Chapter 700: Earth Count's Cross-Generational Friendship
Tian Shu was mostly sobered up, muttering, "Put my heart back in my stomach? My physical body is still who knows where right now. If my physical body is still alive, my heart is about to jump out of my mouth..."
Long Qilin and Qi Jiuyi had no idea about any of this. The two fellows were still drinking, with Long Qilin pouring wine directly into his mouth, quickly finishing one jar.
As for Qi Jiuyi, he had stuck his head into a jar. The jar's opening was quite large, so his head fit in with plenty of room to spare.
Long Qilin kept chuckling: "Third brother, drinking like that, you might suffocate yourself. Third brother? Third brother..."
His expression shifted slightly as he saw Qi Jiuyi's head stuck in the jar, his body completely motionless. Long Qilin was about to help when suddenly Qi Jiuyi pulled his head out of the jar, grinning: "Scared you, second brother, didn't I? Your head's too big, you can't fit it in. Drinking with your head stuck in a jar is especially satisfying. I can even stick nine heads into nine jars. Just wait a moment..."
He staggered over, opened a door, and brought out nine wine jars. Opening them, he shook his body and revealed nine heads—nine phoenix heads. With a series of *puff* sounds, he stuck all nine heads into nine jars to drink.
Qin Mu watched this and couldn't help shaking his head.
Qi Jiuyi was an outstanding young man from the Outer Heaven, named Jiuyi, which naturally meant he was incredibly intelligent. But now, the blow he had suffered was too great, and he had sunk to the point of calling that fat dragon his sworn brother.
This scene today would inevitably become a major stain on his life.
"There's a slight flaw in the Imperial Heavenly King Buddha's cultivation technique. The Imperial Tower Divine Saber he forged will have a weak point there. At that spot, I can open the Gate of Bearing Heaven to connect to the Netherworld. The key is where that flaw is..."
Qin Mu's eyes flickered as he used his primordial qi to construct the physical form and primordial spirit form of the Imperial Heavenly King Buddha. He transformed the Imperial Heavenly King Sutra into a primordial qi circulation diagram, filling it into the Buddha's physical and primordial spirit structures, and began a detailed calculation.
"This flaw is in constant motion."
After months of calculation, Qin Mu's gaze fixed on a certain point in the circulation of primordial qi within the Imperial Heavenly King Buddha's body. That point was the weak spot in his technique.
Qin Mu then used his own primordial qi to construct the binary structure of the Imperial Tower Divine Saber, imagining himself as the Imperial Heavenly King Buddha forging this divine blade. As he activated the technique, the flaw in his own technique would unconsciously be incorporated into the Imperial Tower Divine Saber during the forging process.
*Clang, clang, clang*—in his mind, he imagined the sounds of forging, one after another.
Qin Mu's brain was working at full speed, various mathematical symbols leaping through his mind. After who knows how long, he suddenly opened his eyes wide and laughed: "I've calculated it!"
He looked around and saw that Long Qilin had already drunk himself unconscious on the floor, while Qi Jiuyi, drunk, had reverted to his true form as a nine-headed phoenix lying in the corridor. One of his phoenix legs was pinned under Long Qilin, and his nine heads were poking into nine different rooms.
Tian Shu was doing alright, sitting on a wine jar, holding another jar as he leisurely drank.
"Wake up, all of you!"
Qin Mu kicked Long Qilin and Qi Jiuyi, laughing: "Now we can leave."
Qi Jiuyi sobered up, looking around in confusion. Long Qilin also yawned and woke up.
Qi Jiuyi suddenly remembered that he had sworn brotherhood with this dragon and the Left Deputy Commander of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court, and his face flushed red, his heart filled with unease.
Tian Shu walked over with a wine jar, his goat hooves clicking crisply on the floor as he laughed: "Third brother, sobered up? Don't worry, we only swore brotherhood while drunk. We didn't do anything excessive."
Qi Jiuyi's expression stiffened, and he stammered: "I'm the third brother?"
Long Qilin got up, shook his head, and said: "You're about a hundred years younger than me, so of course you're the third brother. We swore an oath to Earth Count to die in the same year, same month, same day..."
"An oath to Earth Count?"
Qi Jiuyi's eyes were filled with panic and numbness, somewhat at a loss: "Drinking really causes this much trouble..."
Qin Mu walked along the corridor, examining the rooms one by one, and said: "It's not that drinking causes trouble, but that the wine doesn't intoxicate people—people intoxicate themselves. The fine wine here is actually a manifestation of spiritual energy. That's why it can never be drunk dry. The Left Deputy Commander of the Outer Heaven, Yan Shaoqing, must be an existence with exceptionally powerful spiritual techniques. He used his strong spiritual power to manifest these wines. You are in primordial spirit form, and when a primordial spirit drinks, it's consuming his spiritual technique. His technique made you feel drunk."
Long Qilin, Tian Shu, and Qi Jiuyi followed him. Long Qilin asked curiously: "There's such a technique? So we've been drinking air all along?"
"Not entirely air, but Yan Shaoqing's spiritual manifestation."
Qin Mu opened a door, peeked inside, and took out a jar of fine wine. A fierce spiritual impact surged from his primordial spirit, and his spirit actually caused the wine in the jar to grow fainter and fainter until, finally, the entire jar of wine vanished before their eyes.
"This is me using my own spirit to erase Yan Shaoqing's spirit. Of course, he is very powerful, having manifested countless jars of wine. My spirit isn't strong enough to completely eliminate the illusion he created. Every time you drink, it's equivalent to him attacking your spiritual level once. That's why you feel drunk."
Qin Mu calculated the rooms, and suddenly his eyes lit up as he laughed: "It's this moment, it's this place!"
The others didn't understand, but Qin Mu pushed the door open wide. Behind it, a burst of light erupted, causing everyone to instinctively raise their hands to shield their eyes.
Qin Mu stepped into the room, and Long Qilin hurriedly followed. Tian Shu and Qi Jiuyi also quickly stepped inside. When their vision recovered, they couldn't help but marvel.
This wasn't a room at all, but a strange spatial structure composed of various runes, arranged in layers. Different runes formed different spatial fragments, and these fragments fit together like interlocking gears.
Tian Shu murmured: "I've opened all the rooms here. Why have I never seen this one before?"
It was then that he noticed that Qin Mu, walking ahead, had turned into a paper-thin figure!
Qin Mu was like a paper cutout with no thickness, walking ahead of them!
Tian Shu shook his head and suddenly realized he could see his own buttocks!
He had also become a paper-thin figure!
Long Qilin and Qi Jiuyi were no exception!
They were all in their primordial spirit forms, which were supposed to be three-dimensional. But upon entering this room, they had been rendered completely flat by its strange nature.
"This room has always existed, but it's the Imperial Heavenly King Buddha's flaw, and it's been moving and changing constantly. Even if you opened every door at the same time, you might not find it."
Qin Mu's mouth appeared on the back of his head, sending chills down the spines of Long Qilin, Tian Shu, and Qi Jiuyi.
The mouth on the back of Qin Mu's head opened and closed as he spoke: "You have to calculate the exact time and the exact room, then open the door to find this place. Entering the Imperial Tower Divine Saber, the outer structure of the divine blade is a binary world. But here, because the Imperial Heavenly King Buddha discovered his own flaw while forging, he created a storage room. This is a one-dimensional space, so anyone who enters here becomes very flat."
Gear-like spatial fragments drifted silently past them, dazzling and strange.
These spatial fragments contained many peculiar runes, which should be Kaihuang's runes.
Kaihuang designed this Imperial Tower Divine Saber and had the Imperial Heavenly King Buddha forge it. Kaihuang was the designer and likely made no mistakes. But the Imperial Heavenly King Buddha's forging skills weren't flawless, which is why he ended up creating this storage room.
And it was precisely because of this storage room that Qin Mu and the others had a chance to escape.
Kaihuang could have forged the Imperial Tower Divine Saber himself, but everyone has their specialty. Kaihuang's artifact-refining skills were certainly inferior to the Imperial Heavenly King Buddha's, so he had to entrust the task to him.
—In Yan Kang, many cultivators specialized in the craft of artificing, forging spiritual weapons for others to earn money.
Qin Mu examined the runes in these spatial fragments, and his heart stirred with excitement. These runes were Kaihuang's wisdom. If he could comprehend their mysteries, it would undoubtedly be an immense treasure.
"We can't linger here too long. Our physical bodies will die." He murmured, but his eyes could hardly tear themselves away from these runes.
"Brother Qin, we really can't wait any longer!"
Qi Jiuyi urged: "Three days have passed in the outside world. What if wild animals have desecrated our physical bodies?"
Tian Shu sighed: "My physical body is probably already dead..."
"I believe I've seen your physical body, senior."
Qin Mu activated the Overlord Body Three-Dan Technique, and a paper-thin Gate of Bearing Heaven appeared in this storage room. The gate opened, and waves of Netherworld demonic energy surged out. He said: "In the Nether Valley, I saw a deity suspected to be an Overlord Body, with a honeycomb-like seal on its back, somewhat similar to my Gate of Bearing Heaven."
Tian Shu was momentarily stunned, then shook his head: "What is the Nether Valley? When I cut off Earth Count's horn, Earth Count came after me. He reached out a hand to grab me, and I quickly fled. But he was truly formidable. Even after escaping the Netherworld through the Gate of Severing Spirits, I couldn't shake him off, so I turned into a stone statue."
A flicker of fear appeared in his small eyes: "Earth Count's hand reached out from the Netherworld and grabbed my physical body. I turned into a stone statue, and my primordial spirit fled, but a small part of it was still trapped in the statue... I escaped into Fengdu, avoided him, and then ran out. But I couldn't return to my physical body—if I did, I'd be caught. A small portion of my primordial spirit avatar is still in the stone statue. I can always feel Earth Count still squeezing me..."
He shivered several times and quickly changed the subject: "By the way, you mentioned the Gate of Bearing Heaven earlier. Is that this gate? It looks somewhat similar to my Gate of Severing Spirits, but not quite the same. Strange. And what is an Overlord Body?"
Qin Mu said: "The matter of the Overlord Body is a long story. You're a fake Overlord Body. I'll explain it to you later. You go in first. I'll go last."
Qi Jiuyi stepped into the gate first. Long Qilin hesitated for a moment, then jumped in as well. Tian Shu's goat horns trembled, and he suddenly felt timid: "Entering the Netherworld, I'll definitely see Earth Count. I think it's better for me to stay here..."
Qin Mu quickly reassured him: "Senior, rest assured. I really do have a connection with Earth Count!"
Tian Shu shakily walked into the Gate of Bearing Heaven, his voice trembling: "Earth Count is merciless. How could you possibly have a connection with him..."
He walked inside. Qin Mu glanced around, sighed, and stepped into the Gate of Bearing Heaven: "Kaihuang's runes are exquisitely refined, showing his profound and unfathomable Dao techniques. How could someone with such brilliant intelligence be a doddering old man hiding in Carefree Village..."
He suppressed his confusion and passed through the Gate of Bearing Heaven, arriving in the Netherworld.
As soon as he steadied himself, he suddenly saw a beam of light shining toward them. A small boat with a lantern hanging from its bow drifted toward them, and beneath the lantern sat an old man whose face was hard to make out.
Around them was boundless darkness, with only this beam of light illuminating their faces.
The old man beneath the lantern stood up and bowed from afar: "Heavenly Qi Ren Sheng King greets the Netherworld Heavenly King and the Netherworld Divine Son!"
"Netherworld Divine Son?"
Tian Shu glanced at Qin Mu, momentarily stunned, then suddenly burst into loud laughter, shedding all his previous dejection and unease. An overwhelming aura erupted, and his figure grew increasingly towering, his primordial spirit expanding so vast that Qin Mu and the others standing by his goat hooves seemed tiny. He declared in a clear voice: "Left Deputy Commander of the Kaihuang Divine Court, Tian Shu, greets the Heavenly Qi Prefect!"
The old yin messenger laughed: "Heavenly King, Earth Count has been waiting for you for a long time. Please board the boat."
Tian Shu's aura immediately deflated, his primordial spirit shrank drastically, and his goat horns trembled as he chuckled nervously: "I was also planning to apologize to Earth Count, but I've been trapped all these years and never had the chance."
He quietly nudged Qin Mu, his voice quivering: "Do you really have a connection with Earth Count?"
"Don't worry."
Qin Mu patted his chest firmly: "Earth Count and I are cross-generational friends, informal friends, gentlemanly friends. He'll at least do me a favor."
The small boat drifted closer, and the old yin messenger's gaze fixed on him, sneering: "I sensed someone opening the Gate of Bearing Heaven, and I knew it was you! You're causing trouble again! If you mess up again, Earth Count will swallow you whole!"
Tian Shu's face turned ashen, and he slumped down, thinking: "This friendship... it's not what I imagined... I'm doomed!"
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