Chapter 1343: Stealing the Fruit

Moon Heavenly Venerate stepped forward to examine Qin Mu’s injuries. He saw that Qin Mu’s head was gone, leaving only his neck, and the cross-section of the wound showed Dao markings left by Heaven Venerate Hao’s attack. These markings were continuously damaging his bodily functions, making his injuries extremely severe.

Even his primordial spirit had no head; just like Qin Mu, its neck was also covered in Dao injuries.

The Apothecary quickly suppressed Qin Mu’s Dao injuries. Qin Mu was now merely outwardly strong but inwardly weak. His Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure had exploded, and with Heaven Venerate Hao’s Dao injuries present, he couldn’t even use the Immutability divine art.

Scaring away Heaven Venerate Hao earlier was just a bluff.

Even if he could use the Immutability divine art, the Dao injuries would still remain and cause his head to explode.

The Dao injuries needed to be eradicated first. Only then could he activate the Immutability divine art to restore his Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, or use the Art of Creation to regrow his head.

“Apothecary, are Heavenly Venerate Mu’s injuries dangerous?” Moon Heavenly Venerate whispered.

“He won’t die.”

The Apothecary meticulously examined the bowl-sized cross-section of the wound on Qin Mu’s neck. He looked a bit troubled, saying, “I just don’t understand the Dao markings left within Heaven Venerate Hao’s Dao injury. I’ll need a Heavenly Venerate’s guidance.”

You Heavenly Venerate stepped forward and shined his horse lantern on Qin Mu. He saw that Qin Mu’s throat was still breathing. Relieved, he said, “He won’t die. Moon Heavenly Venerate, where did you banish Heaven Venerate Hao to?”

Moon Heavenly Venerate carefully analyzed the Dao markings in Qin Mu’s Dao injury. She explained, “When I achieved some progress in my cultivation, I wanted to experiment with spatial arts. So I roamed around, often using spatial divine arts to conduct experiments. Once, I unintentionally opened a space and discovered a labyrinth-like place. I was trapped there for over a hundred years, only escaping by accident. I called it the Chaotic Space. That’s where I sent Heaven Venerate Hao.”

She seemed a bit embarrassed, saying, “Although I established my Dao through space, the strangeness of that place was beyond my expectations, and I found it hard to escape at the time. Heaven Venerate Hao’s current power far surpasses mine back then, and he possesses the body of Earth Mother Primordial Lord. Using Earth Mother’s root tendrils and branches to navigate the maze will be much simpler for him. However, it will still take him one or two decades to leave that place.”

“Such a place exists?” Qin Mu exclaimed in surprise.

Moon Heavenly Venerate replied, “The universe is magnificent and naturally holds many unknown secrets. That place contains many peculiar ruins. Even I was quite puzzled when I arrived in that Chaotic Space back then.”

She couldn’t help but say angrily, “Heavenly Venerate Mu, you’re in this state, yet you’re still curious about such dangerous places? Do you have a death wish?”

Qin Mu raised a hand, wanting to touch his head. Moon Heavenly Venerate slapped his hand, exasperated, “Have you forgotten? You don’t have a head right now!”

Qin Mu put his hands on his hips. Moon Heavenly Venerate, who was fuming, couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the sight.

You Heavenly Venerate glanced at her, coughed, and said, “Moon, we’d better quickly sort out the Dao markings in his Dao injury. The longer we delay, the more perilous it will be for him.”

Moon Heavenly Venerate quickly composed herself and said seriously, “You can’t blame me for this; blame Heavenly Venerate Mu. He’s always making me laugh.”

You Heavenly Venerate put the ghostly mask from the back of his head onto his face, rolled his eyes, then pushed the mask back to the rear of his head.

After all, the two Heavenly Venerates possessed profound insight. They quickly deciphered the Dao markings of the Dao injury left by Heaven Venerate Hao. However, they only partially understood the Great Dao runes contained within these markings.

The two explained in detail to Qin Mu. Qin Mu deciphered the Dao markings bit by bit. Suddenly, he spoke with great displeasure, “Heaven Venerate Hao also learned microscopic numerology?”

Moon Heavenly Venerate and You Heavenly Venerate didn’t understand the meaning of his words, so they didn’t pay it much mind.

Qin Mu fell silent. Heaven Venerate Hao had learned microscopic numerology and reconstructed his Great Dao runes. This made his cultivation so powerful that he could even single-handedly fight against Earth Count and the two Heavenly Venerates, Moon and You.

And all of this was a result of the reforms in Eternal Peace!

“Heaven Venerate Hao was able to master microscopic numerology in such a short time,” Qin Mu mused. “This indicates he has been staying in Eternal Peace, diligently studying the achievements of the Eternal Peace reforms. However, he couldn’t possibly stay in Eternal Peace constantly, as he also needed to be in the Celestial Heavens, and even visit the ancestral court or the Void Realm occasionally.”

After a moment’s thought, Qin Mu came to a conclusion: “When I summoned his soul, it wasn’t absorbed into Heaven Venerate Hao’s body. Instead, his soul reincarnated, becoming another person, who then infiltrated Eternal Peace to secretly learn the reforms.”

Heaven Venerate Hao going to learn the Eternal Peace reforms was not beyond his expectations. In fact, Qin Mu wished all Ten Heavenly Venerates would learn from the achievements of the Eternal Peace reforms.

As long as the Eternal Peace reforms proved useful, the Ten Heavenly Venerates wouldn’t bring down calamities to destroy Eternal Peace, at least not until Eternal Peace became a threat to them.

However, what made Qin Mu wary was that Heaven Venerate Hao had maintained an identity within Eternal Peace. Over the past decade or so, this identity had likely ascended to the middle or even upper echelons of Eternal Peace.

Given time, he would be like a parasite, controlling power in Eternal Peace, perhaps even usurping the nest.

“He wants to silently steal the fruits of the Eternal Peace reforms,” Qin Mu murmured. “Just as the demigods once usurped the power of the ancient gods, and as the Ten Heavenly Venerates usurped the power of the Celestial Emperor, no matter how the world changes, the power of these old rulers will never fall into others’ hands.”

Qin Mu silently continued, “If Eternal Peace’s power doesn’t belong to the people of Eternal Peace, but instead falls into the hands of a parasite like Heaven Venerate Hao, then the Eternal Peace reforms will have failed. In that case, Eternal Peace would be nothing more than another Dragon Han Revolution.”

The Apothecary coughed, reminding him, “Mu’er, continue deciphering the Dao markings.”

Qin Mu collected himself and continued to listen as Moon Heavenly Venerate and You Heavenly Venerate explained the form of each rune. He, in turn, deciphered the mysteries of these Great Dao runes.

After a long while, the three of them worked together to analyze the Dao injury left by Heaven Venerate Hao. This time, the Dao injury wasn’t considered particularly severe. In his haste, Heaven Venerate Hao had blasted off Qin Mu’s head without having time to exert his full strength.

The Apothecary already had a plan and immediately began preparing medicine.

He refined a spirit elixir and immediately used it to treat Qin Mu’s injuries. Qin Mu’s Dao injuries slowly began to disappear.

After another long while, Qin Mu felt an itch at the wound. He immediately activated the Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique, and his neck began to grow. Soon, a head grew out, and his vertical eye between his brows reappeared. However, this time, the Qin-character continent, the Grand Beginning eggshell, the Grand Ultimate primordial stone, and other items were no longer inside the vertical eye.

Moon Heavenly Venerate returned the treasures that had burst out of him. All items were present, except for the Qin-character continent, which had been shattered by Heaven Venerate Hao, and the corpse of Madam Yuanmu.

At the time, the situation was urgent. Moon Heavenly Venerate had merely thrown the treasures that burst out of Qin Mu into another space without sealing them. A corpse demon had been born from Madam Yuanmu’s corpse. The corpse demon, seeing an opportunity, intended to sweep away Qin Mu’s treasures and flee, but it was deterred by the Grand Beginning Egg.

With no Qin-character continent in his vertical eye, Qin Mu had no choice but to temporarily place these treasures within his divine treasures, specifically on the ancestral court of his divine treasures.

The Grand Beginning Egg then settled safely back onto the Grand Beginning ore vein altar within his ancestral court.

Qin Mu stood up, pondered for a moment, and said gravely, “You Heavenly Venerate, can you find someone in Eternal Peace who was born nineteen years ago? Their name should contain the character ‘Xiao,’ and their current cultivation realm should have reached Honored God or even higher.”

You Heavenly Venerate’s heart stirred slightly. He took out the Book of Life and Death and said, “I can look for them.”

Not long after, You Heavenly Venerate said, “I’ve found two deities from Eternal Peace: one named Xiao Tianji, and another named Xiao Chujue.”

Qin Mu looked at the two Eternal Peace deities in the Book of Life and Death and sniffed their souls. Then, he took out the divine bow of the prehistoric era’s powerful being, pulled it open with force, and pointed the arrow eastward.

In the east, the rising sun made the sky bright.