Chapter 1651: Void Filthy Place

Taichu made a swift decision, casting the flesh-and-blood pagoda out of the One Qi Grand Overarching Heaven. Immediately, he urged the Grand Overarching Heaven to roar away. "Since I can no longer stop him from escaping, and there's no time to drown him in the river, I'll throw him into the ultimate void! Whether the ultimate void can eradicate him will be entirely up to chance!" The One Qi Grand Overarching Heaven vanished without a trace.

Taichu was also concerned that if Qin Mu escaped, he would surely try to kill him. If he couldn't win, he could retreat. The ultimate void was so vast that as long as he remained hidden, Qin Mu, no matter how powerful, would be unable to find him.

The void was silent and empty; only the flesh-and-blood pagoda floated solitarily within the ultimate void. Qin Mu's voice came from inside the pagoda, chuckling, "Taichu is gone."

The Eight-Armed Demonic God, Dutian Demon King, lowered his divine bow and asked in surprise, "Just drawing the bowstring really scared him off? He's an enlightened being; how did he become so easily startled?" The bow in his hand was just an ordinary divine bow. The 'thwacking' sounds heard earlier from inside the pagoda were him drawing the bowstring and feigning a few shots.

"Taichu is a man who is good at strategizing but indecisive, outwardly fierce but inwardly cowardly, willing to risk his life for small gains but hesitant when it comes to major endeavors," Qin Mu said unhurriedly. "You drew the bowstring and feigned a few shots, making him mistakenly believe that I had already broken through this Primordial Transformation divine ability and unbound the dao chains. He naturally fled in a panic, like a startled bird. All Ten Celestials are like this, rarely brave or resolute. Frankly, Hao Tianzun is comparatively better among them."

Breaking the Primordial Transformation sounded easy, and Lan Yutian was full of confidence, but the actual process would take a long time. By then, the flesh-and-blood pagoda would likely have been sent by Taichu into the River of Chaos. This was why Qin Mu had asked Dutian Demon God to imitate the sound of dao chains breaking to frighten Taichu away.

Qin Mu knew Taichu's personality intimately. Taichu had been framed by Tai Di, forcing him to be born prematurely and become Tai Di's adopted son. While working under Tai Di, he was meticulously cautious, yet secretly plotting how to eliminate Tai Di. It took him billions of years to finally get an opportunity, which Tai Yi had provided. Had Tai Yi not transformed into dao and incited the ancient gods to rebel against Tai Di, Taichu would likely have continued to endure silently.

After becoming the Heavenly Emperor, Taichu was full of ambition, but he was overthrown by Yun Tianzun and Hao Tianzun. He then transformed into Xiao, living a despicable existence, feigning cordiality with the other Celestials, and making no significant moves for millions of years. He harbored thoughts of restoration but never acted on them, focusing only on concealing his identity.

Later, with Qin Mu's emergence, Taichu devised various seemingly flawless schemes. However, he was too self-preserving and afraid of death, leading to his defeat by Hao Tianzun. He was forced to surrender and allow his son, Hao Tianzun, to become the Heavenly Emperor. Yet, ironically, sometimes for trivial gains, he would risk his life. "Good at strategizing but indecisive, outwardly fierce but inwardly cowardly, willing to risk his life for small gains but hesitant when it comes to major endeavors" was the most fitting description of him.

The flesh-and-blood pagoda drifted silently in the ultimate void. Qin Mu was learning from Lan Yutian how to transform his entire cultivation into primordial qi. Uncontrolled, the pagoda was carried by the chilling winds toward an unknown destination.

How vast was the ultimate void? No one could answer this question. Even Qin Mu only knew that the ultimate void was immeasurably larger than the known universe, but he did not know its boundaries.

The void contained no matter; everything within it would decompose infinitely until it became nothingness. The voidification in the first layer of the void was not particularly terrifying, but the deeper one went, the stronger its power became. Even Heavenly Venerables could not remain long in the thirty-fifth layer of the void without risking voidification. The ultimate void, however, could only be withstood by enlightened beings. Yet, the flesh-and-blood pagoda was remarkably unique; it somehow blocked the ultimate void's chilling winds, forming a barrier that protected Qin Mu's transformed primordial qi and the people of Yankang within.

The pagoda drifted for an unknown period until it suddenly paused slightly, as if bumping into something, and then stopped moving. Silence filled the pagoda. Lan Yutian and Dutian Demon King looked out through Qin Mu's eyes, seeing that the pagoda had come to rest in a desolate ruin, filled with dilapidated walls and crumbling structures.

There were incredibly ancient buildings here, all collapsed. Yet, even the chilling winds of the void would typically dissipate such ruins. "The layout of these ruins resembles another Jade Capital City!" Lan Yutian, who had visited the ancestral court's Jade Capital City, immediately noticed this and exclaimed in surprise, "But the seventy-two halls are arranged differently! How strange, could there be a second Jade Capital in this world?"

Just as he was about to examine it more closely, a surge of chaotic qi suddenly emanated from the ruins, obscuring their vision. Moments later, when the chilling winds dispersed the chaotic qi, the strange area they had just seen had vanished.

Lan Yutian marveled at the sight. The chilling winds continued to propel the flesh-and-blood pagoda through the ultimate void. After another indeterminate period, the pagoda collided with something, emitting a distinct 'clack.' Through Qin Mu's eyes, Lan Yutian saw that what the pagoda had struck was an enormous skull, many times larger than the pagoda itself.

The skull was devoid of flesh, consisting only of bone, being carried by the chilling winds to an unknown destination. However, during the recent collision with the flesh-and-blood pagoda, some of the pagoda's blood fibers had adhered to the skull. Qin Mu's vertical eye was incredibly powerful; even Lan Yutian could clearly see through the pagoda that the tiny thread of flesh on the surface of the colossal skull was continuously wriggling and growing!

Lan Yutian was horrified, baffled by what the skull was and why flesh could grow upon it. A chilling wind blew, rapidly dissipating the flesh on the skull. However, some of the already grown flesh seized the opportunity to burrow deep into the skull, hiding within the cranium, attempting to evade the chilling winds.

Lan Yutian's heart pounded. "Where has the chilling wind taken us in the ultimate void? How can such bizarre things exist here?" He could no longer see where the skull had been carried by the wind. However, the previous scene suggested that there was still some sentience within the skull, something residing there, attempting to regenerate a physical body using a trace of the flesh from the pagoda.

"The ultimate void was formed when the universe was created; it has existed since the universe's origin. Could it be that some prehistoric monster is hidden here?" Just as Lan Yutian thought this, the flesh-and-blood pagoda suddenly halted again. He quickly looked out and saw that the pagoda had struck an incredibly smooth stone wall.

It appeared to be a wall made of chaotic stone, as smooth as a mirror, without a single blemish. Lan Yutian tried to control Qin Mu's eyes to look upward. He saw that the wall was perfectly uniform, of unknown length, with a neat cut surface, yet its width was limited. It stood alone in the ultimate void, resembling a long, rectangular stone monument.

The chilling winds blew, causing the pagoda to bump against the large stone monument twice before being carried away. Lan Yutian rotated Qin Mu's eyes to look at the back of the monument. There was a line of vertically arranged, bloody characters. The writing was clearly not contemporary, and he could not understand its meaning.

"What a strange place!" Lan Yutian's heart skipped a beat. "Where has the chilling wind taken us? Why hasn't Brother awakened yet? Is primordial qi truly that difficult to comprehend?" He frowned, thinking, "I've already conveyed everything I should have; comprehending it shouldn't be too hard... If Xu Shenghua were here, it would be much better! I'm not very good at teaching; he's more skilled..."

Just then, the flesh-and-blood pagoda collided with something else—the half of a broken boat. Its cross-section was jagged, with some parts extremely sharp, nearly piercing the pagoda. The pagoda's surface flesh was punctured, and it became snagged on the broken boat.

Lan Yutian suddenly saw a skeleton embedded in the boat's hull. It appeared to be the remains of an enlightened being, whose bones had not been voidified by the ultimate void! The enlightened being had clearly been murdered, with a fractured sternum and a rusty weapon piercing its chest.

*Click.* The skeleton's skull suddenly twisted, its empty eye sockets turning towards the pagoda, seemingly able to see everything within. Lan Yutian was startled and quickly covered his eyes. A moment later, he cautiously peeked out through his fingers.

Seeing this, Dutian Demon King thought, "Old Master Lan still has a childish temperament, to be scared like this! What could have startled him so much... Ah!" He too saw the sight outside, and the hair on his four heads stood on end like a hedgehog's quills.

"It's dead!" Lan Yutian lowered his hands and smiled at him. "Don't worry, it's dead! The wind just moved its head, making me think it was alive. How strange, these things should have been destroyed during the creation of the universe; how are they still preserved?"

Puzzled, he murmured, "Could the wood of this boat be from a World Tree?" He was eager to exit through Qin Mu's eyes and examine the broken boat, but even if he could, he wouldn't be able to leave the flesh-and-blood pagoda. He lacked the power. Furthermore, outside, he would be unable to withstand the ultimate void's chilling winds!

Although Qin Mu had some areas of dao arts and divine abilities he didn't understand, his cultivation and power were far superior to Lan Yutian's. If Qin Mu were to awaken, with his strength, he could go out and explore, clarifying the oddities of this place.

The chilling winds blew, and finally, the pagoda swayed, detached itself from the broken boat, and continued to drift. Lan Yutian looked back at the skeleton on the boat, and suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. The skull was slowly turning its head, "staring" intently at the pagoda!

"It's alive!" Lan Yutian's heart pounded, and he quickly composed himself.

The flesh-and-blood pagoda must have inadvertently entered a mysterious zone within the ultimate void. Along its drift, it encountered all sorts of strange and bizarre things: withered dao trees, broken divine weapons, and unknown skeletons. He even saw a head impaled on a flag.

This place resembled a dumping ground in the ultimate void, where everything that couldn't be voidified was discarded.