Long Jiaonan's scalp split open to both sides, the sound bone-chilling. A woman was crawling out with great difficulty from the splitting human skin.
Ling Yuxiu and Si Yunxiang screamed in terror, then suddenly realized the two girls were clutching each other, and hastily let go.
Qin Mu took out his jade pendant engraved with the character "Qin" from the Taotie Bag and fastened it to his person. The pendant was tied together with the Imperial Disc, which had also been tossed into the Taotie Bag by Long Jiaonan. One of these two items concerned his origins, the other was a treasure the Cripple had given him to ward off evil.
The sight of Long Jiaonan crawling out of her own skin was terrifying enough that the Imperial Disc would come in handy as a ward.
After a moment, a completely naked woman crawled the upper half of her body out of Long Jiaonan's shed skin. Bits of broken bone were also squeezed out along with her.
The woman was stark naked, hair disheveled, crawling with extreme difficulty, coughing up blood as she moved.
"Turn around, don't look!" Ling Yuxiu snapped out of her shock and hurriedly urged Qin Mu.
"It's not like I haven't seen before..." Qin Mu muttered, but still turned his back.
Some time later, Long Jiaonan finally crawled free of the skin, though she was still on the verge of collapse, lacking all strength. Her appearance had aged somewhat. Before she had still been a young woman in her prime, but now she looked over a decade older.
Si Yunxiang brought a piece of clothing to cover her body, and while draping it over her, she subtly pinched the woman's body here and there, her eyes flickering. She whispered to Ling Yuxiu: "There are still broken bone fragments inside, she hasn't expelled them all."
Long Jiaonan forced herself to sit up, wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, and said weakly: "My injuries are too severe. This skin-shedding only healed the wound on my heart and repaired some of my bones. To fully recover, I'll need to shed several more times. Each time I shed, I'll age by several decades, greatly reducing my lifespan. You can rest easy -- I have no strength to threaten you now."
Ling Yiaxiu looked toward the two massive sections of Red Serpent's body lying on the beach, and suddenly shuddered: "This great serpent can also..."
Long Jiaonan's face darkened, and she shook her head: "Little Red has already been cut in two, and its head was smashed beyond repair. It cannot recover..."
"Good!" Both Si Yunxiang and Ling Yuxiu breathed sighs of relief.
Qin Mu turned back around and put on a friendly smile: "Sister Long, may I ask where your esteemed father is? Where is he hiding? Who is with him? And why does he wish to see me?"
Long Jiaonan said nothing.
Qin Mu smiled faintly, extended his index finger, and a wisp of yuanqi flew forth, slicing off a chunk of snake meat which he placed over the campfire to roast. The snake meat sizzled as fat dripped onto the flames, sending up curls of fragrant smoke.
Long Jiaonan's gaze fell upon the roasting snake meat, and her pupils contracted sharply.
"Our Heavenly Saint Cult has three hundred and sixty-one halls, among which there is one called the Punishment Hall, which has always been known for its severe punishments and hundreds of methods to extract confessions."
Qin Mu's face flickered between light and shadow in the firelight as he spoke: "The Yanqing Kingdom has established a Ministry of Punishment -- you must have heard of the Ministry's methods. The Minister of Punishment is the Emperor's man, but the Vice Minister is the Hall Master of our Heavenly Saint Cult's Punishment Hall. If I want to know these things from you, I need only trouble him to handle it personally. Will you speak willingly, or will you be tortured into confessing?"
Long Jiaonan sneered: "The Yanqing Kingdom is so deeply entangled with the Heavenly Demon Cult that it truly was founded on demonic foundations. Sect Master Qin, my invitation to you this time, though made under threat, was still a courtesy, was it not? I did not make things difficult for you. Otherwise, severing the Sect Master's legs, cutting off the Princess's hands, or blinding the Holy Maiden's eyes would have been no trouble for me at all. But now the situation has changed. I have fallen into your hands, and I hope to receive the same courtesy in return."
Qin Mu shook his head: "On the road I can afford you courtesy, and I will not make things difficult for you. But your rebellion makes handing you over to the Ministry of Punishment for interrogation entirely proper. You once held official rank, so sending you to the Grand Court of Justice would not be out of the question either -- but the Grand Court of Justice also has people from our Heavenly Saint Cult within it."
Long Jiaonan's expression shifted between dark and light, but she said nothing.
Unable to get any answers, Qin Mu flicked his fingers in succession, using the Heavenly Demon Creation Art to seal her soul within her body. He then said to the two women: "Fan Yunxiao's ship is fast, and finding us here shouldn't be too difficult. At the earliest tomorrow, at the latest three to five days, and he should locate us. Let us stay on this island for a few days and see if these huangjing plants can come back to life."
Si Yunxiang hesitated: "Sect Master cherishes the lives of these huangjing, but if Long Jiaonan escapes, I'm afraid she will find her way back here again and destroy them all. Sect Master must not let her beauty cloud your judgment..."
"Cloud my judgment with beauty?"
Qin Mu looked Long Jiaonan up and down and said with surprise: "She isn't even beautiful. What beauty?"
Si Yunxiang was startled. Though Long Jiaonan's temperament was peculiar, she was still a fine-looking woman. After this skin-shedding she had aged somewhat, but she was still a beauty. That the Heavenly Saint Cult's Holy Master didn't find her attractive was almost impressively obtuse.
She probed: "What does the Sect Master consider beautiful?"
"Someone who looks like Granny."
Qin Mu answered without hesitation: "Or someone chubby like Sister Yuxiu -- those are beautiful. Granny says that chubby girls are good-looking, but you must be careful of foxes in disguise."
Ling Yuxiu was rather pleased with herself, casting a glance at Si Yunxiang, secretly delighted that the cowherd considered her a kindred spirit.
Si Yunxiang was unwilling to concede: "I am family with the former Sect Master's wife. By seniority, I should call her aunt. Does the Sect Master think I'm beautiful?"
"You're too thin, and you're still young. You're even younger than me, aren't you?"
Qin Mu looked Si Yunxiang up and down and shook his head: "Granny says that thin girls aren't pretty. A bit of chub is fine -- better for bearing children. Grandpa the Pharmacist also says girls are better with a bit more meat, though everyone in the village says he's an old pervert. Don't be sad -- eat a bit more and you'll be quite pretty. But don't get too fat. Grandpa the Pharmacist says being too fat isn't good-looking either."
Si Yunxiang was stunned. By Qin Mu's standards, Long Jiaonan truly wasn't considered beautiful, and neither was she. No wonder that when she had been stripped down to nothing but undergarments, this fellow hadn't given her a second glance -- he'd been led astray by the perverts in his village!
Their young Holy Master was excellent in every other regard -- his wisdom, talent, aptitude, and even his boldness were all truly outstanding. It was just that his sense of aesthetics seemed to have something seriously wrong with it.
Qin Mu did not lower his voice deliberately as he continued: "I'm keeping Sister Long here primarily to draw the Dragon King out. The Dragon King's abilities are formidable, and he has raised a flood dragon. As a sect master, I cannot rest easy until he is eliminated. Every time I go shopping from now on I'd be on edge, worried about being killed. Once Sister Long is handed over to the Crown Prince, I'll summon the Left and Right Dharma Protectors and several Guardian Elders. If the Dragon King dares to come, he will die without even a whole corpse."
His expression turned grave: "It must be without a whole corpse -- his head absolutely must be smashed to pieces. Otherwise, who knows if he might come back to life! By the way, I wonder what this Dragon King wants with me... But that doesn't matter. What matters is killing him!"
Long Jiaonan shuddered several times in succession. Qin Mu's scheme was too vicious -- if the Dragon King came to rescue her, his death would be certain. He could never defeat the Heavenly Demon Cult's Dharma Protectors and Guardian Elders!
"Sect Master Qin, my father invited you to come for a reason!" she suddenly spoke up.
Qin Mu looked at her and smiled: "Sister Long is willing to talk now?"
Long Jiaonan sighed: "This time, someone came to my father, saying that he himself could not appear in person, but wished to meet Sect Master Qin and negotiate peace with him."
Qin Mu was surprised: "Might I ask who this person is?"
"The Dao Master."
Long Jiaonan said: "Of the so-called Three Sects and Nine Schools, the Dao Sect, the Great Thunderclap Monastery, and the Heavenly Saint Cult belong to the Three Sects, while our Dragon Taming Gate is merely one of the Nine Schools. Sect Master, you are truly formidable. Not only did you rescue the Emperor, but you also killed so many experts of the Dao Sect and the Great Thunderclap Monastery at the Imperial Altar in the capital. The Dao Master grew somewhat alarmed, fearing that Emperor Yanfeng and the Grand Tutor of Yanqing would join forces with the Heavenly Saint Cult against the Dao Sect. He could not meet you in person, lest it create misunderstandings between you and the Emperor, so he found my father this time and asked him to invite you to Heavenly Dragon Isle for a meeting."
Her expression turned cold: "Along the way, I treated you courteously enough. Did you truly think I didn't want to kill you? At Heavenly Waves City, you slaughtered countless disciples of my Dragon Taming Gate, and then the Emperor had our families exterminated. My hatred for you runs deeper than the sea! But the Dao Master showed my father a great kindness once and saved his life. I dare not disobey his words."
Qin Mu stroked his chin thoughtfully, where several more stubbly hairs had annoyingly sprouted.
"The Dao Master wants to meet me -- it should be to negotiate peace between the Dao Sect and our Heavenly Saint Cult, but not with the Yanqing Kingdom."
He mused: "What the Dao Master fears is that our Heavenly Saint Cult and the Yanqing Kingdom will join forces to attack the Dao Sect, and he is already old, with few years left to live. If peace is made now, the Dao Sect can still be preserved. Otherwise, after he dies, the Dao Sect will be annihilated."
The snake meat was fragrant and the fish was good as well, though Long Jiaonan only ate a few bites of fish and did not touch the snake meat at all. Qin Mu offered it to her earnestly a couple of times, but seeing that she truly would not eat the snake meat, he finally gave up.
The next day, when Si Yunxiang and Ling Yuxiu woke early in the morning, they found Qin Mu walking ceaselessly around the island, never stopping his steps -- sometimes across the sand, sometimes across the sea surface, and suddenly leaping up into the clouds.
"His talent and aptitude are already higher than ours, and he still works harder than us!"
Si Yunxiang ground her teeth, thinking: "Isn't this just so I won't have a chance to kill him? Does he really need to work this hard?"
Qin Mu was completely focused, activating the Tyrant Body Triple Elixir Technique as he moved, circulating his cultivation method and attempting to fuse various techniques into one, comprehending the unified grand technique of the Six Harmonies realm.
Si Yunxiang was wrong after all -- Qin Mu's talent was absolutely at the lowest tier by others' standards. Back in the days when the villagers of the Remnant Elder Village had tested him, he didn't even have a spirit body -- he was just an ordinary person.
Qin Mu should have lived an unremarkable life, but who would have expected that the Village Chief would throw out the word "Tyrant Body," not only firing up Qin Mu's fighting spirit but also reigniting the determination of everyone in the Remnant Elder Village. They piled all manner of spirit pills, precious medicines, and rare treasures upon him.
And Qin Mu was genuinely diligent -- one could truly say he was the most hardworking cultivator under heaven. Moreover, he possessed an unshakeable belief in his own invincibility, convinced that he was the Tyrant Body who surpassed all others. If he fell behind anyone, it could only be because he hadn't worked hard enough.
His current level of cultivation and strength had not come solely from the training of the Village Chief, the Pharmacist, Granny Si, and the others. Nor had it come from luck. For the most part, it had been earned through his own relentless effort.
If an ordinary person is willing to use their brain and work tirelessly, it is hard to imagine just how great their potential might be.
No one sees the effort of a successful person before they succeed and thinks them extraordinary. Only after success do others deem them extraordinary, romanticize their journey, and overlook the toil that made it possible.
Seeing this, Si Yunxiang and Ling Yuxiu also threw themselves into their cultivation. The two girls each trained on their own, leaving each other alone. Long Jiaonan lay beneath a tree, breathing deeply and circulating her qi, attempting to shed her skin once more. But her injuries were too severe and the expenditure too great -- she could not shed her skin.
If she shed again, she would become a middle-aged woman. Shed a few more times, and she would likely become an old hag.
By the time the sun had climbed well above the horizon, Qin Mu returned to the side of the Spirit Spring, intending to draw some spring water to irrigate the huangjing planted nearby. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks. There, beside the Spirit Spring, stood an old Daoist priest in a robe that had been washed until it was somewhat gray and faded. The old man was using a leaf to cup water, walking carefully through the huangjing field and gently watering the plants. Beside him, a young man was helping as well.
The old Daoist noticed that one of the huangjing plants had sprouted a leaf from its crown, and a smile spread across his wrinkled face. He crouched down and gently stroked the leaf, saying: "These huangjing died and yet can regenerate. Life is wondrous, is it not, Sect Master Qin?"
Every gesture he made followed the wondrous principles of nature, as if he were one with the sea, the island, the spring, the sky, and the huangjing -- inseparable, indistinguishable.
"Elder Brother speaks truly."
Qin Mu stepped forward: "I only wonder whether these huangjing, once alive again, will still be the same huangjing as before. The Holy Master of the Heavenly Saint Cult greets the Dao Master."
The old Daoist hurriedly returned the salute: "This is our first meeting. This old Daoist pays his respects. Lin Xuan, come pay your respects to the current Emperor of Humanity!"
The young Daoist Lin Xuan beside him felt a flicker of surprise but asked no questions. He bowed to Qin Mu in the manner of a disciple, saying: "Daoist Lin Xuan pays respects to the Emperor of Humanity."