Chapter 299: Strange Thing

According to those two white bats, many Grand Shamans from the Loulan Golden Palace have recently arrived in the Underworld Valley. We must be cautious. Qin Mu's expression was solemn. He opened a small slit in the Taotie Bag on his back, ready to draw his sword at any moment.

"Sect Master, those two creatures just now were very powerful." The Dragon Qilin walked forward, avoiding the floating rocks in the air. "Those two are no weaker than me, and they are extremely ancient," he said.

Qin Mu looked around and said in a deep voice, "They are probably divine offspring, descendants of gods and demons. It's boastful to say they're no weaker than you. Pick any one of those white bats, and even ten of you wouldn't be able to defeat it. Their aura is simply too strong."

The Dragon Qilin seemed unconvinced and grumbled, "That's because I'm still young. If I were an adult, ten of them wouldn't be able to defeat me. I'm very useful!"

Ignoring the Dragon Qilin, who was now as round as a ball yet still boasting, Qin Mu pondered, "Strange, how can there be white bats like this in the Great Ruins? Could they be descendants of the Bat God from before the cataclysm? Do gods and demons from before the disaster still have descendants surviving?"

Some temples in the Great Ruins housed statues of the Bat God, which was understood as the God of Fortune, bestowing blessings upon people. He had once seen a stone statue of the Bat God in Xianglong City. It had a bat's head and a human body, with fleshy wings and membranes growing from its armpits. Its appearance bore some resemblance to the two white bats, but these white bats seemed more primitive, while the Bat God, apart from its head and wings, looked more human.

If those two white bats were descendants of the God of Fortune from before the cataclysm, then shouldn't there be more descendants of gods and demons elsewhere in the Great Ruins? Yet, Qin Mu had lived in the Great Ruins for so many years, so why had he not encountered more descendants of gods and demons?

"Fat Dragon, where did you live before you met Grandmaster?" Qin Mu suddenly recalled something and asked.

"The Great Ruins." The Dragon Qilin reminisced with nostalgia. "Shortly after I was born, my mother disappeared. When I was so hungry I was dizzy and almost starved to death, I met Grandmaster. I saw he was extraordinarily handsome, so he lured me away with a spirit pill. It was a single misstep that became an eternal regret."

Qin Mu was torn between laughter and tears. "It was clearly Grandmaster who took pity on your hunger and gave you a spirit pill, and then you just latched onto him, shamelessly following him and refusing to leave, making it impossible for him to shake you off! But then again, Fat Dragon, you're also considered a divine offspring, aren't you? Could it be that the divine race from before the Great Ruins' cataclysm transformed into the current exotic beasts of the Great Ruins?"

His expression was strange. The Great Ruins, before the cataclysm, must have been an incredibly prosperous and flourishing era, where gods and humans coexisted among mortals, and the descendants of gods also lived there. Then the great cataclysm occurred, causing the gods to vanish and their descendants to increasingly transform into exotic beast forms. This conjecture was astounding, but not entirely impossible.

Ahead, the cliffs on both sides of the canyon were densely forested, giving a bizarre impression of a forest growing on sheer rock faces. The floating stones in the air indicated distorted geomagnetic energy in the area. Suddenly, Qin Mu felt a movement inside the Taotie Bag. His heart stirred, and he opened the bag to find the Worry-free Sword trembling gently, emitting a crisp sword cry. Qin Mu channeled his vital qi into the Taotie Bag and took out the sword.

He had originally intended to use the Worry-free Sword as a base sword to refine into a sword pellet, so he hadn't equipped it with a scabbard. Now, holding the Worry-free Sword in his hand felt somewhat inconvenient. He immediately pointed a finger, and the Worry-free Sword flew up, slicing off a branch from an ancient tree.

"What tough wood!" Qin Mu took a section of the branch and tried to cut the wood with vital qi threads, but found it difficult to make a mark. He couldn't help but exclaim that the wood's texture was comparable to profound iron. He wielded the Worry-free Sword to carve, quickly fashioning a wooden scabbard. After inserting the Worry-free Sword into the scabbard, it continued to vibrate slightly, but was no longer as noticeable.

*It seems that what fell from the sky sixteen years ago wasn't just the broken Worry-free Sword and divine metal, but also something else. This object is resonating with the Worry-free Sword!* he thought to himself. *People from the Loulan Golden Palace have already entered the Underworld Valley. Will they find that thing before me?*

Finally, they reached the end of the canyon. The landscape suddenly opened up before them. Qin Mu did not rush into the valley, instead looking around alertly. On either side of the canyon's end stood two colossal stone statues carved out of the mountains, as tall as the peaks themselves. The two statues bore solemn, dignified, and sacred expressions, their gazes profound as they stood, each leaning on a sword.

The sound of rushing water filled the air. It was a powerful waterfall flowing from the statues' shoulders, a thousand-zhang cascade that plunged between their hands, flowed down their swords, and converged into a river. Two rivers flowed from the statues' feet, forming the semblance of two dragons within the forest, then disappeared into the center of the valley. These two statues had bat heads and human bodies, precisely the Bat God.

*Two Bat Gods guarding the Underworld Valley? What is the relationship between these two Bat God statues and those two white bats from earlier?* Qin Mu gazed into the distance, startled. *Do these two rivers flow underground? Azure Heaven Eye, open!*

Another layer of vision immediately appeared in his pupils. Qin Mu looked toward where the two rivers vanished and couldn't help but frown; his sight seemed to be blocked by something, preventing him from seeing clearly.

"Scarlet Heaven Eye, open!" Qin Mu channeled his vital qi, forming the Scarlet Heaven runic array in his eyes. A circle of vermilion patterns appeared in his pupils, while inside that was the emerald green Azure Heaven Eye, and further within was the cyan Cyan Heaven Eye. Moving inward still, there was the white light of the Divine Heaven Eye, with the pupil at the very center.

He had learned the Nine-Tiered Eye Opening Method taught by the blind man. However, with his current cultivation, he could only open up to the Scarlet Heaven Eye, and it consumed a great deal of energy, so he rarely used it. Normally, the Cyan Heaven Eye was sufficient; there was no need to activate the Azure Heaven Eye or Scarlet Heaven Eye. However, even with the Scarlet Heaven Eye, he could not discern what lay at the point where the two rivers disappeared.

"Hmm..." Qin Mu's heart trembled slightly as he spotted several corpses in the forest ahead. They were Grand Shamans from the Loulan Golden Palace. The bodies were not far apart, and strangely, some looked remarkably lifelike, as if they had just died, while others were rotten down to the bones, yet their clothes remained intact. As his gaze swept deeper into the forest, he saw more corpses. Clearly, these individuals had met an unfortunate, untimely end immediately after entering the forest!

He looked through his Scarlet Heaven Eye and suddenly saw something moving swiftly beside a corpse, vanishing in an instant. Then, his Heavenly Eye seemed to experience a violent impact, and layer after layer of the Heavenly Eye closed rapidly! Qin Mu's mind was also dazed by the impact. Countless shrill voices seemed to roar and scream in his head, almost tearing his soul apart! Fortunately, he had already cultivated his primordial spirit and forcibly withstood the attack. But he hadn't seen what exactly had attacked him.

"Limitless, Limitless, Mahaparinirvana!" The shrill screams in Qin Mu's mind grew louder. He decisively activated the Mahayana Sutra of Tathagata. His body glowed with Buddhist light, and behind his head, the Six Heavens and various Buddhas and gods appeared, chanting in unison. The lingering Buddhist chants immediately purified the bizarre screams that had assaulted his soul.

The soil beneath his feet suddenly sizzled, emitting a wisp of green smoke and a foul odor. Qin Mu extended his hands forward, making a grasping motion in the air. With a thunderous boom, his vital qi transformed into a towering Bodhi tree that descended from the sky, lush and green. It slammed down onto the ground in front of him, its myriad branches and trunk striking the earth. The branches and roots danced, burrowing into the ground.

A piercing shriek came from underground, and then the ground in front of Qin Mu churned. Something seemed to be fleeing rapidly underground. As it passed beneath a large tree, the tree rattled violently from the tremors caused by the subterranean entity.

*My Bodhi Samsara divine ability can't even kill this thing?* Qin Mu let out a low cry. Suddenly, his entire body became like jade, his skin translucent and crystalline, as if made of jade. A Bodhi tree subtly appeared behind him, making him resemble a bull-headed Buddha who had attained enlightenment beneath a tree.

At the Great Thunderclap Temple, he had only obtained the dharma of the Mahayana Sutra of Tathagata, not its divine abilities. However, with the dharma, he could deduce the divine abilities. The divine abilities of the Mahayana Sutra of Tathagata were actually encompassed within its Twenty Heavens. The Eight Forms of Thunder Sound were one of them, a divine ability of the Sakra level, already a top-tier divine ability, second only to the Mahabrahma divine abilities. The Bodhi Samsara divine ability belonged to the Bodhi Tree Heaven, which was the fourteenth heaven when counting from top to bottom, or the seventh heaven when counting from bottom to top. Although the Mahayana Sutra of Tathagata was not Qin Mu's primary cultivation technique, he was able to draw inferences from it and had not neglected his comprehension of the sutra.

He was currently employing the Bodhi Jade Buddha True Body, using its Buddhist nature to suppress the strange entity underground and prevent it from approaching him. However, he was also simultaneously activating his Fiery Planet Fire Lord True Skill, thus maintaining his divine transformation state of a bull-headed human body, with roaring flames all around him and clusters of fire floating beside him, making him appear somewhat incongruous.

The strange entity underground moved with extreme speed, appearing and disappearing in an instant. What was even more peculiar was that Qin Mu felt it sometimes disperse and sometimes condense. At times, it even burrowed into trees or even into those corpses. *What exactly is that thing?*

Just then, two auras rapidly approached from behind. The Worry-free Sword behind Qin Mu clanged as it unsheathed, transforming into a Cloud Sword Form that quickly spun around him, protecting his body. The two auras, however, bypassed him, flying past from either side. They were the two large white bats.

The two large white bats separated, flying to the two colossal statues on either side of the canyon. They hung upside down from the statues' nostrils, heads pointing down. One white bat chuckled, "This stupid ox doesn't know a large force has arrived from behind. Hundreds of experts have entered..."

"Silence!" From the nostril of the other statue, the other white bat complained, "Why are you warning him?"

*A large force? Hundreds of experts?* Qin Mu's heart turned cold. Those entering certainly weren't the Eternal Peace Imperial Army. The forces at Qingmen Pass were adequate for defense but couldn't spare more troops to enter the Underworld Valley! *It's the Barbarian Di army!*

Qin Mu no longer hesitated and immediately walked into the forest, heading toward the center of the Underworld Valley. Clashing with the Barbarian Di army would undoubtedly be a death wish. Barbarian Di soldiers were inherently wild and domineering, and their army coordinated extremely well, supported by military formations. When Qin Mu followed Wine-Sacrifice Priest Ba Shan to the Loulan Golden Palace, he had encountered the prairie army; they were incredibly strong, with just eight hundred men capable of confronting a Sect Master-level existence like Ba Shan. Hearing what the two white bats implied, hundreds of experts from the Barbarian Di had arrived, so Qin Mu could only temporarily avoid confrontation.

"The stupid ox is going to die!" The two bats in the statues laughed in unison, "Fall, fall!"

Buddhist light enveloped Qin Mu, protecting himself and the Dragon Qilin, and he remained upright. The two white bats were surprised. Suddenly, one white bat flew out from the statue's nostril, grabbed a branch with its claws, and hung upside down in front of Qin Mu, puzzling, "Why don't those things attack you?"

Qin Mu looked up and asked, "Fellow Daoist, what is that thing underground?"

Just as the white bat was about to answer, it silently flew up and back toward the Bat God statue's nostril. Hundreds of Barbarian Di soldiers and dozens of brilliantly golden Grand Shamans and Shaman Kings emerged from the canyon, arriving at the entrance of the Underworld Valley in neat formation.

"Prince Ban Gengcuo, please!" A Shaman King bowed. Ban Gengcuo slowly emerged from the rear, his gaze sharp as lightning, sweeping across the Underworld Valley. He then saw Qin Mu on the Dragon Qilin's back and paused, a playful smile appearing on his face.

"Sect Master Qin, still well?" His voice, still somewhat youthful, was remarkably loud, demonstrating immensely profound cultivation.

Qin Mu's heart trembled slightly upon hearing that voice. *His cultivation speed is even faster than mine! During our confrontation outside the capital, although we both entered the Six Directions realm, his cultivation wasn't as profound as mine then, but now he has caught up!*

"Perfectly well." Qin Mu laughed heartily. "I'm doing great! And you, little prince, look great too. I was worried my few cuts might have killed you underground, so I'm relieved to see you're still alive."

Ban Gengcuo smiled. "The Sect Master was well before, but perhaps not anymore."

"Prince, there are two bat monsters up there." A Shaman King looked up at the Bat God statues and said.

Ban Gengcuo said nonchalantly, "Kill them."