Chapter 534: A Hard Stone (Third Update, Asking for Monthly Votes!)
“Was it you who severed the arm of Divine Blade Luo Wushuang?”
The surrounding crowd immediately felt a surreal sense of absurdity. Even the most composed Shu Yao couldn’t help but laugh, saying, “Brother Qin, the thresher, you’d better stick to your blacksmithing.”
Qin Mu withdrew his gaze, but his expression became unusually serious. Suddenly, Yu He, Huang Yue, Shu Yao, and Sang Hua all shifted sideways, stepping a pace away from Qin Mu, their hearts filled with doubt and unease.
For a single instant, they felt as if the blacksmithing youth beside them had become a sword about to be drawn from its sheath—radiance bursting forth in all directions, sharp and imposing—but then it was immediately concealed back into the scabbard!
Their sidestep was purely instinctive, a reflex to evade that terrifying battle intent and killing aura.
Clang, clang.
The sound of hammering came again. Qin Mu stood before the smelting platform, focused and intent, continuing to forge his flying swords.
The crowd couldn’t help but wonder if their senses had deceived them.
On the opposite side, beside Zhe Huali, a demoness glanced over and said in surprise, “The person in your painting looks just like that blacksmithing kid over there!”
Zhe Huali rolled up the painting and put it away, saying calmly, “My master has been searching for him for a long time. My master said that whatever achievement he has made in his blade techniques, he owes it all to him. Before I descended to the lower realm, he demonstrated his sword techniques to me and gave me this painting, telling me to find the person in it and perform his blade techniques before him.”
The demoness shuddered, then chuckled, “Your master cares about him a lot. Having you perform the blade techniques is meant to show that blacksmithing kid the power of his art. I can feel the hatred in your master’s heart, and besides that hatred, there should also be a trace of respect. But that blacksmithing kid is just a youth—how did he catch your master’s attention?”
“That, I don’t know.”
Zhe Huali’s gaze fell on Qin Mu. “Just a few months ago, my master contacted me across realms, saying that the person he was looking for had appeared and told me to go to that world to find him. But with the great battle imminent, I had no time to go to that world. I never expected to encounter him here.”
He exhaled a turbid breath and murmured, “For someone to be so highly regarded by the God of Blades, I really want to test him!”
Qin Mu, still hammering away, seemed completely oblivious to his gaze, continuing to forge his flying sword. However, Zhe Huali keenly sensed that his stare still made the youth somewhat uncomfortable. When his gaze fell on Qin Mu, he could clearly see Qin Mu adjusting his stance.
Zhe Huali smiled, growing excited. The eyes on his demon blade also stirred with his excitement, spinning a few times before turning into a large bloodshot eye.
Suddenly, Fu Riluo’s voice rang out: “Heavenly Master, since everyone has arrived, let’s begin.”
The Woodcutter Sage said, “Should we set some rules?”
“Rules? In a life-and-death struggle, where are there rules?”
Fu Riluo laughed heartily. In the plaza, the black spear hummed and vibrated, the ground cracked with sharp popping sounds, and ravines spread in all directions.
Qin Mu and the others immediately lost their footing and hurriedly circulated their vital energy to stabilize themselves.
The Woodcutter Sage’s brow twitched, and his great axe also vibrated, countering the demon spear. The collision of the two divine weapons’ power suddenly tore and stretched the space at the center of the plaza!
Amid earth-shattering roars, Qin Mu and the others’ expressions changed drastically. The flat ground beneath their feet suddenly began to rise high, the earth growing wildly. They couldn’t stand on both legs and had to balance on one, or else their legs would be pulled apart.
The plaza beneath their feet underwent a sudden geographical upheaval. In an instant, mountains rose up, growing higher and higher, and the distance between them rapidly increased!
The collision of the two divine weapons’ power caused the space of this plaza to stretch violently, as if a creator with immense power were conjuring mountains out of thin air!
Ravines crisscrossed, and mountain ranges undulated. This kind of majestic power inspired awe!
Qin Mu stared in shock at the changes before him. The flat plaza had transformed as if it had undergone tens of thousands or even millions of years of geological change in just a few moments!
This was the power of gods and demons, a force beyond mortal reach!
Now, he understood just how immense the power a true god possessed—a power that Xing Han, even with his assembled divine body, could never hope to match!
“Fu Riluo can hold his own against the Woodcutter Sage; his strength is indeed extraordinary.”
His mind stirred, and he immediately sensed his flying swords. Some of his swords were still inserted into the blazing demon fire, not yet recalled.
Qin Mu decisively recalled his flying swords. One by one, they flew from a distant place, still over twenty miles away. But then he saw a strange sight.
His flying swords were speeding toward him, yet the distance between them was slowly increasing!
This was clearly the work of divine creation—a crafted world where the expansion of space outpaced the speed of the flying swords!
Boom!
Suddenly, space shook violently, and the towering mountains stopped growing, stabilizing.
A swarm of flying swords whistled in. Qin Mu raised his hand, and the swords clinked together, forming a spinning sword pellet.
He breathed a sigh of relief and looked around. He could no longer see Sang Hua or the others.
The surrounding mountains were numerous but not particularly tall, as if they were scaled-down versions of real mountains. Qin Mu cut off a piece of stone, examined it closely, and then crushed it into powder.
Finally, the stone turned into fine runic imprints, emitting a faint glow before dissipating with the wind and vanishing completely.
“Indeed, it’s not real.”
Qin Mu straightened up and surveyed his surroundings. These rolling mountains were likely manifested by Fu Riluo and the Woodcutter Sage using runes. Their power had not yet reached the level of true creation.
From beyond the sky, Fu Riluo’s voice boomed like thunder: “A life-and-death duel—no rules! This sand table is their battleground. Each side sends in ten people. Whoever walks out alive is the victor! What do you think of this proposal?”
Qin Mu’s heart stirred: “Sand table?”
He looked up toward the sound and saw that beyond the sky, the faces of Fu Riluo, the Woodcutter Sage, and other gods and demons had become enormous, like planets in the void, terrifyingly large.
“In other words, the plaza appears to have expanded countless times from the inside, but from the outside, it should still be the same size.”
Qin Mu was astonished. This kind of technique was truly unimaginable!
When he first arrived, he had observed the plaza and calculated its dimensions.
The plaza had palaces on both sides, arranged with left yin and right yang. A main road led from Li City to the steps, then into the plaza. The plaza was less than thirty-one zhang wide and fifty zhang long, with steps leading to the palaces on either side.
Viewed from above, the two halls and the plaza should form the hexagram of Li, thus generating Li fire.
Now, the internal space of the plaza had expanded countless times, but from the outside, it still appeared fifty zhang long and nearly thirty-one zhang wide, maintaining the Li hexagram formation with the two halls.
To the Woodcutter Sage, Fu Riluo, Pang Yu, and other gods and demons, Qin Mu and the others were merely figures in a small sand table, their every move as clear as patterns on a palm.
Qin Mu narrowed his eyes. He now had two paths: one was to retreat to the side of the hall and continue forging his sword with the demon fire, and the other was to head to the center of this sand table world.
That was where the Woodcutter’s axe and Fu Riluo’s spear intersected. Instead of searching for enemies, it was better to go to a place everyone knew, because others would also head there.
Any smart person would realize that reaching the axe-spear intersection first would give them an advantage. They could set up traps and formations, waiting for others to walk into the net!
“Over this time, I’ve forged three hundred and sixteen swords—enough.”
Qin Mu moved, accelerating toward the center of this sand table world at full speed. The Cripple’s Heaven-Stealing Leg Technique was pushed to its limit, making him as fast as a shooting star!
Boom—
His speed broke the sound barrier. The wall of air in front of him burst like a white cloud, white mist brushing past his cheeks as his body shot through the cloud!
Just then, Qin Mu heard a series of thunderous booms. He looked around and saw figures breaking the sound barrier in an instant, leaving trails of shattered clouds among the mountains.
Ring-shaped clouds spread out lazily, dazzling to behold.
There were nineteen such clouds—the marks left by nineteen exceptionally powerful experts simultaneously surpassing the speed of sound!
Clearly, they had all realized that reaching the axe-spear intersection first would give them a huge advantage and seize the initiative!
Sweat veins bulged on Qin Mu’s forehead. He now realized that among the twenty people in this sand table world, he was the slowest!
Even Sang Hua was slightly faster than him!
These nineteen experts, including Sang Hua, were all like young true gods. Their cultivation techniques had elevated their physical bodies to a level beyond Qin Mu’s!
For a long time, Qin Mu had prided himself on his speed, but now it had been surpassed by peers of the same realm!
Suddenly, Qin Mu stopped and turned around. Now that everyone was rushing toward the axe-spear intersection, that place had become the most dangerous. Since their speeds couldn’t outpace each other, arriving there would mean all twenty cultivators meeting head-on, resulting in a chaotic melee.
In such chaos, accidents were easy, and even someone with superior strength could die from being ganged up on.
So, it was better not to go there at all.
At that moment, the nineteen figures racing toward the intersection suddenly vanished, concealing themselves, and their whereabouts became unknown.
Qin Mu was taken aback, then his expression grew serious: “No wonder they’ve survived in Taihuang Heaven until now—none of them are fools. They all thought of that. Interesting. I’ve finally met worthy opponents… Then, I won’t go looking for you. Let you come to me instead!”
He suddenly shot through the air, heading toward the edge of the sand table world. There, a wall of fire dozens of miles high blazed—the combined Li fire and demon fire from the burning halls.
After a moment, the sound of clanging hammering echoed through the sand table world, traveling over ten miles.
Soon, Qin Mu waited for the first person drawn by the sound—a graceful, seductive woman.
“Among the ten cultivators of Taihuang Heaven, you are the weakest.”
The enchanting woman stared at Qin Mu’s back and giggled, “I’m not confident about dealing with the others, so I came following the sound to claim the first merit.”
“Little sister.”
Qin Mu turned his head and gave a brilliant smile: “You might have just kicked a hard stone.”
—Third update, asking for monthly votes! There will be another chapter after midnight!