Chapter 304: Old Man in the Painting
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
Pangong Tso and a bunch of great shamans and shaman kings had made their way to the entrance of the abyss. The several hundred divine arts practitioners of Barbarian Di Empire were left with less than a hundred people. All the others had died in this strange and unpredictable forest of Ghost Valley.
Even if there had been countless expeditions of Rolan's Golden Palace's great shamans who had explored this place in the past, the large-scaled exploration this time still resulted in great casualties.
To Pangong Tso, it didn't matter how many people had died as long as he wasn't one of them The lives of these soldiers, great shamans, and even shaman kings were disposable. The purpose of bringing all these people was to have them protect him, to use their corpses to pave out a path to the center of Ghost Valley.
As an old monster that had lived for ten thousand years, he could overlook the lives of anyone. The only one he treasured was himself.
"I'm finally here."
Pangong Tso stood at the side of the abyss and looked down with infatuation. Ghost Valley had only entered his sight sixteen years ago.
The incident of a flying ship from outer space crashing into Ghost Valley had led to the attention of three powers. Rolan's Golden Palace, Heavenly Devil Cult, and Great Thunderclap Monastery had all set their sights on this place. However, Heavenly Devil Cult had no cult master at the time, and Great Thunderclap Monastery knew some secrets, so neither of them came to explore the place.
At that time, Pangong Tso was already approaching old age, and because he valued his life, he didn't come personally. Instead, he hid in Rolan's Golden Palace to wait for his Sacred Child of Reincarnation. However, the broken sword that one shaman king brought back from Ghost Valley had made him realize that the ship from outer space was extraordinary.
Once he succeeded in reincarnating, he made his way here. As if to make things easier for him, Khan Ruandi was preparing to mobilize his army on Eternal Peace Empire, and Pangong Tso could borrow the military power of Khan Ruandi to enter the place.
"Gongmu, do you guys feel it?" Pangong Tso asked in a low voice. "This place is filled with the power of souls that have shattered souls and given birth to these weird life forms. This is the best sacred ground for us great shamans to cultivate."
Beside him, the great shamans and shaman kings felt a throbbing from their souls. The atmosphere here made their souls, spirits, and primordial spirits dance in jubilation.
This place was filled with the power of souls and spirits. The abundant spirit energy and soul energy here surpassed what they could find in Rolan's Golden Palace!
Along their way, they had met the queer life forms of Ghost Valley, which were like a nightmare to the soldiers of Barbarian Di Empire. However, to these great shamans, they were like moving supplement pills. Of course, these kind of pills were slightly dangerous.
Using the souls and spirits of other life forms was the original cultivation method of the great shamans!
Shaman King Gongmu breathed in the air coming from the abyss greedily. The spirit energy there was even stronger, and he exclaimed, "If our Rolan's Golden Palace gained a footing here, we'd be able to strengthen the abilities of our great shamans twice as fast! The spirit energy and soul energy here even helps to improve the primordial spirit!"
It went without saying that Rolan's Golden Palace which was strong in souls and spirits was strong in primordial spirits as well. Their attainments in souls, spirits, and primordial spirit were very profound. Other sacred grounds and even Great Thunderclap Monastery were inferior them in regard of these.
It was only that their method of cultivation was strange, using souls and spirits of living beings to cultivate, that they were always criticized. If they could take over this place, Rolan's Golden Palace would definitely develop to a stage that had never been imagined by relying on the spirit and soul energy of this place!
The rise of the prairie's sacred ground would definitely reach the throne of the middle plains, suppressing all the sacred grounds in Middle Earth!
"What's important isn't this, it's that flying ship from outer space." Pangong Tso's gaze was slightly infatuated when he said softly, "What is attracting me is not how to borrow the spirit and soul energy to cultivate, but how to break through, to surpass the boundaries of humans and become a god. This ship should have what I want. It had come from outer space…"
He didn't say more and jumped down. The other great shamans, shaman kings, and the remaining soldiers of Barbarian Di Empire went after with him, guarding his surroundings.
Pangong Tso was an existence that had lived for ten thousand years and knew a lot of secrets. Other sacred grounds like Great Thunderclap Monastery and Dao Sect relied on the histories recorded in the books in the sacred grounds which might be biased, but he relied on his own memory. The things he had experienced were simply too many.
Even though his lifespan didn't surpass the length of Great Thunderclap Monastery or Dao Sect's existence, he had once been part of the higher-ups of those two sacred grounds. He had even been to Little Jade Capital and seen the secrets recorded there.
'This ship should have come from that mysterious place which might be the only place in the world where people can still become gods. No matter what, I've got to get the ship and go there!' he thought to himself.
In mid-air, they met attacks from all kinds of strange and weird life forms from the abyss. Numerous soldiers, great shamans, and shaman kings made their moves and exerted all their power to protect Pangong Tso. After losing over a dozen men, they reached the bottom of the abyss.
On the treasure ship, Qin Mu looked at the devil qi that was withdrawing and felt hesitant.
There was definitely a terrifying entity in the devil qi. He didn't know if it was a Youdu life form, but its abilities were extremely strong, stronger than those of the two white bats. But with just a single phrase of Youdu language, this entity had retreated. It made things slightly suspicious.
After the devil qi withdrew, the miserable screams lingering around also vanished. The surroundings became incomparably quiet, and the strange life forms pouring out from Youdu world vanished.
Because of the silence, things seemed even stranger.
"The entity that exhausted the two eminent monks to death must be on this ship!"
Qin Mu frowned. The silence on the ship was terrifying.
"Fatty Dragon, Yuchun, Yuqiu, let's go in and take a look. If we meet with any danger, we'll immediately leave!" Qin Mu said solemnly and took a step forward.
Fu Yuchun and Fu Yuqiu immediately came in front of him while flapping their wings. The two white bats flew silently with their heads lower than their feet. The dragon qilin followed after the group, guarding the back
They moved forward from the left of the treasured ship and encountered the beehive seals when they reached the center. The beehive seals here were still very densely packed together, allowing little devil qi to leak through the cracks.
Suddenly, the structure beside them creaked, and a door opened up. A faint light came from inside.
The two white bats hurriedly dodge aside and hung between the two sides of the door, stretching their heads toward the room to take a look.
The place was part of the building on the deck. The room was twenty yards long and wide, decorated with jade tables and screens. The candlesticks on the jade table were alight, and there was a censer in the mouth of the bronze crane. Smoke was rising from it in spirals.
There was nobody else in the room, but from the looks of the candlesticks and censer, there someone seemed to have been there moments ago.
"This place is safe!" Fu Yuchun said.
Qin Mu opened his Green Heaven's Eyes to look in and saw no problem. He then did another sweep with Cinnabar Heaven's Eyes, but could still see nothing wrong.
They walked into the room and looked around. Fu Yuqiu said, "Weird, this door has never opened before, but it opened today…"
"Never opened before?" Qin Mu was slightly stunned.
The two white bats nodded in unison. "The doors on this ship couldn't be opened even with all our strength; it's very weird."
There were not many things in this room beside screen embroidered with green mountains and blue waters. There was a small boat in the heart of the river and an elder sitting on the bow of the boat, fishing. One of the white bats came to the front of the jade table, wanting to pick up a candlestick, yet he couldn't lift it so he could only drop the thought.
Qin Mu took a look around this place. He faintly sensed someone looking at them yet he couldn't find the source of the gaze. It pushed him to a state of alertness.
His gaze went around his surroundings, but the feeling of being watched remained.
His vital qi poured out and transformed into a mirror that reflected the surroundings. At that moment, he saw the fishing old man in the painting secretly turn his head back to examine their group.
Qin Mu turned and pounced at the screen. The old man lost his head out from fear and immediately threw down the fishing rod while leaping away himself. He was extremely agile, running from this screen to the wall before disappearing through a door.
Qin Mu immediately gave chase and opened the door to rush out, but it slammed closed. Astonished, Qin Mu retreated backward, and Carefree Sword that was on his back rose into the sky, transforming into Wave Sword Form to protect his body. At the same time, he stretched his hand out to push the door behind him while saying in a solemn voice, "Fu Brothers, Fatty Dragon, come quickly! Fu Brothers…"
Qin Mu turned his head back and was stunned. This room wasn't the one he'd entered before. Instead, it was some woman's embroidery room!
Meanwhile, the room that he had come from had vanished without a trace!
The two white bats and the dragon qilin hurriedly pushed open the door, but they were met with emptiness, Qin Mu having vanished into thin air. Their expressions changed drastically, and they hurriedly pushed open the doors to the other rooms, but they still couldn't find any traces of Qin Mu.
"That's not right!" The dragon qilin had pushed open the door behind him and stretched his head out to look. "This is not the room that we come from! There's something strange with the rooms in this ship!"
The two white bats closed the door which they had opened and saw that the room had changed into another one when they opened it again. They did this a few more times, and each time they closed and opened the door, the room would be different!
"We're goners!" Fu Yuchun had an ashen expression and his voice quivered. "If we don't find him, our white bat god race will go extinct once the toxicity flares up!"
"Don't panic," the dragon qilin said. "There definitely has to be a limit to the rooms here; there can't be infinite rooms. As long as we find the previous room, we will be able to find a pattern. That's right, how are your algebra attainments?"
Qin Mu's heart leaped, and he immediately walked into the embroidery room. He closed the door behind him while thinking, 'I came through the same door, so why did it become another room after closing and opening the door? There's definitely some method used to overlap space. Even though this ship is huge, there can't be infinite rooms in this building; there's definitely a limit. As long as the number of rooms has a limit, we'll be able to find a pattern.'
He calmed himself and examined his surroundings. This embroidery room had wall lamps lighted, and on the walls hung a few embroideries. Below them was a work table with a handkerchief of dragons playing with phoenixes on one side.
The writing table was farther away. It held a brush, ink, papers, and inkstone, while a mat was situated below to sit. The ink on the paper had yet to dry,
'The moist dew moving to and fro under the tender yellow wind. The night show of the human world is not inadvertent, the refined character and light makeup that's as beautiful as the sky. Who could match it?'
After this, the words were abruptly cut off. Something urgent must have happened, because of which the person couldn't continue to write.
Qin Mu examined the handwriting and praised, 'This technique is not inferior to mine, it's a little graceful.'
At this moment, the fishing elder suddenly entered the writings in front of him and blinked at him. Qin Mu sneered and raised the brush to smear him when that elder jumped onto the table. He then ran onto the wall and escaped through another door.
Qin Mu immediately chased after him with the brush in hand. The elder in the painting vanished after going into the next room and Qin Mu didn't know where he had hidden himself this time.
Qin Mu entered the room and looked around. It was a study, and the books there were very ancient. He pulled one out and wanted to open it, but he couldn't do it no matter how hard he tried.
Suddenly, the elder in the painting jumped out from the book and entered another book.
Qin Mu hurriedly pulled out that book, and this time he could open it. He flipped through it and saw that it was a family register.
'First generation, Founding Emperor Qin, his name Ye, Common Lord of the World…'
Qin Mu was stunned, 'Founding Emperor from Sword of Founding Emperor Sea of Blood? The surname of this Founding Emperor is also Qin, the same as mine.'
The family register was very thick, having recorded the life and marriage of every person with the surname Qin with a few words. Qin Mu flipped through the book to find the old man in the painting. When he reached the last page, there was only a sentence there.
'One hundred and seventh generation, Son of Hanzhen, Fengqing.'
After it, the family register was cut off.