Chapter 485: Bei Luoshi Men

The crevice was about ten feet wide. The crate, carrying Qin Mu and the others, entered, but after only a couple of steps, it got stuck. Qin Mu quickly tried to push the Dragon Qilin’s belly further in, but the crate still wouldn’t move. Ban Goncui, who was underneath, also cried out in pain from the pressure.

“Quiet!”

Qin Mu whispered a low command, telling the crate to move back out. Outside, one of Xing Han’s divine eyes passed by, its pillar-like light sweeping across their location.

Qin Mu quickly instructed the large crate to hide behind a protruding boulder. The divine eye was incredibly fast, sweeping past in an instant.

“Fortunately, Xing Han’s eye isn’t like Grandpa Blind’s divine eye, otherwise this boulder wouldn’t have hidden us at all.”

He let out a sigh of relief, opened the crate, grabbed the loose skin behind the Dragon Qilin’s neck, and stuffed the large creature inside.

“Cult Master…”

The Dragon Qilin, inside the crate, shivered all over. “It’s all arms and legs in here, and heads! And hearts! And so many fingers!”

Qin Mu closed the crate and told it to continue moving into the crevice. Without the bulky Dragon Qilin, the journey was much smoother this time. The crate moved deeper and deeper, and the light ahead grew steadily brighter.

Qin Mu lay prone on the crate, trying to look ahead. From the crevice, looking towards the other side, he saw not green grasslands and a blue sky as he might have expected, but a vast golden desert. This was different from what they had seen earlier.

“Could the world within this crevice be different from the one in the previous crevice?”

As he thought this, another divine light suddenly shone from behind him. Qin Mu was startled. There was no place to hide now, so he could only desperately urge the crate to crawl forward.

Fortunately, they weren’t far from the world within the crevice. The crate quickly crawled out, rolled down, tumbled twice in the golden desert, and then stood upright again.

Qin Mu looked back. A divine light shot out from the crevice, flashed and disappeared. He didn’t know if it had seen them.

Suddenly, he was startled. He quickly jumped off the crate and looked underneath. As expected, Ban Goncui was gone.

“That fellow, he slipped away fast!”

Qin Mu chuckled. Ban Goncui must have seized the opportunity to escape when the crate tumbled into the golden desert, to avoid being suddenly ambushed by Qin Mu.

Just now, they were in the deep night of the Great Ruins, with Xing Han pursuing them nearby, so they had to stick together inside the crate. However, now that the darkness was gone, Ban Goncui naturally made his quick escape.

Without his legs, he was no match for Qin Mu. If he had been slow to escape, he would have been unable to leave.

“The Great Deity is truly cunning,” Qin Mu remarked.

He opened the crate. The Dragon Qilin immediately jumped out, terrified, and unwilling to go near the crate again.

Qin Mu peered inside the crate. It was still the same as before: a frame made of Taotie bones, covered with Taotie hide on the outside. Inside were only the frames, but many of the limbs that had been on the frame were now missing.

Furthermore, he saw traces of where the crate had been cut open and then stitched back together. This damage was caused by Butcher’s two knives, which had indiscriminately cut through the crate.

After Xing Han escaped Butcher’s blades, he must have repaired the crate.

“If I could use ‘Spirit Summoning’ on these divine legs, divine hands, and divine heads, to reawaken these limbs, Xing Han might not be impossible to deal with.”

Qin Mu’s eyes gleamed. He closed the crate and ran away from the crevice behind him, heading deeper into the golden desert. Behind him, the crate moved with remarkable speed, steadily following him. The Dragon Qilin also ran swiftly, occasionally glancing at the crate, fear evident in its eyes.

After a moment, the Dragon Qilin still overcame its fear. It leaped onto the crate and squatted there, letting the crate carry it forward at high speed.

“Fatty Dragon has reached a new level of laziness!” Qin Mu thought to himself, looking back at the stout creature.

Ahead, the vast desert stretched to the horizon. Qin Mu, with the crate, raced through the desert. He suddenly stopped. He saw a towering skeleton lying across a sand dune, half-buried under the yellow sand.

As he walked forward, he immediately felt a divine aura. He quickly halted. The crate behind him also promptly stopped. The Dragon Qilin, who had fallen asleep on the crate, was instantly startled awake. It looked up, peering around, and cried out, “Has Xing Han caught up?”

“No!”

Qin Mu examined the divine skeleton buried in the yellow sand. The ribs of this skeleton were incredibly tall and protruded high. Beneath the ribs was the chest cavity, which could probably hold dozens of people standing inside.

He approached cautiously and slowly. The crate also followed him stealthily, taking small, short steps.

Qin Mu extended his hand, but suddenly felt it was inappropriate. He took out Ban Goncui’s large cauldron and slowly approached the divine skeleton with it.

Suddenly, there was a loud clang. Qin Mu let out a muffled groan. The web between his thumb and forefinger split open, and his palm was bleeding profusely. And one of the legs of Ban Goncui’s large cauldron was severed!

This large cauldron was forged by Ban Goncui in his previous life. At that time, Ban Goncui was a powerful being almost on par with a deity. His cauldron’s power was undoubtedly on the level of a sect-protecting treasure!

Even when Qin Mu fought against him with his sword pellets, he couldn’t damage the cauldron, showing the cauldron’s strong defense.

Yet, before this divine skeleton, the cauldron seemed as if it were made of clay; its leg was easily severed.

Qin Mu endured the pain, sealed his wound, and picked up the severed cauldron leg from the ground. The cut surface was smooth, as if sliced by an invisible sharp blade.

Moreover, touching the cut surface, he felt it was extremely hot to the touch.

“This is… the Yang energy from the Yin-Yang dual forces. It has been refined into protective divine essence by the owner of this skeleton.”

Qin Mu put away the cauldron and the severed leg. The Dragon Qilin cautiously stared ahead and asked in terror, “Cult Master, what was that thing that cut the cauldron?”

“It’s the divine treasure of this deity.”

Qin Mu picked up a handful of yellow sand and gently blew on it. The sand flew forward, instantly revealing what was invisible to the naked eye in the space!

Inside this colossal divine skeleton lying in the yellow sand, there were actually seven complete divine treasures!

Originally, these divine treasures were invisible. But now, as fine sand particles entered them, they immediately emitted divine lights of various colors, illuminating the divine treasures deep within the space with incredible brilliance!

The divine skeleton was enormous, but its divine treasures were not large. The Spirit Embryo divine treasure at the skeleton’s brow was only an inch square. The Five Elements divine treasure in the heart and lungs area was slightly larger. The Six Directions divine treasure was located at the Dantian, and the Seven Stars divine treasure was between the crown of the head and the heart-lungs area.

The Celestial Being divine treasure was in the spine. The Life and Death divine treasure was below the waist. As for the Divine Bridge divine treasure, it emerged from the Spirit Embryo divine treasure, forming a flying bridge that extended beyond the crown of the head!

These divine treasures didn’t look large, but strangely, looking inside them, they seemed to contain spacetime spanning hundreds of millions of miles, incredibly vast. One could even see decaying and withered suns, moons, and stars, along with tattered constellations and star rivers!

At the center of the Spirit Embryo divine treasure was the Spirit Embryo of this deity. This Spirit Embryo should have been a part of the primordial spirit. Although the soul of this divine skeleton was no longer present, the Spirit Embryo had not yet completely withered.

“He died from injuries to his primordial spirit.”

Layers of array patterns rotated in Qin Mu’s eyes as he gazed intently at the Spirit Embryo within the Spirit Embryo divine treasure. This deity’s Spirit Embryo had been pierced by a sword from behind, which then emerged from its chest. The sword had even left a phantom image, showing how terrifying that strike was!

Shattered suns and moons rotated around the Spirit Embryo. From the suns and moons, streams of radiant qi flowed down—these were the Yin-Yang dual forces.

One of these pure Yang qi streams was what had just severed a leg of the cauldron.

“Even without flesh and blood after death, it could still preserve its complete divine treasures and Spirit Embryo. The remaining divine essence is still so powerful, capable of easily cutting through a sect-protecting treasure.”

Qin Mu mused. Ordinary deities could not possibly possess such power after death. He had once seen the corpse of Jade Monarch, Xu Shenghua’s master. Jade Monarch had been blown to pieces by the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon he had created, dying a horrific death.

Although Jade Monarch’s corpse still carried a heavy divine might, it couldn’t compare to this divine skeleton at all.

Moreover, Jade Monarch’s divine treasures had also collapsed and disintegrated after his death.

“This is a true god, a real deity!”

His expression was grave. He rummaged through his Taotie pouch, took out the Black Tortoise Pearl, and murmured, “How could a true god die here?”

Qin Mu activated the Black Tortoise Pearl, using its power to cast a spell, attempting to use ‘Spirit Summoning’ to awaken the skeleton.

*Clatter—*

The skeleton suddenly stirred. The Dragon Qilin was terrified to the core, its dragon scales standing on end, and its tail trembling rigid.

Qin Mu activated the Ten Thousand Gods Nature Art. This art was best practiced by women; his mind was too cluttered, so he had never been able to cultivate it to its peak, but with the help of the Black Tortoise Pearl, he could barely activate it.

A huge boney hand slowly rose from the sand. The skeleton slowly sat up. Its massive skull lowered, seemingly observing Qin Mu and the Dragon Qilin. Yellow sand poured like waterfalls from its eye sockets and mouth.

“Fight!”

The skeleton stood up, grabbed a tattered banner from the deep sand dune, and waved it. Its mouth opened and closed. The residual magic power in its divine treasures vibrated the air. Despite having no flesh, it still let out an earth-shattering roar: “By Imperial Edict: Behind us lies our ancestral land! We have no retreat! Fight! Only fight!”

Qin Mu’s jaw dropped, and he scratched his head. He had intended to use ‘Spirit Summoning’ to conjure a new soul from the skeleton. However, it now seemed as if a part of its will remained within this skeleton. This will had never dissipated; it had merely been dormant, awakened by his Ten Thousand Gods Nature Art.

“The war ended countless years ago, Senior!”

Qin Mu called out loudly, “Where is your hometown? Why did you die here? Whose orders did you fight under? Who was your enemy?”

The withered skeleton lowered its head and “looked” at him. Its voice boomed: “Under the command of the High Emperor, Northern Gate Battalion, Deputy Commander, I was ordered to hold this ground. Where do you come from, junior? This is a battlefield, retreat at once! Where are my brothers?”

The divine skeleton leaped up, waving its banner, rushed onto a high sand dune, then suddenly froze, standing motionless.

“The High Emperor’s era? Wasn’t that tens of thousands of years ago?”

Qin Mu was dumbfounded. He quickly hurried over with the crate. When he reached the top of the sand dune, he was stunned. On the other side of the dune was an endless expanse of skeletons.

Skeletons lay haphazardly, buried in the golden desert. The colossal skeletons couldn’t be fully buried, with most of them still exposed.

Divine weapons and sharp artifacts were scattered haphazardly across the barren desert. There were also tattered war chariots, majestic warships mottled with verdigris, and hundred-foot-tall metal disks...

Qin Mu stood frozen. This had once been a battlefield for gods and devils. Thousands of gods and devils had perished here, left unburied.

“What year is it now?”

Beside him, the divine skeleton lowered its head and asked: “Where is the High Emperor? Why are my brothers’ bodies exposed in the wilderness? Why are these warriors not given their dignity after death…”

Qin Mu said with compassion: “Senior, the High Emperor era ended long ago; it has become a legend. Not only the High Emperor, but even the Founding Emperor era has ended…”

“Did the High Emperor also fall in battle?”

The divine skeleton lowered its head, seemingly weeping, but no tears fell. It stepped onto the battlefield and lifted a skeleton: “My brothers, my comrades, the High Emperor era no longer exists, but I cannot let you remain unburied… Little brother.”

It turned its head to “look” at Qin Mu: “Can you awaken my brothers? We will bury ourselves and find peace in death.”