Chapter 495: Human Calculations Cannot Match Heaven's Plans
Beneath the cliff, two gateways led to two different worlds, and the figures within each gate harbored their own misgivings about one another.
This was not their first encounter, nor their first clash. Many years ago, they had already fought—back in the era when the Age of the Previous Emperor was about to be buried.
Afterwards, they had crossed blades several more times, though by then it was already the Age of the Founding Emperor!
Even here at this very cliff, they had engaged in several long-distance duels across the void.
Now, both of them had already departed this desolate, lifeless world. What appeared here were merely their projections. Their cultivation realms were too high, their power too great—without a stroke of fortune, they could not enter this world in the flesh.
This world no longer possessed any living beings. Nothing could survive here.
This was the Great Ruin of the Age of the Previous Emperor.
A place even more inhospitable than the Great Ruin of the Age of the Founding Emperor.
In the Great Ruin, at least there were stone statues formed from the gods, offering protection to a region and allowing living beings to survive. But here, there was only the vast desert. When night fell and darkness invaded, there was nowhere at all to take shelter.
As early as thirty to forty thousand years ago, all living beings had vanished from this place, leaving only the gods.
In the early period of the Age of the Founding Emperor, the gods here had departed one after another, traveling to other worlds. These two were the last gods to leave.
"Woman of the Bai family from forty thousand years ago, have you also come seeking the one who left his writings?"
The one-armed demon god within the stone gate stood tall and imposing, the long blade on his back humming and ringing. His blade intent seemed capable of piercing through time and space, cutting into another world. He sneered coldly: "It seems you too have received word of his emergence and have come to seek him. I long ago sensed that something was wrong with your sword technique—it surpassed the Age of the Previous Emperor, and even surpassed the Age of the Founding Emperor. I never expected that you are indeed connected to the Heavenly Demon Cult Leader!"
The woman within the divine light on the cliff face trembled slightly. A tremendous joy welled up from the depths of her heart, and she paid no heed to his hostility: "He truly has come? The one who crossed through time—he truly appears here?"
"You cannot stop me!"
The one-armed demon god within the stone gate was incomparably proud, standing firm within the gateway, and said: "I want to kill him, and you want to stop me. We have fought for many years, and in the end it has all been a muddled account—neither of us can do anything to the other. The reason I have kept this severed arm is so that one day I might find him, to avenge the loss of my arm, to avenge the humiliation of my dao heart. Unless I can break his sword technique with my blade technique, I will never be able to vent my feelings and take my blade dao one step further! For this day, I have waited nearly forty thousand years!"
The woman within the divine light on the cliff face stepped out of the radiance and appeared on the desert sands. She was but a faint shadow, and said softly: "You cannot reach this world. Whatever you say is useless."
The one-armed demon god within the stone gate turned around. His blood-red cape fluttered, covering the entire gateway. Suddenly, where the cape parted, a beam of blade light sliced through the barrier between the two worlds!
His blade intent was vast and terrifying. With this single strike, he actually cut open the barrier between the two worlds!
The blade light crackled and hissed as it surged forth from the stone gate. The desert ahead immediately kicked up two waves of sand, with a sheer cliff rising between them—towering thousands of zhang high, stretching for hundreds of li!
Just as he was about to set foot into this world, suddenly an invisible force of heaven and earth sent him flying backward.
The young woman walked back into the divine light and vanished into the cliff face: "With your power, it is very difficult to pass through in the flesh. You might as well give up on that idea."
The one-armed demon god within the stone gate sheathed his blade and also turned to leave. The stone gate was slowly collapsing: "I will return to this world. A mere barrier between worlds cannot stop me!"
Dragon Qilin carried Qin Mu and the box through that cloud. Just moments ago it had still been daylight, yet the instant they passed through the cloud, the sky became pitch black. In the darkness, only the roar of a waterfall could be heard. Qin Mu followed the sound and saw faint lights coming into view on the cliff face in the night.
They had returned to the Great Ruin, and had come back to the source of the Yong River.
It was still that natural chasm that cut the Great Ruin into east and west. This cliff with its tremendous drop divided the Great Ruin into two halves. This was also the origin of the Yong River. The waterfall that cascaded down from the cliff face—the source of its water was quite worth pondering.
"The water of the Yong River might flow out from several other worlds. Perhaps one could enter different worlds through the cracks in this cliff. Maybe there are extraordinary stories waiting there too..."
Qin Mu gazed at the cliff, and suddenly his heart skipped a beat. He saw a headless figure standing in a crack in the cliff!
Xing Han!
He broke out in goosebumps. Xing Han was guarding the entrance to that yellow-sand desert world, waiting for him to walk right into the trap!
That yellow-sand desert world was a world with no living beings—a completely dead world.
This fellow had actually removed his own head, leaving his headless body to stand guard there. Presumably, his head and eyes were still flying around in the sky of the yellow-sand desert, searching for Qin Mu and the others' whereabouts!
Dragon Qilin also noticed this scene and silently descended. The box emitted a faint glow, pushing back the darkness and protecting them.
Finally, Dragon Qilin landed. The box crept stealthily down from the dragon's back and lay flat on the ground.
Dragon Qilin did its utmost to shrink its body, then climbed onto the box. Qin Mu also stood on the box. The large box took a step forward, quietly approaching the river.
The river here was the source of the Yong River. Because it was not very wide and the water flow was not great, it could not yet be called a river.
The box entered the water. Its several legs gently paddled through the water, swimming silently downstream.
Qin Mu let out a breath of relief. Xing Han had placed his head in that other world, which also meant he had lost the ability to monitor this side. It would be very difficult for him to discover them. As long as they went further away, the chance of being found became extremely slim.
Just then, suddenly—dong!—the box bumped into a reef in the water. The sound was not loud, but in the dead of night, it sounded extremely harsh.
They had not yet moved far from the waterfall, and were still not far from where Xing Han was.
Qin Mu looked back and saw that Xing Han, standing in the crack of the cliff wall, showed no reaction at all. His heart stirred slightly, and he laughed: "I was too cautious. I forgot that Xing Han's head is not here. He has no ears and no eyes. Even if we walked right past him in broad daylight, he could neither see nor hear us."
Dragon Qilin also let out a breath of relief and laughed: "The waterfall is so loud here, there's no need to worry about him hearing us... Cult Leader?"
Qin Mu's expression suddenly changed drastically, revealing an extremely shocked look. In the crack of the cliff, Xing Han's headless body turned around. His neck appeared very long, and on either side of the neck was an ear.
His entire body was a divine-like physical form, radiating divine light, appearing quite conspicuous in the darkness.
Xing Han had cut off his ears and planted them on his neck!
At this moment, the two ears shook in the wind and grew even larger than the ears of the Loulan Golden Elephant!
Qin Mu made a prompt decision and used the divine-sense voice transmission of the Skyfeather Clan: "Run! Don't take the water route! Get to shore!"
The box swam slowly in the water, but ran faster on land. In the darkness, they had to rely on the box to ward off the darkness, so the box's speed was their speed.
The box was silent in the water, but would make footsteps on shore. However, since Xing Han had already heard the noise, escaping onto land became the best choice.
In the crack of the cliff, that headless body suddenly whooshed into the air, charging straight toward the position where Qin Mu and the others were!
At the same time, an eyeball was flying rapidly out from the crack. It had just emerged from the crack when it suddenly halted in midair. Divine light blazed from the eye, illuminating the surroundings to first determine its position.
After the divine eye confirmed its position, a beam of light shone down from above, illuminating a patch of ground covering about a hundred mu, and swept forward!
"Damn it..."
Qin Mu's heart turned ice-cold. The box could ward off the darkness, but it was not particularly fast. In the water, it was even slower, and they still had not swum to shore. But they absolutely could not abandon the box!
Dong!
The headless Xing Han landed on the water's surface, not far from them. He tilted the ears on his neck, standing motionless on the water. Those ears grew even larger.
Suddenly, a pillar of light shone down from the sky, illuminating the headless Xing Han. Then the light moved forward, sweeping across—shua!—and illuminated Qin Mu and Dragon Qilin, who were tensely perched on the box.
Qin Mu broke into a smile. The box beneath his feet also stopped, not moving an inch. Qin Mu said with a gentle smile: "Senior Brother Xing Han, what if I help you rid your physical body of its hidden ailment? Would you let me live?"
On Xing Han's neck, the two ears suddenly flapped and flew up into the air. The eye in midair also flew forward on its own.
"Your shameless demeanor truly surprises me. You even have the nerve to bring that up."
Xing Han's voice came through. A head flew over from the darkness behind him and landed on his neck.
As this head began to speak, the two ears also flew over and attached themselves to the ear holes.
Another eye flew over, but did not enter his eye socket. Instead, together with the previous eye, it hovered to the left and right above Qin Mu, monitoring his every move.
Xing Han raised his head and said coldly: "Now I can answer you. No. Great Physician Qin is too cunning. The moment I let my guard down, you even stole my box. I'm worried that if I let you treat my illness, you might steal my life as well! A person this cunning can only put my mind at ease as a corpse."
On the river surface, a thick fog rolled in. The air here was heavy with moisture, and fog frequently flooded the area.
Qin Mu saw the fog and his heart stirred. He laughed: "Senior Brother Xing Han is too cautious. Actually, you are not a bad person—you are merely too obsessed with immortality. You probably haven't been to Yankang recently, have you? I have already perfected the Divine Bridge and established the mathematical model of Divine Bridge space. As long as one cultivates it, one can complete the Divine Bridge. By now, practically everyone in Yankang knows about it. Only you are still in the dark, still thinking of using other people's bodies and primordial spirits to extend your own life."
Xing Han was just about to make his move to eliminate him, but upon hearing this, he paused briefly and sneered: "You lie! If you truly had such a technique, why would you not keep it to yourself instead of spreading it abroad? You are the Heavenly Demon Cult Leader—of course you would first teach this technique to your cult followers to strengthen your cult's power! Moreover, the Great Venerable has been by my side for six or seven days now. Why has he never mentioned this to me?"
Qin Mu laughed heartily: "The Great Venerable still wants to use your hand to eliminate me, and wants you and Wei Wu God to destroy each other. Why would he tell you this? Besides, keeping it to myself... you underestimate the breadth of vision of this Heavenly Sage Cult Leader."
He continued: "If you seek immortality, you can completely abandon the things in the box, and you can also abandon other people's bodies. You only need to learn my three methods—the Magpie Bridge Technique, the Mystic Guidance Technique, and the Divine Crossing Technique. Once the Divine Bridge is complete, you can cross it and enter the Heavenly Palace, becoming an immortal, undying deity. To be honest, someone has already walked ahead of you. The Yankang National Preceptor has already become a deity."
The fog grew thicker and thicker, swallowing them whole.
In midair, Xing Han's two eyes approached from left and right, still staring fixedly at him. Even as the fog surged forth, he could still see Qin Mu with perfect clarity.
Xing Han's voice came through the fog, and he sighed: "To have such breadth of vision is indeed remarkable. I underestimated you. However, if you think I only seize other people's bodies for the sake of immortality, you also underestimate me. My goal is to become a true god—a genuine deity. So I will still kill people, and I will still seize other people's bodies. Your mathematical model of Divine Bridge space is very useful to me. I thank you. However, since you have already spread it abroad, then..."
Qin Mu's eyes blazed with sharp light. Suddenly his body sank heavily, and his primordial energy erupted, transforming into countless runic patterns that wrapped around him, Dragon Qilin, and the box together!
"Then what use is there in keeping you alive?"
Xing Han's two eyes blazed with light, shredding the runes around Qin Mu. But Qin Mu broke into a smile. He drew his blades with both hands and swung them in a frenzy of wild slashes. With every slash, the crushed runes in the air lit up again.
Blade light swirled all around him, front and back. Even Xing Han could not help but admire him, and laughed: "Your skills are not bad—no worse than mine back in the day."
His physical body charged in, just about to strike and kill Qin Mu, when suddenly the world spun around him. His expression changed drastically: "A trap!"
Shua—
The two eyes vanished. His physical body relied on his eyes to see. Now that his eyes had been teleported away by Qin Mu, the scene before him suddenly became a world spinning and whirling at tremendous speed!
"Uwaa—"
Xing Han opened his mouth and vomited. He forcibly activated his primordial spirit to suppress the topsy-turvy vision. He felt as though his own body was spinning too—but that was merely an illusion brought on by his eyes spinning!
"Back in the day? Xing Han, back in the day you weren't even fit to carry my shoes!" Qin Mu laughed heartily as more runes lit up around him.
Xing Han heard his voice and immediately charged toward it. The moment he moved his feet, he knew something was wrong. The next instant, with a thunderous boom, his entire body shot out dozens of li and crashed into a cliff face!
His two divine eyes were connected to his vision. Now that the eyes were spinning at tremendous speed, his sense of space had completely vanished—he could not even tell direction!
Qin Mu's primordial energy erupted, runes appeared once more, and he once again used his teleportation divine ability, vanishing along with the box and Dragon Qilin!
"I can teleport Xing Han's eyes dozens of li away, but carrying Dragon Qilin and the box, I can only teleport at most four li. Beyond four li, I just need to make no sound at all, take the opportunity to dive to the bottom of the river, and I can slip away quietly..."
As Qin Mu was precisely calculating during the teleportation, suddenly—boom!—a thunderous crash. His teleportation divine ability failed, and together with the box and Dragon Qilin, he slammed violently into a suddenly appearing Skeleton Mountain, smashing countless bones from that great mountain into the sky in all directions!
This commotion immediately stunned him, leaving him at a loss.
A gesticulating skeleton flew past him, and the skeleton called out innocently: "Who's so blind as to not watch where they're going?"
—I really don't want to write a big chapter of over four thousand words, really. Zhai Zhu has raised his blade multiple times, wanting to split this chapter into chapters of three thousand or two thousand words each, but he could never bear to cut it apart. Sigh, Zhai Zhu still put down his blade. Who says I'm not just too kind-hearted? Seeing this, won't you put down the butcher's knife in your hand? Come on, put down the butcher's knife and click to vote!