Chapter 960: Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness

The remaining divine consciousness of Emperor Tai retreated, quickly vanishing without a trace, leaving only a cold snort. Qin Mu took no offense; Emperor Tai was, after all, Emperor Tai, the foremost master of divine consciousness throughout history. Being able to capture even a sliver of his consciousness was already quite an achievement.

Divine consciousness is thought and awareness, connected to memory. His sole purpose was to acquire the supreme cultivation method for divine consciousness, the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness, from Emperor Tai's essence. He was unable to completely refine Emperor Tai; the divine consciousness left behind was merely a minuscule fraction of Emperor Tai's true power. If he could refine this portion of Emperor Tai's divine consciousness and obtain the cultivation method for the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness from it, that would be an immense blessing!

Unearthing the Emperor Tai Seal and the altar to attract Emperor Tai's divine consciousness was a crisis for him. However, a crisis contains both danger and opportunity. A wise person recognizes this, navigates the danger, and seizes the chance. Many people, when confronted with a crisis, tend to see only the danger and focus solely on avoiding it, forgetting that a crisis has two facets. In avoiding danger, they often overlook potential opportunities. By uniting with others to repel Emperor Tai and capturing a portion of his divine consciousness, Qin Mu demonstrated his ability to face challenges and seize opportunities.

Seeing Emperor Tai's divine consciousness withdraw, Yue Tingge and Luo Wushuang also flew out of Qin Mu's divine treasure. Qin Mu thanked both of them. Shu Jun also returned to the Primordial Divine Stone, and Qin Mu's divine consciousness descended to express his gratitude to him as well.

"This concerns not only your life and death but mine as well, so there's no need for thanks."

Inside Shu Jun's massive head, his two eyes bounced around in their sockets as he chuckled, "If you feel you owe me, then provide me with more divine consciousness and vital energy to help me restore my ears and nose!"

Qin Mu burst into laughter. "Don't worry, King Jun," he said, "I will certainly grant your wish!"

Shu Jun sneered, "King Jun? What kind of name is that? Although I am one of the Three Kings of the Primordial Era, my people don't call me King Jun; they call me Divine King Shu Jun! You should address me as Divine King! You've captured a part of Emperor Tai's divine consciousness, but do you know how to refine it and extract the memories within? If not, then offer me more vital energy and divine consciousness to help me restore my brain. That's not a bad deal, is it?"

Qin Mu frowned and proposed, "How about this: you teach me how to refine Emperor Tai's divine consciousness, and I'll impart the information I extract from it to you. Don't you want to obtain Emperor Tai's Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness? Wouldn't that be a better deal?"

Shu Jun was greatly tempted. After a moment of thought, he said, "This proposal isn't bad. While my Three Enclosures Supreme Consciousness is powerful, it's still slightly inferior to Emperor Tai's Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness. However, Emperor Tai became Emperor Tai not solely because of the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness, but also because countless members of his race visualized him, aiding his cultivation..."

Qin Mu patiently guided him, saying, "If Emperor Tai's divine consciousness contains the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness, I will teach it to you in its entirety, without reservation! Once Divine King Shu Jun is resurrected and possesses the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness, becoming another Emperor Tai will be within reach!"

Shu Jun chuckled, "It's a deal!"

"It's a deal!"

Shu Jun was overjoyed. "This kid is surprisingly straightforward for once!" he thought. "Heh heh, Emperor Tai's Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness is infinitely better than my Three Enclosures Supreme Consciousness. This fellow has no idea he's about to suffer a huge loss... Wait a minute!"

His two large eyeballs blinked, and he suddenly realized, "If I restore my brain, I can seize the opportunity to take over his physical body, erase this fellow's consciousness, and then slowly refine Emperor Tai. Wouldn't that be even better? I'm teaching him the refining method, but even if the imprisoned Emperor Tai divine consciousness contains the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness, I don't have a brain, so I can't cultivate it... I've suffered a huge loss!"

The large head fumed on the altar, his two eyeballs bouncing around as he yelled, "Brat, how dare you trick a Divine King! I'm telling you, you're dead! You're absolutely dead!"

Qin Mu chuckled, "Is Divine King Shu Jun, one of the Three Kings of the Primordial Era, going to go back on his word?"

After a moment, Shu Jun finally calmed down. He still kept his promise, teaching Qin Mu the method for refining divine consciousness and obtaining memories from it, though he was immensely displeased internally.

The method he taught Qin Mu was a divine consciousness ability called Heaven-Pacing Consciousness Transformation. After learning Heaven-Pacing Consciousness Transformation, Qin Mu immediately began modifying it. Shu Jun was already accustomed to this; after all, Qin Mu always modified anything he learned from him, and Shu Jun was utterly unable to object.

Once Qin Mu finished modifying Heaven-Pacing Consciousness Transformation, he immediately eagerly set about refining Emperor Tai's divine consciousness. Heaven-Pacing Consciousness Transformation is a divine ability within the Three Enclosures Supreme Consciousness cultivation method. It requires activating the seventy-eight constellations and three hundred twenty-eight star deities of the Three Enclosures Supreme Consciousness. The constellations shift and move, and the three hundred twenty-eight star deities pace the heavens, moving stars and shifting constellations, causing them to operate in peculiar patterns.

With each movement, powerful refining energy is generated, which refines the enemy's divine consciousness and claims it for one's own. The memories within the opponent's divine consciousness are refined, transforming into information that surges into one's mind, yet without altering one's own thoughts, effectively providing nourishment for one's divine consciousness. This process avoids the risk of being assimilated by the opponent's divine consciousness while allowing one to refine the opponent's consciousness and enhance one's own cultivation level.

Heaven-Pacing Consciousness Transformation was a divine ability created by the Creator Race of the Primordial Era, specifically for use against other Creators. Battles among Creators were frequent then, so figuring out how to defeat enemies became a major focus of their research. However, the divine abilities of that era differed greatly from those of the present, making this an unfamiliar field for Qin Mu.

Within his Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, he activated Heaven-Pacing Consciousness Transformation, first refining Emperor Tai's divine consciousness trapped in the celestial flask. Immediately, a torrent of complex and chaotic information surged in. All sorts of images flashed through Qin Mu's mind—these were streams of Emperor Tai's memories! He immediately began sifting through the content, extracting useful information from Emperor Tai's memory stream while obliterating anything he didn't need.

Emperor Tai's divine consciousness contained an immense amount of data; merely the memories from the Primordial Era encompassed countless pieces of information. Qin Mu frowned deeply. In these memory streams, memories related to the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness were exceedingly rare. However, there were many fragments of divine consciousness abilities, yet they were only fragments, not complete techniques. His divine consciousness strength, however, was rapidly increasing, becoming stronger and stronger, even many times faster than when he cultivated the Three Enclosures Supreme Consciousness!

By the time the Emperor Tai divine consciousness in the celestial flask was completely refined, Qin Mu had only obtained a brief section of the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness cultivation method. Remaining persistent, he continued refining the remaining Emperor Tai divine consciousness, and his divine consciousness cultivation grew stronger and stronger. This time, memories concerning the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness finally became more plentiful.

Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief and immediately began organizing the cluttered information, attempting to compile the cultivation method for the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness. The biggest difference between the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness and the Three Enclosures Supreme Consciousness lies in their visualization methods. The Three Enclosures Supreme Consciousness visualizes seventy-eight constellations and three hundred twenty-eight star deities, whereas the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness visualizes as many as three hundred sixty-five constellations and nearly two thousand star deities! Such a large number even surpassed Qin Mu's understanding of star deities!

Currently, the Heavenly Court only has three hundred sixty star deities, yet the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness refers to as many as two thousand. What does this imply? "Are there truly so many ancient gods in the world?" Qin Mu wondered. "Where have all those ancient gods from the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness gone?"

Qin Mu pondered for a moment. The current number of ancient gods was far less than what was recorded in the Supreme Divine Consciousness. Could it be possible that at some point, there truly were two thousand ancient gods in the world? "These ancient gods are most likely dead," he concluded.

Qin Mu set this matter aside and continued organizing the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness. Besides the sheer number of star deities, the visualization techniques of the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness also surpassed those of the Three Enclosures Supreme Consciousness. The Three Enclosures Supreme Consciousness involves arranging the Taiwei, Ziwei, and Tianshi Enclosures within the Primordial Divine Stone or original stone. In contrast, the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness involves visualizing them throughout the entire physical body, making the entire person like a cosmic starry sky!

Cultivating this method means every corner of the physical body houses deities! The space between the eyebrows houses the Ziwei deities and the Celestial Emperor, the Sea of Qi houses the two deities of Gui Xu, the Dantian is the Earth Mother, the Yongquan point is the Earth Duke, and the spine represents the stars of the thirty-three heavens!

"No wonder Shu Jun praised Emperor Tai, saying he had the strongest physical body in history," Qin Mu mused. "With this cultivation method, it would be difficult for the physical body not to be strong. I just wonder, between the ancient god Celestial Emperor and Emperor Tai, whose physical body is stronger?"

As Emperor Tai's divine consciousness in the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure was completely refined, Qin Mu frowned. It was only then that he realized the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness was not quite like the Creator cultivation method he had imagined. Emperor Tai's Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness was, unexpectedly, a cultivation method for both the Divine Treasure and Heavenly Palace cultivation systems!

The Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness he obtained was incomplete. It lacked the cultivation methods for the Seven Stars Divine Treasure and the Celestial-Human Divine Treasure, and furthermore, after cultivating to the Heavenly Palace realm, it was missing the methods for realms beyond the Jade Capital! "Emperor Tai modified the cultivation method!" he exclaimed.

Qin Mu's mind reeled. He felt as if he had thrown a full-force punch only to hit nothing but air. If it had been the original Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness, he could have used the original method, integrated it with his Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, and then modified and perfected it to suit his own cultivation. However, after Emperor Tai integrated the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness with the Divine Treasure and Heavenly Palace cultivation systems, its usefulness to him was greatly diminished. This was because he only had a Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure and not even a Heavenly Palace! The usefulness of this cultivation method to him was therefore negligible.

He passed the incomplete Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness to Shu Jun, who was stunned for a moment but still began to study it diligently. Qin Mu was puzzled and asked, "Divine King Shu Jun, you are one of the Three Kings of the Primordial Era. Why would you still learn the Divine Treasure and Heavenly Palace cultivation systems? The modified Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness is not very useful to me, and it's utterly useless to you!"

"Kid," Shu Jun retorted, "Do you think that after I'm resurrected, I will still follow the path of divine consciousness visualization?"

Shu Jun shook his head, his two eyeballs popping out of their sockets and bouncing around. One eye said, "If I still follow the path of divine consciousness visualization, it would be one person fighting against millions of years of knowledge and achievements of all beings. I would still be eliminated by the era, like other Creators, ultimately leading to the extinction of the Creator Race." The other eye chuckled, "After I'm resurrected, I will learn your cultivation systems and integrate them with the Creator's divine consciousness visualization methods. This way, even if it's not the complete Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness, my achievements won't be much inferior to Emperor Tai's."

Qin Mu was stunned.

Shu Jun's two eyes activated his divine consciousness, which continuously evolved as he deduced the mysteries of the Great Luo Supreme Divine Consciousness. He continued, "I entered your divine treasure and found that it doesn't align with Emperor Tai's cultivation method, lacking many divine treasures. You've likely forged a unique path, but now you're trapped on it. There's no road ahead, and you don't know how to proceed."

Qin Mu nodded. Shu Jun had pinpointed his dilemma. He had opened the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure and used it to evolve the primordial universe. However, the development of the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure would eventually reach its limit. He had previously exhausted its potential, and only after obtaining the Primordial Chaos Liquid from Earth Mother Yuanjun was he able to stimulate some of its latent power. However, the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure indeed had no more potential to be tapped. Especially recently, he had felt his magical power reach its limit, achieving the maximum that the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure could provide. His vital qi cultivation was equivalent to that of a True God, but this also marked the end of the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure's capabilities. Therefore, he had painstakingly worked on his divine consciousness, hoping that insights from other sources could help him overcome his difficulties and escape his current predicament.

He had never clearly figured out how to proceed with the path ahead. He wanted to forge a new path based on the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure, but he had no definite ideas about where this path was or where it led. However, he vaguely felt that the end of that path might be a wonderful realm, one that merged with the Dao, ineffable and indescribable.

Shu Jun said, "If I were you, I would open up a Heavenly Palace."

Qin Mu humbly sought guidance, bowing and saying, "Please enlighten me, Divine King."

----Here's an embarrassing story about Zhaizhu. A couple of days ago, I went to Beijing for a meeting. Nightcat, the moderator, and several alliance leaders invited me for tea. The tea house was 1.5 kilometers from my hotel. So I got lost. It took me about an hour and a half to find the tea house. We didn't even chat for long, as I had to rush to catch the high-speed train. Nightcat and the others insisted on taking me to the high-speed rail station and only left after seeing me enter. I think they were worried I'd get lost again...