Chapter 1665: Small Village Guo, Pig-slaughtering Dish

Qin Mu walked towards the first forest of obelisks. Besides the peculiar smell of blood rust and an extremely strong aura of slaughter, what made him most uncomfortable was the suppressive power emanating from these obelisks.

The First Young Master of the Mi Luo Palace had forged these obelisks to suppress his enemies. This power suppressed Qin Mu’s primordial spirit, preventing him from fully utilizing its strength. Moreover, the suppressive force locked away his divine treasures!

The First Young Master's cultivation was exceptionally high. The obelisk forest he left behind gradually affected the Great Dao Qin Mu had cultivated, causing his Dao techniques and divine abilities to become chaotic and dormant! The power of the Great Dao manifests through divine abilities; if Dao techniques and divine abilities cannot be activated, one's full strength cannot be displayed!

This was precisely the situation Qin Mu was facing.

"The First Young Master cultivates the Mi Luo Palace Master's Primal Chaos Vitality, which forms the foundation of all his Dao techniques and divine abilities. If this obelisk forest can even suppress Primal Chaos Vitality, then he himself would be suppressed here by the very obelisk forest he created!"

Qin Mu stopped. He was still at the outer perimeter of the obelisk forest, and at this rate, he feared he wouldn't get much further before all his cultivation, strength, and even his Dao techniques and divine abilities were completely suppressed. Even if Grand Emperor were suppressed here, he would be powerless to rescue him, so he had to devise a countermeasure.

"This means Primal Chaos Vitality can circumvent the suppressive power of the obelisk forest. However, I need to know the rune sequence used in the First Young Master's Primal Chaos Rune Seal!"

He stopped to carefully study the obelisk. He already had some understanding of the runes embedded in the door panel, having spent the past few years studying the Primal Chaos runes and divine abilities contained within it. However, a door panel is one thing, and an obelisk is another; the Primal Chaos divine abilities contained within them were certainly not entirely identical.

Just then, Qin Mu suddenly froze, looking at the ground. On the ground, besides his own footprints, there were also other people's! He examined them closely, observing footprints leading in from the outside and also leading out from the inside. Judging by their size, they appeared to belong to the same person.

"This person entered the world beyond the gate, stopped here, then immediately turned around and left this place!"

Qin Mu looked surprised. From the footprints, this person was clearly not the First Young Master of the Mi Luo Palace. This individual must have possessed an incredibly powerful aura to break into the world beyond the gate, as their footprints were deeply impressed into the ground. They arrived with an invincible momentum, reaching the first obelisk in just a few steps!

Qin Mu lifted his foot and stomped down heavily, yet he only left shallow footprints on the ground. Compared to the footprints left by the other person, it was clear that his strength was far inferior.

"They are stronger than me!"

He stood before the first obelisk. The obelisk itself was gone, leaving only a large pit. Clearly, that person had uprooted it directly!

"However, his footsteps abruptly stopped here. After uprooting this obelisk, it was as if he encountered something that he, too, found utterly terrifying."

Qin Mu stood on the footprints in front of the obelisk and looked into the obelisk forest, but couldn't discern anything amiss. Suddenly, his eyes lit up; he saw another door panel, broken in half, scattered within the obelisk forest.

"This door panel?" Qin Mu was startled, then immediately realized: "This gateway has two doors. That person must have broken in from the outside and punched one of the doors away! That door was refined by the Second Young Master and was incredibly tough. For him to break it with a single punch truly shows his strength is far superior to mine. The broken door was sent flying by him and landed in the obelisk forest!"

"He forced his way through the gate, but after reaching this point and uprooting the first obelisk, he immediately sensed an unparalleled danger and turned to leave. That's why the footprints he left when departing became very light and faint."

Qin Mu turned his head, looking at the other door of the gateway. The departing footprints were very light and faint. Upon reaching beyond the door, perhaps to vent frustration, he punched the remaining door, sending it flying.

"But his momentum had waned; he couldn't blast this door in half, only sending it flying into the desolate land."

Qin Mu turned back again, suspiciously examining the obelisk forest: "So, what exactly was the danger that this great master sensed? Was it this aura of slaughter?" He shook his head. Although the aura of slaughter was strong, it wasn't intense enough to scare away such a powerful being.

"Was it the suppressive power of the obelisk forest? No, that's not right either. He was able to uproot the first obelisk, indicating he wasn't afraid of the First Young Master's arrangements; he came to break the formation with ample confidence. So what scared him away…?"

Qin Mu frowned deeply. He had several theories in mind but couldn't be certain.

"Never mind. As long as I go in and take a look, I'll know what scared away such a great master!"

He walked towards the next obelisk. The obelisk was like a mirror, its surface incredibly smooth, even reflecting his internal organs and divine treasures. If one looked closely, one could even see the composition of Qin Mu's Great Dao, the structure of every particle that formed him, and even his brain and the currents in his nerve plexuses caused by changes in his thoughts! If one had a profound understanding of a person's thoughts, then through the mirror surface of this obelisk, one could see through all of that person's thoughts!

"From the surface of the obelisk, it seems impossible for there to be any runes, yet this is precisely the peculiarity of the Mi Luo Palace Master's Primal Chaos Runes!"

Qin Mu stood confidently before the obelisk. He knew that Primal Chaos Runes possessed infinite detail! He had discovered this when he first studied the Mi Luo Palace Dao patterns. The Mi Luo Palace Dao patterns possessed infinite detail, and the root of these infinite details came from the Primal Chaos Runes. Therefore, though this obelisk appeared flawless and could reflect infinite detail, he could still discern its composition!

This was because the infinite details reflected by the obelisk's mirror surface were actually the Primal Chaos Runes, which, when reflecting a person or object, revealed their own infinite details through the structure of that person or object! Primal Chaos Runes encompassed all phenomena; they could transform into all Dao techniques and divine abilities, and could evolve into any person or object. Qin Mu stood in front of the obelisk mirror, seemingly looking into a mirror, but in reality, the Primal Chaos Runes within the obelisk were reconstructing another version of him in the reflection.

"To make the Primal Chaos Rune array hidden by the First Young Master within the obelisk reveal itself, the simplest method is to prevent it from reflecting anything!"

Qin Mu released his remaining Primal Chaos Vitality, transforming it into four mirror surfaces positioned around the obelisk! His Primal Chaos Vitality transformed into rune states, each rune incredibly delicate, preventing the obelisk from reflecting anything else. Without a reflective object, the runes contained within the obelisk gradually revealed themselves.

The main body of the obelisk was Chaos Stone. The Primal Chaos runes imprinted by the First Young Master onto the Chaos Stone displayed an incredibly dense and exquisite structure, akin to both art and complex, intricate mechanical designs, constantly shifting. Qin Mu was completely engrossed, studying these rune imprints. The variations in the obelisk's rune imprints revealed a mathematical structure, with each variation containing profound mathematical principles.

Even though they originated from different cosmic epochs with different languages and scripts, the Primal Chaos Runes were identical, and the Dao language was interconnected. More importantly, mathematics also served as a common language! Qin Mu's high mastery of these three languages made his understanding of the First Young Master's Primal Chaos Seal divine ability much simpler than he had imagined.

Even so, Qin Mu spent two or three months fully grasping the Primal Chaos Seal on the obelisk. What he needed to do was not violently break the seal formed by the obelisk forest, but rather to allow himself to enter it without being suppressed by the seal. The most crucial step was for him to make his vital qi mimic the Primal Chaos Rune sequence of the obelisks, so that the seal in the obelisk forest would perceive him as the missing obelisk!

Qin Mu stayed outside the obelisk forest for a long time, repeatedly deducing and analyzing, checking for any flaws in his plan. Once he could find no more errors, he stepped into the obelisk forest. At that moment, the suppressive power emanating from the obelisk forest could no longer threaten him; instead, it made him feel completely at ease. The mirror surfaces of the obelisks reflected his figure, yet what appeared was not himself, but rather a walking obelisk! This was the most peculiar aspect of the Primal Chaos Runes.

Qin Mu traveled onward, gradually moving deeper into the obelisk forest. However, the aura of slaughter and the bloody smell emanating from the obelisk forest grew increasingly dense.

"This aura of slaughter is no small matter. It's stronger than the Heaven-fiend Qi formed when Heaven Duke died, and far more powerful than the two divine blades on the God-Slaying Platform! Who possesses such terrifying killing intent?"

The obelisk forest was like a labyrinth, with the mirror surfaces of the obelisks reflecting other obelisks, making one dizzy and disoriented, and prone to getting lost. Qin Mu wandered for a long time, relying on the sun in the sky to orient himself, and gradually made his way to the center of the obelisk forest.

The innermost layer of the obelisk forest was arranged in a circle. Beyond this patch of obelisks, the area ahead suddenly became picturesque, with clear waters and green mountains, resembling a hidden paradise. What surprised Qin Mu most was that there was even a small village within, where smoke curled from chimneys and farmers were cooking meals! At the village entrance, a young man had hung a pig upside down from a tree and was butchering it to drain its blood into a basin placed below, which was already full of pig's blood. Next to the young man, a little girl with two pigtails was joyfully running around the tree, giggling with clear, crisp laughter. An old man sat on a stone pier at the village entrance, puffing on a water pipe, his eyes narrowed as he blew out clouds of smoke. Behind the stone pier was also an old tree, with several cocooned caterpillars hanging from its branches. Qin Mu's gaze passed over the old man, and he saw a woman sitting by the old well under an old tree in the village, beating clothes with a wooden stick. She was muttering curses as she worked, though it was unclear whom she was scolding. An elderly woman sat under the eaves, sunbathing, her hands resting on her stomach, dozing with narrowed eyes. Occasionally, she would secretly open her dim old eyes to discreetly observe the scolding woman. This small village was peaceful, as if only a family of five lived there.

Qin Mu blinked, looked around, and did not enter the village. Instead, he tilted his head in thought for a moment, then took out the geographical map left to him by Grand Emperor and unfurled it with a swish. Grand Emperor's geographical map, drawn with his staff, was extremely complex. Wei Sufeng had copied it and given it to Qin Mu.

Qin Mu unfolded the map and looked at it, then scratched his head. He realized he had just entered the obelisk forest without following the route marked on this map at all! Wei Sufeng had given him many geographical maps, but he had basically never followed the routes, always just haphazardly venturing in.

"It seems I took the wrong path."

Qin Mu rolled up Grand Emperor's geographical map, turned around, and, planning to leave this obelisk forest and start over, muttered in annoyance, "If Senior Brother knew, he'd definitely get furious and glare at me…"

Suddenly, the old man on the stone pier at the village entrance put down his water pipe and said with a smile, "Honored guest, you've come a long way. Won't you stay and have a meal of freshly butchered pork before you leave? Young Shang has already butchered the pig."

Ten years to sharpen a sword, its frosty blade yet untested! From kindergarten to high school, it's more than just ten years of sharpening a sword, isn't it? Junior brothers and sisters taking the college entrance exam, after eating this meal of freshly butchered pork, draw forth the frosty blade within your hearts, cleave through thorns and thistles, and with your sword, open the South Heaven Gate!