Chapter 856: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind

‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ shook his head left and right, watching as something white in color flew out from between his brows.

He raised his hand to touch his forehead, and his hand was covered in white brain plasma and red bloodstains.

“The stab was truly so fast that I was caught off guard…”

He stuck out a finger to prod between his brows, his finger going through his head.

Touching the back of his head, it was the same situation.

Qin Mu descended to the ground, walking two steps forward. Behind him, the vast celestial river was gradually retreating as it swayed behind his back. Above the celestial river, the celestial palace could be seen faintly.

Within the celestial palace, god voices burst out, and it sounded as though there were countless gods and devils chanting inside. Following the wane of Qin Mu’s aura, only then did the chanting sounds gradually lower in volume and slowly disappear.

Qin Mu’s primordial spirit returned with his sword, standing outside the Southern Heavenly Gates of the celestial palace and above the celestial river, observing to see if ‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ was making any other movements.

‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ moved his head again and felt his head getting heavier and dizzier. He laughed. “This body is really not perfect, there are still many places that need improving. The speed of advancement of the divine arts of the lower bound has surpassed my expectations.”

Qin Mu shook his head. “You merely used the true body power of this corporeal body and didn’t use your own power. Within this corporeal body hides the rules of the Great Dao of almost all the ancient gods, but it lacks anything belonging to you. Are you trying to hide your true identity, or is your power unable to break through the world barrier? Regardless, without something of your own, you are destined to die in my hands.”

What Qin Mu said was a basic principle.

In breaking through the world’s barrier, the higher your cultivation, the greater the barrier. Thus, those who came down from the celestial heavens to the lower bound were usually divine arts practitioners, there were few devils and gods.

Only when one was so powerful that the world barrier collapsed could they pass through the two worlds. Such a situation tended to only occur during the time of big-scale battles between gods and devils.

For example, during the destruction of the Founding Emperor Era and the High Emperor Era, the world barrier didn’t exist.

Beyond this, there were a few other situations that could break through the restrictions of the world barrier.

For example, the Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge that Qin Mu designed and created with black tiger god, the phoenix ship of Red Deity Qi Xiayu, and Brahma Buddha’s technique of entering dreams—these could all go around the world barrier.

Perhaps there existed other secret routes that Qin Mu simply didn’t know about.

Following this principle, the powerful individuals who came down from the celestial heavens tended to be divine arts practitioners like Qi Jiuyi and Prince Qiu Ming. After coming down to Yuandu, they searched for the powerful individuals left there by the celestial heavens and made them their own followers.

There were also the emissaries from Clear Sky Heaven, Xiao Chunfeng, Yu Hongxiu, and the disciples of the gods. They were all divine arts practitioners who had received orders to come to the lower bounds to perfect the sky map.

Clear Sky Heaven was one of the subordinate heavens under the Dao Sect in the celestial heavens, so they had no need to seek the protection of gods and devils. Clear Sky Heaven could instead be the one providing them protection. However, they hadn’t expected Qin Mu and Dao Master Lin Xuan to come to Clear Sky Heaven. The battle of Dao Sanctuary had almost wiped them out.

Back in the day, Lou Yunqu and the others had borrowed Red Deity Qi Xiayu’s phoenix ship to come to the lower bound and thus avoided getting rejected by the world barrier. At the same time, due to Mingdu and Youdu sharing similar characteristics, they were able to make use of the Mingdu Heavenly Gate to travel back and forth to Mingdu.

‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ would have to obey this principle as well in order to come to the lower bound.

‘Celestial Venerable Yu’s’ realm had to be restricted to the level of that of a divine arts practitioner. At most, he could cultivate to the peak of the Divine Bridge Realm, as if he contained any more power, he wouldn’t be able to penetrate the world barrier of Yuandu.

Another possibility was that one of the Celestial Venerables from the celestial heavens had forcefully broken open the world barrier. However, the unrest it would cause would be unimaginable.

Qin Mu was confident that he would be able to kill ‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ based on this logic.

He had incomparably strong confidence and faith that a being who could defeat the Overlord Body in the same realm didn’t exist in this world, even if that being was the Celestial Venerable Yu that had been created by the celestial heavens to contain all the rules of the Great Dao of ancient gods!

‘Celestial Venerable Yu’s’ brain plasma was still spilling out, his brain already shattered by Qin Mu’s strike. The divine treasure system within his body had also been destroyed.

Qin Mu’s primordial spirit controlled his sword, directing it to soar through the sky; it had already killed his corporeal body and shattered the primordial spirit within it.

“That’s not a Divine Bridge behind you, why is your seventh divine treasure a celestial river?”

‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ was confused. The brain plasma in his head had almost all drained, yet he still sized Qin Mu up and looked towards the Celestial River Divine Treasure behind him.

‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ had many Great Dao within his body, but they were Precelestial Great Dao, the Great Dao of ancient gods—he didn’t possess the Great Dao of Creation.

He was unable to make use of the Great Dao of Creation like Qin Mu did to repair the damage to his body, and thus he could only let his brain plasma run dry.

“You created a whole new divine treasure? With this divine treasure, you will be able to connect the celestial palace with the other divine treasures, forming a complete system?”

‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ moved his head again, his skull was empty now.

However, he was still able to speak and think. “Celestial Venerable Mu is no doubt Celestial Venerable Mu. Being able to come to this step, you are truly worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with the Seven Celestial Venerables. What a joke that the others in the celestial palace are still vying for fame and gain, vying for power, and ignoring the changes in the lower bound. Heh heh, it would be far more convenient if the Celestial Emperor wasn’t a group of people.”

Qin Mu looked straight into his eyes and spoke solemnly, “Upon seeing my seventh divine treasure, do you have any thoughts about it, Celestial Venerable Yun?”

‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ gave a slight smile and replied with a leisurely tone, “So it seems you thought that I was him and thus didn’t mind revealing your celestial river, hoping that you could use this seventh divine treasure to make Celestial Venerable Yun give himself away. After all, Celestial Venerable Yun was the one who opened up the Divine Bridge Divine Treasure, so if he saw your seventh divine treasure, he would likely lose his composure since the seventh divine treasure you opened up is even better and more ingenious than his Divine Bridge Divine Treasure. However, you guessed wrongly, I’m not him.”

Dao flames suddenly engulfed him, and ‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ smiled. “Celestial Venerable Mu, you are still too naive, revealing your cards so early on. This corporeal body is merely one of my experiments, I simply wanted to test out Celestial Venerable Yu’s fighting power. I have now realized that this body still has many imperfections. I know your cards now, yet you will never get this body nor know the secrets that lie within. The next time you see a ‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ will be the day you die…”

Suddenly, the Dao flames on his body extinguished.

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‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ was shocked. He tried again to use the Dao flames to incinerate this corporeal body, yet the Dao flames were still not able to burn him.

“Your body, I’m collecting it.”

Behind ‘Celestial Venerable Yu’ came a voice, and he turned around to look, only to see Xing An emerging from the dark. Xing An was carrying a chest with one hand, and his other hand was raised with his fingers stretched open, using an unknown technique to suppress his Dao flames.

Xing An had a fervent gaze as he put down the chest. Legs grew out of the chest, and it opened with a pop—it seemed very excited.

Xing An’s gaze didn’t land on ‘Celestial Venerable Yu’, instead he looked at Qin Mu, staying on the defensive against Qin Mu.

Qin Mu spoke calmly, “Xing An, the consciousness hidden within this corporeal body, its origin is powerful beyond your imagination. Collecting this corporeal body, do you not fear death?”

From within the chest, multiple arms reached out and grabbed onto the sides of the chest, followed an enormous thing crawling out. Riding on top of this devil god with multiple limbs and heads was Mu Qiubai!

Mu Qiubai was actually caught by Xing An and turned into a puppet.

Xing An narrowed his eyes and replied, “Is it a Celestial Venerable? Even a Celestial Venerable admires this corporeal body, which means it must truly be wondrous beyond imagination. I definitely need to have it now. Not just the body alone, I want the consciousness of this Celestial Venerable as well!”

Xing An moved his fingertips slightly, and numerous thin flying needles suddenly stabbed into different parts of ‘Celestial Venerable Yu’s’ body!

‘Celestial Venerable Yu’s’ expression changed greatly, yet he couldn’t move an inch. His strand of consciousness had been sealed within this corporeal body, and he was unable to retrieve it!

“When did the juniors of the lower bound become so arrogant and impudent?”

He couldn’t help but be furious. It would have been alright to have this corporeal body and primordial spirit destroyed by Qin Mu; after all, Qin Mu was Celestial Venerable Mu, one of the nine Celestial Venerables back in those days.

But who did this chest carrying youth think he was? How dare he attempt to get hold of his strand of consciousness alongside the body?

“I still want to collect a real Celestial Venerable…”

Xing An squinted, watching Qin Mu like a poisonous snake in human form. “A true Celestial Venerable has a more beautiful and marvelous corporeal body.”

Qin Mu smiled slightly. “Xing An, get lost now that you have gained some benefits, otherwise, I don’t mind eliminating you altogether.”

Xing An gave a humph. He silently opened up his fingers, and fine rays moved about and circled the gaps between the fingers. He spoke softly, “Fighting him, you must have some injuries as well. I observed his divine arts, they were incomparably powerful. You merely used the path of painting divine arts and the like to throw him off balance. His level of cultivation even surpasses yours.”

Qin Mu stayed silent. With a humming sound, the Gate of Heaven Influence appeared behind him.

The corners of Xing An’s eyes twitched, and he hesitated for a moment.

“I’m back…”

Behind him came Dragon King Tian’s weird laughter. “I can see all of you! Eating you all will allow me to grow my body back!”

Xing An’s expression changed slightly, and the chest immediately came forward and swallowed ‘Celestial Venerable Yu’. The multi-limbed and multi-headed devil god with Mu Qiubai on its back also retreated quietly, all the way back into the chest. It raised an arm to catch hold of the chest lid, slamming it shut.

Xing An lifted the chest and disappeared into the darkness.

Qin Mu sighed in relief. Suddenly, with a puff, he spat out a stream of blood fog.

“I smell the scent of fresh blood.”

The gigantic green head of Dragon King Tian flew over from the dark, opening its bloody mouth to bite Qin Mu!

Qin Mu fell backwards, transforming into a black shadow and pressing himself flat against the ground. However, Dragon King Tian didn’t fly off, and instead, two green eyes suddenly shone directly at the shadow that Qin Mu had transformed into.

‘This reanimated dragon, why is he smarter now?’

Qin Mu’s expression changed drastically. With a loud bang, the black shadow exploded and transformed into a wisp of black smoke and flew off.

Dragon King Tian chased after it, opening his mouth and sucking in with all his might. The black smoke was almost entirely sucked into his mouth.

At that moment, the black smoke shifted, transforming into a lotus flower. In the middle of it sat Qin Mu. The petals started to fold in, wrapping Qin Mu up in layers and layers of petals.

Dragon King Tian swallowed it up in one mouthful. At the far end of the dark, a lotus flower emerged and bloomed without a sound. Qin Mu sat in the center of the flower and quickly got up. He pushed down the blood that had surged to his throat and ran off hurriedly, thinking, ‘Grandmaster, thanks a lot. I will definitely not beat you to death next time.’

Dragon King Tian ate the flower and, thinking he had eaten Qin Mu, he was delighted. He then moved on, looking for other prey.

Not long after, Qin Mu spotted a red light in the dark. His heart shuddered slightly as he approached it silently. Then, he saw that it was a girl carrying a red lantern looking around vigilantly.

“Sister Yan’er.”

Qin Mu sighed in relief and hurried forward. Upon seeing him, Yan’er exclaimed, “Young master, have you seen Fatty Dragon? I have lost him!”

Qin Mu speedily executed the Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique to repair the damage done to his body—’Celestial Venerable Yu’s’ inescapable net divine art had beaten him quite miserably.

“Fatty Dragon most likely fell asleep, you don’t need to look for him. When the coffin returns to Fallen God Valley, it will open up, and at that time, you will see where he is. Xing An, are you still not leaving?”

He turned around suddenly. In the darkness, two eyes emerged. Xing An quietly retreated with the chest in his hand.