Chapter 971 — Supreme One, Please Perish Here

If the third seal were broken, the very next moment the Tai Emperor's divine consciousness would surge into Shen Mu's Primal Embryo Divine Treasury, shatter his consciousness, erase his mind, and turn Shen Mu into another version of himself!

The Three Battles of Heaven's Origin that Shu Jun had imparted collapsed almost at a single touch before the Tai Emperor's divine consciousness. The Tai Emperor's consciousness was so powerful that it exceeded everyone's expectations.

Yue Tingge and Luo Wushuang were beside themselves with anxiety. They looked up and saw the Tai Emperor's figure battling the Heaven Emperor's seal. In the end, the Tai Emperor's phantom proved the superior, shattering the final seal of the Three Battles of Heaven's Origin.

The Three Battles of Heaven's Origin that Shu Jun had passed down differed from the version Shen Mu had improved. In Shen Mu's improved version, the final trial was the Ancient God Heaven Emperor, incomparably more powerful than the traditional Three Battles of Heaven's Origin. Yet even this was easily broken by the Tai Emperor's divine consciousness.

Still, after three layers of seals, the phantom formed from the Tai Emperor's divine consciousness had grown considerably weaker.

Yue Tingge raised his head and looked beyond the heavens. The Tai Emperor's phantom drew ever closer, pressing down until the starry sky of Shen Mu's Primal Embryo Divine Treasury trembled like the surface of water.

Yue Tingge's and Luo Wushuang's divine consciousness and vital essence poured in without cease, causing their bodies to grow ever larger.

Whoosh—

Their primordial spirits arrived first, descending into Shen Mu's divine treasury and landing upon the Taiji Diagram, where they merged with their earlier incarnations.

One of them was at the Imperial Throne Great Perfection realm, the other at the Lingxiao realm. With their primordial spirits present in person, they were naturally far superior to Shen Mu's primordial spirit.

Compared to them, Shen Mu's spirit fetus seemed exceedingly small and insignificant.

Beyond the heavens, the Tai Emperor's phantom descended, invading the Primal Embryo Divine Treasury. Its massive face peered downward, deeply curious about Shen Mu's divine treasury.

"A mere dead man, and you dare stir up trouble?"

Yue Tingge bellowed. Behind his primordial spirit, vital essence transformed into a towering heavenly palace, majestic and vast. His primordial spirit ascended the heavens and went straight to meet the Tai Emperor's phantom.

At the same time, Luo Wushuang raised his saber one-handed and soared into the sky, slashing at the Tai Emperor.

Though neither was a master of divine consciousness, their own cultivation was formidable. Although their consciousness was not as powerful as the Tai Emperor's, they were confident they could put up a fight.

The instant the two of them surged upward, the Tai Emperor's divine consciousness came flooding in vast and mighty. Wherever it passed, their consciousness crumbled at once, unable to withstand a single blow!

With their consciousness shattered, their divine abilities immediately ran wild, their vital essence thrown into chaos. Their primordial spirits plummeted from the sky, their hearts filled with shock.

"Primordial spirits, close combat!" Yue Tingge shouted.

Luo Wushuang understood. Since their divine abilities could not contend with the Tai Emperor's phantom, only their primordial spirits could engage it directly in close combat—only then might they destroy the Tai Emperor's phantom.

Yet in battle, the primordial spirit's role had always been to unleash divine abilities from a distance and blast opponents to death. Close combat with the primordial spirit was considered a great taboo.

After all, the primordial spirit was not a physical body but an energy body forged from the spirit fetus and soul. If it were slain by the opponent, one's soul would scatter and perish!

Yet the current situation left them no better option. Only close combat with their primordial spirits could possibly defeat the Tai Emperor's phantom.

The Tai Emperor's phantom was formed from divine consciousness and likewise had no physical body. His consciousness contained no vital essence, his divine abilities lacked power, and he had no sharp divine weapons. He could not inflict much harm on their primordial spirits.

The Tai Emperor's figure swooped down. Yue Tingge's and Luo Wushuang's primordial spirits rushed forward, about to strike, when suddenly dragons roared and tigers howled. One ferocious, malevolent flood-dragon after another flew out from the Tai Emperor's body, charging at the two of them!

"This is the so-called Visualization Divine Ability of Mu Tianzun? A divine ability conjured through divine consciousness?"

Luo Wushuang and Yue Tingge were deeply shaken. This method of composing divine abilities was completely different from their own cultivation method—it was an entirely different cultivation system!

Most divine abilities today were built upon the foundation of runes. Cultivators of divine abilities studied various runes, transforming vital essence into rune forms, and countless runes together constructed different forms of divine abilities.

As early as the first years of Longhan, cultivators of divine abilities had studied the ancient gods and demigods, examining the runes upon their bodies, comprehending their meanings, and compiling set after set of rune systems.

For example, the Four Spirits Divine Ability originated from the four innate ancient gods—Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise. The Youdu Divine Ability came from Tubo, and the Xuandu Divine Ability from Tiangong. There were also the divine ability systems of Earth Mother Yuanjun, the Celestial Stars True Gods, and many others.

This method of cultivation had persisted for a million years.

—The only things outside the rune system were the Acquired Great Daos, such as the Dao of the Sword, the Dao of the Saber, the Dao of Painting, the Dao of Martial Arts, the Dao of Music, and so on. These were acquired creations, without runes.

Yet the divine abilities displayed by the Tai Emperor's phantom had leapt beyond this system. They belonged to the divine consciousness visualization system—visualizing dragons, phoenixes, gods, demons, and various powerful beings to fight alongside him!

Although Luo Wushuang and Yue Tingge had seen Shen Mu visualize fine wine, delicacies, and beautiful women along the way, even visualizing a divine dragon, Shen Mu had never used divine consciousness visualization in battle.

Now, seeing this method of combat with their own eyes, they were truly shaken.

The divine dragons visualized by the Tai Emperor's phantom were incomparably more powerful than the one Shen Mu had visualized. They possessed physical bodies, bodies so powerful they rivaled great experts of the Yujing realm, fighting the two of them with all their might, fearless of death.

For a time, the sky was filled with unending dragon cries and dragon roars!

Luo Wushuang and Yue Tingge were formidable after all, slaughtering the dragons in droves. Dragon heads and dragon bodies fell continuously from the sky, crashing into the Taiji Diagram. Yet the next moment, the divine dragon corpses vanished one after another, transforming into torrents of divine consciousness that surged skyward, once again becoming divine dragons charging at the two of them.

The two of them killed and killed, but could not kill them all. Anxiety gnawed at their hearts. The Tai Emperor's phantom's divine consciousness was too powerful. In this situation, they feared they would be worn down to death here, utterly unable to stop the Tai Emperor's phantom!