Chapter 944: Tai Xu Corpse Walker

"Corpses of prehistoric creators?"

Qin Mu looked up. The towering corpses walked on the Star River as if on water, each step creating strange ripples.

The Star River was Wei Suifeng's divine ability, capable of unleashing immense power with the slightest touch. Yet, these creator corpses could walk upon it without triggering the ability, which was very unusual. Even stranger was the fact that this was a group of corpses walking in the Great Void!

The Great Void was incredibly vast, with little to nothing within it. Yet, these giant corpses proceeded on foot, as if they were ascetics, for whom walking in the void was a form of cultivation. However, they were merely a group of lifeless corpses.

"What are the Corpse Walkers?" Qin Mu asked Yun Chuxiu, who was beside him.

Yun Chuxiu shook her head. "I don't know. Emperor Yun Luo discovered them while exploring the Great Void. These corpses enjoy wandering in the Great Void, bothering no one. Emperor Yun Luo found they had no souls or spirits and had been dead for countless eons. What's more, it's peculiar how a sense of peace settles in your heart when you walk beside them; the Great Void cannot influence your inner demons. If we encounter Corpse Walkers, our journey will be safe."

The Corpse Walkers moved along the Star River, while the flying ship followed beneath. Indeed, with the Corpse Walkers present, inner demons did not stir, nor did strange phenomena arise.

Suddenly, Qin Mu flew out from the flying ship, bypassed the Star River, and ascended to its surface to observe the Corpse Walkers closely.

"Heavenly Venerable Mu, what are you doing?"

Everyone on the ship was startled, their scalps tingling. Yun Chuxiu called out loudly, "Those Corpse Walkers are our guardians! Don't do anything reckless!"

Lian Hua Hun's eyes gleamed as she softly said, "Heavenly Venerable Mu is so reckless; it would be better to eliminate him for our safety. What do you all think?"

Luo Wushuang frowned slightly and looked at the others. He saw almost everyone on the flying ship nodding in agreement, consenting to Heavenly Venerable Mu's execution.

"Heavenly Venerable Mu doesn't seem to realize that almost everyone on this ship wants him dead."

An absurd feeling arose in Luo Wushuang's heart. Qin Mu was nominally the leader of their expedition, tasked with guiding them to rendezvous with Heavenly Venerable Huo and Heavenly Venerable Xu. Yet, he hadn't realized that the true objective of almost everyone on board was to eliminate him! Even Luo Wushuang himself harbored a grudge against Qin Mu for his severed arm.

"This journey into the Great Void seems specifically orchestrated to kill Qin Mu, not to explore the void at all," Luo Wushuang thought to himself.

Qin Mu paid no attention to the calls from the ship's occupants, continuing to observe the Corpse Walkers.

They were indeed prehistoric creators, with Primeval Divine Stones embedded in their brows. However, they had been dead for an unknown period, with no discernible blood flow or vital signs. These prehistoric creators continuously walked in one direction, which happened to be the direction indicated by Wei Suifeng's Star River divine ability.

Qin Mu flew to the side of one Corpse Walker, circling the giant to try and determine the cause of these creators' deaths. Strangely, there wasn't a single injury on the Corpse Walkers, and their clothes looked as fresh as new.

Qin Mu pondered for a moment. His sword pellet transformed into a flying sword, with which he cut off a corner of a Corpse Walker's clothing. Oddly, the clothing immediately grew back. The reason the clothes grew back was that these corpses' divine sense, channeled through the Primeval Divine Stone, could create matter.

"Although they are dead, their divine sense remains indestructible. Their minds are still in the state they were in when alive. Even though they are deceased, their divine sense continues to operate, and any damage to their physical bodies is repaired by it."

Qin Mu figured out the principle behind it, but he had no way of knowing why these Corpse Walkers continuously moved towards a specific destination.

Shu Jun's voice came through: "Let me communicate with their divine sense and see what they experienced before their deaths!"

"They don't even have souls. Can they still communicate?" Qin Mu asked, surprised.

"Naturally. For us creators, let alone communicating after death, if our divine sense is powerful enough, we can even retrieve knowledge from all past deceased creators in the void, pooling everyone's wisdom." Shu Jun continued, "You tiny beings need to study to master the knowledge passed down by your ancestors, whereas our newborn creators only need to touch foreheads with an elder to receive all knowledge! This shows your crudeness and backwardness."

Qin Mu wondered, "If you don't learn knowledge but have it directly instilled, then how do you correct errors?"

Shu Jun was stunned. "Correct errors? Our ancestors' knowledge is flawless; why would it need correction?"

Qin Mu shook his head. Learning with curiosity and questioning allows one to discover the errors of predecessors, thereby advancing Dao arts and divine abilities. However, with direct indoctrination, knowledge instilled into a child's mind becomes an unquestionable truth, requiring no thought. In that case, errors in the knowledge passed down by ancestors would never be discovered.

All reforms originate from the fundamentals. The Eternal Peace reform started from fundamental sword techniques, basic blade arts, and elementary runes, then progressed to changing the very foundation of cultivation realms, the Divine Treasures. Even daily life and livelihood were rooted in fundamentals. And breaking the gods within the heart was the foundation of one's mental state.

If all knowledge is acquired through indoctrination, how can one change the fundamentals? The creators' method of learning was faster but easily led to stagnation in fundamental Dao arts and divine abilities, causing knowledge to become rigid.

Qin Mu opened the eye in his brow and immediately felt Shu Jun's divine sense surge from the Primeval Ore. Shu Jun's divine sense was already powerful enough to touch the divine sense of these creator corpses.

Following Shu Jun's divine sense, a vast world suddenly appeared before Qin Mu's eyes: immense oceans, towering mountains, soaring waterfalls, white clouds. Colossal creators walked among the high peaks and ranges, waded through the verdant, rolling seas. Some giants visualized wings and flew amidst the blue sky and white clouds. Others visualized colorful plants, and lush forests continuously emerged, transforming from their imagination into reality. Even more powerful creators flew into the starry sky, where many gathered to create suns, moons, and stars.

This was the new world they had opened up, intending to escape strife. Their attire was simple and plain, devoid of any lavish decorations, as they lived a life of unrestrained freedom.

From the divine sense of these Corpse Walkers, Qin Mu sensed that their original world had become uninhabitable. Besides internal strife and massacres among their own kind, powerful ancient gods also sought to annihilate them. They had visualized a new world, a world that was utterly empty and required their construction to become perfect.

Suddenly, a colossal figure descended into the world they had visualized. Terrifying divine sense fluctuations swept through the void, causing it to collapse! The world created by the creators' visualization was inherently unstable. With this individual's arrival, the collapsing world transformed into pure divine sense, which then surged backward, crashing into the brains of these creators!

Qin Mu stared blankly at the scene. The once beautiful world had now become a bloodbath of death. The creators looked up at the sky, but no sound escaped their lips. The almost materialized divine sense rushed in, drilling through their brows, destroying their brains, shattering their souls, and turning them into mere corpses!

This was the last scene the Corpse Walkers ever witnessed!

Shu Jun retracted his divine sense, and the strange vision before Qin Mu's eyes vanished. On the altar of Primeval Ore, Shu Jun's empty, large head gasped for air, yet without a tongue, teeth, or a physical body, it looked extremely bizarre. Air was drawn into his mouth and expelled from beneath his head.

Qin Mu was also panting, cold sweat beading on his forehead without him realizing it.

"Shu Jun, did you see that magnificent figure?"

Qin Mu composed himself and asked, "That person could enter the Great Void; they must have been one of your creators, right? Why did they annihilate the Great Void?"

Shu Jun shook his head, his divine sense very unstable. "I didn't see who it was..."

Qin Mu blinked. He had only seen through Shu Jun's divine sense, and the vision wasn't complete, but it was highly probable that Shu Jun knew who the person was yet chose not to say.

"Shu Jun, you and I are now grasshoppers on the same rope, sharing a common fate, facing common enemies. If you saw anything, you might as well tell me directly," he coaxed.

Shu Jun snorted coldly. "Sharing a common fate? On this rickety ship of yours, everyone wants to kill you. You should probably figure out how to overcome your current predicament instead."

Qin Mu smiled faintly. He naturally knew that most of the people on the flying ship below wanted him dead. Meeting Heavenly Venerable Huo and Heavenly Venerable Xu was merely a pretext from the Heavenly Court's Venerables; in reality, it was a scheme to exile him, Heavenly Venerable Mu, to the Great Void and find an opportunity to eliminate him. Of course, if they couldn't eliminate him, they would simply leave him permanently in the Great Void. After all, there were no important figures among the people on this ship.

"Heavenly Venerable Mu, come back to the ship quickly!"

Lian Hua Hun said softly, "Those Corpse Walkers are extremely strange. A Heavenly Venerable's body should not be in a dangerous place. It's safer for you to return to the ship."

Qin Mu stood on the shoulder of a Corpse Walker, his clothes fluttering, and smiled, "Sister Lian, I'm enjoying the view here. Don't disturb me."

Xiuyou Fang, a disciple of Heavenly Venerable Hao on the ship, chuckled, "Heavenly Venerable, what's so good to see there? The scenery here is much better."

Qin Mu ignored them. A wisp of his vital qi flew out, heading towards the Star River beneath the Corpse Walkers.

The people on the ship were furious, their eyes nearly splitting, and they shouted, "Stop, Mu thief!"

"Qin Mu, you brat, how dare you!"

"Heavenly Venerable Mu, no—"

That Star River was a phenomenon formed by Emperor Yun Luo Wei Suifeng's divine ability. If Qin Mu were to trigger it, it was feared that everyone on the ship, even powerful individuals like Luo Wushuang, would perish under the might of that divine ability!

Qin Mu's vital qi flew into the Star River and stirred it vigorously. To his surprise, however, Wei Suifeng's divine ability did not unleash its power. He scratched his head, releasing more vital qi, but Wei Suifeng's divine ability still flowed calmly like a long river in the void.

Shu Jun gloated, "Little fellow, you've miscalculated. Although these creators are dead, their divine sense persists. Their mere divine sense can completely suppress this divine ability."

Qin Mu retracted his vital qi, grumbling, "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

Shu Jun snorted coldly and said proudly, "If you had restored my physical body earlier, I could have easily crushed these insects! However, I can still save your life, provided you give me three years' worth of your divine sense and vital blood..."

Seeing that Wei Suifeng's divine ability was not triggered by Qin Mu, the gods and devils on the flying ship grew bolder. Pan Chunjin leaped into the air, flying first towards the Star River, and shouted, "Everyone, there's no need to wait any longer! Now that we're here, he can't escape back to the Heavenly Court. It's time to eliminate him and report back!"

"Exactly!"

Everyone on the ship flew up, proclaiming loudly, "The deeper we go into the Great Void, the smaller our chances of safely returning to the Heavenly Court. Let's eliminate the old thief Mu now while we can still go back!"

Qin Mu burst into laughter, soaring into the air. He leaped from one Corpse Walker's body, landed on another's shoulder, and then darted away. From behind, the crowd charged with whistling cries, their aura radiating. Qin Mu looked back and saw that almost none of these people were practitioners of divine abilities; most were gods. Heavenly Palaces appeared behind them, and some even manifested several Heavenly Palaces!

On the flying ship, twenty or thirty people had not taken flight, instead exchanging glances. Yun Chuxiu looked at Luo Wushuang and asked curiously, "Divine Blade Luo has a deep, sea-like enmity with Tyrant Qin, so why aren't you pursuing him?"

Luo Wushuang calmly replied, "If I were to act, I would never rely on others. I must fight him fairly and defeat him with my own blade! Why haven't you all gone after him?"

Yun Chuxiu's gaze fell on Lian Hua Hun, who was nearby. She giggled, "I'm not trying to kill him, so why would I chase him? Isn't that right, Sister Lian?"

Lian Hua Hun was expressionless, and coldly said, "You hussy, you should call me elder sister!"