Chapter 601: Grandma Si's Little Shoes (Third Update!)
That demon god was locked in battle with the great desolate wasteland deity guarding the altar. Though he kept his eyes and ears open on all sides, his enemy was simply too powerful, forcing him to concentrate fully on the fight. When that piece of clothing flew over, he sensed no threatening aura, so he didn't bother to guard against it. By the time the garment draped itself over him and he realized what had happened, it was already too late.
Grandma Si's garment shrank rapidly once it wrapped around him, constricting his chest, squeezing his ribcage violently inward, each rib creaking and cracking under the pressure.
The garment seemed covered in needles, piercing into his flesh, sending waves of intense pain that he could barely endure.
The demon god couldn't catch his breath and hastily shrank his body—as a demon god, controlling one's physical size was naturally a trivial matter. Just then, his opponent swept a sword strike at him, and coincidentally, his shrinking body allowed him to dodge the blow.
But as he shrank, the garment shrank along with him, still strangling him tightly.
"Break for me!"
He expanded his body, but the garment didn't expand with him. The demon god immediately heard the sound of his own ribs snapping!
Not only did his ribs break, but his internal organs were nearly crushed at the same moment.
His chest cavity was squeezed down to the thickness of a thumb, and the garment was filled with silver needles, piercing his entire body, destroying his physical functions. In such a state, expanding his body was truly courting death.
The great desolate wasteland deity dueling him, at the instant his body expanded, thrust a sword through his skull, pinning his primordial spirit dead.
The demon god's eyes bulged wide, blood gushing from his mouth, his voice hoarse: "If I hadn't been wearing this little garment, you couldn't have beaten me..." With that, he breathed his last.
The garment automatically slipped off his corpse and flew back to Grandma Si's side, where it automatically decomposed into strips of cloth and returned to her basket.
Qin Mu looked at the cloth strips in the basket and probed tentatively: "Grandma's dressmaking skills are getting more and more impressive. Where did these cloth strips come from? Why can they restrain a demon god's physical body?"
"The strips are woven from the sinews of gods and demons, plus a few dragon sinews I picked up in the Great Wasteland. Since there wasn't enough, I could only weave them into strips."
Grandma Si smiled: "The key is still the Great Nurturing Demon Sutra—it can stitch these rags together so that demon god couldn't break free."
Qin Mu blinked: "Besides clothes, what else can Grandma make?"
"I can also make two pairs of little shoes. I still have some thousand-layer soles sewn from demon god leather here—more than enough to make two pairs of cloth shoes."
Grandma Si pulled out two pairs of shoe soles, blinked, and smiled: "Put on my little shoes, and I guarantee you'll wish for death but can't die, wish for life but can't live. You won't be able to take them off no matter what. Does Mu'er want to wear Grandma's little shoes?"
"No way! When I was little, you made me wear too many little shoes—my feet got squeezed small!"
As the two were talking, the great desolate wasteland deity guarding the altar called out from afar: "Two fellow cultivators, please come up and join me!"
Qin Mu and Grandma Si ascended the altar. That deity was elegant and handsome, like a jade tree in the wind. When he saw Grandma Si's appearance, he nearly lost his Dao heart, hastily steadying his spirit. He bowed in thanks and said: "So it's Lord Qin. Is this fellow cultivator from the Supreme Heavenly Court? Thank you for your assistance!"
"Senior recognizes me?" Qin Mu was surprised.
That deity smiled: "The Heavenly Master once spoke of the Sect Master."
Qin Mu quickly asked: "Where is the Heavenly Master?"
"Over there!"
The deity raised his hand and pointed into the distance, saying: "The sixth altar from here is where the Heavenly Master guards. I need to stay here to protect this altar and cannot escort the two of you there. Forgive me!"
Qin Mu and Grandma Si took their leave and walked in the direction he indicated. Along the way, they saw other altars also under attack—either demon armies surging toward the altars like tides, or demon gods dueling one-on-one for control of the altars.
Qin Mu and Grandma Si helped where they could; where they couldn't, they went around.
One altar had already fallen into demon hands, and the deity stationed there had presumably been killed. That was unavoidable. This time, Woodcutter Saint had grabbed hold of the demons' vital spot, threatening them with the Floating Heavenly Realm. The demons had no choice but to fight desperately, trying to regain some bargaining chips.
"The Floating Heavenly Realm is this dangerous, yet demons still live here!"
Qin Mu and Grandma Si saw many demon god corpses standing tall in certain forbidden zones, where tombstones of varying heights stood everywhere, inscribed with demon script—presumably meant to ward off the natural disasters here.
The demon people lived within the divine treasures of these demon god corpses. It seemed that when disasters struck, some demon gods offered up their own bodies so their clansmen could survive.
"Grandma, why do natural disasters occur in this demon world? Where do these disasters come from?" Qin Mu was puzzled, looking up at the broken planet in the sky. The planet was enormous, moving, stirring up more disasters, triggering earth, water, wind, and fire.
In the sky, there were also fragments of stars, like fiery serpents falling from the heavens, crashing into unknown places.
Grandma Si shook her head: "How would I know? Perhaps this is a true natural disaster, or perhaps gods and demons used great divine power to move these planets here to cast calamities. As for the exact truth, perhaps only beings like Binduluo would know the reason."
Finally, they arrived at the sixth altar.
Qin Mu and Grandma Si looked from afar and saw that the altar's divine and demonic aura was divided into black and white, interweaving above the altar like two great fish swimming in a circle, head to tail.
"Binduluo has arrived!"
Qin Mu's heart tightened: "I wonder if Luli has come as well? If Luli is also here, then Woodcutter Saint is in danger!"
He looked toward the altar and could see many different divine treasures, but besides Woodcutter Saint's and Binduluo's divine treasures at the top of the altar, he didn't see any divine treasures belonging to those who had stepped into the Heavenly Palace or Demon God Palace.
Those who had followed Binduluo up the altar were not Luli, but some disciples who hadn't yet cultivated into demon gods—not much of a threat.
However, below the altar there were several divine treasures of gods and demons. Presumably Binduluo was also worried that Woodcutter Saint might go mad and truly blood-sacrifice the Floating Heavenly Realm, so he left the demon gods who accompanied him below the altar.
Qin Mu relaxed and walked toward the sixth altar together with Grandma Si.
When they reached the foot of the altar, Qin Mu saw the Black Tiger God and was overjoyed, waving at him.
The Black Tiger God ignored him, holding his twin hammers, staring nervously at the two demon gods across from him.
Woodcutter Saint's voice came: "Qin Mu, deities are not allowed to ascend the altar. Please have the woman beside you stay below. You may come up."
Qin Mu acknowledged.
Grandma Si couldn't help but say: "Holy Teacher, I am the former holy maiden of the Heavenly Sage Sect. I admire the Holy Teacher and beg you to let me see you!"
On the altar, Woodcutter Saint poked his head out and looked down. He was slightly stunned, somewhat dazzled, and slowly said: "What a woman—she nearly disturbed my Dao heart. The Heavenly Sage Sect has nothing to do with me, and you've already seen me once. Don't come up, or my state of mind will be unsteady."
Grandma Si had no choice but to acknowledge and stay beside the Black Tiger God, whispering: "Mu'er, when you go up, don't activate the Overlord Three Elixir Art. If you must activate your cultivation technique, you have to stick the golden willow leaf on your brow."
"Don't worry, Grandma, I understand!"
Qin Mu strode up the steps, climbing one by one, and after a while finally reached the top of the altar. He saw Binduluo and Woodcutter Saint each seated high, with a few young people below Binduluo—Zhe Huali was among them, and surprisingly, even Qi Jiuyi, the young master Qi from the Heavenly Court, was there!
However, Qi Jiuyi had his own seat, clearly because his status entitled him to sit.
Qin Mu stepped forward, bowed to Woodcutter Saint, then paid his respects to Binduluo. Binduluo sat motionless, giving a slight nod in return.
Qin Mu then greeted Qi Jiuyi and Zhe Huali, and both returned the greeting, showing no hint of disrespect despite Qin Mu being their opponent.
Qin Mu took his position below Woodcutter Saint. Binduluo looked at him curiously, seeing that Qin Mu had a white silk scarf covering his eyes, yet a vertical eye on his brow was open, allowing him to see. He laughed: "Young friend Qin, the eye on your brow is quite peculiar."
The pupil of the eye on Qin Mu's brow drooped downward, refusing to look at him.
Binduluo laughed heartily: "You don't dare look at me—are you afraid of me? You're still young, a newborn calf unafraid of tigers. If you develop fear toward me, I worry about your future cultivation progress and Dao heart! Come, raise your head and look at me once."
Qin Mu turned a deaf ear.
Qi Jiuyi and Zhe Huali were also studying Qin Mu, quite puzzled as to why he had covered his eyes and were very curious about the third eye on his brow.
Woodcutter Saint looked at Qin Mu, seeing him with his head lowered, somewhat dejected. He laughed: "Qin Mu, you came to find me—what for? And why have you covered your eyes? Oh, I see. Did you lock eyes with Binduluo again?"
Qin Mu nodded, deeply ashamed: "Your disciple, along with several elders at home, set up a false formation in the Supreme Heavenly Court, blocking Binduluo Senior's millions of demon troops. And so I was harmed by Binduluo again. I met his gaze, and he planted a divine technique in my eyes. If I look into a mirror, I'll be taken away by him. I don't know how to break this technique, so I came to seek my teacher."
Woodcutter Saint laughed: "Binduluo is your senior, just joking with you. He's right here—if he wanted to take you away, why would he need such petty tricks? Take off the scarf and see how he takes you away."
Qin Mu untied the scarf, revealing his eyes.
Woodcutter Saint laughed: "Look into a mirror and see if he can take you away."
Qin Mu took out a mirror and looked into it. The image of Binduluo immediately appeared in the mirror again, growing larger and larger, walking out from within the mirror.
Qin Mu's hands trembled, unable to hold the mirror. The Binduluo in the mirror was actually the Binduluo in his eyes, like a nightmare about to swallow him whole!
Suddenly, Woodcutter Saint swung his firewood-chopping axe and chopped it down onto the mirror in Qin Mu's hands!
Across from them, Binduluo let out a muffled groan, and a bloody line suddenly appeared on his brow!
Qin Mu felt as if a great weight had been lifted—the pressure vanished, and he felt completely relaxed.
Woodcutter Saint withdrew his firewood axe and laughed: "I said Binduluo was just joking with you. He's your senior—how could he harm you? Isn't he afraid that I might get angry and chop up his disciples?"
A stream of blood flowed down from the brow on Binduluo's front face, splitting at the bridge of his nose and sliding down both sides. All three of his faces showed anger.
"Old friend, you should know that if you continue to hold the Floating Heavenly Realm, you might survive, but your twenty-four fellow cultivators won't escape death!"
He turned one of his faces and said solemnly: "It's not my demon race that wants to destroy you—the ones who truly want to destroy you are others. With your wisdom, you should understand the gravity of the situation. Why let them go to their deaths?"
—Third update has arrived! Begging for monthly votes!