Chapter 485: Beiluo Shimen
This crack was about ten feet wide. The box carrying Qin Mu and the others entered, but after taking just two steps, it got stuck. Qin Mu hurriedly shoved Long Qilin’s belly further inside, but the box still couldn’t move. Bum Gongcuo, crushed beneath the box, howled in pain.
“Keep your voice down!”
Qin Mu barked in a low voice, ordering the box to back out. Outside, one of Xing Han’s divine eyes swept past, its divine light like a pillar, scanning across this area.
Qin Mu quickly had the large box hide behind a protruding boulder. The divine eye moved extremely fast, passing by in a flash.
“Lucky that Xing Han’s eye isn’t Blind Grandpa’s divine eye, or this big rock wouldn’t fool him at all.”
He breathed a sigh of relief, opened the box, grabbed the loose skin behind Long Qilin’s neck, and stuffed the fatso into the box.
“Sect Leader…”
Long Qilin inside the box trembled all over: “There are arms and legs in here! And heads! And hearts! And so many fingers!”
Qin Mu closed the box and had it continue moving into the crack. Without Long Qilin, the big fatty, things went much smoother. The box went deeper and deeper, and the light ahead grew stronger.
Qin Mu lay on the box, straining to look forward. From this crack, looking to the other side, he saw not a green grassland and blue sky, but a golden-yellow desert, completely different from what they had seen before.
“Could the world in this crack be a different place from the world in the previous crack?”
Just as he thought this, another beam of divine light shone from behind. Qin Mu’s heart jumped—there was nowhere to hide this time. He could only frantically urge the box to crawl forward.
Fortunately, they weren’t far from the world inside the crack. The box quickly crawled out, tumbled down, rolled twice in the golden desert, and stood up again.
Qin Mu looked back. A beam of divine light shot out from the crack, flashed, and vanished. He didn’t know if it had seen them.
Suddenly, his heart jolted. He quickly jumped off the box and looked underneath—sure enough, Bum Gongcuo was gone.
“That bastard slipped away fast!”
Qin Mu chuckled. Bum Gongcuo must have taken the chance to escape when the box fell into this golden desert, afraid Qin Mu would ambush him unexpectedly.
They had been in the deep night of the Great Ruins, with Xing Han tracking them nearby, so they needed to stick together. But now that the darkness was gone, Bum Gongcuo naturally made a run for it.
Without his legs, he was no match for Qin Mu. If he was too slow, he’d never get away.
“Great Venerable is truly cunning,” Qin Mu praised.
He opened the box. Long Qilin immediately jumped out, terrified, and refused to go anywhere near the box again.
Qin Mu peered inside. It was the same as before—a frame made of Taotie bones, covered in Taotie skin, with shelves inside. But the limbs on the shelves were much fewer.
He also noticed the marks left by the box being cut open and sewn back together. That was the damage from the Butcher’s two knives, slashing wildly and cutting the box apart.
After Xing Han escaped from the Butcher’s blades, he must have repaired the box.
“If I could awaken those divine legs, hands, and heads, Xing Han wouldn’t be so hard to deal with.”
Qin Mu’s eyes flickered. He closed the box, moved away from the crack behind him, and ran deep into the golden desert. Behind him, the box walked swiftly, always following steadily. Long Qilin also ran fast, occasionally glancing at the box with fear in his eyes.
After a while, Long Qilin overcame his fear, leaped onto the box, and crouched there, letting the box carry him as it sped along.
“Long Fatty has reached a whole new level of laziness!” Qin Mu glanced back at the chubby one, thinking to himself.
Ahead, the desert stretched to the horizon. Qin Mu led the box in a mad dash across the vast sands, then suddenly stopped. In the desert, a tall skeleton lay across a sand dune, half-buried under the yellow sand.
He stepped forward and immediately felt a divine might. He quickly stopped, and the box behind him also halted. Long Qilin, who had fallen asleep on the box, woke with a start, looked up, and shouted, “Has Xing Han caught up?”
“No!”
Qin Mu studied the divine skeleton buried under the yellow sand. Its ribs were also extremely tall, rising high, with a chest cavity that could probably hold dozens of people standing inside.
He cautiously moved forward, and the box tiptoed after him, taking small steps.
Qin Mu reached out his hand, then thought better of it. He took Bum Gongcuo’s large cauldron and slowly approached the divine skeleton.
Suddenly, a loud clang rang out. Qin Mu grunted, his tiger’s mouth split open, and his palm bled profusely. One of the legs of Bum Gongcuo’s cauldron was cut clean off!
This cauldron was forged by Bum Gongcuo in his past life, when he was a near-divine powerhouse. Its power was definitely at the level of a sect-suppressing treasure!
Even when Qin Mu fought it with his sword pellet, he couldn’t damage the cauldron, showing how strong its defense was.
Yet before this divine skeleton, the cauldron was as fragile as clay, easily losing a leg.
Qin Mu endured the pain, sealed the wound, and picked up the broken leg. The cut was smooth, as if sliced by an invisible blade.
Moreover, touching the cut surface, it felt extremely hot.
“This is… the yang energy of the yin and yang energies, refined into protective divine essence by the owner of this skeleton.”
Qin Mu put away the cauldron and the broken leg. Long Qilin stared warily ahead, terrified: “Sect Leader, what was that thing that cut the pot?”
“This god’s divine repositories.”
Qin Mu grabbed a handful of yellow sand and gently blew. The sand flew forward, revealing what was invisible to the naked eye in the space!
Inside the massive divine skeleton lying in the sand, there were actually seven complete divine repositories!
These repositories were originally invisible, but now, invaded by fine dust, they emitted various divine lights, illuminating the deep-space repositories brilliantly!
The divine corpse was huge, but the repositories weren’t large. The Embryonic Repository at the skeleton’s brow was only the size of a square inch. The Five Elements Repository at the heart and lungs was larger. The Six Harmonies Repository was at the dantian. The Seven Stars Repository was between the crown and the heart and lungs.
The Celestial Being Repository was in the spine. The Life and Death Repository was below the waist. As for the Divine Bridge Repository, it flew out from the Embryonic Repository, forming a flying bridge that pierced beyond the crown!
These repositories looked small, but looking inside, they seemed to contain billions of miles of spacetime, incredibly vast. One could even see withered and decayed suns and moons, tattered stars and constellations!
At the center of the Embryonic Repository was the god’s embryo, which should have been part of the primordial spirit. Now, the skeleton’s soul was gone, but the embryo hadn’t completely withered.
“He died from an injury to his primordial spirit.”
Layers of formation patterns spun in Qin Mu’s eyes as he focused on the embryo in the Embryonic Repository. The god’s embryo had been pierced from behind by a sword, emerging from the chest. The sword had left a phantom shadow, showing how terrifying the blow was!
Broken suns and moons revolved around the embryo, with beams of light pouring down—the yin and yang energies.
One of those pure yang energies had cut off the cauldron’s leg.
“Even after death, with flesh gone, he still preserves complete divine repositories and an embryo. The residual divine essence is still so powerful, easily cutting through a sect-suppressing treasure.”
Qin Mu pondered. An ordinary god couldn’t have such power after death. He had once visited the corpse of Xu Shenghua’s master, Jade Lord. Jade Lord had been blown to pieces by his own Sun-Sniping Divine Cannon, dying horribly.
Although Jade Lord’s corpse still carried heavy divine might, it couldn’t compare to this divine skeleton.
Moreover, Jade Lord’s divine repositories had collapsed after his death.
“This is a true god, a real deity!”
His expression turned serious. He searched his Taotie pouch and took out the Black Tortoise Pearl, muttering, “How could a real deity die here?”
Qin Mu activated the Black Tortoise Pearl, using its power to cast a spell, trying to awaken the skeleton.
Crack—
The skeleton suddenly moved. Long Qilin’s fur stood on end, scales bristling, and even his tail went stiff.
Qin Mu activated the Ten Thousand Spirits Natural Art. This technique was best practiced by women; his mind was too cluttered to master it fully, but with the Black Tortoise Pearl, he could barely manage it.
A huge bone hand slowly rose from the sand. The skeleton slowly sat up, its massive skull tilting down as if observing Qin Mu and Long Qilin. Sand poured from its eye sockets and mouth like a waterfall.
“Fight!”
The skeleton stood up, grabbing a tattered banner from the thick sand dune. It waved the banner, its mouth opening and closing. The residual mana in its divine repositories vibrated the air. Even without flesh, it still made a earth-shaking sound: “By imperial decree: Behind us is our ancestral land. We have no way back! Fight! Only fight!”
Qin Mu’s mouth fell open. He scratched his head. His awakening spell should have summoned a new soul into the skeleton, but instead, it seemed to have awakened a remnant of its will. This will hadn’t dissipated, just lain dormant, roused by his Ten Thousand Spirits Natural Art.
“The war ended countless years ago, Senior!”
Qin Mu shouted: “Where is your homeland? Why did you die here? Whose orders were you following in this battle? Who was your enemy?”
The skeleton looked down at him, its voice rumbling: “Under the Sovereign Emperor, Beiluo Shimen, Deputy Commander of a Thousand. Ordered to hold the ground. Who are you, little one? This is a battlefield. Retreat at once! Where are my brothers?”
The divine skeleton leaped up, waving its banner, and charged up the tall sand dune. Suddenly, it froze, standing there.
“The Sovereign Emperor era? Isn’t that tens of thousands of years ago?”
Qin Mu was stunned. He quickly led the box over. When he reached the top of the dune, he was shocked. On the other side of the dune lay endless bones.
Countless skeletons lay scattered, half-buried in the golden desert. The massive bones couldn’t be fully covered, with most still exposed.
Divine weapons and artifacts were stuck haphazardly in the desert. There were broken chariots, rusted bronze warships, and metal discs a hundred feet tall…
Qin Mu was dumbfounded. This had once been a battlefield of gods and demons, where thousands had died, left unburied.
“What year is it now?”
The divine skeleton beside him lowered its head and asked, “Where is the Sovereign Emperor? Why are my brothers’ bones left exposed in the wilderness? Why aren’t these warriors given the dignity of death…”
Qin Mu said sadly, “Senior, the Sovereign Emperor era ended long ago. It’s become a legend. Not only the Sovereign Emperor, but the Kai Emperor era has also ended…”
“Did the Sovereign Emperor also die in battle?”
The divine skeleton bowed its head, as if weeping, but no tears fell. It walked toward the battlefield, lifting up a white bone: “My brothers, my comrades-in-arms. The Sovereign Emperor era is gone, but I can’t let you die without a burial place… Little brother.”
It turned its head to “look” at Qin Mu: “Can you awaken my brothers? We will bury ourselves and find peace after death.”
[Activity Announcement: This chapter’s event winner list, see if you’re there]