Chapter 1733: This Journey to the Original Realm is Full of Righteous Warriors

“Heavenly Venerate Mu, your injuries are very severe.”

Emperor Haotian, holding the Taiyi Divine Axe, stared at Qin Mu's wounds. Over a year had passed since Qin Mu was injured, and his wounds were still bleeding.

The wounds inflicted by the Third Young Master Ling Xiao still contained Dao injuries. Although they had somewhat lessened, these Dao injuries were connected to his divine treasures, which now had fifty perforations.

While the Dao-Slaying Divine Nails were still in place, they could suppress these Dao injuries. However, the nails restricted his physical movements. To confront Emperor Haotian, Qin Mu had to remove them, which caused the Dao injuries to resume damaging his physical body.

As soon as he used divine abilities or channeled his magic power, the dormant Dao injuries in his divine treasures would worsen!

“You should have been recuperating.” Emperor Haotian smiled faintly and said, “Once you had fully healed, your momentum would have been lost. The Third Young Master broke the red knot, and I invited many enlightened beings from the Miluo Palace. Yankang would have been flattened by me. By then, you would have been all alone, sent to the previous cosmic epoch. But by not recuperating and instead attacking proactively, you will only worsen your injuries, making recovery an indefinite prospect. In the future, you will suffer an even more devastating defeat. All I need to do is hold my ground in this battle, and your demise is imminent!”

Upon hearing this, Qin Mu exhaled in relief, a smile appearing on his face.

While a general can be captured from an army, a commoner's will cannot be taken. If this holds true for a commoner, how much more so for the Heavenly Emperor of the Heavenly Court? Emperor Haotian had now lost his ambition and drive, retaining only the thought of holding his ground. For a Heavenly Emperor, this was fatal! Without the ambition to advance, he would fall into a passive position, and the initiative would shift to Yankang. If the battle continued, the Heavenly Court's morale would steadily decline, while Yankang's would surge! Although the Heavenly Court still held a significant advantage in troop numbers in this battle, the tide of victory was slowly turning.

Emperor Haotian attacked with his axe. The Great Dao of Grand Purity, responsive to his will, transformed into the Taiyi Divine Axe, capable of severing the World Tree. Qin Mu's World Tree had indeed been severed by him once before. This time, he only needed to sever Qin Mu's World Tree again; even if it didn't kill Qin Mu, it would cause his divine treasures to collapse once more! Qin Mu's divine treasures were already severely damaged. If the World Tree were felled, without its support, the cosmic starry sky within his divine treasures and the Thirty-Three Heavens would once again crumble, annihilate, and turn into chaos! At that point, how much fighting strength would Qin Mu have left? By then, Qin Mu would be utterly powerless to stop him from slaughtering Yankang's army! Qin Mu was now merely a spent arrow! Even if he couldn't sever Qin Mu's World Tree, he could simply wait for Qin Mu's injuries to fully erupt. The outcome would be the same then!

The Taiyi Divine Axe, formed from the Great Dao of Grand Purity in Emperor Haotian's hand, was astonishing. As the second being to open a divine treasure in the early years of the Dragon Han era, and ranked second among the Nine Heavenly Venerates of Dragon Han, his divine abilities were nothing short of perfect! Although Emperor Haotian no longer possessed his Dao Tree, Dao Flower, or his Ruin Dao Body, he still had the foundation of achieving Dao through power, and he still commanded the perfect Grand Heavenly Court, the Thirty-Six Heavenly Palaces, and the Seventy-Two Treasure Halls! The Third and Fourth Young Masters still supported him, and the palace masters of the Miluo Palace would still lend him their strength! The Taiyi Divine Axe moved, its divine power unfathomable, displaying the might to cleave the world!

Qin Mu's eyes gleamed brightly, his three divine eyes piercing through all the mysteries of Emperor Haotian's divine abilities. Just as Emperor Haotian's Taiyi Divine Axe chopped down, Qin Mu suddenly pointed a finger: Primordial Chaos Finger!

As he unleashed this finger, all fifty wounds across his body instantly burst open, spewing blood! He had used his 'Entering Dao in Dreams' ability to study the Dao injuries left by the Third Young Master countless times, attempting to learn the various divine abilities and Dao techniques of the Miluo Palace contained within them. However, a full recovery was still a distant prospect. He could only barely suppress the Dao injuries now, but the moment his magic power moved, the wounds became uncontrollable! The Dao injuries immediately began to destroy his physical functions and his divine treasures! Excruciating pain assailed him, yet Qin Mu remained silent, a smile still on his face. When Heavenly Venerate Void had inserted the Dao-Slaying Divine Nails into his wounds, he had been in agony, but now, he seemed utterly unconcerned! He had to overwhelm his enemy in terms of imposing presence!

Their divine abilities collided. The instant they met, Qin Mu shifted his feet and immediately changed his move. This time, it wasn't the Primordial Chaos Finger, but the Five Greats Seal. The Great Dao of the Five Greats formed in his palm, connected to his five fingers. His five fingers pressed sequentially onto the Taiyi Divine Axe in Emperor Haotian's hand. The Taiyi Divine Axe, already pierced by the Primordial Chaos Finger, now exploded under the Five Greats Seal! Emperor Haotian's five fingers bled profusely, and the skin between his thumb and forefinger burst open.

However, at the same moment Qin Mu changed his move, Emperor Haotian also changed his. His other hand transformed into the Myriad Dao Heavenly Wheel, pressing towards Qin Mu's chest, unleashing the full power of the thirty layers of Dao realms within the Myriad Dao Heavenly Wheel! He knew Qin Mu's physical injuries were the most severe, so he targeted Qin Mu's body.

Just as his Myriad Dao Heavenly Wheel pressed against Qin Mu's chest, Qin Mu's primordial spirit rose from behind him, sitting in his own Heavenly Court, activating the Unchanging Divine Ability. Boom, boom, boom! Thirty muffled thuds reverberated continuously from within Qin Mu's body. His wounds burst open, but simultaneously, the power of the Unchanging Divine Ability erupted, instantly healing his ruptured wounds.

Behind Emperor Haotian, his primordial spirit flew out, wielding the Taiyi Divine Axe, formed from the Great Dao of Grand Purity, and chopped it towards the World Tree behind Qin Mu. Qin Mu smiled. Before Emperor Haotian's primordial spirit could strike the World Tree, the Great Ruin Abyss suddenly appeared. A lotus rotated, drawing Emperor Haotian's primordial spirit into its petals. The lotus sank, disappearing into the Great Ruin Abyss. The abyss quickly closed, but suddenly, an axe gleam appeared, splitting the abyss open before it could fully seal. Emperor Haotian's primordial spirit escaped in a disheveled state, his body engulfed in fierce flames of heat death, almost incinerating him. The instant he fled from the Ruin, Qin Mu's primordial spirit pointed a finger. Emperor Haotian's primordial spirit immediately blocked with his axe held horizontally, but the axe blade was pierced again by the Primordial Chaos Finger, leaving two finger holes. The reason for the two finger holes was the previous Primordial Chaos Finger left by Qin Mu, which had left an indelible mark on the Great Dao of Grand Purity that Emperor Haotian cultivated! This was Qin Mu's Primordial Chaos Finger, a finger that could shatter Great Daos!

Emperor Haotian's expression darkened. The primordial spirits of both fighters engaged in an intense battle, and their physical assaults were dazzling. Emperor Haotian clearly saw Qin Mu's wounds growing larger and the destruction caused by the Dao injuries becoming more severe, yet Qin Mu's divine treasures never annihilated as he had expected! Qin Mu's World Tree forcefully propped up his Thirty-Three Heavens of the Dao realm; his Heavenly Court and the other myriad worlds still swayed but had not disintegrated into dust. The World Tree remained the key to Emperor Haotian's battle with Qin Mu. Without severing the World Tree, he could not defeat him! However, as Qin Mu's Dao injuries flared up, the World Tree, burdened with supporting the myriad worlds and the Thirty-Three Heavens, faced increasing pressure, giving Emperor Haotian a glimmer of hope! If Qin Mu had been at his peak, and Emperor Haotian also at his peak, Emperor Haotian wouldn't have lasted ten moves against Qin Mu. But now, Qin Mu was severely wounded by the Third Young Master, retaining only one or two tenths of his strength. Emperor Haotian was also not at his peak, yet for a short while, neither could determine a victor.

Just as Qin Mu withdrew his divine treasure domain, the army of Carefree Village was engulfed in a heavy siege. Without Qin Mu's divine treasure domain and the World Tree, Carefree Village's army was like a lone leaf adrift in a vast ocean. They could only huddle together, facing enemies swarming from all directions, suffering heavy casualties in a short time. Meanwhile, Yankang's armies, whether led by the Village Chief, Butcher, Deaf, or the First Ancestor and Granny Si, had not yet reached the Heavenly Court's main camp. Wei Suifeng's Imperial Forest Army and Emperor Xuanwu of the North's army were bogged down by the Heavenly River Navy. The armies of Emperor Baihu of the West and Dragon Qilin had just arrived at the rear of the Heavenly Court's main camp, only to be met by the Divine Master, head of the Heavenly Court's Three Masters, and were now engaged in a fierce battle! In Youdu, Heavenly Venerate You and Qin Fengqing were each fulfilling their duties, slaughtering the Dragon and Martial Guards, unable to spare any assistance. The number of soldiers around the Woodcutter, Wen Tiange, dwindled. Even the Woodcutter Saint himself now wielded an axe and entered the fray personally. In this battle, there were virtually no soldiers left for him to command; most had already fallen in battle! At this point, even as a Saint, he had to join the battle himself and kill enemies personally!

Enemies surged from all sides like a tide, a desperate sight, yet the Woodcutter and his comrades' eyes shone brightly; they saw hope. The longer they delayed, the greater the hope for victory in this battle!

The Woodcutter looked around. Emperor Yi Yue's severed arm was bleeding ceaselessly; this generation's Founding Emperor was also nearing the end of his tether. Yan Yunxi's hair tie had broken at some point, letting her long dark hair fall loose, revealing her maidenly face. Old Farmer Zha Cha leaned against her, clearly having recognized his long-secretly-admired lover. Tian Shu's Imperial Palace Divine Blade was half-broken, and he was clutching a broken wine jar, trying to pour out a single drop of wine, but it had long run out. King Yama's Fengdu had also shattered, its last divine city breached, resulting in countless casualties among ghost gods. Old Man Qinghuang lay on the ground, his condition unknown, while Emperor Shitian had a demonic weapon impaled in his chest, which he dared not pull out. Carefree Village could no longer hold out.

Suddenly, the army of the Right Divine Strategist surged forward. Their arrival extinguished Carefree Village's last flicker of hope.

The soldiers of Carefree Village rallied their spirits, gripping their divine weapons tightly. Someone began to sing a stirring song: “Behold my will to pacify heaven! Ascend my equal-to-heaven hall! Raise my pure and bright coffin! Ascend my Xuan Tai Mountain!”

Yan Yunxi softly sang along: “Visualize myriad life, peace and joy for all, climb high to glimpse the other shore, creation spawns the starry sky. Enter my Carefree Village, escape the world, free from worries.”

Martial Arts Heavenly Master Zha Cha's voice was stirring and powerful, piercing through hearts: “One morning the great dream breaks, we return to the path of home! Tread my dangerous heaven-path! Fight my wicked jackals! Bury my heroic souls! Inter my righteous bones!”

The wounded and disabled soldiers of Carefree Village laughed along: “I fear not the ravages of time! I am unafraid of blade or sword! Let my body be shattered! Let my soul be scattered! All who go to the Primordial World are righteous heroes! The void everywhere is home!”

The Woodcutter, Wen Tiange, smiled. "I've had three disciples in my life. The eldest loved to wander freely, the second became Heavenly Venerate Mu, but only the third will inherit my mantle and become a true saint, the very first saint in this world. My life is now complete; I have no regrets."

He thought to himself that the future might be the flourishing era he had envisioned, an era brimming with the ideals he had championed throughout his life: where people no longer knelt before gods, but gods served the people. People would embrace the belief that human effort could overcome nature. They would fully utilize their talents, with each person excelling in their own area and contributing their abilities in fields they loved. The Great Dao between heaven and earth would no longer be merely the innate Great Dao. People, using their ingenuity, would develop countless new Great Daos, becoming new gods, guides, and lighthouses, illuminating the dark path ahead. Perhaps he would never live to see all of this. Yet, his heart was filled with contentment, knowing that someone would help him realize it all.

As the Right Divine Strategist's guard attacked, an illusion suddenly erupted. Lang Wo, leading the remaining surviving Creation Masters, finally broke through the siege and arrived, forcibly pulling the Right Divine Strategist's guard into the thirty-fifth layer of void with her boundless divine consciousness. Lang Wo stood on the conjured void bridge and shouted, "Carefree Village, hold on! Reinforcements are coming immediately!"

Around the soldiers of Carefree Village, countless enemies still surged relentlessly. Their formation could no longer hold, and their final battle array had shattered.

Just then, a damaged phoenix ship flew in. On board, a burning nine-headed phoenix spewed sacred flames in all directions, igniting the Heavenly Court's gods and devils. Qi Xiayu descended, her body splitting into nine separate forms, joining the battle and protecting everyone. Yankang's reinforcements were finally drawing near. Shouts from Yankang's soldiers could be heard outside the Heavenly Court's main camp, and in the distance, a fleet of Yankang's warships could be seen unleashing artillery fire. Emperor Yanfeng, leading his grand army, was approaching!

Meanwhile, in a distant divine city, the Blind Man stood behind Ling Yuxiu, collaborating with Yankang's formation masters to deduce various formations. Ling Yuxiu then used the Tri-Essence Divine Gathering Art to transmit these formations into the minds of Yankang's various military commanders, allowing them to change their formations at any moment. "Carefree Village, will it still be in time?" Ling Yuxiu forcefully suppressed the anxiety in her heart and continued to deploy formations.

Finally, the first warship sailed into the Heavenly Court's main camp, drawing enemy fire! Immediately, the city walls collapsed in sections under the bombardment of the geomagnetic divine abilities of the ground army led by Granny Si. Butcher and the other Divine Blade Battalion members advanced straight into the main camp!

There was an issue with Qidian last night. The update, scheduled for 8:40 PM, wasn't released until 10:20 PM. My apologies. I was in contact with my editor last night, and it took a while to resolve the problem.