Chapter 1692 — Village Pig-Slaughter Feast

With no object to reflect, the runes contained within the obelisk appeared one by one. The main body of the stele was chaos stone.

The Primordial runes the Eldest Young Master had imprinted on the chaos stone displayed an incomparably dense and exquisite structure, like art, yet also like a complex and ingenious mechanical construct, constantly changing. Shen Mu was utterly absorbed, studying these rune imprints.

The changes in the stele's rune imprints displayed a structure of numerology; each change contained profound principles of numerology. Though they came from different cosmic epochs, with different languages and scripts, the Primordial runes were the same, and the language of the Dao was also mutually intelligible; more crucially, numerology was also a language that could be communicated!

Shen Mu's attainments in these three languages were all very high, making his comprehension of the Eldest Young Master's Primordial seal divine power much simpler than he had imagined. Even so, it took Shen Mu two or three months to thoroughly master the Primordial seal on the obelisk.

What he needed to do was not to violently break the seal formed by the obelisk forest, but to enter the forest himself without being suppressed by the seal.

And the most crucial link was that he needed to make his own qi imitate the Primordial rune sequence of the obelisks, so that the seal within the forest would think he was the missing stele!

Shen Mu lingered outside the forest for a long while, repeatedly deducing and checking for flaws. When he could no longer find any error, he finally stepped into the forest.

By this time, the suppressive force emanating from the forest could no longer threaten him; instead, it made him feel as free as a fish in water.

The mirror surfaces of the obelisks reflected his figure, but what they reflected was not him, but a walking obelisk! This was the most wondrous aspect of the Primordial runes.

Shen Mu traveled along, gradually penetrating deeper into the forest, but the aura of slaughter and the smell of blood emanating from the forest grew ever more intense. "This aura of slaughter is no small matter.

It is even more intense than the heavenly baleful qi formed when the Lord of Heaven died, and far more formidable than the two divine blades on the God-Slaying Platform!

What kind of person possesses such a terrifying aura of slaughter?

" The obelisk forest was like a labyrinth; the mirror surfaces of the steles reflected other steles, making one dizzy and easily lost. Shen Mu wandered for a long time, relying on the sun in the sky to determine his direction, and gradually entered the center of the forest.

The last layer of the forest was arranged in a circle.

Beyond this forest, the scene ahead suddenly became one of clear mountains and beautiful waters, green hills and blue streams, like a paradise beyond the world.

What surprised Shen Mu most was that there was actually a small village within, with wisps of cooking smoke rising from the chimneys, and farm households burning fires to cook! At the village entrance, a young man had hung a pig from a tree, upside down, and was slaughtering it and draining its blood; below was placed a basin, filled with pig's blood. Beside the young man was a little girl with a pair of horn-shaped braids, running joyfully around the tree, giggling, her voice very clear and bright.

On a stone block at the village entrance sat an old man, puffing at a water pipe with a rhythmic clicking, squinting his eyes, swallowing clouds and spitting mist. Behind the stone block was also an old tree, on which hung several caterpillars that had spun cocoons.

Shen Mu's gaze passed over the old man and saw that in the village, beside the old well under the old tree, a woman sat washing clothes with a wooden stick, pounding and cursing all the while, though it was unclear whom she was cursing. An old woman sat under the eaves sunning herself, both hands resting on her lower belly, squinting as she dozed, from time to time secretly opening her dim old eyes to steal a glance at the cursing woman.

This small village was entirely peaceful, as if only a family of five lived here.

Shen Mu blinked and looked it over, but did not walk into the village.

Instead he tilted his head in thought, took out the geographical map Tai Yi had left him, and with a swish unfolded it. Tai Yi's geographical map had been drawn with Tai Yi's staff; the map was extremely complex, and Wei Suifeng had copied it down and given it to Shen Mu.

Shen Mu unfolded the map, looked it over, and scratched his head. When he had entered the obelisk forest just now, he had not followed the route marked on this map at all!

Wei Suifeng had given him many geographical maps, and he had basically never followed the routes, always blundering in at random.

"It seems I took the wrong path. " Shen Mu rolled up Tai Yi's map, turned around, and prepared to leave this forest and start over, saying ruefully, "If Senior Brother knew, he would surely blow his beard and glare.

.

. " Suddenly, the old man on the stone block at the village entrance put down his water pipe and said with a smile, "Honored guest, you have come from afar.

Will you not stay for a meal of pig-slaughter dishes before you go?

Little Shang has already slaughtered the pig.

"