Chapter 371: The Mute's Box
"The treasures buried in our Mount Taibai are unearthed, and they're actually this astonishing!"
Almost everyone in the Taibai Sword Sect was fleeing down the mountain, yet the sect's three elders advanced instead of retreating, rushing toward the volcanic crater at the summit, shouting harshly: "This is the Demon Cult Leader's trick! He can't take the treasure from the mountain himself, so he's deliberately trying to drive us away so he can keep it all for himself! Everyone, don't leave!"
Another elderly woman cried out: "This is our founder's spirit manifesting to strengthen our Taibai Sword Sect, bestowing the treasure of Mount Taibai upon us! This is a sign of our sect's great prosperity!"
"Heavens have mercy!"
A white-haired elder looked up to the sky and sighed, proclaiming loudly: "Our Taibai Sword Sect's founding master once said this was a land of dragon prosperity, destined for great wealth and honor, and now it has come true. All disciples, hear my command—today is the day our Taibai Sword Sect rises to glory and surpasses the Three Great Sacred Lands! Come back, all of you! Join forces and subdue this treasure!"
Many Taibai Sword Sect disciples heard this and immediately stopped, no longer fleeing but turning back.
The Taibai Sword Sect had never had many people to begin with—one sect master had gone to the capital to lodge a complaint before the emperor, leaving behind three elders, a dozen or so mid-level members, and about a hundred disciples under their tutelage.
At this moment, most of the sect chose to stay, recalling their sword boxes that had been blasted away. One after another, the black sword boxes came crashing down with heavy thuds across the soon-to-collapse Mount Taibai. The massive boxes, several zhang tall, opened their lids, and countless flying swords shot out like rivers of steel.
In mid-air, Qin Mu stood atop the twin dragons as they sprinted with all their might, other flood dragons flanking them as they carried him into the distance. Qin Mu looked back and saw the sky above Mount Taibai filled with a cloud of flying swords, tips pointing downward, suddenly plunging straight into the erupting volcanic crater!
Qin Mu's eyes widened in shock. He quickly shouted: "Are you all not leaving? Are you looking for death?"
At the summit, the sect's three elders sneered in unison: "Trying to trick us into leaving so you can keep the treasure for yourself? The Demon Cult Leader truly has a wicked heart. If we hadn't known that Mount Taibai is a land of dragon prosperity, we might have been fooled by you."
Qin Mu let out a sigh and sped away with a whoosh.
"Mount Taibai is built upon the dragon's eye of a dragon vein, but this vein is merely a subsidiary vein of the True Dragon Lord—not a land of prosperity, but a land of stolen fortune. The Taibai Sword Sect has had its qi and luck drained by this dragon vein for so many years; I suspect their time is nearly up."
Qin Mu thought to himself: "At least this sect only has about a hundred people, so it won't cause too great a catastrophe..."
The moment he finished the thought, Mount Taibai exploded with a thunderous roar.
The entire massive volcano shattered into pieces.
The instant the volcano erupted, the hundred-box sword formation collapsed completely. Countless flying swords dissolved in mid-air, turning into molten iron. The disciples of the Taibai Sword Sect didn't even have time to let out a groan before they were vaporized.
The three elders' cultivation was still considerable, but against such terrifying power, they were utterly helpless. They were blasted backward, spitting blood, tumbling through the air. The molten iron from the dissolved swords, mixed with the shattered rocks, shot toward them faster than any flying sword.
The three elders' faces were filled with despair. These molten projectiles would pierce them through, cutting off all hope of survival!
Then, they saw a colossal figure slowly rising from the collapsing Mount Taibai.
"As the Demon Cult Leader, he actually didn't lie to us—there really is a giant in the mountain..."
The three elders looked up. This incomparably mighty god-demon slowly straightened his body, and beneath his feet, two long azure and crimson dragons let out earth-shaking roars.
Sssss—
The three elders' bodies burst apart, riddled like sieves by the molten sword iron. Their corpses tumbled down with the crumbling rocks of Mount Taibai, buried deep along with the rest of the Taibai Sword Sect disciples.
The founder of the Taibai Sword Sect should never have chosen this place for the sect.
By now, Huan Long Jun's body was dozens of times larger than before. His flesh was coiled like a great dragon, muscles knotted, claws gripping tightly onto the two great dragons beneath him. The two dragons raced forward, riding clouds and mist, carrying him in pursuit of Qin Mu's direction—but Qin Mu was nowhere to be seen.
A few flood dragons remained around him, hanging from his ears, burrowing into his clothes, poking their heads out and flicking their tails.
These flood dragons were the ones he had kept to help him collect and refine the Dragon Nest, which was why he had been able to refine it so quickly.
Huan Long Jun's aura blazed like wildfire. He scanned the area but still couldn't spot Qin Mu. He reached out, flipping his hand to produce a jade object the size of a table, and sneered: "Little brat, do you think you can escape?"
The bottom of this jade object was like a large round table, cut perfectly smooth, but the top was a half-spherical dome. Beneath the dome, the ground was divided into nine levels, each level filled with interlocking jade pillars and teeth. At the ninth level, there was a ring-shaped groove with a gap missing.
This was the True Dragon Lord's Dragon Nest!
Earlier, when Qin Mu had entered the Dragon Nest, most of it had been submerged in boiling magma, showing them only the tip of the iceberg.
Huan Long Jun had also expended tremendous effort to dig the Dragon Nest out from beneath the earth and refine it before he could carry it away.
Huan Long Jun activated the jade Dragon Nest, using it to determine Qin Mu's location.
But Qin Mu seemed to have vanished entirely—even the Dragon Nest couldn't sense the True Dragon Lord.
Huan Long Jun was astonished. He poured more power into the Dragon Nest, activating it again, but still couldn't sense the location of the Imperial Token Qin Mu wore.
"Did he hide the True Dragon Lord? No, no—no matter where it's hidden, it can't sever the connection between the True Dragon Lord and the Dragon Nest!"
He activated the Dragon Nest repeatedly, yet still couldn't sense Qin Mu's position.
Sweat beaded on Huan Long Jun's forehead. Qin Mu had "kidnapped" over a dozen of his dragons, all of them extremely powerful. The red flood dragon belonging to the Dragon King of the Dragon Gate Sect was practically a child compared to his prized dragons—these were ones he had raised with his life's blood, each with astonishing combat power!
If Qin Mu actually got away with them, the loss went without saying.
On top of that, his purpose in coming here was to find the main dragon vein of the Yan Kang Kingdom. If he couldn't eliminate the main vein, how could he show his face back in the Upper Heavens?
"It seems I'll have to take out my Golden Dragon Vat and perform a ritual to locate my dragons!"
Huan Long Jun reached into his Gluttony Pouch—but grabbed nothing. His face instantly turned ashen.
He had given his Gluttony Pouch to Qin Mu to refine pills and feed the dragons—so of course it was now in Qin Mu's hands!
His Golden Dragon Vat was inside that Gluttony Pouch!
"This honest-looking brat..."
Huan Long Jun ground his teeth together with a grating screech, sparks flying from the friction: "Next time I meet someone with an honest face, I'll tear them limb from limb first! You think just because you took my Gluttony Pouch, I can't find you? How naive!"
Huan Long Jun raised his hand and yanked out a large clump of hair from his head. His hair was curly—every strand twisted and bent, not a single one straight.
Not only that, but his hair had branches—each strand had four offshoots, split across two points in the middle.
And when the hairs were pulled from their follicles, the roots made yawning sounds, like little baby dragons opening their mouths to breathe, sleepy-eyed.
Huan Long Jun muttered incantations under his breath. After a moment, he blew a breath over the curly hairs in his palm. The hairs floated up from his hand, came alive in the air, and landed on the ground, transforming into little dragons.
These little dragons grew with the wind, quickly swelling into black flood dragons two to three zhang long—slender bodies, slender legs, slender necks, long thin limbs—and they scattered wildly across the mountains.
"You're not in the air, so you can't have gotten far."
Huan Long Jun's expression shifted uncertainly. He tore another clump of hair from his head and did the same, sending hundreds of slender-waisted black flood dragons flying into the distance.
He pulled several more clumps, nearly stripping his head bald, before finally stopping.
Several thousand black flood dragons moved at incredible speed, each one covering a square li of territory, quickly forming a search path thousands of li wide as they swept forward.
These black flood dragons would sniff out dragon qi. No matter how carefully Qin Mu hid the Imperial Token, it was useless—as long as he had flood dragons or the Dragon Qilin by his side, these black flood dragons would catch the scent and find his trail!
"No one has ever dared deceive me like this. When I find you, I'll make you wish you were dead but couldn't die!"
In Jiangyin Commandery, Qin Mu looked at the wooden box and still felt uneasy. He said: "Is putting the Imperial Token here really enough to fool Huan Long Jun? He took away the Dragon Nest, and the Imperial Token is the True Dragon Lord born from the nest—it's very spiritual!"
"Ah bah! Ah ah ah?"
The one carrying the wooden box was a sturdy old man, his face weathered by wind and frost. He waved his hands in gestures, grinned widely, and his mouth was empty of a tongue.
Qin Mu nodded: "I know. How could I doubt Grandpa Mute's skills? I'm just worried that if the box can't block the Dragon Nest's sensing, Huan Long Jun will track us down. Huan Long Jun is a god of the Upper Heavens, and he raises dragons exceptionally well—he's extremely formidable!"
Just now, while fleeing, he had spotted a silver boat streaking across the sky like a silver shuttle. He quickly called out "Grandpa Mute," and then saw the silver boat turn back. Sure enough, Mute was aboard.
Qin Mu quickly explained the situation, and Mute put away the flying boat. The boat shrank into a pile of silver pellets that dropped into the wooden box, and he gestured for Qin Mu to put the Imperial Token in the box as well.
"Ah." Mute said casually.
"Grandpa Mute, you must not underestimate him."
Qin Mu's expression was grave, feeling that Mute was being a bit careless. He said: "By the way, the Village Chief said you went to chase a ship. What ship? Did you catch it? I also encountered a ship, and I even saw my father on it."
The smile on Mute's face vanished. He looked dejected, carrying the wooden box as he walked forward.
Qin Mu quickly caught up with him, saying: "Grandpa Mute didn't find that ship?"
Mute remained downcast, gesturing to explain that the ship had gone to a world he couldn't enter, and he had been beaten back by that world's strong experts.
After a moment, a startled but delighted voice came from ahead: "Qin Renhuang, what are you doing here? That Dragon Qilin of yours is truly remarkable—it actually ran ahead of us!"
Qin Mu followed the sound and was taken aback. He saw Wang Muran, Long Yu, and Mu Qingdai sitting atop a large deer, travel-worn as they made their way toward him.
The Dragon Qilin puffed up with pride, its tail shooting straight up like a flagpole as it cast a condescending glance at the great deer from Little Jade Capital.
That great deer's eyes bulged wide, its mouth hanging open. Its little tail, which had been raised, immediately pressed flat against its rear, tucked tight, showing deep reverence.
When the great deer saw the flood dragons of all sizes around Qin Mu, all following the Dragon Qilin, its reverence deepened even further.
Qin Mu was surprised: "It took you three days just to get here?"
In the past three days, he had gone from the capital to the Taibai Sword Sect, then from the Taibai Sword Sect across eight or nine thousand li straight to the heart of the Great Wasteland, and then run all the way back!
But if he said that out loud, these three probably wouldn't believe him anyway.
—Well, regarding the "stupid d*ck" that appeared in the previous chapter, that was absolutely not the author's intention. The author's intention was "kill." This damn input method had a glitch. The author swears he never uses foul language!
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