The Great Ruins, the Village of Broken Elders.
As usual, the Village Chief slumped in a reclining chair at the village entrance with the Herbalist, sipping tea at a leisurely pace. Suddenly, the Herbalist turned sideways and said, "Village Chief, you've been slumped there for quite a while, haven't you? It seems you've been like this for the past two days. You didn't move even when darkness descended, and you didn't return to your room to sleep, did you? When I got up this morning, I found you slumped here."
The Village Chief narrowed his eyes lazily. "Herbalist, your heart is unsettled. Ever since Mu'er left, your heart has been unsettled."
The Herbalist sneered. "My heart is unsettled? It's clearly yours! Look at me—I still wash and comb myself clean every day. But you, you're disheveled and filthy. You were only one step away from dying in that chair."
The Village Chief said, "You're the one who moved me to the village entrance yesterday morning and then forgot to take me back to my room at night. Isn't it your heart that's unsettled? You do the same things every day, and suddenly you forgot one of them."
The Herbalist laughed in fury. "I forgot to take you back to your room, so can't you walk back yourself? Can't you fly back? What use is your cultivation that reaches the heavens and penetrates the earth?"
The Village Chief fell silent for a moment, then said dejectedly, "You know I have no legs. I don't even have hands..."
The Herbalist went berserk. That dead old man had been left out in the darkness the entire night, yet neither the curses nor the monsters in the darkness had killed him, and he still had the nerve to claim he had no legs.
He was about to argue the matter when he suddenly raised his head. The Village Chief also sprang to life, instantly becoming full of energy. He smiled and said, "Is it not a pleasure to have friends come from afar? Fellow Daoist, you look completely at ease."
An old man and a young man were coming up from the lower reaches of the Yong River. They had reached the outskirts of the village and were walking toward it.
The Village Chief looked at the Herbalist and hurriedly said, "Where's your comb? Don't hide it. I know you often carry a comb on you—it's in your robe! Take it out quickly. I haven't washed or combed myself for two days. How can I meet guests like this?"
The Herbalist let out a cold laugh and didn't move.
The Village Chief smiled apologetically. "It's my fault for being too lazy to move these past two days."
The Herbalist handed him the comb. The Village Chief used his qi to wield it and combed his hair, at least making it somewhat orderly.
The young Ancestor and the Elder of Discipline approached, stopped, and saluted. The Village Chief smiled and said, "I am a crippled man and cannot return the salute. I hope you'll forgive me, Fellow Daoist. Please sit. Herbalist, serve the tea."
The young Ancestor sat down and glanced at the Elder of Discipline standing beside him. He smiled and said, "I'm no longer the Ancestor of the Holy Church, so there is no need for so many formalities. Sit down with me."
The Elder of Discipline sat down as well. He unloaded the bamboo basket from his back and placed it to one side.
The Herbalist brought out the tea set, boiled a fresh kettle of water, added the tea leaves, let them steep briefly, and poured tea for the two guests.
"The southern way of drinking tea," the young Ancestor said with a smile.
The Herbalist smiled. "I was born in the south, so I'm used to southern tea. Northern tea is appreciated for watching the tender buds rise and fall, sink and float. Southern tea is clear and bright enough to see straight through to one's heart. Each has its merits."
The young Ancestor smiled. "No wonder you two often sit here. Village Chief, I have come to stay with you for a few days. What do you think?"
Before the Village Chief could answer, the Herbalist clapped his hands and laughed. "Good! Excellent! Ever since Mu'er left, this old man has nearly bored me to death. He lies here every day, not speaking or moving."
The Village Chief glared at him, then said to the young Ancestor, "Now that you have leisure, staying here for a few days to clear your mind will be a pleasant thing."
The young Ancestor said, "I greatly admire the Cult Master. The Cult Master has received the guidance of all of you and is truly extraordinary, absolutely outstanding. That is why I have come to seek your advice. The Cult Master was born with a Hegemon Body and also cultivates the Hegemon Body Three Elixir Technique. His abilities are truly extraordinary. My experience is shallow; I didn't know there was a Hegemon Body in this world. These next few days are a perfect opportunity to seek your instruction..."
"A Hegemon Body!"
The Village Chief and the Herbalist exchanged a glance, then suddenly burst out laughing. The two old men were no longer young, yet they laughed with their mouths wide open, tears and snot running together as they laughed until they could barely breathe.
"A Hegemon Body... hahaha!"
The Village Chief laughed so hard he toppled off his recliner and rolled onto the ground. The Herbalist also laughed himself off his chair, pounding the ground with both hands and unable to get up.
The young Ancestor and the Elder of Discipline were baffled by their laughter. The Elder of Discipline felt a chill in his heart. "How bored are these two usually? There isn't even anything funny about this, yet they're laughing as if they're about to lose their breath. If the Ancestor and I stay here, will we turn into this kind of lunatic after enough time?"
The Village Chief quieted down for a moment and lay on the ground, panting heavily. The Herbalist pointed at the young Ancestor and laughed. "We fooled the Ancestor of the Demon Cult too! Hahahaha!"
The Village Chief began laughing wildly again, and the Herbalist resumed pounding the ground.
After a long while, the Village Chief floated up and settled back into his recliner. His qi wrapped around the comb and tidied his messy hair. The Herbalist walked a little farther away, brushed the dust from his clothes, washed his face, then took another small comb from inside his robe and tidied himself up. Only then did he return and sit down properly. He said apologetically, "Fellow Daoists, only the two of us remain in the village. We are bored to death every day. Even the chicken-dragon went out, found a male, and hatched a whole brood of little chicken-dragons. It's rare for someone to tell us a joke, so it's only natural that we lost our composure."
The young Ancestor looked behind them and saw a chicken-dragon taller than a man wandering around the village with a group of little chicken-dragons. The hen flapped its wings, raising a fierce gale.
"What exactly is this Hegemon Body about?"
The young Ancestor asked humbly, "Please enlighten me without holding back. My horizons really are a little narrow..."
"Don't say another word."
The Village Chief held back his laughter. "I'll tell you."
A moment later, after learning the truth, the young Ancestor and the Elder of Discipline were stunned. It was as if they had been struck by heavenly thunder a hundred times and trampled by a herd of wild bulls a hundred times more. For a long while, they couldn't recover their senses.
The most powerful Hegemon Body was actually an ordinary person's body. The most powerful Hegemon Body Three Elixir Technique was actually a guidance exercise so commonplace that ordinary people used it simply to strengthen their bodies!
Yet Qin Mu had actually cultivated this technique while believing himself to possess a Hegemon Body.
That wasn't even the key point. The key point was that Qin Mu, firmly convinced of it, had used an ordinary body and a guidance exercise to beat other talented prodigies into a sorry state, looking every inch a genuine Hegemon Body!
The Village Chief and the Herbalist were smug. They exchanged a glance, and the Village Chief whispered, "Look at their expressions. They're exactly what I imagined."
The young Ancestor exhaled a breath of stale air, his expression strange. "So that's how it is. So that's how it is... But the Hegemon Body Three Elixir Technique really does have problems. It is extraordinarily unusual."
"Although the Hegemon Body Three Elixir Technique is a guidance exercise found everywhere, it truly does have problems. It's just that very few people can cultivate this technique to Mu'er's level. You could say he is the only one."
The Village Chief became solemn. "At the very least, I've never seen anyone else do it. I suspect this technique existed before the Great Ruins became the Great Ruins. It should not have been bad. Somehow, after being passed down, it became the most ordinary guidance exercise, but I can't be certain. No one could have imagined that someone would one day refine this technique to such a level."
The young Ancestor's eyes flickered. "Perhaps before the Great Ruins became the Great Ruins, ordinary people could cultivate as well. The Hegemon Body Three Elixir Technique may have been the cultivation method of ordinary people back then. But a great upheaval made it impossible for ordinary people to cultivate. The four great spirit bodies appeared after that and became the mainstream of today."
The Herbalist's heart stirred. "If ordinary people cannot cultivate, how was Mu'er able to do so? It can't be explained merely by saying he worked a hundred times harder than others. There must have been someone in the world who worked even harder. Nor can it be explained by saying he consumed a hundred times more resources than other ordinary people. Perhaps someone would be willing to spend such an enormous amount of resources to stimulate an ordinary body. Therefore, there must be something different about him compared with ordinary people."
The Village Chief's heart leaped. "Perhaps he was an ordinary person from before the Great Ruins became the Great Ruins."
The three exchanged glances, each agreeing with the idea. The young Ancestor said, "Then where did this ordinary person from before the great upheaval come from?"
The Village Chief and the Herbalist said in unison, "The Land of Carefree!" After saying it, the two exchanged a glance, both deeply shaken.
Only the Elder of Discipline's thoughts had not moved as quickly as theirs. He was completely lost and couldn't get a word in.
"I feel like I can't keep up with their thoughts..." The Elder of Discipline felt as if he were being excluded by nature.
"The Land of Carefree?"
The young Ancestor's heart stirred. "May I ask where this Land of Carefree is?"
The Village Chief smiled faintly. "I don't know. But if you're interested, Fellow Daoist, we can leave the village tonight and look for it."
"Leave the village?"
The young Ancestor turned his head toward the vast, boundless Great Ruins. His heart suddenly grew tense, yet filled with anticipation.
I've come to the right place.
He thought to himself.
It had been a long time since he had felt this kind of excitement and exhilaration. The old scoundrels of the Village of Broken Elders had brought back the spirit of adventure and impulsiveness from his youth.
Two old men with one foot already in the coffin, along with another old man and a Herbalist who was neither young nor truly old, setting out together to explore the mysterious depths of the Great Ruins—and doing so in the darkness. Just thinking about it was truly exciting.
At Saint Arrival Mountain, Qin Mu instructed, "Ling'er, although this mountain is the sacred land of the Heavenly Demon Cult, this is my first time here too. I don't know what dangers may be hidden here, so don't run around. Wait until I finish cultivating the Transmission technique on this wall, and then I'll take you out."
Fox Ling'er acknowledged him and turned to run out of the palace.
Qin Mu sat down before the wall and carefully examined the Transmission technique on it.
The Transmission technique on this wall was a method for refining a treasure. Its various glyphs, formations, and divine arts could not be used independently. They had to be refined into a treasure before the effect of transmission could be activated.
Many high-ranking members of the Heavenly Demon Cult had refined Transmission Banners and Transmission Robes for precisely this reason.
When a Transmission Banner was unfurled, everything covered by the great banner could be transmitted away, and it could carry many people. A Transmission Robe, when covering the body, could transmit its wearer away.
Qin Mu carefully comprehended the mysteries of the Transmission technique. After a full day, he finally understood it thoroughly, but he began to make plans.
The Heavenly Demon Cult's Transmission technique relied on glyphs to activate formations and on formations to drive divine arts. Because it was so complicated, it was difficult to cast the divine arts directly, making it necessary to refine them into treasures before transmission could be performed.
If the divine arts could be cast directly and still produce the effect of transmission, it would certainly be more flexible than treasures such as the Transmission Banner and Transmission Robe.
Moreover, after comprehending it for so long, Qin Mu discovered that the Transmission technique actually required sophisticated calculation skills. The higher one's attainments in mathematics and numerology, the faster one could master the Transmission divine art.
"I need more advanced mathematical classics!"