Chapter 397: Flawless
The headless demon god's corpse suddenly went limp. Its claws, which had been gripping the mountains on either side, released their hold, and the body tumbled into the river channel below. The gateway behind the corpse was completely blocked by its bulk.
On the sun ship, the warriors of the Sun Herding Tribe were locked in a bitter struggle. The sheer number of Duplicate Body Demons surging toward them was overwhelming. Even the Sun Herders, born warriors, found it difficult to hold their ground. Casualties mounted as some were assimilated by the Duplicate Body Demons.
Suddenly, all the Duplicate Body Demons froze in place, standing motionless. Then, their faces began to twist violently, as if two faces were fighting for control of the body. Their features shifted rapidly—some demons' eyes split into two, then merged back together in an eerie, chaotic dance.
The towering Sun Herders stopped their attacks, uncertain of what to do. Their enemies, who had been fighting with such ferocity moments before, were now trapped in a bizarre state.
After a moment, the Duplicate Body Demon fighting the Sun Herder chieftain suddenly collapsed, its body dissolving into a swarm of smaller Duplicate Body Demons. The face of the leading demon transformed completely, and the demonic patterns on its body rapidly faded. In moments, it became a woman dressed in translucent scale-feather garments. Her figure was graceful and alluring, her skin pale and almost transparent.
The woman looked around in confusion, seemingly unaware that her scale-feather attire did little to cover her body.
"Where is this place?"
Her eyes were filled with bewilderment. She didn't speak aloud, but her spiritual fluctuations allowed everyone to hear her voice and understand her meaning: "How did I get here?"
Then, more Duplicate Body Demons transformed into other forms.
Like the woman, these people wore garments that weren't true clothing but thin wings made of scales. They didn't have just one pair of wings; their bodies were covered in wings of various sizes and lengths.
These were scale-feathers. In the Yan Kingdom, creatures with scale-feathers were rare, but in the Great Ruins, there were strange beasts that grew them.
However, people with scale-feathers—there was no such bizarre race in the Great Ruins.
The scale-feathers on these individuals continued to change. The first woman to awaken quickly noticed she was barely clothed. Her scale-feathers seemed to shift color according to her mood. Soon, scales flipped over, rapidly turning black, forming a black dress that covered her body.
The other scale-feather people also changed the colors of their scale-feathers to cover themselves.
All the scale-feather oddities looked around in confusion, unsure of where they were.
The Sun Herders on the ship were equally bewildered, not understanding why the Duplicate Body Demons had undergone such a transformation.
The Sun Herder chieftain speculated, "They must be foreign races that were assimilated by the Duplicate Body Demon God. Now that the main consciousness of the Duplicate Body Demon God is dead, the consciousness controlling them has dissipated, and they've regained their freedom. That means the Duplicate Body Demon God is dead!"
The elders beside him showed expressions of wild joy. Suddenly, a clattering sound came from behind them. They quickly turned to look. Behind them, Qin Mu had two hands gripping the pillars while his other two hands were pulling chains from behind.
These chains were pierced through the sun, treasures used to tether it, and pulling them back was extremely laborious.
The old chieftain's heart tightened. He hurried to the center of the pillars, looked up, and asked, "Your Highness, why did you throw the sun out again? It's not damaged, is it?"
Qin Mu looked down at his hopeful eyes and hesitated. "Well..."
After a moment, the old chieftain saw Qin Mu dragging the sun back.
It was two large black lumps, like two hemispherical mountains.
The old chieftain and the elders were stunned. Almost all the Sun Herders on the ship stared in shock at the two black lumps moving toward them.
The Sun Herders' sun had not only gone out but had also split in two!
Clatter, clatter.
The sound of chains being pulled was harsh.
Qin Mu dragged the two halves of the sun back, carefully recalled the Carefree Sword, which lifted the Sun's Jade Eye and wobbled its way over.
"Chieftain, I have two pieces of good news. First, the Duplicate Body Demon God is indeed dead." Qin Mu said, a bit guiltily.
The old chieftain's expression was wooden, his voice as stiff as a machine: "And the other good news?"
"We can get a new sun!"
The old chieftain turned his head to look at their prince, on the verge of tears.
"Great, just great..." he murmured.
Qin Mu pulled the two halves of the black sun back. Behind the sun, tens of thousands of scale-feather oddities followed the black sun to the vicinity of the sun ship.
Many scale-feather oddities who couldn't keep up with the broken sun died in the darkness of the Great Ruins. The survivors, realizing the danger, communicated among themselves, and more and more followed the sun, thus avoiding death.
Their communication wasn't through sound but through spiritual thought fluctuations. They could notify each other without speaking—a very peculiar trait.
Qin Mu dragged the two halves of the sun back onto the sun ship. Suddenly, a voice echoed in his mind: "Heavenly Feather Tribe, Yu Zhaoqing, greets the esteemed master of this place."
Qin Mu was startled and looked at the woman in the black dress walking toward him. She approached gracefully, and her black dress rapidly changed to a light yellow color.
By the time she reached the Sun God Pillar, not only had her dress turned light yellow, but its style also resembled the robes of the old chieftain and the others. It seemed their scale-feathers could change shape and color according to their will.
Qin Mu released his grip on the sun pillar. The two arms under his armpits gradually retracted, and the leg behind his buttocks also shrank back into his body. The terrifying power of the sun ship within him receded. After a moment, his body returned to its normal size.
Qin Mu quickly ducked behind a pillar, took out a set of clothes, changed out of his tattered garments, tidied himself up, and then stepped out from behind the pillar.
When he had gripped the sun pillar, his power had surged, and his body had become immensely tall, tearing his clothes. His garments were spirit weapons, but when Qin Mu's body grew to a hundred zhang tall, like a celestial being, it exceeded the clothes' capacity. Plus, the third leg that grew from his tailbone had torn through them.
"Tribal Chief Yu." Qin Mu greeted her with a bow.
Yu Zhaoqing of the Heavenly Feather Tribe looked at him, surprised. Moments ago, Qin Mu had been a celestial being; now he was just a young boy.
Her dress spread across the ground as she bowed deeply in return. Qin Mu quickly pointed to the Sun Herder chieftain and said with a smile, "I am not the chieftain of this place. He is. I dare not overstep my authority."
The old chieftain shook his head. "All under heaven is the king's land. The Sun Herder Tribe is also Your Highness's territory. You are the master of this place."
Qin Mu had no choice but to receive this Heavenly Feather Tribe woman. "Tribal Chief Yu, this is not a good place for conversation. Please have your people come aboard the ship, and we'll go to the Sun Well to talk."
Yu Zhaoqing's spiritual fluctuations spread, and soon all the Heavenly Feather Tribe members boarded the sun ship. Qin Mu restarted the ship and entered the space covered by the Sun Well.
On the ship, millions of Heavenly Feather Tribe members curiously looked around at this strange little world, their clothes constantly changing color.
These Heavenly Feather Tribe members were slightly taller and thinner than ordinary people. Both men and women were handsome and beautiful, their clothes changing color with their moods. When happy, their clothes became colorful.
Qin Mu released the sun pillar again, afraid to touch those pillars. He had broken the sun in two, and without the sun to regulate it, the terrifying power of the sun ship had begun to devour his own life force. In just that short moment, his feet had been swallowed by the sun ship. He had only managed to jump out by shrinking his body, but his legs were now weak.
"When His Highness meets with the chieftain of the Heavenly Feather Tribe, it must be done with proper ceremony. We cannot be negligent."
The old chieftain invited Qin Mu into the Sun God Temple, then summoned Yu Zhaoqing for a meeting.
"Your Highness."
In the Sun God Temple, Yu Zhaoqing stepped forward, cupped Qin Mu's face, and gently touched her forehead to his.
"What are you doing?"
Fox Ling'er, leading Ling Yuxiu and Si Yunxiang, rushed into the Sun God Temple and happened to see this. She said angrily, "Where do you get off kissing him..."
Yu Zhaoqing curiously looked at this little girl, who was only as tall as her shin. She bent down, cupped Fox Ling'er's face, and gently touched her forehead.
Fox Ling'er suddenly felt something added to her mind—the language of the Heavenly Feather Tribe. At the same time, she sensed Yu Zhaoqing exchanging the language of this world for the Heavenly Feather Tribe's language.
Fox Ling'er suddenly understood: "It's not a kiss! I thought you were taking advantage of my young master..."
Yu Zhaoqing smiled, bent down again, and lightly pecked her on the lips. Fox Ling'er's face flushed red, her heart pounding like a startled deer. She swayed as if drunk, shyly saying, "A kiss isn't so bad..."
Yu Zhaoqing walked toward Ling Yuxiu, whose heart was also racing. Ling Yuxiu looked down at her chest, but Yu Zhaoqing only touched her forehead, not kissing her, which made her sigh in relief.
Si Yunxiang also had her forehead touched and laughed, "So it's an exchange of languages. Is this a talent of your Heavenly Feather Tribe, or a divine ability?"
"It's a talent."
Yu Zhaoqing spoke, and the language of this world's humans came from her mouth. Though still a bit rough, it grew more fluent as she continued: "Your Highness slew the Duplicate Body Demon God, saving my Heavenly Feather Tribe from disaster. The entire tribe is deeply grateful."
Qin Mu shook his head. "I didn't intend to save you; I was acting in self-defense. No need to thank me. Do you Heavenly Feather Tribe also live in the Great Ruins?"
"Not here, but in another world."
Yu Zhaoqing said, "The world we come from was taken over by the Duplicate Body Demon God. All our people were devoured by him, living in a daze. Thanks to Your Highness's rescue, we were spared extinction. Though Your Highness does not seek repayment for kindness, the Heavenly Feather Tribe cannot fail to repay it."
Qin Mu asked curiously, "The world you come from—is it the one behind that demon god's corpse? Why did your world connect with the Great Ruins?"
"About twenty thousand years ago, our world collided with another. The spaces of the two worlds overlapped. The people of the Heavenly Feather World discovered that every night, another world would appear above their heads—very wondrous."
Yu Zhaoqing said, "The emperor of that world sent a god to demand our submission. Later, we learned that world was called the Kaihuang Kingdom. But one day, a change occurred. The Kaihuang Kingdom became the Great Ruins. Our Heavenly Feather World also suffered. At night, the sky above our world was no longer filled with stars but with the deepest darkness. Then, after who knows how long, the Duplicate Body Demon God invaded our world..."
No update at noon, two chapters in the evening!
Notice: Zhai Zhu is preparing interview materials, so the noon chapter won't be updated in time. Both chapters will be updated together around eight in the evening!