After a moment, the great shaman who went to warm the wine brought it up, and another great shaman swirled the wine. Once it had clarified, he ladled a bowl and respectfully placed it before Qin Mu.
"Did you poison it?" Qin Mu asked with a pleasant expression.
The two Golden Palace great shamans hastily replied, "We wouldn't dare!"
Qin Mu laughed heartily. "I am a divine physician myself, a disciple of the Jade-Faced Poison King. If you tried to use poison in front of me, you would only be making fools of yourselves."
The two great shamans smiled apologetically.
Qin Mu's expression darkened. Pointing at the wine before him, he said to the great shaman who had warmed it, "Drink it."
The great shaman's face changed dramatically, his legs trembling. Qin Mu's expression grew even more somber as he said coldly, "Drink it!"
The muscles at the corners of the great shaman's mouth and eyes twitched uncontrollably. Trembling, he raised the wine bowl, took two sips, and forced a smile. "There's no poison..."
The moment he said this, his body suddenly began to tremble. Then, as if deflated, he shriveled up, growing shorter and shorter. In moments, nothing remained but a human skin. The clothing still covered the outside of the skin, and something wriggled within the garments. A mass of insects gnawed through the skin and poured out from the clothing, scurrying in all directions. Then, one by one, the insects burst into flames and turned to ash.
The other great shaman who had been straining the wine turned ashen.
Qin Mu's expression did not change. He tapped the table and said, "Strain another bowl."
The great shaman said with a miserable expression, "There's poison in the wine..."
"It can't kill me."
Qin Mu said indifferently, "Keep straining the wine. Where are the dancing girls? Call them up to liven the mood."
That great shaman quickly strained another bowl of wine and summoned the dancing girls, and the song and dance resumed.
Qin Mu ate the dishes and drank the wine, enjoying the song and dance. When the mood took him, he clapped along in rhythm. This feast lasted a very long time, and it was not until the sun hung halfway across the western sky that Qin Mu had eaten and drunk his fill. He waved his hand, dismissing the singing girls and dancing girls.
The wine clearly contained a deadly poison — a type of shamanic poison, a shamanic gu raised by the great shamans, specifically designed to devour soul and flesh. Yet Qin Mu had drunk nearly the entire jar of wine and remained completely unharmed.
"How disappointing."
Qin Mu stood up. The banquet table was a mess — every last dish and drop of wine had been consumed by him. Even a dozen adults might not have been able to finish so much food and wine, yet he showed no sign of being full. The wine and food in his stomach had all been dissolved by his Spirit Return Elixir Great Nourishment Art.
"Having lived so many lives, eleven thousand years, and yet still never having forged your own path. You prefer to follow others' paths, jumping from one road to another, leaping back and forth, only to grind away your own edge."
Qin Mu shook his head. "I've waited for you for so long, and you still don't dare to show yourself. How laughable. I thought you would be my opponent, but instead you grow more afraid of death with age. Once I seized the initiative, you lost the courage to face me head-on."
The Golden Palace great shaman listened in bewilderment, not understanding whom he was talking to.
"What dreams could someone who dares not even fight possibly need?"
Qin Mu walked toward the exit, sneering. "Go home honestly. Oh, and you invited me to dinner — pay the bill before you leave."
He walked out of the Jade Fragrance Tower and drifted away.
In the Green Bamboo Garden, the great shaman was utterly baffled. He waved the singing girls and dancing girls away. After a moment, Ban Gongcuo emerged from the shadows, bloodstained and with a grim expression.
"The sword technique of the Human Emperor..."
He murmured, "It truly is the sword technique of the Human Emperor! Though it seems altered, I cannot be mistaken. This young one wielded the Human Emperor's sword technique, merged with the sword technique of the State Preceptor of Yankang, combined further with the Tathagata Mahayana Sutra and the Ling family's Nine Dragon Imperial Art. He has fused these arts together..."
Qin Mu had fused so many techniques and divine skills, all of them of the highest caliber, that the moment he engaged Qin Mu in combat, the clash caused his Dao Sword to be suppressed, unsettling his mind and throwing him off balance.
That was why he did not dare to face Qin Mu head-on.
He did not know how many moves of the Human Emperor's sword technique Qin Mu had learned.
The Human Emperor of the previous era had been the supreme powerhouse. He did not dare to fight.
In the previous era, many stories unfolded. Among those who walked the mortal world, there were many figures who approached divinity. He was one of them, and the Heaven Blade was another. Beyond them, there were countless other brilliant figures, yet none of them were the most dazzling.
The Human Emperor was the most dazzling star of the last era!
Besides the Human Emperor of the last era, Ban Gongcuo had also met another Human Emperor in the era before that. And tracing back another eight hundred years, he had yet seen another.
Generation after generation of Human Emperors had appeared throughout his vast lifespan, each one extraordinarily dazzling, eclipsing his own radiance. These Human Emperors could be traced all the way back to his first life — and even before his first life, there had already been Human Emperors walking the mortal world!
He had once been deeply curious about this impossibly ancient lineage. Each Human Emperor excelled in different techniques and divine skills, yet every one of them was astonishingly gifted. Some of the sages who appeared once in five hundred years were even Human Emperors!
He had wanted to investigate this lineage further, but on several occasions he had died at the hands of Human Emperors, and so he abandoned the idea.
And now, he saw in Qin Mu the legacy of the previous Human Emperor. But that Human Emperor had vanished long ago. According to rumor, that emperor had been dead for three or four hundred years.
He had seen this Human Emperor's sword. It was the strongest person and the strongest sword of the last era. One glance at that sword light was enough to brand it forever upon his heart, impossible to forget.
If it had not been so, he would not have panicked so severely as to lose his composure, be gravely wounded by Qin Mu, and forfeit the initiative. He first used water escape to evade Qin Mu's onslaught, then earth escape to burrow underground, only to be detected by Qin Mu's Azure Sky Celestial Eye. Qin Mu then attacked him relentlessly with a bamboo staff, iron hammer, and butcher's knife, compounding his injuries until he had no choice but to flee.
His mastery of escape techniques had also been cultivated to the utmost limit. The escape arts of the Small Jade Capital were absolutely the finest under heaven.
His soul was extraordinarily powerful, approaching that of a deity, and Qin Mu could not yet kill him. Moreover, the cultivation from his past lives still lay hidden within his body. Though his current body was still too weak to bear this terrifying hidden power, if Qin Mu were to push him to the brink, that power would erupt — and it would be more than enough to kill Qin Mu!
After he fled, Qin Mu knew he could not detain him and chose not to pursue. Instead, he returned to the Jade Fragrance Tower, forcing his opponent to remain hidden and delaying his recovery from his injuries.
"If that ancient organization learned that the Human Emperor was not dead and had taken a successor, things would certainly get very interesting," Ban Gongcuo murmured.
The great shaman who had been straining wine for Qin Mu hurried forward and said with an apologetic smile, "Prince, how are your injuries? Just now Cult Master Qin did not pay..."
Ban Gongcuo murmured, "I don't need anyone to know I was defeated, even though I've lost many times before..."
The great shaman froze for a moment, then suddenly felt his soul stiffen, as though something had locked it in place. A look of terror spread across his face.
The next instant, his bones and flesh dissolved, his soul disintegrated, and only a few pieces of clothing fell to the ground.
Ban Gongcuo walked out and paid the bill, thinking to himself, "Fortunately, I've had several encounters with that organization and know how to contact them... I'm afraid I can no longer stay in the capital. Once this Cult Master Qin returns, he will certainly inform the Bashan Libationer, leaving me no place to hide. But if I truly wish to remain hidden, even the Bashan Libationer won't be able to find me."
He walked out of the Jade Fragrance Tower, suddenly retreated into the shadows, and was never seen again.
Meanwhile, Qin Mu returned to the Imperial Academy and found the Bashan Libationer. "Ban Gongcuo is indeed an ancient monster from the Loulan Golden Palace," he said. "I wounded him. I'm afraid he won't show himself again."
The Bashan Libationer was stunned. "He got away? What if he uses hidden arts to curse you? Teacher Heaven Blade himself couldn't kill him and had to hide his identity for protection — how much more so for you? The old fool is still at the Six Convergence realm, but it won't be long before he breaks through to the Seven Star realm, the Life-and-Death realm. In just over ten years, he'll likely return to the Divine Bridge realm! When that happens, you're as good as dead!"
Qin Mu smiled. "Then why don't you stay by my side, Senior Brother? He wouldn't dare make a move then."
The Bashan Libationer frowned deeply. "He knows my name. In ten years, he can curse me to death along with you. No, staying by your side only treats the symptoms, not the disease. I must hunt him down and kill him to eliminate this threat once and for all!" With that, he summoned his green ox and hurried away.
Qin Mu returned to the Scholar Residence and looked at his room, feeling a twinge of fear.
"If Senior Brother Bashan can't find Ban Gongcuo and the old fool watches me every night, I won't be able to sleep at all! No, I must track this fellow down. I'll leave this matter to the disciples of the Heavenly Saint Cult. Unless he hides back inside the Golden Palace, he won't escape my surveillance!"
Just as he had this thought, an attendant of the Scholar Residence came over. "Doctor Qin is already a Divine Skill user. It's time for you to move to the Divine Skill Residence."
Several other attendants were helping Shen Wanyun and Si Yunxiang move. "Shen Wanyun and Si Yunxiang have also broken through the wall and will be leaving the Scholar Residence to move to the Divine Skill Residence."
When Shen Wanyun and Si Yunxiang saw Qin Mu, they hurried over and expressed their gratitude. "Without the Cult Master's Six Convergence Calculation Scripture, we could not have reached the Six Convergence realm so quickly."
Qin Mu said modestly, "It was nothing."
Shen Wanyun's expression was peculiar. Si Yunxiang felt deeply frustrated. What was "nothing" to Qin Mu was a tremendous help to them. Did she still have any hope of defeating this Cult Master and becoming the female Cult Master of the Heavenly Saint Cult?
"Scholar Residence, I'm leaving!"
Shen Wanyun waved to the scholars who had come to see him off and called out with a smile, "Whoever wants to be the senior brother, go fight for it yourselves!"
Yue Qinghong and the Monk Yunque both seemed rather uninterested. They exchanged a glance and said with a smile, "You go ahead to the Divine Skill Residence. We'll arrive in a day or two. Let's leave this position of senior brother to the other junior brothers and sisters!"
Qin Mu and the three others walked toward the Divine Skill Residence, with the Dragon Qilin following close behind them, determined in his heart to follow Qin Mu wherever he went and never let go of this provider of meals.
"By the way."
Qin Mu recalled something and said with a smile, "The Crown Prince will be leaving the capital in the next few days. He wants me to go with him to provide disaster relief across the land. If you have nothing to do, come along and gain some experience. Wanyun, you've become a Divine Skill user and your abilities are considerable. A few years of field experience, and you could become an incense master of our Holy Cult."
Shen Wanyun's scalp tingled with dread. He truly did not want to go out with Qin Mu. "Every time I go out with the Cult Master, it's a brush with death. I think I'll pass. I've just reached the Six Convergence realm and still need to consolidate..."
Si Yunxiang's eyes lit up. "I'll go!"
Just as Qin Mu was about to speak, an attendant of the Divine Skill Residence came over. "Scholar Shen Wanyun, the Crown Prince has named you for this trip out of the capital. In addition to you, more than a dozen scholars from the Divine Skill Residence have been selected."