Chapter 402: Xing Han
Everyone in the Cripples' Village, except for Granny Si, had their own unique skills. It could be said that each of them had a distinctive expertise, and all had cultivated to the divine realm.
When the path of the Divine Bridge was severed, they could no longer advance to higher realms, so they devoted their entire lives to researching a single aspect. This, in turn, made their strength comparable to the gods of the heavens, no weaker than false gods like Dragon Tamer.
If reaching the divine realm in just one aspect allowed them to contend with the powerful beings of the heavens, what if someone could reach the divine realm in every aspect?
Wouldn't that be a true god?
Clearly, this powerful figure named Xing Han was walking that path. However, his strategy wasn't to research and cultivate on his own, but to directly acquire abilities from others.
After all, a person's energy was limited. Without repairing the Divine Bridge, their lifespan was also limited, only living over eight hundred years. If he studied and trained hard on his own, he could at most reach the divine realm in one or two aspects in his lifetime. But by directly acquiring from others, he could potentially gather all the divine realms, becoming like a true god!
He was a contemporary of the Village Chief, and logically, he should be as old as the Village Chief. Yet he still looked like a youth, which meant he hadn't only taken the Lame Man's legs and the Blind Man's eyes. Other powerful beings must have also fallen victim to him!
No one could say how far his strength had progressed.
The Blind Man's eyes—the strongest divine eyes. The Lame Man's legs—the fastest divine legs. Just these two alone were enough to place him among the ranks of the strongest.
He must have also obtained divine body parts from other powerful beings.
With such a powerful figure targeting Ma Ye's arm, even though Ma Ye had already reached the Tathagata realm, he might not be a match for him.
The Butcher stood up and walked outside, saying, "I'm going to see Old Ma Ye."
"Butcher, is your strongest weapon your knife?" the Village Chief suddenly asked.
The Butcher stopped in his tracks. "No. My strongest is actually my heart."
Suddenly, a roar came from within his body, like thunder from the heavens or a giant beating a war drum on a battlefield. It was the sound of his heartbeat. With each beat, everyone's eardrums buzzed and rang.
He surged his blood and qi, and the sound of his heartbeat rose. It felt as if the sharpest and heaviest heavenly blade was being unsheathed—vast, sharp, and unstoppable!
The blade of the heavenly knife wasn't the butcher knife in his hand; he himself was the blade.
This heavenly blade of his needed a powerful source of energy to drive it, and that source was his heart.
Qin Mu opened his Fire Xiao Heavenly Eye and looked at the Butcher. What he saw wasn't a person, but a blade!
At the center of the blade, a beating heart was entrenched, with blood vessels like great dragons extending from it, spreading like a network throughout the blade.
With each beat of the heart, unparalleled blood and qi were transported to every part of the heavenly blade!
The Butcher had refined his heart into a divine heart.
The Village Chief said, "He needs your heart, a divine heart."
The Butcher shook his head. "I'm not afraid of him."
The Village Chief said, "He's not afraid of you either. Even if I were to contend with him, my chances of winning wouldn't be high. If you go to find Ma Ye alone, he will intercept you on the way. Mute, what is your strongest?"
The Mute sat there, smoking his water pipe. Upon hearing this, he tapped out the ashes and tucked the pipe back into his waist.
Suddenly, the furnace behind him ignited without any fire. But then everyone noticed that what lit the blacksmith's furnace wasn't his primal energy, and the overwhelming heat wasn't coming from the furnace itself, but from within his body.
His primal energy became incredibly intense, as if a blazing furnace was burning fiercely in his abdomen, like a small sun spinning wildly. His already terrifyingly vast primal energy surged even more!
He sat there like a sun storing energy, waiting for an earth-shattering eruption!
"Mute, you've refined your dantian into a divine furnace. Xing Han also needs your dantian."
The Village Chief looked at the Deaf Man and shook his head. "Deaf Man, although you've reached the ultimate realm in the art of painting, Xing Han doesn't need anything from you. He can't take away your skill."
The Deaf Man looked up, glanced at the Pharmacist, and said, "The Quack probably isn't on his radar either. The Quack's cultivation is too low, only at the Heavenly Being realm."
The Pharmacist chuckled. "A wandering doctor like me will never starve anywhere. Unlike some painter who almost starved to death."
The Deaf Man said smugly, "One painting of mine can buy several large mansions in the capital. You, on the other hand, can only lose everything by killing patients with your medicine."
The Village Chief suddenly said, "Xing Han needs the Pharmacist."
Everyone was slightly stunned. The Village Chief said in a deep voice, "He needs the Pharmacist's skills to change his body."
The Pharmacist shuddered.
The Village Chief said solemnly, "Don't worry. Butcher, Blacksmith, Pharmacist, come with me. We'll go to the Great Thunderclap Monastery together. Deaf Man, Lame Man, Blind Man, you stay here. Xing Han's target is us, so he won't come looking for you. It's settled. We'll set off now. Mu'er, you stay here and celebrate the New Year. We'll go to the Great Thunderclap Monastery for a vegetarian meal. Let's go!"
The Blind Man said calmly, "My Dragon Han spear also wants to meet Xing Han again. This divine spear was defeated by him and has been longing for revenge for a long time."
The Village Chief shook his head. "This isn't just your personal matter; it concerns Ma Ye's safety. We also need an expert here. The Lame Man is no longer capable. When he had one leg, he could still run. Now that both legs are gone, he can't run anymore. You'd better stay."
The Blind Man frowned but said nothing.
The Pharmacist picked up his medicine basket, placed the Village Chief inside it, and left with the Butcher and the Mute. Many women gathered around, intending to follow the Pharmacist. He quickly begged off, saying, "Dear sisters, I'll be back in a few days. I won't run away, rest assured!"
The women relented and let him leave.
Only the Lame Man, the Blind Man, the Deaf Man, and Qin Mu remained in the hall. The Lame Man started crying again, saying, "Mu'er is now the fastest runner in the village. I can't even run anymore..."
Qin Mu quickly comforted him. The Lame Man gradually calmed down, but then suddenly saw his empty lower body and was overcome with grief, crying again: "When I had one leg, I could still hop around and move fast. Now I can't even hop!"
"Grandpa Lame, I can attach two deer legs for you. I've seen quite a few deer demons in the mountains. With my skills, attaching them shouldn't be difficult," Qin Mu suggested.
"Deer legs are bent. I'd fall to my knees after a few steps. No way!"
Qin Mu had to give up. The Deaf Man, annoyed by the Lame Man's noise, went back to his own hall.
The Lame Man, tears streaming down his face, muttered that the Deaf Man despised him. The Blind Man was about to leave when Qin Mu quickly said, "Grandpa Blind, I encountered the eyes of Zi Qing, the First Divine Eye of the Kaihuang era. Her divine eyes imprinted some runic patterns into my eyes, but only the imprints, not the techniques. I don't understand how to activate these runic marks."
"I saw your eyes when you came in. They're very peculiar. I sense a strange energy brewing in them, but it's unstable."
The Blind Man set aside his thoughts of seeking Xing Han, his interest in the First Divine Eye of Kaihuang piqued. "Can you make those runic marks light up? I want to examine their operating principles."
The Lame Man cried, "My legs..."
The Blind Man frowned. "This Lame Man is crying and fussing. Let's go outside to talk and let him ramble on."
Qin Mu apologized to the Lame Man, and the two went outside to the lake. Some fish-headed humanoid creatures ran over, carrying plates of fruit picked from the mountains, and said, "Master, have some fruit."
Qin Mu told them to put it down. He picked up a red fruit, and it screamed, "Don't eat me!"
Qin Mu quickly put the fruit down. A dozen fruits in the plate rolled around, shouting, "It hurts, it hurts! I'm bleeding!"
"Don't mind them. Divine blood spilled on the mountain, making the plants all strange."
The Blind Man shook his head. "These fruits are all turning into monsters."
As he spoke, a bright red fruit grew arms, touched its own red juice flowing out, and screamed, "I'm bleeding! I'm going to die!" Then it fainted.
The other fruits quickly rolled over, wailing and crying in utter misery.
Qin Mu's scalp tingled. He quickly dumped the fruits from the plate. A dozen fruits cheered happily. The fainted fruit demon also woke up. The fruit demons rolled swiftly, climbed onto a passing tree demon, and hung from its head, finally relieved.
Suddenly, a deer demon beside the tree demon opened its mouth and stealthily bit off a fruit from its head. The fruit demons started shouting and wailing again, cursing the deer demon. The tree demon became furious and started fighting with the deer demon.
Qin Mu was stunned, staring blankly at the two demons brawling. A few more fish-headed creatures ran over, picked fruits from the tree demon's head, and brought them to Qin Mu and the Blind Man.
"I'm already used to it."
The Blind Man shook his head. "You haven't been up the mountain. That's where the real chaos is. Those grasses and vines are enough to drive you crazy. Don't mind them. Mu'er, activate your divine eye imprints and let me see!"
Qin Mu did as he was told, activating the Mao Sun Star Ring that Yan Jingjing had taught him. Instantly, rings of stars lit up in his eyes. The sun inside the rings erupted, and in a flash, the light was blinding. The group of demons that had been causing a ruckus were so frightened they knelt on the ground, not daring to move.
The Blind Man was amazed. He calculated for a moment and said, "This Zi Qing is indeed remarkable. This eye technique is indeed beyond mine. But you can only activate the light of her divine eyes, with no power at all... Activate it again."
Qin Mu activated the Mao Sun Star Ring once more. The Blind Man laughed, "That's right. There's the eye technique, but the power of the various runic marks hasn't been triggered. These runes are interesting. If I still had my eyes, I could take it a step further. What a pity... Mu'er, let me try to merge the Nine Heavens Eye-Opening Technique with these runic marks. But it will take a few days. Once I perfect it, I can pass it on to you."
Qin Mu nodded.
The Blind Man carefully memorized the imprints in his divine eyes and smiled, "Go spend time with your beautiful wife and concubines. You don't have to keep following this old man around. I won't go looking for Xing Han. You can rest assured."
Qin Mu was still a bit worried that he might run off to seek revenge on Xing Han, so he remained uneasy.
Ling Yuxiu and the other girls called out from a distance, "Cowherd, we're going up the mountain to pick fruit and prepare New Year's goods! Are you coming?"
"Go ahead." The Blind Man smiled.
Qin Mu had no choice but to run over and say to Ling Yuxiu and the others, "The fruits on the mountain have turned into monsters. They bite."
Fox Ling'er said, "Granny said some fruits on the mountain haven't turned into monsters and are edible, but those fish-headed creatures don't know which ones."
They went up the mountain. There were many fruit trees there, but when the trees heard they were there to pick fruit, they immediately uprooted themselves and ran away, leaving everyone staring in disbelief.
"You stepped on me!"
An angry little grass shouted, "Where are my sworn brothers?"
Everyone quickly ran away, with a group of grass-men chasing after them relentlessly. After a lively chase, they finally found the orchard Granny Si had mentioned. The fruits on the trees hadn't turned into monsters. Qin Mu tasted one—it was very sweet and fragrant.
Yan Jingjing, Ling Yuxiu, and Si Yunxiang carried baskets and picked fruit. Fox Ling'er jumped onto a tree, sat in a fork, and ate fruit, quickly getting a round belly. She lay there with her tail hanging down.
"Such fragrant fruit!"
Suddenly, a voice came. Qin Mu followed the sound and saw a white-clad youth walking out of the mountains, carrying a large box on his back. He bowed to everyone and said with a smile, "Is this orchard owned by someone? I'm a wandering hermit passing through. Could you spare a few fruits?"
Qin Mu took a few fruits from the basket and said with a smile, "Where are you from, brother? Where are you headed?"
The youth thanked him, tasted one, and praised it endlessly, saying, "It has the flavor of divine blood. Truly delicious. I have no fixed abode, always drifting like a cloud. I've come to see a Divine Doctor Qin, to ask him to treat an illness."
Qin Mu blinked. "Divine Doctor Qin? Treat an illness? What illness do you have, brother?"
The youth sighed. "A terminal illness."
Qin Mu's eyes flickered. "How should I address you, brother?"
The youth buried the fruit in the soil, carefully covering it with earth, and said, "Xing Han."
— I wrote six or seven hundred extra words and was half an hour late. Sorry!