**Chapter 84: Horrors in the Darkness**
At the city gates, facing the boundless, infinite darkness, Qin Mu felt his heart clench. The darkness that killed all who touched it lay before him, stirring faintly as though alive, held at bay only by the radiance of the dragon pillars and the city's temples.
Now he was about to step into it.
Behind him, Grandma Si, Old Ma, the Cripple, and the others were even more nervous than he was. The gates groaned open with a creak, and their hearts seized.
Seven resonant tremors emanated from within the Village Chief's body, as though seven great vaults had been flung open inside him. His aura suddenly became incomparably violent, incomparably majestic, incomparably sacred. He drifted toward the darkness. "Mu'er, let us go."
Qin Mu hurried after him. He trained the Nine-Layer Divine Eye on the Village Chief and his mind reeled — what he saw was not a limbless old man, but a towering god.
In Qin Mu's divine vision, the Village Chief was a deity with all limbs intact, no different from the gods he had seen carved in the temples. The only distinction was that the Village Chief was a living god, while the temple figures were merely sculpted representations.
"I knew it — the old man is still the old man."
The Blind One leaned on his bamboo staff and sighed with feeling. "The old man still outclasses us by a wide margin!"
The Mute nodded vigorously in agreement. "Ah ah, ah ah ah!"
"The Mute is right," the Deaf said earnestly. "Only question is how long the old man can keep it up. If he can't, both of them are finished."
Grandma Si spat twice. "Pah, pah! What a thing to say!"
Within the darkness, the jade pendant on Qin Mu's chest lit up. The youth followed the Village Chief, who floated ahead into the dark. Looking back, Xianglong City was a city of a hundred gods — colossal dragons coiled upon the city walls, towering deities stood within, guarding that stretch of land and keeping the darkness from drawing near.
"Village Chief."
A thought struck him and he spoke quickly. "My Spirit Womb has fallen dormant again."
The Village Chief staggered. The divine flames blazing around his body nearly guttered out. He steadied himself. "Mu'er — you haven't told the other old fellows, have you?"
In that instant of wavering concentration, strange demonic whispers drifted from the darkness — the murmuring of demons lurking within, trying to seize the moment when his flames might die to burst through.
Qin Mu glanced cautiously at his surroundings and shook his head. "I haven't had a chance to tell Grandma and the others yet. Village Chief, didn't you say the Supreme Body Three-Dan Art produces one dan with each awakening? I have already awakened three times — the three dan are complete. Now the Spirit Womb sleeps again. When it awakens once more, that will be a fourth awakening. Did I make a mistake in my cultivation..."
The Village Chief exhaled in relief and smiled. "This is a good thing. The 'three' in Supreme Body Three-Dan Art is not the 'three' of one-two-three-four. The Dao gives birth to one; one gives birth to two; two gives birth to three; and three gives birth to all things. The 'three' in Supreme Body Three-Dan Art is the 'three' of 'three gives birth to all things.' It may awaken any number of times."
Qin Mu's eyes lit with understanding. "The Village Chief is truly learned."
The Village Chief felt cold sweat trickle from his temples to his jaw, but inwardly he praised his own quick thinking: *Brilliant. After this explanation, no matter how many more times the Spirit Womb awakens, I can handle it. The boy is easy enough to fool — it's the old fellows in the village who are the problem. Fortunately, they do not yet know about this...*
Still, Qin Mu did not think there would be a fifth awakening. The golden light in the Golden Sea had been entirely consumed by the Spirit Womb.
The darkness was thick and heavy. As they ventured deeper, the surrounding blackness grew denser — different from Qin Mu's last encounter, when he had reached out his hand and the darkness had gradually thinned, revealing the Dark Realm, and a woman stretching her hand toward him from across the void.
Now the darkness only intensified. Beyond the radius of the Village Chief's sacred flames, nothing could be seen.
Suddenly, the barrier of light around the Village Chief shuddered violently, as though some colossal beast had slammed into it. Qin Mu looked and felt his scalp go numb — a vast shadow was trying to tear through the radiance.
*Whoosh.*
A streak of sword-light flashed from between the Village Chief's hair and plunged into the darkness. The great shadow twisted and flickered like a specter, then gradually faded, retreating into the abyss.
The sword-light returned. The Village Chief's expression was grave. A single drop of blood slid down the blade and hung at its tip. Qin Mu raised his hand to catch it, but the Village Chief shook his head. "Do not touch it."
*Ting.*
The drop of blood struck the ground with the sound of iron hitting stone. Around it, flowers and grass withered, branches and leaves curled and died.
Qin Mu followed the Village Chief forward. Only after roughly a hundred zhang did they leave the blood's corrosive range. He shuddered at the thought of what would have happened.
"That dark demon was powerful — not far below my own strength," the Village Chief said, his face grim. He scanned the surroundings, where faint shadows crawled and shifted and morphed in the blackness. Countless demons, it seemed, lurked on every side. "That drop was the blood of a demonic god. If it had touched you, the divine image the Deaf painted on your body would have been corrupted and useless. Mu'er — you drifted here from upstream. So we shall follow the Yong River toward its source."
Before long they reached the bank of the Yong River. The current roared. The Village Chief floated over the water's surface, and Qin Mu walked upon the waves behind him. All around, shadows continued to shift in the darkness, and eerie whispers drifted through the air — demons consulting among themselves on how to devour the two intruders. The sound was enough to freeze the blood.
But with the Village Chief beside him, Qin Mu's heart was steadier.
"We will go to the source of the Yong River. The journey is five thousand li. You are too slow — I will carry you."
Qin Mu felt his body grow weightless, light as a goose feather. The flames around the Village Chief blazed higher; in the divine radiance his form grew ever more towering, like a giant striding between heaven and earth. He stepped forward along the Yong River, heading upstream!
The speed was staggering — mountain and river blurred past in a dizzying rush.
With his naked eyes, the Village Chief still appeared limbless. But through the Nine-Layer Divine Eye, his limbs were whole, radiant as a god. Two different forms existed simultaneously.
So which was the truth — was the Village Chief missing his limbs, or did he possess them whole? Qin Mu did not know.
They traveled onward, passing countless mountains and stretching across uncountable miles. The Yong River narrowed steadily — they were approaching its source.
Along the way, Qin Mu witnessed sights utterly beyond the reach of ordinary eyes. On both banks of the river, colossal figures stood like pillars holding up the sky, radiating beams of light through the darkness like blazing torches.
These were the stone statues of the villages along the Yong River. By day they appeared to be nothing more than ordinary carvings. By night, an ordinary person could see only a faint glow. But through the Divine Eye, the difference was like two separate worlds.
Beyond the villages lay ancient ruins along both banks. Divine light shone as bright as day within them, and Qin Mu even saw living giants walking among the ruins.
"Are there living gods or demons there?" His mind reeled.
Beyond the moving giants, he encountered even stranger phenomena. In the darkness, mythic beasts were hunting!
Mountain-sized divine beasts fought the demons of the dark in clashes that cracked the earth and brought mountains down. The divine beasts blazed with sacred light, burning like torches against the void.
This night, Qin Mu saw a completely different Great Ruins — a world of myth, a world of epic.
Grandma Si had once plucked Qin Mu from the water, and from this it could be deduced that he and the woman in the river had drifted from upstream. They were now near the source of the Yong River. If they found the source and still could not locate the Carefree Village, they would have no choice but to turn back.
The Great Ruins were too vast, and the dangers too many. They could not hope to search the entire region in a single night.
At that moment, the Village Chief halted. Qin Mu steadied himself and was about to speak when every hair on his body stood on end. He clamped his mouth shut and even stopped breathing.
Before them, a vast army was on the march, heading deep into the Great Ruins. The soldiers were hulking and mighty, like radiant gods and demons — yet their faces were ashen iron, fangs jutted from their jaws, and their eyes were lifeless. Though their auras were terrifyingly powerful, these god-like beings were unmistakably corpses.
Some were missing arms, some legs, some had lost half their heads, others bore gaping holes in their chests. The weapons in their hands were mostly broken and incomplete.
Now this army of divine corpses marched through the forest and across the Yong River. Among their ranks rolled ancient bronze war chariots, battered and decayed, their tattered war banners riddled with holes.
More bronze warships bore in from the distance — equally dilapidated, their hulls punctured with great holes, their masts toppled.
Qin Mu did not dare breathe. Even the Village Chief held his breath, watching in silence as this strange procession passed.
Once the corpse army had crossed the Yong River, Qin Mu finally drew great heaving breaths. The Village Chief exhaled a turbid breath, his eyes glinting. "Let us follow them and see." With that, he drifted after the army.
Suddenly, sounds of battle erupted ahead — terrifying waves of force rippled outward. The Village Chief carried Qin Mu to a high peak, and both were startled by what they saw.
Before them, incomplete divine corpses were locked in furious combat — and their enemies were corpses as well. The weapons of a dozen different god-demons blazed with fierce light, illuminating the canyon as bright as day.
"This is the Ancient Battlefield of Gods and Demons!"
The Village Chief's expression changed. He immediately drew Qin Mu back, his voice low and urgent. "I came to this battlefield once during the day. It was exceedingly dangerous — I barely escaped alive. By day, you cannot see a single divine corpse here. The bodies only rise when the darkness falls, then resume their march and enter the battlefield to continue their war..."
Qin Mu stared, stunned. These gods and demons fought on even after death. What grudge could possibly run so deep?
"Mu'er, be careful. We are deep within the Great Ruins now. Do not wander." The Village Chief's tone was grave beyond measure.