Chapter 239: The Older They Get, the Less Reliable
At the edge of the forest, Blind stood with a grave expression, leaning on his staff to rest. Butcher swung his blade, surrounded by layered and shifting spaces of extreme strangeness. These spaces were folded, and with each change, the scenery around them transformed—sometimes a vast forest, sometimes a scorching desert, sometimes towering waves, and sometimes a starry sky rushing toward them.
With each change, different forbidden techniques erupted, the power of the divine prohibitions hidden within those spaces activating. Butcher had to contend with these sudden outbursts of divine prohibition.
Butcher roared angrily, "Blind, Granny, my waist is about to break! Have you two rested enough yet?"
Blind sighed, "I'm old, my bones aren't what they used to be. Let me rest a little longer."
"I'm not any younger than you!"
Butcher fumed, "And besides, my lower half was just reattached—it hasn't fully grown back yet! If you make me keep fighting, I'll let my upper and lower halves split apart right in front of you!"
Blind said slowly and deliberately, "Granny is younger. Let her take over."
From Granny Si's mouth came an aged voice, coldly sneering, "Although I, old man, am very strong, this lady's body can't hold out much longer. Madam, hand the body over to me..."
"Get lost!" Granny Si snapped angrily.
Butcher and Blind exchanged odd looks. Granny Si's "illness" was growing more severe. Ever since she found them, they had encountered danger repeatedly, and Li Tianxing often jumped out to take control of Granny Si's physical body.
"The demon seed is getting stronger and stronger. That old woman Si will probably be replaced by Li Tianxing sooner or later."
The space around them shifted, as if a deity were rolling dice. Each face of the die represented a different divine prohibition, and they were inside the die. Whichever face it landed on, that prohibition would activate. But this die didn't have six faces—it had one hundred and eight.
This time, it landed on the star face. Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet vanished, and they found themselves suspended in the boundless starry sky, with nothing above or below to anchor them.
Those shining stars weren't real stars at all, but mirrors. The mirrors gleamed, and suddenly countless beams of light converged, roaring as they shone down upon them.
Butcher bellowed, slashing horizontally and vertically through the vast sky, cleaving open a path between life and death. He split the terrifying divine light, and the severed beams howled past them on all sides, leaving only the spot where they stood safe.
Granny Si quickly called out, "Deaf man, Deaf man, come over here quickly!"
On the other side of the starry sky, Deaf man was wielding his brush like a flying sword, struggling against the constellations. Blind said, "Deaf man can't hear your voice..."
Before he finished speaking, Deaf man immediately tried to fly over, but a beam of starlight struck him, sending him flying off to who knows where.
"Butcher, take a rest. It's my turn!" Li Tianxing's voice came from Granny Si's mouth.
Butcher immediately stepped back, and Granny Si moved forward, activating the Great Cultivation Demon Scripture, warily watching the shifting space around them.
Trapped within this folded space prohibition weren't just the three of them, but also Deaf man, Horse, and Cripple. However, these people were all trapped on different faces of the die, making it hard to gather together.
When Granny Si arrived and saw Blind and the others trapped, she tried to break the prohibition, only to get caught herself. After Deaf man found them, he also attempted to unravel this space prohibition, but was likewise drawn in.
"This space prohibition has one hundred and eight divine faces. The central hub of its formation operation isn't among these one hundred and eight."
Blind stood up, his mind's eye as clear as a mirror, scanning in all directions. "We're inside the deity's die. Horse and Cripple are on another face, sometimes ending up on the same face as us. Deaf man occasionally gets knocked into this small plane. This means the space prohibition has been running for so long that its mathematical calculations have already deviated."
He did some mental calculations, continuously deducing, and suddenly raised an eyebrow. "The deity who set up this space prohibition only calculated down to the momentary decimal in the small digits, not to the smallest number! This divine prohibition will collapse on its own after running for a while longer!"
The space prohibition shifted into a volcano, with divine fire like dragons and thunder and lightning flashing. Granny Si struggled to resist, and Li Tianxing's voice came from her mouth: "So how long will this prohibition run before it collapses on its own?"
Blind calculated for a moment and said, "Twenty-four thousand years later."
"Blind, shut up!" Butcher wished he could chop him down with a single slash, and roared.
Just then, a voice came from outside, saying, "Kid, your family's elders are trapped in here. There are six of them."
Inside the space prohibition, everyone was startled and looked outward, but saw nothing.
Blind was extremely tense and shouted sharply, "Mu'er, don't come in! You can't withstand the power of the divine prohibition!"
From outside came Qin Mu's voice, saying, "Demon King, do you have a way to break this and rescue them?"
"This kind of space prohibition uses the secret technique of spatial matrix, folding one hundred and nine spaces into one hundred and eight spatial cross-sections. It looks like only one hundred and eight, but in reality, there are one hundred and nine."
That voice came from outside, continuing, "However, the deity who set up this spatial matrix secret technique probably cut corners for convenience, not calculating down to the infinite decimal places, leaving some flaws. This secret technique will automatically disintegrate after twenty-four thousand years. But if we can find the one hundred and ninth space, breaking it won't be hard. Wait a moment, let me calculate..."
Inside the space prohibition, Granny Si, Butcher, and the others exchanged glances: "This person beside Mu'er is remarkable. He saw through the mystery of this prohibition at a glance, much more reliable than Blind."
After a moment, the voice came again, saying, "Do you have any unused treasure? Something sturdy. I'll throw it in, into the one hundred and ninth space. If a sturdy object is added to the one hundred and ninth space, when it operates, it will be like adding an extra gear to the mechanism, automatically jamming it. This formation will dissolve on its own."
Qin Mu's voice came, saying, "I picked this up from the Loulan Golden Palace. Will it work?"
"Oh, this is a nice treasure. To be able to pick up such a treasure casually, you're really lucky. No wonder I can't calculate you—your luck is sky-high, not because I'm incompetent."
...
As they spoke, Granny Si and the others saw a bright pearl fly past in front of them. The pearl grew larger and larger, with mountains and rivers inside it, like a complete world—towering peaks and cascading waterfalls.
The pearl streaked across the sky before them, becoming a massive object, a round sky containing landscapes, and then disappeared beyond the horizon.
"Be careful, everyone. When the prohibition breaks, it might be a bit fierce." The voice from outside continued.
As soon as the words fell, a violent tremor came from deep within the space. Then, layer after layer of space collapsed. Earth, water, wind, and fire surged wildly, sweeping everything away. The power of the divine prohibitions within each layer collapsed, and terrifying energy erupted in all directions!
Those trapped inside quickly mustered their primal energies, unleashing their strongest defensive measures to withstand this violent energy. Fortunately, this energy wasn't specifically targeting them but was erupting everywhere, so it was manageable!
If it had been aimed directly at them, it would have blown them to pieces!
Qin Mu stood in front of a forest. Suddenly, the forest turned to ash. A surging blast wave swept in all directions, reducing all the trees to powder.
Thump, thump, thump, thump—four figures appeared out of thin air and crashed heavily to the ground, smashing several large craters into the earth.
Qin Mu shook his head: "At their age, they still can't let people worry..."
"Cripple, get out of the way!"
Deaf man's voice came. The old man fell headfirst from midair, crashing down. Below, Cripple let out a muffled groan as Deaf man landed on top of him.
In midair, a great burst of Buddha light shone. A giant Buddha descended, and golden springs erupted from the ground, with lotuses blooming in the springs. The giant Buddha lowered his legs, stepped on the lotuses, and slowly descended.
The lotus springs and golden springs vanished, the Buddha light dissipated, and a blue-robed old man appeared—it was Horse. His clothes were somewhat tattered, but compared to the others, he wasn't too disheveled.
Everyone got up and looked at each other. They had actually managed to escape alive from that space secret technique. Though each had suffered considerable injuries, fortunately none were fatal.
They looked up and saw Qin Mu standing not far from them. The young man from the Village of the Crippled was shaking his head, as if disgusted that the older they got, the less reliable they became.
In front of Qin Mu stood a smug iron lump, its eight arms akimbo, propping itself up like a lantern, looking as if it were waiting for them to come and worship it.
Behind Qin Mu was a dragon qilin as fat as a pig, looking like it hadn't woken up, listless and uninterested in anything.
"Mu'er, how did you get here?"
Granny Si was surprised. She stepped forward, looked Qin Mu up and down, checked him over, and scolded, "How dare you barge into such a dangerous place? You're too reckless! Are you hurt?"
"Granny, stay away from him."
Blind stepped forward, looking nervous, and said to Qin Mu, "That old woman Si can't hold out against the demon seed in her heart anymore. She's sometimes male, sometimes female. Who knows when Li Tianxing will take control. Be careful she doesn't harm you!"
From Granny Si's mouth came an aged voice, full of demonic nature: "Don't worry. He is the current leader of our Holy Religion. As the former leader, I naturally won't lay a hand on him."
Suddenly, Granny Si's voice turned back to a woman's: "Li Tianxing, get back inside!"
Cripple stepped forward, examining the eight-armed Dutian Demon King, and said, "Mu'er, this iron lump of yours is actually useful. What's his name?"
Horse said, "Dutian Demon King."
Butcher also came forward to look, puzzled, and said, "Where did you get him? I didn't see this iron thing last time I saw you. He's pretty useful."
"Really ugly," Deaf man said.
The Dutian Demon King was furious and was about to explode, but Qin Mu quickly said, "This is the Dutian Demon King, the supreme ruler of the Dutian World. I invited him to come and rescue you all. The Dutian Demon King has extremely high attainments in divine prohibitions. He will surely lead us through danger and into safety."
The Dutian Demon King felt pleased: "This kid knows how to talk. Even if his heart is a bit rotten, his methods a bit poisonous, and his schemes a bit many..."
"Where's the Village Chief?"
Qin Mu asked, "And Grandpa Medicine and Grandpa Mute? Have they arrived here too?"
Blind shook his head and said, "My eyesight is good. I followed the clues left by Medicine and the Village Chief to get here, but I didn't see Mute or Medicine."
The others silently nodded.
Granny Si said, "Medicine and the Village Chief are together, so they should be fine. There's also the Ancestral Master and the Enforcement Elder with them. But we haven't seen Mute either. That guy does things without a word, never telling us what he wants to do. Alone, he'll probably have a hard time. Mu'er, it's hard on you to come looking for us in such a dangerous place."
Qin Mu said angrily, "You don't come home for the New Year, running around everywhere. What if you get lost? Of course I have to come out and find you! Demon King, you lead the way. Don't you all go running off everywhere!"
"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm." The group of old men and women quickly nodded.
Read the full chapter at: