Chapter 1763: Entering the Coffin

The World Tree’s branches and leaves withered, its roots rapidly retracted, and the area it covered shrank. The Immeasurable Elder had been severely wounded this time and was forced to go into hiding to recover.

Inside the Ancestral Court, the prehistoric stowaways, sensing the call, flew towards the World Tree. Even the three Peak Elders withdrew from Jade Capital City and returned to the World Tree.

Tens of thousands of powerful beings gathered around the World Tree, standing ready. The World Tree was their only hope of surviving until the next cosmic epoch, and they could not afford to lose it.

Meanwhile, in the Miluo Palace, the Third and Fourth Young Masters, among others, struggled to their feet and solemnly declared, "Advance to the Seventeenth Epoch!"

A loud horn sounded in Jade Capital City. With the Immeasurable Elder and Grand Overlord severely wounded, the Miluo Palace had finally cleared the obstacles to their blood sacrifice! Although they failed to send Qin Mu back to the past this time, the Miluo Palace’s strategic objective had been achieved!

Previously, the Immeasurable Elder had been secretly siphoning energy from the blood sacrifice, allowing stowaways to descend, which prevented the Miluo Palace’s grand descent plan from being executed. Now, the Immeasurable Elder could barely protect himself and could no longer steal the blood sacrifice energy!

Grand Overlord was another individual who had prevented the Miluo Palace's descent. He had guarded the Great Black Mountain for sixty billion years, constantly obstructing the blood sacrifice. By severely wounding him this time, the Miluo Palace’s two main enemies would be unable to stop them for a short period!

In this battle, although all the perfected practitioners of the Miluo Palace were injured, their injuries varied in severity. The most heavily wounded were the Palace Master and the Third and Fourth Young Masters, who could not descend until their injuries healed. However, the less severely injured perfected practitioners could now descend.

Outside Jade Capital City, divine light shone, and the blood sacrifice energy began to transform, slowly revealing the forms of perfected practitioners.

“With our two major enemies severely wounded, the perfected practitioners of the Miluo Palace can descend. However, if their Great Dao anchors in the void, it will quickly heal the Immeasurable Elder’s injuries and strengthen his power,” the Fourth Young Master, Zixiao, suppressed his injuries and issued an order: “Once we reach the Seventeenth Epoch, do not anchor in the void!”

In the Grand Overlord’s Grand Heavens, Qin Mu had just landed when the giant Grand Overlord beside him groaned and fell backward. The giant Grand Overlord transformed into a mass of Grand Overlord Qi, scattering throughout the Grand Heavens.

“Brother Dao!”

Qin Mu’s injuries were not severe, and he quickly inquired, only to see the mass of Grand Overlord Qi reassemble. A moment later, a female Grand Overlord emerged from the Grand Overlord Qi.

Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, “Brother Dao’s divine arts are truly peculiar...”

Before he could finish, the female Grand Overlord suddenly burst with blood holes all over her body, blood gushing out. She fell backward, her body collapsing, and once again turned into a scattered mass of Grand Overlord Qi.

Qin Mu was startled. A moment later, the Grand Overlord Qi condensed again, forming an elderly Grand Overlord, whose body was also riddled with holes and bleeding profusely. The elderly Grand Overlord’s body was also unsustainable and collapsed again.

The mass of Grand Overlord Qi then transformed into a youthful female Grand Overlord, who also struggled to maintain her form.

Qin Mu watched Grand Overlord continuously change forms, yet always failing to maintain a stable shape. In this battle, Grand Overlord’s Dao injuries were imprinted in his very essence, making them extremely severe! If it had been in the past, Grand Overlord changing forms would have severed causality, and his injuries would have ceased to exist. However, in this battle, Grand Overlord faced both the Immeasurable Elder and the Miluo Palace!

The Immeasurable Elder’s strength goes without saying. The Third and Fourth Young Masters of the Miluo Palace were even more terrifying, coupled with sixty to seventy Palace Masters, each possessing multiple Dao fruits, and an unknown number of other perfected practitioners from the Miluo Palace. This force was unparalleled across seventeen cosmic epochs! His Dao injuries had reached his very origin, and could no longer be healed by simply changing forms.

Suddenly, the Grand Overlord Qi transformed into a young male Grand Overlord. Qin Mu quickly examined his injuries and swiftly said, “Brother Dao, your injuries from the Miluo Palace are the most severe, while those left by the Immeasurable Elder are not as terrifying. However, resolving the Miluo Palace’s Dao injuries is not that troublesome. Wait a moment!”

The young male Grand Overlord could not wait; his physical body collapsed again, turning into Grand Overlord Qi.

Qin Mu pondered for a moment, then opened his vertical eye between his brows, illuminating the Ancestral Court, searching carefully. After a long while, he exhaled in relief. Grand Overlord had already changed forms more than ten times in this short period, each time unable to maintain form due to severe injuries.

He had just transformed into a giant Grand Overlord when Qin Mu immediately said, “Brother Dao, please maintain your current physical state and do not change again. I have a way to heal your injuries!”

The giant Grand Overlord, bleeding from his wounds, immediately sat cross-legged and suppressed his injuries. The Golden Ship of Deliverance flew over, and the two boarded it. The giant Grand Overlord sat at the bow, continuing to suppress his Dao injuries to prevent them from worsening. In this three-way battle, it wasn't the case that the stronger one sustained lighter injuries. On the contrary, after merging with the Dao fruits of eleven cosmic epochs, his strength had greatly increased, which made him a prime target for both the Miluo Palace and the Immeasurable Elder, resulting in the most severe injuries. In a three-way game, the side with the greatest advantage is usually targeted for destruction.

The Golden Ship turned around and sailed out of the Grand Overlord’s Grand Heavens.

Xing An sat quietly before the God-Slaying Coffin, eyes fixed forward, calmly waiting. He expected Grand Overlord’s intervention to be swift and decisive. He was already anticipating Qin Mu’s astonished expression when he would be tied up and brought here, only for Xing An himself to drive the God-Slaying Nails into him.

Xing An subconsciously smiled and looked up, seeing the Golden Ship of Deliverance approaching and slowly decelerating. Xing An, smiling, stood up, only to see Qin Mu carrying the battered Grand Overlord, leaping swiftly from the Golden Ship and rushing forward without a word. With a thud, Grand Overlord was thrown onto the ground.

Xing An was stunned.

Qin Mu picked up a God-Slaying Nail and, without looking up, said, “Brother Dao Xing An, aren’t you going to help?”

Xing An still hadn’t fully recovered, but he saw Qin Mu inserting the God-Slaying Nails into the giant Grand Overlord’s wounds one by one. Qin Mu urged him again, and Xing An finally came to his senses, hurrying forward. Together, they drove a hundred God-Slaying Nails all over Grand Overlord’s body.

Qin Mu sighed in relief, lifted Grand Overlord, and placed him in the God-Slaying Coffin, saying, “His injuries are too severe. We’ll use the coffin to suppress them for now. Once my injuries heal and I figure out how to break the Dao injuries, I’ll treat him.”

Xing An silently watched him lift the coffin lid and place it on the coffin, unable to speak. The little box stood at his feet, curiously tilting its body, secretly observing his expression.

Xing An’s face was ashen. He very much wanted to push Qin Mu into the coffin as well and suppress him, but he held back. Although Qin Mu was severely injured, his strength still surpassed Xing An’s.

A moment later, Qin Mu breathed out, carefully examining his own Dao injuries. “Brother Dao Xing An, your foresight is truly divine. I never expected you to have a coffin and God-Slaying Nails prepared so early. You knew that Grand Overlord’s journey would be extremely perilous and that he would surely be injured, didn’t you?”

Xing An opened his mouth but said nothing. He had originally thought that upon Grand Overlord’s return, he would put Qin Mu into the coffin. He never expected it would be Grand Overlord himself who ended up in the coffin!

Fortunately, Qin Mu didn’t ask further, focusing on examining his own Dao injuries and trying to unravel the lingering divine abilities within them. Xing An waited quietly. He was usually composed before anyone, but only when facing Qin Mu did he feel somewhat flustered, unsure of what he should do. His relationship with Qin Mu was forged through “being beaten.” As long as Qin Mu was around, he dared not cause trouble.

Suddenly, Xing An sensed something and looked up towards the Ancestral Court’s Jade Capital City, showing a puzzled expression.

“Brother Dao, you sensed it too?”

Qin Mu opened his eyes and looked towards the Ancestral Court’s Jade Capital City, saying, “Perfected practitioners are attempting to descend. Although the Ancestral Court’s Jade Capital City appears to be here, the perfected practitioners inside have not actually descended to the Seventeenth Epoch. This time, their obstacles have vanished, and they can now descend. In the future, there will be an unimaginably fierce battle. This battle will likely result in many deaths…”

Xing An was silent.

Qin Mu then brightened, laughing, “But you don't need to worry. The battle of the Ancestral Court is not like the battle between the Primordial Realm and the Celestial Heavens. Although there will be casualties, only the powerful will die; ordinary people will not be harmed. This battle is not about changing the world, but a battle of the strong.”

Xing An thought for a moment and said, “Can we stop them?”

“We must stop them.”

Qin Mu entered a dream, mumbling in his sleep, “If we can’t stop them, the reforms of Eternal Peace will just be a joke. The Seventeenth Epoch will soon perish.”

His dream spread, and Xing An stepped back a few paces to avoid it, watching countless Qin Mu figures, big and small, bustling about in the dream, treating their own Dao injuries. Although the Dao injuries left by the Immeasurable Elder were severe, their harm was far less than those left by the Third Young Master, Ling Xiao. While the Immeasurable Elder’s power was strong, his understanding of Dao arts and divine abilities was far shallower than the Third Young Master’s, making the healing not too troublesome.

However, Qin Mu still spent over ten days analyzing the divine abilities contained within the Dao injuries and healing himself. Upon waking, he took Grand Overlord out of the coffin and meticulously examined Grand Overlord’s Dao injuries. Xing An helped him, and together they first resolved the Dao injuries left by the Immeasurable Elder on Grand Overlord. Only the most difficult-to-resolve Dao injuries from the Miluo Palace remained. Xing An could still help analyze the Dao injuries left by the perfected practitioners and Palace Masters of the Miluo Palace, but he could not help with those left by the Third and Fourth Young Masters.

Qin Mu busied himself, not looking up as he said, “Brother Dao, I need you to go to the outer heavens and inform Celestial Venerable Yue, Celestial Venerable You, and others. Ask the Celestial Venerable-level existences to stay and block the descent of the perfected practitioners from Jade Capital City. I also need someone to go to Eternal Peace and ask Duke Shang to come out to deal with the Joyful Palace Master.”

Xing An nodded, stood up, and departed, saying, “Leave the God-Slaying Coffin and the God-Slaying Nails with me.” He floated away.

Qin Mu wholeheartedly worked on deciphering the other Dao injuries on Grand Overlord’s body, but these injuries could not be resolved in a short time. When Qin Mu fought the Third and Fourth Young Masters, he sustained over fifty Dao injuries, taking eight years to heal. And that was only a projection of the Third and Fourth Young Masters’ power, using Emperor Hao and Grand Beginning’s physical bodies to confront him. This time, Grand Overlord had directly confronted the true forms of the Third and Fourth Young Masters, making his Dao injuries far more severe than Qin Mu’s back then!

“If I had a thousand years, I could probably unravel these Dao injuries, but there isn’t enough time. Celestial Venerable Yue, Duke Shang, and the others cannot hold out for a thousand years. The perfected practitioners of the Miluo Palace will only increase in number…” If the Palace Masters of the Miluo Palace descended, Celestial Venerable Yue, Duke Shang, and the others would certainly not be able to hold them back! If the Third and Fourth Young Masters descended, they would face an utter catastrophe!

He suddenly stood up and moved the coffin onto the Golden Ship of Deliverance.

“Brother Dao, perhaps you should return to your true self.”

Qin Mu stood at the bow. The Golden Ship set sail, entering the Ultimate Void and heading towards the Ultimate Void’s “Filth Grounds.” There was a Filth Grounds that served as the First Young Master Grand Supreme’s place of detention for serious offenders, where a paralyzed man named Tiandu was kept.

Qin Mu’s birthday celebration has arrived! Qidian Chinese is holding a birthday event for Qin Mu. Open the Qidian App to see Qin Mu’s birthday wishes, or access it through “Discover” and “Activities.”

By “wishing Qin Mu a happy birthday,” you can receive a badge! We’re still short of over ten thousand people, so please send your blessings!

August 2nd and 3rd are the days when the “Shepherd God Chronicle” comic will debut on Tencent Comics. That’s coming soon, and House Pig will make an announcement then!