"A strange restriction."
Danbaluo looked at these ferocious little figures, and his heart gave a start. Each little figure seemed to have been refined from the soul of a powerful being. They were extraordinarily strong and knew nothing but slaughter.
These strange cubes formed an incomparably complicated lock. Runes were reflected upon it; only when the runes took the correct forms could it be unlocked. Otherwise, the little figures inside would be released!
There were countless translucent cubes, an immense number of them. Whenever the runes projected by the talisman treasure shone upon a cube, that cube would retreat backward on its own and vanish.
"The steps for lifting the restriction are far too complicated. Without this talisman treasure, it would be impossible!"
The talisman treasure continued to rotate. The runes projected from its fourteen faces changed in countless ways, causing the cubes before them to keep retreating.
The talisman treasure floated forward. The tortoise-backed guard stepped ahead, and Danbaluo hurried after him step for step. They passed through a long passageway, and suddenly the view before them opened wide.
The interior of the golden hall contained a world of its own. From the outside, this golden hall did not seem large, but from within, it was at least ten times larger. Rows of pillars stood in formation, followed by golden altars of every size. Each golden altar held a strange treasure.
The tortoise-backed guard carried the Shao Bao Sword forward and said with a laugh, "A treasure of this level must be placed in the deepest and most honored position. My magic power is not enough to seal it; we can only wait for the Sorcerer Venerable to come and seal it personally. Danbaluo, you have rendered a great service. Even I am envious!"
Danbaluo hurriedly smiled. "I obtained more than one treasure from that man of Yankang, and I also got a small jade bottle. It most likely contains sacred medicine. I took a sniff of its scent—it was so wonderful that I seemed about to become an immortal..."
He took a small jade bottle from his sleeve. The tortoise-backed guard's eyes lit up when he saw it. He snatched it from Danbaluo's hand and laughed. "Danbaluo, you have rendered a great service, so the Sorcerer Venerable will certainly reward you handsomely. I brought you here ahead of time to choose a treasure. Surely you can't come without a little token for me? The sacred medicine in this jade bottle is mine!"
Danbaluo's face twisted with pain.
Seeing his pained expression, the tortoise-backed guard laughed. "What a miser." With that, he unscrewed the jade bottle and held it beneath his nose for a sniff.
"So fragrant—ah—so—fragrant..."
A satisfied smile still hung on the tortoise-backed guard's face as he fell straight down.
Danbaluo held his breath and hurriedly snatched the jade bottle from his hand, replacing the stopper. After thinking for a moment, he took out another jade bottle and drew the air around them into it. He then pried open the tortoise-backed guard's mouth and placed the uncorked bottle inside, leaving him to hold it between his teeth.
"He won't wake up for a while this way. Phew—"
Danbaluo exhaled a breath of stale air. Then he began to shed his skin. Another person emerged from Danbaluo's skin-sack—it was Qin Mu.
"I suppose I've used demonic methods now, too."
Qin Mu glanced at the skin-sack on the ground and shook his head. Grandma Si could wear other people's skin and transform into countless forms, but he still had some psychological resistance to it.
Qin Mu took back the Shao Bao Sword. He searched the tortoise-backed guard and found the talisman treasure, which he tucked into his bosom, then dug out some other odds and ends.
He searched for a while but found nothing else useful, so he gave up.
"Shenxiao Heavenly Eye, open! Azure Heaven Eye, open!"
The Shenxiao Heavenly Eye and the Azure Heaven Eye opened in Qin Mu's pupils. Dense runes formed two layers of heaven within his eyes, and when he looked around, everything here immediately became clearly stratified.
Every golden altar here was covered in seals, resembling the cubes he had just seen. Each cube concealed a fierce little figure. Their features were twisted together, their hair wild and tangled, and their claws and fangs sharp. Yet without the Heavenly Eyes, they could not be seen at all.
Qin Mu picked up the talisman treasure and carefully examined the fourteen runic faces. After comparing them, he shook his head. This talisman treasure was not the key for undoing the seals on the golden altars. It could probably only be used to open the golden hall.
He walked onward, looking over the golden altars one by one. He had to hurry. Ling Yuxiu should still be blocking the gate outside. Her abilities were a level below his; although she had learned Libationer Bashan's battle-method fusion, she probably could not hold out for much longer.
The treasures on the golden altars were all different. Many were unique to the Loulan Golden Palace and had been refined in bizarre ways: human skin had been stripped off to make paintings and inscribe runes; human skulls had been made into bowls; human skin had been made into drums. There were also the White Bone Banner, the Myriad Poisons Soul-Eating Banner, and the White Bone Shrine—all magical artifacts of the heretical demonic path.
But besides these, there were many good things as well, glittering with golden light, seeming to be treasures refined by beings of the Sorcerer King level.
Qin Mu also saw treasures that did not belong to the shamanic religion placed here. There was a Tower of a Thousand Stories and sarira, which should be Buddhist treasures of great importance. There was also a sword pill the size of a grape, an ancient qin with one end burned black, and a broken sword.
Suddenly, Qin Mu stopped. He could not move his feet. A stone tablet stood on this golden altar, and carved upon it was a fragmentary cultivation diagram. At a single glance, he knew it was a cultivation diagram for the Barrier Body Three Elixir Art. It was not the diagram for the Six Harmonies realm, however, and in his haste he could not tell which realm it belonged to.
"Move, move—go find the legs!"
Qin Mu urged himself on and raced toward the depths of the treasury like a streak of light. A moment later, he had swiftly made a circuit of the place, then stopped before a golden altar. He had already looked at this altar once, yet in the end he had returned here.
What rested on the golden altar was the lower half of a person's body, everything below the waist, yet it still stood upright, steady and balanced.
Qin Mu could be certain, however, that this was not the Butcher's lower half.
This severed body shone with golden light. Even its blood seemed to be liquid gold, and its bones were gold as well.
The body radiated a terrifying aura, stronger than even a Sorcerer King.
"The Sorcerer Venerable's body?"
Qin Mu blinked. He compared it with his own waist, then carefully recalled the Butcher's body. The Butcher's body seemed to fit perfectly atop this severed lower half.
"The Sorcerer Venerable destroyed the sect that took Grandpa Butcher's lower half and carried it away. Then the Sorcerer Venerable cut off his own lower half and placed it here, while Grandpa Butcher's lower half, which should have been here, is gone..."
The corner of Qin Mu's eye twitched as he thought of a frightening possibility.
The Sorcerer Venerable had cut off his own lower half and attached the Butcher's lower half to himself!
"With my medical skills, this would be entirely possible. The Sorcerer Venerable should be capable of it as well!"
His scalp prickled. What was the Sorcerer Venerable after, cutting off his own lower half and attaching someone else's?
"Perhaps he believes Grandpa Butcher's fleshly body is even more formidable than his golden body—something he could never reach in his entire life—and so he replaced his own lower half. But there is another possibility: the Sorcerer Venerable refined Grandpa Butcher's lower half into a spirit weapon in the shape of two legs..."
Qin Mu's expression turned strange. The latter possibility was very unlikely, but not impossible. He could not help looking troubled. Seals also surrounded the lower half on the golden altar. If he reached toward it, the little figures inside those cubes would eat him until not even his bones remained.
If Libationer Bashan were here, he could simply destroy the seals by force. Qin Mu, however, did not possess that ability.
"The Heaven-Stealing Exchange-Sun Hand taught to me by Grandpa Cripple—I have never used it even once. Can it pass through the seals and take that severed body?"
His heart pounded anxiously. Suddenly, Qin Mu began to sprint wildly through the treasury, activating the Heaven-Stealing Divine Leg taught to him by the Cripple. His speed was like light flashing across a shadow, so fast that the naked eye could barely catch him!
As Qin Mu raced, he also performed the Heaven-Stealing Exchange-Sun Hand. His hands moved faster and faster, like light and lightning. The Cripple's entire skill lay in his legs and hands: his legs were fast so that he could flee for his life after being discovered while stealing, and his hands were quick so that he could steal.
Qin Mu had always trained diligently in the Heaven-Stealing Leg technique, but he had practiced the Heaven-Stealing Exchange-Sun Hand less. Now he was trying to cram at the last moment, hoping to comprehend more of its mysteries.
As he performed the Heaven-Stealing Divine Leg and the Heaven-Stealing Exchange-Sun Hand at the same time, Qin Mu suddenly sensed something wondrous. He let out a startled cry and hurriedly stopped.
When he performed the two different arts simultaneously, he felt that they were actually one and the same, only the Cripple had divided a single art into two halves and taught them to him separately.
Qin Mu had already found the circulation of the Heaven-Stealing Divine Leg extraordinarily smooth. Now that he performed it together with the Heaven-Stealing Exchange-Sun Hand, the speed at which his vital qi circulated suddenly increased severalfold!
A faster vital-qi circulation, increased several times over, meant that the speed of his kicks and hand movements could also increase severalfold!
Qin Mu steadied his mind and looked ahead. The treasury inside the golden hall was extremely spacious, with enough room for him to run. He suddenly exerted his strength, and both feet flew forward as he sprinted wildly!
The air inside the hall shrieked as though torn apart. Suddenly, with a tremendous bang, Qin Mu slammed into the golden palace wall more than a hundred zhang from where he had started and fell straight backward.
A ring of white vapor slowly spread around his body.
After a moment, Qin Mu got to his feet, shook his head, and once again sprinted with all his strength. Another tremendous bang rang out, and white vapor spread around him. This time, however, he did not strike the wall. He stepped onto the wall and raced across it, then ran up to the roof of the hall and sped across its top with a howl.
The tearing howl did not cease. Qin Mu raced through the air of the treasury, stepping on empty air, and in the blink of an eye he howled back again.
Suddenly, in the midst of his sprint, he reached out and plucked something. A golden altar became empty, while a bowl made from a human skull appeared in Qin Mu's hand.
Clatter.
The bowl fell to the ground. Qin Mu burst out laughing. Still racing wildly as if playing for joy, he reached toward the golden altars flashing past him like streaks of light. One golden altar after another was emptied, and the treasures were thrown everywhere across the floor.
A moment later, every golden altar had been swept clean. Qin Mu then swept past one of them, carrying a pair of enormous legs in his arms.
His figure abruptly halted, and he set down the golden lower half.
"No wonder Grandpa Cripple always likes stealing things. Stealing really is exhilarating!"
The youth from the Village of Broken Elders let out a breath of stale air. He looked back at the treasures scattered all over the floor and felt refreshed from head to toe. He praised the experience: "Even losing a leg would be worth it!"