Chapter 390: Star Sea Mystery
"Could it be that I learned a fake version of the Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique, and the cowherd's version is the real one?"
Ling Yuxiu was somewhat bewildered. The "Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique" that Qin Mu had taught her belonged to the Ling family, but only the opening stance. Everything after that exceeded the scope of the Ling family's Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique—not only exceeding it, but surpassing it.
The most terrifying part was that the Ling family's Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique seemed like a branch developed from the opening stance, while the version Qin Mu taught was like the main trunk. The branch was merely one possibility of the trunk!
The most primitive Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique was like a sapling just breaking through the soil. The Ling family's perfected version was like a broken tree trunk that had only grown a single branch, while Qin Mu's version had grown the entire trunk.
The Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique had been perfected by generation after generation of the Ling family, finally reaching completion in Emperor Yanfeng's era. But it had already reached its limit, with no possibility of further potential.
Qin Mu's Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique, however, showed her infinite potential!
But why couldn't the tireless efforts of so many generations of the Ling family compare to Qin Mu's brief moment of "enlightenment"?
Could he also be a sage born once every five hundred years?
Qin Mu, however, didn't think much about it. The "Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique" he had comprehended from the True Dragon Nest was also incomplete. He was merely teaching Ling Yuxiu what he had realized, as a form of compensation to the Ling family.
He couldn't return the Imperial Disc to the Ling family. It was a treasure Cripple had given him, and according to the rules of the Great Ruins, gifts given are not returned.
Moreover, the True Dragon Nest and the Imperial Disc were a pair, inseparable. The Ling family would have no use for the Imperial Disc alone. The complete Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique could only be seen when the True Dragon entered the nest.
After Qin Mu retrieved the Imperial Disc from the dragon nest, the pressure on the flood dragons and the dragon qilin immediately vanished. They rose to their feet, looking at Qin Mu with a hint of awe.
Qin Mu ordered them to continue toward Heavenly Dragon Star Palace. He glanced at the dragon nest, his heart stirring, and smiled. "For cultivating the Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique, I have an excellent place. Sister Yuxiu, come with me. Let's jump into this nest." With that, he grabbed Ling Yuxiu's hand and leaped toward the dragon nest.
Ling Yuxiu was startled, wondering how they could jump into such a small bonsai-like rock formation. Suddenly, she saw the "bonsai" where they were landing growing larger and larger. Their bodies plummeted rapidly, as if falling from a height of thousands of feet.
The "bonsai" transformed into a vast space over twenty li in circumference!
Even the perimeter of the ninth layer of the dragon nest alone was over ten li!
As soon as they landed, a scream came from above. Si Yunxiang had also jumped down. When she landed in the space of the True Dragon Nest, she realized it was a hidden world and couldn't help but be amazed!
Fox Ling'er saw the three disappear from the dragon's back and quickly hopped over to look into the "bonsai." She saw Qin Mu and the others as small as ants, seemingly becoming part of the bonsai.
But they were still moving and talking, though their voices sounded as if they came from dozens of li away, faint and indistinct.
The three looked around, curious about the place. Although Qin Mu had entered the dragon nest with Huan Longjun before, most of the nest had been submerged in magma at that time, so he hadn't seen its full interior.
This time, he could see the entire dragon nest without obstruction.
The dragon nest was divided into nine layers, each with many glowing pillars. Some looked like stalactites, some like dragon fangs, and others like columns. The constantly shifting text and patterns on the ground and pillars held mysterious significance.
Ling Yuxiu took a breath and immediately felt an incredibly rich influx of dragon energy. She let out a surprised exclamation.
The dragon energy in the True Dragon Nest was even denser than that in the capital. Compared to the dragon energy here, the Nine Dragon Energy of the capital was like heaven and earth apart in quality!
The dragon energy here seemed more advanced, far surpassing the Nine Dragon Energy. After all, the Nine Dragon Energy was formed from the convergence of nine dragon veins, while the dragon energy here gathered the energy of dozens of dragon veins from the Eternal Peace Kingdom and the Great Ruins, forming the dragon energy of the True Dragon Lord!
"Cultivating here is faster than in the capital!"
Ling Yuxiu activated the Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique that Qin Mu had taught her and immediately felt her cultivation skyrocketing, with her primordial energy becoming purer!
Si Yunxiang also tested the Great Nurturing Demon Sutra's technique for observing divine dragons. She felt the dragon energy flowing in endlessly. In just a short time, the technique felt as if she had been practicing it for dozens of days. She was startled.
If she could cultivate here for over ten days, it would be equivalent to decades of cultivation in the outside world. If there were no realm restrictions, her mastery of techniques and divine abilities would be unimaginable!
Of course, even with realm restrictions, it was still extraordinary—an absolute holy land for cultivating dragon-based techniques and divine abilities.
"Unfortunately, it's not very useful to me." Si Yunxiang shook her head.
Her main focus was the Creation Chapter of the Great Nurturing Demon Sutra, passed down from the Young Patriarch. The Young Patriarch had developed the Seven Chapters of Creation to their peak and imparted his various insights to her. Moreover, Qin Mu had taught her the entire Great Nurturing Demon Sutra, though he hadn't taught her the Unified Cultivation Technique. Even so, Si Yunxiang was among the top young experts of her generation.
Qin Mu was also absorbing the True Dragon Energy. Unlike Ling Yuxiu, who was cultivating the Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique, he was trying to integrate the body-tempering parts of the Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique into his Overlord Body Three Dan Technique.
The strength of the Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique lay in its formidable magical power, rivaling the Overlord Body Three Dan Technique, and its extremely powerful body-tempering methods. The Overlord Body Three Dan Technique happened to lack body-tempering techniques, so the Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique could fill this gap.
He had already integrated the Nine Dragons Emperor Emperor Technique taught by Emperor Yanfeng into his Overlord Body Three Dan Technique. But now, the version he had comprehended was far more complex, and the dragon language and script differed from human language, making integration extremely difficult. Even absorbing only the body-tempering methods was a challenge that couldn't be accomplished in a short time.
Not long after, Fox Ling'er's voice came from outside. "Young master, we've arrived at Heavenly Dragon Star Palace!"
Qin Mu left Ling Yuxiu, who was in deep meditation, inside the dragon nest. He took Si Yunxiang and flew out. As they exited the dragon nest, their bodies gradually grew larger. By the time their feet touched the ground, they had returned to normal size, without any discomfort.
"Huan Longjun is remarkable. He didn't shrink the dragon nest itself but refined and shrunk the space containing it."
Qin Mu admired this ability. It was similar to a glutton sack, but while a glutton sack contained internal space, Huan Longjun used immense magical power to shrink a space dozens of li in circumference to the size of seven or eight feet.
"Ahead is Heavenly Dragon Star Palace!" Fox Ling'er said.
Qin Mu looked forward and saw a stretch of dilapidated palaces. Heavenly Dragon Star Palace was a cluster of ancient buildings, with many villages nestled among them. Above the palaces, massive mountain-sized stones floated in the air—black, red, blue, and various colors.
These stones were riddled with holes and occasionally collided, sending down showers of rubble. The large stones in the sky were pitted and scarred, but the falling debris never hit the villages, landing instead outside them.
The once towering and majestic divine palaces and temples had become ruins, yet they still sheltered the people living here.
Seeing the villagers dressed in animal skins with simple, honest faces, Qin Mu felt a sense of familiarity. Si Yunxiang, however, blushed. Even in winter, the villagers wore animal-skin shorts and vests. A few half-grown boys squatted down, half their buttocks exposed, which was quite embarrassing.
"I used to be like that!" the Great Lord Qin said excitedly.
Si Yunxiang imagined the Great Lord Qin in his younger days with half his buttocks exposed and couldn't help but spit in disdain.
Qin Mu walked over to greet the village elders and asked for the exact location of the Star Sea. After a moment, he returned, full of enthusiasm. "That elder said the Star Sea is very dangerous, always spitting out stars. It's incredibly brilliant at night! Let's hurry over!"
Si Yunxiang grumbled inwardly.
They led the dragon group to a large canyon. Below the canyon was a deep, unfathomable abyss. Countless points of light dotted the darkness, making it look like a starry sky when viewed from above. The lights resembled stars in the heavens.
"So beautiful!"
Fox Ling'er exclaimed excitedly. "It really looks like the night sky! There's even a Milky Way!"
Si Yunxiang felt a chill run down her spine. The "Milky Way" in the Star Sea Abyss indeed resembled the celestial Milky Way, but the "stars" in this river were constantly colliding, like a pot of boiling porridge—clearly extremely dangerous!
Whoosh—
A dark, eerie wind blew from the abyss, and a "star" was blown out. It was as large as a mountain but didn't fall to the ground, instead floating in the air.
Suddenly, another "star" flew out of the abyss. The two massive stones collided with a dull roar, releasing a burst of power that made Si Yunxiang's heart tremble. She quickly said, "Lord Sect Leader! This Star Sea is not a place for someone at our level to tread. Even a Divine Bridge realm expert might not return alive!"
"Don't worry. With the help of the flood dragons, we won't be in any danger."
Qin Mu looked at the Star Sea Abyss, feeling a bit uneasy himself. "The Sun Well is very far from here, at the center of the Great Ruins. But Yan Jingjing said that the Sun Herders came out of the Star Sea and returned to the Sun Well through it. Could there be a passage in this Star Sea that leads quickly to the Sun Well?"
He pondered for a moment, then blew the golden flute to command the flood dragons to fly into the Star Sea. Si Yunxiang braced herself for danger but then relaxed, shaking her head. "If the stars come crashing down, my resistance would be useless. I might as well see what tricks the Lord Sect Leader has up his sleeve."
Qin Mu carefully activated the Dragon Subduing Technique, dodging one star after another as they approached the Milky Way in the Star Sea.
This place was clearly underground, yet it didn't feel like the underground at all—it felt like another world.
They seemed to have entered a vast, deep space. Surrounding them were stars the size of mountains. Qin Mu looked back and saw the place they had descended from was a massive crack, with no sign of the surface.
The brilliant stars emitted multicolored light. The Milky Way coiled like a whirlpool, with millions upon millions of so-called stars moving within it, constantly colliding. Waves of power struck them, making their faces feel as if they were being cut by knives.
"Dragon Shield!"
Qin Mu shouted. The flood dragons changed their formation, linking tails, locking hind claws, and bending their heads downward, forming an inverted dome to shield them from the impacts.
Qin Mu looked toward the center of the Milky Way. There, he saw something resembling the yin-yang fish of a Taiji diagram—two enormous wells. Countless stars revolved around these wells. Above the wells, there seemed to be two cracks.
That should be the surface of the Great Ruins, the location of the Sun Well and the Moon Well!
Qin Mu's heart shook violently. This Star Sea didn't seem artificially created. It felt like another world—a world shrunk countless times!