Chapter 513: Sacrifice Principle Analysis

After a long day's journey, night fell again. This time, Qin Mu decided not to look for ruins to rest. Instead, he had the chest carry the sleeping Dragon Qilin and travel through the night, while he himself walked in the darkness, keeping pace with the chest.

In the darkness, he witnessed many strange phenomena. Numerous cities, countless beings, and grand-scale battles suddenly appeared with the encroaching darkness. These were sights he had never encountered when he first entered the Great Ruins with the village chief.

However, whenever he stepped into the light radiating from the chest, the sights in the darkness vanished. The chest's divine light seemed to transport him back to his original world.

Stepping into the darkness, on the other hand, transported him to another world: the Dark Realm.

Strangely, he couldn't perceive any world barrier.

This was almost impossible. Any two worlds are separated by a world barrier. Crossing between them typically results in a squeezing force from the differing world energies. The stronger the traveler, the greater this pressure. Yet, there was no barrier between the Dark Realm and the real world, which was peculiar.

Qin Mu stepped back into the chest's light, sitting on it in a daze. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he chuckled, "I know an expert on this matter. Wouldn't asking him clarify things?"

Enthusiastically, he halted the chest, jumped down, and retrieved a white bone altar from his Gluttonous Pouch. On the altar stood a demonic god statue with four heads and eight arms.

Qin Mu took out a cinnabar brush and drew various runes on the demonic god statue. Then, he activated the talisman treasure with his vital qi, performing the divine ability to summon ghosts and gods.

A moment later, he finished the ritual, but the demonic god statue remained motionless.

Qin Mu was puzzled and performed the ritual again, yet the statue still showed no reaction.

"Elder Brother Du Tian, your younger brother humbly summons you to descend, offering flesh and blood delicacies. Please grace us with your esteemed presence."

Qin Mu prayed, "If Elder Brother Du Tian does not come, I, your younger brother, will pray ten or even a hundred times a day until you descend. I prostrate myself in fear and humility..."

"Shut up! Who is your elder brother?"

Suddenly, one face of the demonic god statue opened its eyes, its eyeballs rapidly darting around. After confirming it wasn't ambushed, a wisp of consciousness descended. The other three faces also instantly came alive, speaking, "I never swore brotherhood with you, so don't claim kinship haphazardly. We're not close! Praying a hundred times a day will surely drive me to distraction! Cult Master Qin, why have you summoned me?"

Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "I have something I don't understand."

He recounted his experiences in the darkness, asking, "Why are these two worlds overlapping? Why did I not encounter a world barrier or face repulsion when crossing between them?"

The puppet-like demonic god statue rose from the altar, pulled out a bone, and placed it in its mouth as if chewing sugarcane. It said, "I thought you were summoning me for another one of your schemes. It turns out to be such a trivial matter."

Qin Mu adopted a disciple's respectful posture and asked, "May I dare ask for Elder Brother Du Tian's guidance?"

Du Tian Demonic King shuddered, quickly saying, "Don't be so polite. When you're this polite, I always suspect whatever you want to give me involves the issue of world energy. In any world, the energy that constitutes it is fixed. A person's birth, cultivation, or death does not alter the world's energy composition. This is a fundamental law!"

Qin Mu mused, then suddenly asked, "If a person's birth, cultivation, and death don't change the energy composition, what if that person becomes a god or a demon, immortal and ageless?"

"Even if one becomes a god or a demon, it won't change the fixed energy of this world. It won't increase or decrease the world's energy."

Du Tian Demonic King continued, "The world's energy is constant, and the transferable energy is limited. When a person crosses from one world to another, the first world loses that person's energy, and the second world gains it, disrupting the original balance. This causes a force equivalent to twice the person's own power to act upon them, making world-crossing very difficult and requiring flesh and blood sacrifices."

Qin Mu suddenly had a moment of clarity and said, "So, the principle of flesh and blood sacrifice is to offer the flesh and blood of beings from this world, sacrificing them to another world, where they transform into that world's energy!"

Du Tian Demonic King nodded, "And the sacrificed gods and demons, as exchange energy, descend from another world into this one, filling the energy lost by the flesh and blood sacrifice, thereby maintaining the energy balance between the two worlds. For example, with your altar here, the energy in the bones on the altar was just sacrificed by you to my Du Tian world. In exchange, I descended into your perilous world."

Qin Mu's eyes lit up. "I see. What did you mean by 'the transferable energy is limited' just now?"

"Flesh and blood sacrifices build a bridge, connecting two realms. If my power is strong enough, I can smuggle a portion of power through this bridge, without strictly adhering to energy balance."

Du Tian Demonic King chuckled, "Last time you summoned me, the sacrificed power was very small, yet I mobilized a significant amount of energy to descend into this world. This is like forcibly squeezing in, but the energy squeezed in requires me to bear the pressure of both worlds. Therefore, the amount of power I can smuggle in is still limited and quickly surpasses my limits. The power that can be smuggled depends on the strength of the one being sacrificed."

Qin Mu realized, then frowned. "But in the darkness of the Great Ruins, two worlds overlap without a world barrier. How can this be explained?"

Du Tian Demonic King let out a sinister chuckle. "What if the energy squeezed in exceeds the limit that this world can bear?"

Qin Mu's heart jolted. "Are you saying..."

"A large-scale flesh and blood sacrifice, building tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of bridges, with tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of gods and demons smuggling themselves in together, pouring their own energy into that world!"

Du Tian Demonic King smiled grimly. "To burst that world's barrier open! With the world barrier burst, there's no barrier anymore, and then they can launch a full-scale invasion, unopposed!"

Qin Mu's hair stood on end, and he shivered several times, his face showing disbelief. He blurted out, "Are you saying that the world in the darkness of the Great Ruins is a world whose barrier has been burst open?"

"The one that burst open might not necessarily be the world in the darkness."

Du Tian Demonic King smiled, "Don't you think your world could also be the one that burst open?"

Qin Mu shook his head. "If this world had burst open, you would have been able to descend freely long ago. I saw countless demonic gods in that dark world opening spatial rifts and leading their demon spawn to invade. It's clear that the world whose barrier was burst open is *that* world."

Du Tian Demonic King sat on the chest, yawned, and dangled his feet. "From your description, the world in darkness overlapping with this perilous world reminds me of a terrifying possibility: World Sacrifice!"

A sinister and bizarre smile appeared on all four of his puppet-like faces, and he was so excited he almost jumped up. "World Sacrifice is the act of sacrificing an entire world, using that terrifying power to descend into another world, with millions of gods and demons descending together to destroy that world! This is an even grander plan!"

Qin Mu was astonished. "They intend to destroy that world?"

The puppet-like demonic god statue's heads creaked as they rotated, all four faces' gazes sequentially falling upon him.

Qin Mu's hair bristled, and he gasped, "Are you saying that tens or hundreds of thousands of demonic gods burst open the barrier of that dark world, and then plan to blood-sacrifice that world to descend upon us?"

Du Tian Demonic King's head rotated several times around his neck with a rumbling sound, and he clapped his hands in praise. "Clever! The Great Ruins and that world have overlapped, so that world can be sacrificed. The energy from sacrificing an entire world is so immense, so terrifying, it can allow that world, teeming with demonic gods, to descend upon the Great Ruins in one fell swoop! At that time, there will be a terrifying scene of two worlds colliding, with billions of lives obliterated. Just thinking about it is exhilarating!"

Qin Mu's expression was blank, then he suddenly shook his head. "Impossible, absolutely impossible! The darkness has existed for twenty thousand years. Does that mean the war in that world has lasted for twenty thousand years? How could a war possibly continue for so long? Impossible!"

Du Tian Demonic King jumped down from the chest and said, "If I were you, I would have immigrated to another world long ago. A wise person does not stand under a crumbling wall; how can eggs remain unbroken when the nest is overturned? This world is too dangerous, I'm going back! Also, don't bother me so often, I'm fed up with you!"

He leaped into the darkness, his consciousness leaving the body to return to the Du Tian world, shouting, "When the world in darkness is destroyed, that will be the day your world collides with another demonic god world, and the day of your demise!"

As he jumped into the darkness, he was immediately eroded by it. Qin Mu quickly rushed into the darkness, only to see the puppet-like demonic god statue shattered on the ground.

Qin Mu frowned and returned to the chest. The white bone altar's energy was depleted, and the bones themselves had shattered.

"Is Du Tian Demonic King reliable? He always seems unreliable, but what he just said is so terrifying..."

He composed himself. Du Tian Demonic King's words were truly terrifying, but how much credibility did they hold?

However, considering Du Tian Demonic King's schadenfreude and tendency to stir up chaos, there was no need for him to deliberately scare Qin Mu.

"Yan Kang is still too weak," Qin Mu mused.

Qin Mu let out a sigh, thinking, "But the world in darkness and the demon race have been fighting for twenty thousand years. Having endured this long, they surely won't collapse and be blood-sacrificed now, will they? Therefore, the collision between Yan Kang and the demon world should still be far off. No need to worry too much... Hahaha, I almost wet myself from Du Tian's scare. It's just groundless fear, definitely groundless fear!"

A few days later, Qin Mu finally exited the Great Ruins and returned to Yan Kang. He immediately took a flying ship from Mishui Pass, quickly heading to the capital. There, he presented a memorial to Emperor Yanfeng, offering the Black Tortoise Pearl contributed by Xiong Xiyu, the True Heaven Palace Master, and brought up the matter of road construction.

Emperor Yanfeng convened a meeting of civil and military officials, including the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor. There was much debate among the officials, with many opposing the road construction. The Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor eloquently debated against the dissenting voices, pushing through the proposal. Emperor Yanfeng then smilingly threatened decapitation in court, finally settling the matter of road construction.

Emperor Yanfeng entrusted the matter to the Ministry of Works, with the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor in charge. Qin Mu immediately sought out the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor and said, "The divine arts of the Western Land are very suitable for our Sacred Cult. King, please take a few elders and hall masters from our cult there to recruit more talents into the faith."

The Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor was puzzled. "Cult Master Qin, isn't it rather inappropriate to entrust this matter to me?"

"As one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Sacred Cult, it's naturally your responsibility."

Veins popped out on the Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor's forehead, and he said stiffly, "And what about the Cult Master?"

Qin Mu chuckled, "I'll go visit relatives and friends, and also conduct some business to earn money."