Chapter 1004: Identity Exposure

The altar was that of the Creators, but it was strange why the Creators would visualize an egg. The Ancient God Heavenly Emperor hatched from an egg, yet the Creators should have directly manifested a life form. There was no reason to first visualize an egg and then hatch the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor from it.

Qin Mu was puzzled.

The birth of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor was inexplicably bizarre. Judging from the birthplace, the egg must have existed first. Then, the Creator race somehow obtained this egg, sensed life within it, and thus built an altar.

They offered sacrifices day and night, and powerful sacrificial energy flowed into the egg, causing the life within to be born.

However, the emergence of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor also led to the decline, decay, and eventual demise of the Creator race. They even had to open up a new void and hide in the Great Void.

This hypothesis still left many mysteries unsolved: Where did the egg come from?

Why could such a powerful being as the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor be born from an egg?

What was the purpose of the Creator race gathering so many members to hatch the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor?

Qin Mu faintly felt that this replica of the Heavenly Emperor couldn't withstand the pressure much longer, so he had to retreat to alleviate the strain.

"Those cracked eggshells must be very useful. I wonder if I can take them?"

His eyes flickered as he tried to mobilize the power within the Heavenly Emperor's physical body, attempting to retrieve the two halves of the eggshell.

However, even though the Heavenly Emperor's physical body possessed power beyond that of an Emperor's Throne, the spiritual energy emanating from it was still crushed by the purple Dao mist at the birthplace.

Qin Mu frowned. The eggshells were right there, yet the Ten Celestial Venerables of the Celestial Heavens hadn't taken them for so many years. This clearly indicated how difficult it would be to remove them.

Although he could mobilize the power of this physical body, the body itself couldn't withstand the Dao pressure at the birthplace, preventing him from reaching the altar.

"If I had the true body of the Heavenly Emperor, I could take the eggshells, but the true body is trapped by Celestial Venerable Ling's divine art. Come to think of it, even when the true body of the Heavenly Emperor was present, the Ten Celestial Venerables didn't take the eggshells. Was it because they worried the eggshells would fall into other people's hands?"

After the death of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor, the Heavenly Alliance was no longer a unified entity. Various internal factions restrained each other, so it was understandable that they couldn't take the eggshells even when they controlled the Heavenly Emperor.

"All divine arts and Dao methods in the world cannot be preserved here. Even the supreme divine consciousness domain cannot withstand the pressure of this birthplace. However, there is one divine art that can deal with the purple Dao mist here!"

Qin Mu's eyes gleamed. He took out Celestial Venerable Ling's peach wood hairpin.

Only Celestial Venerable Ling's immutability divine art could make the purple Dao mist and smoke here stand still.

He controlled the Heavenly Emperor's physical body, mobilized its internal power, activated the peach wood hairpin, and gently waved it. Immediately, the streams of mist flowing towards the eggshells in front of him froze, unmoving!

Qin Mu was overjoyed. He stepped forward and walked towards the purple light, but as his feet moved and touched the light, he immediately felt a stinging sensation emanating from the Heavenly Emperor's physical body.

When this body touched the mists and smoke, it couldn't resist them at all and was corroded, sustaining many wounds.

Qin Mu frowned. At this moment, he needed to use the power within the Heavenly Emperor's physical body to maintain the immutability divine art. Currently, there was no other spare power in the Heavenly Emperor's body that he could mobilize.

"Can my own vital qi and divine consciousness reach the altar?"

Thinking this, he unleashed his vital qi and divine consciousness, which surged forth powerfully, heading directly for the altar.

The altar appeared close, but the actual distance was extremely vast. Moreover, the altar itself was much larger than it seemed, and the two halves of the eggshell were also unimaginably huge!

Qin Mu's vital qi and divine consciousness merged, becoming incredibly agile. He finally reached the altar and attempted to lift an eggshell.

However, the eggshell that still contained egg white was so heavy that he couldn't move it even slightly.

He then tried to drag the other eggshell, and this one shifted slightly.

Qin Mu was delighted. He urged his vital qi and divine consciousness, dragging with all his might, moving this half of the eggshell little by little until it reached the edge of the altar.

The eggshell fell from the altar, resting on the still purple light, as if floating on water. Qin Mu's heart pounded as he pulled the eggshell closer.

The closer the eggshell got, the more he realized its immense size. By the time he pulled it in front of him, this half-eggshell was taller than the Heavenly Emperor's physical body; he had to look up at it!

Qin Mu was astonished. He didn't have time to examine the runes and marks on the eggshell. With great effort, he sent this eggshell into his Qin-character continent.

Boom—

A violent tremor shook the Qin-character continent. The eggshell fell from the sky but didn't land completely; instead, it inverted and covered nearly half of the continent's sky!

Qin Mu immediately felt his third eye's vision blur. He could only see countless flickering runes, but nothing of the outside world.

This was because his third eye was quite peculiar: the Qin-character continent, formed from the horn of Earth Mother, served as its iris, and the Primordial Stone formed its pupil. The Heavenly Emperor's eggshell had fallen precisely to cover his pupil.

"I don't have any other treasures to place this colossal object. I can only put it in the Qin-character continent, but having my vision obscured by the eggshell is not ideal."

Qin Mu's mind stirred: "There's nothing on the back of the Qin-character continent. I wonder if I can move this eggshell to the back?"

He didn't act immediately. Instead, he put away the peach wood hairpin and slowly retreated until the Heavenly Emperor's physical body could withstand the Dao pressure there, then he stopped.

He channeled the power within the Heavenly Emperor into his third eye to move the eggshell, sending this enormous eggshell to the back of the Qin-character continent, where it inverted and rested in its center.

At this moment, the eggshell seemed to have transformed into the vitreous humor of his third eye. Light entered from outside, passed through the Primordial Stone at the center of the Qin-character continent, and fell onto the inner wall of the eggshell, illuminating the countless runes and marks on its inner surface.

Then, something miraculous happened. Qin Mu suddenly felt that when he looked around with this eye, everything was completely different.

He could clearly see the microscopic structure of anything, even the purple Dao mist!

The composition of the Dao mists and smoke, and even the subtle intricacies of his own divine consciousness, were all reflected with astonishing clarity in his third eye!

He looked down at the Heavenly Emperor's physical body. Its structure, previously indiscernible, was now clearly reflected in his pupil!

He could even see any arcane structure within this replica body, including the mysteries of creation arts!

He looked at the altar within the purple light, his gaze piercing through the light, seeing the altar clearly and distinctly!

"This eggshell is extremely useful. If only I could get the other half..."

Qin Mu shook his head. As things stood, he didn't have the strength to move the other eggshell.

"Time is critical. I'm only borrowing this Heavenly Emperor's physical body, and even though the Ten Celestial Venerables are suspicious of each other, they will surely discover the disappearance of the Heavenly Emperor's body soon. I can't linger here for too long."

Qin Mu immediately controlled the Heavenly Emperor's physical body to close its glabella, hiding himself deep within its forehead. He then made the Heavenly Emperor's body turn and walk towards the Crown Prince.

The Celestial Heavens were full of the Ten Celestial Venerables' informants. It wouldn't take them long to discover the Heavenly Emperor's body was missing and to track its whereabouts.

He also planned to use this body to visit Zhaofu Palace and Pixiang Hall. He needed to set off before the Ten Celestial Venerables found out.

The Crown Prince's eye twitched. He watched his "Imperial Father" approach. As Qin Mu neared him, the Crown Prince lowered his head, his lips moved, and he finally uttered the word: "Imperial Father."

Qin Mu stopped, looked at him with a faint smile, and suddenly asked, "You found out?"

The Crown Prince was horrified, his hair standing on end. He almost couldn't resist bursting with all his might to escape!

"It doesn't matter that you found out."

Qin Mu said calmly, "As one of the Ten Celestial Venerables, I don't care about you, the Crown Prince, at all. To be frank, your father, the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor, has long been dead. You've noticed my neglect for forty thousand years; surely you can figure out why now."

He said coldly, "Your father has been dead for forty thousand years!"

The Crown Prince dropped to his knees with a thud, his hands pressing against the purple mists, his palms abraded and bleeding by the mists.

His body trembled. He wanted to erupt, to use all his strength to kill the Celestial Venerable before him and avenge the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor. However, he knew the disparity in strength; he absolutely couldn't be a match for a Celestial Venerable!

His rationality told him that he absolutely couldn't make a move now. He could only endure; enduring offered a path to survival!

Qin Mu watched him coldly. After a moment, he said, "Forty thousand years ago, your father died by the hands of us, the Ten Celestial Venerables. We created this physical body to control the Celestial Heavens."

The Crown Prince's voice was hoarse: "Why..."

"Why?"

Qin Mu laughed heartily: "Because of this position, because of this immense power! Crown Prince, if you obediently remain the Crown Prince, you can live. But if you make any trouble, your death will not be far off."

The Crown Prince fell silent, his body no longer trembling.

Qin Mu waved his hand and said faintly, "I don't have any leverage against you right now, and deposing and establishing a Crown Prince is very troublesome, so I'll spare your life. You may leave. Conduct yourself well."

The Crown Prince slowly stood up, tears glistening in his eyes. He lowered his head and silently walked away.

"Stop," Qin Mu called out, stopping him.

The Crown Prince's body stiffened, and he stood there in silence.

"Don't think about betrayal. Don't give us Ten Celestial Venerables a chance to depose you, understand?" Qin Mu's voice came.

The Crown Prince silently nodded.

"Go," Qin Mu said.

The Crown Prince departed, tears still in his eyes.

Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself, "If the Crown Prince had actually made a move, with his Emperor's Throne strength, even if I could control this body, I probably couldn't have withstood him. This body is too large, and controlling it has many inconveniences. Fighting a peak Emperor's Throne expert would be difficult..."

He felt invigorated and walked out, thinking, "First, I'll go to Pixiang Hall to see if I can retrieve Celestial Venerable Yu's remnant soul. Then, I'll visit Zhaofu Palace to see what that creation divine artifact truly is, capable of creating so many blue automatons..."

He had just stepped out of the restricted area when he suddenly saw a woman approaching from the front. She wore cloud-treading boots, a red and white off-the-shoulder dress, her hair in a high cloud bun, and her ample bosom partially exposed. It was none other than Consort Qiang, one of the Ten Celestial Venerables!

Qin Mu blinked, muttering "Darn it!" to himself.

"Why has Your Majesty found time to come here?" Consort Qiang's beautiful eyes fluttered as she looked around, then she chuckled.

Qin Mu chuckled. "My dear consort, this is My ancestral land. Why have you come here?"

Consort Qiang smiled. "Your Majesty hasn't visited the imperial harem for some time. When you suddenly arrived today, I was naturally delighted and waiting for you. I didn't expect Your Majesty to come here instead of visiting me."

Qin Mu felt goosebumps all over. The thought that Consort Qiang might be a manifestation of one of the Ancient God Heavenly Emperor's souls made him incredibly uncomfortable.