Chapter 233: Paper Boat
Qin Mu recovered from his injuries, took the gifts meant for the demon ape, and left the village, heading toward the valley of the Central Suppression Palace. Just as he stepped out of the village, he saw a strange beast dragging a corpse. When it spotted him, the beast let out a low hiss, the fur on its neck bristling.
The river water babbled, and several more strange beasts leaped out from the water, fish-headed with human bodies, rushing toward other corpses. When these beasts saw Qin Mu, they immediately stopped, prostrating themselves on the ground, not daring to approach.
Qin Mu paid them no mind. During the two days he had spent recovering from his injuries, cultivators from Eternal Peace who had been pursuing him had gradually found their way here. Before they could even enter the village, he had taken them out one by one using ordinary objects found everywhere in the village.
Some things in the village were extremely terrifying. Besides the bugs in the clay jars, there were the rakes for gathering hay, the curtain cloth at the blacksmith’s forge, the water vat, the sword pellet under Granny Si’s bed, the Butcher’s whetstone, the chicken feeding trough, and the washbasin that Dragon Qilin had taken as its food bowl.
There were quite a few people chasing Qin Mu. Besides the group of experts led by Dragon Jiaonan, there should have been several other batches of masters from various sects and schools. During the two days Qin Mu was recovering, many had found their way here.
The Village of the Crippled was not hard to find. Built along the river, it was only a thousand miles from Inlaid Dragon City, which was not far from the border of Eternal Peace. If someone wanted to search, they could still find this place.
Qin Mu estimated that forty to fifty people had come here in the past two days. Of course, by now they were all dead.
“Dragon Jiaonan hasn’t come. Could she have gotten lost, or was she killed on the way? Or perhaps…”
While in the village, Qin Mu had often felt a pair of eyes watching him from outside, like a great venomous snake lurking in the shadows, ready to strike at any moment.
“Is she nearby?”
His decision to leave the village this time was also to lure out Dragon Jiaonan.
Dragon Jiaonan bore a deep grudge against him. The destruction of the Dragon Taming Gate was entirely Qin Mu’s doing. If he hadn’t summoned the demon in Sky Wave City, calling down the Capital Heaven Demon King, the Dragon Taming Gate wouldn’t have been so easily wiped out.
Qin Mu arrived at the Central Suppression Palace, where there were many wild beasts, but the demon ape and the dragon elephant were not there.
He searched around but found no trace of them. The beasts in the valley didn’t know cultivation and couldn’t speak, so he had no way of knowing where the demon ape had gone.
Qin Mu had no choice but to return to the Village of the Crippled. Two more days passed, and he could no longer sit still. The New Year was very close now—only two or three days away—and Granny Si and the Village Chief still hadn’t returned!
“These old folks in the village really know how to worry a person!”
He went to the Central Suppression Palace again but still didn’t see the demon ape, and his anxiety grew.
“Fatty Dragon, get up!”
Qin Mu packed up, fed the bugs and the chicken-dragon again, then wiped away the “fixed” character on the Capital Heaven Demon King, and called out to Dragon Qilin. “Let’s go deep into the Great Ruins to find them!”
The Capital Heaven Demon King stretched his body and sneered, “Even someone like the Deaf Elder, a half-divine existence, went into the Great Ruins and never came back. What use are you?”
Qin Mu shook his head. “My strength may not be high, but I have helpers. Demon King, you’re from the Heavenly Demon race, aren’t you?”
The Capital Heaven Demon King said proudly, “So you want to use my power. If you treat me better, helping you isn’t out of the question. But you hit me for no reason, and that makes me unhappy. If you flatter me, I might help you.”
Qin Mu asked curiously, “How can I flatter the Demon King?”
The Capital Heaven Demon King got excited and was about to say his usual line, but then sensed something was wrong. If he said it, he would probably end up kneeling and licking Qin Mu’s toes himself.
Qin Mu said seriously, “If you put your heart and strength into helping me find them, I will release you. How about that condition?”
“Deal!”
“Deal!”
Qin Mu packed up properly, left the Village of the Crippled, and had Dragon Qilin head upstream along the river. The Village Chief and the others were searching for the whereabouts of Carefree Village. Last time, the Village Chief had taken Qin Mu upstream along the river, going deep into the Great Ruins to the source of the Surging River, where they had seen many strange and bizarre things.
But what they had found that time wasn’t Carefree Village, but the Moon Boat in the City of the Dead.
The Moon Boat had pulled at the jade pendant around Qin Mu’s neck, making it float up, which had led Qin Mu there.
Qin Mu thought that when the Village Chief and the others searched for Carefree Village, they would definitely start from there, and they might have left some clues.
Dragon Qilin’s pace wasn’t slow, but compared to the Village Chief’s pace, it was much slower. When the Village Chief took Qin Mu, he moved like a radiant deity walking through the Great Ruins in the darkness, extremely fast.
Qin Mu could only venture deep into the Great Ruins during the day. At night, he had to find other villages or ruins to take shelter from the darkness.
The Great Ruins during the day and the Great Ruins at night were completely different worlds. The Village Chief guessed that during the day, the Great Ruins were the real world, but at night, another dark world overlapped with them.
If the Village Chief and the others had entered that world in the darkness and been taken away by it, then Qin Mu wouldn’t be able to find them either.
For now, he could only hope that they had found Carefree Village.
Not long after he left the Village of the Crippled, a girl in a dark green dress arrived outside the village. A red earring dangled from her earlobe. The earring twitched, then stretched out into an ear pendant—it was actually a small red snake.
“This village is full of treasures. I wonder if I can sneak in and steal some?”
Dragon Jiaonan whispered, “Little Red, call some helpers.”
The little red snake under her earlobe hissed, flicking its tongue. From the mountain forest, large red-crested snakes slithered out. One of them slithered into the village. As soon as it entered, a black spider lying on a leaf in the medicinal herb garden nearby jumped up, landed on the snake’s head, and bit it.
The large snake died instantly, its flesh and blood dissolving into water, which the spider sucked dry, leaving only a snakeskin.
The spider grew larger and larger. After drinking the snake dry, it spewed out balls of true fire, burning itself smaller and smaller, then jumped back into the herb garden to hide.
Dragon Jiaonan’s eyelid twitched. She immediately turned and left, the snakes behind her scattering in all directions. “This village—even a celestial can’t enter!”
Dragon Qilin traveled six thousand miles upstream against the current. Qin Mu looked up and saw that it was getting late, so he looked around, trying to find a place to stay.
“According to the Great Ruins geography map, there’s a place called the Strange Monster Palace nearby. It might be a place to take shelter.”
Qin Mu recalled the geography map, searching for the location. Suddenly his eyes lit up, and he ordered Dragon Qilin to go ashore. Before long, they found the ruins of a palace, where some strange beasts had already taken shelter.
Qin Mu walked into the ruins of the Strange Monster Palace and saw the skeletons of many giant beasts lying haphazardly among the ruins. These strange beasts were very quiet, not moving even when they saw him arrive.
Qin Mu looked up and examined the place. The skeletons of the giant beasts in the Strange Monster Palace were enormous—dozens of times larger than Dragon Qilin in its full form. If they were alive, they would probably be over a thousand feet tall, like moving mountains!
Before long, a few Taoists arrived at the ruins. They should be experts who had come into the Great Ruins for training. When they saw Qin Mu, they showed surprise but remained silent, each starting a fire to cook.
Qin Mu also cooked some food, ate dinner, and lay down next to Dragon Qilin to sleep.
The Taoists exchanged glances, said nothing, and wrote on the ground. As they were writing, the earth suddenly shook. Roars came from outside, followed by a series of obscure, difficult-to-understand sounds from the darkness, like demons whispering.
Qin Mu sat up. The skeletons of the giant beasts in the ruins suddenly burst with divine light. The ground shook more violently, and then the giant beast skeletons slowly lifted their legs from the earth. One by one, the giant beast skeletons came to life, walking out of the ruins.
From outside the ruins came earth-shattering roars. Occasionally, divine light tore through the darkness and shone over. Through the light, they could see that the giant beast skeletons had grown flesh and blood, turning into several beast gods, fighting against the monsters in the darkness.
The Taoists were shocked and uncertain. Even the Capital Heaven Demon King was startled.
Qin Mu, however, was unfazed. He lay back down and whispered, “Capital Heaven, don’t stare. I’ve seen stranger things.”
The Capital Heaven Demon King whispered, “Those Taoists are a bit strange.”
Qin Mu didn’t care. “I know. One of the female Taoists is Dragon Jiaonan.”
After a moment, his snoring could be heard. The Capital Heaven Demon King had no choice but to stay still.
The battle outside the ruins lasted all night. At dawn the next day, the earth shook. Several towering divine beasts walked out of the darkness, entered the ruins, and lay down. Their flesh and blood disappeared, turning back into skeletons half-buried in the ground, returning to normal.
The darkness receded like a tide. Sunlight shone down. The other strange beasts in the ruins surged out and scattered in all directions.
Qin Mu started another fire to cook, and the Taoists also started a fire. No one said a word; they each ate breakfast.
Dragon Qilin had hidden the washbasin from the Village of the Crippled somewhere, but now it brought it out again and placed it in front of Qin Mu, waiting to be fed.
Qin Mu poured half a bushel of Crimson Fire Spirit Pills into it, then took another basin and poured half a basin of Jade Dragon Lake water.
After Dragon Qilin had eaten and drunk its fill, they continued on their way. The Taoists exchanged glances, put out their fire, and got up to follow behind Qin Mu.
Qin Mu stopped and looked back, smiling. “Do you fellow Taoists have business with me?”
One of the Taoists shouted, “The Great Ruins are so big—are they your family’s property? We walk our way, you walk yours. It doesn’t hinder your walking!”
Qin Mu smiled faintly and continued forward.
They had started early that day, and finally, before sunset, they reached the end of the Surging River. Qin Mu saw a dilapidated village by the river, his eyes lighting up as he had Dragon Qilin walk over.
The Taoists followed him in. The village was in shambles, covered in cobwebs everywhere, and even the stone statues in the village were broken and worn.
Strangely, while other ruins had strange beasts entering to take shelter from the darkness, this village had not a single demon beast.
The Taoists were uncertain. Dragon Jiaonan, now disguised as a handsome female Taoist, whispered, “There’s something strange here…”
As she spoke, darkness fell, and the weather suddenly became bitterly cold. A lone boat drifted leisurely from another world. A horse lantern hung at the bow, and beneath the lantern sat an old man, busy folding paper figures, paper horses, and paper boats.
The old man came to the village and disembarked. Everyone shivered several times, feeling as if their souls were about to freeze.
The old man set down a paper boat. The paper boat floated up, and one of the Taoists suddenly realized that he had somehow ended up inside the paper boat, drifting away into the darkness.
He was startled and looked back, only to see another version of himself still sitting in the village.
That was his physical body.
“Fellow Daoist.”
Qin Mu activated the Earthly Star Earth Marquis True Art, transforming into a human-headed, serpent-bodied form. The Gate of Inheritance appeared behind him. He greeted the old man in the language of the Netherworld, took out portraits of the Village Chief, the Pharmacist, and the others, and asked, “May I ask, Fellow Daoist, have you seen them?”
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