Chapter 306: A Trap
"Something is watching me!"
Qin Mu's heart leaped. Though he couldn't see the two eyes hidden in the darkness, he could feel their gaze.
He turned around, not entering the bridge, but instead closed his eyes and began to walk slowly outside it. His steps were unhurried, and though his eyes were shut, he traced a circle—a perfect circle.
When he completed the circle, he stopped. He had walked this circle to calculate the precise direction of the gaze based on his perception of it, which involved spatial calculation techniques from mathematical arts.
To others, he seemed merely to be pacing while pondering some difficult problem. No one would have guessed he was pinpointing the location of the observer. True skill showed in the details, and Qin Mu had executed this flawlessly.
Suddenly, his mind trembled violently. In those few steps, he had calculated the source of the gaze and even the distance between the two eyes!
The gaze watching him came from a pair of eyes, spaced two hundred and sixty-four zhang apart!
That meant the terrifying existence staring at him from the darkness had eyes separated by over two hundred and sixty zhang!
What an enormous being!
"Could it be the Youdu creature I scared off with a single Youdu word when boarding the ship? Or is there something else lurking nearby?"
Qin Mu steadied himself, his expression calm, showing no sign of panic. He turned and walked toward the bridge.
He had made up his mind: first, explore the bridge. If anything went wrong, he would leave immediately without hesitation!
The bridge was a ship's control room. From there, one could steer the vessel's course, plot routes, command battles, and evade attacks. It was the ship's central hub.
Once inside the bridge, if he found the geographical route map, he could use it to control the ship.
Qin Mu's heart burned with fervor. This ship carried his dream of returning to Carefree Village.
Just as he stepped into the bridge, a door suddenly opened, and a great shaman stumbled in, entering the bridge by accident.
The two met, both startled. The great shaman, a seasoned veteran of countless battles, reacted instantly. Without a word, he flipped open the gourd at his waist, and countless wandering souls flew out, charging at Qin Mu!
At the same time, the great shaman's body blazed with golden light as he activated the Loulan Golden Palace's Shaman Lord Lou Luo Sutra. His flesh expanded, transforming him into a one-eyed, four-armed giant.
His eye sat in the center of his face, his mouth squeezed into a tiny slit beneath his left cheek, and his nose rested under his right cheek. He wielded four vajra maces, which shook as they transformed—each section of the maces spinning like slender pagodas, crashing down toward Qin Mu with a roar!
"A disciple of the Shaman Lord?"
Qin Mu recognized the Shaman Lord Lou Luo Sutra at a glance. This man's cultivation was extremely deep. The wandering souls spewing from his gourd were attacks aimed at the soul.
Great shamans refined others' souls into wandering souls, each one immensely powerful. These souls would burrow into an opponent's body and devour their soul, making them nearly impossible for ordinary Six Harmonies cultivators to withstand.
If dozens of wandering souls attacked simultaneously and invaded the body, a Six Harmonies cultivator would have no chance to resist!
The wandering soul gourd's greatest use was on the battlefield. Countless souls would scatter, burrowing into bodies and devouring the souls of enemy soldiers, leaving fields of corpses behind. It was an unstoppable, terrifying weapon!
On the battlefield before Qing Pass, the most fearsome threat wasn't the blade pellets of the Man-Di Kingdom's soldiers, but the great shamans of Loulan Golden Palace. Their attacks were bizarre and hard to defend against.
Now, countless wandering souls flew from the gourd, wailing with ghostly cries, and surged toward Qin Mu. Behind him, the Gate of Inheriting Heaven suddenly swung open. A gust of dark wind howled, and with a swoosh, it swept all the wandering souls away!
Any soul of the dead could not escape the control of Youdu. Though Loulan Golden Palace had secret arts to retain souls and cultivate using others' souls, reaching heights in soul arts that other sects and holy lands could not match, they faced their nemesis in the Gate of Inheriting Heaven!
The Gate of Inheriting Heaven swallowed all the wandering souls, then slammed shut, silencing the bridge's ghastly screams.
The great shaman was startled. The gourd at his waist fell to the ground with a crack, shattering into pieces. His four arms moved in a blur, and the vajra maces transformed into four diamond pagodas, each carrying immense force as they crashed down on Qin Mu.
Qin Mu did not meet them head-on. Instead, he retreated, and behind him, the Carefree Sword flew from its sheath. The great shaman sneered. A beam of light shot from one of the diamond pagodas, illuminating the Carefree Sword and sucking it into the pagoda.
His four vajra maces looked like maces, but they were actually four pagodas refined into size-changing weapons. Compressed to their smallest form, they resembled maces and could be held in hand.
But in battle, they could unleash the pagodas' terrifying power to crush enemies, smashing them into pulp with overwhelming force!
At the same time, the pagodas were special artifacts that could absorb an opponent's spirit weapon. If the opponent was careless and their weapon was drawn in, the tables would turn, and without their weapon, they would be doomed!
Just as he absorbed the Carefree Sword into the pagoda, suddenly, a stream of swords flew from behind Qin Mu, clanging as they embedded themselves into the pagoda.
The great shaman froze, not yet reacting, when a sea of sword light surged toward him, engulfing him. In an instant, the pagoda was bristling with swords!
The great shaman's arms couldn't bear the weight. Even transformed into a one-eyed giant with immense strength, he couldn't lift something so heavy. With a crack, his arm bones snapped.
Shua, shua, shua—thousands of swords neatly arranged themselves around the pagoda, forming a massive sword pellet several zhang in diameter. The great shaman was nowhere to be seen.
Qin Mu walked toward the ship's wheel on the bridge, while beside the enormous sword pellet, the great shaman lay dead, impaled within it. One foot still stuck out from the pellet.
Qin Mu reached the wheel. This ship's wheel was different from those on Yan Kingdom's vessels, mainly in structure. Yan Kingdom's ships had a single wheel for steering, ascending, and descending. This ship had other strange components besides the wheel, and beside it sat a silver helmet with a red plume.
Frowning, Qin Mu looked around, unable to understand the function of these parts. He hesitated, then picked up the silver helmet and placed it on his head.
Buzz—
Suddenly, his vision blazed. Vast space expanded before him, unfolding rapidly. In an instant, the scenery transformed, revealing the vast geography of the Great Ruins, Yan Kingdom, the grasslands, and the northern frozen lands!
Qin Mu was stunned: "The one who forged this ship was truly ingenious, hiding the geography within a helmet and using it to control the ship's course!"
He extended a finger and lightly tapped the geographical map before him. At that moment, the ship trembled, as if trying to fly toward the point he had touched, but it was stuck in the seal between two worlds and couldn't lift off.
"So this is how you steer the ship!"
Joy surged in Qin Mu's heart. He blinked, and suddenly the scene before him changed, revealing another unfamiliar world—a map of a different realm: a dark void, a deep continent, mysterious and unknown.
"What place is this? Not Yan Kingdom, not the grasslands..."
He studied it, confirming he had never seen this strange place. He blinked again, and the scene shifted to another magnificent world, completely different from the Great Ruins and Yan Kingdom.
He blinked once more, and a water world appeared, with undulating mountains beneath the sea.
He tried over a dozen times, each revealing a different world's geography. But unlike what he had hoped, these maps didn't label the worlds or show paths. He didn't know which one was Carefree Village, nor how to enter it.
"This ship must have a compass recording the path to Carefree Village. If I find that compass, I can steer the ship back!"
Qin Mu looked around, and his gaze fell on the spot where the compass should have been. There should have been a mirror there, like the one the village chief had given him. But now, it was empty!
"The compass mirror is shattered? Fortunately, I still have the one the village chief gave me. But I don't know if it can break the chief's seal..."
He reached behind him into his glutton sack to retrieve the compass mirror. At that moment, he saw the broken pieces of the mirror on the ground.
This compass mirror had been smashed by someone. Someone had deliberately destroyed it to prevent anyone from knowing Carefree Village's location!
"Was it that man in white who destroyed the compass mirror?"
Qin Mu paused, lowering his hand. Many deities had pursued the man in white, and he had been defeated, his Carefree Sword shattered. Unable to resist, he had stayed here to cover his companions' escape. He must have destroyed the compass mirror recording the path to Carefree Village before dying, to keep anyone from finding it.
"Then this ship is a trap!"
A chill ran down Qin Mu's spine, his hairs standing on end. He maintained a searching posture, but his feet were already moving toward the bridge's door.
"Some people on the ship escaped into Youdu and might still be alive. This trap's purpose is to catch someone from Carefree Village and find the way back! I have the mirror the village chief gave me. If they get my compass mirror, they can find Carefree Village! They can't be sure I have such an item, and as long as they're uncertain, they won't spring the trap."
He passed by his sword pellet. The swords loosened, their hilts beginning to fly out and disassemble. But then, the feeling of being watched returned. The two gazes, spaced two hundred and sixty-four zhang apart, fell on him, pressing down with terrifying force!
Clearly, the owner of those gazes had grown suspicious!
Qin Mu wore a confused expression as he looked back, as if sensing the gazes. Suddenly, the invasive feeling vanished.
"Which senior is hiding in the shadows?"
Qin Mu called out loudly: "Thank you for your guidance, senior, for letting me enter this treasure ship! Would you be willing to show yourself?"
He waited, but no one answered.
Qin Mu looked disappointed and continued collecting his swords one by one, sighing: "Since the senior won't appear, I'll remember this kindness."
He moved toward the bridge's door, his heartbeat quickening, but he forcibly suppressed it with his primal energy, steadying it again.
Just as he was about to leave the bridge, the door opened, and Ban Gongcuo walked in, blocking the entrance. He smiled faintly: "Chief Qin, you have two choices: leave the helmet on your head, or leave your head."
Qin Mu nearly cursed aloud, wanting nothing more than to stab him a thousand times in the chest!
—Zhai Zhu returned home at six in the evening and couldn't write a second chapter today. Sorry. He needs to adjust his state, then burst forth to make up for the chapters missed these past few days.