Chapter 490: Dark Box Struggle
Bai Qiong'er still held the Dragon God Pearl high, carrying the child of Bai Qingfu and his wife, turning to lead the crowd into the darkness.
The Dragon God Pearl emitted a tranquil light, dispelling the darkness. They had to reach the waystation ahead as quickly as possible and seek the protection of the deity there.
Beside the box, the Dragon Qilin shook its body and let out a low growl. Qin Mu took out the large cauldron and tossed it to Banguocuo. Banguocuo looked at the cauldron, which was missing one leg, and shook his head. "The cauldron is broken. Its power is damaged. It probably can't protect us. Fortunately, I have other treasures."
He stuffed the cauldron back into his Taotie pouch, took out a large gourd, and wrapped the strap around his body, chuckling. "Chief Qin, this is my first incarnation's spirit weapon, called the Blood-Green Gourd. It's the treasure that made me famous. I haven't used it in a long time. I've always hoped to break through, to merge everything I've learned over these ten thousand years and refine my Blood-Green Gourd anew, but I've never been able to integrate so many techniques."
He hoisted the gourd onto his back. The large gourd was over three feet tall. Without legs, Banguocuo looked somewhat incongruous carrying this big gourd.
"Great Lord, I didn't expect you to once have been an ambitious man."
Qin Mu took a knife pouch from his Taotie pouch, put on the straps, and fastened it to his back. He then took out two butcher knives and inserted them into the pouch. "Unfortunately, after you saw that you couldn't become a god, you went twisted and took the wrong path."
Banguocuo looked at his Taotie pouch and sneered, "If you saw no hope of becoming a god, wouldn *you* go twisted? That Taotie pouch is mine!"
"I fished it out of the Golden Palace."
Qin Mu took a large iron hammer from the Taotie pouch and swung it lightly. The hammer clanged loudly, its head splitting and expanding outward to a diameter of eight feet, spinning around the hammer handle as its center.
He stopped channeling his spiritual power, and the large hammer contracted back to its normal size.
Qin Mu inserted the hammer into a leather loop beside the knife pouch on his back, securing it firmly. He then took out a bamboo staff, waved it lightly, and a series of afterimages flickered out. He also tucked it behind his back.
Banguocuo was stunned. He watched as Qin Mu took out brush, ink, paper, and an inkstone from the Taotie pouch and stuffed them into his sleeves, along with several scrolls that he fixed to other loops on the back knife pouch. He couldn't help but laugh. "Chief Qin, are you about to go on stage and perform an opera? Your back is almost completely covered!"
Qin Mu also took out a poison pouch and a sword orb. The poison pouch contained bottles of various sizes. The sword orb dissolved into eight thousand flying swords, and he coated each one with poison. "Better safe than sorry. Back when I first walked out of the Great Ruins, this was exactly how I was outfitted. It looked rustic, but it was practical. Later, when I gained status, I stopped being so rustic. But since this is a life-or-death struggle, the more rustic I am, the higher my combat power!"
Upon hearing this, Banguocuo took seven flags from his own Taotie pouch and stuck them on his back. He then took out a bronze mirror with a sleeve on the back, which he slipped onto his left arm like a shield.
He also took out a set of flying knives, hanging them on the inside of his robe, both sides fully loaded.
Qin Mu was dumbfounded as Banguocuo brought out several sword cases, standing them upright at his feet, along with a weapon commonly used on the grasslands—a knife orb.
However, Banguocuo's knife orb was extraordinary, its quality far surpassing that of grassland experts.
He also took out a Taiji disk and a Buddhist shrine containing a small Buddha. Then he brought out a thick pillar and stood it beside him, covered in runic marks that flickered and faded.
"Great Lord, your wealth is truly astonishing."
Qin Mu praised, "The National Teacher and I looted your Golden Palace several times, and you still have so many heavy treasures!"
Banguocuo sneered, "You've lived for ten thousand years; your accumulated wealth would only be greater than mine! They're coming! Open your eyes!"
A blazing Buddhist light flared in his pupils as he activated the Buddhist Heavenly Eye. Then, within the Buddhist light, a Daoist eye formed, creating the pattern of a Yin-Yang Taiji diagram!
Banguocuo looked into the darkness, but could only see shadowy figures, indistinct.
"Open!" Qin Mu shouted softly, activating the Nine Heavens Eye-Opening Technique.
Starlight suddenly appeared in his pupils, and a great sun floated within a river of stars. Then, layer upon layer of formation patterns emerged. Blind had merged the Nine Heavens Eye-Opening Technique with the First Divine Eye of the Ziqing deity from the Reclamation Era, making it more powerful and its divine abilities greater. However, this divine eye consumed more spiritual power. Qin Mu could currently only barely open the Jingxiao Heavenly Eye, which had five layers.
For daily use, he still relied mainly on the Danxiao Heavenly Eye.
The darkness ahead was too thick; the Danxiao Heavenly Eye couldn't see very far, so this time he activated the Jingxiao Heavenly Eye.
The Dragon Qilin also opened its eyes wide to look, but saw nothing. "Chief, what do you see?"
Banguocuo couldn't see very far either. He could make out about a dozen figures walking toward them in the darkness. "Chief Qin, there are only about a dozen people, right?"
Qin Mu stared straight into the darkness and nodded with a smile. "Only about a dozen cultivators. Don't worry."
Banguocuo breathed a sigh of relief and laughed heartily. "I thought I was going to end up like Bai Qingfu and his wife, dying for a bunch of worthless commoners. I'm not that noble. It seems following Chief Qin brings great fortune—I won't die!"
The Dragon Qilin chuckled. "The Chief always turns danger into safety!"
The box containing Xing Han also clattered its lid open and shut, laughing.
Qin Mu also smiled, pointed, and the box split apart, spreading flat.
The material of Xing Han's box was Taotie skin and bone. The skeleton formed the box's space, and the Taotie skin was stretched over it.
Now that the box was spread out, it immediately formed a safe space a hundred zhang in radius around them.
Standing in this safe space, protected by the box's divine light, they didn't have to worry about the darkness invading.
Banguocuo arranged his various treasures, while the Dragon Qilin looked in terror at the shelves spread out inside the box, which displayed various arms and legs. Noticing Qin Mu wasn't paying attention, Banguocuo secretly snatched two legs and stuffed them into his own Taotie pouch, hanging his own poisonous leg on the shelf instead.
Qin Mu pretended not to see and looked ahead. Under the gaze of his Jingxiao Heavenly Eye, behind the dozen or so figures walking toward them was a main force of hundreds of "extraterrestrial demons"!
They stood there silently, led by a tall figure riding a strange beast, calmly watching these dozen cultivators who were taking the lead.
These dozen cultivators were just a probe—a test of their strength!
Qin Mu kept what he saw to himself, took a deep breath, and let the sword orb slide down from his sleeve, rolling silently to the edge of the box and burrowing into the earth. The sword orb dissolved underground, and countless tiny flying swords extended into the distance, covering the ground within a hundred zhang radius.
"Move!"
Qin Mu roared, and the two butcher knives on his back flew from their sheaths into his hands.
At that moment, the dozen or so cultivators charged. The Dragon Qilin opened its mouth and roared, a pillar of blazing true fire blasting forward. The fire pillar exploded, and the dozen figures dodged, weaving around it to attack the Dragon Qilin.
The Dragon Qilin moved its head, and the fire pillar swept in all directions. One of the attackers pressed his hands downward, causing the earth to rise, but it was suppressed by the box and couldn't be lifted.
Another cultivator activated his blade light with exquisite technique, spinning it rapidly around the fire pillar, cutting through the Dragon Qilin's attack. Qin Mu drew his knives, moving back-to-back with the blade-wielder.
This cultivator was also formidable. He knew that in close-quarters combat of the technique-flow school, life and death were decided in an instant, depending on each other's blade techniques and footwork.
The two of them spun rapidly like tops, their blade light flashing up and down. The outcome was decided.
"Excellent blade technique!"
The man's head flew up into the darkness, and he turned back to praise.
His flying head saw his own body falling, while Qin Mu was struck in the chest by another cultivator's palm. However, Qin Mu's body coiled like a dragon, his primal energy turning into a dragon that wrapped around his opponent's arm. On the other side, his two knives moved with unimaginable speed, countless blade lights raining down on his opponent!
"Truly excellent blade technique!"
The man's head praised again, then his vision went dark, and he could no longer see Qin Mu's blades.
Thud.
His head hit the ground, rolled a few times, his eyes still wide open as his consciousness slowly faded. "To die under such a blade technique..."
Banguocuo's knife orb floated in the air, striking almost simultaneously with Qin Mu. Countless blade lights swept along the ground, while behind him, the Blood-Green Gourd burst open with a crash, a waterfall of blood soaring into the air and sweeping up a cultivator who was dodging his leg-severing blade light.
The blood waterfall washed over him, filled with all kinds of insects, and in an instant, it devoured the opponent clean!
Clang, clang, clang—the sound of collision came as another cultivator stepped on the blades, stomping them down one by one, and invaded Banguocuo's space. He raised his hand and unleashed divine thunder, raining down like a storm.
Banguocuo endured the five-thunder bombardment, raised his hand, and flicked his sleeve. Countless flying knives shot out, covering the man's head and face with knives.
The Dragon Qilin roared, revealing its forty-zhang true form, pouncing and counterattacking, killing and crushing its opponents.
After a moment, Qin Mu killed the last enemy, kicked the corpse away, and spat out a bloody phlegm. These cultivators were all at high cultivation levels, mostly at the Six Harmonies or Seven Stars realms. One was even at the Heavenly Being realm, entangled by the Dragon Qilin. His primordial spirit was powerful, and he nearly lifted the Dragon Qilin and threw it into the darkness.
It took the combined efforts of Qin Mu, Banguocuo, and the Dragon Qilin to kill him within the hundred-zhang space.
Banguocuo had also taken a few hits from techniques, looking disheveled. He decided not to hide it from Qin Mu anymore and attached the two divine legs to his body.
Qin Mu pretended not to see and smiled. "Great Lord, hurry up and attach them. The enemy won't give us a chance."
"Enemy?"
Banguocuo laughed. "Didn't we kill them all?"
He looked up into the darkness and saw a dense mass of figures charging toward them from the shadows. He froze, then immediately turned to flee. But outside was the darkness, so he stopped.
"There's no way out!"
Banguocuo turned back and wailed, "Chief Qin, there's no way out! I'm fucking dead because of you!"
Qin Mu stood in the center of the hundred-zhang space, thrusting his two large knives back into their sheaths. With a thud, a Sun Jade Eye landed beside him. He declared loudly, "Cross the boundary, and you die!"
"Arrogant words!"
An extraterrestrial demon cultivator charged forward with a whoosh, but suddenly a sword light shot up from the ground, piercing through his chest and into his head.
This cultivator charged forward dozens of steps before collapsing at Qin Mu's feet.
Qin Mu smiled, facing the hundreds of extraterrestrial demons in the darkness, and repeated, "Cross the boundary, and you die!"
"I'll kill you!"
A giant leaped up, holding a large shield, throwing it under his feet to block the sword light surging from the ground. He roared, his body transforming into a divine form with a tortoise shell and a great snake coiled around him, crashing down into the space spread out by the box. He punched, and the Teng Snake roared, wrapping around his fist.
Clang, clang—
Two blade lights, one horizontal and one vertical, crossed. Then the blade light suddenly withdrew, and the giant split into four pieces.
Qin Mu wiped the blood beads off his knives and grinned. "Cross the boundary, and you die!"
"You two, and a pig, occupying a hundred zhang of space—do you think you can stop my army?"
A strange beast walked forward. On it, the leader of this extraterrestrial demon unit lifted his faceplate, looking down at Qin Mu, and sneered. "Considering your decent cultivation and courage, I'll send you to die without a complete corpse! All soldiers, hear my command—trample them!"
All the extraterrestrial demon cultivators surged forward, flooding the hundred-zhang space.
Outside the hundred-zhang space, eight thousand swords burst from the ground, forming the first form of the Sword Diagram, Sword Traversing Mountains and Rivers, encompassing everyone who had charged into the hundred-zhang space!
The leader sneered, his primordial spirit soaring into the air, his spiritual power exploding, forcibly shaking off all the flying swords and breaking the Sword Traversing Mountains and Rivers!
Banguocuo's face turned pale as he looked up at this powerful being who had effortlessly broken the sword diagram. Despair filled his heart, and he muttered, "A general at the Life and Death realm has come too... There's no way out. I can't escape anymore..."
"There is a way out!"
Qin Mu roared. A beam of light burst forth, stabbing toward the general's eyes. The moment the general froze the sword diagram, the Sun Jade Eye's light buzzed as it shot through his forehead and out the back of his head!
The surging cultivators pounced on Qin Mu, burying him. The Sun Jade Eye was blasted away by dozens of techniques and rolled off.
Hope reignited in Banguocuo's heart. His face twisted with ferocity as he charged toward the hundreds of enemies. "Kill—!"
"Kill—!"
The Dragon Qilin roared, its scales bursting off its body and flying through the air.
Thud, thud, thud.
Suddenly, the hundred-zhang space rapidly folded and closed, packing the hundreds of extraterrestrial demon cultivators, along with Banguocuo, Qin Mu, and the Dragon Qilin, all into the box.
In the darkness, the box emitted a faint light, but inside the box was an intensely thick darkness, without any light. From within the box came a series of heavy impacts, thudding continuously.
The sounds of a terrifying slaughter came from inside the box—the sound of blades cutting through flesh, the muffled explosions of techniques, and blood constantly flowing from the corners of the box.
After a long time, the box fell silent.
Bang—
A bloody hand pushed open the box, and a head emerged, trying to climb out. Immediately, the head was pierced by a bamboo staff, which came out through its forehead before retracting.
The box spat out this corpse.
Inside the box, there was silence again. After a moment, another series of muffled sounds came. The box opened and threw out more corpses.
"In a dark box struggle, the one who's blind wins!"
Inside the box, Qin Mu stood with his bamboo staff, surrounded by total darkness. "My master was a blind man!"
—A four-thousand-word chapter. Wrote too much. Sorry.