Chapter 819: Slaying a God
Join forces with Zhe Huali to kill a god?
Qin Mu pondered. He and Xu Shenghua understood each other deeply, and both were exceptionally intelligent, able to anticipate each other's next moves and keep pace with each other's thinking. That was why even without prior rehearsal, they could coordinate flawlessly and join forces to slay powerful enemies.
As for Zhe Huali, Qin Mu did not worry about the power of his blade techniques or his blade dao. His only concern was whether he could keep up with Qin Mu's thinking the way Xu Shenghua could.
If he could not keep up, their coordination would be far from perfect.
Dealing with an ordinary deity would be one thing, but Lin Xiao possessed an extremely high level of cultivation. He had voluntarily severed his own cultivation, cutting his realm down to the Revered God level.
Although his realm had dropped, his vision and experience far surpassed that of any other Revered God by an immeasurable margin. This was also the reason he had managed to escape from beneath the Village Chief's sword.
Moreover, the cultivation he had severed had transformed into that small sun within the lantern, containing terrifyingly immense energy—enough to blast a massive hole through the Village Chief's sword diagram!
That small sun's energy had yet to diminish even now, which showed just how powerful Lin Xiao must have been at his peak!
If their coordination was poor, they would absolutely be killed by him!
Suddenly, Qin Mu activated his teleportation divine ability once more. A beam of lantern light swept over from behind, vaporizing the place where they had just been hiding.
The lantern flew over, and the tiny figure within looked around in every direction. Finding no trace of the two, it cackled: "Where do you think you can hide? I've already mapped out every inch of this ghost ship. You have no way to escape, no place to hide!"
The tiny figure flew out from the lantern and landed on the ridge of the great hall's roof. It flapped its wings, and the lantern burst apart, the sun within rolling out and landing beneath its talons.
His body expanded with the wind, and the sun beneath his feet also grew larger. His form quickly swelled to a hundred zhang in height—a rooster-headed, human-bodied creature with dragon scales on his neck and five-colored wings behind his back. He flapped them with a whoosh and raised his head to crow.
When the rooster crows, the world turns white!
The small sun beneath his feet also transformed into a hundred-zhang great sun, growing ever brighter with his cry, radiating light in all directions. Each beam of golden light shot out like flying swords in every direction!
Ssss! Ssss! Ssss!
One great hall after another on the ghost ship was pierced through by the great sun's golden light, riddled with holes. The ground was also blasted until it looked like a broken sieve!
Lin Xiao flapped his wings and flew, the great sun beneath his feet rolling along with his figure. Golden light swept from above downward, leveling one palace after another, which were then ignited by the intense rays and set ablaze.
Lin Xiao swept through everything, laughing: "Pastoral Heavenly Venerable! No use hiding! Come out now!"
On the other side, light flickered, and the figures of Qin Mu and Zhe Huali appeared in the great hall where the Empress's coffin rested.
"Lin Xiao will find this place soon."
Qin Mu set Zhe Huali down and moved swiftly, searching through the hall, saying: "Zhe Huali, how is your spatial awareness?"
Zhe Huali was momentarily taken aback, not understanding the question. He answered honestly: "My blade techniques may be rigid and proper, but they still require extremely strong spatial awareness to execute. You and I have fought before. You should know that every landing point of my blade light in the air requires rigorous calculation. Only then can I ensure that when the technique is unleashed, it is executed without the slightest error."
Qin Mu nodded. He suddenly stopped, then stomped hard on the ground.
Zhe Huali watched him. He saw primordial qi flying out from beneath his feet, transforming into runic imprints. As his feet moved, one runic imprint after another was branded into the ground.
These runic imprints were extremely complex, involving far too many principles for Zhe Huali to fully comprehend.
Qin Mu's feet moved—forward, backward, left, right—circling a six-zhang square area again and again. Suddenly, with a crack, a passageway appeared in the ground, leading straight down into the ship's hold.
Zhe Huali was stunned for a moment, but Qin Mu had already walked into the passage and was beckoning to him. He hurried to follow, lowering his voice: "Qin Cult Master, how did you know there was a door here?"
"This great ship should have been designed and built by my senior brother. Its layout is similar to my Heavenly Sage Cult's great ships. According to the layout of our Heavenly Sage Cult's ships, the passage leading to the hold should be right here, so I tested it."
Qin Mu smiled: "I built great ships for the Yankang Kingdom, so I am very familiar with ship structures."
Zhe Huali was silent for a moment, then suddenly said: "Qin Cult Master, is there anything you haven't done before?"
They arrived inside the ship's hull and were both stunned by the magnificent sight before them.
Dragon bones ran north to south, spanning the entire interior of the ship. Though only bones remained, they still radiated brilliant golden light, illuminating the ship's interior with incomparable brightness.
Besides the dragon bones, there were also kun fish ribs—rows of massive kun ribs, each ten zhang thick, inserted into the dragon bones. Various beast runes were etched upon the kun bones: bird patterns, fish patterns, water patterns, cloud patterns, mountain patterns, and more. These runes lit up one after another, dazzling against the golden light of the dragon bones.
And on the ceiling—which should be the underside of the deck—were embedded phoenix feathers of seven colors, like auspicious clouds of many hues in the sky.
"What a ship!" Both of them exclaimed in admiration.
Qin Mu stopped, took out his sword pellet, and looked around with gleaming eyes, saying: "Giving birth—that is something I have never done. The National Preceptor once showed me a book about childbirth, and the men and women in it were so embarrassing."
He tilted his head, recalling the man and woman in the book, and his face flushed slightly.
Zhe Huali and the demon blade both widened their eyes, wearing expressions caught between laughter and tears.
Qin Mu's fingertip flicked lightly, and a silver thread flew out from the sword pellet, measuring the internal space of the ghost ship, measuring the length and circumference of the dragon bones and kun ribs. He quickly gathered all the data he needed.
Outside the passage, light approached. Lin Xiao, riding the hundred-zhang great sun, flew to the sky above this great hall, the great sun's sword light wantonly destroying the building.
It would not be long before the hall collapsed, exposing the passage.
Qin Mu grabbed the sword pellet in his hand, closed his eyes and focused. After a moment, he suddenly opened his eyes and clenched his fist heavily—the sword pellet transformed into a precious sword!
He stepped into the air and sprinted through the ship's interior, his figure like a startled swan, his sword like a swimming dragon. He unleashed various sword techniques, like a scholar wielding a brush, splashing ink across the dragon bones and kun ribs, using the ship's four walls as paper, pouring out words and indulging his emotions!
Soon, he flew up to the ceiling, his body parallel to it, slashing his sword like flying, scattering runic imprints into the gaps between the phoenix feathers and colored clouds.
Whoosh—
Qin Mu fell from midair, stopping abruptly three zhang above the ground. His wrist twisted as he slashed his sword toward the ground, writing.
The ssss sound was unceasing. The ghost ship's internal space was enormous, spanning a hundred li in every direction. Qin Mu flew close to the ground, his sword light like rain, quickly writing a string of runes from south to north.
His figure suddenly halted, hovering in midair.
Zhe Huali looked around. He saw a thick dragon bone clearly imprinted with various runes from south to north, and on the ceiling there was also a pattern of runes running north to south.
Two more bones had also been branded with runes.
However, the ship's internal space was too vast. The places where Qin Mu had branded runes only covered a small portion—there was still much more that had not been marked.
"What is Cult Master Qin's intention in this?" Zhe Huali was deeply puzzled.
Qin Mu's chest heaved violently, clearly having expended enormous energy. Suddenly, the precious sword in his hand shrank back into a sword pellet.
The sword pellet suddenly exploded!
Countless sword lights filled the space within the ship's hull, darting about in every direction. At the same time, the runes Qin Mu had just branded lit up brilliantly, their radiance dazzling, as if the flying swords had activated the power within the runes!
The light of countless runes shone upon the flying sword lights, reflected by the swords. Suddenly, above and below, left and right, on all four walls, rune after rune materialized—more and more, growing increasingly complex!
Zhe Huali stared in shock, but all the sword lights suddenly vanished, transforming into a rapidly spinning sword pellet that stopped at Qin Mu's brow.
And within the ship's space, countless runes were still flying wildly through the air!
Qin Mu formed sword seals with both hands—index and middle fingers extended together, thumbs pressing down on ring and little fingers.
His right hand's sword seal stood vertically at his brow, his left hand's sword seal turned upward, supporting his right wrist. Both hands slowly descended.
At the same time, phantom images of arms appeared behind him, as if he had a thousand arms, each forming different sword seals, slowly drawing together and merging with his own two arms.
Finally, the phantom images of a thousand arms vanished.
"Stop!"
Qin Mu shouted in a low voice. In the vast space within the ship's hull, the darting runes embedded themselves one after another into the four walls, the ceiling, and the ground. These runes gradually dimmed from their bright state, revealing seventy-two paintings, each one different from the next!
Qin Mu gasped for breath, falling from the air and landing on one knee. His primordial qi had been severely depleted.
"Cult Master Qin, you decomposed your own sword dao and embedded it into the ship's internal space?"
Zhe Huali looked at the seventy-two murals that were gradually fading from view, and said in a deep voice: "No, it's not just sword dao divine abilities—there are also martial dao divine abilities, formation divine abilities, blade technique divine abilities... Hmm, and electromagnetic divine abilities! I saw electromagnetic divine abilities at Earth Mother's place! You also used painting dao divine abilities, creating seventy-two paintings, seventy-two divine abilities in total, seventy-two divine abilities forming a linked killing formation! You've learned so many disparate things!"
Qin Mu nodded, activating the Overlord Three Elixirs Art to desperately recover his primordial qi. His voice was somewhat hoarse: "The formation is now set, and my primordial qi is completely spent. I can only rely on you now. Zhe Huali, do you have the confidence to merge into my seventy-two paintings and slay that rooster-dragon?"
Zhe Huali took a long breath and said calmly: "In this god-slaying battle, to kill Lin Xiao, the Cult Master has already completed nine-tenths of the work. All that remains is for me to raise my blade and take his head. If I cannot bring his head to you, what face would I have to contend with Xu Shenghua? To contend with you?"
Qin Mu smiled.
At that moment, a rumbling sound came continuously from the passage. Lin Xiao's voice reached their ears, laughing: "I've been on this ship for so long and never found the passage into the interior. I never expected Pastoral Heavenly Venerable to discover it. Impressive, Pastoral Heavenly Venerable. To be honest, when I heard you tell that sword god that you were Pastoral Heavenly Venerable, I was shocked too. I never imagined I would catch such a big fish here!"
He was excited beyond measure.
Intense light flooded in. Lin Xiao flapped his wings and flew, a great sun rolling beneath his feet, charging with a whoosh into the ship's internal space. Scorching light transformed into sword beams shooting in all directions.
Suddenly, those golden sword lights halted in midair—the golden swords formed of light actually froze in place!
The rooster-headed, human-bodied Lin Xiao spread both wings and slowly descended onto the great sun, his bird talons firmly gripping the sun beneath his feet. He looked at the two of them excitedly.
Hummm. Hummm.
The great sun vibrated, and more golden swords suddenly appeared ahead, locking onto Qin Mu and Zhe Huali.
"The Heavenly Emperor and the gods conferred titles upon the Nine Heavenly Venerables—Yu, Hao, Ling, Yue, Huo, You, Yun, Mu, and Qin. Each of the Nine Heavenly Venerables has extraordinary achievements."
Lin Xiao stared at Qin Mu, ignoring Zhe Huali completely: "The reputation of the Nine Heavenly Venerables is too great. Hao Heavenly Venerable is already Hao Heavenly Emperor, governing the Longxiao Heavenly Court. Yun Heavenly Venerable is also called Yun Heavenly Emperor, governing the Xiaohan Heavenly Court. The other Heavenly Venerables are all formidable as well. But Pastoral Heavenly Venerable and Qin Heavenly Venerable are like divine dragons that show their heads but never their tails—appearing only occasionally. Who would have thought that on this ghost ship, I would be able to slay the Pastoral Heavenly Venerable from a later era! Hehehe!"
Zhe Huali looked somewhat bewildered.
Qin Mu said calmly: "I don't know what you're so pleased about. Lin Xiao, do you know that in the future, rooster-dragons are just a dish on the dining table?"
"Nonsense!"
The dragon scales on Lin Xiao's neck burst open, feathers emerging from beneath the scales. His body rapidly expanded as he cackled: "Rooster-dragons are the descendants of golden roosters and divine dragons—noble blood, exalted and supreme, governing the movement of the great sun! You humans are the dishes on the table!"
"Move!"
Qin Mu roared. Instantly, the entire internal space of the ship became incomparably bright. The seventy-two formation diagrams erupted with full power in an instant!
One of the formation diagrams was the electromagnetic divine ability. In a single moment, it made Lin Xiao's body incomparably heavy, as if Mount Sumeru after Mount Sumeru were pressing down upon him, crushing him and the great sun together to the ground with a thunderous crash!
The other formation diagrams erupted, and all manner of terrifying great divine abilities came crashing down upon the suppressed Lin Xiao from above, below, and all directions!
The space within the ship's hull was nearly torn apart by these extraordinarily powerful divine abilities. After the divine abilities flew past, the space was left twisted, folded into countless shapes, making it nearly impossible to move!
Zhe Huali drew the demon blade, surging his cultivation, entering the dao through the blade, reaching his peak in an instant!
At that moment, the light of a formation diagram shone upon him—it was the teleportation formation diagram.
Zhe Huali felt as if he had been transported into a world within a painting, tossed up and down with the painting, flying through violently shaking space.
Now he finally understood why Qin Mu had asked him about his spatial awareness. In this moment, he was being tossed about by the teleportation divine ability until he had completely lost his sense of direction!
Zhe Huali suppressed the urge to vomit, frantically channeling the demon blade, frantically raising his cultivation.
Shua—
His figure appeared to the left of the battered bird-headed divine being. Zhe Huali roared, bellowed, took one step forward, and his blade rose and fell, pouring every ounce of his strength out through the blade!
There was still a glimmer of surprise in Lin Xiao's eyes. Then his head flew up, divine blood gushing out.
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