Chapter 417: Great Terror
(There was an error in the previous chapter; Village Chief going to the Heavenly Firmament was a mistake by Zhaizhu, and it has been corrected.)
Yankang Hezhou, morning. The sea fog was thick and hazy.
The soldiers defending Hezhou City would find it hard to forget this scene for many years to come. On the gray, misty sea surface, a huge narwhal leaped out from the harbor. Its colossal body soared over their heads, like a dark cloud looming over the Hezhou City shipyard.
Then the whale grew smaller and smaller, crashing down into the city.
Before the soldiers in the city could even come to their senses, they saw a massive shadow emerge from the sea fog. It was a turtle-shell ship, its hull covered in various barnacles, with a Black Tortoise banner fluttering in the sea breeze.
This great ship headed straight for the harbor shipyard. Just as it seemed about to crash into the docks, the turtle-shell ship suddenly rose dozens of zhang into the air, sprouted four legs, and walked over the tops of the multi-storied warships, rumbling its way into the city.
The soldiers in the city stared dumbfounded at the great ship passing before them. They saw that flying serpents were coiled around the ship, their wings rustling as they wrapped around the masts. The soldiers on board had strange forms—tortoise-shelled human bodies entwined with flying serpents, forming a bizarre symbiotic relationship.
Tanzhou also encountered strange events. Tanzhou was famous for its thousand pools, with over a thousand deep pools both inside and outside the city, so deep their bottoms were invisible. On this day, all the thousand pools suddenly dried up. The water and fish vanished without a trace. Many people looked down into the pools and saw that at the bottom of each deep pool, there was a bronze door.
The governor of Tanzhou ordered people to go down to the pool bottoms to investigate. The report came back: “The bronze doors at the bottom of the pools are sealed with locking talismans and cannot be opened.”
The governor was startled and uncertain. Just then, one of the bronze doors suddenly opened. A man covered in scales walked out, turned back to lock the door, and shouted into it: “I know, I know, you nagging woman! The Human Sovereign summoned me, and I’m going out to help as per our ancestors’ promise… I won’t be reckless in battle; I’m the most mild-tempered person in our Earthwalker clan! What are you looking at? Look again and I’ll shatter your kneecaps… I wasn’t talking to you, I meant these giant mud-turtles up here… I know how to lock the door, you’re more long-winded than my own mother!”
The Tanzhou governor and others stood by the pool, watching a short man, about five chi tall, with a wild, flying beard. He carefully locked the bronze door and then climbed ashore.
The Tanzhou governor stepped forward, curious: “Senior Brother…”
The scale-covered short man looked at him warily: “Giant mud-turtle, don’t even think about messing with our Earthwalker clan. We had an agreement long ago—the surface is for you giant mud-turtles, and the underground is ours.”
The Tanzhou governor was dumbfounded. He saw the short man shout down into the pool: “Wife, release the water! Don’t let these giants steal our underground world!”
Immediately, waves surged in each deep pool, and soon all the pools were filled with water again, shimmering like scales, with many fish swimming in them.
The Tanzhou governor was about to ask a question when the short man suddenly burrowed into the ground and disappeared.
The Tanzhou governor and his men were left speechless: “There are people living underground? How do they survive down there?”
In the southern Liuzhou, where many worshipped the Willow Immortal, an event occurred where a willow tree became a spirit and transformed into an azure dragon that flew away.
Strange events were happening all over the country, and soon the villages were buzzing with discussion.
“Mu’er, this is the formation I saw in the sky that day. I didn’t have time to examine it closely, so this is all I can remember.”
In the manor, the Butcher handed over the sun, moon, and stars he had been drawing for two days to Qin Mu. Qin Mu’s scalp tingled as he saw the hall filled with all kinds of diagrams. He picked up a star chart. The star the Butcher had drawn looked like a star on the outside, but inside it had an extremely complex structure, quite intricate.
This star was the Kui Star. Its formation pattern vaguely depicted a ghostly deity with a black face and fangs, holding a brush in one hand and a golden seal in the other, standing on a fish-dragon altar.
He picked up another star chart. This one was the Greedy Wolf Star, its formation showing a dragon-tortoise pattern, also with an altar beneath its feet.
Qin Mu frowned, looking at the star charts one by one. Most of these star patterns had a formation forming an altar, while the inside of the star used formations to create the image of a god or demon.
“What are these god-demon formations and altars for? Are they to maintain the movement of the celestial phenomena, or do they have another purpose?”
He felt a vague unease. If they were just to maintain the operation of the fake celestial phenomena in the sky, it wouldn’t need to be this complicated. Simply making the formations glow would suffice.
Since it could be done so simply, why make it so complex?
“These altars are somewhat similar to the bone altar I used to summon the Capital Heaven Demon King, but the formation structures are different.”
Qin Mu felt a creeping dread. Countless stars floated in the sky, and hidden inside them were countless altars, used to summon gods and demons.
Imagine, if one day a blood sacrifice were performed, and these gods and demons descended—tens of thousands of them coming down to the mortal world—how terrifying would that be?
Not to mention Yankang, even the Kaihuang era of old would probably be destroyed, right?
“Yankang Kingdom isn’t worth such a massive effort to guard and monitor. So what is this fake celestial phenomena really guarding against?”
He couldn’t figure it out.
The star chart formations the Butcher had drawn were all incomplete. He hadn’t had time to thoroughly study these fake celestial phenomena before encountering the deity guarding the celestial chart, but he had still sketched the general outline.
Qin Mu suppressed the shock in his heart and continued examining these formation structures, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper. Suddenly, he said, “Grandpa Butcher, how skilled are you in formations?”
The Butcher answered honestly, “So-so, not as good as Blind.”
“I’ll go invite Grandpa Blind to take a look!”
Qin Mu brought Blind over and asked him to examine them, saying, “These formations are very strange. I’ve never seen this kind of formation before. Grandpa Blind, have you seen a similar formation structure?”
Blind browsed through the drawings one by one, his expression growing more and more serious. He shook his head and said, “I’ve never seen this kind of formation structure. Strange, truly strange. The formations in these star charts are used to construct the bodies of gods and demons, but they can also emit light like the sun, moon, and stars. This formation structure is not simple. Unfortunately, none of these formations are correct…”
The Butcher said, “The time was too short; I could only remember this much.”
Blind examined them carefully, calculating as he spoke: “These formations construct the bodies of gods and demons, but they also deconstruct them. Butcher, do you know what this means?”
The Butcher pondered and said, “You mean, if cultivators arranged themselves according to this formation structure, they could possess the power of gods and demons?”
Qin Mu’s heart stirred. If cultivators arranged themselves according to these formation structures and activated them, would it be equivalent to having a god or demon manifest in the world? How astonishing would the power of such a formation be?
“Unfortunately, none of the formations are complete.”
Blind shook his head and said, “You’ve drawn so many, but not one is complete. Besides that, there’s another possibility.”
A brilliant light burst from his eyes. He walked out of the hall, looked up at the sky, and murmured, “These formation structures are very likely the pathways for the primordial qi of those gods and demons. The formation inside every star in the sky could be a complete divine or demonic cultivation technique! A vast treasure trove is hidden in the sky, but unfortunately, I can’t go there to see it for myself…”
Qin Mu’s heart pounded wildly. One star represented a cultivation technique at the level of a god or demon?
How many suns, moons, stars, and constellations were there in the sky?
This meant that the celestial chart contained tens of thousands of divine and demonic cultivation techniques!
The three great sacred lands—the Dao Sect, the Great Thunderclap Monastery, and the Heavenly Saint Cult—their ultimate arts were all hailed as techniques for becoming gods, buddhas, or demons. These three arts had survived to this day, their significance immense.
And in the sky, there were tens of thousands of techniques no less than these three great arts! Just thinking about it was exhilarating!
But after the excitement, what Qin Mu felt was fear and terror.
Great fear, great terror.
“I hope this sky will never be stained red with blood. Otherwise…”
He trembled to his very core. When the sky over Yankang Kingdom was stained red with blood, the sun, moon, and stars in the sky would transform into terrifying gods and demons descending from the heavens!
It would be a scene of utter apocalypse!
Suddenly, Qin Mu felt a sensation and looked to the east. He saw a huge turtle-shell ship walking and flying among the mountains and rivers. The giant turtle was like a ship, with flying serpents flapping their wings and banners fluttering in the wind.
The Yankang National Teacher also sensed the commotion and came to his side, looking eastward. They saw a great flood like a giant tidal wave, and on the wave stood a bare-chested giant man holding a golden horned spear.
In the air, a woman with a pair of wings on her back flew, her wings stirring up wind and thunder as she moved, lightning flashing.
“They’re here, they’re really here…”
Village Chief floated up, his face showing excitement: “I’ve grown old, but they haven’t. They’re still alive…”
The turtle-shell ship arrived outside the manor and suddenly stopped. One by one, Black Tortoise clan members with tortoise shells and coiled snakes leaped down from the ship.
The flying serpents on the great turtle-shell ship danced, and then the bow of the ship trembled, revealing a huge dragon head. Smoke and fire spewed from its nostrils and mouth, its eyes darting around as it shouted in a loud voice: “Black Tortoise clan, Xuan Shengwu, here to see the Human Sovereign!”
The strong man riding the great wave lowered the wave rapidly. With a crash, it landed in front of the manor gate, and the wave behind him disappeared: “Kun clan, Kun King, here to see the Human Sovereign!”
The woman in the air folded her wings, hiding all the wind and thunder beneath them, and landed on the ground: “Yi clan, Yi King, answering the summons!”
Qin Mu quickly took out the Human Sovereign Seal, held it in his hand, and stepped forward, saying, “All of you have traveled far. I am deeply grateful. Please enter the manor for a discussion.”
Kun King, Yi King, and Xuan Shengwu were surprised. The Black Tortoise turtle-shell ship suddenly trembled, growing smaller and smaller, transforming into a sturdy man with a tortoise shell and coiled snakes. He muttered quietly, “The Human Sovereign is getting younger and younger. He used to be a middle-aged man…”
Kun King said, “Brother Shengwu, that Human Sovereign you’re talking about is probably dead already. Humans don’t live as long as we do.”
Xuan Shengwu breathed a sigh of relief and laughed, “Good that he’s dead, good that he’s dead. That guy was always looking for trouble, always cynical, always asking us to do this and that. It was annoying as hell.”
Village Chief had been about to float out to see his old friends, but he froze at these words, grumbling silently.
Suddenly, a voice came from underground, shouting, “Earthwalker clan chief, Earthwalker… Ouch!”
The ground shook, and a disheveled head popped up in front of the manor gate, with a huge bloody bump on it. The owner was furious: “Which heartless bastard refined the stone to be this hard?”