"Something is watching me!"
Qin Mu's heart skipped a beat. Though he couldn't see those two eyes hidden in the darkness, he could feel their gaze.
He turned around but didn't enter the bridge. Instead, he closed his eyes and walked slowly outside the bridge, his footsteps neither hurried nor slow. Even though his eyes were closed, he traced a perfect circle with his steps.
After completing the circle, Qin Mu stopped. He had walked this circle to calculate the precise location of the gaze based on its sensing—a technique involving spatial calculation from the art of calculation. To others, he was merely pacing while pondering some difficult problem, but no one realized he was determining the watcher's location. This attention to detail demonstrated true skill, something Qin Mu had already perfected.
Suddenly, his mind shook violently. In just those few steps, he had calculated the source of the gaze and even the distance between the two eyes!
The eyes watching him were a pair, with a distance of two hundred and sixty-four zhang between them!
In other words, the terrifying existence watching him from the darkness had eyes spaced over two hundred and sixty zhang apart!
What an enormous being!
"Could it be the Youdu creature that was frightened away by my single sentence of the Youdu language when boarding? Or is there something else lurking nearby?"
Qin Mu steadied his expression, showing no hint of panic, and turned to walk toward the bridge.
He had already made up his mind to explore the bridge first. If anything went wrong, he would leave immediately without hesitation!
The bridge was the ship's control room, where one could control the treasured ship's direction and route, command battles, and evade attacks. It was the nerve center of the treasured ship.
As long as he entered the bridge and found the geographical route map, he could control the ship according to the map.
Qin Mu's heart burned with excitement. This ship carried his dream of returning to the Land of Carefree.
Just as he stepped into the bridge, a door suddenly opened, and a great shaman stumbled in.
When the two met, both froze. The great shaman was also a seasoned warrior. He reacted immediately, lifting the gourd behind him without a word. Countless wandering spirits flew out from the gourd, hurtling toward Qin Mu!
At the same time, golden light burst forth from the great shaman's body. He activated the Shaman Lord Louluo Sutra from the Loulan Golden Palace, his flesh expanding to transform into a one-eyed, four-armed giant.
His eye was located in the center of his face, his mouth squeezed small by the eye and positioned at the lowest part of his left cheek, his nose growing beneath his right cheek. He held a diamond mace, and with a shake in the wind, the segments of the four diamond maces spun and whistled like four slender pagodas, crashing down toward Qin Mu!
"Disciple of the Shaman Lord?"
Qin Mu recognized at a glance that he was using the Shaman Lord Louluo Sutra. This person's cultivation was extremely profound, and the wandering spirits spewing from the gourd behind him were methods to attack the soul.
The great shaman refined others' souls into wandering spirits, each with great power. These spirits could burrow into an opponent's body and devour their soul—something even ordinary Six Harmonies realm cultivators would struggle to withstand.
If dozens of wandering spirits attacked together and invaded the body, a Six Harmonies realm cultivator would have no chance of resistance!
The greatest use of the wandering spirit gourd was on the battlefield. Countless spirits would dart everywhere, invading human bodies and devouring the souls of enemy soldiers, leaving behind rows of corpses. It was unstoppable and terrifyingly powerful!
The most frightening aspect of the battlefield before Qingmen Pass wasn't the barbarian Di Kingdom soldiers' blade pellets, but the great shamans from the Loulan Golden Palace. Their methods of attack were truly bizarre and hard to guard against.
The countless wandering spirits from the gourd flew out with wailing, ghostly screams, hurtling toward Qin Mu. Behind Qin Mu, the Gate of Heaven suddenly swung open. Yin wind howled, and with a whoosh, it swept away all the wandering spirits!
As long as it was the soul of a dead person, it was difficult to escape the control of Youdu. Though the Loulan Golden Palace had secret methods to retain souls and could cultivate using others' souls—reaching heights in the way of souls that other sects and holy lands could not match—facing the Gate of Heaven, it had met its nemesis!
The Gate of Heaven swallowed all the wandering spirits and slammed shut with a boom, instantly silencing the wailing screams in the bridge.
The great shaman's heart lurched, and the gourd behind him fell to the ground with a snap, shattering into pieces. His four arms danced up and down, and the diamond maces in his hands transformed into four diamond pagodas, each carrying immense force, crashing down toward Qin Mu.
But Qin Mu didn't meet the attack head-on. Instead, he dodged backward, and the Wuyou Sword unsheathed and flew out. The great shaman sneered, and a beam of light shone from the diamond pagodas, catching the Wuyou Sword and drawing it into one of the pagodas.
These four diamond maces appeared to be maces, but his spirit weapons were actually four pagodas refined to be adjustable in size. By shrinking the pagodas to their minimum size, they resembled maces and could be held in hand.
But in battle, the pagodas could unleash terrifying power to crush enemies, obliterating them with invincible force!
At the same time, the pagodas were also extraordinary treasures that could capture an opponent's spirit weapon. If one wasn't careful and their spirit weapon was drawn into the pagoda, the tide would turn—without their spirit weapon, they would only face death!
Just as he had used the pagoda to capture Qin Mu's Wuyou Sword, he suddenly saw sword after sword flying out from behind Qin Mu, clanging as they embedded themselves in the pagoda.
He was stunned and hadn't yet reacted when sword light surged toward him like a vast ocean, engulfing him. In an instant, the pagoda was surrounded and bristling with swords!
The great shaman's arms were the first to give way. Despite transforming into a one-eyed giant with immense strength, he couldn't bear such weight. With a crisp crack, his arm bones snapped.
Swish swish swish—thousands of swords neatly surrounded the pagoda, forming an impossibly large sword sphere several zhang in diameter. The great shaman had vanished without a trace.
Qin Mu walked toward the ship's helm at the front of the bridge. Beneath the enormous sword sphere, the great shaman had been pierced to death within the formation, with only one foot still visible outside.
Qin Mu reached the helm. This treasured ship's steering mechanism was different from the towered boats of the State of Yankang—mainly in its construction. Yankang's towered boats had only one helm for changing direction and ascending or descending, but this treasured ship had other strange components besides the helm. Next to it sat a silver helmet with red tassels.
Qin Mu frowned and looked around, unable to understand the function of these components. After hesitating a moment, he picked up the silver helmet with red tassels and placed it on his head.
Hum—
Suddenly, his vision blazed with light. An expansive space rapidly unfolded before him. In an instant, heaven and earth transformed, revealing the vast geographical terrain of the Great Ruins, Yankang, the grasslands, and the northern icy realm!
Qin Mu stared in surprise: "The person who forged this ship was truly ingenious—hiding geographical terrain within the head and using the helmet to control the treasured ship's direction!"
He extended a finger and gently tapped the geographical map before him. At that moment, the treasured ship trembled as if trying to break free from the honeycomb seal and fly toward the direction he had pointed.
However, the ship was firmly wedged between the seals of two worlds and couldn't take flight.
"So this is how the treasured ship's movement is controlled!"
Qin Mu was delighted. He blinked, and suddenly the scene before him changed dramatically, revealing another unfamiliar world—another world's geographical map. Dark void, deep continents, mysteriously profound.
"Where is this place? Not Yankang, nor the grasslands..."
He examined it carefully, confirming he had never seen this strange place. He blinked again, and the scenery changed once more, revealing a magnificent and majestic world, completely different from the Great Ruins and Yankang.
He blinked again, and the scene shifted to an underwater world with mountains and ridges beneath the surface.
He tried more than ten times, and over ten different geographical maps of various worlds appeared. But contrary to his expectations, these maps didn't indicate which world they represented, nor did they mark any routes. He didn't know which was the Land of Carefree, let alone how to reach it.
"This ship must have a compass that records the route to the Land of Carefree. As long as I find this compass, I can steer the ship back to the Land of Carefree!"
Qin Mu looked around, and his gaze suddenly fell on where the compass should be. There should have been a mirror there, like the one Village Chief had given him, but now it was empty!
"Was the compass mirror broken? Fortunately, I still have the compass mirror Village Chief gave me, though I don't know if I can break Village Chief's seal?"
He reached back and extended his hand into the Glutton's Bag to retrieve the compass mirror. Just then, he saw the shattered mirror on the ground.
This compass mirror had been smashed by someone. Someone had deliberately destroyed it, not wanting anyone to know the location of the Land of Carefree!
"Could it be the white-robed man who destroyed the compass mirror?"
Qin Mu was momentarily stunned, then lowered his hand. Many deities had pursued the white-robed man, and he had been defeated. The Wuyou Sword was shattered, leaving him powerless to resist. He had stayed here to cover the escape of his companions, likely destroying the compass mirror before his death to prevent anyone from finding the Land of Carefree.
"Then this ship is a trap!"
Qin Mu's scalp suddenly tingled, his hair standing on end. He feigned a searching posture, but his feet moved toward the bridge's entrance.
"Some people on the ship fled to Youdu and may still be alive. The purpose of this trap is to capture people from the Land of Carefree and discover the route there! I have the mirror from Village Chief on me. If they obtain the compass mirror from me, they can find the Land of Carefree! They can't be certain whether I have such a thing, and as long as they aren't certain, they won't reveal this trap."
As he passed his sword sphere, it loosened. Sword handles began flying outward as the formation started to disassemble, but that sensation of being watched returned. Two eyes, separated by two hundred and sixty-four zhang, settled on him, exerting terrifying pressure!
Clearly, the owner of those eyes had grown suspicious!
Qin Mu put on a bewildered expression and looked back, as if sensing the pair of gaze. At that moment, that invasive gaze suddenly vanished.
"Which senior hides in the darkness?"
Qin Mu called out loudly: "Thank you for your guidance, allowing this junior to enter this treasured ship! Might the senior reveal yourself for a meeting?"
He waited for a moment, but no one answered.
Qin Mu put on a disappointed expression and continued collecting the swords, sighing: "Since the senior is unwilling to appear, this junior will simply remember this kindness."
He walked toward the bridge's entrance, his heartbeat accelerating slightly, but he quickly suppressed it with his own qi, restoring it to normal.
Just as he was about to leave the bridge, the door suddenly opened. Ban Gongcuu walked in, blocking the doorway with a smile: "Cult Master Qin, you have two choices—leave the helmet on your head, or leave your head."
Qin Mu nearly erupted in rage, wishing he could stab a thousand swords into his chest immediately!