"That is true, and yet not true."
General Qin smiled. "No one can verify how the Great Ruins came to be, but when our State of Yankang was founded, we received a divine oracle. It stated that the Great Ruins are a land abandoned by the gods, and that those god-abandoned people must remain there, never to leave. Should any emerge, they are to be slain on sight. I hear that apart from Yankang, other nations received similar oracles. But the inhabitants are not merely the natives of the Ruins — desperate criminals and the most vicious outcasts also flee into the Ruins to take shelter. In my view, these people are even more dangerous than the abandoned natives."
The Seventh Young Master asked curiously, "I saw merchant caravans entering and leaving the Ruins at the border passes. Why does Yankang still trade with the abandoned people?"
"You may not know this, young master, but though the Great Ruins are poor, they are rich in natural treasures. Heavenly-grade ingredients and precious beast hides are beyond counting — and we need only common goods like oil, salt, vinegar, and soy sauce, things worth almost nothing, to exchange for them all. What is there not to like?"
General Qin went on, "Over the years, our border passes have traded back and forth with the Ruins, earning vast sums that have funded our armies. That is what makes Yankang's soldiers strong and cavalry fierce — far surpassing other nations."
"What if some of the abandoned slip through the passes?"
"Along with the oracle, we were given a few treasures called Viewing Mirrors, hung upon the great fortress gates leading into Yankang. Should any of the god-abandoned pass before them, their true nature is revealed. The State Preceptor suspects the abandoned may carry a different bloodline, though his examinations of their bodies have found nothing amiss."
General Qin chuckled. "Every year those fortress gates capture many demon-folk trying to flee into Yankang. Some are executed on the spot; others are sent to the mines, where living a year or two counts as good fortune."
The tower ship sailed away. Qin Mu stood upon the cliff, marveling, "That man is formidable — his eyesight is extraordinary. No wonder he became a general at such a young age. If he is mapping the geography of the Yong River, does Yankang intend to wage war on the Great Ruins?"
Something felt strange to him. The Ruins were a desolate place, full of danger, and every nightfall brought the sweep of darkness. He did not think Yankang's campaign would go well. Send too few soldiers and they would not fill the bellies of the Ruins' exotic beasts. Send too many, and when night fell, where would they hide?
The dangers of the Great Ruins were so numerous that no one could rule them. Not even Yankang. An invasion would only end in a crushing defeat.
Then a thought struck him. "Big fellow, return to the Suppressing Calamity Palace at once and destroy the map of the Great Ruins on the wall!"
The demon ape rose, snatched up the dragon-elephant, gave a roar, and leaped onto its back. The beast thundered off at once.
"Yankang has already begun mapping the geography of the Yong River. If they found the map in the Suppressing Calamity Palace, it would be like adding wings to a tiger." Qin Mu's expression shifted between light and shadow. Destroying the map was a pity, but he had already committed the entire geography of the Ruins to memory.
Before long, the river's surface turned faintly red. Qin Mu paused, looking upstream — the water rushing down was redder than below.
"Young master, there are corpses on the river!" Hu Ling'er suddenly cried out.
Qin Mu had seen the body too but said nothing. He looked further upstream: more corpses floated toward them. Beneath the surface, great fish and river beasts churned the water, lunging to feed on the dead in a frenzy of splashing.
Qin Mu activated the Shenxiao Heavenly Eye. He made out the face of a head bobbing among the waves, and his body trembled. These corpses were the very travelers who had passed through Emerald Cloud Valley!
The river surged, its blood-color deepening. Even the floating ice was dyed red.
A hundred or two corpses could never do this. The Yong River was vast, over ten li across, its current swift — a hundred lives' worth of blood could not redden it.
Qin Mu's expression froze. He saw a tide of corpses rolling down from upstream.
Not merely corpses — a tide of ice and dead, a thousand or more bodies tangled with great chunks of floating ice.
These people had been the very ambushers who tried to strike down the general. There had been so many, dispatched in groups to the upper reaches to set their trap, only to be cut down by the general himself. That they had all died at nearly the same moment — slain by the general or by the experts aboard his tower ship — spoke of a power beyond imagination.
It was the worst carnage Qin Mu had ever witnessed, worse even than when he was a child and Grandma Si had taken him to a neighboring village for a birth, only to find a massacre in progress. Back then his soul had fled his body in terror, and Grandma Si had dragged it back. Now, though he was a warrior, the sight still shook his spirit.
How terrible. If General Qin and the iron cavalry of Yankang ever entered the Ruins, what devastation would they bring to this wild land?
He shook off the unease and turned to Hu Ling'er. "Stay in for these days. Don't go out drinking, and tell your sisters to keep quiet and remain indoors."
The fox nodded again and again. She was a demon, but even she was shaken by the scene.
"Ling'er, go find your sisters. I will go down and see if I can stop these corpses from piling up and forming a thousand-corpse ice-dam lake!"
With that he leaped down, sprinting along the cliff face to the river below, then strode across the water's surface. The corpses and floating ice gathered together, pulling in more ice as they swept downstream. Qin Mu soon caught up with the ice-and-corpse tide and watched it grow. Ice chunks crashed into one another with sharp cracks, the bodies between them crushed into broken limbs and shattered bones that drifted atop the ice.
He ran along the river for dozens of li. The floating ice had piled into icebergs, hung with broken corpses — a ghastly sight.
The tide grew heavier and taller, its pace slowing, until even the rushing river was dammed behind it. The water level climbed.
Qin Mu frowned. The Yong flowed straight here, but at the oasis where Wu Nu was held, the river bent. The ice could not pass that turn — it would pile up, block the channel, and form a barrier lake. The water would rise and rise, the ice would stack higher and higher, until it reached a hundred zhang. When the dam finally burst, a great flood would roar downstream, swallowing everything in its path — men, beasts, villages.
Many villages along the Yong were built right on the bank. A flood would devastate them all.
"Grandma Si and the others are downstream clearing the river. They probably don't know a barrier lake is about to form. Only the Village Chief is left back home, and he can't move about easily. Who can help me with the ice tide?"
He racked his mind. The ice tide had already swept past the Village of Broken Elders, ice crashing and cracking as it went. His strength was nowhere near enough to stop it.
At the village entrance, the Village Chief sat in serene calm. His eyes suddenly widened as he watched Qin Mu and the ice tide pass by, and he shook his head with a smile. "That reckless brat is at it again..."
The river, backed up by the dam, was rising toward his feet. Then, from the stump of the Chief's severed legs, primal qi surged forth and shaped itself into a pair of legs. He rose into the air, walked a few paces through empty space, and sat down, watching Qin Mu from afar. These legs of qi looked no different from real ones, though they would dissolve when the qi dispersed.
"Right — go find Wu Nu!"
On the river, Qin Mu's eyes lit up. He quickened his pace, bounding across the water and leaping onto an iceberg, then launching himself forward in a desperate sprint, leaving the ice tide behind.
He raced onward and at last reached the oasis in the middle of the river — a lonely island bearing a single temple that imprisoned the old demon Wu Nu.
Qin Mu dashed up onto the island and burst into the crumbling shrine. Inside, a little girl with three braids sat swinging her legs in boredom, waiting for prey to wander in. The moment she saw Qin Mu, her eyes blazed with hatred — but she immediately hopped down from the Buddha's palm and ducked behind the statue, glaring at him with venomous eyes.
"Wu Nu, I mean no harm!"
Qin Mu spoke quickly. "The ice tide is heading here. I need your help to shatter it!"
The girl emerged from behind the statue and climbed back onto the Buddha's hand, looking bored. "No interest. The ice tide comes every year. The Buddha protects this place — it can't flood me."
Qin Mu's eyes flickered. "I can sever your chains and free you!"
Wu Nu's eyes flared with hope, then dimmed again. She shook her head. "If it were one of those elders from your village, maybe. Not you."
Qin Mu sent his primal qi surging outward, seizing the Shao Bao Sword at his back. Two fingers together, he chopped down!
Clang—
A thunderous ring shook the air as a deep crack appeared in one of the chains binding the great Buddha. Strangely, the crack began healing on its own.
Without a word, Qin Mu marshaled his qi and slashed again.
Clang, clang, clang — a rapid series of crisp strikes rang out, and soon one chain was shattered clean through.
Wu Nu stared, stunned, then her face split with joy and disbelief. But at that moment the bronze Buddha opened its eyes. Its voice boomed like thunder: "Wretched creature — how dare you ruin my cultivation, destroy my merit?"