Chapter 319: Family Matters
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
Qin Mu frowned. Pangong Tso was afraid of the shaman poison he had created himself so he didn't dare to attack and could only retreat. However, the shaman spell he had used to pay respect to the soul when he was angry was indeed terrifying!
Pangong Tso was still on Six Directions Realm yet experts on Seven Stars Realm had just died with just the paying of respect. The abilities of the three demon monks were very extraordinary and they were strange beasts that had great success in their cultivation, yet that had helped them none.
Golden-winged dapeng was considered quite a well-known unusual breed in Great Ruins and had extremely strong abilities. Their corporeal bodies were tough, and by cultivating the dharma of Little Thunderclap Monastery, their primordial spirits were stable.
For someone to kill three golden-winged dapeng in a row by just paying respects, the divine art was truly enough to make Butcher take strict precautions!
In the past, Pangong Tso had some tolerance, giving off the demeanor of a great scholar. However, after suffering several setbacks under Qin Mu's hands, he was shamed into anger and no longer held back.
This time, he killed three demon monks of Little Thunderclap Monastery by paying respects, but next, he would probably lay his hands on the people beside Qin Mu.
Who would be able to take his respect?
'However, after Pangong Tso paid his respects to these three people, he seemed to have suffered heavy injuries as well. It's obvious that this divine art has an extremely great drawback and can't be used recklessly.'
Qin Mu's brows still didn't relax. Even though the drawback was great, such a divine art was still hard to deal with, impossible to guard against.
"Bury these three monks, we can't let their corpses be exposed to the wild."
The few of them buried the corpses of the three golden-winged dapengs, and Qin Mu paid his respects while sighing. "Rest in peace, I shall burn Pangong Tso as an offering to you guys some other day. Let us go… Wait a minute!"
The dragon qilin immediately halted, and Qin Mu shut his eyes. After a moment, he opened them and took out his brush, ink, inkstone, and paper. His vital qi burst forth and spread open the paper in midair.
Stirring the ink with his brush, he painted in midair and not long later, a picture of the devil standing on the sacrificial altar was painted by him.
Qin Mu planned to put down the last stroke, but he stopped. He took out his seal to stamp on the painting and only then made the last stroke.
'The crux of Pangong Tso paying respect to the soul with the shaman spell should lie within this devil.'
Looking it up and down, Qin My ensured that he didn't draw it wrongly. Between the painting and calligraphy Deaf had taught him, painting had to pay particular attention to capturing the form, will, and grace. Qin Mu frequently went out of the village with him to collect local cultural materials and draw all kinds of stuff. Even though the devil behind Pangong Tso hadn't stayed there for a long time, Qin Mu had still captured its rough form and grace, painting the devil accurately.
'I don't recognize this devil, but there are all kinds of god and devil sculptures in Great Ruins. Village Chief, Old Ma, and the rest are more experienced and should recognize it. Since I'm already in Great Ruins, I should just return to the village and ask them. Even if they don't recognize it, there's still Heavenly Saint Cult and Eternal Peace Empire. Among all of them, there will be someone who will recognize it!'
Qin Mu put away the painting and thought to himself, 'As long as someone recognizes this devil, there will be a possibility to break Pangong Tso's shaman spell! Otherwise, I'll just have to get rid of him without caring for consequences."
Not caring for consequences meant that he would have to attack Rolan's Golden Palace. But before he could even lay his hand on this sacred ground, he would have to take down the prairie by eliminating all the countries there.
The difficulty of this could be well imagined.
Without any alternatives, the final way out would be to incite the emperor to launch his troops on the prairie and raze Rolan's Golden Palace, since Heavenly Saint Cult alone didn't have such an ability at the moment.
The dragon qilin took a step away, and Qin Mu called the two white bats back to treat their injuries. When they were healed, Qin Mu sprinted into the sky with the protection of the two white bats to survey the terrain.
After a moment, he landed and frowned slightly. He didn't see Surging River.
If he saw Surging River, he could determine his location, but without it, he had a hard time to determine his precise location with just the markings on the geographical map of Great Ruins.
After walking a hundred miles to the east, Qin Mu once again flew into the sky to survey the terrain, comparing it with the map in his memory.
He did a few more times before finally determined their location from the path of the mountains.
"Our location is close to West Heaven Palace, not far from West Earth."
Qin Mu determined his direction and let out a sigh of relief. Landing on the ground, he told the dragon qilin the route. After another hundred miles east, Qin Mu reckoned they were close to the location where West Heaven Palace was marked on the geographical map of Great Ruins. Surveying his surroundings, he suddenly saw that the road was becoming more and more precipitous.
A huge piece of land was stabbed diagonally in Great Ruins and was like a huge circular plate. It was much higher than the mountains surrounding it and seemed to have fallen from outer space!
The dragon qilin stopped in his footsteps, and Qin Mu looked at this huge piece of land. He saw that it was covered in dense vegetation and that there was a large ruin among the green plants.
Where some parts of the land were crack, the shine of metal could be seen. Deep underground, something made out of metal was buried.
There were also some majestic god statues, some standing upright while some were collapsed, on the ground.
Qin Mu's group spent quite some time walking around this land, quite stunned. In front of them was a basin with scattered slabs of land. Some were stabbed into the ground, some were overturned, showing off a mountain's bottom, while some had split into a few pieces. There were also some slabs that had a complete ruin of a city. There were strange beasts moving inside them, the strong ones roaring in heart-stopping voices from time to time, threatening the life forms from other territories when they got near.
Where the slabs of land had broken off, a long construction made out of metal was revealed. There looked to be pipes of different heights all around there.
When wind blew across the basin, these metal constructions would hum in a tune which was actually melodious.
'How did such a magnificent civilization fall into such a state?'
After looking into the distance for a time, Qin Mu retracted his gaze. This should be a safe place that darkness couldn't invade, so there was an extremely large number of strange beasts in the surroundings. Qin Mu's group had to be extremely careful while passing through a place like this.
If they took a detour, they would probably require a day to go around, so they could only continue forward.
Qin Mu jumped down from the dragon qilin's back and led the way personally. He had lived in Great Ruins ever since he was young and so knew the habits of the strange beasts well. If he let the dragon qilin or the two white bats lead the way, they would definitely cause some trouble.
He entered deep into the basin, and Qin Mu suddenly saw the ruts of a carriage. The ruts had to have been left behind by that carriage of West Earth's True Heaven Palace. There were also some messy footsteps which should have been left behind by the divine arts practitioners giving chase.
They had obviously barged into this place in a hurry, but looking from their tracks, these people had to know the rules of Great Ruins well since they didn't take the wrong path.
However, the divine arts of West Earth's True Heaven Palace were pretty unusual as their scale and activity were all very large in scope. If they were to make their moves here, it would be easy for them to anger the territorial strange beasts.
'If we take the same path as them, we might get implicated.'
Qin Mu wanted to find another path yet what could he do when this was the only safe path across this basin. If he was to take a detour, he would have to go through a huge pool.
He looked toward that huge pool, and the water in it suddenly churned. A huge crocodile man rose up and stood on the water's surface. With smoke spewing out from his nose, he sharpened his already razor-sharp claws.
This territorial strange beast wasn't good to provoke, so if Qin Mu took a detour through there, he would be seeking death.
On the other side were the ruins of a city. It had as many majestic shrines as there was hair on a cow, and numerous red-crowned and black-necked cranes were flying around it. They danced in the sky and looked very peaceful.
However, in the city, there were two huge, male and female, cranes practicing their sword moves. As their wings vibrated, countless sword lights filled the sky and lined up into a circle. From the movement speed of those sword lights, Qin Mu felt that these two crane leaders were even more dangerous than the crocodile leader.
'There's only this path!'
Qin Mu let out a shaky breath and muttered under his breath, "We can not interfere with the family matters of West Earth's True Heaven Palace. I'm not someone who likes fighting and poking my nose into other people's business. We will just walk around them…"
The center of the basin was very bustling, with four rhinoceroses that had thick bone armor walking around. Their bodies were snow white, without a speck of impurity. Their little eyes glanced at Qin Mu and the dragon qilin behind him in alert as well as the white bats that were flying to and fro and hanging themselves on the trees continuously.
One of the female rhinoceroses spoke up in a human language. "This huge dog is so fat that it had become a pig, yet it is actually still able to walk."
The rhinoceroses in the lead had an ashen face and immediately rolled on the ground, transforming into a giant with the head of a rhinoceros and a human body. Underneath his bone armor was bulging muscles, and he put his front hooves forward while saying to Qin Mu, "Dao friend, my old wife likes to spout nonsense, please don't take it to heart!"
Qin Mu smiled. "No worries. Fatty Dragon is indeed a little fat."
The rhinoceros leader let out a sigh of relief and brought the three female rhinoceros to leave immediately while grumbling, "Can't you see it? These fellows are all ruthless characters, every one of them is fiendish, especially that human and the two white bats, having so many souls of the dead circling around them."
Qin Mu was astonished, and the dragon qilin said, "People say that white rhinoceroses are psychic, that they are able to see the netherworld as well as the souls of the dead. It's truly remarkable. However, they are still wrong in their judgment. I'm not a huge dog nor am I fat, I'm sturdy…"
The sound of divine arts and spirit weapons clashing against each other came from up ahead; it sounded very lively over there. Qin Mu called the two white bats over and carefully walked forward.
They didn't walk far before a battlefield opened up in front of their eyes. The strong practitioners of True Heaven Palace were surrounding the carriage, all of their bodies already covered in wounds.
When those divine arts practitioners of True Heaven Palace saw their arrival, they suddenly stopped attacking. Instead, they turned their heads to look at them without moving.
"Dao friend." A youth came out from the crowd and greeted Qin Mu. "Family matters."
Qin Mu returned the greeting. "I'm only just passing by."
The youth revealed a smile and waved his hand. "Open a path and let them pass."
Qin Mu smiled and nodded to both sides to show his intention before bringing the dragon qilin and the two white bats over. In front of them, they saw that the carriage was already shattered in pieces, the wheels and roof destroyed. One of the plum blossom deers sat beside the broken carriage while the other was in its true form. This should be because it was too injured and could no longer keep up its human shape.
The mother and daughter that the two deers were protecting had come out from the carriage. The woman was covered in blood and gasping for breath as she protected the child behind her.
"Righteous person…"
The man that had transformed from the buck suddenly stretched out his hand and grabbed the corner of Qin Mu's shirt. He raised his head with difficulty, hanging onto the last of his breath. "Righteous person, could you please…"
Qin Mu pulled his shirt free and broke away from his grasp to continue walking forward.
He passed by the doe and was slightly stunned. He saw that she was already dead, without any more breath left.
Qin Mu pulled his gaze back and continued to walk forward. Suddenly, the woman who was referred to as 'Nai Kui' grabbed his hand and looked at him hopefully while pleading in a hoarse voice, "Take my child, just let her live…"
Qin Mu paused, and the youth from True Heaven Palace behind him shouted, "Dao friends, these are the family matters of our True Heaven Palace!"
Qin Mu broke free from the woman's grasp and continued to walk forward. He smiled at the divine arts practitioners of True Heaven Palace on both sides and led the dragon qilin and the two white bats out of the battlefield.
The dragon qilin caught up to Qin Mu in a few steps and turned his head to look at his face. He hesitated before saying, "Cult Master…"
Qin Mu was expressionless as he said, "It's other people's family matters, so we shouldn't interfere."
"It's good not to interfere. Patriarch said that you liked to create trouble, but it looks like you have grown up."
Qin Mu stared blankly ahead. "Grown up? This is growing up?"
"You understand how to weigh the pros and cons, so you have naturally grown up. You have become rational," the dragon qilin explained. "You were very irrational in the past, fighting here and there, not fearing to offend anyone. During those few months, Patriarch had to clean up a lot of your messes."
Qin Mu fell silent as shouts came behind him.
"So this is growing up… I don't want to grow up then…"
Qin Mu burst into laughter and continued walking forward. Small swords came flying out silently from his taotie sack and stabbed in his surroundings. More and more flying swords landed on the ground and laid a sword formation.
He continued walking forward, and the eight thousand swords continued to enter the ground in front of him. Sword Treading Mountains and Rivers—the swords actually formed the shape of mountains and rivers by stabbing themselves into the ground.
With a ding, the final sword landed.
Qin Mu stopped and pressed his hand down. The eight thousand swords went underground in unison, and he suddenly covered himself with his clothing, vanishing without a trace!
" I, your father, am not willing to become an adult like this!"