Chapter 232: Apothecary’s Pot
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
"Ow, so painful!"
Qin Mu descended and searing pain filled all his limbs, making him suck in cold air.
The monk's Vajra Unbeatable Technique had made his body incomparably durable, to the point that even spirit weapons couldn't injure him. All kinds of divine arts were also useless against him, making this fight abnormally exhausting for Qin Mu.
The power of Monk Ban Chi's attacks was also astonishing, so Qin Mu's flesh had burst open. This was especially so because of that the nine-ringed monk staff which had almost shattered his head. Luckily, the monk's attacks were pretty straightforward, so he had still died under Qin Mu's hands.
"Divine arts practitioners of Six Directions Realm are pretty strong, I can't underestimate them."
Qin Mu touched the bump on his head and sucked in cold air. He executed Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique to circulate his blood and qi so as to not let his blood clot up.
Two of his ribs were broken, and the flesh on his back was a bloody mess. These injuries were probably from when Monk Ban Chi had smashed his Mount Meru Mudra on him.
Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique had an extremely good effect on healing injuries, but it was still incomparable to spirit pills and miracle medicine. Luckily, the current injuries were not fatal.
"Let me return to the village first to heal up before finding devil ape."
Qin Mu reattached the ribs that had broken off and threw the monk's corpse away. There was no rule to bury corpses in Great Ruins since the blood from the corpse would attract wild beasts which would devour it. At most, only the bones would be left.
While if the luck wasn't in the dead person's favor, even the bones might not be left.
Qin Mu returned to the village and plucked a few spirit herbs from the herb garden outside the village. He refined two furnaces of spirit pills, one of which was used to heal external injuries, while the other internal injuries. He then asked for some dragon's saliva from the dragon qilin to harmonize the medicine.
The dragon qilin noticed his beaten up state and gave a bewildered look; however, he didn't probe into it.
The dragon qilin squatted motionlessly at the village entrance in a guarding pose like he had done at Imperial College. But Qin Mu felt that he might be guarding only in name. Instead, he was actually lazing off, unable to be bothered to even move.
Dutian Devil King remained motionless as well. The dragon qilin was too lazy to move, while he was fixed in place by Deaf.
Qin Mu recuperated at ease. When night fell, Deaf still didn't return. The rest of the people in the village also remained away.
The next day came, and Village Chief and the rest still didn't return, either. Qin Mu's lungs were still aching, so he couldn't breathe in heavily, but the injuries on his ribs and back had already healed.
"If a person wants his injured lungs to heal faster, it is best for that person to steam themselves, allowing the medicinal gas to enter the lungs. However, there is no one to help me maintain the fire…"
The youth executed Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique and slowly walked. He breathed in and out slowly, to let the injured lungs heal slightly faster. Suddenly, he thought of a question, "After New Years, will I be fifteen or sixteen years old?"
His age was always a debate among the people in the village. Village Chief and Granny had argued a few times over this but come to no clear solution.
Granny Si had picked Qin Mu in the swaddling clothes during spring, and he had been two to three months old at the time. She believed he was born before New Years while Village Chief believed that he was born after New Years.
If he was born before, he would be sixteen years old. If it was after, he would still be fifteen years old.
During each and every New Years, the two would fight over this matter, and he reckoned they were going to fight this time as well.
As he was thinking about it, Qin Mu heard a buzzing and raised his head to have a look. He saw a few golden-colored insects flying over from the forest outside the village.
He blinked, and the golden insects buzzed away, disappearing into the forest.
More insects came out later on and circled around the village before disappearing back into the forest.
"That woman from Three Wonders Castle has arrived!"
Qin Mu's gaze flickered. The woman from Three Wonders Castle was much stronger than Monk Ban Chi and could control swarms of insects. They were venomous and had been refined by her until they were like steel, able to bite cleanly through spirit weapons.
The woman could control thousands of them. With such an amount, Qin Mu would definitely be unable to fight against all of them if they were to pour over at him all at once. He would be cleanly eaten in an instant!
"Rather than letting her slaughter her way into the village, why don't I settle it outside!"
Qin Mu looked around and came to Apothecary's herb shop. He carefully brought out a broken pot with a couple scorpions inside waving their pincers at each other. The barbs on their tails swept forward as they fought over the spirit pills Qin Mu had fed them earlier.
He carried the broken pot out of the village, and the dragon qilin took a glance at him before asking in a low voice, "Cult master, what are you going to do?"
"Fight!" Qin Mu said ruthlessly.
"Fight again…" the dragon qilin said with disinterest. "Don't come back with injuries everywhere this time."
Qin Mu carried the pot to the riverside while a couple insects kept following him, hiding among the bushes and leaves.
Qin Mu stopped and waited for a moment. He saw the number of insects growing around him as they lay down on the river's surface. It was like a layer of gold was covering it.
The insects lured the huge fish of Surging River over, and a couple of them leaped out from the water, wanting to eat the shining prey. However, when the huge fish leaped into the air and opened their huge mouths maliciously, the insects started chirping weirdly and became three yards long. They then pounced onto the bodies of the huge fish and started gnawing at them. Soon, only the bones were left, which fell back into the water.
The corners of Qin Mu's eyelids twitched. The fish monsters of Surging River were very powerful, their strength comparable to that of martial arts practitioners of Spirit Embryo Realm and Five Elements Realm. However, in front of the venomous insects raised by the woman from Three Wonders Castle, they were unable to withstand a single blow.
"Heavenly Devil Cult Master."
A voice came from downstream, and Qin Mu looked towards the source of it. He saw the woman from Three Wonders Castle stepping on the golden-colored insect swarm flying over from downstream of Surging River.
She couldn't fly, but the insects could. They surrounded her in uncountable numbers, and there was also a golden-colored female insect that was much bigger in size than the other venomous insects. The woman was standing on the back of this female insect.
Qin Mu smiled sweetly and asked, "How may I address big sister?"
Qiu Yue was several hundred yards away from Qin Mu when she stopped her insect swarm to ask curiously, "Heavenly Devil Cult Master has such an important position and should be the one holding supremacy under the heavens. Why are you so polite to your enemies, calling me big sister?"
Three Wonders Castle had three wonders: insects, poison, and beautiful women.
This woman had a heart-wrenching beauty. One look at her would make people ignore the scalp-numbing venomous insects. Instead, their hearts would throb violently from being struck by her beauty.
Qin Mu shook his head. "Once I'm in Great Ruins, I'm no longer the cult master of Heavenly Devil Cult and am now the child of my elders in the village. This big sister, if you are willing to let go of your grudges, I can invite you into the village for New Years. The celebrations in our Great Ruins are actually pretty bustling with noise and excitement."
Qiu Yue said, "After killing you, I could return home for New Years…"
Her complexion then darkened, and sorrow entered her eyes. "I've forgotten, my home no longer exists, it was destroyed by you and Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor… My home is at Three Wonders Castle, my grandmaster is True Lord Tian, my teacher is Tian Youfei. In the battle of Daxiang City, Heavenly Devil Cult transported Eternal Peace Army into the city and killed countless senior brothers and sisters of mine. My teacher covered my escape only to die under the hands of Grand General who crowns the Army…"
She seemed to be laughing and yet not laughing, crying and yet not crying. With a cold gaze, she said in a soft voice, "Heavenly Devil Cult Master, you were already the cult master of Heavenly Devil Cult then, weren't you? To be able to mobilize so many experts of Heavenly Devil Cult, there is none one else capable of this. You were the one who mobilized the experts of Heavenly Devil Cult to destroy the great cause of our volunteer army, to destroy our Three Wonders Castle!"
With an awe-inspiring gaze, she added, "I had gone back to Three Wonders Castle secretly, but it had already been destroyed. My family members were treated as rebels and executed in public! Heavenly Devil Cult Master, do you think I should kill you?"
Qin Mu sighed. "You should. However, you shouldn't have rebelled in the first place. When you rebelled, you should have known that if the rebellion failed, this would be the only outcome for your family."
Qiu Yue took a step forward and said sternly, "Righteousness must be upheld by the people even in the threat of being executed. Justice may be won only by using the lives of people! Otherwise, where would the righteousness be, where would the justice be? Even though I'm from the devil path, I'm willing to be this kind of person! Heavenly Devil Cult Master, no need to say anymore. Please make your move, I'll send you on your way!"
Qin Mu felt a deep veneration and said resolutely, "People who walk different paths cannot work together, young lady, please."
Qiu Yue shouted sternly, and her sleeves fluttered. Venomous insects swarmed towards Qin Mu from all directions, and they were too varied and numerous to count. Some would expand in the wind: the bigger ones would grow to three-six yards in size while the smaller ones would become as big as a wash basin. There were others that didn't expand but shrunk down instead.
These kind of venomous insects were the most dangerous as the smaller they were, the harder it was to guard against them. They could tunnel into a human's body when they were not prepared and gnaw on their five viscera and six bowels. There were even some venomous insects that could swallow the soul and absorb the opponent's vital qi cultivation.
Qin Mu opened up the pot, and his vital qi poured inside it. The couple scorpions jumped out and suddenly expanded, becoming over sixty yards long. The black shell on their bodies was covered with exceptionally beautiful and strange rune markings which lit up continuously. Terrifying aura swept through the air, and the insect swarm which was surging over suddenly dropped out of the sky like rain!
Qiu Yue was astonished and immediately turned to escape. Suddenly, the tail of a huge scorpion swept out and extended endlessly like a chain, hooking the woman and killing her in one strike.
Qin Mu sighed. He saw these scorpions fighting over Qiu Yue's corpse, which resulted in the waves churching in the river. When the waves overflowed into the sky, he activated the pot and the scorpions shrunk down. They returned inside and continued to fight there.
Qiu Yue's corpse had already been torn to pieces by them and sunk into the river, where it got washed away by the current.
Qin Mu carried the pot back into Disabled Elderly Village, and the dragon qilin sized him up at the village entrance. He saw that that youth wasn't too happy, so he didn't say anything.
Qin Mu placed the pot down and pulled Dutian Devil King over. He punched, kicked, and even summoned wind and lightning over to strike the god statue several times before letting him off.
Dutian Devil King lay on the ground motionlessly, having lost dozens of parts. He felt extremely grieved and grumbled, "When have I provoked you?"
After beating Dutian Devil King, Qin Mu felt much better. Suddenly, he heard someone shouting from outside, "Heavenly Devil Cult Master is here! Everyone, come quickly!"
Qin Mu's face darkened. He went to Granny Si's room and took the mirror which she used to dress and groom herself. When he walked out of the village, he saw a couple divine arts practitioners rushing over.
He raised this copper mirror, and his vital qi poured inside it. The light from the mirror shined on the divine arts practitioners, and their souls flew away, having been scattered. Their corpses then fell from the sky.
The youth returned to the village and placed the mirror back onto Granny Si's dressing table, thinking to himself, "Will there be an end to this? Won't they let me have a proper New Years?"