Chapter 872: The Dragon's Lament Over the Vast Sea
Qin Mu, his face full of smiles, pushed the old man's hand back through the doorway and closed the Gate of Heaven's Mandate, saying, "Imperial Lord Yu is doing very well. I left him at the Jade Capital Academy, and he is currently cultivating alongside the thirty-five Human Sovereigns, including the First Ancestor. He is formidable now. Once I abdicate the position of Human Sovereign, he will become the thirty-eighth Human Sovereign..."
The underworld emissary elder had no intention of leaving. Qin Mu exerted force to close the door, finally managing to shut the Gate of Heaven's Mandate. Then, with a thought, the gate dissipated.
"Young Master, the seawater has turned black," Yan'er said, looking down at the water.
Qin Mu looked down. Indeed, the seawater had turned pitch black. Within the dark waters, a paper boat floated beneath the surface, and the underworld emissary elder, with a resentful expression, held up his horse lantern to shine a light at him.
Long Qilin saw the scene beneath the water, felt his fur stand on end, and hastily leaped into the air.
Qin Mu said helplessly, "Lord You, go to the Jade Capital Academy and see for yourself. Then you will know whether my words are true or false. Why must you insist on following me?"
The underworld emissary elder beneath the water slowly faded away, his voice drifting over faintly: "I shall go to the Jade Capital Academy. If I find that things are not as you say, I will come back and have a good talk with you!"
Only then did the darkness beneath Qin Mu's feet dissipate.
Before long, another underworld emissary elder arrived at the Jade Capital Academy.
The realms of the living and the dead are separate. The underworld emissary elder was unwilling to interfere with the living world, so he did not reveal himself directly but hid in the shadows to observe.
Then, he saw the Human Sovereigns of the Human Sovereign Hall disciplining a little chubby boy.
The smile on the underworld emissary elder's face stiffened. He thought to himself, "This little chubby boy surely cannot be Imperial Lord Yu..."
"Lan Yutian, let's have a spar!"
Qi Kang, the burly Human Sovereign, sealed his own Divine Treasures and then began to beat the little chubby boy. After Qi Kang had his turn, Yi Shan took over, and after Yi Shan, Lan Po continued.
The underworld emissary elder's face turned completely black. He felt an urge to destroy the world.
Fortunately, although the little chubby boy was beaten harshly, the Human Sovereigns were still quite measured in their strikes, and his life was not in danger.
Those Human Sovereigns surrounded the thoroughly subdued Imperial Lord Yu, criticizing this move as bad, that move as wrong.
"Our Human Sovereign Hall's tradition is: if you don't beat them, they won't become useful; if you don't punch them, they won't become talented."
"Our Human Sovereign Hall also has a tradition: once you have learned something, you must beat your teacher!"
"Don't learn from us! We never learn from our masters' techniques. We all create our own cultivation methods and divine abilities! If you don't create your own techniques and divine abilities, how can you defeat that brat surnamed Qin?"
...
Hearing this, the underworld emissary elder felt relieved. The Human Sovereigns' educational methods displeased him somewhat, but their educational goals were still excellent.
Qin Mu, Yan'er, and Long Qilin continued forward in the direction the underworld emissary elder had pointed. After traveling for over ten days, they still had not found the Dragon Earl Kingdom. Aside from waves and flying fish, there was nothing on the sea. Entering the vast ocean was like entering a desert, enough to drive one mad.
Long Qilin was again considering floating on the sea surface. Qin Mu no longer had the energy to beat him, so he grabbed Long Qilin's tail and walked across the sea surface, dragging this massive creature along as he traveled.
These past days, Yan'er had eaten nothing but sea fish and sea beasts, and she was getting sick of it. She stood on Qin Mu's shoulder with dull eyes, occasionally raising a paw to pick at the corner of her mouth and pull out a fish bone.
Qin Mu opened the geographical map that Bai Qu'er had drawn, glanced at it, then tossed the map into the sea.
The geographical map Bai Qu'er had drawn was of maritime geography from forty thousand years ago. The seas change, and the geography of the Eastern Sea was no longer what Bai Qu'er had seen back then.
Moreover, the Primordial Realm had been sealed once, and after breaking the seal, the geography had undergone major changes.
Especially the sea—the changes to the mountains and rivers beneath the seabed were even harder to detect, and many islands on the sea surface had disappeared, making it even more difficult to determine their position.
Suddenly, Qin Mu tilted his head and said in a hoarse voice, "Sister Yan'er, do you hear singing?"
Yan'er said weakly, "Young Master, you must have misheard. Where is there any singing... Eh! There really is singing!"
They followed the sound of the singing. Before they had gone far, they saw a massive skeleton on the sea surface, half submerged in the water and half towering above it.
This was an unimaginably huge divine dragon skeleton. The seawater was very deep, yet this divine dragon still had half its bones standing above the sea surface. One could imagine how enormous it had been in life.
The singing came from the skeleton. When Qin Mu and the others approached, they saw that it was actually this skeletal dragon that was singing.
Its dragon head's mouth opened and closed, and the singing came from its mouth. But this divine dragon was nothing but bones—why would it still be singing?
The skeletal dragon's song was rough, long, and deep. It was like a poet of the ocean, its song carrying melancholy and sorrow.
"Young Master, what is he singing about?" Yan'er asked, unable to understand the dragon language.
"He is singing about his homeland in a very ancient dragon language," Qin Mu said.
Because in his early years he had always tried to decipher the dragon language on the True Dragon Lord's nest, Qin Mu's research on the dragon language was very deep.
"His homeland is the Dragon Earl Kingdom."
Qin Mu listened to the skeletal dragon's song and said, "He says the Dragon Earl Kingdom is a beautiful place. There, divine dragons roam the sea surface, with beautiful Dao language. The divine dragons build magnificent and grand structures on the islands, ruling over the vast ocean. The various races in the sea pay tribute to them, offering delicacies and beautiful jade and jewels from the sea. They live in harmony and joy. Many divine dragons travel far from home and become rain-bringing Dragon Kings, highly respected by all."
Suddenly, the song became depressed, carrying killing intent and confusion.
"He says that one day, the Heavenly Court's Imperial Guard Army suddenly came, destroyed his homeland. The divine dragons were separated from their families, taken as slaves, with chains piercing through their bodies. Many captives were beheaded, their blood dyeing the seawater red. Many slaves were herded onto ships."
Qin Mu listened to the skeletal dragon's chant and continued, "The Heavenly Court's Imperial Guard Army used their flesh and blood as sacrifices, offered to the Heavenly Emperor of the Heavenly Court to enjoy. Their king, the Dragon Earl King, was also captured, turned into a slave, and sent to the Heavenly Court for trial. His homeland was thus destroyed, and he became a wanderer without a homeland. When he missed home, he would return to his devastated homeland and see the lonely ghosts and wild spirits drifting there."
Long Qilin hid behind Qin Mu, timidly peering at the divine dragon skeleton, and said, "Sect Master, where is his homeland? And why did he die here?"
The skeletal dragon had long been dead. His longing for his homeland kept him singing this dragon race's homesick song, and he could not answer them.
"Is this Dragon Earl the one that Qu'er encountered in the Eastern Sea back then?"
Qin Mu thought for a moment, then activated the Ten Thousand Spirits Natural Art to awaken the skeletal dragon.
The dragon bones standing on the sea surface suddenly rattled and shook violently. Great waves surged. The divine dragon's withered bones pulled out of the water, stood up, and roared with its mouth open: "Homeland! Homeland! I cannot be buried in another place. I want to return to my homeland—"
Qin Mu stood below as the great waters surged, but were pushed aside by his primordial energy.
The youth looked up and shouted, "Where is your homeland?"
Whoosh—
The skeletal dragon suddenly soared into the air, shaking its head and tail as it flew into the distance. But without flesh and magical power, it fell from the sky after flying barely a li, crashing into the sea surface with a splash of flying foam. The dragon bones scattered and flew in all directions.
Qin Mu had awakened it with a spirit-summoning technique, and the divine dragon's skeleton actually reassembled itself, quickly restoring to its original form. This time, it did not fly but swam through the sea, and its speed was extremely fast.
"Follow it!"
Qin Mu jumped onto Long Qilin's head. Long Qilin hurriedly followed. They saw the skeletal dragon swimming faster and faster, charging across the sea surface. Suddenly, the skeletal dragon vanished into thin air right before their eyes.
Qin Mu was stunned for a moment. Long Qilin rushed to that spot and cautiously extended a claw to test it. He saw his claw extend into the air ahead and also disappear.
"It's a type of illusion array formation."
Qin Mu walked into it. The sea before him suddenly receded, and a magnificent scene rushed toward him. Countless divine beings were pressing down dragon-headed, human-bodied Dragon Earls and beheading them with blades. Countless heads fell, blood turning into a vast ocean. Waves of blood flew up, rushing into the sky.
In the sky was a massive altar, with blood surging upon it. It was a spectacular sacrifice.
The shouts of the divine demon generals of the Imperial Guard Army came continuously. The people of the Dragon Earl Kingdom had become the offerings of this sacrifice. Their flesh and blood were offered to the Heavenly Court through the sacrifice, becoming delicacies for the Heavenly Emperor and the civil and military officials of the Heavenly Court.
Qin Mu was dazed and shook his head.
Suddenly, the illusion before him disappeared, and the bleak, withered reality appeared before him.
The sacrificial scene he had just seen was merely a reflection of history—it was from the Dragon Han Era, when Wei Suifeng led the Imperial Guard Army to the Dragon Earl Kingdom to suppress a rebellion, beheading the people of the Dragon Earl Kingdom and offering them to the Heavenly Court.
What appeared before him now was reality.
Ahead of him, countless enormous dragon bones lay scattered across a vast and expansive continent. Skeletons were everywhere. In the collapsed, magnificent Dragon Palace, ghost fires swirled around white bones, causing these Dragon Earl withered bones to stand up and wander about.
This place was like a ghostly underworld. In the sky, skeletal dragons with ghost fires floating in their eye sockets swam back and forth. In the vast city, there were even skeletal dragons bustling about shopping in the streets. He even saw a genuine ghost market.
—Those Dragon Earls seemed to still be alive, buying and selling things, trading goods within the Dragon City.
He even heard the sounds of haggling.
Qin Mu brought Long Qilin and Yan'er into the city of the Dragon Earl Kingdom. Compared to these enormous divine dragons, he was like a tiny speck. Even Long Qilin, in his true form, was a dwarf here.
The prehistoric divine dragons had established a glorious civilization and a grand nation here. Qin Mu stood among the walking white-boned giants, watching them live carefree lives as if they were still alive.
But this scene was indescribably eerie.
He also saw the skeletal dragon that had led them to the Dragon Earl Kingdom earlier. This skeletal dragon transformed into a dragon-headed, human-bodied Dragon Earl, as if it had been reborn, darting through the air.
What Qin Mu saw with his eyes was piles of white bones, but in its eyes, the Dragon Earl Kingdom seemed not to be ruins but a place full of life, where all those Dragon Earls were still alive.
It excitedly greeted those moving skeletons. It was completely unaware that it had already died, and that its clansmen had also died.
Everything here was merely the wrongfully slain Dragon Earls forgetting that they had died, repeating in their confusion and ignorance the things they had done in life.
However, this Dragon Earl who had returned to his homeland—his obsession dissipated, and he found peace.
"Sect Master, don't they know they are dead?" Long Qilin asked fearfully.
Before Qin Mu could answer, suddenly all the divine dragons in the Dragon Earl Kingdom seemed to hear his words. All the bones turned their heads in unison to look at Long Qilin.
Long Qilin was startled and quickly hid behind Qin Mu again, tucking his tail between his legs and trembling.
Whoosh!
It was like the sound of a tsunami. In an instant, the Dragon Earl Kingdom that had been bustling with activity suddenly collapsed. All the withered bones crumbled and disintegrated. Countless bones fell to the ground, the ghost fires in their eyes extinguished. Not a single Dragon Earl remained standing!
They had not known they were dead, but now, awakened by Long Qilin's single sentence, the spirits lost their control over the withered bones. The entire Dragon Earl Kingdom suddenly died all at once!
The sound of collapsing bones subsided, and all around was deathly silent. Not a sound could be heard.
The sky gradually darkened.
A faint sigh drifted over. Ghost fires floated up in the air, and small paper boats sailed over from the Netherworld. Underworld emissary elders stood at the bows of the boats.
Qin Mu bowed in greeting, and the underworld emissary elders returned the courtesy.
"The Dragon Earls here have been dead for nearly a million years. They did not know they were dead, so their souls lingered and refused to leave."
One underworld emissary elder explained to Qin Mu: "Earlier, their will to live was too strong, and I could not enter this place to guide their souls. Now that they have realized they are dead, I can enter to guide them to the Netherworld."
Qin Mu looked around. Most of the Dragon Earls' withered bones had their heads severed, with dragon heads fallen to the ground. He couldn't help but frown and said in a somewhat hoarse voice: "Lord You, the commander of the Imperial Guard Army of the Dragon Han Heavenly Court back then, Wei Suifeng, was my senior brother. Was he really so cruel? Did he really have to exterminate the Dragon Earl race and nation?"
"What was cruel was not Wei Suifeng."
That underworld emissary elder said, "What was cruel was the entire Dragon Han Heavenly Court."
Qin Mu was stunned.
"Using a rebellious race or nation as a sacrifice to the Heavenly Court, to the Heavenly Emperor, was a common occurrence in the Dragon Han Era."
The underworld emissary elder said, "The Imperial Guard Army suppressed the rebellion, defeated the Dragon Earl Kingdom, exterminated the race and nation, and offered them to the Heavenly Emperor for him to enjoy their flesh and blood. That was the most normal thing in that era. Your senior brother was just going along with the customs. He couldn't change anything. If he had changed, he would have been an outcast. Throughout the entire Dragon Han Era, such things happened frequently. Why did the Heavenly Emperor have to die? Why did the Heavenly Alliance have to go to any lengths to eliminate him? This is the reason."
Qin Mu's hairs stood on end.
The Ancient God Heavenly Emperor—his death was not unjust!
—In the afternoon, heading home, Zhai Zhu will do his best to write the next chapter on the high-speed rail!