**Chapter 78: The Sun Ship**
Grandma Si frowned deeply and immediately issued orders, her voice sharp. "Lock down the entire city! Hunt down the sorcerer! Drive everyone in the city to the central plaza -- I want to see who dares to cause trouble under my very nose!"
The divine-art masters in the City Lord's Manor received the command and immediately set to work, driving every person in the city -- including traveling merchants -- toward the central plaza.
Qin Feiyue also frowned. The failure to capture the sorcerer unsettled him greatly.
"Young General, there is no need to worry. This city is mine, Fu's. No demon or monster can cause chaos here!" Grandma Si -- wearing Fu Yundi's skin -- laughed. "If I gather everyone together, even if this sorcerer is extraordinarily skilled at hiding, he will not escape my grasp! You are welcome to invite the King's army in. The Great Ruins is full of lawless rogues in need of discipline! Speaking of which, I have long admired the State Preceptor's great name and am eager to meet him and listen to his teachings!"
Qin Feiyue suppressed his unease and smiled. "Please rest assured, my Lord. The State Preceptor has always been fair with rewards and punishments. The Lord has rendered great service to the State of Yankang, and will surely be promoted and elevated. You need not remain in this bitter, cold frontier forever."
Grandma Si laughed heartily, brimming with false pride. Suddenly she snarled, "The sorcerer does not know the times! When I catch him, I will execute him by a thousand cuts and hang his head on the city gates as a warning! Oh, and please, Young General, put in a good word for me with the State Preceptor. That sorcerer's rampage just now was not my doing -- I hope you will make that clear..."
Qin Feiyue understood and smiled. "My Lord, rest assured. I will certainly recommend you to the State Preceptor."
Grandma Si exhaled in relief, her eyes flickering. She lowered her voice. "To tell you the truth, I have been running things here for many years and have acquired some truly remarkable treasures. Once the State Preceptor enters the city, perhaps the Young General would like to come with me to take a look? If anything catches your eye, please feel free to take it..."
Qin Feiyue was quite tempted. The Great Ruins was a land overflowing with treasures -- including some that predated the darkness itself. Fu Yundi had operated here for years and had amassed untold numbers of rare artifacts. To be able to enter his treasury and select a few -- that would be quite a windfall!
On the dragon pillar, Qin Mu watched the Deaf's paintings and how he wielded art as a divine technique. His mind reeled with admiration. He had studied painting and calligraphy under the Deaf since childhood and had read widely, but this was the first time he had witnessed the Deaf unleash such extraordinary power.
To single-handedly stall the advance of over a hundred thousand Yankang troops -- the feat was nothing short of astonishing!
If no expert from Yankang had been able to counter the Deaf's technique, the entire army might well have perished.
"Is that Mu'er on the pillar?"
Suddenly, the Butcher's voice came from below. Qin Mu leaned over the edge and saw the Butcher hacking at the dragon pillar with his pig-slaughter knife -- yet not a single strike actually touched the stone. Qin Mu was puzzled.
The Butcher swung blade after blade, his body rising steadily. Before long, he landed on the dragon pillar.
"What are you doing, Grandpa Butcher?" Qin Mu asked curiously.
"Planting techniques. To destroy the dragon pillar."
The Butcher sheathed his pig-slaughter knife behind his back and hauled himself to the dragon-head using his arms. He gazed at the army marching outside the city. "When the Yankang army enters the city, at the hour of the Rat, my techniques will activate. This pillar will be torn apart and utterly destroyed by my blade-light."
The Yankang vanguard had been devastated by the Deaf's assault, suffering untold casualties. Now a second army was pouring through the Yanbian Fortress to join them, and the combined force marched toward Xianglong City.
Though the first wave had suffered greatly under the Deaf's attack, the merger of the two armies only amplified their terrifying momentum.
Qin Mu was alarmed. "Grandpa Butcher, you intend to use the darkness to destroy the Yankang army?"
The Butcher nodded. "The other three pillars already have my techniques planted. Only this one remains."
A chill ran through Qin Mu's spine. If all four dragon pillars were destroyed at midnight, what awaited the Yankang army would be nothing less than annihilation.
Countless lives would be swallowed by the darkness, dead without burial.
Qin Mu hesitated. "Grandpa Butcher, the people in the city..."
The Butcher grinned. "Just now, when the Deaf was casting his spells and attacking the Yankang army, old Grandma Si ordered the city locked down and drove everyone to the center. Don't worry."
Qin Mu immediately felt relieved. The city center was home to many ancient temples, enshrining all manner of stone idols. Those temples would ward off the encroaching darkness.
Clearly, Grandma Si and the Deaf had long coordinated this plan. When the dragon pillars collapsed and the darkness descended, the temple-surrounded city center would become a safe zone, with the city's people gathered there -- perfectly protected.
"Once night falls, the Yankang army will be obliterated. The only survivors will be the State Preceptor and a handful of other powerful experts. And that will be the hour of our final battle," the Butcher said with a grin.
"That is why the Village Chief has also come."
Qin Mu was puzzled. The Village Chief had lost both his arms and legs. What could he possibly do?
The Butcher looked excited, chuckling. "Tonight, we will see the strongest sword of old clash with the strongest sword of today! Damn it all, I can't wait for nightfall to -- What in the...?"
His expression froze. He stared into the distance, his face pale as though he had seen a ghost. He cried out involuntarily: "Mother of God, what is that thing?!"
Qin Mu followed his gaze and squinted. He could only make out a tiny black speck in the sky. He could not understand what had so shocked the Butcher.
But the speck was in the direction of the Star Sea, roughly two hundred li from Xianglong City.
"Mother of God... mother of God..." the Butcher cursed without pause. Suddenly he leapt from the pillar and dropped toward the ground, calling out, "Stay put! I'm going to find the Village Chief and the Herbalist. I've lived in the Great Ruins for this long, and I've never seen anything like this in my life... Mother of God..."
Qin Mu was taken aback. This was the first time he had ever seen the Butcher lose composure. Even during his worst rages, the Butcher rarely cursed this much -- his usual target being the heavens themselves.
He looked at the black speck again and noticed it had grown larger.
The speck had been like a needle-prick on white paper. Now it was an ink blot. And it was still growing.
Suddenly, several figures materialized around him. The Village Chief, without arms or legs, the Herbalist, his face disfigured, the Mute, and others appeared on the pillar.
The Blind One was absent -- likely dragged to the city center from the gambling house.
"Heavens..." the Herbalist whispered, staring at the speck with undisguised shock. "What an enormous ship..."
"The legend is real. The ship truly exists," the Village Chief murmured, shaken. "Why has it appeared at this time?"
The Mute gazed with glazed eyes, speechless.
The Deaf stood staring, dumbfounded.
"Mother of God..." the Butcher muttered on.
Qin Mu channeled the Shenxiao Heavenly Eye and strained to see the black speck more clearly, but his vision would not resolve it.
Gradually the speck swelled into a dark disk and continued expanding. Before long, the disk measured several zhang across.
Moments later, it was the size of several mu.
Tremors rumbled up from underground, growing stronger and stronger. Standing atop the dragon pillar, Qin Mu felt his legs go numb, as though an impossibly vast creature were stomping closer with each step.
The air grew hotter, the temperature climbing higher, as though the sun itself were blazing down upon the earth. Yet it was still spring -- two months short of summer.
Then Qin Mu saw what the others had seen.
A ship, walking toward them from the direction of the Star Sea, growing nearer with every passing moment.
It was indeed walking. Above the ship drifted an enormous black sphere, growing larger still.
Qin Mu's expression became strange. The shock within him was beyond words. After a long moment, he exhaled a breath and muttered through clenched teeth, "Mother of God..."
The Butcher glared at him. "Watch your language, boy! Mother of God -- what the hell is that thing?"
The ship approaching from the distance was impossibly vast, a vessel forged from volcanoes. Mountain peaks, spewing thick smoke and flames, towered high enough to pierce the clouds. Thunder and lightning raged within the smoke, their electric glow illuminating the sky.
The shape of the mountain was peculiar -- it had no summit. From a distance, it bore a passing resemblance to a towered boat, but there were no decks or towers. Instead, magnificent palaces of gold and jade crowned its surface, resplendent even through the veil of smoke.
Great chains, each thick enough to require dozens of men to encircle, trailed from the mountain like the strings of a kite, drifting through the sky. Their ends were fastened to the immense black sphere. As the ship moved, the chains clashed and rattled with a deafening clamor.
The colossal black sphere itself, when dragged along, emitted a deep, resonant booming that set the very air vibrating, as though it were impossibly heavy.
At this moment the ship was walking along the lower reaches of the Yong River. Its passage turned the Great Ruins' greatest river into a rolling, boiling torrent, the water cut off and steaming. Fish-monsters and water-spirits leapt onto the banks, scrambling desperately for safety.
"This is..." Qin Mu stammered in disbelief.
"The Sun Ship."