Qin Mu taught Hu Ling'er how to operate the mechanism. He had installed a control console on the Dutian Demon King's chest, and with a gentle push of a hidden compartment in the chest, the console would automatically pop out.
The divine statue mechanism of the Dutian Demon King, forged from Cold Iron and Gold Crystal, was enormously massive, standing about twenty-eight feet tall. Qin Mu had spent a considerable fortune on it—the Cold Iron and Gold Crystal alone had cost ten thousand Dafeng coins.
The statue mechanism comprised tens of thousands of components, with eight to nine hundred gears alone—its complexity was extraordinary.
Even if the Dutian Demon King refused to move, one could operate him from the console. The statue mechanism possessed eight arms and four faces, making it formidable in combat—an ordinary cultivator would find it extremely difficult to breach the defenses of the Cold Iron and Gold Crystal.
In the heart of the statue mechanism, there was a small pill furnace, similar in construction to the one he had forged for the fire bandit Fan Yunxiao. However, the furnace on Fan Yunxiao's wrecked ship had been his first attempt, and he'd had little experience. This time, the furnace was not only much smaller but also far more refined.
Sitting inside the console, Hu Ling'er could feed medicinal materials into the small furnace and use qi to control its fire intensity. Even without the Dutian Demon King, she could wield the statue mechanism as a heavy-armored mechanical weapon.
If the Dutian Demon King treated the statue mechanism as his own body and aided in combat, the resulting power would be extraordinary. Not even an ordinary cultivator at the Six Harmonies realm could stand against it, and one could not be certain whether a cultivator at the Seven Stars realm would emerge victorious.
Qin Mu had studied under The Mute, The Deaf, and Old Ma. Crafting such a statue mechanism was merely integrating the knowledge they had imparted to him—he had not innovated much on his own.
His only innovation was the integration itself.
Yet for anyone else, this statue mechanism would represent the caliber of a master smith, a master machinist, and a master of runes—a wholly unique form of combat.
Hu Ling'er was utterly thrilled. Paying no attention to the Dutian Demon King inside the statue, she immediately sat at the small console and directed the statue mechanism to run outward.
Qin Mu hurriedly called out, "Dragon Qilin, follow her—don't let her cause trouble!"
The Dragon Qilin responded with a grunt and strode outward, following the snarling statue and the whooping Hu Ling'er. Qin Mu watched the Dragon Qilin's retreating figure and noticed that its belly nearly scraped the ground.
"This fellow really needs to cut back on his rations."
Qin Mu shook his head. The Dragon Qilin had once been lean and powerful—even when frequently hungry, he had looked imposing, and no one dared approach when he guarded the mountain gate.
But ever since joining Qin Mu, he had never missed a daily peck of Scarlet Fire Spirit Pills and had drunk freely from the waters of Jade Dragon Lake. As a result, he had grown increasingly fat and considerably larger in size.
If this continued, the Dragon Qilin would sooner or later become a giant ball of flesh, his belly propping him up with no hope of his claws ever touching the ground again.
"The Ancestor's rations for him back in the day were definitely not a peck of Scarlet Fire Spirit Pills, or this fellow would have been fat as a ball long ago. He must have been lying about his rations. From now on, I'll just give him half a peck."
Qin Mu steadied his breath and once again activated the Triple Revolving Domineering Body Art. His divine form transformed into the shape of the Guardian of the Earth Star—human head and serpent body, cradling the spectral image of a scroll. Behind him, a gateway gradually materialized.
Qin Mu turned around. His divine soul vibrated, producing strange sounds—these were the words in the Netherworld language that the Dutian Demon King had taught him. The Dutian Demon King had called it the Gate of Earth Origin. Though whether the true meaning was actually "Gate of Earth Origin" remained uncertain, he had not learned the phrase incorrectly.
He recited the inscriptions on the gate, and suddenly the Gate of Earth Origin slowly swung open, revealing a boundless expanse of darkness.
Qin Mu was stunned. He walked around the gateway and still saw only his own courtyard. The gateway was impossibly thin, seemingly possessing no thickness at all. From his angle, he could only see an extraordinarily slender sliver of darkness standing there.
Yet standing before the gate and looking through, one would see an infinite, endless void of darkness.
"Is this a gateway that connects to another world?"
Qin Mu was bewildered. He extended his hand and cautiously reached into the gateway, but nothing unusual happened.
"Is this the mystery of the Five Stars realm? Do other people at the Five Stars realm have this gateway? Has anyone ever opened it and gone inside?"
He hesitated. What would he encounter if he entered this gateway? Could it be that the darkness beyond was the legendary Netherworld?
And if he went in, could he return alive?
Just then, Qin Mu saw a sliver of light coming from the dark world beyond the gate. It was a person on a boat, with a dim lamp hanging at the bow. The light flickered faintly as the small vessel drifted toward him.
Beneath the lamp at the bow sat an old man crafting paper figures and paper horses. The wavering light lent the scene a serene stillness.
He tried to peer into the gateway, but the old man raised his hand, took down the lantern, and shone its light toward him. The moment the light fell upon Qin Mu, he felt his soul freeze, rendering him completely immobile.
The old man on the boat hung the lamp back at the bow, and the light no longer fell on Qin Mu. Only then did he manage to relax.
Suddenly, Qin Mu's blood ran cold. He looked down to find himself standing on the boat, right beside the old man!
The small boat gently turned around. Qin Mu looked back and saw a gateway in the distance, light emanating from it. Before that gateway stood his own body, peering in this direction!
Before that gateway, his body stood frozen, utterly motionless.
He was still at the gateway—so who was this self here on the boat?
He looked around him. All was darkness, with only the boat's lamplight and the glow from the Gate of Earth Origin remaining.
His heart turned to ice. The old man on the boat had shone his light and captured his soul, drawing it onto the boat!
The him before the gateway was now nothing but a soulless shell!
"I'm not dead yet—why have you captured my soul?" Qin Mu asked the old man.
The old man turned a deaf ear and continued crafting his paper figures and paper horses with single-minded focus.
Qin Mu looked back. The Gate of Earth Origin was growing ever more distant, filling him with mounting dread. The Dutian Demon King had indeed concealed certain things. That gateway was probably not the Gate of Earth Origin after all—otherwise, this old man would not have seized his soul!
He leaped from the boat. He wasn't too far from the gateway yet—perhaps he could still return to it and re-enter his body!
But after leaping from the boat, he did not fall into water as he had expected. Beyond the boat lay only darkness—boundless, infinite darkness.
He flailed his limbs like a drowning man, but there was nothing to push against. He could only watch himself sinking, falling deeper into ever darker shadows.
He looked upward. The boat in the darkness was growing farther and farther away, its bow lamp shrinking and dimming until it became almost imperceptible.
"That bastard Dutian Demon King tricked me after all..."
Qin Mu felt as though he had fallen into a nightmare of boundless darkness. There was no way to break free from the deepening blackness, no way to struggle, no way to save himself.
This was a despairing darkness, a despairing descent.
And the boat that had carried his soul was already far away.
Suddenly, Qin Mu gathered every last ounce of his strength and screamed with his soul, shouting out the words in the Netherworld language that the Dutian Demon King had taught him. The obscure tones twisted and turned, impossibly difficult to articulate, yet only a soul could give them voice!
The moment he finished speaking, an equally obscure voice—ancient and weathered with age—echoed from the infinite darkness. This voice also spoke in the Netherworld language, sounding like the chanting of sutras, or like ancient forebears performing a ritual, offering life and blood to worship a deity who bears all things upon its vast shoulders.
Qin Mu immediately felt his body beginning to float upward, the ascent growing faster and faster until he became a streak of radiance.
Through the light, he saw the boat, and then he saw the gateway.
The radiance surged, flying out of the darkness and rushing into his body before the gateway.
Qin Mu's body trembled violently. He gasped for breath, drenched in sweat as though he had just crawled out of the water.
Behind the gateway, the boat was drifting leisurely toward him once more. The old man on board looked his way, but this time did not raise the lantern to shine upon him.
Qin Mu stood before the gateway, ready to dispel the Guardian of the Earth Star form at any moment and make the gateway vanish. He called out loudly, "Fellow Daoist, what did those words you spoke mean?"
The old man's gaze fell upon him. The boat turned and sailed into the darkness.
"Sublime is the Earth Origin—from it all things derive life, in harmony with the Mandate of Heaven."
"The Earth is vast and bears all things, its virtue boundless and infinite. It embraces greatness and brilliance, and all creatures flourish."
"The mare belongs to the earth's kind, roaming the earth without boundary, gentle and yielding yet firm and true. The noble one proceeds—first losing the way, then finding harmony and constancy..."(1)
"The words you should have spoken were 'Sublime is the Earth Origin.' Had you said that first, your soul would not have been seized."
The boat sailed ever farther, gradually fading away. The old man's voice drifted back, growing fainter: "This gate is the Netherworld's Gate of Heaven's Mandate. The Earth Origin bears the Mandate of Heaven—spirits and gods may enter, but it is not meant for you..."
"The Dutian Demon King truly betrayed me!"
Qin Mu was furious, then laughed despite himself: "But at least I haven't lost my life. I'll deal with him in due time. Hm? My soul seems to have changed somewhat."
He felt that his soul, having undergone the journey to the Netherworld, had become significantly more resilient. Qin Mu was stunned. He activated the Triple Revolving Domineering Body Art and immediately sensed an indescribable power emanating from the Gate of Heaven's Mandate, nourishing his soul!
He was left in a daze. Though the Dutian Demon King had deceived him, the deception had not been entirely false.
The Dutian Demon King had spoken truly. Recognizing the Netherworld script on the gateway and opening this gate could indeed eliminate the shortcomings in his cultivation, giving him an edge over the State Preceptor of Yankang at this realm!
The form of the Guardian of the Earth Star at the Five Stars realm was crucial to him—it was the key to soul cultivation!
After a long while, Qin Mu felt his soul growing ever more stable. He looked at the scroll in his hand and saw the characters gradually becoming clearer, strange script shaped like birds, beasts, insects, fish, the sun, and the moon emerging upon its surface.
Though he could not yet read these characters, he seemed to understand their meaning. As his gaze swept across them, the mysteries of the script transformed automatically into knowledge within his mind.
(1) Annotation: From the I Ching hexagram text, the second hexagram (Kun/The Receptive).