Qin Mu studied the Green Dragon Crescent Blade in the hands of the Heavenly King statue. This blade was real, not made of stone.
When they first arrived at this Heavenly King Temple, Qin Mu had already examined everything carefully, and he clearly remembered that the Heavenly King statue did not hold a blade, let alone such an enormous Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
What was even more astonishing was that there were still bloodstains on this blade.
Qin Mu was about to reach out and touch it, to check whether it was real blood, when the Blind One's bamboo cane reached over and lifted his wrist aside, the old man smiling as he said, "Mu'er, don't be so curious. It can get you killed."
Qin Mu shuddered, suddenly remembering the encounter when the Village Chief had led him through the darkness, how a single drop of demon blood had withered all the flowers, grass, and trees within a hundred-zhang radius.
If the blood on the Green Dragon Crescent Blade was real, then the inconceivable strange events of last night were also real. In other words, this Heavenly King statue had truly gone to slay a Dragon King of the East Sea, and that drop of blood on the blade was the blood of the Dragon King of the East Sea.
"The divine blade has a spirit of its own. Do not provoke it lightly." The Blind One seemed to see through his thoughts and said softly.
Qin Mu smiled. "I'm not Grandpa Cripple. I wouldn't recklessly try to carry home even a Heavenly King's divine blade. I only want to collect the Dragon King's blood from the blade. It's the blood of a Dragon King among the dragon folk, and it might be useful for refining medicine."
The Blind One praised him, "As expected of Mu'er, frugal and industrious, with a keen eye for profit."
Qin Mu retrieved a jade vial and carefully collected the drop of Dragon King's blood from the Green Dragon Crescent Blade into it, then tightened the stopper.
In the courtyard of the Heavenly King Temple, a massive stone dragon head had smashed a huge pit into the ground, and there were still bloodstains on the dragon head, the blood a vivid red.
Qin Mu brought over a box, using qi threads to transform into sword qi. With painstaking care, he controlled the sword qi to scrape off the bloodstains and place them in the box.
He approached the neck of the dragon head and saw that the cut surface was perfectly smooth, as if severed by an incomparably sharp blade. From this cut alone, he could imagine just how overbearing, swift, and sharp that strike had been!
Although the dragon head was a stone idol, at the wound's cut surface, one could still feel that overwhelming blade intent, that realm of the blade.
"If I were to sit here and contemplate the cut surface of the dragon head, I could comprehend an extremely overbearing blade technique, no inferior to Grandpa Tu's pig-slaughtering blade art. A pity there's no time—we must be on our way."
Qin Mu sighed inwardly with regret. If he could comprehend the blade technique within, the blade intent and blade realm contained a divine domain, and its sheer imposing aura alone could frighten a great many people to death.
Old Ma urged, "Mu'er, let's go!"
Qin Mu quickened his pace to catch up and summoned the Dragon Qilin, intending to mount it. The Dragon Qilin had been ridden by the Heavenly King statue all night like a horse, engaged in battle and slaughter, and felt sore and weak all over. The moment Qin Mu climbed on, the creature let out a shriek like a pig being slaughtered.
Qin Mu hastily jumped down. The Dragon Qilin said, "I must have been cursed. Last night I was ridden by a statue all night long. Elder Blind, you know fortune-telling—can you dispel the curse?"
The Blind One shook his head. "I'm not a specialist in that field. I only dabble in fortune-telling and exorcism from time to time. The curse on you I cannot dispel. Don't worry, just rest for a night and you'll be fine."
The Dragon Qilin was only half convinced.
After traveling several thousand li northward, the terrain suddenly grew lower. The further north they went, the lower the land became. When Qin Mu looked back, he saw that they had descended from several mountain ranges and felt surprised.
Grandma Si said, "This seems to be a basin, surrounded by great mountains on all sides, with a plain above the basin. We've walked from the plain down into the basin. And it's no small basin."
Everyone looked and saw that within the basin stood towering mountains, dense forests, and deep ravines and natural chasms crisscrossing the land. The geography was quite different from other parts of the Great Ruins.
This basin was extremely vast. Sometimes when Qin Mu and the others passed a mountain foothill, they could still see branching stalks of red coral, like rubies, quite captivating.
Grandma Si picked a branch of coral, intending to make it into a hairpin, when suddenly an exotic beast leapt out from a mountain hollow. It looked somewhat like a giant lobster, only over a zhang long, with seven or eight legs, and it waved its claws at the group.
"Lunch is sorted!" the Blind One exclaimed with delight.
At noon, Qin Mu roasted the exotic beast until it was done. The aroma was intoxicating, the golden shrimp paste oozing oil, making everyone's mouths water. Old Ma had long since broken his vegetarian vow and ate his fill with satisfaction, leaving behind nothing but a pile of shrimp shells.
Qin Mu wondered, "How could there be such an exotic beast here? There's no water around."
As he spoke, the mooing of cattle drifted from afar. The forest shook, and several fish demons, drawn by the scent, emerged from the trees. These fish demon exotics had fish bodies stretching six or seven zhang long, but beneath their bodies grew six thick, sturdy legs. Their calls were like cattle, deep and resonant.
Qin Mu peered from a distance and saw that these fish demons were running with incredible speed, charging toward them. Their legs appeared to be transformed from fins, covered in enormous fish scales, incredibly hard. When they walked, the scales reflected like mirrors, and under the sunlight, hundreds and thousands of scales reflected light in every direction.
"Once you've eaten your fill, there's no need for pointless slaughter." Old Ma's aura burst forth, scaring the fish demons away.
His aura was so overwhelming that it not only drove off the fish demons but also scattered the "birds" in the forest. Qin Mu looked up and saw a flock of winged fish flying across the sky, fleeing into the distance.
He opened his Azure Sky Eye and looked, seeing dark shadows shifting on a distant mountaintop. Several giant octopuses, their massive heads bobbing, retreated into their own territories, not daring to provoke them.
One of the startled giant octopuses sprayed a puff of black smoke with a whoosh, blanketing an area of over a hundred mu in pitch-black darkness.
They continued on their way and encountered a few fish folk—fish-headed, human-bodied beings, wielding steel tridents as they hunted.
"Strange, this Great Ruins," the Blind One muttered.
Qin Mu had lived here since childhood and had always seen these strange creatures, so he had always assumed that fish and shrimp were simply like this, capable of running all over the place. He was only briefly surprised and paid it no further mind.
But the Blind One, Grandma Si, and the others had not lived here their whole lives. They knew what fish and shrimp were like in the outside world, and so they found it truly peculiar.
Grandma Si looked around and murmured, "This place must have once been a great sea. How miraculous that the sea is gone, and the creatures that once lived in it had to take to land and change their ways. But the change is rather extreme..."
The Blind One also found it inconceivable. Suddenly, the Dragon Qilin exclaimed in surprise, "I think I've been here before..."
Qin Mu was puzzled and asked with a smile, "You and the Patriarch came here?"
The Dragon Qilin shook its head. "No. I mean, I was ridden here by a deity last night."
They passed through a village whose inhabitants were remnants of the Great Ruins, all looking utterly dejected.
Qin Mu stepped forward to inquire. An elderly man said, "Something happened yesterday we don't understand. Who knows how many Dragon King Temples in the surrounding hundreds of li were destroyed. Many dragon god statues in the temples had their heads chopped off! We used to go to the Dragon King Temples to make offerings, praying for favorable weather. Now so many Dragon King Temples and dragon god temples have been destroyed, and everyone is at a loss..."
Qin Mu's heart trembled violently. He hurriedly asked for more details. The old man said, "Last night there was a great storm that woke everyone in the village. We saw that outside it was pitch dark, and above many people's houses, there was water—water hovering above the rooftops, not falling down."
Qin Mu froze. Water hovering above the rooftops?
"The crashing waves were thunderously loud. There were lights coming from within the water, and many people also saw dragons!"
The old man said, "It was as if an entire ocean hung suspended in the sky. The sounds of battle drifted down from above. This old man saw lightning slashing through the water, crack after crack, until the fourth watch when it finally stopped. When dawn came, the water in the sky was gone, but many great trees looked as if they'd been rained on all night, their canopies dripping wet. Then we discovered that the Dragon King Temples and dragon god temples had been destroyed in countless numbers. Some who lived in the temples said they saw the dragon god stone statues fly out of the temples."
Qin Mu's eyes widened. The dragon god stone statues flew out?
"It's said there was also a monk who lived in Dragon God Valley. In the middle of the night, he saw a Heavenly King holding a blade, riding some fat, bloated monster, charging in. With one slash, the Heavenly King beheaded the Dragon God King of Dragon God Valley and carried off the dragon head..."
After gathering all the information, Qin Mu returned and reported to the Blind One, Grandma Si, and Old Ma. The three of them looked at each other in blank astonishment.
This matter was simply too bizarre.
The events of last night seemed real yet illusory. In the darkness, a stone idol had delivered a decree. The Heavenly King statue had taken up a blade to slay a dragon. The Dragon Qilin had been ridden like a horse all night. And now the remnants of the Great Ruins here said that an ocean had appeared upside down in the sky, that dragon gods and Dragon Kings had been beheaded.
When these events were connected, one could see that what happened last night was real.
"Last night, the stone idol that delivered the decree said His Majesty had issued the edict from the Land of Carefree. There's a great deal more to this than meets the eye."
From within Grandma Si came an aged voice, saying, "This concubine believes..."
"Amitabha!"
Old Ma transformed into a great Buddha, suppressing Grandma Si's spiritual consciousness. At the same time, the Blind One also made his move, fixing Grandma Si in place. The two worked together with tense urgency, finally managing to suppress Grandma Si's demonic nature.
Qin Mu wiped the cold sweat from his brow and urged, "Let's go, let's go! The sooner we reach the Great Thunderclap Monastery, the less chance there is for Cult Master Li to jump out and cause trouble again!"
The group pressed onward. Before they had gone far, they saw Dragon God Valley. Dragon God Valley was filled with countless dragon god statues surrounding a great lake, and at the center of the lake stood a statue of the Dragon God King.
Now, many of the dragon god statues surrounding the lake had toppled. Every fallen statue had been beheaded by a single stroke, their heads rolling across the ground. And the Dragon God King statue at the lake's center had also been beheaded, its head nowhere to be found.
"Heavens..."
Grandma Si slowly came to her senses, and seeing this scene, she groaned, "This Great Ruins is so mysterious. Are these stone idols merely divine statues, or have they been transformed from living deities? This concubine truly does not understand..."
"Amitabha!"
Buddhist light blazed all around Old Ma, and from between his brows flew a white-robed monk, who darted into Grandma Si's brow and settled there. His expression grave, he said, "There's no more time to delay. I can barely hold him anymore! Cult Master Li's primordial spirit is merging with Grandma Si's far too quickly—his cultivation has already broken through to the Life-and-Death realm! If we delay any longer, before long they will have fully merged, and Cult Master Li will be able to completely usurp the nest and become the master of this body!"
The Blind One said in a deep voice, "How long can you hold him?"
Old Ma shook his head. "I can still hold him for now, but I fear that using too much force might harm Grandma Si's soul."
The Blind One said decisively, "Then let's hurry!"