Chapter 924 — Chronicle of Void Creation

This open-air hall was like a prehistoric epic, recording the deeds of ages past.

They saw how the prehistoric creators made monsters with ox heads and human bodies, made human-like beings, and other bizarre life—bird-headed with human bodies, beast-headed with human bodies, snake-headed with human bodies, human-headed with serpent bodies.

Qi Jiuyi's face grew ever paler. He also saw that these prehistoric creators had created the phoenix!

"Heh heh..." He laughed, but said nothing.

What the reliefs recorded was too terrifying. The species the prehistoric creators made grew ever stranger, and some of them actually bore a certain resemblance to the ancient gods!

"They are imitating the ancient gods!"

Qi Jiuyi laughed. "Life created in imitation of the ancient gods can never match them, never surpass them!"

Shen Mu said, "Did they imitate the ancient gods—or did they create them?"

Qi Jiuyi went blank. Then he roared in fury, "Blasphemy! Do you know what you are saying?"

Shen Mu too felt his own conjecture was absurd beyond reason; he let out a laugh, shook his head, and went on studying the stone carvings.

Qi Jiuyi was beside himself with rage. "Do you realize what you are saying? You are saying these savages created the Heavenly Emperor, created the Heavenly Lord, the Tubo, the Earth Mother—created the great Dao of heaven and earth! Do you know what you are talking about?"

Shen Mu paid him no heed and walked on. The reliefs grew ever more shocking.

These prehistoric creators had formed several great tribes; by gathering more people they gained greater sacrificial power.

They also staged grander and grander rites, with countless three-eyed people sacrificing day and night, preparing to create even mightier spirit bodies to destroy and conquer their enemies.

But one race chose instead to worship its leader, making him ever more powerful.

That leader's body grew incomparably vast, dwelling high beyond the heavens, with countless giants around him, the crystals in their brows blazing with light, countless beams shining upon him until he appeared utterly divine.

And this leader's brow also bore a crystal. Unlike the others, it was cinnabar red, glistening with a fascinating sheen, absorbing the crystal light of the other giants.

Shen Mu examined the leader's face closely, but it was veiled by the radiance streaming from the crystal and had not been carved.

Qi Jiuyi still followed at his side and said coldly, "They merely use divine consciousness to create things. They can never create a true god. The ancient gods cannot be created—they can only be born of the great Dao of heaven and earth!"

Shen Mu looked toward another relief, one whose content was rather interesting.

In the relief, nearly all the prehistoric creators of one great tribe were gathered together, focusing their divine consciousness, using their minds, intending to create a vast world in the void, far from this world of strife!

They wanted to create another world, to escape the conflicts of the real world and move there as an entire tribe.

"Creating a world from the void! Could these prehistoric creators succeed... wait. The Land of No Sorrow! Was Kaihuang's Land of No Sorrow also a world created from the void?"

The more Shen Mu thought, the more agitated he became. He walked on, and suddenly stopped short—the stone wall ahead bore no reliefs at all.

The reliefs ahead had all been destroyed by an immense force, leaving only shattered slabs of stone upon the ground.

He bent to examine them. Most of the slabs bore no trace of carving at all; someone had first erased their content, and then, still uneasy, destroyed the reliefs.

He inspected them carefully, wanting to see whether anything had been overlooked.

"Master Shen, you have forgotten the most crucial point! The ancient gods have souls, while the things the prehistoric creators made have no souls! The Heavenly Lord just now had no soul or spirit, and this little Tubo you created has none either!"

Qi Jiuyi said, "The prehistoric creators blasphemed against the ancient gods, imitating them to create life. They touched the ancient gods' interests, offended them, and used their deformed creations to fight. For such crimes they deserved death ten thousand times over! They deserved to be exterminated!"

Clearly he was somewhat agitated, his dao heart unsteady.

In the past Qi Jiuyi had never been talkative, yet now he trailed behind Shen Mu chattering on, seemingly trying to convince Shen Mu but in truth trying to convince himself.

That single sentence of Shen Mu's had struck him deeply, leaving him dazed and unmoored.

He had indeed seized on a crucial point: neither the Heavenly Lord that had attacked them nor the little Tubo Shen Mu had fashioned by the art of creation had a soul or a thinking mind.

Long Qilin said, "Third Brother, the Heavenly Lord here was only built from the remnants of the prehistoric creators' divine consciousness—not in its full glory. What if, back then, they truly could create a Heavenly Lord with a mind and a soul?"

Qi Jiuyi was stunned, and his voice trembled. "Second Brother, you too are blaspheming..."

Shen Mu raised his head and looked around, searching everywhere.

"Found it!"

He gave a cheer and hurried forward. Qi Jiuyi followed him in a daze, still wanting to convince him. "Master Shen, you must understand—harboring such thoughts is blasphemy against the ancient gods. You should repent..."

Shen Mu came to the center of the hall, looked up, and smiled. "Brother Qi, look up at the sky. What do you see?"

Qi Jiuyi looked up and saw stars inlaid in the dark heavens. "Naturally, the starry sky and its stars."

Long Qilin looked up and studied it. "There are some stars in the sky."

Yan'er's gaze was sharp, and she smiled. "Those stars are fake. They look far away, but they are not."

Qi Jiuyi was doubtful. "This starry sky is no different from a real one—how could it be fake... Yes! It is indeed fake! This is the Blood Rust Zone, full of shattered continents and planets flying wild, and countless colossal bones. There is no way to see the starry sky outside at all!"

Shen Mu smiled. "This is the treasure my eldest senior brother, Wei Suifeng, left me."

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