Chapter 513: Analysis of the Sacrificial Principle
After a long day of travel, night fell once again. This time, Qin Mu didn’t bother searching for ruins to rest. Instead, he let the box carry the sleeping Dragon Qilin as they traveled through the night, while he walked in the darkness, keeping pace with the box.
In the darkness, he witnessed many strange and bizarre occurrences again—cities that suddenly emerged with the night, countless living beings, and grand-scale battles. These were things he had never seen when he followed the Village Chief into the Dark Wastes.
Yet whenever he stepped back into the light of the box, he could no longer see the scenes in the darkness. The divine radiance of the box seemed to transport him back to the original world.
Stepping into the darkness, however, meant crossing into another world—the Dark Realm.
Strangely, he couldn’t sense any world barriers.
This was almost impossible.
Between any two worlds, there should always be a world barrier. Crossing between worlds would subject the traveler to the pressure of different world energies. The stronger the traveler, the greater the pressure.
But there was no barrier between the Dark Realm and the real world. That was bizarre.
Qin Mu stepped into the light of the box, sat down on it, and stared blankly for a moment. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he chuckled, “I know an expert in this field. Why not invite him out and ask?”
Full of enthusiasm, he made the box stop, jumped off, and took out a white bone altar from his Gluttony Bag. On the altar sat a demon god statue with four heads and eight arms.
Qin Mu took out a cinnabar brush and drew various runes on the demon god statue. Then, he channeled his primal energy to activate the talisman treasure, performing the Spirit Summoning and Commanding Talisman Divine Ability.
After a moment, he finished the ritual, but the demon god statue remained motionless.
Qin Mu was suspicious. He performed the ritual again, but still, the statue showed no reaction.
“Brother Dutian, your little brother humbly and fearfully summons you to descend. I offer flesh and blood delicacies. Please, deign to grace me with your presence.”
Qin Mu prayed, “If Brother Dutian does not come, your little brother will pray ten or a hundred times a day until you descend. Your little brother kowtows in fear…”
“Shut up! Who’s your brother?”
Suddenly, one face of the demon god statue opened its eyes. Its pupils rolled around rapidly, and upon finding no ambush, a wisp of its consciousness descended. The other three faces also came to life, and it spoke, “I’ve never sworn brotherhood with you. Don’t claim false kinship—we’re not familiar! Praying a hundred times a day? You’d annoy me to death! Chief Qin, what do you want from me?”
Qin Mu sighed in relief and smiled, “I have a question I don’t understand.”
He recounted what he had seen in the darkness and said, “Why do the two worlds overlap? Why is there no world barrier when crossing over, and no rejection?”
The puppet demon god statue stood up from the altar, pulled out a bone, and bit into it like a sugarcane, saying, “I thought you summoned me for some scheme again, but it’s just this trivial matter.”
Qin Mu assumed the posture of a disciple and said, “May I ask for Brother Dutian’s guidance?”
Dutian Demon King shuddered and quickly said, “Don’t be so polite! When you’re this polite, I always suspect you’re setting me up! What you’re talking about actually involves the issue of world energy. The energy that constitutes a world is fixed. A person’s birth, cultivation, and death do not change the composition of that world’s energy. This is the most basic law!”
Qin Mu pondered and suddenly asked, “If a person’s birth, cultivation, and death don’t change the energy composition, what if that person becomes a god or demon and achieves immortality?”
“Even becoming a god or demon doesn’t change the fixed energy of this world. It doesn’t increase the world’s energy, nor does it decrease it.”
Dutian Demon King said, “A world’s energy is constant. The energy that can be altered is limited. When a person crosses from one world to another, it removes that person’s energy from the first world and adds it to the second, breaking the original balance. This causes a force twice the person’s own power to act upon them, which is why crossing worlds is so difficult and requires blood sacrifice.”
Qin Mu suddenly felt a flash of insight and said, “So the principle of blood sacrifice is to sacrifice the flesh and blood of living beings from this world, sending them to another world to become that world’s energy!”
Dutian Demon King nodded. “The sacrificed gods and demons serve as exchanged energy, descending from the other world to this one, filling the energy lost from the blood sacrifice, thus maintaining the energy balance between the two worlds. For example, this altar of yours—the energy in the bones on it was just sacrificed to my Dutian World. As an energy exchange, I have descended into this treacherous world of yours.”
Qin Mu’s eyes lit up. “I see. You mentioned earlier that ‘the energy that can be altered is limited.’ What does that mean?”
“Blood sacrifice builds a bridge, piercing through both worlds. If my power is strong enough, I can smuggle a portion of my power through that bridge without following the energy balance.”
Dutian Demon King laughed. “Last time you summoned me, the sacrificed power was very small, but I channeled a large amount of energy into this world. That’s like forcing my way in, but the energy I force in must withstand the pressure of both worlds, so the power I can smuggle in is still limited. It quickly exceeds my limit. The amount of smuggled power depends on the strength of the one being sacrificed.”
Qin Mu understood and frowned. “But in the darkness of the Wastes, the two worlds overlap without any world barrier. How do you explain that?”
Dutian Demon King chuckled darkly. “What if the energy forced in exceeds the limit that this world can withstand?”
Qin Mu’s heart shook violently. “You mean…”
“A massive blood sacrifice, building tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of bridges. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of gods and demons smuggle themselves over together, pouring their own energy into that world!”
Dutian Demon King grinned sinisterly. “They burst the world barrier! Once the barrier is shattered, there’s no barrier left, and then they can launch a full-scale invasion without any hindrance!”
Qin Mu’s hair stood on end. He shivered several times, his face showing disbelief, and he exclaimed, “Are you saying that the world in the darkness of the Wastes is a world whose barrier has been burst open?”
“The one that gets burst might not necessarily be the world in the darkness.”
Dutian Demon King said with a sly smile, “Don’t you think your own world could also be the one that was burst?”
Qin Mu shook his head. “If this world had been burst, you could descend freely long ago. I saw in the darkness that countless demon gods were opening spatial portals, leading their demon sons and grandsons to attack. It’s clear that the world whose barrier was burst is that one.”
Dutian Demon King sat on the box, laughed heartily, and swung his legs, saying, “From your description, the world in the darkness overlaps with this treacherous world. That reminds me of a very terrifying possibility. World sacrifice!”
The four faces of his wooden puppet showed an extremely sinister and eerie smile, and he nearly jumped up in excitement. “World sacrifice means sacrificing an entire world, using that terrifying power to descend into another world. A million gods and demons descend together to destroy that world! This is an even grander plan!”
Qin Mu was puzzled. “They’re going to destroy that world?”
The puppet demon god statue creaked as it turned its head, and the gazes of its four faces fell on him one after another.
Qin Mu’s hair stood on end, and he exclaimed, “Are you saying that tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of demon gods burst the barrier of that world in the darkness and then plan to blood-sacrifice that world to descend here?”
Dutian Demon King’s head spun around his neck a few times with a whirring sound, then he clapped in praise, “Clever! The Wastes overlap with that world, and they sacrifice that world. The energy from sacrificing an entire world is so vast and terrifying that it allows that demon-god-filled world to descend into the Wastes all at once! At that point, the terrifying scene of two worlds colliding will occur, billions of lives will be devastated—just thinking about it is thrilling!”
Qin Mu’s expression went blank. Suddenly, he shook his head and said, “Impossible! Absolutely impossible! The darkness has existed for twenty thousand years. That means the war in that world has been going on for twenty thousand years. How could a war last that long? Impossible!”
Dutian Demon King jumped off the box and said, “If I were you, I would have emigrated to another world long ago. A wise man doesn’t stand beneath a crumbling wall. When the nest overturns, no egg remains intact. This world is too dangerous—I’m going back! And don’t bother me too often. I’m afraid of you!”
He leaped into the darkness, his consciousness leaving his body and returning to the Dutian World, shouting, “The moment the world in the darkness is destroyed is the day your world collides with another demon god world, and the day of your doom!”
As he jumped into the darkness, he was immediately eroded by it. Qin Mu hurried into the darkness and saw that the puppet demon god statue had shattered into pieces.
Qin Mu frowned and returned to the box. The energy of the white bone altar was exhausted, and the bones crumbled on their own.
“Is Dutian Demon King’s words reliable or not? That guy is always unreliable, but now he’s saying something so terrifying…”
He steadied himself. Dutian Demon King’s words were truly horrifying. How credible were they?
But thinking about it, given Dutian Demon King’s nature of gloating and wanting to see the world burn, there was no reason for him to scare Qin Mu.
“Yankang is still too weak.”
Qin Mu exhaled a breath of foul air and thought to himself, “But the world in the darkness has been fighting the demon race for twenty thousand years. They’ve held out until now. They won’t collapse and be blood-sacrificed right away, right? So the collision between Yankang and the demon god world should still be far off. No need to worry too much… Hahaha, I almost wet myself from that bastard Dutian’s scare. Borrowing trouble, definitely borrowing trouble!”
A few days later, Qin Mu finally left the Wastes and returned to Yankang. He immediately took a fast airship from Mishui Pass to the capital, submitted a memorial to Emperor Yanfeng, presented the Xuanwu Pearl tributed by True Heaven Palace Master Xiong Xiyu, and brought up the matter of building roads.
Emperor Yanfeng summoned the civil and military officials for discussion. Yankang National Teacher was among them. The officials debated fiercely, with many opposing the road construction. Yankang National Teacher argued eloquently, refuting all objections. Emperor Yanfeng smiled slyly in court and mentioned beheadings, which finally settled the matter.
Emperor Yanfeng handed the task to the Ministry of Works, with Yankang National Teacher in charge. Qin Mu immediately found Yankang National Teacher and said, “The divine abilities of the Western Lands are very suitable for our sect. The Heavenly King will lead several of our sect’s elders and hall masters there to recruit more talents into the sect.”
Yankang National Teacher was puzzled. “Chief Qin, isn’t it inappropriate for me to handle this?”
“You are one of the Four Heavenly Kings of our sect, so naturally, you are responsible.”
Yankang National Teacher’s forehead bulged with veins, and he said stiffly, “Then what about the sect leader?”
Qin Mu smiled. “I’ll go visit relatives and friends, and do some business to earn some money.”