Chapter 962: Extensive Divine Power

"Is Heavenly Venerable Xu dangerous?" Qin Mu couldn't help but ponder. What exactly did Heavenly Venerable Huo mean by that? Was he implying that Heavenly Venerable Xu, as a woman, was dangerous, or that there was something wrong with her character?

"Heavenly Venerable Huo is still so hot-headed and never speaks clearly," Qin Mu couldn't help but shake his head. Heavenly Venerable Huo had always had a fiery temper, once getting into a big fight with Qin Mu over a trivial matter and being soundly beaten by him. He was still the same.

"However, he didn't try to kill me, and he asked me to look after Heavenly Venerable Yun's corporeal body. Was he one of the three Heavenly Venerables who protected me in Jade Pool back then?" Qin Mu sighed. He had also intended to ask Heavenly Venerable Huo about the sword-wielding enemy he encountered in the Creator's city, wondering if it was Emperor Kai. But Heavenly Venerable Huo left so quickly that he didn't have time to ask. If Emperor Kai was also in the Great Void, it would mean that Carefree Village was there too.

As they emerged from the Supreme Consciousness Domain, they saw a rootless fire burning fiercely ahead. The flames rose two to three *zhang* high, fluctuating in size. From the top of the flames, a golden rope hung down, its end tied to a cloud in the sky. At the other end, a person was bound hand and foot and suspended above the fire, screaming in agony as the rootless flames burned them. Qin Mu and Luo Wushuang looked closely and recognized the person as Heavenly Master Yue Tingge.

Upon seeing them, the Daoist quickly suppressed his pain and called out loudly, "Heavenly Venerable Mu, Young Friend Luo, I offended Heavenly Venerable Huo and couldn't escape. He's vengeful and captured me, hanging me here to roast me for centuries to get his revenge before he'll let me go! Please, both of you, rescue me! Little Yue would be eternally grateful!"

Qin Mu ignored him, pretending not to hear.

Luo Wushuang, being kind-hearted, said, "Heavenly Venerable Huo hung you here instead of killing you, so there must be a reason. If we untie you without permission, wouldn't we offend Heavenly Venerable Huo? Heavenly Master Yue, you can free yourself by burning the rope. Just rub yourself against the fire..."

Yue Tingge was furious. "This rope is a treasure he refined, and this fire is his fire. How could it possibly burn through? You're even worse than Heavenly Venerable Mu!"

As the two were about to leave, Yue Tingge quickly said, "I know a secret!"

Qin Mu and Luo Wushuang continued forward. Yue Tingge called out, "I know where the remaining Creators went!"

Qin Mu stopped, turned around, and feigned surprise. "How did Heavenly Master Yue end up hanging here? Who is so audacious as to roast Heavenly Master Yue over a fire! God Blade Luo, quickly, lend a hand and rescue Heavenly Master Yue!"

Yue Tingge glared at him, his eyes wide with anger.

Qin Mu, without changing his expression, activated a teleportation formation, sending the rootless fire dozens of miles away. Luo Wushuang, meanwhile, tried to untie the golden rope, but couldn't. Instead, the golden rope bit him, leaving his hand bloody. The tip of the golden rope was a dragon's head, small but fierce.

Qin Mu stepped forward, examining the golden rope. "This golden rope is a dragon, likely Heavenly Venerable Huo's mount or belt, and has been refined into a weapon by him. It's not easy to break... Heavenly Master Yue just said he knows where the Creators went? Heavenly Master Yue, please elaborate."

Yue Tingge's eyes darted around. "I've been trapped here for over 15,000 years, so I know this place like the back of my hand. I've been to the Supreme Consciousness Domain and other dangerous places. I found the last gathering place of the Great Void Creators; they migrated. Rescue me, and I'll tell you what I know."

Luo Wushuang shook his head. "I can't untie this golden rope."

Qin Mu mused for a moment, then bowed to the golden rope and asked, "Heavenly Venerable Huo, might you grant us some face?"

The golden rope automatically detached, transforming into a golden dragon. It opened its mouth, sucked the distant rootless fire into it, then wagged its tail and flew into the clouds, its head hanging down, not leaving.

Luo Wushuang was dumbfounded.

Yue Tingge fell to the ground, then got up and brushed the dirt off himself. Glancing at the golden dragon, still visibly shaken, he said, "I found the last gathering place of the Creators and saw their arrangements there. They opened up void space within the Great Void, evolving heaven and earth, and eventually vanished into the void. Based on my estimation, the Great Void was collapsing and unsuitable for habitation, so they must have left the Great Void during the mid-to-late Dragon Han era, guided by a senior expert from that time."

Qin Mu pondered, "Could this expert be Heavenly Venerable Yun? Otherwise, why would Heavenly Venerable Yun leave Emperor Kai a map of the Great Void?"

"That, I don't know," Yue Tingge replied. "They went to another void, taking the Void Bridge. I've also been to the Void Bridge, but it's truly perilous and impassable, which is why I'm trapped here. And there's one more thing..." He hesitated, unsure whether to speak.

Qin Mu looked puzzled.

Yue Tingge gritted his teeth and said, "I once saw a ship arriving from the end of the Void Bridge. That was about thirty years ago. On that ship were a couple, not Creators. The ship vanished in a flash, and I didn't have time to catch up before it sailed out of the Great Void."

Qin Mu's heart skipped a beat. He urgently asked, "Thirty years ago?"

Yue Tingge nodded. "It was about thirty-five years ago. Judging by the demeanor of the people on the ship, they seemed to be descendants of Emperor Kai's lineage. Perhaps it's because of this incident that the Celestial Heavens continued to explore the Great Void, and in the last thirty years or so, more people have gradually entered the Great Void. However, very few manage to arrive here alive. For most of the past ten thousand years, I've been alone here, though I once saw Great Brahma; that old monk arrived here as if sleepwalking. I'm a Daoist, I don't like monks..."

Qin Mu glanced at the golden dragon and continued, "In that case, Heavenly Master Yue, please lead the way to the Void Bridge."

Yue Tingge shook his head. "I won't go there. I'm afraid I'll actually encounter Emperor Kai. The Emperor Kai Celestial Heavens was destroyed by my hand. I can draw you a route map, and you can go by yourselves."

Qin Mu took out paper and a brush. Yue Tingge lowered his head, drawing a map of the Great Void. Luo Wushuang couldn't help but ask curiously, "Heavenly Master Yue, don't you plan to leave the Great Void and return to the Celestial Heavens? If we can find the Void Bridge, perhaps we can find a way back to the Celestial Heavens."

"Leave the Great Void and return to the Celestial Heavens?" Yue Tingge sneered without looking up, "Go back to the Celestial Heavens to die? The moment I leave the Great Void, I'll die instantly. Someone won't let me leave here..." He finished drawing the map, then suddenly looked up, alertly scrutinizing Qin Mu and Luo Wushuang. "Who are you?"

He had gone mad again.

Qin Mu put away the map. Yue Tingge chuckled, "Ah, I remember you. You are Heavenly Venerable Mu, and you are one-handed. The Celestial Heavens sent three Heavenly Venerables just to kill me, hehe, they really think highly of me. I know a good place, I'll take you there..." He hooked the golden dragon's head that hung from the sky and laughed, "Good brother, I've finally found you! Shh, let's trick them there and kill them, hehe. I've already tricked Heavenly Venerable Huo and Heavenly Venerable Xu there. I've killed two Heavenly Venerables, killing one more isn't a big deal..."

Qin Mu stood up and said to Luo Wushuang, "Let's go."

Luo Wushuang quickly followed him, looking back at the now-deranged Yue Tingge, who was still talking to the golden dragon as if it were an old friend. He asked, "Hegemon Qin, is Heavenly Master Yue truly mad, or is he feigning madness?"

Qin Mu shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure. He might be genuinely mad, or he might be feigning it. He keeps talking about a good brother, perhaps another Heavenly Master who came here with him, his closest friend. That Heavenly Master probably died in the Great Void, which he could never accept."

Luo Wushuang thought for a moment and said, "It's also possible he's feigning madness. He can't leave this place; to leave means certain death. The Celestial Heavens wants to kill him, and the Emperor Kai Celestial Heavens was destroyed by his hand. He also can't go to the Void Bridge to find Carefree Village, or Emperor Kai would kill him if he saw him. He's trapped in this Great Void forever."

Heavenly Venerable Huo's golden dragon abandoned Yue Tingge, retracted its body, and disappeared into the clouds.

Qin Mu looked back and saw Yue Tingge standing there alone, looking utterly dejected. Suddenly, his expression turned fierce and sinister, and he began to curse the heavens and the earth.

"He's too intelligent; he had no choice but to go mad." Qin Mu smiled slightly. "God Blade Luo, do you intend to go mad and stay in the Great Void, or do you plan to leave and go to Yankang?"

Luo Wushuang was slightly startled.

"You don't have many choices left," Qin Mu reminded him.

Luo Wushuang was silent for a moment, then sighed deeply. "If I return to the Celestial Heavens, it's death; the Empress and Ancestral Mother won't let me live. If I stay in the Great Void, my intelligence is inferior to Heavenly Master Yue's, so I won't survive long either. However, I've always had one obsession that keeps me alive. Hegemon Qin, do you know what that long-held wish of mine is?"

Qin Mu smiled faintly and said, "Your injuries are almost healed. You were running faster than me just now."

Luo Wushuang walked beside him, a rare smile on his face. "Indeed. The Hegemon Body of the Founding Emperor cut off my arm, but he also saved my life three times. I can wait forty thousand years for this arm, waiting for a chance to prove my blade technique to the Hegemon Body of the Founding Emperor. But these three acts of salvation, I don't know how to repay them."

The two walked side by side towards the last gathering place of the Creators. Their aura grew stronger and stronger. Ahead lay a golden-yellow desert, where winds stirred up golden grains of sand.

Qin Mu stepped onto the golden sand, leaving a line of footprints. He said, "Revenge and gratitude are two different matters. For the arm he cut off, you cultivated bitterly for forty thousand years to seek revenge. For saving your life three times, will you spend one hundred and twenty thousand years to repay that kindness? Can it be calculated this way?"

Luo Wushuang was like a divine blade unsheathed, its sharpness fully revealed. He said in a deep voice, "It can."

His aura caused a deep blade mark to appear in the golden desert ahead. The blade mark extended forward, and on either side of it, swirling air currents formed numerous tornadoes, whistling and rotating, sweeping the golden sand into the sky. Within the tornadoes, countless flashes of blade light darted about—those were his blade techniques.

Qin Mu gazed across the desert, seeing golden sand dunes shaped like crescent moons, all facing the same direction. He praised, "The Creators' power of creation is truly miraculous, to have created this golden desert. The scenery is magnificent and beautiful."

His aura erupted, his vital energy surging like a vast ocean, like oil cooking over a raging fire, burning his youth and passion to the fullest!

Suddenly, his sea of vital energy rose, like an iron-blooded banner unfurling abruptly, sweeping across the sky! Yankang's reforms required iron and blood to forge!

Their auras clashed. In just an instant, Luo Wushuang felt the spirit of a new era emanating from Qin Mu's aura—one of overturning the old and ushering in the new!

That spirit did not belong to Qin Mu alone; it belonged to Yankang, to the essence, qi, and spirit of an entire era!

He wasn't stealing Yankang's spirit of the age, but rather, his spirit was nurtured within the grand tide of Yankang's reforms. The revolution was as fierce as fire, and the reforms flowed like a mighty river.

As a river flows, if obstructed, its waters rise higher, submerging all that is old. As a fire rages, a single spark can ignite a prairie, consuming all that is decayed.

"Hegemon Body of the Founding Emperor, please!" Luo Wushuang struck with his blade. In the desert, amidst the golden sands, blade light shone like a rainbow. His blade opened a heaven, slashing towards Qin Mu!

Qin Mu raised his hand, and sword light flared. Blade and sword clashed. Their magic power erupted, and their figures collided, blade and sword resonating together!

The next moment, the power within the blade and sword erupted, pushing them apart.

Luo Wushuang retreated, laughing heartily. He slashed his blade at the retreating Qin Mu. No matter how magnificent and grand Qin Mu's aura was, he cleaved it open with a single strike!

Qin Mu thrust his sword, and the sword light stirred up a torrent in the golden desert. Countless sand dunes were swept up by the sword light, transforming into a rapidly extending golden passage. At the end of the passage was Luo Wushuang, the momentum terrifying.

Luo Wushuang's blade light slashed into this golden sand passage. Countless flashes of blade light and sword light collided within the passage, piercing through it, turning into a sky full of blade and sword rain.

Luo Wushuang strode forward, breaking through the blade and sword rain ahead. One layer of blade dao formed one heaven. With each strike of his blade, he created a celestial realm of blade dao. By the time he reached Qin Mu, fourteen layers of blade dao heavens had formed an unparalleled power, striking down upon Qin Mu!

His blade technique had no match in the Celestial Heavens; he truly deserved the title of the Celestial Heavens' Foremost Divine Blade!

Just as his divine blade descended, the world suddenly fell silent. Countless starlight emerged from the sky, and the golden sand desert beneath Qin Mu's feet rotated, transforming into a black and white Taiji diagram.

Luo Wushuang's heart skipped a beat. He saw a sun rising from the black and white desert, and a moon setting.

Behind Qin Mu, the Primordial Tree grew lush and taller.

"Spirit and body united? Primordial Spirit and corporeal body fused?" Luo Wushuang swung his blade down, saying angrily, "No matter how vast your divine abilities, you cannot withstand my divine blade!"

Qin Mu raised his sword, piercing through layer after layer of blade dao heavens, aiming directly for Luo Wushuang's glabella!