Chapter 15: Walking On Water
Translator: Ninetales Editor: Ninetales
Qin Mu ran like the wind, his vital qi growing stronger and stronger. No matter how many miles he sprinted, the inhabitants of Disabled Elderly Village could always match his stride. Even Blind could keep up with everyone as if he were steadily moving across flat land.
Just as Qin Mu entered a certain forest, a pitch black figure appeared and bellowed, "Die, young’un…!"
It was the devil ape! It unleashed a furious bellow when it saw Qin Mu, the "young’un", invading its territory once again.
One-armed Old Ma glanced at the raging devil ape.
This glance was devoid of emotion. It terrified the humongous beast, making it feel as if it would be dead in the next moment. As a result, it didn’t dare to be arrogant, immediately abandoning its territory and fleeing instead.
Qin Mu continued to sprint all the way back, his vital qi circulating and thriving as the rest of the journey passed without incident. Only upon reaching Disabled Elderly Village did he wake up from his trance and discover that he was covered in filth. Without him realizing, a thick layer of muck that was either black blood or grimy fat had caked his body.
"Mu’er, go to the river and wash," Granny Si said. "Blind, go with him so that the monsters in the river won’t take him away."
Blind leaned on his bamboo cane and followed Qin Mu to the river. Qin Mu immediately stripped naked and jumped into the water, washing away the filth.
Blind gently tapped the surface of the river with his bamboo cane, alarming a huge green fish that had snuck up on Qin Mu. It promptly leaped from the water and splashed several yards away. That fish spanned about six and a half yards in length, and its whiskers resembled eight tentacles that were each three yards long.
After washing himself, Qin Mu looked at the waves of the river. Bravery swelled within his chest, growing into a raging blaze of emotion.
His vital qi churned restlessly, surging up toward his throat until he unleashed a guttural cry. It seemed as if he had opened the temperament treasure vault of the gods!
The cry traveled throughout the mountains and the forest, causing the surface of the river to tremble.
As he sustained the reverberating cry, Qin Mu rose from the water, suddenly dashing across the surface of the river with great strides!
With each step, the strength of his feet fused with vital qi that streamed down his legs to create a sudden burst of force. Whenever his feet hit the surface of the river, the water exploded in every direction!
Before the disturbed water could even fall back to the river, Qin Mu would already be several yards ahead, running across the water.
Tap tap tap tap tap—!
The crisp sound of Qin Mu’s feet slapping against water resounded through the air. Soon enough, he’d run over a mile across the river’s surface.
Qin Mu felt as free as a bird, his cries growing more and more ecstatic. He happily ran to his heart’s content, his broad strides and carefree footsteps taking him all over the river. It sounded as if heavenly music played by a band of immortals were descending from the sky, accompanied by the melodious cries of a dragon and a phoenix.
Qin Mu’s speed was astonishing. In just a short time, he had already managed to run from one side of the river to the other. A gentle wind blew across the river’s rippling surface as he already began making his way back to the side he had started from.
Blind propped himself up with his bamboo cane as the wind swept over him from the river, ruffling his white hair. Listening to Qin Mu’s cries of excitement, he gently nodded his head and smiled.
"Whilst the monkey cried incessantly from one side of a river to another, the dreadfully cold wind froze his crotch!" he recited loudly. "Don’t you feel cold while happily roaming the river with your rear exposed, Mu’er?"
Qin Mu fell into the water with a splash, a cry of astonishment echoing from the center of the river.
A moment later, the youth swam ashore and exited the water in embarrassment, drying his body so that he could put his clothes back on.
Qin Mu’s moment of enlightenment at the bank of the river made him get ahead of himself, causing him to completely forget he was naked and start sprinting across the river. Yet, as he did this entirely naked, it had actually been quite cool and refreshing for him.
"It’s a good thing that Grandpa Blind can’t see…" he thought to himself.
Qin Mu got dressed and was in the middle of adjusting his shirt when he suddenly looked up. Old Ma, Mute, and the rest of the villagers were standing in the forest in front of him. Even Granny Si and Village Chief, who was being carried on a stretcher, had come.
Qin Mu’s face turned beet red.
"G-granny! W-when did all of you get here?" he asked, stuttering.
Granny Si burst into laughter and said, "Mu’er, all of us have seen your butt countless times, so there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We heard your lively cries and came over to have a look."
"Come here, Mu’er," Village Chief said, coughing gently. "Since you were chased down by five practitioners of the Spirit Embryo Realm, you probably have some injuries that are harder to notice. Let Apothecary examine you."
Qin Mu stepped forward and allowed Apothecary do a thorough examination of his body.
Finishing up, Apothecary shook his head and said, "There are no major problems. All of his wounds are superficial."
Village Chief then carried out an examination of his own, the indicated that Qin Mu could leave. Butcher immediately dragged him away to have him train his knife skill.
Unsatisfied with how Qin Mu needed to use over five thousand strikes to beat that Senior Brother Qu, Butcher had decided to put him through merciless training.
Apothecary watched Qin Mu’s vigorous knife training as he walked over to Village Chief’s stretcher.
"Did you discover anything?" he asked.
"The speed at which his vital qi cultivation is advancing… is extraordinarily fast!" Village Chief exclaimed, hiding nothing. "The difference between yesterday and today shows that his progress is beyond my imagination. His cries from earlier could have only been made by having his throat resonate with vital qi. They even possessed god and devil characteristics. Ignoring the fact that he has yet to break his Spirit Embryo Wall, even a Spirit Embryo Realm practitioner wouldn’t be able to achieve god or devil resonance! If we were ordinary humans like him, it would take us twenty years to cultivate our vital qi to that point."
The cries that Qin Mu had subconsciously released as he ran across the river were the result of his throat resonating with vital qi. At the same time, however, he had inadvertently infused his cry with aspects of the devil voice he had heard in the ruins.
The strange thing was, he had also memorized the collective voice of the maidens while analyzing the devil’s voice. Therefore, he had committed every single part of their god voice to memory.
As a result, his had also infused aspects of the god voice into his cries without realizing it.
When the others heard Qin Mu’s cries, they considered them normal because they couldn’t detect the profoundness behind them. However, since Village Chief could hear it clearly, it definitely wasn’t a small matter.
"God and devil resonance!?" Apothecary jumped in shock. "How did he achieve such a thing? It's simply too terrifying to achieve twenty years worth of cultivation overnight… could the blood of the four spirits have caused this?"
Village chief shook his head. "Even though the blood of the four spirits can improve his constitution and vital qi, enhancing them to such a level is impossible."
Apothecary thought deeply to himself, then replied, "Could it be that Mu’er is actually a natural genius? Could he have been the perfect seedling for cultivation since he was born?"
"Why would a natural genius have the constitution of an ordinary human?" Village Chief frowned. "A natural genius would’ve been born with a Spirit Body. Furthermore, to actually achieve god and devil resonance… which genius could do such a thing?"
"Is the god and devil resonance in his cries good or bad?" Apothecary asked.
"I have no idea," Village Chief replied. "I heard both god and devil resonance in his cries. The god voice and the devil voice within them were fighting against each other. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad."
Apothecary gaze faltered and he asked, "If that’s the case, where did the god voice and the devil voice come from?"
"I don’t know!"
The heads of both men began to ache. It had been a long time since they had a headache because they couldn’t understand a situation. The number of things they couldn’t understand had only continued to increase ever since they adopted Qin Mu who had floated down the river as a baby.
Night soon fell, and Disabled Elderly Village was once again shrouded in darkness. At a certain wooden house, Granny Si slept in her room and Qin Mu slept on his own.
Halfway through the night, a somber voice resounded within the mind of the unconscious Qin Mu. A melodious voice echoed in response. These were the god and devil voices from before. They started to fight each other, their voices growing noisier and louder.
The resonance of the god and devil voices slowly intensified into a clash between darkness and light. Within his mind, Qin Mu suddenly turned into a formless soul floating in the sky above that clash, blankly staring below him.
The location of this fight between darkness and light looked exactly like the ruins where he first witnessed such a spectacle. However, this place was much more vast and majestic. The darkness resembled tentacles constantly piercing through the light, while the light would suddenly strike in short bursts, wiping out the darkness.
Moments later, Qin Mu was finally able to clearly see what made up the darkness and the light.. The darkness was actually endless waves of devils swarming toward the light like gushing tides.
The devilish voice wasn’t the voice of a single entity, but the war cries of billions of devils!
This was the same for the light. It was actually a sea of gods wearing golden armor crying out, swarming to fight the devils!
Qin Mu currently 'stood' high above this struggle, making all of the gods and devils seem like tiny dots. He had thought it was the clash between light and darkness because he was too far from the conflict to get a clear look.
Now that he could see what was actually happening, shock and horror overwhelmed him!
Qin Mu suddenly opened his eyes, his body drenched with sweat. He realized that the vociferous voices of gods and devils were filling his mind, threatening to split his head in two.
However, right at that moment, the jade pendant he wore at his chest slowly rose into the air, floating up to the center of his brow and gently coming to rest there. A soft, soothing feeling flowed into Qin Mu’s head, and the voices vanished.
Qin Mu sat up abruptly, breathing deeply as confusion filled his heart. He had no idea what had just happened.
Moments later, he left the house and walked through the village, comparing his jade pendant and the ghostly glow of the village’s stone statues.
Darkness enshrouded everything outside the village, so the jade pendant gave off a similarly ethereal glow. Qin Mu stared at the pendant in a daze, his eyes shining with its glow. He seemed to be unable to take them off of it.
Unknown to him, Granny Si approached from behind and happened to see this haunting scene.
"Even though we of Disabled Elderly Village raised him, he doesn’t belong with us," she thought to herself, heart aching terribly. "He’ll have to leave someday…"
Then, all of a sudden, determination appeared in her eyes as she resolved herself.
"The outside world is much more dangerous than the Great Ruins! He isn’t strong enough! Not yet!"