When the Dutian Demon King heard Qin Mu's voice, he paused for a moment and immediately understood what Qin Mu meant.
This forbidden forest zone was not meant to guard against outside enemies. It was meant to keep the people of the Land of Carefree from leaving it!
If it had been intended to defend against outside enemies, its defenses would have been directed outward, and only those trying to break in would have been attacked by the forbidden zone.
This forbidden zone, however, would mercilessly destroy anyone who tried either to enter or to leave!
Those ruins must have been paths forcibly opened by the people of the Land of Carefree in their attempts to escape. They were not naturally formed roads.
"To see the small and infer the great. Ordinary people would never think of this. Whoever taught this boy must be incredibly devious—a complete scoundrel."
The Dutian Demon King shuddered. Clearly, the heavenly demons clinging to the Moon Ship had not escaped Qin Mu's notice. Yet Qin Mu had kept silent all this time, intending to use those heavenly demons to scout the way for him!
A youth this ruthless and devious could only have a teacher who was a thorough scoundrel!
The Dutian Demon King surveyed the forbidden zone and thought, "The Moon Ship alone can't possibly set foot in this forbidden zone. It's too large. Forcing our way in would certainly trigger the zone's defenses. Since the zone destroyed that female demon god so easily, destroying the Moon Ship shouldn't be much harder..."
Just as he reached this thought, the Moon Ship suddenly trembled. The three-legged giant vessel slowly crouched down, then another violent tremor shook it. The huge ship settled against the ground and remained motionless.
The Dutian Demon King immediately sensed the disappearance of Qin Mu's godlike aura and finally let out a sigh of relief. If Qin Mu had forcefully driven the Moon Ship into the forbidden zone, even he would have been destroyed by it.
Although Qin Mu had watched the Land of Carefree being destroyed, he had still retained his reason. This surprised the Dutian Demon King somewhat.
The Dutian Demon King kicked the Dragon Qilin awake and walked out.
The Dragon Qilin shook his head and followed him, asking in a deep, muffled voice, "Iron Lump, where are we?"
The Dutian Demon King flew into a rage. "You slept the whole way and still have the nerve to ask me?"
The Dragon Qilin laughed. "You don't know where we are either? That proves you slept the whole way too."
Between the Moon Ship's massive pillars, Qin Mu's body had returned to normal. He was pulling his legs out of the hull.
The vessel's hull had been connected to his legs. Qin Mu's body had been enormous just moments ago, and now that he had shrunk, huge footprints remained behind. The footprints were closing on their own, giving him time to pull his legs free.
Qin Mu rose to his feet and immediately felt his mind tremble. He was terribly weak. The divine repositories that had been forced open inside him by the Moon Ship's immense power were closing one after another. Only the Spirit Womb and the Five Luminaries remained open.
The power of this ship was too immense. Once it surged into his body, controlling it required him to pay with his own life force.
"Yan Jingjing has lived on the Sun Ship all this time. The life force she has lost must be far greater than mine. It really hasn't been easy for her..."
Qin Mu took two breaths, swallowed some spirit pills to replenish himself, and stood up. "Demon King, Fatty Dragon, we'll enter this forbidden zone on foot."
The Dutian Demon King exhaled a breath of stale air. "Are you planning to borrow my vision and experience, avoid danger, and find the scoundrels from your village?"
Qin Mu nodded. "You are the king of the Dutian World, the king of the demon gods. Your vision and experience far surpass mine. Only you can lead me in."
The Dutian Demon King threw back his head and laughed, proudly saying, "That's right. Only I can take you in safely and bring you back out. You can lick my feet..."
Qin Mu's expression changed slightly. The Dutian Demon King hurriedly corrected himself with an ingratiating smile. "I was joking. Look how frightened you are. I'll take you in and bring you out, but you must release me according to our agreement. You promised!"
Qin Mu smiled. "Don't worry. I won't break my word. I can sign a Tubo Pact with you!"
The Dutian Demon King shook his head. "No need. If we signed a Tubo Pact, I wouldn't trust you. You'd definitely trick me."
Qin Mu gave two dry laughs and thought, "The Dutian Demon King really is my confidant. Since he made only a verbal agreement with me, I would actually feel bad about tricking him... Old Grandpa Cripple was right. I'm still too kind."
He jumped onto the Dragon Qilin's back. The Dutian Demon King climbed up as well. Clouds of fire sprang from beneath the Dragon Qilin's feet, and he slowly descended on them. Before long, they landed at the edge of the forbidden zone.
The Dutian Demon King was extremely tense. Several gears sprayed from his mouth as he said, "There is a path of survival here, but it was opened from the inside out. Following it outward from within is not too dangerous. Going in, however, will still expose us to many dangers. You must follow me closely. Do not take a wrong step, or the forbidden zone will be triggered and we'll all die!"
Qin Mu hurried forward, opened the Dutian Demon King's chest, adjusted the gears inside his rib cage, and added several parts. He reminded him, "Demon King, don't play any tricks, or you'll be trapped here too."
The Dutian Demon King replied irritably, "Don't worry, I understand. Stay close!"
Qin Mu followed him forward. The Dutian Demon King's four faces and twelve eyes darted in every direction, while his four mouths muttered nonstop, seeing through the dangers in the forbidden zone and calculating and deducing their way past them.
Qin Mu also saw the Dutian Demon King use his demonic qi to perform spatial calculations. Countless numerical glyphs leaped through the air in three dimensions, carrying out calculations of astonishing complexity.
"Demon King, your attainments in numerology are incredibly high too," Qin Mu said in surprise.
The Dutian Demon King replied irritably, "Obviously. If you can't master numerology, you can only learn the outward form of many divine abilities without obtaining their true inheritance."
"Can you teach me?"
Qin Mu was brimming with interest. "I have a copy of the Taixuan Calculation Scripture, but I still haven't fully studied it. It uses the trigrams of the bagua to represent one through eight—in base eight—and it's extremely troublesome."
The Dutian Demon King was surprised. "A calculation scripture in base eight? You need a bagua diagram to calculate with it: Qian, Kun, Xun, Zhen, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui. Replacing them with numbers makes the calculations very troublesome, but if you use the bagua diagram as an abacus and let its transformations run, it becomes much easier... We'll discuss it later. Don't talk to me. If I make one mistake in my calculations, we're all finished!"
The Dutian Demon King's attainments in numerology were not merely high—they were unfathomably deep. A casual remark from him gave Qin Mu the feeling of suddenly seeing the light.
Qin Mu had been studying the Taixuan Calculation Scripture these past few days, but he had gained little. The scripture was too profound, and its calculations were incomparably cumbersome.
But using the bagua diagram as an abacus created an ingenious calculating tool, allowing many problems to be solved with ease!
"The Taixuan Calculation Scripture doesn't only contain the bagua's base-eight system. It also contains yin-yang binary and the Four Forms' base-four system!"
Qin Mu drew inferences from one example to another. The scripture's many numerical principles were calculation methods, but it had not provided the tools for carrying them out. Now, after the Dutian Demon King's casual guidance, he finally had a chance of comprehending the scripture completely!
"To fully comprehend the Taixuan Calculation Scripture, I need a calculating formation—the Taiji Four Forms Bagua Diagram!"
Qin Mu took out the Taixuan Calculation Scripture and flipped through it. His primordial qi formed yin and yang and the Four Forms in front of him, then condensed into bagua glyphs that floated before his face.
Qin Mu reached out and pulled. With a series of ringing clangs, the Taiji Four Forms Bagua Diagram copied itself into forty-nine diagrams. Yin and yang revolved, the Four Forms moved, and the bagua transformed.
"So this is how the Dayan calculations in the Taixuan Calculation Scripture work..." Qin Mu watched the diagrams and glyphs change as numbers formed automatically in his mind. He murmured to himself.
"Don't get distracted!" The face on the Dutian Demon King's back shouted angrily at him.
Qin Mu hurriedly dispersed the bagua diagrams. With the Dutian Demon King leading the way, the journey had been relatively safe. After all, the Dutian Demon King was the ruler of the Dutian World, and his vision and experience far surpassed Qin Mu's. Although he could not break the restrictions of the forbidden zone, avoiding them was not difficult for him.
Besides, the restrictions along this route had already been broken once from the inside out. Village Chief and the others had also forcefully broken through some of them, so the journey passed without danger or surprise.
Before they knew it, they arrived at the first ruin. Qin Mu stopped. It was a village with only four households. The pots, bowls, and cooking stoves were all still there, but no one lived there anymore.
Qin Mu saw eleven graves in the village. None had gravestones. The small earthen mounds gave no indication of who was buried inside.
"It's safe here!" said the Dutian Demon King.
Qin Mu entered the village and looked around. Suddenly, his heart trembled. In one household, he saw a cradle, a small wooden horse, and several tiny baby clothes on the bed.
One of the garments had the character for Qin embroidered on its chest.
Qin Mu took out his jade pendant. It too bore the character for Qin.
The young man closed his eyes. Only after a long while did he open them again. There were no tears in his eyes, because they had already dried up.
"Was this my home?"
He walked past the cooking stove and looked at the pot hanging on the wall and the bowl covering the stove. He searched for more things, hoping to find more clues, but there was nothing else.
He reached the doorway and suddenly froze, standing there in silence.
The character for happiness was pasted on the door. There was no wind or rain here, but after more than a decade, the writing had become somewhat blurred.
The symbol for happiness meant that the owners of this place had married—right here in the forbidden zone.
The little wooden horse in the courtyard must have been prepared by the owner of the house for a child who had not yet been born. Those tiny clothes must have been sewn for that child as well.
"We have to go!"
The Dutian Demon King urged him on. "We've finished here, and I should be going back too. I don't want to spend a single extra day in this damned world of yours!"
Qin Mu composed himself and followed him deeper into the forbidden zone. Two hours later, they reached another ruin.
This one was a small town with over a hundred households. Row upon row of graves stood outside the town.
Qin Mu walked around and saw that the town even had a school. There must once have been children studying here, right?
This place must once have been bustling, filled with people coming and going. Even while facing the incomparably dangerous forbidden zone outside, it had still overflowed with the vigor of life.
Yet by the time they reached the next village, only four households remained...
They continued deeper. The third ruin was a city, where huge fragments of spirit treasures lay scattered everywhere. If they had been in the State of Yankang, they would have made someone richer than the whole world. Here, however, they had simply been tossed about at random.
"Let's keep going!" Qin Mu said in a deep voice.
"We're going to die!"
Grandma Si's voice came from the distance. She shouted angrily, "You several old corpses, you've dragged even me down with you! We're going to be trapped here!"