Chapter 984: Panic and Fleeing

Qin Mu watched the celebrating crowd below the altar. The patriarchs of various tribes were gathering their people, preparing for mobilization.

"What are they planning to do?" Qin Mu asked curiously.

"They intend to gather the power of all their people to visualize you, boosting your physical body and divine consciousness."

Divine King Lang Wo said, "They want to empower you just as the Grand Emperor was empowered back then. Although the number of creators who sacrificed to the Grand Emperor was enormous, and it's impossible to recreate that grandeur now, a million creators sacrificing and visualizing together is still enough to make your cultivation and power advance by leaps and bounds. In just a century or two, your cultivation will reach the level of an Emperor's Throne expert, or even surpass it. Your physical body might even become indestructible through the sacrifices."

Qin Mu looked at the excited crowd below, then recalled ancient gods like Earth Count and Heaven Duke. He shook his head and said, "Becoming a god through sacrifice has too many limitations. While it could empower me, it would also restrict me. I think it's better for me to cultivate on my own and continuously improve my power."

Earlier, he would certainly not have refused such a large-scale visualization ritual.

However, now Qin Mu suspected that ancient gods were created through the visualization of the creators.

Ancient gods were lifelong constrained by their own Great Dao. Perhaps they weren't restricted by their own Great Dao, but by the ideas of the creators who formed them.

When creators visualized Earth Count, their thoughts were that Earth Count was a deity who controlled death, impartial and selfless. Thus, Earth Count would be an ancient god formed by countless such thoughts, making it difficult for him to escape the creators' shackles.

What bound Earth Count was Earth Count himself. Earth Count, in essence, was formed by the creators' countless visualized thoughts.

Of course, the idea that creators created ancient gods was just his speculation; he didn't know if it was actually true.

Qin Mu's speculation primarily stemmed from Divine King Lang Wo's mount, the multicolored phoenix.

He felt that the multicolored phoenix's situation was very similar to that of the ancient gods, which made him somewhat resistant to the idea of everyone visualizing him.

Divine King Lang Wo glanced at him, then sent out a divine consciousness fluctuation, notifying the patriarchs of the various tribes.

The patriarchs of Xiumin, Zili, Zhuqiu, and other tribes were all surprised to hear this, but since it was Qin Mu and the Divine King's will, they could only comply.

Qin Mu watched the crowd disperse and breathed a sigh of relief.

Ancient gods had far too many restrictions; they were not truly free. The ancient gods themselves were trying every possible means to break free from these shackles. Would it not be utterly foolish for him to willingly step into them?

"Why did you refuse the creators' sacrifice?"

Shujun's large head floated over, complaining, "You missed the chance to become the Grand Emperor!"

Qin Mu chuckled, "Become the Grand Emperor? My ambitions are far greater; a mere Grand Emperor is nothing to mention."

Shujun felt great pity, shaking his head, "You don't know how powerful and terrifying the Grand Emperor was."

"Even if I wanted to become a being like the Grand Emperor, the creator race would never allow me to become another one. Shujun, the creator race already created one Grand Emperor, which almost led to their extinction. Why would they create another?"

Qin Mu smiled, "If I were to become another Grand Emperor, who's to say I wouldn't wipe out all the creators for my own dominant position? I am the Holy Infant of the creator race, not a ruler like the Grand Emperor. Otherwise, what would be the difference between us?"

Shujun's eyes widened, his eyeballs not popping out this time. He said, "What you said actually makes a lot of sense, but would you really be that benevolent? I don't believe it. You're too cunning."

Qin Mu smiled faintly and said to Divine King Lang Wo, "Sister, let these creators rest for a while to recover their physical strength and divine consciousness. Once they've recovered, we'll go to Carefree Village."

Divine King Lang Wo was surprised. "All the creators are going to Carefree Village?"

Qin Mu nodded. "All of them will go."

Divine King Lang Wo lightly frowned. "Won't that be too grand a display?"

She didn't want to state it explicitly, but Shujun couldn't hold back and voiced her true thoughts: "All creators going? Do you mean to crash your ancestor's party? With an army at their doorstep, it's hard to guarantee your ancestor won't have other ideas."

Qin Mu laughed heartily, shaking his head. "I intend for the creator race to have a talk with Carefree Village and Emperor Yikang. Without demonstrating the creator race's strength, even if Emperor Yikang agrees, his officials might not agree to peaceful coexistence with the creator race."

His eyes gleamed as he leisurely said, "When two behemoths speak, they naturally need equivalent strength."

He felt a little excited, thinking, "It would be best if I could scare Emperor Yikang out of his wits!"

Divine King Lang Wo gave him a deep look, then immediately used her divine consciousness to notify the leaders of all tribes, instructing all their members to rest.

Three to five days later, the divine consciousness of the creators who had participated in the ritual had recovered to their peak state. Divine King Lang Wo once again notified the patriarchs of the various tribes, ordering them to organize their people and for the entire race to set off towards Carefree Village.

Upon receiving this order, the creators of all tribes became inexplicably excited, rubbing their hands together and discussing animatedly: "The Holy Infant truly lives up to his name! He's going to take action against Carefree Village!"

"We've long found that 'traitor Qin' an eyesore. The Holy Infant is a divine being sent from heaven to lead us in flattening the enemy's lair!"

"Don't underestimate them; there's a big-headed monster infant next door who's incredibly formidable."

"The Holy Infant can make that monster infant cry for his mother and father!"

"That goes without saying."

Qin Mu and Divine King Lang Wo stood on a high vantage point. Qin Mu couldn't help but frown deeply as he watched the creator race's marching formation, with families in tow. Since creators cultivated divine consciousness and relied on visualization to perform divine abilities and forge treasures, each person's divine consciousness abilities were unique, and their mounts varied greatly.

While it was normal for some to visualize mythical beasts like dragons and phoenixes as mounts, many others visualized bizarre and monstrous ones. The Zili patriarch's mount, a giant white silkworm, was already strange enough. Others rode giant spiders, octopi, feathered snakes, enormous kuns, and even trees!

Furthermore, there were various houses flying with wings, multi-decked ships, treasure chariots, and some people even sat inside giant eggs!

There were also massive holy artifacts flying through the starry sky, carrying hundreds of creators. Some creators simply sat on planets, with elders behind them exerting force to push the planets along, then leaping onto the planets themselves, letting the planets carry them towards Carefree Village!

Many younger creators, whose cultivation was insufficient, visualized wings for themselves and flew by flapping them.

However, their wings were not uniform; they varied in size, length, and number of pairs. Some visualized their wings in a kaleidoscope of colors.

The wings' attributes also differed, some bearing the power of lightning, others wind and fire, and some causing torrential rain and widespread flooding with a single flap.

This was not even what left Qin Mu most speechless.

What truly rendered him speechless was how chaotic and dragging the creator tribes were during their march. They looked less like an army meant to intimidate Carefree Village and more like refugees fleeing for their lives!

Qin Mu's hands trembled with anger. After taking several deep breaths, he murmured, "Even if the Imperial Preceptor were to reorganize these guys, it would probably take over a decade to make them obey military commands, move in unison, and become usable soldiers. How could such disorganized rabble scare a heroic ruler like Emperor Yikang out of his wits?"

He deeply understood the power of Emperor Yikang's Celestial Heavens. In both array formations and military tactics, Emperor Yikang's Celestial Heavens had developed a formidable civilization. The battle-hardened gods and devils' control over the battlefield far surpassed that of the creators.

In one-on-one combat, the creators were incredibly strong. However, in large-scale conflicts on the battlefield, Emperor Yikang's Celestial Heavens far outmatched the creators!

One should know that Emperor Yikang's Celestial Heavens harbored terrifying figures like Heavenly Master Zixi, also known as Yan Yunxi!

The scholar Zixi, or Yan Yunxi, was the highest achiever in array formations, a being who dared to scheme against two Earth Mother Primordials alone and directly contend with Emperor's Throne experts like Martial Heavenly Master Zhuocha!

Moreover, teleportation arrays and teleportation divine arts were products of the Emperor Yikang era, representing the highest achievements in arts and calculations of that time!

Divine King Lang Wo said, "Holy Infant, you don't need to worry. You only need to communicate with the creators using your divine consciousness to calmly lead them in march and formation, making them move in unison."

Qin Mu shook his head. "Mere uniformity isn't enough to make an invincible army. We also need to form various battle formations among the creators, with leaders proficient in different military tactics. Different battle formations must combine to form different killing arrays. Every divine weapon in a creator's hand, and their divine abilities, must also become part of the battle formation. It's too chaotic right now…"

He sighed, "Going to Carefree Village in such a disorderly fashion would make Emperor Yikang laugh at us. It wouldn't be an army at the gates, but a spectacle of embarrassment. For now, we can only try to make them line up neatly on the road, but my divine consciousness isn't strong enough to command all the creators."

Divine King Lang Wo said, "You can use my divine consciousness to contact everyone, deploy troops, and arrange formations."

Qin Mu sighed. "It seems that's the only way."

As his divine consciousness connected with Divine King Lang Wo's, he immediately felt how vast and profound her divine consciousness was, like an boundless ocean!

With a flicker of their combined divine consciousness, Qin Mu instantly felt his vision extend wildly, flying to an unknown distance!

Not only that, he could clearly touch every creator, and each creator's thoughts and consciousness were distinctly reflected in his mind!

Such formidable divine consciousness was truly unfathomable!

With Divine King Lang Wo's help, mobilizing each creator immediately became much easier for him. He thought, "This method of deploying troops and arranging formations should be passed on to Eternal Peace! The combination of divine consciousness and primordial qi should also be passed on to Eternal Peace! In that case, forging an an invincible army of gods and devils would be effortless, a walk in the park!"

Along the way, using Divine King Lang Wo's divine consciousness, he issued orders to every creator, instructing them to change their queues, adjust their formations, discard those chaotic visualized objects, and form into distinct arrays, visualizing only one type of object per array.

As for the creators who wouldn't obey orders, Qin Mu had the patriarchs and elders of their respective tribes go and discipline them. If an elder disobeyed, the patriarch would punish them, and if a patriarch disobeyed, Divine King Lang Wo would intervene personally.

This process of training the army while on the move was truly arduous. Qin Mu, using Divine King Lang Wo's divine consciousness to command all the creators, spent over a month just to get them to stop running around haphazardly during the march.

Only then did Qin Mu understand why Emperor Yikang's Celestial Heavens had fallen so quickly after the Four Heavenly Kings were no longer there to command.

Facing a formidable enemy, changing commanders on the eve of battle is a major military taboo. The Four Heavenly Kings of Emperor Yikang's Celestial Heavens commanded the army, but for various reasons, they could not participate in the war. The command then fell to the Four Heavenly Masters, leading to a crushing defeat.

If even training an army was so difficult, how much more so changing commanders during battle?

"Simply lining up neatly isn't enough. The formations I had these creators set up are merely for show; they might scare others, but to intimidate an array master like Yan Yunxi, that's going to be tough."

Qin Mu felt uneasy, thinking, "I hope she's still in Fengdu and hasn't returned to Carefree Village."

Carefree Village, Thirty-Three Heavens.

Ever since Emperor Yikang arrived in the Great Void and transformed the "Land of One Sword" into the Thirty-Three Heavens, establishing Carefree Village, the village had faced numerous tribulations.

Among the creators, the Star Creators had created countless stars, completely surrounding the Thirty-Three Heavens of Carefree Village. Innumerable stars blocked all paths to Carefree Village, and every now and then, stars would descend from the sky, crashing into the village.

Each time this happened, the Sky Monitoring Office in Carefree Village had to provide early warnings, and divine beings had to intervene to shatter the planets to ensure the safety of Carefree Village.

However, creators would still occasionally burst out from the piles of stars and attack Carefree Village, causing significant trouble and leading to many casualties each time.

This situation only gradually changed when Qin Fengqing, the 107th descendant of Emperor Yikang, returned with his parents from the outside world. Every invading creator was devoured by Qin Fengqing, which finally brought an end to the creators' invasions.

Now, countless stars and fragments locked Carefree Village from the outside, and only a few divine beings from Carefree Village could navigate out using multi-decked ships.

In the Thirty-Third Heaven, reconnaissance reports kept arriving. Yan Yunxi, dressed in men's attire like a scholar, chuckled as she reviewed the reports: "These creators have actually started learning to form arrays; how interesting. Their formations might bluff others, but before me, they're merely a speck of dust. Your Majesty, have your injuries healed?"

Emperor Yikang frowned. "My injuries have healed; there's no need to worry about me. All the creators from the Great Void have been dispatched this time; I fear they intend to eradicate us in one fell swoop."

Yan Yunxi smiled. "Why are you so worried, Your Majesty? With the divine son here, the creators can't stir up much trouble."

Emperor Yikang sighed. "I'm not worried about our safety; I'm worried about Qin Mu. Now that he's in the creators' hands, I'm afraid they'll kill him as a sacrifice before battle."

Yan Yunxi frowned and sighed, "He's just so self-willed, always playing with fire, believing that fortune favors the bold. His desire to become the Holy Infant of the creators is simply preposterous. Divine King Lang Wo is exceptionally intelligent, resourceful, and courageous; she will surely discover his true origin and use him against Carefree Village and against Your Majesty. Once the creators' army reaches Carefree Village, I fear they'll bring him forward and publicly behead him as a sacrifice…"

"Carefree Village ahead!"

In the center of the creator army, Qin Mu, using Divine King Lang Wo's divine consciousness, transmitted his voice to everyone, shouting, "That traitor Qin is right there! All of you, brace yourselves and scare that traitor Qin out of his wits!"

In the void, the divine consciousness of a million creators converged into a torrent, transforming into an earth-shattering roar: "Out of his wits!"