Chapter 371: The Mute's Box
"The treasures emerging from our Taibai Mountains are truly astonishing!"
Almost everyone in the Taibai Sword Sect was fleeing the mountain, yet the three elders of the sect advanced instead of retreating, rushing toward the volcanic crater at the summit. They shouted sternly, "This is the Heavenly Demon Sect Leader trying to drive us away so he can keep the mountain's treasures for himself! No one leave!"
Another elderly woman cried out, "This is the manifestation of our founder, strengthening our Taibai Sword Sect and bestowing the treasures of Taibai Mountain upon us! This is a sign of our great prosperity!"
"Heaven has shown mercy!"
A white-haired elder looked up to the sky and sighed deeply, declaring loudly, "Our Taibai Sword Sect's founder said this was a land of dragon prosperity, destined for great wealth and honor, and now it has come true. All disciples, hear my command: today is the day our Taibai Sword Sect rises to glory, surpassing the Three Sacred Lands! Return, all of you, and join forces to subdue this treasure!"
Hearing this, many Taibai Sword Sect disciples immediately stopped fleeing and turned back.
The Taibai Sword Sect had never been large. One sect leader had gone to the capital to appeal to the emperor, leaving behind three elders, a dozen mid-level members, and about a hundred disciples under their instruction.
At this moment, most of the sect chose to stay. They recalled the flying sword boxes that had been knocked away, and the massive black boxes—each several zhang tall—landed with heavy thuds across the crumbling Taibai Mountain. The lids of the boxes opened, and countless flying swords poured out like rivers, soaring into the sky.
In midair, Qin Mu stood astride two dragons, which sprinted with all their might, surrounded by several other flood dragons escorting him as he fled into the distance. He looked back and saw the sky above Taibai Mountain filled with flying swords forming clouds, their tips pointing downward as they suddenly shot toward the erupting volcanic crater!
Qin Mu's eyes widened, and he shouted urgently, "Are you all not leaving? Are you looking for death?"
At the summit, the three elders sneered in unison. "Trying to trick us into leaving so you can hog the treasure? The Heavenly Demon Sect Leader truly has a wicked heart. If we hadn't known that Taibai Mountain is a land of dragon prosperity, we might have been fooled by you."
Qin Mu sighed and sped away with a whoosh.
"The Taibai Mountain range is built on the dragon's eye of a dragon vein, but this dragon vein is a subsidiary vein of the True Dragon Lord, not a land of prosperity but a place of fortune-stealing. The Taibai Sword Sect has had its luck drained by this dragon vein for so many years; their fate is likely exhausted."
Qin Mu thought to himself, "At least this sect only has a hundred or so people, so no great disaster has occurred..."
No sooner had he thought this than Taibai Mountain exploded with a thunderous roar.
The massive volcano shattered into pieces.
In that instant, the hundred-box flying sword formation collapsed completely. Countless flying swords melted in midair, turning into molten iron, and the disciples of the Taibai Sword Sect were vaporized without even a groan.
The three elders were highly cultivated, but against this terrifying force, they were helpless. They were blasted backward, spitting blood, as the molten iron from the melted swords mixed with the shattered rocks, hurtling toward them faster than any flying sword.
The elders' faces were filled with despair. The molten iron would pierce them through, ending all hope of survival!
Then they saw a colossal figure slowly rising from the collapsing Taibai Mountain.
"As the Heavenly Demon Sect Leader, he didn't actually deceive us. There really is a giant in the mountain..."
The three elders looked up as the immensely powerful divine being slowly stood, with two long azure and crimson dragons beneath its feet roaring with earth-shattering might.
Chi chi chi—
The bodies of the three elders exploded, riddled like sieves by the molten iron. Their corpses fell with the crumbling rocks of Taibai Mountain, buried deep along with the other disciples of the Taibai Sword Sect.
The founder of the Taibai Sword Sect should never have chosen this place for the sect.
By now, the Dragon Tamer Lord's body was dozens of times larger than before. His physique coiled like a great dragon, muscles knotted, claws gripping the two massive dragons beneath him. The two dragons sped through the clouds, carrying him in pursuit of Qin Mu's direction, but Qin Mu was nowhere to be seen.
Several flood dragons clung to him, hanging from his ears and burrowing into his clothes, poking out their heads and tails.
These flood dragons were the ones he had kept to help him collect and refine the dragon nest, which was why he had been able to refine it so quickly.
The Dragon Tamer Lord's aura was overwhelming. He looked around but still couldn't spot Qin Mu. He reached out and produced a jade object the size of a table, sneering, "Little brat, do you think you can escape?"
The base of this jade object was like a large round table, cut very flat, but the top was a half-dome. Beneath the dome, the ground was divided into nine layers, each filled with interlocking jade pillars and teeth. At the ninth layer, there was a circular groove with a missing piece.
This was the dragon nest of the True Dragon Lord!
Earlier, when Qin Mu had entered the dragon nest, most of it was submerged in boiling magma, showing only the tip of the iceberg.
The Dragon Tamer Lord had expended great effort to dig the nest out from underground and refine it, allowing him to take it away.
He activated the jade dragon nest, using it to determine Qin Mu's location.
But Qin Mu seemed to have vanished. Even the dragon nest couldn't sense the True Dragon Lord.
The Dragon Tamer Lord was surprised. He increased his magical power and activated the nest again, but still couldn't detect the location of the imperial disc Qin Mu wore.
"Has he hidden the True Dragon Lord? No, no matter where it's hidden, it can't cut off the connection between the True Dragon Lord and the dragon nest!"
He activated the nest repeatedly but still couldn't sense Qin Mu's position.
Sweat beaded on the Dragon Tamer Lord's forehead. Qin Mu had "stolen" over a dozen of his dragons, all incredibly powerful. The red flood dragon of the Dragon Gate Sect's Dragon King was still a child compared to these dragons he had raised with his life's work. Each one was terrifyingly strong!
If Qin Mu took them, the loss would be immense.
Moreover, his mission was to find the main dragon vein of the Yan Kingdom. If he couldn't eliminate it, how could he return to the Upper Realm?
"It seems I'll have to take out my Golden Dragon Vat and perform a ritual to find my dragons!"
The Dragon Tamer Lord reached into his gluttony pouch but found it empty. His face turned ashen.
He had given his gluttony pouch to Qin Mu to refine pills and feed the dragons, so it was naturally in Qin Mu's hands now!
His Golden Dragon Vat was inside that pouch!
"That honest-looking brat..."
The Dragon Tamer Lord ground his teeth, sparks flying from the friction. "If I ever meet another honest-looking person, I'll tear them to pieces first! Do you think taking my gluttony pouch will stop me from finding you? How naive!"
The Dragon Tamer Lord raised his hand and tore out a large clump of his own hair. His hair was curly, every strand twisted, with not a single straight one.
Not only that, but each hair had branches—four branches sprouting from two points along the shaft.
When he pulled the hair from the follicles, the roots made a yawning sound, like tiny dragons opening their mouths and breathing, drowsy and sleepy.
The Dragon Tamer Lord muttered an incantation. After a moment, he blew on the curly hair in his palm. The strands floated up from his hand, came to life in the air, and landed as tiny dragons.
These dragons grew with the wind, quickly becoming black flood dragons two to three zhang long, with slender bodies, thin legs, and long necks. They raced wildly across the mountains.
"If you're not in the air, you can't have gone far."
The Dragon Tamer Lord's expression shifted. He tore out another clump of hair and repeated the process, sending hundreds of slender black flood dragons flying into the distance.
He tore out several more clumps, nearly pulling his head bald, before stopping.
Thousands of black flood dragons moved at incredible speed, each covering a square li of ground, quickly forming a search path thousands of li wide as they swept forward.
These black flood dragons would sniff out dragon qi. Even if Qin Mu hid the imperial disc perfectly, as long as he had the flood dragons and the dragon qilin with him, these black dragons would catch their scent and track him down!
"No one has ever dared to deceive me like this. When I find you, I'll make you wish you were dead!"
In Jiangyin County, Qin Mu looked at the wooden box and still felt uneasy. "Is it really safe to put the imperial disc in here? Can it fool the Dragon Tamer Lord? He took the dragon nest, and the imperial disc is the True Dragon Lord born from that nest—it's very spiritual!"
"Ah bah! Ah ah ah?"
The man carrying the wooden box was a sturdy old man, weathered and worn. He waved his hands, grinning with a toothless mouth—he had no tongue.
Qin Mu nodded. "I know. How could I doubt Grandpa Mute's skills? I'm just worried that if the box can't block the dragon nest's sensing, the Dragon Tamer Lord will find us. The Dragon Tamer Lord is a god from the Upper Realm, an expert at raising dragons, and extremely powerful!"
Earlier, while fleeing, he had seen a silver boat streaking across the sky like a silver shuttle. He called out "Grandpa Mute," and the silver boat turned back. Sure enough, the mute was inside.
Qin Mu quickly explained the situation. The mute put away the flying boat, which turned into a pile of silver pellets and fell into the wooden box. He told Qin Mu to put the imperial disc in the box as well.
"Ah," the mute said casually.
"Grandpa Mute, don't underestimate him."
Qin Mu's expression was serious, feeling the mute was being too careless. "By the way, the village chief said you went to chase a boat. What boat? Did you catch it? I also encountered a boat and saw my father on it."
The mute's smile faded, and he looked dejected. He picked up the wooden box and walked ahead.
Qin Mu quickly followed. "Grandpa Mute, you didn't find the boat?"
The mute remained downcast, gesturing to explain that the boat had gone to a world he couldn't enter, and he had been driven back by a powerful being from that world.
After a moment, a surprised and delighted voice came from ahead: "Human Emperor Qin, what are you doing here? That dragon qilin of yours is truly remarkable—it got ahead of us!"
Qin Mu looked over and was startled to see Wang Muran, Long Yu, and Mu Qingdai sitting on a large deer, dusty and travel-worn, heading this way.
The dragon qilin puffed up with pride, its tail sticking straight up like a flagpole as it glanced disdainfully at the little deer from the Small Jade Capital.
The deer's eyes bulged, its mouth hanging open. Its small tail, which had been raised, immediately pressed flat against its rear, tucked in with awe.
When the deer saw the large and small flood dragons around Qin Mu, all flanking the dragon qilin, its awe deepened.
Qin Mu was surprised. "It took you three days to get here?"
In the past three days, he had traveled from the capital to the Taibai Sword Sect, then across eighty to ninety thousand li to the center of the Great Ruins, and then back again!
But if he said that, these three probably wouldn't believe him.
—Well, regarding the "silly tool" that appeared in the previous chapter, that was definitely not the author's intention. The author meant "kill," but the damn input method messed up. The author swears he never curses!
A chapter comment event has been held on the public WeChat account. Details are in the pinned comment of the previous chapter. Readers can also follow the author's public account to read. Click to access.
Reading URL: