Chapter 1490: Encountering Divine Punishment

"Heavenly Venerable Mu, why do you always come up with such bizarre ideas?"

The girl, Tai Yi, couldn't help but exclaim, "Your ideas are always preposterous, yet they possess a wicked allure. Even I sometimes find myself drawn in, thinking that if your suggestions were carried out, they would surely be excellent!"

Qin Mu's eyes lit up.

The young girl sniffled and added, "However, from my experience, your ideas invariably turn out to be utterly dreadful. Even Emperor Tai, who was half a Daoist, lost his physical body after following your terrible advice just a couple of times. And when I listened to your idea and lent you the Chaos Axe, you ended up cutting down the World Tree without being able to revive it."

Qin Mu burst into loud laughter.

Tai Yi waited patiently for his awkward laughter to subside before continuing, "How do you know this idea of yours isn't another terrible one? Even I can't guarantee if that World Tree can be revived, and even if it could, do you know the consequences?"

Qin Mu's expression changed dramatically. He probed, "Are you saying that if this World Tree enters my divine treasure, it will cause it to explode?"

"No, it probably won't explode your divine treasure. If the tree revives, its roots will grow slowly, but the tree itself won't grow immediately."

Tai Yi eased his concerns. "I'm referring to something else entirely. The water in this bucket isn't ordinary; it's Dao Dew from my Dao Tree. Dao Dew condenses at night and evaporates during the day. Each leaf on my Dao Tree embodies my cultivation, and only one drop of Dao Dew can form on each leaf nightly. The total amount of Dao Dew is finite, and I can only collect this specific amount—precisely enough to repair the nightly cracks in Great Black Mountain and prevent powerful beings from the previous universe from illicitly entering."

Qin Mu grasped her meaning. "So, if you use the Dao Dew to revive the World Tree, then powerful beings from the previous cosmic epoch will inevitably sneak in?"

Tai Yi nodded. "Precisely. If you possessed the capability to stop them, then it would be simple; lending you a bucket of water would be no issue, and you could simply go kill the trespassers. However, you clearly lack that ability."

Qin Mu felt utterly ashamed.

Tai Yi cast a slow glance at him and spoke unhurriedly, "I'll show you the proper path. Go beneath the World Tree and meditate, just like Lan Yutian and Xu Shenghua. When you achieve something in the future, you can use your own Grand Dao runes to plant a Dao Tree in your ancestral court. With this Dao Tree, when you cultivate to the level of Dao Attainment, you will realize the immense benefits—all your previous efforts won't have been in vain! This kind of Dao Attainment isn't like Emperor Tai's, which was rather... diluted."

Qin Mu's face flushed with shame. He looked around, and seeing no one nearby, he leaned down and whispered into the little girl's ear, "I'll tell you a secret, but you must promise not to tell anyone. To be frank..."

After much hesitation, he finally mustered the courage to reveal a secret he had kept hidden for years. "The truth is," he confessed to Tai Yi, "I'm not as intelligent as Xu Shenghua or Lan Yutian, nor is my comprehension as high. My Dao heart might not even be stronger than theirs."

Tai Yi rolled her eyes and gave him an unamused look, clearly having known this all along.

Qin Mu wavered. "If I cultivate under the tree with them, my achievements will undoubtedly fall short, and they'll realize my Hegemon Body is a sham, greatly exaggerated. But if I take an unconventional approach and directly refine the World Tree, they'll praise me, saying, 'Indeed, a Hegemon Body!' So, even if I can't refine the World Tree, I still need to cultivate one myself..."

"Well then, are you prepared to confront the prehistoric powerhouses who have crawled here from the ruined universe?" Tai Yi asked.

Qin Mu hesitated for a moment.

Tai Yi scoffed, "You are no match for them right now. Even the weakest among them is as capable as any of the Ten Heavenly Venerables, and that's after the Great Tribulation of Destruction has eroded and weakened them. If they arrive in this universe, imprint the void with their Grand Dao, and reach our universe's ultimate void, they can restore themselves to their peak state. At that point, not only you, but even if the Ten Heavenly Venerables banded together, they wouldn't stand a chance against even one of them!"

Qin Mu, dejected, turned to leave. Just then, Tai Yi's voice called out from behind him, "However, there is a solution."

Qin Mu stopped and turned around, a hopeful expression appearing on his face.

Tai Yi smiled broadly, revealing the scattered teeth in her mouth, clearly indicating she was losing her baby teeth. "I'm guarding this place precisely to handle such situations," she explained. "If any prehistoric powerhouses step in, I will eliminate them one by one!"

Qin Mu's eyes gleamed brightly.

"But why should I do that?" she continued. "After all, this Great Black Mountain is yours; I've already relinquished my position as its master to you."

Tai Yi, looking quite sagely, stated, "Repairing Great Black Mountain every day is already exhausting enough for me. So, while it's not impossible for me to intervene, repairing the mountain daily is truly tedious."

Qin Mu quickly interjected, "I'll repair the mountain! I can do it for as many days as you need!"

Tai Yi winked slyly. "I don't need you to repair it for too long, just for half a year. During that time, I'll need to leave Great Black Mountain to attend to something. All you have to do is climb to the highest point of the World Tree every night to collect the Dao Dew that drips from my Dao Tree. Then, use it to repair the cracked Black Mountain during the day. After six months, I'll return, and you'll be free."

Qin Mu was overjoyed and nodded profusely.

Tai Yi then produced another iron bucket, brimming with Dao Dew.

Qin Mu eyed her suspiciously, then looked down at the Dao Dew in the bucket. He cautiously asked, "Dao Brother, how do you have two buckets here, both full of Dao Dew? Didn't you just say that your Dao Tree has a fixed number of leaves, and you can only collect one bucket of Dao Dew at a time?"

"Yes, only one bucket can be collected at a time."

Tai Yi readily clarified his confusion. "Before you all returned to the ancestral court, the activity of Great Black Mountain wasn't as intense, so each repair often left a little bit over. Those small amounts accumulated, resulting in a few extra buckets. I'm naturally thrifty, so I saved them for a rainy day."

Qin Mu's eyebrow twitched. "So, Dao Brother won't actually need to confront those prehistoric powerhouses who emerge?"

Tai Yi replied crisply, "Exactly!"

Qin Mu grunted, took the iron bucket, and bowed. "Thank you, Dao Brother," he said.

Tai Yi's eyes curved into crescent moons as she smiled. "You're not angry?" she asked.

"Angry about what?"

Qin Mu chuckled. "Dao Brother lent me a bucket of Dao Dew and prevented prehistoric Dao Attainers from emerging to harm the world. I'm too grateful to be angry! I was simply outsmarted by you, Dao Brother, and while I concede my wisdom is inferior, I'm still immensely pleased."

Tai Yi spontaneously praised him, "Heavenly Venerable Mu, while you may not be as clever as Xu Shenghua or Lan Yutian, nor as insightful, and your Dao heart might not be stronger than theirs, and you're certainly not as handsome... you are a True Human! Lan Yutian is a Saint, Xu Shenghua is a Divine Human, and you, you are a True Human."

Although Qin Mu wasn't sure which of the "Saint," "Divine Human," or "True Human" was considered superior, he assumed she was praising him. He humbly accepted the commendation and departed with the small bucket.

Returning to the World Tree, he placed the severed World Tree he had cut down into his divine treasure, planting it within his ancestral court.

The onlookers beneath the tree watched anxiously. Only when they realized he wasn't there to cut down *their* tree did they finally relax.

Qin Mu composed himself and then unfurled his divine treasure domain. There, the severed tree stood in his ancestral court, its branches and leaves withered, utterly devoid of life.

He carefully watered the tree's base. Not far away, within the Grand Beginning ore vein, the Grand Beginning Egg rested firmly on its altar. The large egg slowly rotated half a turn, and the voice of Grand Beginning resonated, "This tree is dead; you can't revive it... Wait, what is that? Let me have a taste!"

The large egg bounced off the altar and hopped towards the tree. As Qin Mu watered, the Grand Beginning Egg tilted itself, seemingly observing his actions with curiosity. "Without roots, it can't absorb nutrients; you won't be able to revive this tree," it remarked. "Why don't you let me taste the water from your bucket..."

Qin Mu sneered, "A tree without roots can't absorb water, and you have no mouth, so you can't absorb it either."

The Grand Beginning Egg chuckled, "While I have no mouth, I can absorb the power of the ore vein."

"Then so can this tree."

Qin Mu continued watering diligently. "If it were a fully grown tree, it might be beyond saving," he said, "but this is still a sapling. If it receives nourishment, it might just grow roots."

The Grand Beginning Egg edged closer to the bucket. Qin Mu nudged the large egg away, but a moment later, it sidled up again, only to be nudged away once more.

"Fine, don't give it!"

The Grand Beginning Egg bounced away, returning to its ore vein and settling securely on its altar. "This tree has no roots; it can't absorb water," it declared. "I control the power of the ore vein, so all the water you pour will definitely be absorbed by me!"

Qin Mu ignored it, while the Grand Beginning Egg, controlling the Grand Beginning ore vein, tried desperately to siphon off the Dao Dew Qin Mu poured. Just then, the large egg became agitated, leaping off the altar with a whoosh and hovering in mid-air, afraid to descend. "Something is stealing power from my ore vein!" it cried. "Strange! Something is wrong!"

That ore vein was created by Qin Mu, a replica of the ancestral court's Grand Beginning ore vein. The Grand Beginning divine stones and primordial stones Qin Mu had acquired were all embedded within it for the ancient god, Grand Beginning, within the egg to absorb.

Now, shadowy tendrils slowly writhed beneath this ore vein, growing steadily and siphoning off its power. One by one, the Grand Beginning divine stones within the vein gradually lost their energy, their radiance dimming.

A divine stone suddenly cracked, then shattered into fragments on the ground. The Grand Beginning Egg shrieked repeatedly, hovering in the air, too terrified to descend.

*Crack, crack, crack!*

One after another, the Grand Beginning divine stones lost all their energy and crumbled. Even the Grand Beginning primordial stones grew increasingly dim.

The Grand Beginning Egg was on the verge of tears. "Heavenly Venerable Mu, what kind of water is that?" it cried. "You're turning this tree into a monster! Stop it, quickly!"

Simultaneously, the divine stones Qin Mu had buried in his other ore veins also began to crack and shatter, clearly indicating that the World Tree was absorbing their energy too!

While the World Tree growing roots after being nourished by the Dao Dew should have been a positive development, its siphoning of power from the four great ore veins made Qin Mu hesitate.

The four great ore veins had been established by him through his comprehension of the four innate Grand Daos: Grand Ultimate, Grand Beginning, Grand Element, and Grand Prime. Due to his incomplete understanding, he relied on the power of the divine stones within them.

If the World Tree completely drained these four ore veins, would the gains outweigh the losses for him?

Just then, he suddenly felt his own power rapidly draining away, and his heart began to pound with alarm!

In addition to seizing the power of the four great ore veins, the World Tree had shockingly begun to absorb his *own* power!

Regardless of the Grand Dao, the World Tree indiscriminately seized and absorbed everything, accepting all comers with a "smile."

Within his divine treasure, Xuandu began to contract, and all the Grand Daos from Xuandu, along with its myriad stars and constellations, surged towards the World Tree. Xuandu's starry sky rapidly shrank, as if a whale had swallowed a rainbow, countless stars, celestial bodies, and galaxies rushing into the tree!

Not only that, but Yuandu, Youdu, and the Four Ultimate Heavens also began to contract, collapsing into the tree!

Even the myriad heavens and worlds were one by one devoured by the World Tree!

Qin Mu had forged nearly two thousand ancient gods from his own Grand Dao, yet now, one by one, they too were being devoured by the World Tree, without even a chance to escape!

Qin Mu was horrified. He swiftly retracted his divine treasure domain and immediately strode towards Tai Yi, who was still repairing Black Mountain.

Now, only Tai Yi could save him. If she would only swing her great axe and sever this World Tree that was wreaking havoc within his divine treasure, he wouldn't be devoured.

However, the moment he took his first step, his physical body visibly withered.

With his second step, Qin Mu was reduced to skin and bones.

By his third step, he had lost all moisture and fell stiffly from the air, landing motionless on the ground like a desiccated corpse.

Hua Xuanxiu was the first to notice Qin Mu plummeting from the sky. "The Old Cult Master has suffered divine retribution for cutting down the tree!" she cried out in alarm.