Chapter 545: Keep Smiling (Second Update!)
"I can handle this, I can handle this!"
Qin Mu kept reassuring himself, his expression alternating between overcast and clear, uncertain and unsettled. "The adults in the village taught me that if you can cause trouble, you can also fix it. This time, I’ll definitely manage... I’m just afraid I won’t be able to..."
The mess he had stirred up was too enormous.
The Grand Emperor Heaven originally had no sun. The Sun-Creating Deity, along with the cultivators of the Grand Emperor Heaven, had painstakingly crafted a half-sun, which became a source of pride for the cultivators there. Yet this pride had been blasted half away by them.
He had considered creating a sun to give back to the Grand Emperor Heaven, but making a perfect sphere wasn’t too difficult for Qin Mu. The hard part was turning that sphere into a real sun.
The Sun-Creating Deity was a cook and fire-tender in the Open Court Heavenly Court, wielding the power of divine fire. So even though his craftsmanship was poor and he had forged the sun into a shoddy mess, it still provided light, offering the Grand Emperor Heaven illumination and heat.
This divine fire was likely far superior to the Li Fire of Li City. Thus, rebuilding the sun made divine fire the greatest challenge.
Just then, after the black beam of light destroyed half the sun, it pierced through the void. The moment the black light penetrated, the spatial ripples were even visible to the naked eye, undulating like layers of ripples spreading outward.
"The other sun!"
The Black Tiger Deity’s heart clenched as he stared anxiously at the ripples traveling toward the other sun.
Below the altar, thousands of cultivators from the Grand Emperor Heaven, along with the floating deities like Pang Yu and Sang Ye, also felt their hearts tighten. Their fists clenched so hard that their nails nearly pierced their flesh.
The waves of ripples passed through the sun hanging in the sky. The sun remained suspended, but as the wave crests passed, it was squeezed into an oval like an egg yolk. When the troughs passed, it was stretched, elongating more than tenfold.
The crowd watched in terror as the ripples subsided. The sun still hung in the sky, allowing everyone who had been tense to breathe a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, the intact sun emitted a loud crack, and a massive piece broke off from its surface, falling away.
The falling piece was as large as a mountain, trailing a long flame and thick smoke as it slid diagonally through the air, crashing somewhere unknown.
The sun in the sky, already not perfectly round, now looked as if it had been bitten by a jagged-toothed mouth.
"Junior brother, should we make a run for it?" the Black Tiger Deity whispered.
"Everyone, I have two pieces of good news to share!"
Qin Mu stood on the altar, wiping the waterfall-like cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, trying to appear as confident as possible. He scanned the surroundings and announced loudly, "The first good news is that the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge is open! This bridge connects the Grand Emperor Heaven with Yan Kang. Everyone in the Grand Emperor Heaven now has a retreat path. Even if we cannot defeat the demon race, we can retreat to Yan Kang and preserve our race!"
Below the altar, thousands of cultivators wore dazed expressions, their faces frozen as they turned to look at him.
Qin Mu finished delivering the first piece of good news and waited quietly for a moment, letting them digest it.
This was his chance to claim credit.
Previously, the Grand Emperor Heaven had no way out. If the deities and cultivators were defeated, the common people could only be slaughtered. But now, Qin Mu had built the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge, giving everyone in the Grand Emperor Heaven a path of retreat—a way to preserve their race and heritage. What a monumental achievement this was!
With this merit, even if the cultivators and deities of the Grand Emperor Heaven were furious, they wouldn’t beat him to death.
After a moment, Pang Yu, being a true deity, was the first to come to his senses. He nodded slowly and said, "Young friend Qin and Brother Black Tiger have built the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge, giving the people of the Grand Emperor Heaven a way out and a chance to live. This is indeed a great merit!"
Deities like Sang Ye nodded in agreement. Qin Mu and the Black Tiger Deity’s contribution was immense.
Connecting the two realms not only provided a retreat but also allowed cultivators from Yan Kang to support the Grand Emperor Heaven, helping it hold out longer.
One cultivator stammered, "But the sun in the sky..."
Qin Mu’s face beamed with glory as he laughed heartily. "That brings me to the other piece of good news—a great joy!"
His voice rang out like thunder: "Everyone, that old, broken sun in the sky is too shabby. We can replace it with two new suns! Round, perfect suns!"
Silence fell all around.
Suddenly, Sang Hua grew excited, raising her hands high and shouting, "Yeah—"
The cheer was jarring, but it quickly faded. The long-braided girl eventually settled down, coughed twice to cover her embarrassment, and dared not speak further.
"Don’t say anything."
True Deity Pang Yu wore a stiff smile and whispered to the deities beside him, "Keep smiling, stay calm, and don’t let your killing intent show. They are disciples of the Celestial Master. We must maintain our composure."
One deity smiled and whispered back, "Will they really help us forge a new sun?"
"I don’t know."
Pang Yu kept smiling and said, "If they don’t forge it, we can’t let them leave the Grand Emperor Heaven. But judging by their confident demeanor, it should be possible."
Qin Mu looked at the cultivators below and the dark-faced deities of the Grand Emperor Heaven. The cold sweat on his forehead felt like a floodgate about to burst open.
The Black Tiger Deity whispered, "Junior brother, they don’t seem too happy. Did they figure out that we don’t know how to forge the divine fire to ignite the sun?"
"Shut up, senior brother."
Qin Mu wore a stiff smile and gritted his teeth, whispering, "Keep smiling. Just pretend we can forge the sun."
The Black Tiger Deity kept smiling, his voice coming through clenched tiger fangs: "This is our first time activating the Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge. I wonder if it will connect to that altar in the Great Ruins. If it fails, will they settle both scores and beat us to death?"
"Shut up, senior brother!"
Qin Mu’s smile was barely holding up. "The Spirit Energy Transfer Bridge should be open now. Can we enter the Great Ruins from here?"
The Black Tiger Deity whispered, "If something goes wrong, passing through the bridge might shred us. What comes out the other end would be a pile of mangled flesh."
A cold wind blew, and all around was dead silent.
In the Great Ruins, dusk was approaching.
Stone giants were walking through the forests, lifting massive stone hammers to pound and flatten the ground. Along the way, towering trees uprooted themselves, walking like humans to clear the path, then replanting themselves in rows on either side.
The stone giants led the way, followed by thousands of women in colorful clothes, a riot of reds and greens, chattering away. Square stone slabs floated through the air, automatically laying themselves at their feet.
Behind them, tree giants used wooden hammers to tap the slabs into place, ensuring the road was smooth.
Further back, the Master of the Heavenly Works Hall led many cultivators from the hall, carefully inscribing runes on each slab. Every stone bore precise runic marks, making the road stronger so that war chariots and giant beasts could pass without crushing the surface.
Moreover, paving with slabs made future repairs easier—just remove the broken ones and replace them with new ones.
The Yan Kang National Teacher walked alongside Xiong Xiyu, searching for stone statues to move near the road. If they found villages, even better—they could relocate the villagers there, and in time, these places would become towns.
Before moving the statues, they needed to offer incense and make sacrifices, a crucial step Qin Mu had told the National Teacher about. This slowed the road-building process more than Qin Mu had anticipated.
To build the road Qin Mu had planned, the National Teacher and Xiong Xiyu, a true celestial palace master, had been busy for a long time. They had already paved the road into the Great Ruins, and within a month, it would reach Xianglong City, not far from the Yan Kang Kingdom.
Qin Mu had wide connections in the Western Lands, interacting with many major families. This road project, connecting the Western and Central Lands, was massive, but all the families supported it and sent many cultivators.
"Everyone, take a rest!"
The National Teacher looked at the sky and announced loudly, "Darkness is coming! Hurry to the stone statues and don’t wander in the night!"
The crowd quickly moved to the statues, lit fires, and began cooking. The women chattered excitedly again, talking about the men of Yan Kang, occasionally glancing at the cultivators from the Heavenly Works Hall and giggling softly. Those cultivators blushed and dared not speak.
The National Teacher’s gaze was deep as he watched the setting sun. This time, Qin Mu had played the absentee boss, dumping all the hard work on him while running off to have fun. But the National Teacher had no complaints.
Last time, when pacifying the Western Lands, he had dumped the dirty work on Qin Mu, and Qin Mu had handled it well.
Just then, the sky trembled. A black light descended from above, piercing through space. It spun wildly and shone down.
The National Teacher’s expression shifted as he looked toward where the black light landed.
Boom!
The black light struck the ground, and the earth shook continuously. The tremors reached their feet, feeling as if some terrifying demon was about to burst out from underground!
"National Teacher!"
The Master of the Heavenly Works Hall shot two beams of light from his eyes toward the anomaly, his face changing dramatically as he shouted, "The celestial signs are shifting! Mountains are rising from the earth! Beware of demonic mischief!"
The National Teacher stood up and said calmly, "Stay here. I’ll go check it out."
Darkness surged in as the National Teacher walked through the night to where the black light had landed. The black light’s energy had dissipated, and a blue light shot up from the ground, piercing through space to form a luminous channel.
The source of the blue light was a massive altar, as large as a mountain. Its runes were now fully lit.
The National Teacher’s eyes showed curiosity as he examined the suddenly appearing altar. After a moment of thought, he stepped onto it and walked into the blue light.
In the Grand Emperor Heaven, Qin Mu and the Black Tiger Deity’s smiles were completely frozen. The smiles of True Deity Pang Yu, Deity Sang Ye, and the other deities, along with the thousands of cultivators below, were also frozen solid. Everyone had been stuck like this for a while.
Just then, from the light at the center of the altar, a tall figure emerged—a middle-aged man. He looked around in surprise, then fixed his gaze on Qin Mu.
"So it’s Chief Qin. What remarkable thing have you done now? And where is this place?"
—Second update has arrived! Recommending a female-oriented ancient novel, "The Enchanting Foolish Concubine Is Too Tempting," by author Bi Luo Xin.