Chapter 443: Sinister Western Lands
That was a ruin in the desert, with earthen-yellow palaces mostly collapsed, leaving only some broken walls and crumbling pillars. Flames blazed there, fiercer than elsewhere.
The ruins covered a vast area, several thousand acres in size. The sand dune giant was engulfed in flames, its entire body glowing red, fire entwining its form. It had no legs or feet, yet it could race like the wind through the streets and alleys of the ruins, darting from one lane to another.
Beneath the sand dune giant swirled a flying, spinning storm of sand, which was why it could move so fast despite having no legs.
At this moment, the sand dune giant was pursuing Qin Mu and Ban Gongcuo. Both were being chased by this giant. Thumping, booming sounds rang out continuously. Each strike from the sand dune giant was incredibly heavy, smashing into the desert and sending sand and stones flying like swords!
Yet the sand dune giant did not damage the ruins in the slightest. When it encountered broken walls, it simply surged over them. The red sand flowed past, and the ruins remained completely intact.
The divine abilities of the Western Lands were completely different from those of Yankang. They followed the path of "all things have spirits." Even sand and stone could transform into giants for battle. A single strike from the sand dune giant could split mountains and shatter rocks, an unstoppable force.
If the sand dune giant struck a person, even just the terrifying force would be enough to gravely wound them!
But even so, Qin Mu and Ban Gongcuo were still charging toward each other, doing their best to dodge the sand dune giant's attacks.
Ban Gongcuo had lost an arm and moved with difficulty. Although Qin Mu controlled eight thousand swords, no matter how exquisite his sword techniques, he could hardly injure the sand dune giant. Even if he shattered the giant, it would immediately reform, its strength completely undiminished.
Both of them had exceptional movement techniques. The sand dune giant's attacks were overwhelmingly powerful, but it only used its fists, with no spells or divine abilities, so the threat to them wasn't too great.
Strangely, though, the sand dune giant seemed to attack only Qin Mu, completely ignoring Ban Gongcuo.
"True Heaven Palace techniques!" Long Qilin said, looking around. "But where is the caster hiding?"
"That's a desert guardian, not a divine ability."
Xiong Qier grabbed his mane and climbed onto his big head, taking a look. "My mother said there are many ancient ruins in the desert. They were once places where gods who guarded the desert lived. Later, these gods left, but they left behind some guardians to watch over this desert. If someone from the Great Ruins enters, these guardians will attack them."
Suddenly, red sand swirled within the ruins, and another sand dune giant rose up, moving swiftly toward Qin Mu.
Qin Mu waved his hand, and dozens of crimson sand dragons roared and surged toward the sand dune giant, continuing their pursuit of Ban Gongcuo. His primordial energy was circulating faster and faster, and the power of his divine abilities was growing stronger. This was the peak of his combat strength!
The dozens of crimson sand dragons tore through the sand dune giant with a roar, passing straight through the bodies of the two giants.
"Hmm?"
Qin Mu was startled. He sensed that the magical power contained in this divine ability had been devoured. The sand dragons had passed through the sand dune giant's body, and all the magical power within them had vanished!
Ban Gongcuo saw an opportunity. His large cauldron flew overhead as he charged forward. Behind him, the two sand dune giants absorbed the magical power from Qin Mu's divine ability, devouring the dozens of sand dragons along with it. Their bodies swelled in size as they charged toward Qin Mu.
Qin Mu clenched his fist, his thumb raised, and exchanged a heavy blow with Ban Gongcuo. Ban Gongcuo immediately felt that this punch had little power. Instead, there was a kind of inward-pulling force in the fist, drawing him toward Qin Mu.
And that raised thumb of Qin Mu's, when it entered Ban Gongcuo's sight, sent a chill down his spine!
"The attacking power of this punch is in that thumb!"
He struggled with all his might to break free. Qin Mu's move wasn't a fist technique at all—it was a sword technique. His thumb was his sword. If he couldn't break free, when the thumb pressed down, that sword strike would surely cut him in half!
"This guy, how has his combat skill improved so fast, so terrifyingly? It's been less than a year since our last fight. How has his strength grown so quickly?"
Ban Gongcuo used all his strength and finally broke free from Qin Mu's fist. At that moment, the sword light at the tip of Qin Mu's thumb exploded. His primordial energy turned into threads, each thread a fine sword intertwined together. The sword light let out a *chi* sound as it slashed down with Qin Mu's pressing thumb!
Ban Gongcuo suddenly turned into a black shadow, dropping down and sticking to the sand. The shadow moved rapidly, distancing itself from Qin Mu.
Qin Mu raised his hand and pressed down. A huge palm print, half an acre in size, appeared on the ground. Ban Gongcuo breathed a sigh of relief. "This guy missed..."
But at that moment, the sky was filled with a buzzing sound as sword lights rained down from above, covering a vast area, making it impossible for him to escape the range of this sword rain.
Suddenly, a third sand dune giant rose up from beneath Qin Mu's feet. The sword rain falling from the sky immediately went out of control. Ban Gongcuo quickly freed himself from the shadow. The shadow turned into a man, leaping up from the desert. He dodged streaks of arrow light in a series of flashes and fled the ruins.
He looked back and saw Qin Mu being engulfed by the three sand dune giants, his fate unknown.
"Once this guy is severely wounded by the sand dune giants, that will be my best chance to kill him!"
Just as Ban Gongcuo thought this, he saw Long Qilin charging toward him with a roar. Ban Gongcuo sneered. "You beast, you dare to attack me?"
As he said this, he bowed his head and prostrated himself, shouting fiercely, "Fatty Long!"
Behind him, a huge altar materialized, and the demon god on the altar also bowed its head in prostration.
Long Qilin was unmoved. Ban Gongcuo panicked a little and bowed again. "Long Qilin!"
Long Qilin was already close, flames flickering in its mouth.
Ban Gongcuo spat blood. He had already been quite seriously injured. This soul-worshipping divine ability consumed a great deal of his essence. Bowing twice had already severely depleted his primordial energy.
"Qingqing!" Ban Gongcuo gritted his teeth and bowed a third time.
Xiong Qier grabbed Long Qilin's mane and climbed onto the fat beast's head, curiously watching Ban Gongcuo.
Ban Gongcuo spat out a stream of blood. A pillar of fire erupted from Long Qilin's mouth, radiating blazing light and heat, sweeping across more than ten miles. Wherever it passed, even several sand dunes were flattened by the single pillar!
Ban Gongcuo quickly hid inside his large cauldron. A series of *clang clang* sounds gradually faded into the distance. The cauldron was swept into the air, fell back down, rolled and crashed, and was swept dozens of miles away.
Long Qilin charged over. Where the cauldron had landed, there was only a sand pit and a patch of blood. Ban Gongcuo had clearly escaped through the ground.
"Even with my strength, I couldn't keep him here? To have survived for ten thousand years, they're all remarkable. His escape skills are even better than the Sect Leader's." Long Qilin marveled.
Suddenly, an earth-shattering boom came from the ruins. Long Qilin looked back and saw a fourth sand dune giant appear in the ruins. The giant was over thirty zhang tall, comparable to the Ten Thousand Buddha Pagoda of the Great Thunderclap Monastery. It moved with incredible speed, relentlessly chasing and attacking Qin Mu.
"We can't let the Sect Leader be harmed!"
Long Qilin hurried toward there. Suddenly, Qin Mu's figure vanished. The next moment, he appeared in front of Long Qilin, floating in midair, covered in strange flames and surrounded by a rapidly spinning array of teleportation runes.
Qin Mu quickly extinguished the fire on himself. His face was blackened from the burns, but fortunately, his clothes were made by the Tianyu Clan's experts like Yu Zhaoqing and were not destroyed by the flames.
A rustling sound came. Qin Mu looked back. Those sand dune giants were actually rushing out of the ruins at incredible speed, charging ferociously toward them.
"Fatty Long, fall back!" Qin Mu waved his hand, stopping Long Qilin from charging forward.
The sand dune giants were extremely fast. They quickly reached Qin Mu, then the huge sand bodies shook and split apart, flanking him from left and right as they pounced.
Just as they were about to crash into Qin Mu, the teleportation rune array around him lit up, and his figure vanished again!
The sand dune giants collided with each other, sending sand flying everywhere. Then, one by one, the giants reformed and frantically rushed back toward the ruins. But before they could return to the ruins, they collapsed and crumbled, piling up into mounds of sand.
Long Qilin quickly ran over and saw Qin Mu floating in midair. Beneath him was a mostly collapsed palace. In the center of the palace was a shrine. Inside the shrine was a wooden divine statue, covered in strange patterns. At this moment, the statue's head had fallen to the ground.
Qin Mu raised his hand, and the Wuyou Sword flew back. He looked solemnly at the head of the wooden statue.
Earlier, he had lured out these sand dune giants, returned to the ruins, and used his Danxiao Heavenly Eye to survey the area. He discovered that the strange patterns on this wooden statue were constantly flowing, so he slashed off the statue's head with one sword strike!
The moment the statue's head was cut off, the patterns, which had been shining, slowly dimmed.
And at that very instant, he sensed a terrifying spiritual fluctuation surge out of the statue, rushing toward him. However, it was blocked by the jade pendant hanging on his chest.
"Very sinister..."
Qin Mu turned his head and said, "Qi'er, does your True Heaven Palace in the Western Lands have any gods?"
Xiong Qier shook her head. "I've never heard of any."
Qin Mu gripped the jade pendant on his chest and said in a low voice, "A spirit was hidden inside this statue. When I cut it off, it even attacked me. The owner of this statue should still be alive."
"Sect Leader, Ban Gongcuo has escaped." Long Qilin quickly reported.
Qin Mu didn't mind. "He's been escaping for ten thousand years. He's become a master at it. It's indeed not easy to wipe him out in one go. Didn't the Yankang National Teacher besiege him at the Golden Palace, and he still got away? What makes my heart uneasy is that the True Heaven Palace of the Western Lands might have a living god..."
He looked toward the west. This god's wooden statue could gather sand into giants, indicating that it used the techniques of True Heaven Palace.
True Heaven Palace's ultimate technique was called the Ten Thousand Spirits Natural Art. This technique was suitable for women to cultivate. Although Xiong Xiyu had taught this technique to Qin Mu, he hadn't gained much from it.
"The National Teacher and Palace Master Xiong Xiyu went to True Heaven Palace. They might be in trouble."
Qin Mu withdrew his gaze and thought to himself, "I hope that god's strength isn't too high, otherwise..."
He shook his head.
"What makes me even more wary is: why did this god of True Heaven Palace leave behind this palace ruin? These sand dune giants were clearly used to kill the abandoned people who left the Great Ruins. What is the true nature of True Heaven Palace?"
He jumped onto Long Qilin's back. Long Qilin carried him westward, quickly covering more than ten miles.
The ruins were silent. After a moment, a rustling sound came. The patterns on the two halves of the wooden statue gradually lit up. The statue's head suddenly flew up and reattached itself to the statue's neck.
The patterns on the statue grew brighter and brighter. This wooden divine statue was slowly turning into flesh and blood! Even more terrifyingly, the wooden statue twisted its head, its face turning to the back of its body. Its two eyes slowly opened, looking in the direction Qin Mu had gone.
The statue opened its mouth, its voice dry and eerie: "An aristocrat among the abandoned people... I..."
*Shua!*
A streak of sword light flew parallel to the ground, lightning-fast, piercing through the wooden statue's head as it was turning into flesh. Then the sword light exploded, slicing the wooden statue into countless fragments!
Twenty miles away, the sword light flew back swiftly, inserting itself into the scabbard behind Qin Mu.
"Gods? I've killed two or three before." Qin Mu stood with his hands in his sleeves on top of Long Qilin's head, his body rising and falling with Long Qilin's forward movement.