Chapter 544: Annihilated (First Update!)
Qin Mu still felt somewhat uneasy and intended to recalculate everything to see if there were any errors. It wasn't that he didn't trust Black Tiger God, but rather that there had never been a precedent for connecting two worlds and establishing a spiritual energy migration bridge. If something went wrong, he had no idea what might happen.
For instance, when Qin Mu refined medicinal pills to heal injuries, every new type of spiritual pill he created could have bizarre side effects. If a pill's medicinal power malfunctioned, it could still be remedied, but how would one fix a problem with a spiritual energy migration bridge connecting two worlds?
Black Tiger God swiftly rolled up the blueprints and hurried out excitedly, laughing, "Hurry, hurry! I can't wait to test it out!"
Qin Mu had no choice but to follow him out of the city tower and said to Sang Hua, "Hua Mei, what did you come to see me about?"
"Li City has been rebuilt, but within a thousand miles radius, there are still many demonic races scattered far and wide. These demons are using the flesh, blood, and souls of our Taihuangtian commoners to cultivate their skills, causing great harm."
Sang Hua said, "We've been looking for you for a long time, planning to go on a training expedition with you to eliminate those wandering demonic cultivators."
Yu He added, "When Furi Luo was in Li City, he restrained the demons from harming the people, but once he left, the remaining demons couldn't hold back. To the demons, we humans are both food and materials for refining treasures and practicing skills. So these past few days, many people in the surrounding villages have been ravaged. Sang Hua Junior Sister originally planned to go to the Town God Tower first, but had to postpone it."
Qin Mu frowned and said, "Furi Luo restrained the demons from harming the people? Why did he give that order?"
"To win people's hearts."
Shu You said solemnly, "A city can be breached, a nation can be destroyed, and gods can die in battle, but winning people's hearts is the hardest. Furi Luo is a demon god with great ambitions and clever methods. By not harming the people, the people won't resist. Even if they are squeezed a bit more, making them slaves to the demons, digging mines, planting and gathering medicinal herbs, it allows even the low-level demons to devote themselves fully to battle. An enemy who can attack the heart like this is the most formidable enemy."
Qin Mu nodded, his impression of Furi Luo greatly changed.
Furi Luo was no mere brute who only knew how to conquer cities and plunder territory; he deeply understood the art of governance and knew how to make the demons gain greater and more benefits.
Low-level demons had low status, and Qin Mu had already seen their fate on the battlefield—they were consumables in combat. If low-level demons were enslaved and made to do slave labor, and then turned into consumables, it would be difficult to maintain control.
Furi Luo enslaved humans, keeping even these low-level demons comfortable, and then sent them to fight and die, thus maintaining his rule.
And because humans could survive, even if enslaved, they didn't know how to resist and wouldn't resist, so Furi Luo's rear was stable. With the continuous supply of resources from these humans, he could devote all his energy to the frontlines.
"Furi Luo is a great talent. No wonder the Saint Teacher is so wary of him."
Qin Mu thought for a moment and said, "There should be many demonic spiritual weapons collected from the battlefield, right? How are you disposing of them?"
Yu He said, "Because demonic spiritual weapons contain demonic nature and demonic energy, they are usually destroyed to prevent the demons from reclaiming them."
Qin Mu smiled and said, "Brother Tiger and I need a lot of mystic gold and mystic iron to set up the spiritual energy migration bridge. Since the demonic spiritual weapons are useless, could you lend them to us? The demonic nature and energy in them will be just right for us!"
Yu He laughed and said, "My master can get many demonic spiritual weapons. How many does the Sect Leader need?"
"The more, the better!"
Qin Mu said solemnly, "Thank you, Hall Master Yu!"
Yu He turned and left, saying, "The Sect Leader is too polite. Those demonic things were useless anyway. You go ahead. My master and I will bring the spiritual weapons over later."
Qin Mu looked at Sang Hua and the others, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Hua Mei, Brother Tiger and I need some time to set up the bridge. You should go on your training expedition and come back in ten days. By then, we should have the rune imprints set up. At that time, we can go training together, and I might even introduce you to many new friends."
Sang Hua said softly, "Besides asking you to come training with us, we also have another matter. A few of us want to join the sect."
The other Taihuangtian cultivators quickly nodded.
Qin Mu was stunned and looked at Shu You. Shu You said helplessly, "That day, the Sect Leader told us about the ideals of the Heavenly Saint Sect. Senior Sister Yu He and I deeply resonated with them, so we joined as hall masters. Later, I was the one who talked too much and told them about the sect's purpose. They also thought it was good, so they came together."
Sang Hua said excitedly, "So do we get the position of hall master too?"
Qin Mu was overjoyed but kept a straight face, saying with a smile, "The Heavenly Saint Sect is a leading righteous sect in Yancheng, not just anyone can join. However, I am deeply moved by your heroic deeds of fighting the demons without regard for life and death. I know you are all righteous people who share my aspirations, so it won't be difficult for you to join. But to become a hall master, you must have a specialty. Our sect has 361 halls, representing 361 trades. It's not about being strong in cultivation."
Sang Hua and the others looked disappointed. Qin Mu smiled and said, "But the sect has just established a branch in Taihuangtian, and everything is in ruins. Urgent matters call for urgent handling, so we don't need to be too strict. Therefore, you can all become hall masters of the sect in Taihuangtian."
Sang Hua cheered, "Do we need to swear a blood oath not to betray the sect?"
Qin Mu was amused and shook his head, saying, "Our Heavenly Saint Sect is not an infamous demonic sect. We don't do blood oaths. Moreover, sect members don't worship the Sect Leader; they just need to greet him. There are no kneeling ceremonies. The Sect Leader is the Saint Teacher, not an emperor. I'm in a hurry to build the spiritual energy migration bridge now, so I don't have time to explain in detail. Come back in ten days. By then, the two realms will be connected, and I'll have the sect brothers from Yancheng explain everything to you in detail."
Sang Hua and the others were satisfied and left with Shu You.
"Establishing the sect in Taihuangtian is simpler than I imagined."
Qin Mu sighed inwardly, glanced at Black Tiger God beside him, and his eyes flickered. "Brother Tiger, do you want to join the sect?"
Black Tiger God rolled his eyes at him and sneered, "My master has never acknowledged your Heavenly Saint Sect. Don't waste your efforts. Let's build the spiritual energy migration bridge as quickly as possible!"
The man and tiger soon arrived at a large pyramid-shaped altar. The altar was as tall as a mountain, with steps leading up into the air, and at the top was a perfectly flat platform. The altar was engraved with blood sacrifice runes. The cultivators of Taihuangtian had piled countless bones here to summon the stone statues and divine souls from the Great Ruins.
The runes for the spiritual energy migration bridge designed by Qin Mu and Black Tiger God were themselves based on the sacrificial runes. Only a few of the runes on the altar needed modification, so the man and tiger immediately set to work, altering the rune imprints.
After a while, True God Pang Yu arrived with Yu He. True God Pang Yu put down a mountain of demonic spiritual weapons and laughed, "Young friend, are these demonic spiritual weapons enough? If not, there's another batch in Mingyi City, several times more than this."
Qin Mu was overjoyed and laughed, "That's enough, thank you, True God!"
True God Pang Yu smiled and said, "Is there anything my disciple and I can help with?" Yu He also looked eager to help.
Black Tiger God was about to agree, but Qin Mu quickly shook his head, "No need! True God, you are very busy, and Senior Sister Yu He also needs to go training. I wouldn't dare trouble you two!"
True God Pang Yu indeed had many matters to attend to, so he left with Yu He. Black Tiger God complained, "Building the spiritual energy migration bridge requires too many components. The two of us will need a long time to finish forging them. Why didn't you let him help?"
"Brother, look at the sun in the sky!"
Black Tiger God looked up at the sky and suddenly understood, "Indeed, we can't let the gods and demons of Taihuangtian help, or who knows what trouble might arise!"
The man and tiger immediately set to work, smelting the demonic weapons and forging the components needed for the spiritual energy migration bridge. They didn't need to remove the demonic nature; they just needed to melt and reforge them.
Both were masters of forging and skilled in mathematical calculations. Every component was forged with extreme precision, and every rune imprint on the components had to be stamped without the slightest error, accurate to the level of moments and breaths.
The Sun-Creating God had forged the sun in the sky crookedly because he didn't require high precision for each component when designing the artificial sun. According to Qin Mu's estimate, the blueprint for that one-and-a-half suns had only been calculated to the level of a moment or a breath, resulting in a crooked, unsightly sun.
But to make the sun appear round in the sky, it needed to be calculated at least to the level of an instant or a breath.
The one-and-a-half suns in the sky were dozens of times larger than the great altar. Qin Mu had extremely high precision requirements for the components of the great altar, with each component needing to be accurate to the level of an instant or a breath. That's why he found the sun in the sky so jarring.
The Woodcutter Saint was also a master of mathematical calculations and forging, so he too found the sun of Taihuangtian unbearable.
Ten days later, Sang Hua, Shu You, and others arrived, bringing hundreds of cultivators, waiting for Qin Mu and Black Tiger God to activate the spiritual energy migration bridge.
Qin Mu and Black Tiger God were busy on the altar, adjusting and debugging, not daring to slack off. In these ten days, they had only slept two or three times and were truly exhausted, but their spirits were high.
Not long after, True God Pang Yu, Venerable God Sang Ye, and other gods arrived with thousands of cultivators. Everyone looked at the altar and saw that various pitch-black giant components had merged with the altar. The components, varying in length, stood straight like spears, swords, and halberds pointing at the sky.
Those components were covered in strange runes, profound and difficult to understand. More runes appeared beneath the altar. The area under the altar had almost been hollowed out by Qin Mu and Black Tiger God, who had also arranged many giant components there, extremely complex.
The altar had also been carved with various complex passages, with countless components inside, and runes connecting every component on the altar.
The entire altar seemed like a single entity, yet it had an incredibly complex internal structure.
Thousands of cultivators and gods walked around the massive altar several times, looking and marveling. Qin Mu and Black Tiger God had shown them a novel beauty of large metal heavy machinery!
This beauty was not regular; on the contrary, it was this irregularity, the interplay of shadows, and the texture of metal and runes that created a unique aesthetic.
Qin Mu and Black Tiger God installed the last component and checked the position of the altar in the other world. The two looked at each other, both seeing the excitement in each other's eyes.
"Are you ready?"
Black Tiger God's face lit up with joy: "I'm about to activate the power of the runes!"
Qin Mu nodded heavily. Black Tiger God channeled a stream of divine energy into the activation rune, and immediately, the rune lit up. The light flowed along the runes, lighting up other runes, and then the light split in two, flowing like water to light up even more runes!
A buzzing sound came continuously as the light flowed into the interior of the altar, seeped out from inside, spread across the steps, and lit up the rune imprints on the altar.
Finally, all the light flowed to the bottom of the altar and converged there.
Hum—
A violent tremor came, and suddenly the entire altar began to float, layer by layer, divided into over nine hundred levels, each rotating in different directions. Each rotation was a quarter turn, and after each rotation, the runes between different layers perfectly aligned, incredibly precise!
Qin Mu and Black Tiger God stood on one of the steps, extremely excited, while the Taihuangtian cultivators below the altar and the gods hovering in the air also became stirred.
The scene of the large metal heavy machinery starting up was truly magnificent!
The altar kept rotating, and with each quarter turn, waves of spiritual energy surged out. This spiritual energy was the demonic energy and nature from the demonic spiritual weapons, being released!
Qin Mu and Black Tiger God had calculated meticulously. As long as the barrier between the two realms was breached and a funnel-shaped spiritual energy migration bridge was built, the energy from the two worlds would maintain the stability of the bridge, preventing it from collapsing easily. The demonic energy and nature from the demonic spiritual weapons would also be exhausted in this bombardment.
The altar rotated layer by layer countless times, accumulating energy to its peak. Suddenly, a black light shot up into the sky, its immense power roaring and surging!
Thousands of cultivators, gods, and Qin Mu and Black Tiger God all looked up at the sky, smiling, but then their smiles froze on their faces.
In the sky, the black light was incredibly fierce, striking that half-sun. The half-sun was instantly vaporized, annihilated in the black light!
Black Tiger God's two perked-up ears slapped flat against the back of his head, and his mouth hung wide open: "We're doomed... Junior Brother, is this causing trouble or inviting disaster?"
A bead of sweat as big as a bean hung from Qin Mu's left eyelid, dripping onto his left cheek. Then sweat poured down the boy's forehead like a waterfall, forming two curtains of water over his eyelids.
Qin Mu turned his neck with difficulty to look at Black Tiger God. The boy-like Black Tiger God had even more sweat rolling down his face, soaking his shirt completely.
"Brother, what expression are the people below making?" Qin Mu asked in a hoarse voice, lowering his tone.
"You look. I dare not. I'm afraid they might not be able to resist beating us to death... Do you think they'll beat us to death?"
— A four-thousand-word chapter! While you brothers and sisters are enjoying it, Piglet begs for monthly tickets, subscriptions, and recommendation votes. You don't mind, right?