Chapter 442: Wandering Dragon in the Great Desert
That youth reacted with incredible speed. The moment Qin Mu moved his sword, he immediately crashed backward, burrowing into the sheepskin tent.
The sheepskin tent shattered into pieces. Countless sword lights shot out in all directions from within the tent. Suddenly, the sword lights halted abruptly, then plunged into the earth like a roaring dragon—the youth had retreated into the tent and immediately fled through the ground.
Boom—
A mile away, in the blazing fire desert, eight thousand flying swords burst forth from the earth, spinning and rolling as they chased the youth’s figure into the sky.
The youth leaped into midair, arms spreading wide as two gleaming golden wings sprouted from his back. The wings vibrated frantically, unleashing countless golden feather swords to meet Qin Mu’s sword lights. Clang, clang, clang—sparks flew in the air as swords scattered everywhere.
Qin Mu reached out with his large hand. The chaotic flying swords in the air halted abruptly, converging toward the center. They clashed together, forming a constantly rotating metal sphere about ten feet in diameter.
That was his sword pellet!
But this sword pellet was enormous, floating in the air and spinning endlessly, exuding a strong metallic presence.
A fiery tornado howled in, engulfing the youth. His figure was swallowed by the tornado, yet in the next instant, he appeared at the tornado’s peak, standing atop the whirlwind. He laughed loudly, “Chief Qin! Human Sovereign Qin! You really are a persistent ghost! Do you think I’ll fear you just because you’ve tattooed yourself? Receive my bow—”
This youth was none other than Banguong Tso. Standing at the tornado’s tip, he bowed deeply toward Qin Mu.
As he bowed, a sinister altar materialized behind him. A demon god appeared on the altar, also bending forward to bow!
Qin Mu’s five fingers spread wide as he pressed down toward the ground. The earth beneath the fiery tornado twisted violently. The sand and stone on the surface spun wildly, pulling the tornado down into the ground.
Banguong Tso, standing at the tornado’s peak, lost his balance and couldn’t complete the bow. He looked up and saw that the sword pellet had already dispersed. Eight thousand swords spun madly, forming a massive maw bristling with sword tips, lunging toward him.
Sword Winding Technique.
“One Finger Points to the River and Mountain!”
Four loud booms echoed from within Banguong Tso’s body as his divine hideouts opened one after another. His magical power surged instantly. His left hand pointed at the ground, and the earth stopped twisting. Fiery lotus flowers bloomed from beneath the surface, stabilizing the land.
His right hand pointed at the massive maw descending from the sky. More fiery lotus flowers appeared within the maw formed by the flying swords, colliding with the swirling blades and blocking Qin Mu’s attack.
Banguong Tso sneered, “Chief Qin, I’ve already reached the Seven Asterisms realm. One higher realm is like one higher heaven—it can crush you! Can you feel my despair-inducing magical power?”
Suddenly, the fiery lotus flowers shattered with a crash. Banguong Tso’s heart jolted: “His magical power is no less than mine! I’m already at Seven Asterisms—how has he honed his power to this level?”
As someone who had reincarnated over a dozen times, he might not claim to be the best at refining magical power within the same realm, but he was certainly among the rarest. Few could surpass him in the sheer density of magical power at the same level. Qin Mu was one of them, but he shouldn’t have exceeded him by much.
He had fought Qin Mu several times before. The first time, they were at the same realm—both at Six Harmonies—and their magical power was nearly equal.
Back then, Qin Mu had relied on changes in techniques and divine abilities to lead him along, forcing him to react constantly, until Qin Mu seized the initiative and defeated him.
But in their second direct clash, Banguong Tso’s cultivation realm had advanced faster than Qin Mu’s, giving him a significant edge in magical power. Qin Mu had only managed to hold his ground by using the monstrous eight-thousand-sword pellet.
Now, however, Banguong Tso was a Seven Asterisms realm divine ability user, while Qin Mu remained at Six Harmonies. Logically, Qin Mu should have been utterly crushed in magical power. His divine abilities should have been unbreakable!
Yet in this first direct confrontation, Qin Mu’s flying swords still shattered his “One Finger Points to the River and Mountain” technique. Though aided by the swords’ sharpness, it also showed that Qin Mu’s magical power was not far behind—even if inferior, the gap wasn’t vast.
When the Yan Kang National Master attacked the Loulan Golden Palace, Khan Luandi had surrendered to him. Banguong Tso knew the Golden Palace was doomed, so he fled that very night before the National Master launched his assault, abandoning all the great shamans and shaman kings of the Golden Palace. Even the Shaman Lord didn’t know he had slipped away.
After the Golden Palace fell and the Shaman Lord was slain by the National Master, Banguong Tso reflected bitterly. He knew the grasslands were no longer safe. The National Master would surely order his experts to hunt him down, so he hid in the fire desert.
As a reincarnated body, his cultivation advanced rapidly, giving him an advantage no other divine ability user could match. Every day, he hid in this oasis. At night, he would go to the Western Lands to capture commoners and bring them back to the oasis to practice his skills. In less than half a year, he had broken through to the Seven Asterisms realm.
He had planned to restore his previous life’s cultivation, then return to Yan Kang for revenge. By then, who could withstand his bow?
But this encounter with Qin Mu unsettled him. He had risen to Seven Asterisms, expecting to dominate, yet Qin Mu’s strength had also surged—and he still couldn’t gain the upper hand!
“Banguong Tso, you’ve fallen behind!”
Qin Mu suddenly burst out of the oasis in the fire desert, moving almost horizontally across a mile of distance. It looked as if he were riding the wind. The muscles on his body shifted like coiled flood dragons, his physical form overwhelmingly powerful. He said calmly, “You’ve been hiding here, probably unaware that after your Golden Palace was destroyed, the techniques and divine abilities have advanced rapidly. At Six Harmonies, one can now cultivate a primordial spirit. Aside from one divine hideout, there’s almost no difference from Seven Asterisms. In terms of pure realm, you’re not higher than me!”
Banguong Tso’s body shone like a golden great Buddha. The two clashed physically, dragon roars and Buddha chants echoing without end. Banguong Tso’s golden face turned deathly pale. With a crack, his arm snapped, and he flew backward.
“That’s not the Nine Dragons Imperial Art!” he shouted harshly.
The Nine Dragons Imperial Art excelled in physical cultivation. It was the ultimate technique of Emperor Yan Feng. Though Banguong Tso hadn’t obtained the art, he had fought Qin Mu before, and Qin Mu had used it.
But back then, while the Nine Dragons Imperial Art was formidable, there were plenty of other peerless techniques that could match it, so Banguong Tso wasn’t afraid.
This time, however, he suffered a massive loss against the “Nine Dragons Imperial Art.” The version Qin Mu unleashed was brutally savage. His physical strength was monstrous, almost like a humanoid true dragon. The power of his muscles, sinews, and bones exploded as if countless savage dragons were exerting force together!
Facing this almost primeval power, Banguong Tso’s great Buddha golden body collapsed outright. His arm snapped with a crack, the broken bone jutting out from his elbow!
“Sword Explosion!”
Qin Mu pressed his palm downward. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—countless flying swords rained down from the sky like a storm. The sword light surged like a tidal wave from an explosion, engulfing Banguong Tso in an instant.
Banguong Tso endured the searing pain, sinking downward. Just before the sword light reached him, he vanished into the desert sand.
The eight thousand swords fell. The desert nearly boiled, with thin sword lights darting back and forth between the grains of sand!
Qin Mu landed, his robes swirling as he stirred up a gust of wind, forcibly suppressing the desert flames. He touched the ground with his toes, then leaped into the air again. Wherever he passed, the flames parted automatically.
Several miles away, the desert churned. Countless sword lights shot into the sky. Qin Mu let out a roar, his primal qi raging as he charged forward. Skimming across the fiery red sand, he raced ahead. Dozens of fiery sand dragons appeared in the desert, weaving in and out, diving up and down. In moments, they reached the spot where the sword lights had erupted. His divine abilities exploded with full force, dragon roars echoing as countless grains of sand burst into the air!
Amid the dust, flying swords flickered. Banguong Tso’s figure appeared faintly, standing on a large cauldron. The cauldron vibrated, sending out solid sound waves that deflected the flying swords.
The cauldron then dove into the sand and fled through the earth.
Qin Mu chased at full speed, shouting, “Qingqing, get some water and follow me with Fatty Long!”
Xiong Qier was puzzled. She said to the Dragon Qilin, “Big brother is confused. He called me Qingqing.”
The Dragon Qilin shook his head. “You don’t know Banguong Tso’s ability. If he learns your real name, he can bow to you from a thousand miles away and kill you. That’s why the chief didn’t use your true name. He probably isn’t confident enough to kill him outright, so he wants us to get water and follow him. The chief is an outcast from the Great Ruins. He can’t last long in the fire desert—there’s no moisture at all, and water-type divine abilities are useless. Hurry, get the water and catch up!”
Xiong Qier understood. She was about to draw water from the lake when she suddenly screamed.
The Dragon Qilin rushed over and saw that beneath the lake lay countless bones—a mountain of human remains dumped here!
Banguong Tso had been training with others’ souls, killing countless Western Lands experts and discarding their corpses here.
“Should we still take the water?” Xiong Qier asked, her face pale.
The Dragon Qilin bit his tongue and spat a small mouthful of blood into the lake. The water instantly boiled, churning violently as countless soul insects fought over the dragon blood. The Dragon Qilin quickly grabbed Xiong Qier by the collar, lifting her and retreating to avoid the splashing water.
“This lake is poisoned with soul venom. It’s undrinkable.”
The Dragon Qilin set the girl down. “Climb onto the tip of my tail and sit backward.”
His tail drooped. Xiong Qier climbed up and sat backward. The Dragon Qilin raised his tail, and she slid all the way down onto his back. The little girl laughed, “Do it again!”
“No more games. There are mane hairs on my neck. Hold tight—I need to catch up to the chief.” The Dragon Qilin instructed.
Xiong Qier crawled over, grabbed two strands of the long mane, and suddenly a dragon scale lifted to cover her. The Dragon Qilin was worried she might fall off if he ran too fast.
Earlier, Qin Mu had protected Xiong Qier, so the Dragon Qilin didn’t worry. But now that Qin Mu was gone, he took care of her himself.
The Dragon Qilin also used his magical power to shield Xiong Qier, forming a barrier. He said a word of caution, then set off in the direction Qin Mu had gone. He gradually picked up speed, not daring to accelerate suddenly, but soon he was moving faster and faster, breaking the sound barrier. Fiery sand dunes flashed past like fleeting shadows.
“Fatty Long, you’re faster than before!”
Xiong Qier shouted, “Why don’t you run this fast in front of big brother?”
“Little girl, what do you know? If you want a horse to run fast, you have to feed it well.”
The Dragon Qilin puffed up proudly, chuckling. “I deliberately run slower so the chief will give me better elixirs, hoping to feed me better and make me faster. If I gradually increase my speed, he’ll think it’s the effect of the better elixirs and work even harder to improve them, while also catering to my taste. If I suddenly got much faster, he’d get lazy and just give me the inferior ones mixed with fire-element divine origin pills. Don’t tell the chief, or he’ll slack off.”
Xiong Qier didn’t understand but nodded anyway.
The Dragon Qilin ran for a long time without catching up to Qin Mu. Along the way, he saw sand dunes blasted apart, a sight that horrified him. Clearly, Qin Mu and Banguong Tso had clashed nearby.
After a while longer, the Dragon Qilin spotted a sand dune in the distance suddenly stand up, transforming into a red sand giant that pounded the ground fiercely.
“That’s a technique from my Western Lands True Heaven Palace!”
Xiong Qier cried out, “Is it big brother?”
The Dragon Qilin shook his head cautiously. “The chief doesn’t have such vast magical power. Let’s go around.”
He detoured far away and looked back at the sand giant, stunned.