Chapter 519: The Village Chief Returns to the City
"I am twenty-three years old this year."
Qin Mu said honestly, "Having wasted twenty-three years of life without achieving anything, speaking of it makes me sigh with regret and tears flow."
"Divine Physician Qin is only twenty-three and has already accomplished so much—that is truly extraordinary."
Xing Han turned around, raised the mirror in his hand, and praised sincerely, "At twenty-three, you are not only the leader of the Demon Sect, commanding millions of cultivators, but also hold a high position as the Grand Sacrificial Scholar of the Heavenly Saint Academy, and you are the Human Sovereign, as well as the wealthiest man under heaven with a vast network of connections. How many people in this world can achieve what you have at twenty-three? You are the only one!"
He raised the mirror to take a look, but did not see Qin Mu's reflection in it. He was slightly startled, but then heard Qin Mu's voice coming from afar: "Fatty Dragon! Fatty Dragon! Tell the new cultivators that this is the Great Ruins. When night falls, they cannot run around—people will die! Find a few loud voices to shout and warn the cultivators not to leave the city at night!"
Xing Han put away the mirror and strode forward to follow. When Qin Mu stopped, he took out the mirror again, turned his back to Qin Mu, and prepared to look, but once more, Qin Mu's reflection was absent from the mirror.
Qin Mu's voice came from afar again, saying, "Yu Xiu, can you find a few dozen court painters? Senior Brother Xing Han gave me a picture that needs to be copied thousands of times and distributed everywhere."
Xing Han raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself, "If the person Lu Li is looking for is him, then he certainly wouldn't have the jade pendant in the painting copied. Could it be that I am overthinking this? But then, why is he avoiding me?"
He followed Qin Mu again, his gaze flickering uncertainly. "If he runs again, I will suppress him with my magical power and freeze him in place!"
Just then, the slightly plump young woman from the Ling family glanced sideways at the painting and exclaimed in surprise, "This jade pendant—I think I've seen it before!"
Xing Han shuddered, forgetting about Qin Mu, and quickly asked, "Princess of the Ling family, have you truly seen it?"
Over the past few months, Ling Yuxiu had been responsible for military intelligence on the northern border. Raised on the snowy plains of the north, she had grown fair-skinned, and as she was in a growth spurt, her face had become slightly longer, her features more delicate, though her figure remained plump.
She had returned to the capital to report on her duties. After Qin Mu had set up the Life and Death Realm, she took the opportunity to come to Xianglong City, not only to meet her lover but also to enter the Life and Death Realm for training.
"I saw it once."
Ling Yuxiu, tempered by her military service in the north, had matured considerably. She still preferred men's clothing, which gave her a heroic air, and said, "I saw it in a ruin within the Great Ruins."
"The Great Ruins!"
Xing Han's heart shook violently, and he quickly asked, "Was that person a young man?"
Ling Yuxiu replied, "No. There were such characters in the ruins of the Great Ruins, and inside the ruins, there was a small swaddling cloth and a little wooden horse, as if a child had lived there."
Qin Mu looked at Xing Han, who fell silent again, clearly communicating with the strange eye within his Life and Death Divine Treasury.
He looked at the mirror in Xing Han's hand, curious about it. Xing Han had been trying to use the mirror to reflect him earlier, which was why he had dodged.
"Senior Brother Xing Han, you also like carrying a mirror? Could this mirror be some extraordinary treasure?"
Qin Mu's eyes flickered as he reached for the mirror. "Could you lend it to me for a bit? I think I have a pimple on my face—I want to take a look..."
Slap!
Xing Han slapped his hand away, stuffed the mirror back into his Taotie pouch, and said calmly, "Don't touch my things—you're poisonous. Princess of the Ling family, where in the Great Ruins is that place you mentioned? Can you take me there?"
He was communicating with the strange eye in his Life and Death Divine Treasury; presumably, the eye wanted him to go there and see for himself.
Ling Yuxiu hesitated for a moment, then said, "I still need to go to Fengdu and have no time to take you there. But I remember the geography of that place and can draw you a map."
Xing Han thanked her.
Ling Yuxiu asked Qin Mu for a brush and ink, then drew a geographical map. Xing Han asked calmly, "Are there any dangers there?"
Ling Yuxiu smiled and said, "If there were danger, how could I have returned alive? In this world, who has higher cultivation and strength than Senior Xing Han?"
Xing Han showed a smile. "If you can come back alive, so can I. Divine Physician Qin, will you come with me?"
Qin Mu hesitated and said, "Senior Brother, why must you take me with you to search for someone in the Great Ruins? I've already helped you find people, and I'll have this painting hung all over Yan Kang. If there's any news, I'll notify you. As for you going to look for traces of the jade pendant, I also need to go to the Hall of Human Sovereigns to pay respects at the graves. If I delay any longer, the past Human Sovereigns will curse me behind my back, wishing I would die soon and meet them."
Xing Han looked at the map drawn by Ling Yuxiu and said seriously, "Princess of the Ling family, if I don't find the characters from the jade pendant there, you can imagine the consequences. Your Ling family will be erased from this world!"
Ling Yuxiu shuddered and forced a smile, saying, "I didn't lie to you..."
Xing Han turned and left.
Both Qin Mu and Ling Yuxiu breathed a sigh of relief. Ling Yuxiu wiped the sweat from her forehead and was about to speak, but Qin Mu raised his hand, and she quickly stopped.
The two were in sync, and together they sent their primordial spirits out of their bodies, fleeing far away.
Their primordial spirits flew tens of thousands of miles away from Xianglong City before stopping. Ling Yuxiu's primordial spirit asked, "Cowherd, what kind of place is that? Is it dangerous? The lives of my entire Ling family are at stake!"
The reason she had said what she did was that, while Xing Han was off guard, Qin Mu had used the spiritual fluctuation of the Tianyu Clan to contact her, telling her to say and draw those things.
Members of the Tianyu Clan didn't speak to each other; they communicated through spiritual fluctuations, needing no sound—just a thought to convey each other's ideas, acting in unison, very flexible.
Although spiritual communication had its drawbacks, this method was very useful for maintaining secrecy.
"Don't worry. What you told Xing Han, he will see there, but he won't find anything useful."
Qin Mu's primordial spirit said, "After he goes there, if he turns back immediately, he can still come out. But if he insists on going deeper to find more clues, whether he can come out will depend on his wisdom. Back then, the Village Chief and the others barged in there and almost didn't make it back. It was Grandpa Mute who rescued them. After Xing Han returns, he won't kill you for this, because you didn't lie."
The place he was referring to was the one they had once suspected to be Wuyou Village—a giant ship forged by the Heavenly Artifact Divine Clan. But the Heavenly Artifact Divine Clan hadn't been able to enter Wuyou Village; they had been ambushed by enemies and, along with that unimaginably huge ship, trapped in a massive three-dimensional spatial seal.
The Heavenly Artifact Divine Clan had spent countless generations and sacrificed countless lives to allow one child to escape the seal, and Qin Mu suspected that person was Grandpa Mute.
The Village Chief and the others had relied on Grandpa Mute to lead them out.
If Xing Han stepped into that place and immediately turned back, he could break out. But if he entered deeper, he would be trapped by the seal.
Ling Yuxiu breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Why is Xing Han looking for you? That jade pendant is clearly yours."
Qin Mu shook his head and said, "I don't know either. But there is a very powerful being hiding in his Life and Death Divine Treasury, extremely terrifying. Xing Han must be under its coercion. I only saw the eye of that being, not its body. But since Xing Han fell from Fengdu into the Netherworld and returned alive, that eye in his divine treasury must be a demon god from the Netherworld!"
Ling Yuxiu frowned and said, "What if Xing Han can escape from that place?"
Qin Mu shook his head and said, "It should be able to trap him for half a year. After he comes out, we can continue searching for that jade pendant youth for him."
His gaze was strange as he lowered his voice and said, "When he comes out, he will find that whether in the Central Plains, the Western Lands, the grasslands, the ice fields, or the Great Ruins, this kind of jade pendant is everywhere. Guess how that happened?"
Ling Yuxiu rolled her eyes at him. "I know you're capable—don't brag!"
Qin Mu laughed heartily. The two returned their primordial spirits to their bodies. Outside, the sky was gradually getting dark. By the river of the Life and Death Realm, a painted boat sailed over. Hu Ling'er and Si Yunxiang let those who had paid board the boat, which sailed along the river in the sky toward Fengdu. Ling Yuxiu also boarded the ship.
Outside the city, Qin Mu walked into the darkness. Long Qilin sat on a box, which walked on its legs, following Qin Mu. The box was filled with things—besides fruits and vegetables for offerings, there were paper money. The box was very dissatisfied with these items, but since Qin Mu had forcibly stuffed them into its belly, it had no choice.
"The Hall of Human Sovereigns, like Little Jade Capital, is a fragment of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court."
Qin Mu's eyes flickered as he walked in the darkness, holding a lump of black iron in his hand, thinking to himself, "The Second Ancestor and the others didn't tell me how to get there; they just said to activate the Human Sovereign Seal and I would find it. How does the Human Sovereign Seal find the Hall of Human Sovereigns..."
He channeled his primordial energy into the Human Sovereign Seal. The great seal vibrated slightly. This activation was different from the last time. Last time, when he activated the seal, he had seen the arduous years of humanity after the fall of the Kaihuang Era. The spirit contained within the Human Sovereign Seal surged out, spreading to every corner of the world.
But that time, he had the help of the Village Chief and a group of experts. Now, he was alone, so naturally, he couldn't unleash the spiritual call of the Human Sovereign Seal.
Qin Mu probed with his primordial energy and suddenly felt a stir. His primordial energy touched a mark within the Human Sovereign Seal.
At that moment, the Human Sovereign Seal vibrated lightly, and a beam of light shot out, striking Qin Mu's eyes before disappearing.
Qin Mu shook his head and opened his eyes. A ray of light shone from somewhere, landing precisely at his feet.
Qin Mu was surprised and turned back to ask, "Fatty Dragon, can you see this light?"
Long Qilin had fallen asleep but quickly looked up at the sound, glancing around. "What light?"
"Only I can see this light?"
Qin Mu quickly took out a mirror and looked at his reflection. He saw a strange rune had appeared in his eyes. It seemed that this rune was imprinted in his eyes, allowing him to see the light!
"So this is how you get to the Hall of Human Sovereigns!" Qin Mu followed the beam of light as he walked.
Meanwhile, the Village Chief had finally returned to Fengdu. He saw that Fengdu was incredibly lively at the moment. A long river hung above the city, with a bridge on it crowded with gods and demons, while below the bridge, on the painted boat, stood a pile of skeletons.
"What's going on?"
The Village Chief was surprised. Suddenly, he saw Qi Kang, the Human Sovereign, on the bridge. His eyes lit up, and he waved, saying, "Old Qi Kang, over here! I'm back! I bring shocking news about the Overlord Body! Heh heh, news you wouldn't expect—four thousand years ago, an Overlord Body appeared! Come down quickly; I have rubbings here!"
Qi Kang, the Human Sovereign, quickly jumped down from the bridge, pointing at the Village Chief and saying, "Don't move! Don't move! I'll go call the Second Ancestor and the others!"
The Village Chief laughed and said, "Don't you want to see the rubbings first?"
"Joy shared alone is not as good as joy shared with others. Wait until all the Human Sovereigns are gathered, and we'll look together." Qi Kang, the Human Sovereign, turned back with a look of honest sincerity.
The Village Chief was puzzled. "That old immortal's smile today looks familiar. Why is he being so polite to me today..."