Chapter 1168: Void Beast Invasion

The Heavenly Venerable once lived in the ancestral court for a long time and knew it very well. In ancient times, there were many strange legends about Great Black Mountain.

Some said it was the ashes left from the destruction of the previous universe, while others claimed it imprisoned a demon king capable of destroying the entire universe.

Creators once explored it, but none who ventured there ever returned!

The Heavenly Venerable himself once attempted to explore Great Black Mountain in the ancestral court, reaching a terrifying conclusion: the universe had undergone creation and destruction sixteen times.

Great Black Mountain was actually a tree that supported all creation in the universe, but for unknown reasons, this divine tree died, leaving only its stump.

It likely died during the last cosmic destruction, leaving endless speculation for future generations.

However, when the Heavenly Venerable explored Great Black Mountain, he witnessed many extremely bizarre scenes that chilled him to the bone, causing him to avoid it ever since.

As far as he knew, Earth Count had also visited Great Black Mountain. But when he asked Earth Count what he had seen there, Earth Count remained cryptic and refused to discuss it, so he had no choice but to drop the matter.

Among the Heavenly Venerables who entered the ancestral court, who would dare be so audacious as to claim this eerie Great Black Mountain for themselves?

Heavenly Venerable Hong knew exactly who it was!

"Haha, I don't even need to see his face to imagine that little rascal's death-seeking expression!" Heavenly Venerable Hong chuckled, but his face was ashen.

Meanwhile, on Great Black Peak of Great Black Mountain, Qin Mu was still immensely grateful to the two ancient gods in the Taiji Divine Egg. He felt he hadn't taken their ore veins and that they had guided him to a treasure trove second only to the Five Dao ore veins, thus forming a good karmic connection.

However, he hadn't considered that he had forcefully entered the Taiji ore vein, fought his way to its deepest part, inserted his divine sword into the altar with killing intent, and forcefully extorted a hundred Taiji divine stones and one Taiji raw stone. How could they genuinely guide him to such a treasure trove?

They surely hoped he would go to his death, so they could retrieve the Taiji divine stones and raw stone.

In the past ten-odd days, Qin Mu had deciphered four Grand Beginning runes, and his research speed was increasing rapidly. He thought, "It won't take half a year for me to research all the runes in the Grand Beginning Egg. By then, if I can induce the Grand Beginning Egg to converse with the ancient god egg within the Azure Sky Banner, I'll also be able to fully comprehend the Grand Dao runes of that ancient god egg in the Azure Sky Banner!"

Filled with confidence, he was about to continue his research when he suddenly sensed something, waved his hand to put away the Grand Beginning Egg, and stood up.

Dragon Qilin hurried over, his face panicked, and said, "Cult Master, Yan'er and I encountered something strange..."

Qin Mu raised a hand and said, "I already know. No need to say more; the void beasts are here!"

He quickly walked to the center of Great Black Peak, where the jade pillar of the Azure Sky Glazed Banner stood. The pillar was like a mountain, reaching into the sky and piercing the earth, entirely transparent and azure.

Dragon Qilin opened his mouth, about to continue speaking, when he saw a vast, overwhelming horde of void beasts rushing towards them from beyond the Great Black Wood, causing him to quickly swallow his words.

Yan'er rushed over with Little Earth Count, intending to recount what she and Dragon Qilin had witnessed, but seeing the situation, she didn't dare disturb Qin Mu.

"Young Master probably doesn't know, but the strange thing we spoke of isn't the void beasts. It's that Great Black Wood is peculiar," Yan'er said with a worried expression.

Qin Mu looked at the overwhelming tide of void beasts and laughed, "If Heavenly Venerable Qiang doesn't personally intervene, do they think void beasts alone can do anything to me?"

The first batch of void beasts slammed into the outermost heavens. As soon as they crashed into the first heaven, the void giant beasts vanished, diving into the void of the heavens. The next moment, they appeared near various strange treasures hanging in the heavens, opening their gaping mouths, intending to devour these treasures.

The power of the Azure Sky Glazed Banner came from these treasures. When the Black Tortoise Two Emperors forged the Azure Sky Banner, the power of each treasure did not reach its peak, both due to the sheer number of treasures and the crude refining techniques of that era.

When the treasures in the various heavens of the Azure Sky Glazed Banner unleashed their combined power, they possessed world-destroying might. However, the power of individual treasures was not particularly strong.

Void beasts could even devour heavens. When hundreds of void beasts attacked a heaven, they could devour the sun, the moon, and even strip a continent bare!

However, void beasts possessed little intelligence, acting purely on combat instinct. If left unguided, these giant beasts would mindlessly crash, devour, and destroy according to their instincts.

But with Heavenly Consort Qiang secretly controlling the void mother beast, which in turn mobilized tens of thousands of void giant beasts, these creatures became an incredibly terrifying army. Wherever they passed, everything was annihilated!

Heavenly Consort Qiang was secretly orchestrating this, which is why the void beasts first targeted the treasures in the first heaven!

Qin Mu sneered and bowed. The first heaven immediately transformed into the second heaven, and the second heaven became the new first heaven. More void beasts surged in, rushing into the new first heaven.

At this moment, in the other heavens, various treasures glowed brilliantly. Before the void beasts could devour the treasures of the new second heaven, thousands of terrifying rays of light undulated, combining the power of countless heavy treasures, sweeping clean the void beasts that had rushed into the second heaven.

Countless huge bodies fell from the sky, plummeting into the dark mountains below.

"Heavenly Consort Qiang, let's see, are your troop deployments more formidable, or can my formation establish its own path!"

Qin Mu, filled with heroic spirit, laughed heartily. He concentrated, coordinating the various heavens. Using the unique ability of the ancient god egg to grant all requests, he activated the heavy treasures in each heaven, unleashing their power!

The order of the twenty-eight heavens constantly shifted, dazzling observers. The power of various heavy treasures erupted, lights of all colors flashed, and various dao arts transformed into visible dao patterns, surging in all directions, either bisecting, splitting, piercing the heads of, slicing into pieces, or instantly exploding the void beasts!

Within each heaven, bodies fell like rain. The fifteen annual rings of the Great Black Wood became piled high with corpses, with only Great Black Peak itself remaining unaffected.

This was Qin Mu using Yan Kang's art of formation against a formidable entity like the Grand Emperor—a magnificent clash of wisdom against wisdom!

In terms of military formations, Qin Mu had not fully utilized the Azure Sky Glazed Banner. To unleash the full power of this paramount treasure, tens of thousands of troops would be needed to form formations around each heavy treasure in the various heavens and use the shifting formations to slay enemies.

But now, he was alone. He couldn't manifest hundreds of thousands of gods and devils, so he could only rely on the basic power of this paramount treasure to contend with the void beasts.

The void beast horde was like a tide, surging in wave after wave, assaulting the heavens. The sight was incredibly spectacular!

Yet, they consistently failed to break into Great Black Peak. Countless bodies fell, gradually filling the many valleys of the Great Black Wood, with the piles of corpses growing higher and higher.

However, no one noticed that as the bodies fell, the void beasts' blood was quickly absorbed by the black mountains, leaving not a drop. Soon, the void beasts' bodies became shriveled corpses!

In the distance, Heavenly Venerable Hong, Heavenly Venerable Hao, Heavenly Venerable Gong, Divine Emperor Lang Xuan, and others arrived. Watching from afar as the beast horde besieged the Great Black Wood, they were greatly shocked.

After a long while, Heavenly Venerable Xiao praised, "It truly is the paramount treasure under heaven."

Suddenly, the void cracked open. A monstrous beast extended its head from above Great Black Peak. It opened its massive mouth and, with a crunch, bit through one heaven after another!

Eight heavens in a row had a large chunk bitten out by it. Many heavy treasures hanging in those heavens were also swallowed by this void mother beast.

Qin Mu's heart jolted as he saw the celestial orb of the Azure Sky Glazed Banner exposed!