Chapter 276: Feel Like Killing People
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
'Pangong Tso ordered a great shaman to cast a spell to take my life yesterday and then dares to invite me to a banquet today?' Qin Mu was slightly stunned. 'Does he think as an equivalent sacred ground, Rolan's Golden Palace can pressure Heavenly Devil Cult? Or does he have other plans?'
Chancellor Ba Shan walked over and asked, "Do you need me to follow you?"
Qin Mu shook his head. "No need for that. If Pangong Tso dared to kill me in the open, he wouldn't have used shaman spells to kill me yesterday. I will meet him alone."
Jade Fragrance Floor was the largest restaurant in the whole capital, using the layout of gardens. With a hall and a courtyard, there were rock gardens, flowing waters, fountains, and even beautiful women dancing and singing. Each courtyard was separated from the others and was very elegant and calm. The people coming here to eat and drink weren't here for the food but to have a place to chat.
Before the disaster, the business here had been flourishing and even high officials and noble people had to book in advance. However, after the natural disaster broke out, the emperor had sent disaster relief personally and the high officials and noble people in the capital city also had to donate, so the business of Jade Fragrance Floor became slack.
It was expected that after the effects of the natural disaster faded, the business of this restaurant would definitely flourish again.
In Green Bamboo Garden of Jade Fragrance Floor, Pangong Tso welcomed Qin Mu and said, "Cult Master Qin, my retainers have offended you and now that they are dead, let us bury the hatchet with their deaths. May Cult Master be magnanimous enough to forgive us."
Qin Mu walked into Green Bamboo Garden and looked around. "Prince is courteous."
This courtyard was called Green Bamboo Garden and entering through a door with the shape of a full moon, there were thin bamboos as shade covering both sides of the path. He could hear the babbling of running water and after two turns, he saw clear water flowing down from a rock garden filled with oddly-shaped rocks. Even though it was a small stream, it had the feeling of a waterfall crashing down onto the rocks at a great speed.
This flowing water from the waterfall flowed into a jade vase held in the hand of a bodhisattva statue. That jade vase was tilted forward, letting the water flow out and land into the pond in the south after circulating one round in the vase.
Qin Mu took a look and saw some sandy mounds in the southern pond. They were islands scattered about like stars in the sky, which was very interesting. Bodhisattva of Compassion of the South Sea was writing on the pond, and the words were vast and deep like the sea.
The bodhisattva was sculpted with the rock garden and some small spells must have been used to let the water flow continuously. Even though the pond wasn't big, everything was done to the smallest detail. Looking at it up close, there was a feeling of standing in the sky above the south sea and overlooking everything below.
"Cult Master Qin, please."
Pangong Tso raised his hand and invited Qin Mu to walk through the corridor. They came to a private room beside the pond. Its windows were already open, so he could see the scenery of the garden by sitting near the window.
There were two great shamans in yellow standing at the left and right side of the door without any expressions.
Pangong Tso waved his hand and said, "Both of you can fall back, tell them to serve the dishes and wine."
The two great shamans of Rolan's Golden Palace walked out of the room, and after a moment, a waitress came to serve the dishes and wine. A few more maidens with alluring figures then came to the courtyard wearing outfits of different tribes. They played the blowing horn and yangqin while beating instruments like the damaru, giving off a different kind of flavor to the music.
"It wasn't my idea to send someone to kill you yesterday night." Pangong Tso looked deeply into Qin Mu's eyes. "I don't need to borrow the hands of others to kill people. What happened yesterday was merely my retainer seeing you kill too many disciples of Rolan's Golden Palace and becoming indignant, which was why he entered his dream to cast spells to harm you."
Qin Mu couldn't help feeling astonished when he heard him bringing this up. He had originally expected Pangong Tso to avoid this topic, so he was surprised when the other decided to clear things up right after they were seated.
"I see." Qin Mu smiled. "Luckily I'm fine and he's already dead. I believe that Little Prince has nothing to do with this matter."
Pangong Tso shook his head. "You know nothing. I knew I he was going to kill you, but I didn't stop him. Does Cult Master Qin want to know the reason why?"
Qin Mu was slightly astonished and said modestly, "Little Prince is truly surprising, I'd like to hear the details."
Pangong Tso poured wine for him and said, "The reason why I didn't stop him was because I knew you would definitely let Chancellor Ba Shan stay in your room to guard against me casting spells in the night to kill you. He couldn't kill you, but he could delay you."
Qin Mu raised his eyebrows and picked up his wine cup. The two of them toasted each other and drank the wine.
Pangong Tso then continued, "You and I broke the wall at the same time and entered Six Directions Realm. I didn't agree to your challenge at that time because I could see your battle power was indeed extraordinary, and I wasn't a hundred percent confident that I could defeat you. However, everything has changed after this one day. One day's time, I just needed one day's time."
He revealed a smile. "The victory and defeat in a battle between experts can be decided with just one day's time. You had to meet the crown prince in the afternoon so you had no time to strengthen your Six Directions Realm, to discover the marvel of Six Directions Realm. At night, you had to guard against the shaman spells from that retainer of mine and didn't have the time research Six Directions Realm. On the other hand, I had a whole day's time to strengthen my six directions and raise my cultivation. Just one day's time is enough to turn your odds of victory to zero."
Qin Mu was once again astonished and examined the other's face. He saw that it still had a soft and immature air to it, but his gaze was deep, having a kind of depth that a youth shouldn't have. He exclaimed in admiration, "The little prince of the prairie is truly extraordinary, no wonder even Heaven Knife is afraid of you. You are only fourteen years old now, right?"
Pangong Tso poured wine for him once again and said, "Thirteen years old. The people of the prairie brave the wind and sun, so our bodies are more rugged, making us look older. Thirteen years old is my age in this lifetime. If Cult Master is asking about the age of my soul, I'm already eleven thousand years old."
Qin Mu laughed loudly. "Little Prince is making me more and more astonished, I didn't expect you to say this out so easily."
"I have no need to hide it from you," Pangong Tso said. "Cult Master Qin is also extremely admirable. You are the disciple of Heaven Knife, right? To have this kind of cultivation at such a young age makes me exclaim endlessly in admiration. If it was on the day when we had broken into Six Directions Realm, I would have only been eighty percent confidence in defeating you in a match."
"Oh?" Qin Mu smiled and didn't say a word as he fiddled around with his wine cup.
Pangong Tso said firmly, "Counting this lifetime, I have already lived through nineteen lifetimes. In my long life, I met countless heroes with none to compare with at that time and saw numerous lives and deaths, sorrows and happiness. Sometimes, I feel like I'm a reef standing upright in the passage of time while countless peerless talents flow by hurriedly like rushing waves, and even exceptional emperors of various eras are merely passing waves that I've paid no attention to.
"Even Heaven Knife who had raised his knives at Heaven was merely a passing traveler hurrying by. I remember that in my sixth lifetime, I had felt that my path, skills, and divine arts were no longer able to go another step further, so I had entered the central plains to become a member of Dao Sect, to learn Precelestial Supreme Mystery Technique and Dao Sword. At that time, Dao Master of Dao Sect held high expectation for me and allowed me to become Daozi. He even expected me to become Dao Master and lead Dao Sect."
The corners of Qin Mu's eyes twitched. This old monster had entered Dao Sect once and even became Daozi?
Dao Sect's ultimate arts, Precelestial Supreme Mystery Technique and Fourteen Writings of Dao Sword were both learned by him?
"Dao Sword was very hard to comprehend. In that lifetime, I learned up to the thirteenth sword, but I could never comprehend the fourteenth sword from the beginning to the end." Pangong Tso sighed ruefully. "Dao Sword was simply too difficult, so even if I had the power of Precelestial Supreme Mystery Technique, it was too difficult to comprehend it completely. It required one to have a terrifying comprehension of algebra.
"Until I died of old age, I still didn't manage to learn the fourteenth sword. When I started my seventh lifetime, I entered Dao Sect again, but I still didn't manage to learn the fourteenth sword. I only succeeded in cultivating half of that sword move. When it came to the eighth lifetime, I entered Great Thunderclap Monastery."
Qin Mu's heart trembled violently, and he looked into the other's eyes deeply. "You felt that Dao Sword could no longer allow you to break through sp you went to Great Thunderclap Monastery to learn Rulai's Mahayana Sutra?"
"Wrong," Pangong Tso said solemnly. "I went there to comprehend buddhism. Great Thunderclap Monastery's dharma has an extremely high comprehension on one's nature and Rulai's Mahayana Sutra gathered mahayana buddhists that cultivated their nature, so I naturally had to learn it. I began from a small monk, reading through all the buddhist scriptures of Great Thunderclap Monastery, comprehending all of them before learning Rulai's Mahayana Sutra."
Qin Mu asked, "The Rulai of that generation should have also held high expectations for you, right?"
"He said my comprehension was the best in the world in that era and my attainments in buddhism even surpassed his. I was said to have unhindered eloquence.
"I cultivated all twenty heavens of Rulai's Mahayana Sutra, but I still left Great Thunderclap Monastery in the end. The buddhism of Great Thunderclap Monastery couldn't allow me to break through the final realm. In my next lifetime, I reincarnated into a woman and went to Passion Parting Palace. Another lifetime passed by, and I went to Little Jade Capital. I stayed there for a few lifetimes, only then did I managed to finish learn all of the ultimate arts there. It's indeed the sacred ground that's above the three big sacred grounds."
He sighed ruefully as he seemed to reminisce about the days in Little Jade Capital. He paused for a moment. "Then I went to Heavenly Saint Cult."
The light in Qin Mu's eyes flickered, and he asked, "Heavenly Saint Cult? You learned Great Educational Heavenly Devil Scriptures? What did you comprehend?"
Pangong Tso revealed a smile and said, "Great Educational Heavenly Devil Scriptures are very strong, but compared to Rulai's Mahayana Sutra and Dao Sword, they are slightly inferior. When I planned to leave, I heard about the Unity Technique of Great Educational Heavenly Devil Scriptures which could only be passed down from cult master to cult master. I wanted to receive it very much, so I remained in Heavenly Saint Cult. It's a pity that the Heavenly Devil Cult Master of that generation was very strong and his disciple was very strong as well. This disciple was acclaimed as the saint that appears once every five hundred years. I lost to him and missed the opportunity to become the cult master."
Qin Mu let out a sigh of relief, and Pangong Tso continued, "That's why I betrayed Heavenly Devil Cult and brought the experts of Dao Sect and gathered the righteous practitioners of the righteous path to attack Heavenly Saint Cult, killing this saint that appears once every five hundred years."
The wine in Qin Mu's wine cup trembled and one drop landed on the table.
"That saint was indeed rare to find and he fought Dao Master to death while managing to injure me severely after I had launched a sneak attack on him. However, he was still exhausted to death by us using countless practitioners of the righteous path."
Pangong Tso said leisurely, "Before he died, he passed on the position of the cult master and Unity Technique to Heavenly King Qing of that time. Even though I was severely injured, how could I let everything go to waste after thinking I could conquer Heavenly Saint Cult with one more step? Therefore, I continued to lead everyone to attack yet that Cult Master Qing imparted Unity Technique to the saintess before leading the cult followers to fight to the death with me. I had no choice but to retreat back to the prairie with my injuries."
He sighed ruefully. "After that, I heard that Cult Master Qing died in Jade Ripple Pool. The saintess succeeded as the cult master and slaughtered so many practitioners of Dao Sect and the righteous paths that they were left terrified. In the end, she exhausted her powers and died after passing down the position. How does Heavenly Saint Cult refer to these three cult masters?"
Qin Mu said with an apathetic face, "Three Kings."
"Three Kings?" Pangong Tso thought about it, then praised, "They are indeed worthy to be called Three Kings. Now you should know the relationship between me and Heavenly Saint Cult, right? You should also know where my eighty percent confidence had come from, right? However, that was a day ago, facing you now, I'm a hundred percent confident in my victory. You don't even have a ten percent chance of winning."
Qin Mu rose and stretched his body. "Let's go, I feel like killing people now."
Pangong Tso rose and the two of them walked out side by side.
Pangong Tso turned back to instruct the two great shamans, "Leave the dishes here, then warm them up, I'll be back soon."