**Chapter 89: The Sword Against the Demon Hordes**
Qin Mu's qi stirred silently. An arm-thick qi thread drew the Shao Bao Sword without a sound. His gaze locked on the thrashing tentacles, and from the muscle movements on each one, he deduced the creature's position.
Suddenly, he thrust with sword-fingers on his left hand. The Shao Bao Sword shrieked and plunged into the gray fog like lightning. A scream echoed from within, and simultaneously the web shook — an eight-clawed woman stepped onto the web and charged at him, eight razor-sharp claws stabbing down from behind!
Qin Mu spread his right hand and yanked. The entire web rose up, wrapping the eight-clawed woman in its center. He activated his qi, and the Great Nurturing Heavenly Demon Sutra constricted, shredding the woman to pieces!
Qin Mu exhaled in relief. The threads of the Great Nurturing Sutra contracted back, weaving themselves into a glove on his hand without a trace of blood.
"What kind of race are these Tianmo? Not quite human, not quite beast, not quite demon, not quite insect — utterly bizarre."
He stepped onto the web and walked forward, making no sound — the Heaven-Thieving Leg Arts were truly silent.
The Shao Bao Sword flew back into the fish-dragon's mouth on his back. Qin Mu maintained the sword-sheath's dragon form with his qi, ready for combat.
He crept to the Tianmo killed by the Shao Bao Sword and examined the corpse: eight legs, each a long tentacle. Terrifying.
"The fog is thick — bad for me, but also bad for the Tianmo. As long as they can't swarm me at once, I can hold on!"
Qin Mu stood still in the gray fog, listening for any sound.
Then, suddenly, everything went silent.
He picked up a stone and flicked it. It rolled across the ground, the only sound. Nothing else.
He waited and flicked another. Still nothing. Qin Mu relaxed: "The Tianmo are all dead. I should be safe now..."
A gust of wind tore through the valley, scattering the gray fog. Qin Mu saw his surroundings and his scalp went numb — hundreds of Tianmo stood around him!
All this time he'd been standing motionless, and so had they, waiting for him to reveal himself. He'd had no idea so many surrounded him!
He launched himself skyward. The instant he rose, hundreds of Tianmo surged toward him!
All were spirit cultivators. Eight types total: the fish-scaled webfooted creatures, lava giants, handsome youths, ugly women, scorpion-tailed women, eight-clawed women, tentacled creatures, and serpent-armed beings.
Hundreds of spirit techniques and strange limbs attacked simultaneously — impenetrable!
Every hair on Qin Mu stood on end. There was no way to defend against this!
Then his brow erupted with Buddhist light. A colossal Buddha phantom burst forth.
"Om, mani, padme, hum!"
The Buddha pressed its palms together. Buddhist light exploded outward like rings. Severed limbs flew in every direction. A hurricane of force swept the Tianmo away!
The light faded, and the Buddha phantom dimmed and vanished.
It was the phantom Old Ma had planted in his brow — it would activate only when death was certain, but it could only be used once before dispersing.
Qin Mu relaxed, then paused. "Why did that wind scatter the fog? If it hadn't, the Tianmo wouldn't have found me."
He traced the wind to its source — the Moon Ship.
The colossal vessel had risen to its feet. Because it was so enormous — larger than Xianglong City — the movement generated a gale that scattered the fog.
"The Sun Ship needs a Sun Guardian to control it. Does the Moon Ship have a Moon Guardian too? If so, there might still be my kin aboard..."
Qin Mu's spirits lifted — then he saw black smoke rising like pillars from the nearest city's temple. Something terrifying had noticed the commotion.
Without hesitation, Qin Mu burst through the Fengdu gateway and sprinted over the mountain. The Heaven-Thieving Leg Arts blazed to their fullest — he was a flash of light, impossibly fast!
The Moon Ship's movement meant someone was piloting it. But the situation was too dire to investigate.
He crossed several ridges. The fog-sea appeared ahead. Just as he was about to charge through, a suction force pulled the wind from beneath his feet, and he plummeted!
Boom.
Dust billowed. Qin Mu had cratered into the ground where he'd first landed — the village.
The villagers had all stopped their work and turned to stare at him with eerie expressions.
The one who had drained his wind was a blacksmith holding a bellows — a human-skin bladder stretched over a frame with a spring inside, and a mouth-shaped nozzle at the front for blowing.
On the other side of the village, a fat woman stood from her chopping block, two cleavers in hand, dripping with blood.
Behind him, a man pounding rice lifted his pestle. The mallet-sized head dripped blood, and in the stone mortar sat a human head.
The tailor in the back was cutting cloth — each piece was human skin.
The dyer hung finished cloth — freshly dyed human skins pulled from vats of blood.
A child sitting before a house spat out a gnawed finger bone. The fat pig grumbled past with a pale arm in its mouth. The elder at the village entrance smoked a human-bone pipe, the smoke rings forming skull shapes that screamed before dissipating.
More and more villagers appeared, blocking every escape route.
Behind Qin Mu, the fish-dragon spat out the sword. His left hand drew the butcher's blade backward.
Then his qi exploded, surging into the flood-dragon blood painting the Deaf had drawn on his body. Incomprehensible power flooded his limbs. His body filled with dragon-force, and the Deaf's painting made him feel like a living deity!
Though his skeletal form was an illusion — his flesh was still there, merely invisible and untouchable.
When the Village Chief had reminded him to reactivate the Nine-Layer Divine Eye, he'd realized this.
Now, with the painting activated, Qin Mu felt his body brimming with terrifying power, his qi surging to heights he'd never imagined. Overflowing qi coiled around him like a giant serpent!
His aura exploded. Dense water vapor rose from beneath his feet, forming wave after wave. Within the waves, a Black Tortoise appeared and vanished.
He was like a god — his body filled with boundless power!
He felt as if he'd become a deity who commanded water, capable of reshaping mountains and rivers with a gesture!
Break out of this village!
That was his only thought — at any cost, break out!
The villagers' skin cracked open with tearing sounds. Burly figures burst from the husks — the village was entirely populated by Tianmo!
Children, women, even the pig — all transformed into Tianmo spirit cultivators, some even at the Seven Stars Divine Treasury level!
Only the elder smoking the human-bone pipe remained unchanged at the village entrance.
"Kill!"
Qin Mu roared and charged for the village gate!
Behind him, Tianmo erupted from every direction!
Qin Mu crossed his hands. Boom — monstrous waves surged from between his palms. A vast river like a coiling serpent swept every direction, engulfing the Tianmo. The river-serpent thrashed, and houses shattered in the torrent!
Qin Mu pointed with sword-fingers. The Shao Bao Sword dove into the river, stabbing at the swept-up Tianmo — thrust, flick, cleave, cloud, cleave, hook, dot, sweep. The Village Chief's most basic sword techniques, each executed with absolute perfection!
The river turned red, becoming a crimson tide. Corpses of Tianmo floated in the current.
Beneath his feet, waves erupted and a Black Tortoise surfaced, carrying him through the river toward the village gate. Behind him, the entire village had been leveled. After the flood, nothing remained but corpses!