Chapter 319: Family Matters
Qin Mu frowned deeply. Banguo Tso was wary of the poison he himself had concocted and dared not attack, so he could only retreat. However, the witchcraft he used to vent his anger, the Soul-Worshipping Art, was truly terrifying!
Banguo Tso was still in the Six Harmonies Realm, yet even experts at the Seven Stars Realm would die from a single bow. In particular, these three demon monks were quite extraordinary, having cultivated successfully from beast forms.
The Golden-Winged Great Peng was a renowned exotic species in the Great Ruins, extremely powerful with a formidable physical body. Coupled with their cultivation of the Buddhist teachings from Little Thunderclap Monastery, their primordial spirits were stable.
He had bowed three times and killed three Golden-Winged Great Pengs. This divine ability was indeed something that even the Butcher would need to guard against!
In the past, Banguo Tso still had some bearing, displaying the demeanor of a grandmaster. But now, after repeated setbacks at Qin Mu's hands, he had become furious with shame and no longer held back in his attacks.
This time, he had bowed to death three demon monks from Little Thunderclap Monastery. Next time, he would likely strike at those close to Qin Mu.
Who could withstand one of his bows?
"However, after bowing to these three, it seems Banguo Tso was also severely injured. Clearly, this divine ability has a massive backlash and cannot be used recklessly."
Qin Mu's brow remained furrowed. Even if the backlash was severe, this ability that killed anyone he bowed to was still extremely difficult to deal with and impossible to guard against.
"Let's bury these three monks. We can't leave their bodies exposed in the wilderness."
The group buried the corpses of the three Golden-Winged Great Pengs. Qin Mu bowed once and sighed, "May you three rest well. One day, I'll burn an effigy of Banguo Tso to honor you. Let's go... Wait!"
Long Qilin quickly stopped. Qin Mu closed his eyes, and after a moment, opened them. He took out his brush, ink, and paper, and with a surge of his yuan qi, laid the paper flat in the air.
He dipped his brush in ink and began painting in the air. Before long, he had drawn an image of a divine demon standing on an altar.
Qin Mu was about to add the final stroke but stopped. He took out his seal, stamped it on the painting, and then completed the last stroke.
"The key to Banguo Tso's Soul-Worshipping witchcraft should lie with this divine demon."
He examined it from top to bottom, confirming he hadn't made any mistakes. The Deaf Man had taught him calligraphy and painting, emphasizing the importance of capturing the form, intent, and spirit in an instant. Qin Mu often went out of the village with him to sketch various things. Although the divine demon behind Banguo Tso had only appeared briefly, he had still captured its specific form and essence and drawn it accurately.
"I don't recognize this divine demon, but the Great Ruins has all kinds of divine demon sculptures. The Village Chief and Ma Ye are well-traveled and might know it. Since we're in the Great Ruins, we might as well return to the village and ask them. Even if they don't know, there's the Heavenly Saint Cult and the Yan Kingdom. Someone will recognize it!"
Qin Mu put away the painting, thinking, "As long as we identify this divine demon, there's a chance to break Banguo Tso's witchcraft! Otherwise, the only option left is to eliminate him at all costs."
Eliminating him at all costs meant conquering the Loulan Golden Palace. Conquering a sacred ground like the Loulan Golden Palace would require first taking the grasslands and destroying the nations there.
It was easy to imagine how difficult that would be.
So, the last resort would only be used in dire circumstances: inciting the emperor to wage war on the grasslands and raze the Loulan Golden Palace. The Heavenly Saint Cult alone didn't have that capability.
Long Qilin moved forward. Qin Mu summoned the two white bats, healed their injuries, and once they were better, under their protection, he soared into the sky to survey the terrain.
After a moment, Qin Mu descended and frowned slightly. He didn't see the Yong River.
If he had seen the Yong River, he could have determined his position. Without it, relying only on the markings on the Great Ruins geography map made it hard to pinpoint their exact location.
They traveled east for over a hundred li. Qin Mu flew up again to check the terrain, comparing it with the geography map in his memory.
After doing this several times, he finally discerned their location based on the mountain ranges.
"We're near the Western Heavenly Palace, not far from the Western Lands."
Qin Mu confirmed the direction, breathed a sigh of relief, and descended to tell Long Qilin the path. They traveled another hundred li east. Qin Mu estimated they were close to the location marked on the map as the Western Heavenly Palace. As he looked around, he suddenly noticed the road becoming steeper.
A massive landmass was slanted into the Great Ruins, like a giant disc, towering higher than the surrounding peaks. It looked as if this land had flown in from beyond the sky and crashed into the Great Ruins!
Long Qilin stopped. Qin Mu looked at this enormous landmass. The jungle here was dense, but through the greenery, he could still see the remains of grand buildings.
In some places where the ground had cracked, he could see a metallic sheen. Deep beneath this landmass were buried objects made of metal, though what they were was unclear.
Some towering divine statues stood upright or lay toppled.
They spent some time circling this landmass and were stunned. Ahead of them lay a basin, littered with scattered land plates. Some were stuck in the ground, others flipped over, revealing mountain-like bottoms. Some had split into several pieces, and a few still preserved intact ruins—remnants of cities. Exotic beasts moved within, and powerful beast lords occasionally let out heart-stopping roars, threatening any creature daring to approach their territory.
Where these land plates had broken apart, long metal structures were exposed, like pipes of varying heights.
When the wind blew through the basin, these metal structures hummed, producing a pleasant sound like music.
"Such a great civilization, how did it fall to this level?"
Qin Mu looked into the distance, then withdrew his gaze. This should be a safe area, hard for darkness to invade, so there were many exotic beasts. Walking through such a place required extreme caution.
If they took a detour, it would take an extra day to get around, so they had to press on.
Qin Mu jumped off Long Qilin's back and led the way himself. Having grown up in the Great Ruins, he knew the habits of exotic beasts well. If he let Long Qilin or the two white bats lead, they would surely cause trouble.
They ventured deeper into the basin. Suddenly, Qin Mu frowned at the wheel tracks on the ground. They were likely left by the incense carriage from the Western Lands' True Heavenly Palace, along with messy footprints from the cultivators who had been chasing it.
They had clearly entered this place, but judging by their path, these people also understood the rules of the Great Ruins and hadn't taken a wrong turn.
However, the techniques of the Western Lands' True Heavenly Palace were quite peculiar, with impressive scale and force. If they started fighting here, they would easily provoke the beast lords.
"Following the same path as them will likely get us implicated."
Qin Mu considered finding another route, but the only safe path through the basin was this one. To detour, they would have to cross a large marsh.
He looked toward the marsh. Suddenly, the water churned, and a giant crocodile stood upright on the water's surface, smoke billowing from its nostrils as it picked at its razor-sharp claws.
This beast lord was not to be trifled with. Taking that detour would be suicide.
On the other side lay a city ruin, with countless towering divine temples. Many cranes with red heads and black necks flew around, dancing gracefully, looking very peaceful.
However, a male and female crane in the city were practicing swordplay. With a flap of their wings, countless sword lights filled the sky, clanging as they formed circles. From the speed of the sword lights, Qin Mu felt these two crane leaders were even more dangerous than the giant crocodile leader.
"There's only this one path!"
Qin Mu exhaled a breath of foul air and muttered, "The family matters of the Western Lands' True Heavenly Palace—we won't interfere. I'm not one who likes fighting and meddling. We'll just go around..."
The basin was quite lively. Four rhinoceroses, covered in thick bone armor, walked over. They were pure white without a single spot of color. Their small eyes warily glanced at Qin Mu, Long Qilin behind him, and the white bats flying around, constantly hanging upside down from trees.
One of the female rhinos spoke in human tongue, "This big dog is as fat as a pig, yet it can still walk."
The rhino leader's face turned ashen. He quickly rolled on the ground, transforming into a small giant with a rhino head and human body. Under the bone armor, his body was all muscle. He raised his front hooves in a salute to Qin Mu and said, "Fellow Daoist, my wife has a loose tongue. Please don't take offense!"
Qin Mu smiled. "No offense taken. Long Fatty is indeed a bit chubby."
The rhino leader sighed with relief and quickly led the three female rhinos away, grumbling, "Didn't you see? These guys are all ruthless characters, especially that human and the two white bats. They're covered in countless vengeful spirits."
Qin Mu was surprised. Long Qilin said, "They say white rhinos are clairvoyant, able to see the underworld and vengeful spirits. Impressive. But they misjudged me. I'm not a big dog, and I'm not fat—I'm sturdy..."
Suddenly, sounds of techniques and spirit weapons clashing came from ahead, very intense. Qin Mu called back the two white bats and cautiously moved forward.
Before long, a battlefield appeared before them. The cultivators from True Heavenly Palace were besieging the incense carriage, all bearing injuries.
When they saw Qin Mu's group arrive, the cultivators suddenly stopped attacking and turned to look at them, motionless.
"Fellow Daoist."
A young man stepped forward and saluted Qin Mu. "Family matters."
Qin Mu returned the salute. "I'm just passing through."
The young man smiled and waved his hand. "Make way and let them pass."
Qin Mu nodded politely to those on both sides and led Long Qilin and the white bat brothers forward. Ahead of them, the incense carriage was broken, its wheels and canopy shattered. Two sika deer—one transformed into human form, sitting slumped by the broken carriage, the other in its original form, likely the female, covered in wounds—lay there.
The mother and daughter they had been protecting had also come out of the carriage. The young woman was covered in blood, gasping for breath, shielding the child behind her.
"Righteous one..."
The man transformed from the male deer suddenly reached out and grabbed Qin Mu's robe, lifting his head with difficulty, his breath faint. "Righteous one, please..."
Qin Mu lifted his robe, freeing it from the man's grasp, and continued forward.
As he passed the female deer, he paused. The deer with the little red flower tied to her antlers was already dead, no longer breathing.
Qin Mu withdrew his gaze and kept walking. Suddenly, the woman called "Nai Kui" grabbed his hand, looking at him with hope, her voice hoarse. "Take my child away. As long as she can survive..."
Qin Mu stopped. The young man from True Heavenly Palace behind him called out loudly, "Fellow Daoist, this is the family matter of my True Heavenly Palace!"
Qin Mu freed his hand from hers and continued forward, nodding politely to the True Heavenly Palace cultivators on both sides as he led Long Qilin and the two white bats through the battlefield.
Long Qilin quickly caught up, turning his head to look at Qin Mu's face. He hesitated. "Cult Leader..."
Qin Mu's expression was blank. "It's their family matter. We can't interfere..."
Long Qilin said, "It's good not to interfere. The Ancestral Master said you always stir up trouble. It seems you've really grown up."
Qin Mu was stunned. "Grown up? Is this what it means to grow up?"
"Knowing how to weigh pros and cons is naturally growing up. Very rational."
Long Qilin said, "In the past, you were very irrational, fighting this one and that one, not afraid of offending anyone. For those few months, the Ancestral Master had to clean up a lot of messes for you."
Qin Mu fell silent. The sounds of battle came from behind.
"This is growing up... I don't want to grow up like this..."
Qin Mu let out a bitter laugh and continued forward. From his glutton sack, countless small swords flew out silently, landing around him. More and more flying swords fell, forming a sword formation.
He kept walking, and the eight thousand swords also kept spreading forward, covering the land like a river of blades. These swords even took on the shape of mountains and rivers.
Ding. The last sword light landed.
Qin Mu stopped, reached out, and pressed down. All eight thousand swords sank into the ground. Suddenly, he pulled up his robe to cover himself and vanished!
"I don't want to grow up into this kind of adult!"