Chapter 473: Life in the Mirror
Suddenly, rocks exploded in all directions. Ban Gongcuo blasted through the rubble, soaring into the sky, both embarrassed and furious. He tossed out a large cauldron.
The cauldron hung in midair, its mouth facing downward. Instantly, sand and stones flew wildly. Broken pillars, collapsed walls, and shattered ruins were all sucked up by the cauldron, falling into its interior.
Inside the cauldron was a boiling broth—true fire. Though the cauldron appeared small, the true fire within it raged like a vast, boiling ocean, terrifying in its intensity. Anything that fell into the cauldron was burned to ashes, ceasing to exist. Clearly, this was no spirit weapon that the current Ban Gongcuo could forge!
This cauldron must have been refined by Ban Gongcuo in a previous life. Its power was immense, a town-guarding treasure forged by a cultivator at the near-god level. However, due to his current insufficient cultivation, he could not unleash the cauldron’s full might.
Spirit weapons also had distinctions of strength and realm. Sometimes, obtaining a superior spirit weapon did not automatically grant a heaven-shaking boost in power; one also had to consider how much of its might could be activated.
Take Qin Mu’s Carefree Sword, for example. This sword was a divine sword of extraordinary power, yet to this day, Qin Mu could not activate its full might, only relying on its sharpness.
The same was true for Ban Gongcuo. His current realm could not fully unleash the spirit weapon’s power from his past life. Even so, at the peak of the Seven Star Realm, he could still bring out about ten percent of the cauldron’s might.
Countless grains of sand rose from the ruins. Walls, stone pillars, and broken palaces were forcibly torn apart, tumbling into the cauldron.
The entire ruin was disintegrating, flying into the sky in a chaotic swirl.
“Hey, Qin, now you know my power, don’t you? Strength isn’t just about cultivation!”
Ban Gongcuo flipped over and landed on the cauldron, sneering, “So what if your cultivation is deeper than mine? My precious baby is stronger than you, so I’ll beat you down and make you die a miserable death!”
He looked down and was startled. There stood Qin Mu beneath the cauldron, motionless. No matter how strong the cauldron’s suction, it could not lift him off the ground.
“How is that possible?”
Ban Gongcuo’s eyes widened as he saw a metal sphere the size of an orange in Qin Mu’s hand. Suddenly, the sphere moved, flowing like water or sand.
“Sword pellet!”
Ban Gongcuo instantly understood why the cauldron couldn’t lift Qin Mu. The weight of this sword pellet must be astonishing, pinning his body down. Even the cauldron he had refined in a past life couldn’t suck up something of such weight!
“His sword pellet isn’t two feet in size? If I can’t suck you up, I’ll burn you to death!”
Ban Gongcuo suddenly leaped up, flipping upside down, and slammed both palms onto the cauldron. With a deafening clang, a sea of fire erupted from the cauldron. Wherever it passed, everything melted. Sand and stone turned into rolling magma, and in an instant, the entire ruin became a sea of molten fire.
Qin Mu gripped the sword pellet tightly. Countless tiny flying swords shot out from the pellet, led by the Carefree Sword, merging together.
Qin Mu raised the sword with both hands and, with a single stroke, cleaved through the sea of fire rushing toward him!
Where the sword passed, the great fire was extinguished. The desert on either side melted into lava, but the path the sword had cut remained red sand.
Qin Mu’s eye twitched. This true fire was fierce and extremely powerful—some kind of evil flame.
Ban Gongcuo shouted, his body undergoing a transformation. Wings sprouted from his armpits, and his feet turned into bird claws. The large cauldron hung above his head, casting a curtain of fire to protect him.
His wings gleamed with golden light. When he spread them, the feathers clashed with metallic clangs. With a whoosh, he charged at Qin Mu. His massive wings beat, bringing wind and thunder. Feathers shot out like swords, slashing and cutting in a storm of attacks.
Qin Mu crossed his hands. The Carefree Sword between them split apart with a clang, transforming into eight thousand flying swords that flowed like a river. The sword river surged, rushing toward Ban Gongcuo.
Ban Gongcuo’s steps faltered as his wings fluttered. Sword-like feathers flew up to meet the sword river. A rapid series of crisp clinks rang out. After the sword river passed, Ban Gongcuo let out a startled cry, standing there bald, with a pile of broken feathers at his feet.
All his feathers had been severed by Qin Mu, leaving only two bare wings that flapped weakly a couple of times.
The curtain of fire from his cauldron had a special name—the Yi Yan Divine Fire Shield. Its defensive power was astonishing, not only diverting enemy attacks into the cauldron but also possessing the terrifying Yi Yan Divine Fire, which could incinerate ordinary spirit weapons to ash.
Yet Qin Mu had broken through his Yi Yan Divine Fire Shield and cut off all his wing feathers!
“This guy can even break through my Yi Yan Divine Fire. He’s indeed a bit stronger than me. I can’t beat him!”
With that thought, Ban Gongcuo didn’t hesitate. He leaped upward, diving headfirst into the cauldron. The cauldron landed and began to burrow into the ground.
Just as the cauldron was about to sink into the sand, Qin Mu grabbed its leg and lifted it up, chuckling, “Great Lord, where are you off to?”
At that moment, Ban Gongcuo turned into a black streak of light, landing on the sand and burrowing away.
Qin Mu tossed aside the cauldron, his body also turning into a black shadow, sticking to the ground and chasing after him.
After a moment, sand and dust erupted a thousand feet away. The two burst out of the sand. Ban Gongcuo ran a couple of steps, grew new feathers, flipped over, and transformed into a large bird, shooting into the sky.
“Trying to outrun me?”
Qin Mu used the Heaven-Stealing Divine Leg technique, without any spells or divine abilities, stepping through the air in pursuit. Man and bird chased each other in the sky. After a while, the large bird was beaten into a featherless, naked chicken and plummeted from the sky.
Before Ban Gongcuo hit the ground, he let out a melodious elephant trumpet. The muscles on his head and face bulged wildly, and his neck twisted with a series of cracks. He grew two more heads, turning into a three-headed divine elephant with an elephant head and a human body.
His body expanded wildly, reaching a height of six or seven zhang, with immense strength. He threw a punch at the pursuing Qin Mu, all three heads trumpeting in unison: “Hey, Qin, die!”
Boom—
Their fists collided. The force of their physical divine abilities exploded, whipping up cyclones of wind like knives, swirling countless sand and stones in a mad dance.
The three-headed elephant man spat blood, his massive body flying backward.
Qin Mu chased after him. Before he could catch up, Ban Gongcuo’s three-headed elephant form wavered and reverted to his true body.
Ban Gongcuo leaped through the air. Before landing, a lotus flower appeared in the sky, blooming to about one zhang in size. Ban Gongcuo jumped into the lotus, and the flower quickly closed its petals, vanishing along with him.
Qin Mu was surprised: “A teleportation technique? Not quite…”
Just as he thought this, a lotus flower emerged from the desert over ten li away, blooming silently.
Qin Mu rushed over, his primal qi exploding. He flicked his finger, and the sword pellet shot forward with a whoosh.
He extended his index finger, spinning it rapidly. The sword pellet ahead split apart with a series of clangs, eight thousand flying swords forming a madly spinning torrent that raced ahead of him toward the lotus ten li away!
Sword-Winding Technique!
The sword light was incredibly fast, faster than Qin Mu’s full sprint. In an instant, it reached the lotus.
The lotus bloomed, and Ban Gongcuo leaped out. He quickly produced a black cloth, shook it in the wind, and jumped into it.
Countless flying swords shredded the lotus into pieces, then engulfed the black cloth, reducing it to powder. But Ban Gongcuo had vanished again.
Qin Mu landed with a crash, turning to survey his surroundings. Above his head, the eight thousand swords formed a circle, their tips pointing outward. No matter where Ban Gongcuo emerged, he would face Qin Mu’s most ferocious assault!
Yet the desert around him was calm. Ban Gongcuo had entered the cloth and seemed to have vanished from the world.
In the distance, a sandstorm raged. The Sun Ship and countless sand dragons hid within the storm, where thunder and lightning flashed. A black sun kept crashing out of the sandstorm, its power shaking heaven and earth. The shockwaves even reached Qin Mu, forming fierce gales that whipped up red sand, making it hard to see far.
Ahead of the sandstorm was the small figure of the Yan Kingdom National Teacher.
Qin Mu ignored that battle. Suddenly, he stomped his foot heavily. The desert trembled, and a small whirlwind swept up sand, forming a tiny sand “giant” only four or five feet tall.
The Ten Thousand Spirits Natural Art—Qin Mu had also learned it, though not as skillfully as the disciples of the True Heavenly Palace.
“Where is Ban Gongcuo hiding?” Qin Mu asked.
The small sand “giant” raised a hand and pointed. Qin Mu looked in the direction it indicated but saw nothing.
“Dan Xiao Heavenly Eye!”
Layers of array patterns spun in his eyes as he looked again. He was slightly startled to see a barely perceptible thin line standing straight in the air, drifting with the wind at a slow pace.
The surrounding wind and sand were fierce, but that thin line wasn’t bent at all by the wind—quite eerie.
Qin Mu sped up and, in a few bounds, reached the line. It wasn’t a line but a mirror so thin it had almost no thickness, about the height of a person.
Ban Gongcuo had used the Demon Shadow Illusion Art from the Great Cultivation Demon Scripture to turn into a black shadow and enter the mirror!
Qin Mu was stunned. He grabbed a flying sword and thrust it at the mirror, praising, “Great Lord, no wonder you’ve survived this long.”
Seeing him, Ban Gongcuo’s face changed drastically. Inside the mirror, he threw out a rope. The rope stood straight up, and Ban Gongcuo grabbed it, climbing upward.
Qin Mu’s sword shattered the mirror, which broke into pieces. But Ban Gongcuo had already climbed out of the mirror along the rope and disappeared.
“What kind of divine ability is this?”
Qin Mu activated the Dan Xiao Heavenly Eye, scanning everywhere but finding no trace of Ban Gongcuo. Suddenly, an idea struck him. He picked up a piece of the mirror and shone it around. As the mirror moved, he finally spotted Ban Gongcuo again.
Ban Gongcuo had climbed the rope into midair. The end of the rope had a hook, hanging on a white cloud. It seemed Ban Gongcuo planned to hide in the cloud.
But strangely, both he and the rope seemed invisible, as if still hidden in the mirror’s peculiar space. This space overlapped with the real world, and his rope could hook onto real objects, making him invisible even to the Dan Xiao Heavenly Eye!
“Great Lord, you’ve truly become a master of escape.”
Qin Mu marveled. Holding the mirror in one hand, he flicked his finger with the other. The Carefree Sword shot out with a whoosh, instantly reaching the sky and cutting the invisible rope beneath the cloud!
Qin Mu grabbed another piece of the mirror and tossed it, landing it at the spot where Ban Gongcuo would fall. With a thud, Ban Gongcuo hit the ground, landing right in the mirror. He looked up and saw Qin Mu outside.
“Great Lord, can we talk now?” Qin Mu picked up the mirror, smiling.
PS: The National Teacher has already become a god. What about the elders of the Crippled Village? Pig has organized a summary of the various experts from Crippled Village. Everyone can follow the public account “Zhai Pig” to check related materials. Their combat power might surprise you!
My daughter has a high fever, taking leave at noon!
Guo Guo has a high fever, over 39 degrees. Pig took care of her all morning; she just cooled down. Last night, my wife took care of her, and only went to sleep this morning. Pig spent the morning giving her physical cooling. She just took medicine again. There’s no way to write the noon chapter; I’ll make it up tonight.