Chapter 86: Living Realm Of The Dead
Translator: Ninetales Editor: Fish Creek
Qin Mu sat under the lantern and the jade pendant in front of his chest was giving off a weak glow. The jade pendant still wanted to float up and fly far away.
"This isn't Carefree Village? If not, where exactly is Carefree Village?"
The small boat sailed forward unhurriedly, its speed was not too fast nor too slow. Ever since he boarded this small boat, Qin Mu noticed that those skeletons paid no attention to them as if they couldn't see them.
The skeleton mountains returned to normal and the skeletons seemed to return to death, sinking back into silence.
Qin Mu shook his head as he recalled all the unimaginable encounters he had met along the way. Everything that he never imagined was actually happening and each encounter was stranger than the previous.
The monsters in the darkness, the messengers of death in the village by the river, the world in the fog, to the small boat they were taking, as well as the skeleton boatman. All these seemed so inconceivable yet they all actually happened.
Furthermore, the world in the Great Ruins' darkness wasn't as simple as Village Chief had thought. Village Chief had originally thought only Dark Realm existed but from how it looks, a simple Dark Realm couldn't entirely explain what they had seen.
Dark Realm could possibly exist and it could be possible that there were other worlds in the darkness other than Dark Realm.
"Village Chief, who was the man that had gave us Fengdu coins?" Qin Mu turned his head to peek at the boatman and asked in a low voice.
"An old friend."
Village Chief had an indifferent expression, "I haven't seen him for a very long and I have not heard news of him. I thought he was dead but I didn't expect him to still be alive. It's pretty impressive for people of my era to survive until now."
Qin Mu's thoughts wandered far away. Village Chief's era must have a large number of heroic figures that was like an era of all-stars. Many world-shaking people must have been born then that was just as impressive as Village Chief.
However, what a pity it was that time waits for no one. Even if they were peerless in their generation, they were approaching old age in their later years, leaving them with not long to live.
"I didn't think he was still so active and love to run here and there. I had no idea he would run here this time."
Village Chief smiled, "He knows how to study more than me and have encountered much more mysteries than me. Actually, I'm envious of how free and easy he's living, being much relaxed than me. Mu'er, you may meet him in the future, as he doesn't have a fixed home and love to join in the fun everywhere. His name is Ling Jing. He has a mole under his left eye and is missing a ring finger on his right hand that was severed by me."
"VIllage Chief, where is this boat bringing us to?"
Qin Mu looked around and they were quite a distance away from the entrance of this strange world. He couldn't see where they came from and didn't know where they were going if they continue to float down like this.
Furthermore, who knows if this was Great Ruins?
This might not even be the world the Great Ruins was in!
Village Chief slightly frowned. Qin Mu's jade pendant had led them here and it was the first time he had met such queer incident and came to such a queer place after living in Great Ruins for such a long time. However, since Qin Mu's jade pendant had brought them here, it should be related to the origin of the jade pendant.
Now that they didn't know where they were and they were unable to get down the ship, they could only let the boat and the strange boatman bring them into the unknown.
"Mu'er, if I didn't bring you out, I might never find this place at all."
As he spoke, the fog in front of him turned faint and revealed a vast land. The mountains were no longer skeleton mountains and beside the shore of the sea of fog, there was a dock made out of wood where only boats could berth at.
The small boat made from a leaf came to a gentle stop as it reached the dock.
Qin Mu immediately took out a Fengdu coin and planned to pay the boat fee when the boatman raised two white skeletal fingers.
Qin Mu then took out another Fengdu coin and the boatman nodded his head. The two of them disembarked and walked towards the land. When Qin Mu turned back to have a look, he saw the small boat and the skeleton boatman had vanished in the fog. Only the lantern at the ship's bow was still giving off a weak glow in the fog.
"Strange place…"
The jade pendant on his chest gently floated up and pointed forward.
Qin Mu followed Village Chief forward and didn't walk far before he saw a boundary stone which had a few writings in seal script on it.
"The living realm of the dead, the living shall not go further while the dead shall go forward."
Qin Mu read the words on the boundary stone and the two of them were stunned. Qin Mu hesitated to ask, "Village Chief, are we still going forward?"
Village Chief looked forward and faintly saw numerous villages. He smiled and said, "Since we're already here, how can we not continue and have a look at what's in front? Let us continue on."
Qin Mu followed him and both of them crossed the boundary stone. Suddenly, Qin Mu cried in astonishment. Raising both his hands, his hands had unknowingly become ghastly bones of the dead!
He immediately pulled open his shirt only to see his flesh had all disappeared, leaving only ghastly white bones!
Looking at Village Chief, he had also become a skeleton floating in the air. What's strange was Village Chief actually grew arms and legs!
His chest and head were all white bones but his arms and legs had blood and flesh!
However Village Chief clearly didn't have arms and legs so why did he suddenly grew arms and legs?
"The living realm of the dead, living realm of the dead… Mu'er, let us go back." Village Chief suddenly said.
Qin Mu moved back to the boundary stone and looked down to see his blood and flesh coming back. Whereas Village Chief's arms and legs had disappeared while his head and chest had returned back to normal.
"I see. There's actually exists such an incredible world…"
Village Chief smiled and walked back into the living realm of the dead, "Let us go in to have a look."
Qin Mu suppressed the shock in his heart and followed him into this incredible world. Village Chief's feet landed on the ground and he started walking. He suddenly stopped to look at his hands and gave a rueful sigh, as if he was recalling fondly of his missing limbs.
In front, the mountain range stood tall and there were temples after temples as a decently scaled village appeared in front of their eyes.
The two of them came to this village and found that there were birdsong and fragrant flowers, and the entire place was very tranquil. The villagers lived in peace and worked happily, raising livestock. When they came to the village entrance, there was still a white and plump pig snorting as it walked past them.
Qin Mu and Village Chief stood still at the village entrance and didn't enter, making a few of the villagers turning around to look at them with a weird gaze. After a while, an elder tottered over, his face that was filled with wrinkled gave a smile as he asked, "Visitors from outside, what can I do for you?"
Qin Mu and Village Chief bowed to greet and Qin Mu asked, "Sir, may I know the way to Carefree Village?'
That elder raised his hand at pointed to the back of the mountain, "After you cross these mountains and pass by a gate, you'll be able to see Carefree Village."
"Much thanks."
"You're welcome."
Qin Mu and Village Chief went up the mountain. Qin Mu turned his head back and saw that the villagers in the village were still looking at them with peculiar gazes.
Village Chief explained, "In their eyes, we are the dead therefore they are looking at us that way."
Qin Mu turned back his head and said, "Village Chief, there's something strange… Grandpa Blind helped me open the nine heavens of god eyes so even when my eyes are not there I could still see something hazily…"
Village Chief halted, "What did you see?"
Qin Mu replied, "The devil aura on their body."
Village Chief thought deeply and explained, "The living realm of the dead should have a rule that changes life and death. This is the power of gods and devil. When we entered here, we seemed to have no flesh but when we exited the living realm of the dead, our flesh reappeared immediately. This means that our flesh actually still exist, just that it was warped by the rules, therefore, we can't see or touch it. Mu'er, since the nine heavens of your god eyes are still there, can you use your vital qi to execute the nine heavens of your god eyes?"
Qin Mu immediately tried and quickly sensed his eyes. He then directed his vital qi into his eyes and executed the Nine Heavens God Eyes Formations imprinted in his eyes. He instantly felt everything in front of his eyes becoming extremely clear.
He turned his head back and everyone in the village had a change in appearance. They were no longer humans and were skeletons. Even the livestock and that plump pig had turned into skeletons!
The villager's skeletons were different from human skeletons and had a strange shape that was clearly not human.
Qin Mu described what he saw and Village Chief pondered before replying, "They're the Heavenly Devil Horde."
"Heavenly Devil Horde?" Qin Mu stared blankly.
"Heavenly Devil Horde is the devil race. Your Heavenly Devil Cult may have the two words 'Heavenly Devil' but they were all still humans under name of Heavenly Devil Cult. However, Heavenly Devil Horde is different. Legend says that Heavenly Devil Horde is a race that had come from a foreign land and have an extremely strong nature to invade other lands. As for where they had come from, no one knows. Some legend says…"
Village Chief paused and didn't continue. Looking forward, he said, "Could this be the world of Heavenly Devil? It doesn't look like it. Let us continue forward, if this is the world of Heavenly Devil, we'll have to leave immediately!"
Crossing several mountains, they finally came before the gate which the elder in the village had talked about.
With two mountains as pillars, there was a stone bridge on the mountain gate as a beam. Written on the mountain wall was two words, Fengdu.
Qin Mu's heart leaped and had an ominous feeling. Legend says that Fengdu was the gate of hell, could this be hell?
However, Village Chief turned a blind eye to it and walked passed it. Qin Mu immediately followed and when they saw what's in front of them, their hearts were both slightly shocked.
In front of them, in the center of the squarish cities, there were lofty, majestic shrines and temples that were reaching through the clouds. There were innumerable cities, innumerable palaces and innumerable temples. As far as the eyes could see, there was no end to the cities!
This was the vast, boundless and spectacular world behind the gates of Fengdu!
"This should be the capital city of Fengdu."
As Qin Mu thought about that, he suddenly saw a ruined ship. It was a ship formed by mountains and on the ship were chains floating in the air like the strings of a kite. At the end of these kite strings were tied to a gray spheroid.
An enormous spheroid which was half broken.
It was a moon.