Chapter 1663: Arrival

Qin Mu drifted through the Land of the Abandoned, an immense dumping ground within the ultimate void. It seemed as though everything that had survived sixteen cosmic epochs was discarded here.

He passed a withered Dao tree. Although it was completely parched, Qin Mu still detected a faint consciousness within it.

He tried to examine it more closely, but the consciousness was extremely rudimentary and offered no response, as if it had fallen into a chaotic state, providing him with no information.

"This Daoist master's consciousness must have been fragmented into a chaotic state during the Calamity of Destruction," Qin Mu thought to himself.

The consciousness hidden within the Dao tree could no longer survive; it was impossible for it to awaken.

Qin Mu moved on. Nothing in the ultimate void's Land of the Abandoned was stationary; everything was constantly in flux. His quest to find the portal containing the obelisks was akin to searching for a needle in a haystack.

Furthermore, he couldn't use his divine sense here, as it would be etherealized by the ultimate void and vanish. He could only rely on his sight to search.

Days turned into weeks. Qin Mu encountered countless bizarre things, even re-encountering the ruins of Heavenly Capital City several times, yet he still couldn't find the portal.

During this time, his legs gradually grew, becoming almost as tall as before, though they remained somewhat slender. His primordial spirit also steadily strengthened, though fully restoring it to its peak would still require a longer period of arduous cultivation.

At his peak, his primordial spirit was immense; if unleashed to its limit, it could encompass an entire universe. While not as terrifying as Heavenly Venerate You's primordial spirit, it was still extraordinary.

Currently, his primordial spirit was only about ten zhang tall, not even comparable to practitioners in the Divine Bridge or Celestial River Realms.

Even so, he remained one of the most powerful beings in the world today!

Both his physical body and primordial spirit were forged from primordial chaos qi, following the path of the Mi Luo Palace Lord. Meanwhile, his cultivation path covertly aligned with that of the Lord of Heavenly Capital, combining the strengths of both.

"I will search for another two years," he decided. "If I cannot find that portal within that time, I will return to Eternal Peace!"

Qin Mu endured the solitude alone, searching tirelessly in the Land of the Abandoned. He saw heads impaled on flags, women combing their hair in bronze mirrors, and a broken divine weapon that continuously bled.

He also witnessed a Dao fruit continuously growing human heads, only for them to be constantly weathered away by the winds of cold desolation.

Additionally, he encountered clusters of coffins, entire swathes of them chained together, forming long lines that drifted in the boundless void.

This Land of the Abandoned was filled with strange and bizarre things.

Earlier, Qin Mu had intended to collect some treasures from the Land of the Abandoned, but upon seeing these peculiar items, he abandoned that idea.

To him, these items were nothing but hazardous junk. They were not only useless but also extremely dangerous. He was repeatedly chased by strange heads and broken ships. When attempting to retrieve a mottled bronze mirror, he was nearly dragged into it by the woman combing her hair. As for the heads impaled on the flags, they had become inseparable from the banners themselves!

What was even more terrifying was that these items concealed profound mysteries. Trapped in the Land of the Abandoned and buffeted by the winds of cold desolation, they couldn't leave. If Qin Mu were to take them out, it would likely empower them and unleash immense disaster upon the world.

"Many undying beings are hidden within the things in the Land of the Abandoned."

The more Qin Mu observed, the more certain he became of his conjecture: some beings who had survived the Great Calamity of Creation and Destruction were hidden within various treasures, awaiting an opportunity for revival.

These were undying beings whom even the ultimate void couldn't obliterate. The Land of the Abandoned served as a natural prison, confining them and preventing their escape.

Taking these treasures away would, instead, empower them!

As the two-year period neared its end, Qin Mu's state of mind shifted from anxious to calm. The door panel landed on a massive coffin, and Qin Mu sat upon it. From within the coffin came thumping sounds, as if a living being was suppressed inside.

The door panel was immensely heavy, sufficient to suppress whatever was inside the coffin.

Qin Mu knocked on the door panel and chuckled, "Hey there, brother inside, I'm just hitching a ride. Why so agitated?"

Muffled roars emanated from the coffin, and the thumping grew more frantic, as if some monster was banging its head against the lid.

Qin Mu laughed heartily and looked ahead.

Ahead lay rows of coffins, chained together end to end, drifting towards the distant darkness.

Qin Mu intended to use these coffins to rest his legs. As for what was buried within the cluster, he had no desire to know.

These past few years of continuous travel had taken their toll. His legs still hadn't fully recovered, so he needed to stop and rest.

Just then, the smile on Qin Mu's face gradually faded, and he stood up.

He saw the foremost coffin turning, deviating from its predetermined course. Directly in front of the coffin cluster was a door frame—missing its panel!

Within the door frame, he could vaguely discern colossal obelisks!

These obelisks were incredibly smooth, like countless flawless mirrors.

Colossal monuments formed a forest, standing within the world beyond the door.

The obelisks reflected the void and the coffin cluster drifting past the door. Vaguely, Qin Mu even saw that their surfaces could reflect what was inside the coffins!

Inside these coffins, shockingly, was Dao blood, and submerged within it were hairy, dense monsters. They resembled corpses or zombies, with long teeth and sharp claws, frantically scratching the coffin walls!

The corpses of these prehistoric Daoist masters, submerged in the coffins' Dao blood, had transformed into strange and eerie forms of life!

Qin Mu was startled, then gradually calmed down.

These coffins likely belonged to another faction of Daoist masters, distinct from Mi Luo Palace and Heavenly Capital City. Their path differed from theirs.

These Daoist masters were not as powerful as those of Mi Luo Palace and Heavenly Capital City, so they carved coffins from World Tree timber and then locked themselves inside.

When the Great Calamity of Creation and Destruction erupted, they used coffins forged from World Tree timber to escape the Calamity of Destruction. However, they failed to evade the Calamity of Creation. During the great tribulation of cosmic creation, they transformed into blood, their bodies submerged in the blood they had become, turning into corpse demons.

"The blood might not even be their own," he mused. "It's more likely they killed other Daoist masters, used their Dao blood as a vessel, and lay inside, hoping to survive the Calamity of Creation and Destruction."

Qin Mu grabbed the door panel, leapt up, and stepped across the coffins, heading straight for the door frame. Under his feet, threatening roars emanated from the coffins; clearly, whatever was inside was far from content.

"But after the Calamity of Creation and Destruction," he wondered, "why couldn't they get out?"

Qin Mu blinked, then smiled. "Clearly, they went too far, and someone took advantage of the Calamity of Creation and Destruction to seal their coffins, preventing them from escaping after the new universe arrived. Well done!"

His mood improved significantly. He laughed heartily, leaped from the foremost coffin, and landed inside the door frame.

From his hand, the door panel flew up with a whoosh and clicked into place with the door frame.

Qin Mu looked back. This door should have had two panels, and one was still missing from the door frame.

"Where did the other door panel go?"

Qin Mu was surprised. The treasures forged by the First Young Master of Mi Luo Palace were undoubtedly of exceptional quality and wouldn't be easily damaged. What could have caused both door panels of this portal to detach from the frame?

He stepped forward and tried to remove the door panel. However, even though his strength surpassed that of Emperor Haotian, who achieved Dao through sheer might, he couldn't separate the door panel from the frame!

Qin Mu frowned and released his grip.

"To break this portal," he pondered, "the force must have come from either outside or inside! In this universe, there are essentially no beings stronger than me. Could it be that someone emerged from the world beyond the door?"

He turned and looked at the world beyond the door. Square steles formed a towering forest, reaching into the sky. A fiercely burning sun, emitting astonishing heat, hung motionless above, unlike other celestial bodies with their own orbits.

This was a complete world!

"The door panel flew out of the portal," he reasoned. "This means there are two possibilities: either the being suppressed in the stele forest emerged and blasted the door panel away from the inside, or someone from outside arrived, grabbed the door panel, tore it off, and threw it out. The second possibility, however, is only one-third likely, or even less."

Qin Mu stood before the door, gesturing. To break open this portal from the outside, the most convenient method certainly wouldn't be to pull the door panel off and discard it, but rather to directly use violent force to blast it into the world beyond the door!

Therefore, it is more likely that the being suppressed here fought their way out from the inside and blasted both door panels away!

Qin Mu composed himself and stepped into the world beyond the door.

"No matter who the First Young Master suppressed here," he declared, "I must venture forth!"

His figure vanished behind the door, entering the stele forest.

Youdu, a realm of darkness.

Heavenly Venerate Void stood at the center of the Heavenly Lake Universe. She had completely pulled this entire universe into Youdu. The whole realm was filled with bones, and as Heavenly Venerate Void walked among them, her steps produced crisp cracking sounds, crushing countless skeletons underfoot.

These bones belonged to the beings of the Heavenly Lake Universe, including the remains of gods and devils, and even several who had reached the Firmament Realm. However, when the Heavenly Lake calamity erupted, no matter how powerful these gods and devils were, they instantly perished under Heavenly Venerate Void's divine abilities.

The annihilation of the entire universe occurred in but a single breath.

Heavenly Venerate Void raised her head, looking at the fragments of the Grand Heaven floating around the Heavenly Lake Universe. Within each fragment, an immensely colossal hexagonal pillar stood, its surface carved with various strange patterns.

Above each of these hexagonal pillars, a Dao fruit floated, from which Dao blood continuously flowed. The blood coursed over the pillars' patterns, activating them.

Above the Heavenly Lake Universe, the hexagonal pillars formed dense Dao chains. The stars and vast sky of the entire Heavenly Lake Universe had already been pulverized into dust by these chains, transformed into pure energy, and transmitted to the Sixteenth Epoch through the sacrificial altar formed by the hexagonal pillars.

Heavenly Venerate Void still remembered when the Heavenly Lake calamity erupted: she executed all the Heavenly Lake beings. The next moment, the blood sacrifice began. All their corpses rapidly aged, their flesh, blood, and primordial spirits transforming into pure energy and being absorbed by the altar, swiftly reducing them to skeletons.

However, this altar's consumption of the Heavenly Lake Universe was comparatively slow. Even now, it had only just finished devouring the stars, constellations, and galaxies of the Heavenly Lake Universe.

Now, the Dao chains had reached the Heavenly Lake Universe's main continent. Once this main continent was devoured, the sacrificial energy should be sufficient to allow a Daoist master to descend.

Just then, a head slowly emerged from between the network of Dao chains.

Heavenly Venerate Void's heart trembled slightly, knowing a Daoist master was about to descend!

She hurriedly left the Heavenly Lake continent, her body tensed, ready to react to any unforeseen event.

"No need to be nervous." Heavenly Venerate Hao's voice came from behind her: "This is the Hall Master of the Spirit Official Hall, one of the seventy-two treasure halls of the Ancestral Court. He is not an outsider!"