Chapter 277: Rhythm

Qin Mu and Ban Gong Cuo walked side by side, leaving the Jade Fragrance Building and heading along the street towards the city outskirts.

The early spring capital still held a hint of chill, even at noon, the sun wasn't particularly high, though in the southern half of the sky, the sunlight wasn't overly dazzling.

The capital city in spring was still quite lively, with people coming and going. Young masters and ladies from wealthy families strolled in pairs, their clothing mostly mink fur, the girls bundled up in fluffy layers, making their skin appear exceptionally fair in contrast.

In previous years, many prominent wealthy households would already be aboard flying ships, hastening south for the winter, returning only when spring transitioned into summer. But this year was different; the natural disasters caused both north and south to be equally cold, if not colder, so most people remained in the north. After all, compared to other regions plagued by both natural and human calamities, the capital city offered greater safety.

Qin Mu and Ban Gong Cuo walked slowly, each adjusting their own state. It had to be said that Ban Gong Cuo, having experienced nineteen reincarnations and lived twenty lives, was a seasoned expert. He quickly adjusted his vitality, energy, and spirit to a peak state, while Qin Mu was still in the process of slow adjustment.

Ban Gong Cuo's body surged with killing intent, directed at Qin Mu, and he began to subtly quicken his pace. His killing aura targeted Qin Mu, intending to provoke a reaction, forcing him to alter his walking posture to avoid exposing any flaws.

In Imperial College, Qin Mu had once targeted him in a similar manner, forcing him to walk with a limp, using the changes in his body shape to ensure his every movement was flawless, denying Qin Mu any opportunity.

Now, he was returning the favor, applying that method to Qin Mu, using his peak state and momentum to oppress him, forcing Qin Mu to follow his rhythm and change with his momentum. As long as Qin Mu was forced to follow his rhythm, Ban Gong Cuo could seize the initiative, putting Qin Mu on the defensive and wearing him down. To avoid exposing flaws, Qin Mu would constantly alter his walking trajectory and momentum, lengthening his path and increasing the changes, eventually exceeding this youth's vision and knowledge, rendering him unable to adapt further! Once they reached the city outskirts, killing Qin Mu would be a matter of only one or two moves!

"Old fox!"

Qin Mu's expression was solemn; this was a truly fearsome existence! Ban Gong Cuo was precisely such a person. Even if he were stronger than his opponent, if there was an advantage to be gained, he would immediately seize it and amplify it as much as possible!

Tempered by ten thousand years, he was rarely moved by external matters. His every word and action followed the experience accumulated over ten thousand years; his experience was like runes and principles, deeply imprinted in his words and deeds.

The Yan Kang National Teacher and Blind Man had both spoken of the unity of knowledge and action, and Ma Ye had also mentioned not exceeding the rules. Ban Gong Cuo, with his ten thousand years of accumulation, had also reached this step.

For the unity of knowledge and action, Qin Mu had his own understanding. To know but not act was insincere. To act but not succeed was inability. To know and act was to have a sincere heart, and to act and be capable was to see things through to the end, making it very difficult to be influenced by others or external factors.

And the premise of the unity of knowledge and action was to investigate things to gain knowledge, to research something to the extreme and make it one's own knowledge. For example, cooking – perfecting the craft of cooking, achieving impeccable color, aroma, and taste; building – constructing solid, beautiful, practical, and magnificent buildings and pavilions that withstand wind, rain, and earthquakes; building ships – thoroughly understanding the principles of shipbuilding, using solid materials so that ships do not sink in wind and waves.

This was investigating things to gain knowledge, researching something to its core, and understanding all the principles within. Having achieved the level of investigating things to gain knowledge, one could then achieve the unity of knowledge and action.

Ban Gong Cuo was precisely this type of person. He reincarnated and was reborn time and again, researching various skills to the extreme. All the knowledge he acquired became his foundation, a part of his words and deeds. His every move, action, word, and deed held deep meaning. Even from the first time Qin Mu met him, Qin Mu had entered his rhythm.

From Qin Mu's provocation outside the Six Harmonies Hall to Ban Gong Cuo's words in the Jade Fragrance Building, everything was him weaving a net, meticulously weaving a large net to trap Qin Mu. And now, as they walked towards the city outskirts, it was this large spider collecting its net, spitting silk towards Qin Mu, entwining him, locking him tight, leaving him with less and less room to move. Once they reached the city outskirts, it would be the time for the large spider to inject poison and kill its prey!

Such a fearsome opponent was unlike anyone Qin Mu had ever seen! Whether it was Daozi or Fuzi, or even those powerful experts of the Heavenly Human Realm and Life and Death Realm who had pursued and killed him, compared to Ban Gong Cuo, they were all significantly inferior!

Now, Qin Mu was already forced by him to walk with a limp, tilting east and swaying west. Meanwhile, Ban Gong Cuo walked very steadily, and becoming even steadier. He was forcing Qin Mu to display all possible changes to avoid exposing any flaws. The moment Qin Mu's changes were exhausted would be the moment of his death!

"To be able to contend with such a powerful and fearsome existence is truly a great fortune!"

Qin Mu suddenly stopped. In the instant he stopped, his body revealed a hundred flaws; one could say his entire body was full of flaws! Ban Gong Cuo was slightly startled and also stopped. In that instant, he had the impulse to strike. Qin Mu's flaws were exposed; in his eyes, Qin Mu's entire body was a collection of one by one completely fatal flaws, but he hesitated for an instant. Qin Mu was the Heavenly Devil Cult Master, and the Heavenly Devil Cult's power was immense, it was the largest sect in the secular world. Striking here, even if he killed Qin Mu, it would be difficult for him to escape the Heavenly Devil Cult's revenge.

Just as he hesitated, the flaws in Qin Mu's body disappeared, his momentum suddenly erupted, his killing aura bloomed, suppressing Ban Gong Cuo by a level, and he lifted his foot and walked forward.

Ban Gong Cuo's face sank slightly, and he had to follow him, falling into a passive state. Qin Mu had used his hesitation to shake off the disadvantage, which indeed exceeded his expectations. This youth, although lacking his experience, possessed a kind of sharpness that he himself had long since lost. Having reincarnated so many times, that initial sharp, aggressive spirit of his first life had been worn away over the long course of each subsequent life. Now, he saw that vitality and spirit in Qin Mu.

This time, it was his turn to be restricted by Qin Mu, forced to walk forward according to Qin Mu's rhythm. Their body movements and momentum constantly changed, the changes were very subtle, but as they walked further, the amplitude of Ban Gong Cuo's body swaying became larger, like a drunken, hazy person, tilting east and swaying west, attracting much attention.

The situation was now like Qin Mu using invisible ropes to lead a thirteen or fourteen-year-old drunk child down the street. The contention between experts was like this, especially when the difference between two people wasn't great; a slight mistake could reverse the situation! Qin Mu had used Ban Gong Cuo's psychology of not daring to strike directly in the city to reverse the situation.

Although the situation was reversed, Qin Mu still didn't relax at all. Indeed, as Ban Gong Cuo said, Qin Mu hadn't had time to consolidate the Six Harmonies Realm. Although he had entered the Six Harmonies Realm at the same time as Ban Gong Cuo, Ban Gong Cuo was different from him. Ban Gong Cuo had twenty lives of experience, twenty times breaking through the Six Harmonies Realm. In a day's time, Ban Gong Cuo was enough to consolidate this realm and mobilize the power it could wield.

Meanwhile, Qin Mu still needed time to become familiar, to explore and seek, before he could control the power of this realm. The most crucial point was that he had no cultivation diagram for the Six Harmonies Realm! The cultivation diagram for the Overlord Body Three Dan Skill only cultivated up to the Five Luminaries Realm. Although Qin Mu had obtained a stone slab in Loulan Golden Palace, the skill on the stone slab should be a cultivation diagram for the Seven Stars Realm.

Without the cultivation diagram for the Six Harmonies Realm, cultivating forcefully could easily lead to a dangerous situation of the Six Harmonies being upside down and the heavens and earth in chaos, resulting in either death or severe injury.

Qin Mu's mind immersed itself in the Six Harmonies divine treasure. Within this divine treasure, he saw his own Spirit Embryo, and again saw the Five Luminaries stars and divine hall in the sky, sensing his Five Luminaries Star Lords. From the perspective of the Spirit Embryo, he could see the four directions of heaven and earth.

Evidently, after entering the Six Harmonies Realm, the three major divine treasures needed to be unified, and the skill must be able to penetrate the three major divine treasures, forming a complete whole. The Six Harmonies divine treasure contained the four directions of heaven and earth, and its magic power was strong, capable of urging divine abilities, a qualitative leap. But the Overlord Body Three Dan Skill's lack of a cultivation diagram for the Six Harmonies Realm would be his biggest shortcoming.

Finally, the two walked out of the capital city and arrived at the outskirts. Ban Gong Cuo's movements while walking became larger and larger in amplitude, staggering, but the changes in his body shape and movements still seemed endless, maintaining a perfectly flawless state! Qin Mu had to admire him. From the city to the outskirts, Ban Gong Cuo's body movements alone had already changed dozens of times, each one extremely exquisite, a body movement cultivated to the extreme. When he used the dragon form to advance, he truly resembled a true dragon walking on the ground. When he used the tiger walk, the feeling he gave people was truly like a fierce tiger. When he displayed the phoenix-sparrow body movement, it was like a phoenix-sparrow flying low. When he displayed the swimming fish body movement, it was like a fish struggling against a swift current.

It was hard to imagine that one person could simultaneously cultivate so many body movements to the extreme!

The two walked further and further, and gradually the killing aura became more and more dense. From Qin Mu's Taotie bag, a sword pellet flew out, and the Shao Bao Sword also flew up from the Taotie bag, hanging at his waist.

Two pig-killing knives on Qin Mu's body fell off, the two knives successively embedding themselves in the ground, exposing only their handles, the two knives more than ten zhang apart. Next, a bamboo staff was inserted into the ground, an iron hammer fell, and a brush, ink, paper, and inkstone slid out of his sleeve, all directly thrown down by him as he walked.

As he walked, his body swayed, and one by one, profound iron blocks fell off from the front and back of his chest, very heavy. The iron shoes on his feet suddenly exploded, and the iron blocks hanging on both legs also fell off. His body became light, his bones crackled, and his momentum actually rose like a ship!

Ban Gong Cuo was still being led forward by him according to the rhythm. As Qin Mu's momentum elevated, the pressure brought to him also increased, but he could still persist, not revealing the slightest flaw.

In the distant grassland, the grass had already grown, and there were many men and women on outings, paired up for a spring tour. Some children were flying kites, frolicking on the grassland, and some young men were showing off their body movements, soaring up between steps, stepping on the kites in mid-air, causing the girls below to admire them.

Then the sounds of admiration gradually lessened, and the outing people looked towards these two strange youths, Qin Mu and Ban Gong Cuo.

In the woods, patches of birds flapped their wings and flew up, avoiding them from a distance. The killing aura emanating from these two youths alarmed their hearts.

Qin Mu and Ban Gong Cuo walked to the edge of the Tu River. Suddenly, countless large fish in the river surface leaped out of the water, splashing and jumping towards the center of the river, fleeing in a lively manner.

In the instant these fish and birds leaped and flew up, a child suddenly closed his eyes, opened his mouth wide, and wailed loudly. In the sound of crying, Qin Mu and Ban Gong Cuo on the riverbank struck almost simultaneously!

——The second chapter will be updated ten minutes later!