Chapter 563: Dark History
His Book of Life and Death was obtained from the Kuiwu God. Those who knew the book had fallen into his hands included Xing Han, Banzong Cuo, and the demon monks of Thunderclap Monastery.
The Kuiwu God was likely a Heavenly Official or Earthly Official of the Heavenly Court, a god who governed souls and spirits.
The Kuiwu God's Book of Life and Death was probably not something he had refined himself, but a bestowed treasure. Such treasures were rare even in the Heavenly Court; each volume had its own master. That was why the Yin Cha Elder had said it wouldn't be long before they traced it back to Qin Mu.
Tracking down the Book of Life and Death was far easier than tracking down Qin Mu himself.
"The name that just appeared in the Book of Life and Death was Juehuang."
Qin Mu lifted the yellow talisman, revealing half his face, and asked, "What kind of god is Juehuang?"
"Juehuang, a god of the Yellow Springs. When Juehuang breathes in and out, floods cover the heavens, reaping the souls of the world. He is one of the Four Great Commanders stationed in the Netherworld by the Heavenly Court."
The Yin Cha Elder continued, "You are not only being sought by him, but also by the other three commanders: Xuanming, who governs souls; Hanlei, who governs calamities; and Luli, who governs prisons. You should not have taken out the Book of Life and Death. Tracing it back to you will not be difficult for them."
Qin Mu fell silent. After a moment, he said awkwardly, "If I hand the Book of Life and Death over to the Great Venerable or Xing Han, and pin the blame on them, it would still be easily discovered, wouldn't it?"
The Yin Cha Elder said, "You are only eighteen years old. You can only frame someone of the same age. Those two you mentioned are not the right age. Moreover, after the Four Commanders reap the souls of those youths, they will realize the target is not you. So it's not that easy to frame someone… Bah! Why am I helping you come up with crooked ideas?"
Qin Mu lowered the yellow talisman to cover his face, looking embarrassed. "The virtuous have many helpers; the unvirtuous have few. Lord Prefect must know that I am honest and simple, which is why you are helping me with ideas. Since I cannot frame anyone, can these four gods leave the Netherworld and enter the Grand Celestial Heaven or the Eternal Peace?"
The small boat drifted leisurely toward the Grand Celestial Heaven. On the boat, the Yin Cha Elder still hung the horse lantern on the pole at the bow. He sat down, somewhat resigned, and said, "Their power is too great; it is not easy for them to enter other worlds. But there are always ways to capture you. When you cultivate to the Life and Death Realm, your Life and Death Divine Treasury will open, connecting to the Netherworld. Then they might find you and invade through your Life and Death Divine Treasury."
Qin Mu shuddered. Invade through his Life and Death Divine Treasury?
Wouldn't that make any cultivator who had reached the Life and Death Realm extremely dangerous?
"However, the Netherworld has its own rules. Invading through the Life and Death Divine Treasury to take your life violates those rules. They would not do so lightly."
The Yin Cha Elder, having given up on restraint, decided to reveal even more information. He continued, "But even if their true bodies cannot descend, they have the ability to send their disciples to the Grand Celestial Heaven or the Eternal Peace, or find others to act as their claws and fangs to kill you. Or, they might wait until the Grand Celestial Heaven is conquered by the demons, blood-sacrifice the entire world, and connect the demon realm to the Eternal Peace. At that point, the barriers between worlds would no longer exist, and they could enter the Eternal Peace directly."
Qin Mu relaxed and smiled. "Killing me is not that easy. Conquering the Grand Celestial Heaven is no simple task either. It has endured for twenty thousand years, and now with the Eternal Peace as its backing and a constant stream of reinforcements, it could easily hold out for another twenty thousand years."
The Yin Cha Elder sneered. "You underestimate the demons. How long the Grand Celestial Heaven can hold out is still uncertain… We have arrived at the Grand Celestial Heaven. You can take off the yellow talisman and go back."
Qin Mu quickly looked around. This place was still the battlefield of the Grand Celestial Heaven, seemingly the very spot where he had been taken away. He jumped off the boat.
"Give me back the yellow talisman!" the Yin Cha Elder shouted.
Qin Mu, with the yellow talisman still on his face, ran off as if he had been caught stealing.
"How infuriating!"
The Yin Cha Elder watched him disappear into the distance, furious. He was about to give chase when he suddenly stopped and chuckled. "It's just a yellow talisman. As long as he doesn't cause trouble, I'll let him have it." The boat faded away, disappearing into the darkness.
Qin Mu ran for over ten li. He looked back and saw that the Yin Cha Elder and the boat were not pursuing him. He breathed a sigh of relief, took off the yellow talisman, examined it carefully, and tucked it away safely.
"This yellow talisman is a good thing. With it on my face, even gods and demons can't recognize my true face. This trip to the Netherworld wasn't a total loss."
He looked up and was slightly startled. In the sky, he saw a fleet of tower ships sailing back toward Li City, only a few hundred li away. The furnaces on the ships spewed intense flames, allowing them to fly through the air.
"I was away from the Grand Celestial Heaven for a long time—at least three hours. How have these ships only flown a few hundred li? At their speed, they should have covered several thousand li. It seems like only a quarter of an hour has passed…"
Qin Mu sprinted at full speed, quickly catching up with the ground troops. Soon, he reached the fleet of tower ships and boarded the flagship. The Eternal Peace National Teacher and the Black Tiger God stared at him in bewilderment, as did everyone else. They had just been discussing how Qin Mu had been taken to the Netherworld by the Yin Cha, wondering what would happen, when they saw him running up from behind them.
Qin Mu smiled. "I'm back. How long was I gone?"
"Less than half an hour."
Sang Hua was astonished. She stammered, "You were taken by the Yin Cha, and then you came back from the Netherworld?"
"The Yin Cha is the Prefect of the Netherworld. He took me to other worlds, found a Bridge of the Divine Soul expert named Han Zhen, and said he would reap his soul in three days. Then he took me to see the Earth Lord, explained the cause and effect, and the Earth Lord said he would settle accounts after I died, so he sent me back. We also encountered some gods and demons of the Netherworld who wanted to capture me."
Qin Mu recounted the events, finding it strange himself. To have done so much in such a short time, in the mortal world, it would have taken three to five days.
But in the Netherworld, the time used was very short, while in the mortal world, only half an hour had passed.
"The Netherworld is like a dream. Your trip there was like entering a dream."
The Eternal Peace National Teacher's eyes flickered. "As long as you came back alive, that's what matters. Was the Earth Lord very terrifying?"
Qin Mu shook his head. "The Earth Lord is very easy to talk to, and so is the Yin Cha."
Everyone's expressions turned strange. The Earth Lord and the Yin Cha were easy to talk to? Only Qin Mu would say such a thing!
Anyone, even gods and demons, would pale at the mention of the Earth Lord and would be extremely cautious when speaking of the Netherworld's Yin Cha.
"Maha——"
The little dragon on Qin Yu's body slithered down quickly, ran over to Qin Mu, and rubbed against him affectionately. Qin Yu felt disgruntled. "I hadn't even warmed him up yet, and he's been lured away again…"
Qin Mu stroked the little dragon. The little dragon then hung from his ear, its head dangling down, its whiskers swaying back and forth.
Qin Yu felt a pang of jealousy.
"Junior Brother Qin Yu, I'll borrow this little dragon for a while. I might even need to take him to the Great Ruins. When I return him to you, I guarantee you'll be amazed!"
Qin Mu smiled. "I was captured by Furi Luo, fled for my life, and then went to the Netherworld. I'm really tired. I'm going to rest now."
Qin Yu watched him leave with the little dragon, thinking to himself, "I wonder if my little dragon will still be mine in a few days? His soul has been stolen by him…"
In the Netherworld.
The Yin Cha Elder returned to the Tianqi Rensheng Palace, sat down, and opened a thick volume—the same one he had shown to the Lava Earth Lord.
Qin Mu had wanted to see this thick book, but the Lava Earth Lord was too tall, and he was too short. At the time, he had to pretend to be well-behaved and hadn't seen its contents.
The Yin Cha Elder opened the first page. On it was a flowing image: a dark continent, a woman giving birth. The boundless demonic energy and lingering souls and resentments of the Netherworld were flowing, rushing madly toward that small delivery room.
That small delivery room seemed to harbor a terrifying demon king, greedily devouring the evil thoughts, demonic nature, and demonic energy of the Netherworld.
Outside that continent, countless demon gods were stirred, hiding in the darkness, nervously watching the first being in the history of the Netherworld to be born through childbirth.
"The Divine Child is born!" At the edge of the first page, a demon god spoke these words.
Above the delivery room, scarlet eyes opened: one, two, three.
The Yin Cha Elder turned to the second page. The image changed. A chubby baby jumped out of the woman's arms, revealing his three-eyed true form, rampaging across a dark continent. His two chubby hands crushed two demon gods who were about to ambush him. His three eyes opened, shooting three beams of light that burned the continent, incinerating countless Netherworld monsters.
On that continent, great ghosts, lesser ghosts, and ghost kings fled in all directions, their ferocious faces filled with terror—a very vivid scene.
That baby put a demon god to his mouth and bit off half its head, very bloodthirsty.
The Yin Cha Elder shook his head and continued flipping. What followed was the baby, having devoured countless undead and two demon gods, growing to an enormous size, wreaking havoc everywhere, showing a fierce visage, smashing through layers of the underworld, and routing the demon gods who were pursuing him, his mother, and his clan, sending them fleeing in all directions.
However, this infant seemed to be born with an incredibly intense evil thought. Whether it was the demon gods chasing them or other ghosts inhabiting the Netherworld, as long as he encountered them, he would kill them all and devour them.
From the image on the second page, the Yin Cha Elder could also see panic and fear on the mother's face. She was somewhat afraid of her own son, afraid of his demonic nature.
The Yin Cha Elder turned to the next page. It was still the baby rampaging and slaughtering everywhere, stepping on a huge demonic dragon, disemboweling it, his three eyes flashing with a fierce light.
But at the end of the image, the baby, after eating his fill, turned into a tiny infant, stretching out his arms to his mother, asking for a hug.
The Yin Cha Elder flipped through page after page. What was recorded later in this book was even more unsightly. This baby defeated wave after wave of demon gods pursuing them, then defeated the gods and demons who came to punish them, slaughtering everywhere, alarming the giants hiding in the Netherworld.
The giants attacked this infant, and the battle was earth-shattering.
Toward the end of the book, the baby, having become a tyrant of the Netherworld through his evil deeds and cruelty, came to the edge of the Netherworld one day. He used his huge, demonic, scarlet eyes to spy on the mortal world, showing excitement.
At the other end of the image, the giants of the Netherworld were telling the great Earth Lord something, and the mother was also praying to the Earth Lord.
The Three-Eyed Earth Lord took a piece of jade fragment from his horn, refined it into a jade pendant. The mother, with tears in her eyes, left her mark on the jade pendant, called her son over, and hung it around his neck.
The baby's demonic nature was suppressed, and his divine nature was also suppressed. His body returned to normal, becoming the most ordinary infant, a tiny little thing lying in a swaddling cloth, babbling and raising his hands and feet, earnestly sucking on his own toes.
His mother picked him up, kissed him a few times, and reluctantly placed him in a basket. A woman carried the basket, sitting in a paper boat, and sailed away.
Behind them, great and small ghost kings, great ghosts, lesser ghosts, and faintly visible demon gods were beating drums and gongs to see him off.
The Yin Cha Elder turned to the last page. The image showed Qin Mu in the Land of Ill Omen, with long hair flowing, wielding a sword and performing a ritual, opening the Gate of Heavenly Punishment to summon the undead of the Netherworld.
At that time, the jade pendant around his neck floated up.
"Eighteen years."
The Yin Cha Elder closed the book, hid it away, and let out a long breath. "This kid shows no trace of his former self. I hope he won't awaken his demonic nature and be controlled by it again… Fortunately, the Earth Lord sealed him and exiled him to the mortal world. Otherwise, who knows what chaos he would have caused in the Netherworld? Perhaps if he had stayed in the Netherworld, he wouldn't have lived to be eighteen. He would have been eaten by the Earth Lord long ago for his excessive evil…"