Chapter 426: On the Bridge of Helplessness (Third Update!)
Thud.
The stone statue of the village chief landed in front of the moon boat. This statue had no limbs; it was the likeness of a weathered old man, his face covered in wrinkles carved by wind and frost, eroded by time.
The statue was looking at Qin Mu's location, revealing a gratified smile, which made Qin Mu think of that old man sitting in a rocking chair, swaying, but his gaze fixed on him with a loving smile.
"Village chief..." Qin Mu was stunned, and suddenly a great sorrow surged in his heart.
Darkness swept in. The stone statue emitted a faint glow, its range not large, as if recreating the scene of that somewhat stubborn old man still stubbornly wanting to protect a place.
"Grandpa Village Chief..."
Tears like moonlight dripped from Qin Mu's eyes, one by one floating up, hovering in the air, their glistening light like moonbeams. Suddenly, the miserable scream of the Dragon King God came, and Qin Mu closed his eyes, squeezing the moonlight out of them.
This time, as he ventured deep into the Great Ruins, he used the Dragon King God as an escort to break into the place he had once mistakenly thought was the Land of No Worries—the location of that giant continental ship built by the Heavenly Works Department. Then, he drove the moon boat back.
While attempting to enter the Moon Well, he encountered another group of gods and demons who had rushed over from the Upper Heavens. There weren't many of them, only three deities.
These three deities, unlike Qiao Xingjun and the others who traveled ostentatiously as starlight, instead walked on the ground, concealing their dazzling divine radiance, only emitting a faint glow to drive away the monsters in the darkness.
When Qin Mu encountered them, one of the deities, thinking he was a strange being in the dark, immediately spoke a divine word: "The Upper Heavens are conducting business; all demons, disperse."
He immediately suffered a devastating blow from Qin Mu. Taking him by surprise, Qin Mu directly swung the broken moon. The moon descended, smashing the deity into pieces!
Only then did the other two deities realize they had met a formidable opponent.
Qin Mu was different from Yan Jingjing. Yan Jingjing had to be careful not to damage the sun, while he was reckless, disregarding any consequences. He fought all the way with these two deities, a battle spanning thousands of miles. Just moments ago, he had crippled another deity.
The reason it took so long was mainly because the moon of the moon boat was too broken, inferior to the sun boat.
The sun boat had a complete sun, while the moon of the moon boat had already gone dark and was severely damaged. After Qin Mu fought for so long, that moon was also in tatters, and two of the chains holding it had come loose.
However, the moment he looked at the village chief, he still lost focus for a moment. The sight of the village chief turning into a stone statue and falling from the sky had stirred him too deeply, inexplicably bringing forth a wave of sadness.
The Dragon King God's combat power was on par with Huan Longjun's, but inferior to the other Upper Heavens deities. The moment Qin Mu lost focus, he was severely wounded.
Qin Mu opened his eyes, raised his hand, and let go of the divine pillar, wanting to touch the stone statue that had no hands or feet but was smiling at him. His giant hand swept past the front of the statue but did not land.
Clatter—
His hand grabbed a dangling chain. His hair flew wildly as the chain whistled through the darkness, wrapping around the Upper Heavens deity who had severely wounded the Dragon King God, binding the deity tightly with a series of *shua shua shua* sounds.
Qin Mu's other arms pulled over the broken moon and smashed it down with a bang. The Dragon King God screamed in fright; he was right beside it. If he were hit, he would either die or lose half his life!
He quickly rolled and dodged out of the way. The half-moon grazed past him, scraping off a large patch of dragon scales, causing the Dragon King God to grit his teeth in pain, tears streaming from his eyes.
Boom!
The broken moon hammered onto the body of that Upper Heavens deity. The mountains trembled with a loud crash, and the monsters in the surrounding darkness screamed in terror, scattering in all directions.
Boom!
Qin Mu said nothing, lifted the broken moon again, and smashed down once more. Once, again, and again. Chunks of rock the size of mountains fell off the moon, only to be shattered into pieces by the falling broken moon.
The deity that Qin Mu had just crippled showed a look of terror, quickly endured his pain, and limped away at top speed. His heart was in chaos, and he could only hear behind him the heavy thumping sounds of the hammering, one after another. The immensely heavy pounding felt like it was striking his heart, making his scalp tingle.
"This kid is crazy, definitely crazy... Not worth fighting him to the death! I'm just here to complete the task assigned by my superiors; there's no need to fight for my life!"
He sped away, when suddenly a loud cracking sound came from behind. The half-moon was shattered by Qin Mu's hammering, and huge rocks flew everywhere.
Without the moon, Qin Mu immediately felt his immense power rapidly recede. He reverted to a cultivator at the Six Harmonies realm.
If that deity he had crippled had turned back, he could have killed the weakened Qin Mu with a single raise of his hand. However, that deity was scared out of his wits and never looked back.
Qin Mu sat on the dilapidated moon boat, panting heavily. The Dragon Qilin looked at him in terror, and the other flood dragons also cowered behind the Dragon Qilin, their eyes filled with fear as they looked at Qin Mu.
The thick chains hung from the boat to the ground, and the moon boat had lost its terrifying momentum. The circulating moonlight had also disappeared.
Darkness surged in, soon to engulf them, but the monsters in the darkness kept their distance, not daring to come near.
Qin Mu looked at the stone statue in front of the moon boat. The village chief's statue revealed a smile—a gratified smile.
"You're still alive, you must still be alive! Dragon King God!"
Qin Mu struggled to his feet and shouted, "Go and lift that stone statue!"
The Dragon King God, covered in wounds, struggled to fly over and forcefully lifted the stone statue. Qin Mu was extremely nervous and asked, "Is it heavy?"
"Very heavy!" The Dragon King God quickly put down the statue and answered truthfully.
"Carrying a stone statue is like carrying a god. Blind Grandpa wouldn't lie to me... You really are still alive, living somewhere, just not in this world! You're like the other stone statues in the Great Ruins; sometimes you wake up from the darkness."
Qin Mu laughed loudly, but as he laughed, he suddenly started crying, wiping his tears again and again. "I've seen some stone statues come to life, riding the Dragon Qilin to put down rebellions. You can definitely do it too, right?"
Si Yunxiang watched this young Saintly Lord and suddenly felt that this cunning boy, known as the Great Demon King, had such an innocent heart inside.
Not only innocent, but also fragile. Or perhaps, beneath his resolute exterior, he concealed a soft place in his heart.
Qin Mu wiped away his tears and shouted, "You will come back, right? If I cry, you'll laugh at me, say I'm still a little brat!"
He called the Dragon King God, climbed onto his back with the Dragon Qilin and a group of flood dragons, and the sadness and joy on his face disappeared together, leaving no expression. "Let's go! Pursue that fleeing deity; he cannot be allowed to enter Yinkang alive!"
The Dragon King God responded and chased after the trail left by the crippled deity.
Qin Mu looked back. The village chief's stone statue gradually disappeared into the darkness. He memorized this place.
"No matter where your soul has gone, I will find you. You are my family, my loved one..."
He looked up at the boundless darkness. "Even if you have fallen to Tu Bo, I will kill my way there and demand your soul back from him!"
"Master, I am heavily injured now. Even if we catch up to that deity, I may not be his match," the Dragon King God said cautiously.
The corners of Qin Mu's eyes twitched, and he said, "I will refine pills to heal your wounds. You can rest assured. And with so many flood dragons here, he won't escape my grasp."
The Dragon King God was still a bit worried and thought to himself, "I hope this deity will pass by the Yong River..."
Fengdu, the Realm of the Living Dead.
The bird-headed deity led the village chief past the stone tablet. The village chief lowered his head and saw his body slowly recovering—growing a heart, a head, a torso, and even hands and feet.
Here, he felt as if he were still alive.
"The Realm of the Living Dead, what a wondrous world."
He looked at the bird-headed deity and asked, "If I leave here, am I dead or alive?"
That bird-headed deity shook his head and said, "Dead, of course. But you are quite lucky to have held onto a breath before your physical body completely died. Don't think about your former body anymore. If you leave this boundary marker, your flesh and bones will dissolve. You no longer belong to the real world. Come, an old acquaintance is waiting for you ahead."
The village chief followed him, his wide sleeves fluttering. Suddenly, he stopped and said with a wry smile, "Growing hands and feet is still a bit uncomfortable. I've gotten used to being a cripple..."
They passed through the Ghost Gate of Fengdu and arrived at the first great city. In the world of Fengdu, there were many such cities.
It looked like a battle had just taken place here, with traces of war everywhere.
"Your old acquaintance is waiting for you on the Bridge of Helplessness ahead!" The bird-headed deity stopped, raised his claw, and twitched the corner of his beak.
The village chief smiled and said, "You still dislike me?"
"I hate the smell of living people."
The bird-headed deity flapped his wings and flew away. "Your physical body still has a breath, making your smell nauseating to me."
The village chief walked forward. After a moment, he saw the Bridge of Helplessness. On the long bridge, a tall figure stood with his back to him.
Below the bridge, gray mist swirled, obscuring what lay within.
The village chief was slightly startled, feeling that the silhouette looked familiar.
He suddenly became excited, quickened his pace onto the Bridge of Helplessness, his steps growing faster as he hurried toward that person. "You..."
The burly figure turned around, revealing a smile. "You've finally come. I've been waiting for you for a long time. These years have been hard on you..."
The village chief kicked out, sending the burly man flying off the bridge, and roared angrily, "You old scoundrel! You tricked me into becoming the Human Sovereign, bearing a burden I could never carry, while you hid here to enjoy yourself! Don't play dead! Crawl out from under the bridge, and I'll beat you to death! Master? Master? Are you still alive?"
The mist below the bridge churned, and monsters wrapped around the burly man, desperately dragging him down.
The village chief was startled and was about to rescue him, but then stopped. He waited for a moment. The man fought off the monsters, climbed back onto the Bridge of Helplessness with great difficulty, and panted heavily.
The village chief made a move to kick again, but the man quickly raised his hand. "Don't hit me, don't hit me. I really am dead. Otherwise, I wouldn't have passed the Human Sovereign Seal to you. My bones have rotted into mud, buried outside the Human Sovereign Hall. If you don't believe me, go dig them up!"
The village chief's scalp tingled, and he said suspiciously, "You're not tricking me again?"
"Why would I trick you? Everyone who comes here is basically dead."
The man smiled and said, "Let me take you to see your Master's Master. He died earlier than I did."
--- Third update has arrived. The fourth update, Zhai Zhu can't write anymore; his body hasn't recovered yet. Tomorrow, he will continue with three updates to make up for it! The cute thirty-five-year-old little boar asks for monthly votes, asks for recommendations~