"Hurts, it hurts so much!"
Qin Mu descended, every bone and sinew in his body aching with pain that made him suck in cold air through his teeth.
That monk's Diamond Invincible Victory Technique made his body as hard as iron, and even spirit weapons were barely able to wound him. Various divine arts were nearly useless against him, making Qin Mu's fight exceptionally exhausting.
Banchi Monk's attacks were also astonishingly powerful, leaving Qin Mu cut and bruised. The nine golden rings nearly shattered his skull. Fortunately, the monk's combat methods were rather limited, and Qin Mu ultimately killed him.
"A Six Harmonies realm cultivator is quite strong. One shouldn't underestimate them."
Qin Mu touched the bump on his forehead, hissing in pain as he channeled the Three Pillar Tyrant Body Technique to invigorate his blood and qi, preventing bruises from settling in.
Two of his ribs were broken, and his back was a mass of bloody flesh—wounds suffered when Banchi Monk had pressed down with a Sumeru Seal.
The Three Pillar Tyrant Body Technique was excellent for healing injuries, but it couldn't compare to actual spirit pills. Fortunately, these wounds weren't fatal.
"For now, I'll return to the village and heal before looking for the Demon Ape."
Qin Mu set his broken ribs back in place and left the monk's corpse where it fell. In the Great Ruins, there was no custom of burying bodies. The corpse would soon be devoured by beasts that smelled the blood, with at worst only bones remaining.
If he was unlucky, even the bones wouldn't last.
He returned to the village and gathered several spirit herbs from the medicinal garden outside, refining two batches of spirit pills—one for external injuries and one for internal wounds. He then begged Dragon Qilin for some dragon saliva to use in mixing the medicines.
Dragon Qilin, seeing him battered and bruised, showed a look of surprise but asked no questions.
The dragon qilin sat at the village entrance as he had at the Imperial Academy, motionless as a gatekeeper. Qin Mu suspected this fellow was nominally guarding the gate but was actually just too lazy to move.
The Heaven Tyrant Demon King still stood rigidly in place. Dragon Qilin was too lazy to move, while he had been immobilized by the Deaf.
Qin Mu settled in to heal his wounds. Night fell, and the Deaf still hadn't returned. The others in the village hadn't come back either.
By the next day, the Village Chief and the others were still absent. Qin Mu's internal injuries still caused some pain, and he couldn't breathe heavily, but his ribs and back were healed.
"If I want the internal injuries to heal faster, it would be best to steam them, letting the medicinal qi penetrate the organs. But no one is here to help me start a fire..."
The young man channeled the Three Pillar Tyrant Body Technique, walking slowly and breathing in and out deliberately to help his lungs heal faster. Suddenly, a thought struck him: "After the new year, will I be fifteen or sixteen?"
There had always been debate about his age in the village. The Village Chief and Grandma Si had argued about it several times, and no one could say for certain.
Grandma Si had found Qin Mu in the spring, when he was two or three months old. She believed he had been born before the new year, while the Village Chief argued he was born after.
If he was born before the new year, Qin Mu would be sixteen. If after, he would be fifteen.
Every year at the new year festival, they would argue about this, and this year would probably be no different.
While he was thinking, Qin Mu suddenly heard a buzzing sound. He looked up and saw several golden insects flying toward the village from the woods beyond.
Qin Mu blinked. The golden insects suddenly buzzed away and vanished into the forest.
Then more insects arrived, circling the village once before diving back into the woods.
"That woman from Sanqi Fortress has arrived!"
Qin Mu's eyes narrowed. That woman from Sanqi Fortress was far more powerful than Banchi Monk. She commanded swarms of gu insects, which she had refined to be as hard as steel—they could even chew through spirit weapons.
She controlled thousands of insects. If they surged forward all at once, Qin Mu would be completely outmatched, reduced to nothing in an instant.
"Rather than letting her storm into the village, I'll deal with her outside!"
Qin Mu looked around and made his way to the Herbalist's shop. He carefully lifted a cracked clay pot, inside which several scorpions waved their pincers at each other, their tail stingers flicking forward as they fought over the spirit pills Qin Mu had fed them.
Qin Mu carried the cracked pot out of the village. Dragon Qilin glanced at him and said in his rumbling voice, "Master, where are you going?"
"To fight!" Qin Mu said viciously.
"Another fight..."
Dragon Qilin sounded bored. "Don't come back beaten to a pulp again."
Qin Mu carried the pot to the riverbank. Behind him, several insects trailed at a distance, hiding among the grass and leaves.
Qin Mu stood still and waited. After a moment, the insects around him multiplied, covering the river's surface until the water looked as if it had been plated in gold.
The insects attracted large fish from the Yong River. Several fish monsters leapt excitedly from beneath the surface, eager to devour the gu insects. But when these two or three zhang long fish reached mid-air with gaping, fearsome mouths, they discovered the insects had turned a zhang or more in size and were swarming onto the fish, gnawing away with crackling sounds. Soon the fish were reduced to mere fish-dragons that splashed back into the water.
Qin Mu's eyelids twitched. The fish monsters of the Yong River were formidable, their strength equivalent to Spirit Embryo and Five Planets realm cultivators. But against the gu insects cultivated by the woman from Sanqi Fortress, they were utterly helpless.
"Heavenly Demon Cult Master."
A voice rose from below the river. Qin Mu looked and saw the woman from Sanqi Fortress riding the golden tide of insects upstream toward him.
She wasn't flying—the insects were. Countless golden insects swirled around her, and one golden queen insect was far larger than the others. She stood on the queen's back.
Qin Mu smiled sweetly. "How should I address you, sister from Sanqi Fortress?"
Qiu Yue stopped her insect swarm a hundred zhang from Qin Mu, curiosity in her eyes. "The Heavenly Demon Cult Master holds supreme authority, the most exalted under heaven. Why so polite to your enemy, calling me 'sister'?"
Sanqi Fortress had three marvels: insects, poison, and beautiful women.
This woman possessed a beauty that made one's heart race. The first time you saw her, you would overlook those scalp-tingling gu insects and feel your heart suddenly pound twice, as if struck by beauty deep within your soul.
Qin Mu shook his head. "Since I came to the Great Ruins, I am no longer the Heavenly Demon Cult Master, but merely a child of the village elders. If you let go of our grudge, sister, I invite you to join us in the village for the new year. It's quite lively here during the festival."
Qiu Yue replied, "After I kill you, I can go home for the new year..."
Her expression darkened, her eyes filled with sorrow. "I forgot—my home no longer exists. It was destroyed by you and the State Preceptor of Yankang... My home was Sanqi Fortress. My grandmaster was Tian Zhenjun, and my master was Lady Tian Youfei. In the Battle of Daxiang City, the Heavenly Demon Cult teleported the Yankang army into the city and killed I don't know how many of my senior brothers and sisters. My master covered my escape, but she died at the hands of the Champion General..."
She looked half-smiling, half-crying, her eyes cold as they fell upon Qin Mu. "Heavenly Demon Cult Master, you were already the cult's master then, weren't you? The only one in the Heavenly Demon Cult with the power to mobilize so many experts. It was you who sent the cult's experts to destroy our righteous cause, to destroy my Sanqi Fortress!"
Her gaze turned murderous. "I snuck back to Sanqi Fortress, only to find it in ruins. My family had been labeled as rebels and publicly beheaded! Heavenly Demon Cult Master, tell me—shouldn't I kill you?"
Qin Mu sighed. "You should. But you shouldn't have rebelled. When you chose to rebel, you should have considered what would become of your family if you failed."
Qiu Yue stepped forward, her voice sharp. "Justice requires someone brave enough to risk death to uphold it! Fairness requires someone willing to give their life to fight for it! Otherwise, where is justice? Where is fairness? Though I come from the demonic path, I am willing to be such a person! Heavenly Demon Cult Master, enough words—prepare yourself. I shall send you on your way!"
Qin Mu straightened with solemn respect. "Our paths differ, and we cannot walk them together. Please, miss."
Qiu Yue let out a sharp cry. Her sleeves billowed as countless gu insects surged toward Qin Mu from every direction. There were countless varieties of gu insects, each growing in the wind—some a zhang or two in length, others the size of washbasins. Still others not only didn't enlarge but shrank even smaller.
These last were the most dangerous. The smaller they were, the harder they were to guard against. They could slip unnoticed into the body to gnaw on organs, and some could even devour souls or absorb the target's yuan qi and cultivation.
Qin Mu lifted the lid of the clay pot. Yuan qi flooded into the pot, and the scorpions inside leapt out, suddenly expanding with a roaring sound to over twenty zhang in length. Their black carapaces were covered with magnificent yet eerie runic markings that lit up continuously. A terrifying aura erupted, and the incoming tide of insects fell like rain.
Qiu Yue was startled and tried to flee. Suddenly, one of the giant scorpions lashed out with its tail hook, which extended like an iron chain. In the next instant, it caught the woman on the hook, killing her with a single strike.
Qin Mu sighed as he watched the scorpions fighting over Qiu Yue's corpse, churning the river into great waves. He hurriedly commanded the pot, and the scorpions shrank back to their original size, flying into the clay pot, where they continued fighting each other.
Qiu Yue's remains had already been torn apart and swept away by the rushing current.
Qin Mu carried the pot back to the Village of Broken Elders. Dragon Qilin at the village entrance eyed him curiously and, seeing his unhappy expression, said nothing.
Qin Mu set down the pot, dragged the Heaven Tyrant Demon King over, and proceeded to beat and kick him. He then summoned wind and lightning, delivering several dozen punishing strikes before finally stopping.
The Heaven Tyrant Demon King lay on the ground, unable to move, a dozen or so of his already damaged parts knocked off. He felt immensely wronged: "What did I do to offend you now?"
After beating the Heaven Tyrant Demon King, Qin Mu felt somewhat better. Suddenly, he heard voices outside shouting, "The Heavenly Demon Cult Master is here! Everyone, come quickly!"
Qin Mu's expression darkened. He went to Grandma Si's room, took her vanity mirror, and walked out of the village. Several cultivators were rushing toward them.
Qin Mu held the bronze mirror in his palm, surging yuan qi into it, and shone it upon the approaching cultivators. The figures in the air were struck with soul-scattering force, their corpses plummeting to the ground.
The young man returned to the village and placed the mirror back on Grandma Si's vanity table, thinking: "Will this ever end? Can't anyone have a peaceful new year?"