Chapter 474: The Evil Existence
Ban Gongcuo stood at the center of the mirror and looked around, seeing cross-sections on every side. The fragments of the other mirrors were like pieces of shattered, transparent continents, with insurmountable distances between them.
This mirror was a rare treasure, one he had obtained from the Great Ruins. The world inside the mirror could overlap with the real world without being detected, and its only flaw was that one could not use divine powers or techniques within it.
In the past, Ban Gongcuo had always used this treasure as a means of escape, never imagining that he himself would one day be trapped inside the mirror.
Now escape was impossible. Qin Mu had severed the ropes, and his only path was to leap out of the mirror—but the moment he did, Qin Mu would surely run him through with a single thrust of his sword.
"Lord Qin isn't trying to kill me, but rather to capture me for a talk?"
Ban Gongcuo abandoned the idea of escaping and tested the waters: "Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Qin Mu looked at Ban Gongcuo in the mirror and said with a mix of amusement and exasperation: "How could I have had the chance? The moment we met, you had to show off your strength and even tried to beat me to death, so I had no choice but to fight back. Actually, when we first met, didn't I say that it is a joy to have friends come from afar? You should have known then that I came to catch up with you, not to kill you. So why did you have to make things so difficult for yourself?"
Ban Gongcuo nearly spat blood. This fellow had clearly said "a friend comes from afar, why don't you crawl out and meet your death"—when had he ever said anything about joy?
However, this was not the time to argue about that. His life was currently in this young man's hands, so he had better go along with his wishes.
"Lord Qin is noble and magnanimous, with a broad mind—I have always admired that. This little brother was only joking with you, wanting to witness the Lord's might and majesty. Now that I have seen it, it is truly extraordinary. I am convinced and full of admiration."
Ban Gongcuo in the mirror wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, sat down cross-legged, and smiled: "Since the Lord has come from afar, what is it you wish to discuss?"
"About the deity behind you."
Qin Mu raised the mirror, his face full of smiles, and said: "The National Teacher and I would very much like to meet him, to pay our respects to this sacred predecessor. I wonder if the Great Venerable could give us the opportunity?"
Ban Gongcuo's expression changed drastically.
The deity behind him was the one that appeared on the altar when he performed the Soul-Worshipping Shamanic Art!
Qin Mu asking about the whereabouts of that deity clearly meant he was not planning to pay respects to a sacred predecessor, but rather to gather forces to eliminate this deity!
"Lord Qin, His Majesty the Human Sovereign, how could I possibly know such an existence?"
Ban Gongcuo quickly forced a smile: "You know my abilities well. Someone as lowly and insignificant as I am—Lord Qin could defeat two of me with one hand—so how could I possibly know a deity? As for the deity's whereabouts, that is even less something that a weak existence at my level could know! Lord, please see clearly!"
Qin Mu held the mirror shard in one hand and idly poked his sword into the sand with the other, saying casually: "The Great Venerable says he doesn't know the deity, which is naturally a lie. If you didn't know the deity, how could you have summoned people from the Upper Firmament to deal with me? How could you have lured out Xu Sheng Hua? If you didn't know the deity, how could you recognize the True Heaven Old Mother? Great Venerable, neither you nor I are three-year-old children. An honest man doesn't speak in riddles. You indeed don't have the qualifications to know a deity, but the person behind you does, and he should be quite close to you. When you perform the Soul-Worshipping Shamanic Art, a phantom of a deity appears behind you. That deity should be your master or grandmaster, am I right?"
Ban Gongcuo looked at the sword poking into the sand, his expression shifting between light and dark. Suddenly he stood up and paced back and forth inside the mirror, unable to make a decision.
The world all said he was the founder of the Loulan Golden Palace, but they didn't know there was someone else behind it.
That deity indeed had a deep connection with him. In the past, the deity had founded the Loulan Golden Palace, but by a twist of fate, the Golden Palace had fallen into Ban Gongcuo's hands.
There were many unsavory stories hidden in that history.
"He is my master."
Ban Gongcuo stopped walking and looked up at Qin Mu outside the mirror, saying: "You guessed correctly. My ability to contact the Upper Firmament and to recognize the True Heaven Old Mother is indeed related to him. However, I advise you not to go looking for him. He is too evil!"
The corners of his eyes twitched violently, and he said in a low voice: "Lord Qin should know that I am evil enough myself, but compared to him, I am but a small witch before a great one. I am his disciple, but every time I activate the Soul-Worshipping Shamanic Art, I need to borrow his power. Do you know? Every time I use this shamanic art, I lose a considerable amount of my lifespan! Heh heh, even toward his own disciple he is like this, let alone others! That is why I am reluctant to use this shamanic art."
Qin Mu was genuinely shocked. Ban Gongcuo was actually saying that someone else was evil? That was absolutely absurd, impossible to believe!
In all the world, when it came to evil, who could surpass Ban Gongcuo, who had poisoned the entire grassland and killed countless herdsmen?
"I don't know his true name either, only his title."
Ban Gongcuo said: "Others call him the Wei Witch God. I think his surname should be Wei, but people of our lineage rarely reveal their true names and surnames, so his surname might not be real either."
"The Wei Witch God?"
Qin Mu was taken aback. Wei was indeed a surname, but the Wei in Wei Witch God might not be a surname. Wei, when broken down by its characters, is composed of "ear" and "ghost." Could it be that this Wei character is not a surname but a race?
If that were the case, then the Wei Witch God's race should be the ghost race.
"However, if the Lord wishes to find him, I'm afraid it won't be possible."
Ban Gongcuo said: "He comes from another world. He had already left this world as early as my first life."
Qin Mu carefully studied Ban Gongcuo's face in the mirror. Ban Gongcuo appeared frank and sincere, not like he was lying, and said: "Lord Qin need not doubt me. I have no reason to hide anything from you. I have fallen into your hands, and my life and death are in your control. Even if I deceived you, I would gain nothing from it."
Qin Mu thought for a moment, then laughed: "Great Venerable, you're trying to deceive me again."
Ban Gongcuo said helplessly: "How am I deceiving you?"
"If he truly left, then how can you still perform the Soul-Worshipping Shamanic Art? Isn't that phantom behind you the projection of his primordial spirit?"
Qin Mu smiled: "Do you think he has the power to project his primordial spirit from another world? If he had such an ability, the gods of the Upper Realm wouldn't have gone to such trouble to first petrify their physical bodies and send them over, then order the gods of the Upper Firmament to activate the world-destroying divine artifact."
Ban Gongcuo's expression immediately changed.
Qin Mu looked at the youth in the mirror who appeared several years younger than himself, and said leisurely: "Moreover, he can sense your summons at any time and project himself over to help you worship others to death. I don't think a deity would be so idle, nor do I think this Soul-Worshipping Shamanic Art works that way. What if one day he suddenly gets a whim and doesn't project over? Wouldn't you be done for? Great Venerable, we are both smart people. Give me the truth, and I can let you live."
Ban Gongcuo's expression shifted between light and dark, then suddenly he burst into loud laughter, clapping his hands in admiration: "As expected of Lord Qin, the man I regard as my greatest rival in life. It is indeed not easy to deceive you. Fine, you're right. He hasn't left. He did intend to leave this world, but I ambushed him, severely wounded him, sealed him away, and then stripped his primordial spirit!"
Qin Mu's eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
Ban Gongcuo said smugly, laughing: "Like master, like disciple. Everything he taught me, I learned completely, and I surpassed the teacher! But this old bastard never taught me the method of becoming a god. I was already old by then, and in a few years I would die of old age, yet he didn't care about our master-disciple bond at all. Hmph, the old bastard wanted me dead, so I decided to make him die first! He was finally about to leave this world, and the Upper Realm sent down the divine light of guidance. I struck precisely at the moment he stepped into that light."
A chill ran down Qin Mu's spine.
Ban Gongcuo laughed: "I used the divine power he taught me to disrupt the guiding light, splitting it in two! Lord Qin, you are also proficient in teleportation divine powers. If, at the moment your teleportation divine power erupted, someone split it in two, what would happen to you?"
Qin Mu's heart twitched violently, and he said: "I would be split in two as well."
"The guiding light is not exactly the same as teleportation divine power, but it is similar—except it separates the physical body from the primordial spirit."
Ban Gongcuo said smugly, leisurely: "I used shamanic arts to sacrifice my disciple's blood, splitting the guiding light in two. My master, the Wei Witch God's physical body and primordial spirit were instantly separated and fell out of the guiding light. This was killing two birds with one stone. My disciple had long wished for me to die soon so he could inherit my position, and with this one move, I took care of both of them. The Wei Witch God was left with only his primordial spirit and no physical body. The moment he lost his body, I planted soul worms on him and took control of his primordial spirit!"
Qin Mu's hair stood on end, and he sighed: "Great Venerable, you say the Wei Witch God is evil, but in my view, the Wei Witch God may not be a match for you in evil."
Ban Gongcuo shook his head: "You're flattering me. I can't compare to him. He is truly evil. After I trapped him, his physical body still didn't die, and his primordial spirit was intact as well. Several times he nearly broke through my seal. It was by using his primordial spirit that I created the Soul-Worshipping Shamanic Art. The Lord wouldn't have guessed, would he? In my first life, I was also exceptionally talented, one of the top existences of that era, a powerhouse close to godhood. Perhaps it was because I reincarnated too many times that my ambition was worn down, but in those days, my brilliance was no less than Lord Qin's."
Qin Mu nodded: "That is true. The Great Venerable's abilities are extraordinary. Although you have learned the methods of other sects and holy lands, your shamanic arts are your strongest means. And that method was accumulated in your first life. The techniques you learned from various sects in your later lives were merely icing on the cake, doing little to enhance your actual strength. If you had focused on refining your shamanic arts, your achievements would have been far greater than they are now."
Ban Gongcuo's expression turned desolate, and he said gloomily: "What use is it to refine shamanic arts to the utmost? Can it still not let me become a god? Once I realized this, I began to seek another path, trying to extract the way of becoming a god from the methods of other sects and holy lands. Unfortunately, these holy lands also lacked such means, and I could not integrate what I had learned across my several lives. In the end, it was Lord Qin, the man I regarded as my mortal enemy, who publicly announced the method of becoming a god, giving me hope. It makes me sigh with emotion, not knowing what to say."
He stared blankly into space, then suddenly said: "If I had met you in my first life, perhaps we wouldn't be in this adversarial situation now. Perhaps we would have been friends."
Qin Mu smiled sheepishly: "Great Venerable, don't joke. I'm not evil at all. Where did you put the Wei Witch God's physical body? And where is his primordial spirit suppressed?"
Ban Gongcuo said seriously: "If I tell you, you won't kill me and will let me go?"
Qin Mu also said seriously: "I can swear an oath to Lord Tu Bo!"
Ban Gongcuo shook his head: "Lord, don't joke."
Qin Mu burst into laughter, waving his hand: "If not swearing to Lord Tu Bo, then let us swear to the Wei Witch God's primordial spirit. If you break your oath and give me false information and false locations, may you drop dead the moment you see him! And I will do the same—if I don't let you go, may I drop dead the moment I see him!"
—Next chapter around nine o'clock. This time my daughter's cold is quite severe, she has a fever several times a day, it's exhausting. Around nine o'clock, the second chapter will definitely be updated!!