Chapter 160: Blowing Ripples Across a Spring Pond

Qin Mu was well aware of the blind man's mind's eye ability and had long since grown accustomed to it. Although the blind man could not see with his physical eyes, he "saw" more than anyone else.

He stood up and looked into the distance, seeing golden lights circling the mountain peak.

The Old Bull ran at full speed, getting closer and closer to the mountain. Before long, the golden lights grew thicker, circling the peak like ribbons, weaving back and forth to envelop it.

As they drew nearer, they saw many more things within the golden lights: the divine abilities of the Witch Kings. Some golden lights concealed curved scimitars, others contained golden statues, and still others had golden dragons swirling within them.

The power of the Witch Kings was astonishing; only those who cultivated to the Heavenly Human Realm could be called Witch Kings. However, Loulan Golden Palace was a sacred place outside the Great Wall, so most of the Witch Kings pursuing Ba Shan Ji Jiu were at the Life and Death Realm, with even one patriarch-level being at the Divine Bridge Realm, exuding immense presence.

The Old Bull continued running until they were only ten li from the mountain peak. Qin Mu looked again and saw a Witch King positioned in the air at each of the eight cardinal and intercardinal points around the peak: east, south, west, north, southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest.

The Witch King to the east had a bird's head and a human body, holding a strange round mirror from which twelve snow-white bones protruded. As he held it, a golden beam shot out from the mirror.

The Witch King to the west had a leopard's head and a human body, gripping a scepter. Attached to the scepter's tip was a tail-like object, fluttering and roughly the same length as the staff. The scepter's very tip was a golden skull, shooting golden light from its eyes.

The Witch King to the south was a three-headed golden figure with three wolf heads.

The Witch King to the north had a human head and a bird's body, with two wings on his back that continuously spawned golden swords. These swords transformed into a torrent, attacking the central mountain peak.

The Witch Kings at the southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest points also displayed bizarre forms: some had beast heads and eight arms, others had six legs, some had multiple wings, and some had multiple eyes on their faces and even in their palms.

Although Qin Mu had already witnessed the Wu Zun's Lou Luo Sutra, seeing this scene still made him marvel at the sinister and formidable nature of their cultivation technique.

On the central mountain peak, saber light crisscrossed, fending off the divine abilities attacking from all eight directions.

From time to time, huge boulders, each the size of a courtyard house, fell from the mountain peak. This was indistinguishable from a distance, where they merely appeared as falling dust. Only up close did one realize the enormous scale of that "dust."

The mountain had been whittled down to a bare pillar by the combined divine abilities of Ba Shan Ji Jiu and the eight Witch Kings. Only the summit where Ba Shan Ji Jiu stood still retained some green vegetation.

The Butcher glanced at it, breathed a sigh of relief, and chuckled, "Big Mouth isn't dead. Let's head back."

Qin Mu was torn between laughter and tears, while the Old Bull, instead, mustered all its strength and charged forward.

Before they even reached the foot of the mountain, the Butcher suddenly leaped into the air. A saber light tore through the sky, incredibly bright. Qin Mu looked up and felt as if the area turned slightly dark after the flash, as if the light was so intense it left a saber mark in his pupils, or as if it was so sharp it ripped the sky itself.

He couldn't tell which it was.

"Heavenly Khan!"

A startled cry rang out, and a human head tumbled from the sky. A headless, bird-winged Witch King flapped its wings, gold dust scattering everywhere in mid-air. It was indeed the human-headed, bird-bodied Witch King from the north.

Among the many Witch Kings present, he was the only patriarch-level being at the Divine Bridge Realm. Yet, he was ambushed by the Butcher, killed with a single close-range saber strike.

The Butcher belonged to the battle technique school; if he got close, the outcome was predictable.

The Butcher landed, still stable on the Old Bull's back. He stopped the bull and said, "Your master is fine now. A few more injuries and he'll be able to break out. Old Bull, take us to Loulan Golden Palace."

The Old Bull hesitated, saying, "Aren't you going to rescue master, Old Master? Master is filial; he always speaks of your kindness."

"Why rescue him? To annoy me?"

The Butcher shook his head. "I've been quite peaceful in the village all these years. The thought of that fellow nagging makes my head ache. If I tell you to go, you go. If you babble any more, I'll turn you into beef. Do you know what I do in the village?"

The Old Bull shivered, daring not to speak. This intelligent bull had long figured out he was a butcher who slaughtered pigs and cattle.

"Master!"

From the mountain peak, Ba Shan Ji Jiu's voice rang out, clearly injured and a bit weak. "Master, it really is you! I knew you weren't dead! You abandoned me in Yankang all these years and went off to enjoy yourself. How will you compensate me? I have so much to tell you…"

"Run!" the Butcher said.

The Old Bull promptly galloped towards Loulan Golden Palace. Ba Shan Ji Jiu was about to rush off the mountain but was suppressed by the combined power of the other seven Witch Kings, forcing him back onto the peak.

The seven Witch Kings found themselves in a difficult position. The eight of them had collaborated to suppress Ba Shan Ji Jiu, intending to refine him to death. They never expected the Heavenly Khan, rumored to have died years ago, to reappear and slay their most powerful Witch King with a single saber strike.

They had assumed the Heavenly Khan would attack them, and Ba Shan Ji Jiu, morale greatly boosted, simultaneously launched his most potent attacks against them, holding them captive and preventing their escape, utterly terrifying them.

But now, the Heavenly Khan had abandoned Ba Shan Ji Jiu there and ridden off on a bull.

Ba Shan Ji Jiu was utterly bewildered, then suddenly realized, and cursed under his breath, metaphorically poking the old man sharply in the back.

After another half-day, the Old Bull carried them back to Weakwater Lake and stopped.

The Butcher looked at the blind man and said, "Blind man, you and Mu'er come up the mountain with me. I don't have my lower body right now, so I can't beat that old fellow."

"All right."

The blind man jumped off the bull's back. Qin Mu instructed Ling Yuxiu, Fox Spirit, and the Old Bull to remain there, saying, "We'll be back soon."

Ling Yuxiu nodded, "Be careful."

The Butcher arrived at Weakwater Lake and shook his head, "That brat Ba Shan, after all these years, hasn't improved at all. He hasn't even moved this lake."

He took a long, deep breath. Behind him, Ling Yuxiu, the little fox spirit, and the Old Bull were astonished. The wind swirled, and clouds from the sky were swept by the gale, rushing towards the mouth of the old man, who was only a torso, standing before them!

The grassland was high in elevation, so the clouds were relatively low, yet still thousands of feet away. The old man took one breath, and even the white clouds in the sky were sucked into his abdomen; his power was incredibly outlandish!

"This... this is... the strongest practitioner of the battle technique school from legend!"

Ling Yuxiu's mind was greatly shaken. Since the Imperial Preceptor of Yankang had gathered battle technique school practitioners for a debate, many of them had either died, fled, or disappeared into hiding.

However, the absolute strongest practitioners of the battle technique school had not appeared during that debate.

The battle technique school emphasized the physical body, and the most supreme practitioners of this school had a unique characteristic: a part of their body had already achieved divinity!

They didn't need to deliberately unleash divine abilities; their every movement *was* a divine ability.

Clearly, this old man, who was only a torso, was such an existence.

The Butcher inhaled deeply, nearly clearing all the clouds in their vicinity. Then, he exhaled in a single breath.

With a whoosh, Weakwater Lake in front of them suddenly surged upward, the waves growing higher and higher, as if an entire ocean had stood on end.

This vertical wall of water receded rapidly, almost instantly being blown into the snow mountains, filling valleys of all sizes.

In front of them, the lake dried up, and even the bones within it were blown away. Although the lakebed was still slightly damp, there was no mud; the mud had been scraped clean.

Qin Mu opened his Heavenly Eye and saw that the veil shrouding the lake's surface had also been blown away by the Butcher's breath, vanishing without a trace.

The supreme masters of the battle technique school did not possess spells or divine abilities that changed geography. However, such beings had unparalleled physical bodies, making spells or divine abilities unnecessary for altering geography or weather.

"If one could possess the physique of the battle technique school, the sword arts of the sword control school, and the divine abilities of the spell school, wouldn't one be invincible?"

Qin Mu blinked, then followed the Butcher. He cultivated the Overlord Body Three Elixir Art, which was excellent in every respect except that it offered no divine abilities, no body-refining methods, and no sword techniques.

It was precisely because Qin Mu cultivated the Overlord Body Three Elixir Art that the Butcher had not taught him his body-refining cultivation techniques, so as not to hinder his progress.

In fact, everyone in the village had their own unique cultivation techniques, but no one had taught them to him.

Inside Loulan Golden Palace, there was an outcry. With a single breath, Weakwater Lake in front of the Golden Palace had been blown away. Such an unfathomable and heaven-shaking divine ability naturally shocked the minds of the Palace's shamans and great sorcerers.

In front of the sacred temple, Wu Zun stood holding his scepter, two golden beams shining from his eyes, falling upon the three figures walking across the lakebed. His eye twitched.

He was the sect master of the Golden Palace. Envious of the Butcher's powerful physical body, he had immediately infiltrated Yankang after learning that the Butcher had brandished his saber at the heavens and been struck down by the gods. He annihilated the minor sect that had taken the Butcher's lower body and seized it for himself.

Knowing that the Butcher's body surpassed his own, he had decisively cut off his own lower body and replaced it with the Butcher's.

Now, his nightmare had become reality.

The Heavenly Khan was not dead; he had survived and was now coming to reclaim his lower body.

Wu Zun's eye twitched violently. He turned and entered the sacred temple. Within, on the divine altars, sat golden skeletons, some human-shaped, some beast-shaped. There were eighteen altars in total; seventeen contained golden skeletons, while the eighteenth held a disheveled, emaciated old man, merely skin and bones, sitting as if dead.

"Great Master, the Heavenly Khan has arrived," Wu Zun said, leaning on his staff, kneeling on one knee, and bowing his head.

The emaciated, disheveled old man in the divine altar opened his eyes, his gaze incredibly sharp. His voice, like an owl's, rasped, "Where is the reincarnated sacred child I told you to find for me?"

Fine, golden beads of sweat appeared on Wu Zun's golden forehead. He stammered, "I haven't found one yet..."

The disheveled old man's voice became sharp, "Without a reincarnated sacred child, wouldn't my seventeen reincarnations have been in vain? I'm only half a step from becoming a god, half a step!"

Wu Zun bowed his head deeply, not daring to speak.

The disheveled old man snapped, "With me here, the Heavenly Saber will not trouble you, but I will not easily expend my life to help you either. Return his lower body to him, and immediately find me the reincarnated sacred child!"

Wu Zun's heart leaped. Suddenly, a flash of light cut across his waist, too fast for him to prevent.

Wu Zun was silent. After a moment, he spoke, "Disciple Jiacuo, come in."

A Witch King, hearing the call, quickly entered the sacred temple and bowed, saying, "What can I do for you, Wu Zun?"

Wu Zun raised his scepter and pierced the Witch King's head, then severed his lower body and attached it to his own. His expression remained calm and unperturbed as he bowed and said, "Master, your disciple takes his leave."