Chapter 436: Substitute Death
In the city of Fengdu, one deity after another flew over, gathering around the King of Hell, looking down at the bridge. When they saw the whirlpool, many deities' expressions changed drastically. They were about to make a move when the King of Hell raised his hand and said in a deep voice: "No need, let him go."
The many deities of Fengdu were all quite puzzled.
"The divine ability under the bridge is a Netherworld ability. The Netherworld comes to our Fengdu to snatch people—how can we tolerate this?"
One deity said: "If we let the Netherworld run rampant, before long, Fengdu will no longer be defensible! King of Hell, let us counterattack the Netherworld!"
The King of Hell shook his head, his voice somewhat strange, saying: "That person uses Netherworld abilities, but he is not a deity of the Netherworld—he is a visitor from Wuyou Village. I have seen this face before, very similar to that person... No need to pursue the matter."
Beneath the dark cloak, his gaze was like a candle flame, burning faintly: "People from Wuyou Village have appeared. A dream of the former dynasty, I have been waiting for the old swallow to return, to build a new nest upon the old. But alas, the old swallow did not come—instead, a new swallow arrived."
The Village Chief said: "The swallow that returns seems familiar. Old swallow, new swallow—hard to tell apart."
The King of Hell looked down at him, his cloak fluttering and churning above the city of Fengdu, then he vanished into the city as his figure receded.
The Village Chief looked down at the bridge and sighed: "I thought I would be reunited with the Medicine Master and the others, but I didn't expect Mu'er to summon them back. I wonder if their physical bodies have died. If their bodies are dead, they will most likely have to reunite here in Fengdu... Master, what is the story with the river under the Bridge of Helplessness?"
"Legend says this is a river of the Netherworld. We call it the River of Forgetfulness."
The previous generation's Human Emperor came to his side, leaned over to look under the bridge, and said: "There are many stories here, too many to explain in a short time. The river often contains demonic monsters, and these monsters also come from the Netherworld—extremely terrifying. The powerful one who just used Netherworld abilities to forcibly snatch people found his way here through the River of Forgetfulness, using his abilities to seize people. This person who used Netherworld abilities—you should be quite familiar with him, right?"
He looked at the Village Chief's face, his eyes flickering, and said: "Just now you were the closest, you heard that person's voice, and you did not move to stop him."
The Village Chief nodded, his voice filled with pride: "He is my disciple, the current Human Emperor! How about that, you old wretch—my chosen disciple is stronger than yours, isn't he?"
"Pah! Isn't my chosen disciple just you, you fool?"
"Old wretch, your life is mine!"
...
In the Shenduan Mountain Range, within the Daluotian star force field, the Medicine Master, the Cripple, Kun King, and others suddenly opened their eyes. The Deaf Man suddenly said: "Damn it, my physical body is dead—I can no longer hold my primordial spirit!"
Kun King and the Gray Immortal also woke up one after another, their expressions changing drastically. Their primordial spirits had been separated from their physical bodies for too long, to the point that their bodies were beginning to die!
The reason the Flood Dragon King deity had sensed that they had no breath earlier was precisely because their bodies had died, and thus there was no breath.
"Mu'er, how long can you hold on?"
The Medicine Master hurriedly stood up, taking out various herbs and silver needles, his expression tense as he said: "If you can hold on for a bit longer, I can extend our lives and bring our bodies back to life!"
Qin Mu stood before the Gate of Inheriting Heaven, continuing to borrow the divine power of the flood dragons and the Flood Dragon King deity to maintain the Soul-Pulling Charm, saying: "Grandpa Medicine Master, rest assured, I can hold on for a few days and nights!"
"It won't take that long."
The Medicine Master took out a beehive and said: "I will first use Soul-Borer Worms to connect the physical bodies and primordial spirits, then use poison to nourish the bodies, sever the connection between the spirits and Fengdu and the Netherworld, and then raise Substitute-Life Worms to die in our place."
He tossed up the beehive. The beehive floated in the air, rapidly growing larger. Inside each honeycomb cell were various insect eggs of different sizes and strange seeds. The milky-white insect eggs each contained different kinds of worms.
The Medicine Master rapidly cultivated poisons and refined medicines, having everyone swallow one insect egg after another. His various techniques were unpredictable, striking everyone's bodies, and soon heartbeats could be heard coming from within them.
The Medicine Master then rapidly inserted silver needles all over their bodies. The Deaf Man looked at the insect eggs with some trepidation, but the Medicine Master pinched his mouth open and stuffed one down his throat.
The Deaf Man's face turned ashen.
The Medicine Master rapidly dug pits, took out several seeds and planted them. After a moment, the seeds sprouted and grew from the ground into enormous flower buds. One huge flower after another spun, their petals rotating outward as they bloomed.
"Everyone, get into the flowers!"
Everyone entered the flowers. The Cripple said: "Quack doctor, what kind of flower is this? It feels fleshy to the touch."
The Medicine Master's expression was tense as he said: "This is not a flower—it is a Substitute-Life Worm. Don't move. Let the Substitute-Life Worms swallow you whole."
"Substitute-Life Worm?"
Everyone was momentarily stunned, but then they saw the huge flowers suddenly contract, their petals closing up, wrapping everyone tightly within the flower chambers.
Indeed, the flower was not a flower but a bizarre worm. After swallowing everyone, the flower buds began to twist and change, gradually growing heads, limbs, and bodies, taking on appearances identical to everyone.
Qin Mu and the others were stunned. These worms that had transformed into people were no different from Kun King, the Medicine Master, and the others, but the bizarre thing was that these worms actually possessed the auras of the Medicine Master, Kun King, and the others—they even simulated their souls and primordial spirits, almost perfectly, making it impossible to tell any difference!
Even more bizarrely, the bodies of the "Medicine Master" and the others were rapidly aging. In an instant, their hair turned white. In the blink of an eye, they went from middle age to old age, and from old age to death.
After a moment, the "Medicine Master" and the others each exhausted their lifespans, fell to the ground dead, and lost all breath, leaving only a pile of corpses.
Qin Mu dispersed the Soul-Pulling Charm. Streams of strange aura surged from somewhere unknown. In the depths of time and space, darkness churned, and then lights appeared within the darkness. A paper boat drifted over. The old man under the horse lantern stood up, holding a lantern, and shone it over the corpses of the "Medicine Master" and the others. From the corpses of the "Medicine Master" and the others, their respective "souls" floated out, seemingly without any consciousness, woodenly following the old man's lantern light onto the paper boat.
The paper boat turned around. The underworld messenger old man hung up the lantern, and the paper boat sailed into the darkness. The strange aura disappeared.
"Alright, we've fooled the underworld messengers!"
Suddenly, the Medicine Master's voice came from underground. The earth bulged, and fleshy worm sacs emerged. The Medicine Master, the Cripple, and the others crawled out of the worm sacs, their bodies covered in sticky liquid.
The Medicine Master removed the silver needles from everyone. Their bodies were still quite weak, and their primordial spirits were still somewhat unstable. The Medicine Master examined them and said: "The Soul-Borer Worms are boring into both the souls and the physical bodies. I need to first regulate your physical bodies and let them revive before you can fully come back to life. I've used up most of my medicinal herbs, and I don't have enough spiritual medicine..."
Qin Mu quickly said: "The Sun Ship has a Pool of Pure Yang that can rapidly restore vitality."
"Then that makes things much easier!"
The Medicine Master breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Let's go soak in the Pool of Pure Yang immediately and quickly nourish our bodies. Those Substitute-Life Worms won't fool the underworld messengers for long."
Everyone hurried to the Sun Ship. Qin Mu knew the way well and led them to the Pool of Pure Yang. They soaked in it, and their bodies' functions gradually recovered, though the pool water also slowly diminished.
Qin Mu saw that everyone was no longer in mortal danger and quickly said: "Everyone, where did your primordial spirits go?"
The Gray Immortal breathed a sigh of relief and said: "During the great battle at the time, the Sun Guardian drove the ship over to support us, but the gods of the Upper Heavens were truly formidable—various divine abilities, techniques, and divine treasures of immense power. Big Sister, Second Brother, and the others fell in battle one after another. The Sun Guardian was also killed aboard the ship, on the verge of death. The National Master activated the Quake Cauldron, intending to destroy everything together, and managed to injure the gods with the shockwave, but a strange thing happened..."
Qin Mu looked puzzled, then suddenly realized something and exclaimed: "The Quake Cauldron blasted through the barrier between another world and Yankang?"
"No."
The Cripple shook his head and said: "It was that the power of the Quake Cauldron was absorbed by the Shenduan Mountain Range."
Qin Mu was dumbfounded.
The Cripple continued: "At the time, I saw that bastard, the Yankang National Master, take out the Quake Cauldron, and I knew things were bad. I immediately carried the Medicine Master and fled, keeping a good distance. Deaf Man, you were closer at the time—you tell him."
The Deaf Man pulled out his two iron ears, washed them in the Pool of Pure Yang, and inserted them back into his ear holes, saying: "When the Quake Cauldron's power erupted, I also knew things were bad. I immediately tried to paint a painting and hide within the painting world to escape this calamity, but the Quake Cauldron's power was truly terrifying. I didn't have time to escape—the painting worlds were annihilated one after another. Just then, an unimaginable power suddenly came from within the Shenduan Mountain Range, absorbing the Quake Cauldron's power. Then, a huge hole was blasted through both the sky and the earth, and on the other side of that hole, another world appeared."
At the time, they were in the midst of fierce battle. The Yankang National Master's reckless strike had frightened everyone out of their wits, but the dramatic change in the Shenduan Mountain Range allowed everyone to escape the disaster.
They didn't have time to examine the situation in the other world before being plunged back into bitter combat. Flower Lord and Yan Star Lord were too powerful—there was no one who could match them. Flower Lord went to attack the Sun Ship, intending to kill Yan Jingjing, and the situation was critical.
Grandmother Si saw that things were going badly, gathered everyone together, set up the Daluotian star formation, forcibly activated the Daluotian Star Grand Formation, and pulled everyone's primordial spirits out of their bodies in one go, intending to fight a primordial spirit battle.
"Then, we entered a strange world."
The Deaf Man stared blankly into space, saying: "Beneath the Shenduan Mountain Range, there is a strange world. It should be, it should be..."
Kun King, who was widely traveled, said: "The internal world of a divine weapon!"
The Deaf Man nodded and said: "In that place, we were all trapped, but we still fought without cease. In the end, all of us were killed. After we died, we sensed a strange power invading that world, and then we saw a bird-headed deity flying over, leading us to Fengdu, saying we were going to meet an old acquaintance. We had just seen the Village Chief when Mu'er pulled us back."
"The Village Chief is in Fengdu?"
Qin Mu was startled, and suddenly his heart ached. He clenched his fists: "Village Chief, I will definitely go to Fengdu and rescue you!"
Even more shocking was that beneath the Shenduan Mountain Range, there was a mysterious power that had blocked the Quake Cauldron's might, and had even pulled their primordial spirits into it. What exactly was this divine weapon? Why was it buried here? Who forged it, and who buried it?
"Speaking of which, the demon god stone statues from the other realm are searching for—it should be that divine weapon! Grandmother Si and the others, along with the primordial spirits of the Upper Heavens' gods, are still inside that divine weapon!"
Just as he thought this, the earth suddenly trembled. Rocks flew through the air in the distance, and a stone statue spun as it burst through the ground, slowly rising. That other-realm demon god stone statue had searched its way here from beneath the earth.
At the same time, vibrations came from the darkness. Qin Mu gazed intently and saw stone statues emerging from the mist, walking toward this direction.
"They've found that divine weapon!" Qin Mu's expression changed drastically.