**Chapter 74: Change of Dragon City**
Qin Mu puzzled over it. "Grandma's back isn't hunched anymore? She sounds like she's rolling around in excitement..."
Come morning, Qin Mu rose to find Grandma Si gone. However, breakfast had already been set out on the table.
The youth washed up, ate, then went downstairs to find Grandma Si and the Blind One. The two had already prepared an ox cart and loaded it with the oil, salt, soy sauce, silk, and brocade they had purchased.
What puzzled Qin Mu was that the Blind One was yoking the cart—not just three oxen in front, but three more large bulls trailing behind.
The six bulls saw Qin Mu and their eyes filled with terror. They trembled from head to hoof.
"Grandma, didn't we sell our six oxen?" Qin Mu asked.
Grandma Si yawned casually. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I went out and bought six oxen."
Qin Mu eyed her skeptically. The six bulls shook their heads desperately, as though trying to speak, but could only let out bewildered moans.
The ox cart rolled out of the city. It was still early morning, and several carriages were already on the road—villagers from the countryside heading home after their supply runs, hoping to reach their villages before dark.
Qin Mu drove the cart to the docks. The river churned turbulently. Along the shore, numerous villagers were making offerings to the River God, summoning the river-carrying beasts. Large-nosed River Carriers lounged on the bank, basking in the incense the villagers offered, puffing out enormous smoke rings. Some River Carriers had already departed with villagers who had filled their purchases and were heading home.
The Blind One burned incense on the shore and summoned a River Carrier, feeding it. Qin Mu drove the ox cart onto the beast's back, and it began moving upstream.
The river flowed vast and powerful from west to east. They had floated downstream on their way here; now they were fighting the current heading upstream, which meant far greater resistance.
Yet the River Carrier's speed was no slower than when they had come. At this pace, a single night's rest at the Grandmother Temple and they could reach the Village of Broken Elders by the next day.
After roughly fifty li of water travel, Grandma Si stirred. She rose, picked up her small basket, and smiled. "My turn. Blind One, you go ahead."
The Blind One nodded. "Be careful."
Grandma Si leaped into the air and vanished into the blue firmament.
Qin Mu looked up and saw her soaring skyward, not descending for a long while.
The Blind One, however, seemed entirely accustomed to this and showed no concern. He stood leaning on his cane, facing the wind.
Before long, Qin Mu noticed a cloud behind them suddenly turn blood-red. Then a downpour of blood rained from the sky, drenching the Yong River until it ran crimson.
"What's happening up there?"
The thought had barely formed when a head plummeted from the blood-cloud and crashed into the river.
A chill of horror ran through Qin Mu. In the instant the head hit the water, he caught a glimpse of its face—it was the sallow-faced woman from the City Lord's Manor, someone he had crossed paths with before!
He looked up. What was occurring within that cloud?
The rain came fast and went fast. Soon the downpour ceased, and the crimson that had stained the great river seemed no more than an illusion. The river flowed on, clear once more.
Qin Mu washed the blood from his body. After a long wait, Grandma Si still had not returned, and the Blind One remained utterly unperturbed.
Then Qin Mu felt it—a heart-stopping tremor from downstream, earth-shaking, terrifying beyond measure. Even the River Carrier beneath their feet grew agitated, abruptly accelerating as it surged upstream.
The Blind One's ear twitched. "Mu'er, brace yourself! Don't fall off!"
Qin Mu planted his feet firmly, as though his legs had taken root in the beast's hide. He heard a strange whistling roar from behind and whipped around—then froze in horror.
The great river behind them was rising. Rising. The water was flowing backward—from downstream to upstream!
The river surface downstream was now more than ten zhang higher than the banks. Towering white-capped waves surged toward them, bearing down with savage force!
The waves drew ever closer, spray erupting on both sides, flooding the dense forests lining the banks. The thunderous roar had shifted from a whistle to an apocalyptic crash, as though hundreds of thunderbolts were detonating in the mountain valley!
A new horror seized Qin Mu. As the excess spray dissipated, the wave had taken the shape of an enormous hand—as wide as the river itself—thrusting upstream with devastating force!
The Blind One remained calm, seemingly oblivious to the apocalyptic spectacle behind them.
The colossal water-hand closed to within a hundred zhang, then suddenly collapsed. The floodwaters scattered in all directions, and the surge lifted the River Carrier more than ten zhang into the air before letting it crash back down.
Qin Mu steadied his nerves and seized the ox cart atop the beast, preventing it from sliding into the water.
The Blind One tapped the River Carrier's head with his bamboo cane. The beast immediately turned and headed back downstream. "Mu'er, we're returning to Xianglong City."
Thirty li downstream, Xianglong City Lord Fu Yundi descended from the sky. He alighted upon the river surface, took two rapid steps forward, then stopped. His face was grim as he surveyed his surroundings. "Which senior brother broke my technique?"
"Not a brother. A sister."
Grandma Si came walking across the river on tiptoe, basket in hand, her wrinkled face crinkled into a pleasant smile. "City Lord, to wreak havoc on the river—aren't you afraid of harming the villagers of the Great Ruins? If your strike had landed true, the people along a hundred li of this river would have perished at your hand. A grave sin indeed."
"So you're the old woman beside that outcast?"
Fu Yundi spoke coldly. "It was you who taught him his combat arts, enabling him to kill my son? The murder of my son cannot go unanswered. If you stand in my way—you die!"
Grandma Si sighed and produced a thread-ball from her basket. "City Lord, this is the Great Nurturing Heavenly Demon Sutra you've been coveting. Alas, this is the last time you will see it. You will live—but only as a skin sealed within itself. I shall wear your skin and rule Xianglong City in your stead... and meet the State Preceptor of Yankang..."
Fu Yundi's pupils contracted to pinpoints. The thread-ball in Grandma Si's hand spun wildly, its threads extending and weaving across the river surface in an instant, forming a net. And Fu Yundi was trapped within it.
"Last night, your son's death gave me the chance to strike at you unseen. You were gravely wounded even then. Had you calmed yourself and focused on recovery, you might still have had a chance to escape today."
Grandma Si smiled serenely. "But you were too greedy—you chased after me, hoping to seize the Great Nurturing Heavenly Demon Sutra. And so your fate was sealed."
"You think someone like you can kill me? Keep dreaming! How many years have you even cultivated?"
Fu Yundi's body shook, and a torrent of yuan qi erupted. The dense energy behind him coalesced into an eight-armed, eight-headed celestial deity—almost achieving the feat of turning illusion into reality. The eight-armed deity formed from yuan qi was on the verge of becoming solid!
In the deity's eight hands, eight ritual implements were gripped—also refined to near solidity!
The mighty City Lord of Xianglong naturally possessed extraordinary abilities!
"The Eight Aspect Celestial God Technique—a remarkable art indeed. But remarkable is all it is. It is far from the realm of true gods!"
Grandma Si giggled, then suddenly shed her skin. From within the old woman's husk stepped a magnificent woman in her prime—the same breathtakingly beautiful Cult Master's Wife from the manor!
She charged forward. Simultaneously, the threads of the Great Nurturing Heavenly Demon Sutra wove and darted at blinding speed. Fu Yundi bellowed as the beautiful Cult Master's Wife's palm struck toward him. He sneered: "Si Youyou, you are barely over a hundred years old. How can your spiritual power rival mine?"
*BOOM—*
Their palms collided. "Grandma Si" was blasted high into the air.
"Trying to flee?"
Fu Yundi vaulted after her, then paused, sensing something strange. "Why do I feel so light..."
He looked down. Standing on the river's surface was a flayed figure of raw flesh—without skin.
He looked at himself and screamed. His body had become a flayed skin, and the bloody figure below was him—stripped bare!
In the instant their palms had met, the threads of the Great Nurturing Heavenly Demon Sutra had pierced into his body, sealing his Three Souls and Seven Spirits in the span of a heartbeat—and peeling his skin clean off!
"Grandma Si" had been blasted upward by choice. Her threads pulled taut, and with a sharp *shick*, his skin was ripped from his body in one smooth motion.
"Fu Yundi, you are nothing special."
"Grandma Si" seized the flayed skin and donned it with a single fluid motion. Her appearance and bearing became an exact mirror of Fu Yundi.
Below, the skinless corpse of Fu Yundi sank into the river and was swept away by the current.
Her figure descended. By the time she reached the river surface, the Blind One's River Carrier had arrived.
"City Lord Xianglong?" Qin Mu's scalp tingled with dread. The Shao Bao Sword at his waist emitted a clear, ringing note, ready to strike.
"Mu'er, it's Grandma."
Fu Yundi's mouth spoke with Grandma Si's voice, then shifted to Fu Yundi's own—nearly indistinguishable. "The Yankang army should be arriving soon. When will the Village Chief and the others come?"
The Blind One tilted his head. "They've most likely already entered the city. The State Preceptor came with overwhelming force. Grandma, now that you're wearing Fu Yundi's appearance, you cannot afford a single slip. The State Preceptor could end your life with a single blow. Can you replicate Fu Yundi's Eight Aspect Celestial God Technique?"