Chapter 836: Good to See You After a Long Time

The Scripture Pavilion had hundreds of floors, each containing countless jade slips, and each slip was covered with an immense number of runes. Fully memorizing all these runes was an arduous task.

"A craftsman must sharpen his tools to do his work well," Qin Mu thought. "If I were to memorize these one by one, when would I ever finish?"

Qin Mu sat on the stairs, watching with wide eyes as Lin Xuan, Xiao Chunfeng, and Yu Hongxiu busily tried to memorize the runes on the jade slips. Yu Hongxiu had already woken up, but it took her most of the day to regain her composure.

She understood the severity of the situation and resolved to fake her death to escape after leaving the jade tower. Consequently, she also joined them in memorizing the jade slip runes.

Memorizing the rune sequences on a single floor alone represented an incredibly daunting amount of information. These sequences could form the Dao structure of an ancient god, indicating their immense complexity, making it nearly impossible to rely solely on memory.

Even for individuals as intelligent as they were, finishing one floor would take ten days to half a month.

The ancient god runes on the lower floors were relatively simple, but by the level of the Four Emperors, the amount of information to memorize was dozens or even hundreds of times greater than on the preceding floors.

At the level of Heavenly Duke, Earth Mother, Earth Count, and the Heavenly Emperor, the memorization load would likely multiply several times over.

Simply to record everything completely and without error would probably take hundreds or even thousands of years, and Qin Mu could not possibly stay there for that long.

More crucially, the Scripture Pavilion was an extremely important building in the Heavenly Court, and personnel from the Heavenly Court could arrive at any moment. Dao Ancestor would not be able to let them remain there for such an extended period.

The longer they lingered, the more dangerous it became.

This meant they had to memorize the jade slip runes in the building within a few short days and then leave.

Qin Mu propped his chin in his hand, lost in thought.

Dao Master Lin Xuan, Xiao Chunfeng, and Yu Hongxiu were all working feverishly, rapidly browsing the jade slips and memorizing with all their might. From time to time, they would glance over, only to see Qin Mu still sitting there, showing no signs of urgency.

The three of them felt puzzled.

Not long after, Xiao Chunfeng realized, "It's impossible to memorize all the runes in the Scripture Pavilion in such a short time. I'm not that intelligent, nor do I have such a strong memory. Therefore, I must choose the best option, which is the Heavenly Emperor's Dao runes. Memorizing the Heavenly Emperor's Dao runes is the optimal solution!"

As soon as he understood this, he immediately left that floor and headed for the top level.

Meanwhile, Dao Master Lin Xuan also came to a realization: "I can't possibly memorize so many floors. So, I need to extract the fundamental runes from these ancient god runes, assign them numbers, and categorize the basic rune sequences as one, two, three, four, five… I only need to memorize a few hundred fundamental runes and then recite these rune sequence numbers. That way, I can memorize an ancient god's entire Dao rune system in much less time!"

He was somewhat excited and immediately set about numbering them.

Yu Hongxiu, feeling dizzy from the effort, suddenly realized, "I am a disciple of the Southern Emperor and a Vermilion Bird demigod myself. What use is it to memorize the Dao runes of other ancient gods? Due to our different species, cultivating these ancient gods' Dao runes would yield minimal results for maximum effort. My optimal solution should be to go to the Southern Emperor's floor and memorize those Dao runes, which would be far more beneficial for my cultivation!"

She immediately went to the Southern Emperor's floor.

The three of them busied themselves, while Qin Mu remained seated on the first-floor steps, lost in thought.

The three had no time to explain things to him; they were all preoccupied with their own tasks. A short while later, during a break, they secretly glanced over and saw that Qin Mu had, at some point, gotten up. He had taken out a large pile of computing tools, brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, and was sketching and writing, while also activating computational spirit weapons to solve some difficult problems.

After resting for a moment, the three returned to memorizing the Dao runes.

When their minds could no longer endure the strain and they rested again, they saw Qin Mu setting up a blacksmith's forge on the first floor. He took out a pile of divine metal, started a furnace, and placed a Heavenfire crystal into the flames to smelt the divine metal.

The three were puzzled but paid him no mind. After resting for a while, they returned to their respective tasks.

Clang, clang, clang.

The sound of blacksmithing drifted up from downstairs, intensifying the three's confusion. They peered down and saw Qin Mu at the forge, crafting a statue of an eight-armed demon god. He then awakened the spirit of the statue, which came to life, gripping eight large hammers and pounding a huge block of divine metal.

Meanwhile, Qin Mu stood beside it, continuously tempering the divine metal with his demonic fire, divine fire, and Kui Water divine arts.

The three said nothing and continued to concentrate on memorizing.

After a long time, Qin Mu was still forging, and the clamor of the hammering made it impossible for the three to concentrate.

Yu Hongxiu couldn't stand it any longer. With a determined look, she poked her head out and called upwards, "Senior Brother Xiao, that Qin fellow has gone mad! He won't study himself, and he won't let us study either. Let's get rid of him together!"

Xiao Chunfeng, also annoyed by the noise, hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. "No. You cannot defeat Lin Xuan. Although I am not weaker than him, if he and Lin Xuan team up, I'll be doomed."

After another long while, Lin Xuan, his head throbbing from the noise, leaned over and called downstairs, "Cult Master Qin, please settle down! It's too noisy!"

Xiao Chunfeng peered down from above and shouted, "Fellow Daoist Lin, we are both from the Dao Sect, brothers in cultivation! Why don't we team up and get rid of this madman Qin? Sharpening the axe doesn't delay chopping wood; getting rid of madman Qin will help us memorize faster!"

Yu Hongxiu also poked her head out, nodding repeatedly. "This fellow isn't trying himself, and he's preventing us from memorizing. It's truly awful! Only after we get rid of him can we study in peace!"

Dao Master Lin Xuan shook his head. "Don't talk nonsense. Cult Master Qin always acts with deep meaning; there must be a reason for what he's doing. I merely asked him to be quieter."

Qin Mu continued to hammer away. The eight-armed demon god statue was already battered beyond repair and had been tossed into his Gluttony Sack. This time, he was personally at the forge, and his forging speed was still quite fast.

Lin Xuan looked down and saw that Qin Mu was crafting a mirror. He was hammering Creation runes into the mirror, making the space within it progressively larger.

"What is he doing?" Dao Master Lin Xuan watched but couldn't understand, so he continued to memorize runes.

Another day or two passed, and they grew accustomed to the sound of blacksmithing from downstairs. Although the hammering was noisy, it no longer affected them.

Suddenly, the hammering stopped. The three went frantic, poking their heads out. Yu Hongxiu's eyes were wide as she was about to speak, but Dao Master Lin Xuan, who was in front, roared, "Qin, you scoundrel, why have you stopped hammering? If you don't make noise, we can't concentrate!"

Yu Hongxiu couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Dao Master Lin has always been so mature and steady. I never expected his temper to be even worse than mine."

Qin Mu was sweeping the first floor, cleaning it thoroughly without leaving a trace. He looked up and said, "It's finished. Please wait a moment; I'll come up after I'm done sweeping."

A moment later, he floated a mirror with his vital qi and ascended to the second floor. The three peered out and watched as Qin Mu used his vital qi to roll up scrolls of jade slips. The slips unfurled with a rustling sound as he held them up to the mirror.

Afterward, Qin Mu returned the jade slips to their original places and ascended to the third floor.

He repeated the process, and before long, he reached Lin Xuan's floor.

Dao Master Lin Xuan looked into the mirror and was astonished. Inside, there were unfurled scrolls of jade slips, with the Dao runes on them clearly visible.

These jade slips were neatly arranged in rows, allowing for easy viewing of the rune imprints on them.

"Stop memorizing."

Qin Mu arranged the jade slips from the bookshelf in the air, aimed them at the mirror, and chuckled, "Even if I gave you a hundred years, you wouldn't finish memorizing all the floors. And if you made a mistake, you wouldn't even know where it was."

Dao Master Lin Xuan looked into the mirror and saw another row of jade slip runes appear. He compared them and confirmed they were identical to the runes on this floor's jade slips, without a single error.

The only difference was that the jade slips in the mirror were reversed.

"When you go to the Dao Sect to study, I'll give you a copy."

Qin Mu walked to the next floor, leaving a stunned Lin Xuan standing there. Lin Xuan then said, "After you recalculate everything using the Grand Clarity Calculation Scripture, please give me a copy as well."

Lin Xuan snapped out of it and, stumbling a little, followed him, numbly watching as Qin Mu swiftly imprinted rows upon rows of jade slip runes from the bookshelves into the mirror.

"This mirror, is it using the 'World within a Painting' technique of the Painting Saint of the Heavenly Map?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Indeed,"

Qin Mu replied without turning his head, "And my Grandpa Cripple's forging techniques, combined with Emperor Chi and Emperor Ming's Creation arts. I also used Grandma Si's primordial magnetic divine art to fold a portion of space inside the mirror."

Dao Master Lin Xuan's eyes were unfocused as he murmured, "How wonderful, how truly wonderful…"

"Yes," Qin Mu turned back with a kind smile.

Dao Master Lin Xuan found Qin Mu's "kind" smile utterly detestable and wished he could punch him twice in the face.

Soon, Qin Mu arrived at Yu Hongxiu's floor. Under the gaze of the girl in red, he imprinted the Vermilion Bird runes of the Southern Emperor and ascended to the next level.

Yu Hongxiu stood dazed, then confusedly followed Dao Master Lin Xuan, ascending to the upper floors with them.

"Is Qin Batian of Eternal Peace always this ingenious and eccentric?" she couldn't help but ask Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan replied helplessly, "Always. His mind is structured differently from ours, I…"

He shook his head with a bitter smile. "I don't know how his brain works; perhaps the Hegemon Body's brain has a unique structure."

Finally, Qin Mu reached Xiao Chunfeng's floor. Xiao Chunfeng's mouth hung open and his eyes were wide as he stared blankly at Qin Mu, who in just a brief moment, had imprinted all the jade slip runes into the mirror.

Thud.

Xiao Chunfeng slumped to the ground, his limbs powerless, looking utterly dejected.

Dao Master Lin Xuan extended a hand to him, smiling gently. "It's alright, you'll get used to it. There's still a long road ahead."

Qin Mu stretched, then smiled. "It's finally done. As for the Creation runes on the very top floor, they aren't necessary. Now that we've imprinted these runes, Dao Ancestor should send us back to Azure Cloud Heavens, right?"

Just as he said this, voices suddenly drifted from outside the building, gradually drawing closer. A loud voice inquired, "Has the Scripture Pavilion been relatively peaceful these past days?"

"The Scripture Pavilion is a forbidden area within forbidden areas. Who would dare trespass here?" another somewhat aged voice chuckled.

"Indeed, that's true."

The loud voice continued, "His Majesty means that the Creation Divine Artifact has been completed. We should extract the runes first and then create that body."

The aged voice asked doubtfully, "Isn't it a bit early to create it now? Many runes are still incomplete, and we haven't even found all thirty-six different Heavenly Palaces…"

The sound of a door opening echoed from the lowest floor of the jade tower, and two long shadows appeared in the sight of Qin Mu and the others.

Qin Mu made a shushing gesture, signaling the others to retreat. The four quickly withdrew to a corner of the jade tower, so as not to be discovered by the newcomers.

Qin Mu stealthily observed the two shadows. One of them was extremely ornate, with layers of flame-like patterns behind its head.

"His Majesty's intention is to create it first; other runes can be gradually perfected later,"

the shadow with the flame-like patterns entered the building, and the loud voice continued, "It's just that Heavenly Duke and Earth Count are a bit difficult to deal with. They're too stubborn and too arrogant…"

Qin Mu's heart pounded, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. "Heavenly Venerate Huo! It's Heavenly Venerate Huo!"

Despair clouded the faces of Xiao Chunfeng, Lin Xuan, and Yu Hongxiu. The newcomers were ascending the stairs and would soon reach the top floor!

By then, the four of them would have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide!

"Why hasn't Dao Ancestor sent us away yet?" Xiao Chunfeng clenched his fists, his body trembling slightly.

Qin Mu frowned. Heavenly Venerate Huo and the other person were already ascending the tower. Dao Ancestor likely wouldn't have time to send them away!

If Dao Ancestor were to use a divine art, Heavenly Venerate Huo would surely detect it!

It was important to remember that Heavenly Venerate Huo was one of the Nine Heavenly Venerates of old, the pioneer of the Celestial Human Divine Treasure. He was even more ancient than Dao Ancestor!

His power was likely superior to Dao Ancestor's!

Qin Mu gritted his teeth, then suddenly turned around. A dark Gate of Heaven's Mandate silently appeared on the top floor, without the slightest vital qi fluctuation.

Qin Mu's eyes flickered, and he gestured to Dao Master Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan stepped forward. Qin Mu's hands moved with varied and rapidly changing finger techniques. Suddenly, he withdrew his fingers, bringing his index and middle fingers together to tap Lin Xuan's forehead. He sealed Lin Xuan's physical body and primordial spirit together, then pushed him backward.

Lin Xuan involuntarily fell into the Gate of Heaven's Mandate, tumbling into Youdu.

Qin Mu looked at Xiao Chunfeng, who quickly approached and was sent into Youdu in the same manner.

Yu Hongxiu rushed forward, and Qin Mu cast the spell again. Just then, a voice from below remarked, "These two ancient gods are ancient, yet they are unyielding and inflexible, unable to see the overwhelming tide of destiny."

The two voices steadily approached the top floor. "They each have their own ideas. Heavenly Duke is relatively manageable, but Earth Count is somewhat cunning. However, it's fortunate that Earth Count's daughter is still in the Heavenly Court, and the Divine Child of Youdu has also been born. They are key to dealing with Earth Count…"

Qin Mu's heart skipped a beat, and his vital qi became somewhat chaotic. At that very moment, an incredibly terrifying fluctuation surged from below, instantly filling all hundreds of floors of the Scripture Pavilion!

"Someone has infiltrated!" Heavenly Venerate Huo's voice rang out!

Qin Mu's expression changed drastically. He extended a finger and tapped Yu Hongxiu's glabella, pushing her into Youdu!

At that exact moment, Heavenly Venerate Huo's figure appeared on the top floor, sneering, "How dare you infiltrate the Scripture Pavilion! You won't escape while I'm here!"

Qin Mu sighed softly, then turned around with a smile. "Heavenly Venerate Huo, long time no see."