Chapter 304: The Old Man in the Painting
At the entrance to the abyss, Ban Gongcuo and a group of great shamans and shaman kings arrived here. Of the several hundred divine ability practitioners of the Man Di nation, fewer than a hundred remained—the rest had all died within the bizarre and unpredictable Ghost Valley Forest.
Even though countless waves of great shamans from the Loulan Golden Palace had explored this place before, this large-scale expedition still cost them heavy casualties.
For Ban Gongcuo, how many people died was utterly irrelevant, as long as it wasn't his own life. These soldiers and great shamans, even the shaman kings themselves, were always expendable. His purpose in bringing these people was to have them protect him, using their corpses to pave a road leading to the center of Ghost Valley.
As an old monster who had lived for ten thousand years, he could already ignore and disregard the lives of anyone else. The only life he treasured was his own.
"Finally, we've arrived here."
Ban Gongcuo stood at the edge of the abyss, looking down with a somewhat obsessed gaze. Sixteen years ago, Ghost Valley first entered his sight. That incident with the extraterrestrial flying ship—when visitors from beyond the heavens piloted a treasure vessel crashing into Ghost Valley—had drawn the attention of three major powers.
The Loulan Golden Palace, the Heavenly Demon Cult, and the Great Thunderclap Temple all focused their gaze here. At that time, the Heavenly Demon Cult had no cult master, and the Tathagata of the Great Thunderclap Temple knew some secrets but did not venture deep into exploring this place.
And at that time, he had already been frail with age. Because he cherished his own life, he did not come in person, instead hiding in the Golden Palace waiting for his reincarnated holy child. However, the broken sword that the shaman king of the Loulan Golden Palace brought back from Ghost Valley made him realize that this extraterrestrial flying ship was no ordinary matter.
Now he had successfully reincarnated and could finally come here. Additionally, since Khan Luandi was preparing to wage war against the Yankang nation, he could borrow Khan Luandi's military forces to enter this place.
"Gongmu, can you all feel it?"
Ban Gongcuo said in a low voice: "This place is filled with the power of souls. The power contained within shattered souls has nurtured these bizarre lifeforms. This is the finest sacred ground for us great shamans to cultivate."
Beside him, these great shamans and shaman kings felt their souls tremble with waves of palpitations. The aura here made their souls and primordial spirits dance with joy.
This place was filled with the power of spirit and soul. The spiritual energy and soul force were so abundant that they far surpassed even the level of the Loulan Golden Palace!
Along the way, they had already witnessed the strangeness of Ghost Valley's lifeforms. To the soldiers of the Man Di nation, Ghost Valley's creatures were nightmare incarnations, but to these great shamans, they were walking tonic pills—though admittedly, these tonic pills were somewhat dangerous.
Great shamans, by their very nature, used the souls of other living beings as their means of cultivation!
Shaman King Gongmu greedily breathed in the aura emanating from the abyss. The spiritual energy and soul force there were even stronger. He exclaimed in admiration: "If our Golden Palace could establish a foothold here, we could strengthen the power of our great shamans, and cultivation would yield twice the results with half the effort! The spiritual and soul energy here is extremely beneficial for elevating the primordial spirit!"
The Loulan Golden Palace had always been strong in soul and primordial spirit arts. Their attainments in souls and primordial spirits ran deep. Even other sacred lands, including the Great Thunderclap Temple, were slightly inferior in primordial spirit mastery.
However, their cultivation methods were bizarre—using the souls of living beings to cultivate—which earned them much criticism. If they could occupy this place and use its spiritual and soul energy to cultivate, the Loulan Golden Palace would inevitably grow and develop to heights previously unimaginable!
This grassland sacred land, once risen, would surely be able to contend for supremacy over the Central Plains and suppress the sacred lands of the Central Earth in one stroke!
"The most important thing in Ghost Valley is not this, but that extraterrestrial flying ship."
Ban Gongcuo's gaze was somewhat entranced as he said softly: "What attracts me is not how to use this place's spiritual and soul energy to cultivate, but how to break through—to break the boundary between man and god. This ship should have what I want. It came from beyond the heavens..."
He did not elaborate. He leaped down, and the other great shamans, shaman kings, and the remaining Man Di nation soldiers also jumped down one after another, guarding him on all sides.
Ban Gongcuo was, after all, an existence that had lived for ten thousand years. He knew an enormous number of secrets. Other sacred lands like the Great Thunderclap Temple and the Daoist Sect relied on the classics and records within their sacred grounds to record history—and such records could be biased.
But he relied on memory to record history. He had experienced an immense number of events.
Moreover, although his lifespan was not as long as the histories of the Great Thunderclap Temple and the Daoist Sect, Ban Gongcuo had once been a high-ranking member of both the Daoist Sect and the Great Thunderclap Temple. He had even visited Lesser Jade Capital and seen the secrets recorded there.
"This ship might come from that mysterious place—the only place in the world where one can become a god. No matter what, I must obtain this ship to go there!" he thought to himself.
In midair, they were once again attacked by all sorts of bizarre creatures from within the abyss. Many soldiers, great shamans, and shaman kings each made their moves, doing everything in their power to protect Ban Gongcuo. They abandoned another dozen or so corpses before finally reaching the bottom of the abyss.
On the treasure ship, Qin Mu looked at the demonic energy that was continuously retreating, a hint of hesitation in his heart.
There was definitely a terrifyingly powerful existence within that demonic energy. Whether it was a creature of the Netherworld, its strength was extremely formidable—even surpassing the two white bats. Yet merely because Qin Mu spoke a single sentence in the Netherworld language, this existence had retreated. There seemed to be something suspicious about this.
After the demonic energy retreated, the mournful wailing that had lingered here suddenly vanished as well. The surroundings became incomparably quiet. Those bizarre creatures that had surged forth from the Netherworld realm had also all disappeared without a trace.
Because of the silence, it seemed all the more eerie.
"That terrifying existence that exhausted those two eminent monks—it seems it has already come aboard this ship!"
Qin Mu furrowed his brow. Right now, the ship was quiet in a way that was somewhat frightening.
"Fat Dragon, Yuchun, Yuqiu, let's go in and take a look. If we encounter danger, we retreat immediately!" Qin Mu said in a deep voice, taking the lead and walking forward.
Fu Yuchun and Fu Yuqiu quickly stepped forward, spreading their wings and flying up. The two white bats flew silently, upside down, ahead of Qin Mu. The qilin followed behind Qin Mu, on high alert.
They advanced along the left side of the treasure ship. When they reached the center of the ship, they encountered the honeycomb seal. The honeycomb seal here was still quite intact, with only faint traces of demonic energy seeping through the cracks.
Suddenly, a building beside them emitted creaking sounds. A door creaked open, and faint lamplight spilled out from within.
The two white bats quickly dodged aside, hanging upside down on either side of the doorway, craning their heads to peer inside.
This room was one of the rooms in the building on the deck of the treasure ship. The room was seven zhang long and seven zhang wide, furnished with a folding screen and a jade table. The candlestick on the jade table was actually still lit, and the bronze crane held an incense burner in its beak, with wisps of smoke drifting up from within.
There was no one in the room, but judging from the candlestick and incense burner, it seemed someone had been here just moments ago.
"It's safe here!" Fu Yuchun said.
Qin Mu opened his Qingxiao Heavenly Eye to look around but saw nothing wrong. He swept the area again with his Danxiao Heavenly Eye, but still found nothing amiss.
They walked into the room and looked around. Fu Yuqiu said: "Strange. This door has never been opened before. Why is it open today..."
"It's never been opened before?" Qin Mu was slightly startled.
The two white bats nodded: "The doors on this ship can't be opened. No matter how much strength we use, they won't budge. Very strange."
There weren't many things in this room. The folding screen was embroidered with green mountains and clear waters, a small boat floating in the middle of a river, with an old man sitting at the bow fishing. One white bat came to the jade table and tried to pick up a candlestick for light, but couldn't lift it no matter how hard it tried, so it gave up.
Qin Mu looked the place over. He vaguely felt as though something was watching them, but he couldn't sense the source of the gaze, and he grew inwardly wary.
His gaze swept around the room. The feeling of being watched persisted. Qin Mu abruptly turned his head, but still didn't see anything.
His primordial energy surged out, forming a mirror that reflected the surroundings. Suddenly, he saw the old man fishing in the painting on the screen quietly turn his head, secretly sizing them up.
Qin Mu immediately turned and lunged toward the folding screen. The old man fishing panicked, hastily dropping his fishing rod, and with two leaps and three bounds—incredibly agile—ran from this folding screen onto the wall, then sprinted along the wall and slipped through another door.
Qin Mu immediately gave chase, opening the door and charging through. Suddenly, he heard a bang behind him as the door slammed shut. Qin Mu's heart jumped. He quickly retreated, and the Wuyou Sword behind his back soared into the air, transforming into the Cloud Sword Style to protect his surroundings. At the same time, he reached back and pushed open the door behind him, saying in a deep voice: "Brothers Fu, Fat Dragon, hurry in! Brothers Fu..."
Qin Mu turned to look and was momentarily stunned. The door had opened, but it wasn't the room he had come from—it was another room. This room looked like a woman's embroidery chamber!
And the room he had entered from earlier had vanished without a trace!
The two white bats and the qilin also hurriedly pushed open the door, but they saw no trace of Qin Mu. Their expressions changed drastically, and they hastily opened other doors, but still couldn't find Qin Mu.
"Something's wrong!"
The qilin used its claw to push open the door behind it, stuck its head in to look, and exclaimed in shock: "This isn't the room we came in from! The rooms on this ship are strange!"
The two white bats closed the door, then pushed it open again to look. The room had already changed, replaced by a different one. They tried this again and again—every time they closed and opened the door, the room was different!
"We're doomed!"
Fu Yuchun's face turned ashen, and he said with a trembling voice: "If we can't find him, and the poison erupts, our White Bat Divine Clan will go extinct!"
"Don't panic."
The qilin said: "The rooms here must have a total number. It's impossible for there to be an infinite number of rooms. As long as we find the same room twice, we can figure out the pattern. By the way, how are you two brothers at mathematical arts?"
Qin Mu's heart skipped a beat. He immediately walked into this embroidery chamber, closed the door behind him, and looked around, thinking: "I came in through this door. I came in through this door and went out, so how did it become a different room? There must be some spatial folding technique at work here. Although this ship is very large, the rooms in the building can't be infinite—they must be limited. As long as the number of rooms is finite, I can find the pattern."
He calmed himself down and looked around. This embroidery chamber had wall lamps lit, and several pieces of women's embroidery hung on the walls. Below was a worktable, and on one side of the table lay an embroidered handkerchief with a dragon playing with a phoenix pattern.
The writing desk was at a lower position, with brush, ink, paper, and inkstone placed on top. Below it was a cushion for sitting. The ink on the paper was still wet: "Dew moistens delicate yellow, wind sways the emerald green. The evening beauty of the mortal world is no accident; immortal grace with light makeup, heaven-given loveliness. Who can compare?"
The writing stopped abruptly at this point—she must have encountered some urgent matter and couldn't finish.
Qin Mu examined the handwriting and inwardly praised: "Her brushwork is in no way inferior to mine, though it's a bit more delicate."
At that moment, the old fisherman suddenly burrowed into the calligraphy and painting in front of him, blinking at him. Qin Mu sneered, picked up the brush, and swept it downward. The old man hastily leaped onto the table, then ran to the wall and escaped through another door.
Qin Mu immediately chased after him with the brush in hand. The old man in the painting entered another room and disappeared, hiding who knows where.
Qin Mu entered this room and looked around. It was a study, and the books in it were very ancient. Qin Mu pulled down a book and tried to open it, but couldn't flip it open no matter what.
Suddenly, the old man in the painting jumped out of his book and dove into another book.
Qin Mu hastily pulled out that book. This time he could open it. He flipped through it and found it was a genealogy.
"First generation, Kaihuang, surnamed Qin, given name Ye, lord of all under heaven..."
Qin Mu was taken aback: "The Kaihuang of 'One sword, Kaihuang, blood like an ocean'? This Kaihuang is also surnamed Qin—same surname as me."
This genealogy was very thick, recording the lives and marriages of various people surnamed Qin in just a few words each. Qin Mu flipped through it quickly, looking for the old man in the painting. When he reached the last page, he saw written there: "One hundred and seventh generation, son of Hanzhen, Fengqing."
The writing ended there, and the genealogy was cut off.
— Zhai Zhu is still in Shanghai. He got off the plane last night, rented a small inn, and then caught a cold. He wasn't able to go home today. His throat is now inflamed, so he's staying at the inn and plans to go home tomorrow. He's been away from home for over ten days now. He misses his family and his kids. He feels a bit lightheaded. He'll try to do a second chapter tonight, but if he can't manage it, he'll have to make up for it with extra chapters after he recovers.