Chapter 233: Paper Boats
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
Qin Mu's injuries had healed, so he brought the presents he had prepared for the devil ape out of the village, walking towards the valley of Doom Suppression Palace. Just as he left, he saw a strange beast which was dragging a corpse. When it saw him coming, that strange beast immediately hissed and the fur on its neck stood up.
The river water babbled as a couple strange beasts jumped out from the water and rushed for the other corpses. These strange beasts with the head of a fish and the body of a human stopped immediately when they saw Qin Mu and fell on the ground, afraid to move forward.
Qin Mu paid no attention to them. During his two days of recuperation, divine arts practitioners from Eternal Peace had found their way over one after another. However, before they could enter the village, they were all gotten rid of by items that were lying around the village.
There were plenty of items there that were extremely terrifying. Other than the insects in the pots, there was also the rake that gathered up the grass, the curtain in the smithy, the water cauldron, the sword pellets under Granny Si's bed, Butcher's whetstone, the trough used to feed the hens, and also the wash basin that was taken by the dragon qilin to use as the rice bowl.
There were quite a lot of people who were chasing after Qin Mu's life as well. Other than Long Jiaonan and that batch of strong practitioners, there were experts from other sects. Many of them had found their way here during Qin Mu's two days of recuperation.
It was not hard to find Disabled Elderly Village, since if they followed the river, it was only a thousand miles away from Border Dragon City, which was not far from Eternal Peace's border pass. That's why if they wanted to find him, they could easily do so.
Qin Mu reckoned there were about forty to fifty people who had found this place during the past two days. Of course, they were all dead people by now.
"Long Jiaonan haven't found her way here. Could she have gotten lost or was she killed on the way? Or…"
When Qin Mu was in the village, he always felt a gaze staring at him from outside the village. It was like a huge venomous snake was hidden in the dark corners, ready to pounce anytime.
"She's nearby?"
Walking out of the village this time was also to lure Long Jiaonan out.
This woman had a deep hatred with him. The demise of Dragon Rider Sect was singlehandedly caused by Qin Mu. If it was not for him summoning Dutian Devil King in Heaven Wave City, Dragon Rider Sect wouldn't have perished so easily.
Qin Mu came to Doom Suppression Palace and saw a lot of wild beasts there. However, the devil ape and the dragon elephant were not among them.
He looked around and couldn't find any trace. The wild beasts in the valley sadly didn't know how to cultivate or speak, so he couldn't ask them where the devil ape had went.
Qin Mu could only return back to Disabled Elderly Village. Two more days passed, and he finally couldn't sit still any longer. It was very close to New Year now, with only two-three days remaining, yet Granny Si, Village Chief, and the rest had still not come back!
"The elders of the village are truly worrisome!"
He went to Doom Suppression Palace once more and still couldn't find the devil ape, which made him even more impatient.
"Fatty dragon, get up!" Qin Mu packed up his stuff and fed the insects and hen dragons once more. He then wiped off the fix word on Dutian Devil King's body and called the dragon qilin. "Let's find them in the depths of Great Ruins!"
Dutian Devil King stretched his body and sneered, "If a half-god existence like Deaf couldn't come back after going into Great Ruins, what's the use of you going?"
Qin Mu shook his head. "Even though my strength isn't high, I have a helper. Devil king, you are from the Heavenly Devil Tribe, am I right?"
Dutian Devil King said proudly, "So you want to borrow my strength. If you treat me nicely, it's not impossible for me to help you. However, you beat me up for no reason and made me upset. Please me, only then will I help you."
Qin Mu asked curiously, "How can I please Lord Devil King?"
Dutian Devil King became excited and was about to say what he normally said, but he felt that something was wrong. If he said it, the one kneeling down and licking the toes would be him.
Qin Mu said resolutely, "If you put in all your effort to help me find them, I'll release you. How's this condition?"
Dutian Devil King's eyes lighted up. "You promise?"
"I promise!"
Qin Mu finished packing up and walked out of Disabled Elderly Village, making the dragon qilin head upstream. Everyone had went to find the whereabouts of Carefree Village, and Village Chief had brought him upstream last time to the depths of Great Ruins, to the origin of Surging River where they had met numerous strange happenings.
However, what they had found then wasn't Carefree Village but the Moon Ship of Fengdu.
Moon Ship had guided the jade pendant on Qin Mu's neck, because of which the pendant had floated up, luring Qin Mu to that place.
He felt that if Village Chief and the others wanted to find Carefree Village, they would definitely start their search there. They also might have left some trails behind.
The dragon qilin's speed wasn't slow, but compared to the speed of Village Chief, he was much slower. When Village Chief had brought Qin Mu, he was like a god giving off brilliant rays in the darkness, moving at an extremely fast speed.
Qin Mu could only enter Great Ruins during the day. When night fell, he could only find other villages or ruins to avoid the darkness.
Great Ruins during the day and Great Ruins at night were two completely different worlds. Village Chief had guessed that Great Ruins during the day was the real world, while at night, some dark world overlapped with it.
If Village Chief and the rest had entered that world of the darkness and were brought away by it, Qin Mu would not be able to find them. He could only hope that Village Chief and the rest had found Carefree Village.
Not long after he left Disabled Elderly Village, a girl wearing a long dark green dress came to its outskirts. A red-colored earring that hung from her ear had stretched itself to look so, but it was actually a little red snake.
"Treasures are all around this village, I wonder if I can steal some of them," Long Jiaonan said in a low voice. "Xiao'hong, call some helpers."
The little red snake hanging from her ear hissed, and huge red-crowned snakes slithered out from the forest. It slithered into the village, but just as it entered, a black spider sprawling on the spirit herb suddenly leaped up from the herb garden and landed on the huge snake's head to bite it.
That huge snake instantly died, and its flesh and blood decomposed into mush which got sucked clean by that spider. Only the snake's skin was left.
The spider became bigger and bigger. After sucking dry the huge snake, it spewed balls of true fire to burn itself out to return to its previous size and jumped back into the herb garden to hide.
The corner of Long Jiaonan's eyes twitched, and she immediately turned around to leave. The den of snakes behind her scattered off in all directions. "This village, not even Celestial Beings could enter it!"
The dragon qilin followed the river upstream for six thousand miles. Qin Mu raised his head to take a look at that time. The sky was already getting dark, so he immediately surveyed his surroundings to look for a place he could settle.
"On the geological map of Great Ruins, there should be a place called Monster Management Palace, maybe it's a place where I can seek shelter."
Qin Mu recalled the geological map of Great Ruins and found his bearings. Suddenly, his eyes lighted up, and he ordered the dragon qilin to go ashore. Not long later, they found the ruins of a palace, with some strange beasts already hiding there.
Qin Mu entered the ruins of Monster Management Palace and saw many skeletons of huge beasts all around. They were very quiet, not moving even when he entered.
Qin Mu raised his head to size them up. The skeleton of the huge beasts in Monster Management Palace was simply too humongous. They were dozens of times bigger than the dragon qilin's transformation. If they were still alive, they would be three thousand yards tall and be like moving mountains!
Not long later, a couple Daoists came to the ruins, who were probably experts who had come into Great Ruins for experience. When they saw Qin Mu, they revealed astonishment, but they remained silent, setting their own fire to cook their meals.
Qin Mu cooked up a few dishes and ate dinner before lying down beside the dragon qilin to sleep.
The couple Daoists looked at one another but remained silent. They wrote words on the ground, and as they did that, the ground suddenly trembled. Bellows came from outside, and obscure and hard to understand voices spoke from the darkness, sounding like devil gods whispering to each other.
Qin Mu sat up and saw the skeletons of the huge beasts suddenly shine brilliantly with divine light. The tremors of the ground grew more and more violent, and he saw the huge beasts suddenly raising their legs from the ground. These skeletons seemed to have come alive, for they walked out of the ruins.
World shaking roars came from outside, and there was divine light shining over through the darkness once in awhile. Through these divine lights, those inside could see that the huge beasts had actually grown flesh and transformed into beast gods that were fighting with the devil monsters in the darkness.
The Daoists were bewildered, and Dutian Devil King was also shocked.
Qin Mu wasn't surprised by these strange sights and lay back down again. He then said in a low voice, "Dutian, stop looking, I've seen weirder things."
Dutian Devil King said quietly, "Those Daoists are slightly weird."
Qin Mu was unconcerned. "I know. One of them is Long Jiaonan."
After a moment, he began snoring, and Dutian Devil King could only restrain himself from making a move.
The battle outside the ruins lasted the whole night. When dawn came, the ground trembled as the indomitable divine beasts returned back to the ruins. Once they sprawled onto the ground, their flesh vanished. They turned into the skeletons that lay half buried in the soil, which was exactly how Qin Mu had seen them when he entered.
The darkness retreated back like the flood, and sunlight shone down from the sky. The other strange beasts moved out from the ruins and dispersed in all directions.
Qin Mu made fire again to cook breakfast while the other Daoists did the same as well. All of them did not say a word and ate their own breakfast.
The dragon qilin took out the wash basin from Disabled Elderly Village which he had somehow hidden for this long and placed it in front of Qin Mu to wait for his food.
Qin Mu poured half a bucket of Scarlet Fire Spirit Pills and took out another wash basin, pouring half of it with Jade Dragon Lake's water.
The dragon qilin ate to his fulfillment, and they set off. The Daoists looked at one another, then extinguished the fire and followed closely behind Qin Mu.
He stopped at that moment and turned around with a smile. "Is there anything I can help senior brothers with?"
One of the Daoist retorted, "Great Ruins are so huge, is this your home? We'll go our way and you will go yours, no one is interfering with you!"
Qin Mu smiled and continued forward.
They had set off earlier today so they reached the end of Surging River before sunset. Qin Mu saw a dilapidated village nearby, and his eyes lighted up. He made the dragon qilin head over.
The Daoists followed him in and saw that this village was in ruins. Spiderwebs were everywhere, and even the stone statues had been worn out by time.
What was weird was that all the other ruins had strange beasts seeking shelter from the darkness, but there wasn't even one here.
The Daoists were bewildered. Long Jiaonan, who was a beautiful female Daoist now, said in low voice, "There's something weird about this place…"
As she was saying it, darkness descended, and the temperature turned abnormally cold. A lonely boat floated over leisurely from another world with a lamp hanging at its bow. Under the lamp was an elder who was folding paper humans, paper horses, and paper boats.
That elder came to the village and disembarked. Everyone shuddered as they felt their souls freeze over.
The elder placed down a paper boat which floated away. One of the Daoists instantly noticed he had somehow landed onto that paper boat which sailed weightlessly towards the darkness.
Astonished, he immediately looked over to see another him still sitting in the village.
That was his shell.
"Dao brother."
Qin Mu executed Saturn Sovereign Earth Marquis Technique and transformed into a human-headed and snake-bodied form. The Gate of Heaven Influence appeared behind his back as he greeted the elder. After saying a phrase in Youdu's language, he took out the portraits of Village Chief, Apothecary, and the rest to ask, "May I ask Dao brother if you have seen them before?"