Chapter 160: A Single Breath Stirs the Spring Waters
Qin Mu was well aware of Blind's ability to perceive with his mind's eye and was no longer surprised by it. Although Blind could not see with his eyes, he "saw" more than others.
He stood up and looked into the distance. Around that mountain peak, streaks of golden light were circling it.
The Green Ox ran at full speed, drawing closer and closer to the mountain. Before long, the streaks of light grew thicker, wrapping around the peak like ribbons, weaving back and forth and encircling it entirely.
When they got even closer, they could see many things within the golden light—these were the divine abilities of the Witch Kings. Some streaks of light concealed curved blades, others held golden figures, and still others had golden dragons writhing within.
The Witch Kings were terrifyingly powerful. Only those who had cultivated to the Heavenly Man realm could be called Witch Kings. However, the Witch Kings sent by the Loulan Golden Palace to pursue and kill Ba Shan the Sacrificial Wine were mostly at the Life and Death realm, and there was even one at the Divine Bridge realm, a sect leader-level existence. Their aura was immense.
The Green Ox ran on, now only ten li away from the mountain. Qin Mu looked again and saw that to the east, west, south, north, southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest of the peak, a Witch King hovered in the air at each of the eight directions.
The Witch King in the east had a bird's head and a human body, holding a round mirror in his hand. The mirror was strange—twelve snow-white bones grew out from it. He held it in his palm, and a beam of golden light shot forth.
The Witch King in the west had a leopard's head and a human body, gripping a staff. At the top of the staff hung something like a tail, swaying, its length matching the staff. The tip of the staff was a golden skull, its eyes shooting golden light.
The Witch King in the south was a three-headed golden figure with three wolf heads.
The Witch King in the north had a human head and a bird's body, with two wings on his back. The wings continuously generated golden swords, which turned into a stream of blades attacking the central mountain.
The Witch Kings in the southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest were equally bizarre—some had beast heads and eight arms, some had six legs, some had multiple wings, and some had many eyes on their faces and even in their palms.
Although Qin Mu had seen the Witch Venerable's Louluo Sutra, he still had to marvel at the sinister, strange, and formidable nature of this technique.
On the central mountain peak, sword light swept in all directions, fending off the divine abilities coming from the eight directions.
Massive boulders, as large as courtyard houses, kept falling from the mountain. From a distance, this was hard to see—they only looked like specks of dust falling. Only up close did one realize how enormous those specks truly were.
The mountain had already been shaved down by the divine abilities of Ba Shan the Sacrificial Wine and the eight Witch Kings into a bare pillar. Only the peak where Ba Shan stood still had some green grass and trees.
The Butcher glanced over, sighed in relief, and laughed. "Big Mouth isn't dead. Let's go back."
Qin Mu was caught between laughter and tears. The Green Ox, however, redoubled its efforts to charge forward.
Before they even reached the foot of the mountain, the Butcher suddenly leaped into the air. A blade of light split the sky, blindingly bright. Qin Mu looked up and felt that after the flash, everything seemed darker, as if the light had been so intense it left a scar on his pupils, or perhaps it was so sharp it had cut the sky itself.
He couldn't tell which.
"Heavenly Khan!"
A cry of alarm rang out. A human head tumbled from the sky, and a headless, bird-winged Witch King flapped his wings, golden blood spraying everywhere. This was the Witch King in the north, the one with a human head and a bird's body.
Among the Witch Kings present, he alone was at the Divine Bridge realm, a sect leader-level existence. Yet the Butcher had ambushed him, killing him with a single close-range slash.
The Butcher was a master of the Combat Techniques school. Once he got close, the outcome was predictable.
The Butcher landed, steady as ever on the Green Ox's back, and called out to stop the ox. "Your master is no longer in serious danger. He might get a bit more injured, but he can still fight his way out. Green Ox, take us to the Loulan Golden Palace."
The Green Ox hesitated. "Aren't you going to rescue the master, old master? The master is filial; he always speaks well of you."
"Rescue him? Why? To annoy me?"
The Butcher shook his head. "I've been peaceful in the village all these years. Just thinking about this chatterbox nagging me gives me a headache. Do as I say, and if you keep blathering, I'll eat beef. Do you know what I do in the village?"
The Green Ox shuddered and dared not speak. This ox was clever and had long since figured out that the Butcher was a pig-and-cow butcher.
"Master!"
Ba Shan the Sacrificial Wine's voice came from the mountain peak. He was clearly injured, his voice lacking strength, but filled with surprise. "Master, it really is you! I knew you weren't dead! You abandoned me in Yankang all those years ago and went off to enjoy yourself. How are you going to make it up to me? I have so much to tell you…"
"Run," the Butcher said.
The Green Ox immediately bolted toward the Loulan Golden Palace. Ba Shan the Sacrificial Wine tried to charge out of the mountain but was suppressed by the combined force of the other seven Witch Kings and forced back to the peak.
Those seven Witch Kings were also in a bind. They had joined forces to suppress Ba Shan the Sacrificial Wine, planning to refine him to death, when the Heavenly Khan, long thought dead, suddenly reappeared and killed their strongest member with one strike.
They had expected the Heavenly Khan to come for them next, and Ba Shan, emboldened, had launched a fierce counterattack, pinning them in place and preventing their escape, terrifying them out of their wits.
But now, the Heavenly Khan had abandoned Ba Shan and ridden off on the ox.
Ba Shan was utterly baffled. Then it dawned on him, and he cursed loudly, venting his anger at the old man's back.
Half a day later, the Green Ox carried them back to the Weak Water Lake and stopped.
The Butcher looked at Blind. "Blind, you and Mu'er come up the mountain with me. I don't have my lower half right now, so I can't beat that old bastard alone."
"Alright."
Blind jumped off the ox's back. Qin Mu told Ling Yuxiu, Fox Ling'er, and the Green Ox to stay put. "We'll be back soon."
Ling Yuxiu nodded. "Be careful."
The Butcher stood before the Weak Water Lake and shook his head. "That Ba Shan kid hasn't improved at all in all these years—he couldn't even move this lake."
He took a deep breath. Behind him, Ling Yuxiu, the little fox, and the Green Ox were horrified. The wind and clouds surged around them, and even the clouds in the sky were swept up, rushing into the mouth of this old man who had only an upper body!
The grassland was high, and the clouds were low, but they were still a thousand zhang away. Yet this old man's single breath pulled the white clouds from the sky into his belly—an absurdly powerful feat!
"This is… this is a top-tier master of the Combat Techniques school!"
Ling Yuxiu's heart shook. Ever since the Yankang National Teacher had gathered the Combat Techniques masters for a debate, those masters had either died, fled, or gone into hiding.
But that debate had not featured the absolute peak of the Combat Techniques school.
The Combat Techniques school excelled in physical strength, and the hallmark of its top masters was that a part of their body had already become divine!
They didn't need to deliberately use divine abilities; every move they made was a divine ability in itself.
Clearly, this old man with only an upper body was such an existence.
The Butcher had taken in a full breath, emptying the nearby clouds. Then he blew it out.
Whoosh! The Weak Water Lake before them was suddenly lifted up. The waves rose higher and higher until it was like a sea standing on its end.
This standing sea retreated rapidly, almost instantly blown into the snowy mountains, filling every large and small valley there.
Before them, the lake was dry. Even the bones in the lake had been blown away. The lakebed was still a bit damp, but there was no mud—the silt had been scoured clean.
Qin Mu opened his Heavenly Eye and saw that the gauze-like mist that had covered the lake was also gone, blown away by the Butcher's breath to who knows where.
The top masters of the Combat Techniques school didn't use spells or divine abilities to alter geography. But with their monstrous physical strength, why would they need spells or divine abilities to change the land or the weather?
"If I could have the body of a Combat Techniques master, the swordsmanship of the Sword Control school, and the divine abilities of the Spell school, wouldn't I be invincible?"
Qin Mu blinked and followed the Butcher. He practiced the Overlord Body Three Dantian Art, which was good in every way except it had no divine abilities, no body-tempering methods, and no sword techniques.
It was precisely because he practiced the Overlord Body Three Dantian Art that the Butcher hadn't taught him his own body-tempering techniques, so as not to hinder his progress.
In truth, everyone in the village had their own unique techniques, but no one had taught him.
Inside the Loulan Golden Palace, cries of shock rang out. A single breath had blown away the Weak Water Lake in front of the Golden Palace—a feat so heaven-defying it was beyond belief. How could the witches and great witches of the Golden Palace not be shaken?
Before the sacred hall, the Witch Venerable stood with his staff, golden light blazing from his eyes as he fixed his gaze on the three people walking across the lakebed. The corner of his eye twitched.
He was the sect leader of the Golden Palace. Envious of the Butcher's powerful body, he had learned that the Butcher had been slain by the gods after swinging his blade at the sky. He had then sneaked into Yankang, wiped out the small sect that had stolen the Butcher's lower half, and taken it for himself.
Knowing that the Butcher's body was superior to his own, he had resolutely cut off his own lower half and replaced it with the Butcher's.
Now, the nightmare had become reality.
The Heavenly Khan had not died. He had survived and come to reclaim his lower half.
The Witch Venerable's eye twitched violently. He turned and walked into the sacred hall. Inside, on the shrines, sat eighteen sets of golden bones—some human, some beast-shaped. Seventeen shrines held golden bones. On the eighteenth sat a gaunt, disheveled old man, skin and bones, sitting motionless like a corpse.
"Great Venerable, the Heavenly Khan has come." The Witch Venerable leaned on his staff, knelt on one knee, and bowed his head.
The gaunt, disheveled old man on the shrine opened his eyes, his gaze piercing like a blade. His voice was harsh as an owl's. "And the reincarnated saint child I asked you to find?"
The Witch Venerable's golden forehead beaded with fine, golden sweat. His voice was hoarse. "I have not yet found one…"
The gaunt old man's voice turned shrill. "Without a reincarnated saint child, all my seventeen reincarnations will have been in vain! I am only half a step away from becoming a god—half a step!"
The Witch Venerable bowed his head deeply, not daring to speak.
The gaunt old man said sharply, "With me here, the Heavenly Blade won't dare to trouble you. But I won't waste my life force to help you easily. Return his lower half to him, and find me the reincarnated saint child immediately!"
The Witch Venerable was startled. Suddenly, a flash of light cut across his waist, and he was unable to stop it.
He was silent for a moment, then spoke. "Jiacuo, junior disciple brother, come in."
A Witch King heard the summons and hurried into the sacred hall, bowing. "What does the Witch Venerable require?"
The Witch Venerable raised his staff and pierced through his head, then cut off his lower half and attached it to his own body. His expression was as calm as still water. He bowed and said, "Master, your disciple takes his leave."