Chapter 50: Little Fox Spirit
Qin Mu felt immense gratitude and bowed deeply, saying, "Thank you for your guidance, senior. I will keep it in my heart forever."
Gu Li'nuan smiled and said, "If you know gratitude, then cultivate quickly and slay the Dragon Mother's soul! If you have any difficulties, feel free to ask me."
Qin Mu immediately activated the Heart of Dan Technique. This technique required visualizing the dantian as a field, plowing it with a blade, planting sparks, then summoning ten suns above the dantian to nourish the sparks, allowing them to grow into a dantian furnace that burned with blazing sacred fire!
Once he achieved minor success, only then would the Heart of Dan be considered initially complete.
With minor success in the Heart of Dan, he could then control his sword, making it follow his thoughts—where the heart went, the sword would go.
It sounded simple, but doing it was difficult. Obtaining the sacred fire was no easy task, and forging the Heart of Dan was even harder, which was why it was divided into nine rotations. If Qin Mu could reach just the first rotation, his qi-controlled swordsmanship would far surpass his previous level, and catching up to the Dragon Mother's soul would be no problem!
"Oh? Your foundation is excellent!"
Gu Li'nuan was surprised. In just a short time, Qin Mu had already plowed his dantian, planted sparks, and summoned ten suns above his dantian to begin nurturing the sparks.
This showed that Qin Mu's cultivation was quite profound. If it were an ordinary martial artist, let alone summoning ten suns, even planting sparks would be difficult—they would need to constantly consume elixirs and medicines to replenish their energy to plant enough sparks.
Qin Mu, without needing any elixirs, had planted sparks throughout his dantian in one go and transformed his energy into ten suns to illuminate it. Such cultivation at the Embryonic Realm was rare in the world!
"With his terrifying cultivation speed, perhaps he won't need ten days or even two—by tomorrow, he can complete the first rotation of the Heart of Dan Technique, slay the Dragon Mother's soul, and free me!"
Gu Li'nuan's eyes flickered. "Such an outstanding young genius... I really don't want to kill him like this."
He sighed inwardly. "But the Great Ruins are a land forsaken by the gods. Not only the people living here, but even a single insect is guilty and must die. Besides, I'm hungry—I haven't eaten anything in over fifty years..."
The time Qin Mu took to complete the first rotation of the Heart of Dan Technique was even shorter than Gu Li'nuan had expected. By now, it was night, and the sky outside was gradually brightening. The light filtered through the waters of the Yong River and shone into the underwater Dragon Palace.
Qin Mu stood up. With a thought, his energy wrapped around the Shaobao Sword. With a *shua* sound, it pierced through layers of mist, moving like light and lightning, incredibly fast!
*Chi chi chi—*
The sound of the Shaobao Sword cutting through the air came continuously. In an instant, Qin Mu controlled the sword to stab over a hundred times, dazzling the eyes.
Although he didn't understand swordsmanship and was only performing the simple action of stabbing, he was already more terrifying than sword sect disciples like Qianqiu from the Lijiang Sect!
This Heart of Dan Technique was truly remarkable!
Qin Mu bowed to Gu Li'nuan again, expressing his sincere gratitude. "Thank you for passing on this technique, senior. I will never forget it."
Gu Li'nuan laughed heartily and said, "You have exceptional talent, which is why you could comprehend it so quickly and complete the first rotation of the Heart of Dan. That little fox beside you didn't cultivate as fast. Now, quickly control your sword and slay the Dragon Mother!"
He was overjoyed inside. With his escape imminent, even a master like him couldn't help but feel restless and anxious.
"This kid saved me and has such talent. I really hate to kill him..."
Just then, Qin Mu turned and walked away, taking the Shaobao Sword and heading out of the Dragon Palace, disappearing into the thick mist.
Gu Li'nuan was stunned for a moment. Before he could react, Qin Mu had already left the Dragon Palace with the Shaobao Sword and Fox Ling'er, not stopping for a moment as he walked away.
"Come back here!"
Gu Li'nuan's furious roar echoed out. "You little brat! You broke your word! I taught you the technique and gave you the sword—why didn't you slay the Dragon Mother?"
Outside the palace, Qin Mu's voice grew fainter. "Senior, the Dragon Mother did indeed use the Dragon Pearl to kill many martial artists who entered this place, but the Dragon Pearl only turns them into dried corpses—mindless walking dead. However, there were many skeletons in the Dragon Palace that weren't killed by the Dragon Pearl. They didn't become dried corpses; they became skeletons."
Gu Li'nuan was taken aback. "You little brat, when did you notice?"
"Right after I entered the Dragon Palace, I noticed."
Gu Li'nuan gritted his teeth and said coldly, "Are you really only twelve years old? Can a twelve-year-old see through these things? Understand all this? And still play along without batting an eye?"
"Senior, I won't be twelve until autumn. Right now, I'm eleven..." Qin Mu's voice grew softer and eventually faded away.
From the Dragon Palace came a series of curses, loud and clear, reaching the ears of Qin Mu and Fox Ling'er, who were already far away.
Fox Ling'er poked her head out from his chest and asked, puzzled, "Young Master Mu, how did you know he had ill intentions?"
Qin Mu said, "When we first arrived, I used the staff to push back the mist, and many dried corpses fell from the air. Did you notice that besides the dried corpses, there were also many skeletons?"
Fox Ling'er nodded. She had noticed—some skeletons were crushed by the falling dried corpses, and these skeletons were still wearing clothes.
"The clothes on the skeletons were official robes," Qin Mu continued. "Gu Li'nuan said he brought many disciples into the Great Ruins for training and discovered this underwater Dragon Palace. His disciples were killed by the Dragon Pearl, but being killed by the Dragon Pearl should drain all their blood and energy, turning them into dried corpses, not skeletons. Since they weren't killed by the Dragon Pearl, how did they die?"
Fox Ling'er suddenly understood and quickly said, "Gu Li'nuan's other hand was holding a black banner—very eerie! He was frozen in ice as a process; he must have used that black banner to kill his disciples."
"When he was sealed in the ice by the Dragon Pearl, he couldn't break free and knew he would be trapped here for a long time. In official circles, there's constant infighting. Although his disciples bore the title of students, they were all officials of the Yanguo Kingdom, with no real teacher-student bond. They wouldn't necessarily notify the court to come rescue him. After all, leaving the position of Junior Guardian vacant would benefit everyone."
Qin Mu nodded. "Since the court might not come to save him, he decided to go all the way and killed his disciples outright, absorbing all their blood and energy to avoid starving to death while sealed. But his method must have been different from the Dragon Mother's Dragon Pearl—more sinister—as it even absorbed the flesh and blood of his disciples, turning them into skeletons. Do you remember when we first entered the Dragon Palace, my staff kept ringing?"
Fox Ling'er recalled that at the time, she was clinging to Qin Mu's pant leg, trembling, and he had even asked her to move her tail.
"I originally thought it was the lingering thoughts of the dried corpses disturbing the Xiqiluo Staff, causing it to ring constantly. But the dried corpses were dead and had no consciousness. Then I thought it was the stray thoughts of the Dragon Mother's soul. Strangely, when I got close to Gu Li'nuan, the staff stopped ringing. Clearly, it wasn't the Dragon Mother's stray thoughts, but Gu Li'nuan's."
Qin Mu said, "The staff stopped ringing because Gu Li'nuan had no more stray thoughts—he had made up his mind. Since we had the Xiqiluo Staff to protect us, he couldn't eat us, so he decided to use us to escape!"
Fox Ling'er was dumbfounded. After a moment, the little fox stammered, "Young Master Mu, are you really only twelve?"
"I won't be twelve until after autumn," Qin Mu said with a simple, honest smile.
"Then you're also a fox spirit, aren't you?"
Fox Ling'er said excitedly, "You must be a male fox who became a spirit—and a super clever one at that!"
Qin Mu began to complain bitterly. "You have no idea what my childhood was like! I grew up being tricked and deceived by a bunch of old men and old women. Just before I came out to hunt, Granny sent me to pick eggs from a chicken coop. That was a hen-dragon! It chased me all over the place, and I couldn't beat it! Meanwhile, Granny sneaked over and took the eggs!"
Not long after, they bypassed the pool and walked out of the Dragon King Temple.
Fox Ling'er summoned a demonic wind, and Qin Mu rode the wind. One human and one fox arrived at the thatched cottage by the waterfall. Qin Mu was eager to return to the village and was about to take his leave when Fox Ling'er laughed and said, "You're all dirty and smelly now. Why rush back? There's a pool right by the waterfall. Go take a bath, and I'll wash your clothes. Once they're dry, you can put them on and feel fresh and clean, right? Besides, I have some cultivation questions I want to ask you."
Qin Mu hesitated and was about to speak when suddenly Granny Si's cold laugh came from inside the thatched cottage. "Bath? Cultivation? Are you talking about yin nourishing yang, or yang nourishing yin?"
"Granny?"
Qin Mu was both surprised and delighted. "Why are you here?"