back and saw the First Ancestor Human Emperor standing silently at the bow, saying nothing.
The Woodcutter Sage called Ling Yuxiu over and smiled. "Girl, you’re much more promising than your father. When you ascend the throne in the future, you must treat all beings with kindness—and be good to my disciple. Obey him in all things."
Ling Yuxiu glanced at Qin Mu, overjoyed. "I will."
"Good child. Your cultivation is the weakest, so before you leave, I’ll give you a little something."
The Woodcutter smiled, then suddenly swung his woodcutting axe and brought it down on Ling Yuxiu’s forehead.
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Ling Yuxiu was startled, but felt no pain. The Woodcutter chopped her forehead more than ten times, every blow landing squarely, then put away his axe and said, "Child of the Ling family, remember what was said today. You may go now."
Ling Yuxiu was quite puzzled but followed Qin Mu back to the tower ship.
Chi Creek looked at the Woodcutter’s back and sneered, "Daoist friend, let’s have another match if we get the chance!"
The Woodcutter turned his back to them and waved. The tower ship thundered into the sky and soon vanished from sight.
The starry sky was vast. The tower ship, flapping three pairs of wings, streaked through the darkness, leaving trails of streaming light. It sped faster and faster, almost feeling no resistance in space, accelerating to unimaginable speeds—like a bolt of lightning.
They soon passed through a belt of shattered rocky stars. Chunks of rock crashed into the ship, but runes flowed across the hull and those mountain-sized boulders instantly turned to dust.
Chi Creek took out a star chart to confirm their position. Above the chart, a magnificent map of the stars appeared. "In half a year, we’ll reach the Chiming Hanging Realm. In the meantime, you can move about the ship as you wish, but don’t leave it."
Qin Mu studied the projected star map. The trajectories of the stars were bizarre—rivers of stars all revolved around the same spot, but there was nothing there except dazzling light.
"Senior Chi Creek, what is this place?" he asked, pointing at the black hole-like region.
Chi Creek glanced at it, raised his brows, and said, "Country boy, you haven’t even left your ancestral land, so of course you don’t know the wonders of the universe."
The First Ancestor Human Emperor took a look and said, "That’s the place opposed to Youdu—the dwelling of the Heavenly Lord, extremely mysterious."
Ling Yuxiu had never heard of the Heavenly Lord either, so she listened along with Qin Mu and asked, "The Heavenly Lord is opposed to Youdu? If Youdu’s Tu Bo reaps souls, then what does the Heavenly Lord do?"
Before the First Ancestor could answer, Chi Creek cut in: "The Heavenly Lord is the ancestor of all gods, governing the movement of the heavens, absolutely impartial. Every star you see in the sky is under his control. The stars of every world and heaven are all managed by him. This god is no less than Tu Bo—his astral projections number in the billions. He’s truly formidable!"
The First Ancestor Human Emperor said, "The Heavenly Lord can enter any world at will. However, the sky over Yankang is fake; there are no real celestial phenomena there, so the Heavenly Lord can’t enter."
Ban Gongcuo had never heard of this either and listened intently. Suddenly he said, "Does that mean all the sun, moon, and stars we see are fake?"
"Not all of them are fake."
The First Ancestor Human Emperor said, "During the daytime in the Great Ruins, the sun you see is real. Sometimes you can also see the moon and some stars during the day—those are real too."
Ban Gongcuo was stunned, muttering, "So what we see in the Great Ruins is real, but everything outside is fake. Then what exactly is the Great Ruins’ seal sealing away…"
Qin Mu glanced at him. "Of course it’s sealing away the people outside the Great Ruins. Has the Grandmaster never wondered why those outside only have Four Spirit Bodies, while the ones inside have all kinds of strange spirit bodies?"
Ban Gongcuo was devastated. "Sealing us away, heh, sealing us... What did we do wrong to deserve this?"
People outside the Great Ruins had always looked down on its inhabitants, calling them the forsaken.
Ban Gongcuo had once been a Grandmaster of the grasslands and founder of the Loulan Golden Palace, and looked down on the Ruins folk even more—often capturing exotic beasts and forsaken people from the Ruins to refine his shaman arts. But now, hearing the First Ancestor’s words, his pride and beliefs were shattered!
He had lived for ten thousand years, and only now realized he was the real forsaken!
Forsaken by the gods!
"Why did they seal us away after breaking our divine bridges? Why won’t they let us become gods…"
He didn’t trust Qin Mu, but he believed the First Ancestor Human Emperor without question, because this was the first Human Emperor—the man who led the ancestors of all races out of the apocalypse!
Ban Gongcuo’s own ancestors were among them!
Anyone might lie to him, but the First Ancestor Human Emperor never would!
The tower ship left a dazzling trail in the starry sky, lingering for a long time. Chi Creek looked back and frowned. "This ship may be fast, but it’s not unrivaled. It leaves traces behind, so our enemies could find us. We need to borrow a route from the Heavenly Lord and reach the Hanging Realm as soon as possible, without letting anyone discover its location!"
Qin Mu’s spirits rose. "Borrow a route from the Heavenly Lord? Does that mean we’ll get to see that towering existence?"
"Not yet. It’ll take more than a month to fly from here to where the Heavenly Lord resides!"
Days passed in a blur. Qin Mu and Ling Yuxiu were dual-cultivating their primordial spirits when the ship suddenly slowed down. They each withdrew their spirits and went up to the deck, where they saw a vast divine city drifting alone in the starry sky, with a sun circling around it.
The city was in ruins, clearly destroyed by a terrible war.
The tower ship sailed above the city. Qin Mu looked down and saw many toppled giant statues—each with three heads and six arms, likely Chiming Era sculptures.
Soon after, they reached a shattered planet, covered in countless buildings in the style of the Chiming Era.
All along their route, broken divine cities floated quietly in space, and they saw countless corpses drifting helplessly along the way.
The strong of the Chiming Era, searching for a place to survive, left countless gods and demons behind to protect their people. Most died fighting here.
"No matter how wild the Chiming Era’s people were, they fought to the death for the survival of their race," Qin Mu thought with emotion.
Finally, the tower ship sailed into a blank region—a world made of light.
As the ship entered the brilliance, everyone aboard found they couldn’t see their own shadows. The light came from every direction—there were no shadows at all!
Qin Mu looked back at the path they’d traveled and was shocked—he could see the Great Ruins, shrouded in darkness!
The Great Ruins seemed so close, right within reach!
But the Kingdom of Yankang outside the Great Ruins was nowhere to be seen!
No sight of Yankang, no sight of West Earth, South Sea, North Sea, or West Sea!
Those places were concealed by false celestial phenomena, making them invisible.
Besides the Great Ruins, he also saw the worlds of Taihuang Heaven and Luofu Heaven!
He looked up and suddenly felt as if he’d discovered an entirely new world. Countless starlights shone in the sky; heavens of all sizes, some bright, some dim, appeared on the firmament—some even in the midst of destruction!
From his vantage point, all these worlds seemed tiny and close, but Qin Mu knew they were actually incredibly far away. Those tiny points of starlight were, in truth, gigantic suns!
"This is Xuandu, the dwelling of the Heavenly Lord, corresponding to Youdu," the First Ancestor Human Emperor said softly.
Qin Mu hurriedly looked around. "Where is the Heavenly Lord?" he asked.
"Right beside us."
Chi Creek looked back and saw the ship’s trail of light swallowed by the brilliance here. He breathed a sigh of relief. "We’re passing in front of one of his eyes. In another day or two, you’ll be able to see the whole of this eye."
————A 4,000-character chapter! Please vote for me! Blind Man: Have you voted yet? Did you? I can’t see, I’m blind—did you really vote or are you lying to me...