Chapter 461 — Cloud and Rain at a Turn of the Palm

He hastily pulled Xiong Qi'er away from her, putting some distance between them. This little girl was anything but simple. Liu Ruyin had not asked the Liu family elders' opinion, nor the opinion of the powers in those coffins streaming with divine light—she had asked this little girl. It followed that this girl must be a deep-scheming, dangerous, cunning figure; she was likely the Liu family's strategist! The little girl gave him a sweet smile. "I was finding it hard to decide whether to move against the Yu family.

Sect Master Shen has done me a favor and decided it for me. " Over there, Liu Ruyin looked at the women of the True Heaven Palace and burst out laughing.

"Senior sisters, rest easy. After you die, I will summon spirits from your corpses.

As to whether the ones who come back are you—I can say with certainty that they will not be. Everyone, see these senior sisters of the True Heaven Palace on their way! " The women of the True Heaven Palace cursed and raged and fought back with all their might, but in the God-Burial Valley, however considerable their skills, they could not escape death.

One True Heaven Palace elder tried to unseal the golden divine coffin and use the divine corpse within against the Liu family experts. She had just undone one talisman when divine light suddenly erupted from a coffin and poured into the elder through her eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. The woman's primordial spirit dissolved on the spot, leaving only a corpse. Shen Mu could not help but shudder. The Liu family's strength was terrifying.

Had Xiong Qi'er not been holding the Azure Profound Water Dragon Pearl, it would likely have been impossible to keep them in check. What chilled him more was the little girl beside him, who seemed so harmless. Liu Ruyin had placed her at his side—seemingly by chance, but in truth full of calculation.

If this little girl suddenly struck to kill, Shen Mu and Xiong Qi'er might well both be finished by her. That Liu Ruyin could sit on the Liu family patriarch's seat was likely not unconnected to this little girl. "What is your name, little one? " Shen Mu asked with a smile, paying no attention to the battle. The little girl raised her head and smiled sweetly.

"Sect Master Shen, my name is Liu Zhenqing. " "Liu Zhenqing. " Shen Mu nodded. This little girl's innocent smile was a match for his own artless one; both were apt to make people lower their guard. She was someone to be reckoned with. "The little girls of the Western Lands are not to be underestimated. " A moment later, the women of the True Heaven Palace were slain by the combined efforts of the Liu family experts.

Shen Mu watched from the side with Liu Zhenqing and Xiong Qi'er as a Liu family elder brought over a tree root and tapped it on the corpses of the True Heaven Palace experts; the bodies stood straight up.

This was the Liu family's spirit-summoning art. Shen Mu's own Myriad Gods Natural Art contained such spells, yet seeing spirits summoned from corpses still shook him somewhat.

"Sect Master Shen, the spirit revived from a corpse is not the soul of the original owner. " Liu Zhenqing glanced at Liu Ruyin not far away and said in a low voice, "She is not Liu Ruyin either, and I am not her daughter. " Shen Mu was stunned. "Yet you call her Mother, and she calls you little one.

" "In the Liu family there are no family bonds, no blood ties. We do not even have warm blood.

" Liu Zhenqing said bleakly, "When I call her Mother, my corpse feels a little warmer, as though I were still alive.

She thinks the same.

" Shen Mu saw Liu Zhenqing draw near and smiled.

These corpses that became spirits—their blood was cold, yet they had the flavor of humanity. Some people, though their blood ran hot, had not a trace of it.

"Sect Master Shen, are you satisfied?

" Liu Ruyin looked at him with a smile that was not quite a smile. Shen Mu laughed heartily and bowed low to the ground. "Forgive me, Sister Ruyin. But in truth, was it not a scheme against me when you left Zhenqing at my side? " Liu Ruyin returned the salute and sighed.

"I am not as ruthless as you. " "I do what I must. Otherwise I could not join hands with you, sister.

" Shen Mu studied the divine coffins in the God-Burial Valley and asked curiously, "Who is in this divine coffin?

Why was he sealed? I saw just now that several other coffins also gave off divine light—are they gods and demons as well?

" Liu Ruyin shook her head.

"Those elders have died and been reborn more than ten times over; their bodies have been refined into divine forms. They are not the same as the god in this golden coffin.

The divine corpse in this golden coffin is a true god. " Shen Mu was startled and could not help looking at it a few more times.

Liu Zhenqing suddenly coughed.

Liu Ruyin took the hint and said with meaning, "It is growing late outside. Why not stay the night, Sect Master Shen, and set out in the morning?

Tonight you may rest here.

My coffin. .

.

will be left with a crack open.

" Shen Mu's scalp prickled and a chill ran through him. He hastily composed his face and said, "I long ago promised the poison master Mu Yingxue that I would go to see her, and I have already delayed nearly a year. There is no time to lose—Qi'er and I had best be on our way at once!

Farewell! No need to see me out! " With that he took Xiong Qi'er by the hand, called the Dragon Qilin, and slipped out of the God-Burial Valley as if fleeing. Outside, the sky had already gone dark.

Shen Mu whipped the Dragon Qilin's rump hard and fled in haste.

Liu Ruyin and her daughter saw them to the gate and watched them recede into the distance, and a melancholy came over her. Liu Zhenqing said forlornly, "Is it so hard to find a father with the flavor of humanity. . .

" Liu Ruyin consoled her. "Don't worry. Mother will surely find you a good father. "