Chapter 89: Sword Challenging the Demons

Qin Mu's vital qi subtly stirred. A thread of vital qi, as thick as his arm, silently drew out the Young Protector Sword. His gaze was fixed on the dancing tentacles, deducing the owner's location based on the muscle movements of the tentacles.

Suddenly, he extended his left hand, pointing two fingers forward. The Young Protector Sword immediately hummed and shot like lightning into the gray mist. From within the mist, a scream echoed. Simultaneously, the spiderweb vibrated as a woman with eight claws on her back swiftly traversed the web, her eight extremely sharp claws striking down at Qin Mu!

Qin Mu spread the five fingers of his right hand and pulled forcefully. The entire spiderweb suddenly lifted, enveloping the eight-clawed woman in its center. Qin Mu activated his vital qi, and the Great Educational Heavenly Devil Scripture contracted, slicing the eight-clawed woman within the net into pieces!

Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief. The fine threads formed by the Great Educational Heavenly Devil Scripture continuously retracted, weaving back into a glove on his hand, without a trace of blood.

"What exactly are these Heavenly Devil beings? They are neither human nor beast, neither demon nor insect. They are too strange."

He walked forward on the spiderweb, making no sound at all. The Cripple's Sky-Stealing Legwork was truly light.

The Young Protector Sword flew back, returning to the fish-dragon hilt on his back. Qin Mu maintained the fish-dragon form of the sword hilt with vital qi, ready for battle at any moment.

He cautiously approached the Heavenly Devil being killed by the Young Protector Sword. Examining the corpse, he saw that it had eight legs, all of which were long, horrific tentacles.

"Such dense mist isn't good for me, nor is it good for these Heavenly Devil beings. As long as they can't overwhelm me all at once, I can survive!"

Qin Mu stood still in the gray mist, listening for any unusual sounds around him.

At this moment, the surroundings suddenly fell silent; not a single sound could be heard.

Qin Mu picked up a pebble, flicked it with his finger, and it landed. Aside from the crisp rolling sound of the pebble, there was still no other movement.

He waited for a moment longer, then flicked another pebble, still no movement. Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief: "I've killed all the Heavenly Devil beings. It should be safe now..."

Suddenly, a fierce gust of wind swept through the valley, dispersing the pervasive gray mist. Qin Mu's scalp tingled as he clearly saw his surroundings: hundreds of Heavenly Devil beings stood all around him, an immense number.

Just moments ago, he had stood motionless, and these hundreds of Heavenly Devil beings had also stood motionless in the gray mist, waiting for him to reveal himself. Qin Mu had no idea that so many people were standing around him!

He leaped up, riding the fierce wind as he shot through the air. The moment he became airborne, the hundreds of Heavenly Devil beings moved in unison, pouncing on the youth in the sky!

These hundreds of Heavenly Devil beings were all practitioners of divine arts. There were eight types of Heavenly Devil beings in total: the first type Qin Mu had seen were strange beings with fish scales and webbed feet; the second, lava giants; the third, handsome youths; the fourth, ugly old women; the fifth, women who looked human but had scorpion tails; the sixth, women with eight claws on their backs; the seventh, strange beings with eight tentacles; and the eighth, strange beings whose arms were two large snakes.

Now, these hundreds of Heavenly Devil beings collectively lunged into the air, unleashing various bizarre divine arts and strange limbs, all attacking Qin Mu simultaneously. They were densely packed and utterly impossible to resist.

Qin Mu's hair stood on end. In this situation, he had no time to defend himself!

At this moment, a burst of Buddhist light suddenly erupted from his glabella, and a colossal Buddha leaped forth from his brow.

"Om Mani Padme Hum!"

The Great Buddha pressed its palms together, and Buddhist light erupted in rings in all directions. Countless severed limbs flew everywhere, and a hurricane-like force swept away the Heavenly Devil beings.

The Buddhist light gradually dimmed. In front of Qin Mu, the ethereal image of the Great Buddha also became fainter and fainter, until it finally vanished.

That was the ethereal Buddha image left by Grandpa Ma in his glabella, which would only erupt when he faced certain death, but it would dissipate after a single use.

Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief, then paused slightly, wondering, "Why did a sudden gust of wind just now disperse the gray mist? If not for that wind, I wouldn't have been discovered by those Heavenly Devil beings."

At this moment, he noticed the source of the fierce wind: the Moon Boat.

This colossal vessel was slowly rising. Because the boat was simply too immense, even larger than Dragon-Imbued City, it generated the fierce wind that dispersed some of the gray mist.

"The Sun Boat needs a Sun Guardian to control it and move forward. Could this Moon Boat also have a Moon Guardian? If there's still a Moon Guardian defending this place, perhaps there might be my kin on board..."

Qin Mu's spirits lifted, but then he saw black smoke rising like a pillar from the temple in the city closest to the Moon Boat, indicating that a terrifying presence had sensed the commotion here.

Without hesitation, Qin Mu immediately rushed out of the Fengdu gateway, using the full power of his legs to sprint wildly towards the other side of the mountain. The Cripple's Sky-Stealing Divine Legs were put to full use under his feet, making him move with extreme speed, like a fleeting shadow.

The unusual movement of the Moon Boat suggested it was being controlled, but the current situation was extremely perilous, leaving him no time to investigate.

He ran over several hilltops, and a sea of mist appeared ahead. Just as Qin Mu was about to rush through, a suction force suddenly came from below, pulling the wind from beneath his feet. Qin Mu immediately fell from the air!

*Boom*.

Dust billowed. Qin Mu had crashed into the ground, creating a large crater. The youth slowly stood up from the pit, realizing he had landed precisely in the village he encountered right after disembarking.

At this moment, the villagers one by one put down their work, stood up, and looked at him with eerie gazes.

What made the wind beneath his feet disappear was a bellows held by a man dressed as a blacksmith. Human skin covered a large clamp, forming an airbag with a spring inside that could compress and then spring open to draw in air, and a human head served as the nozzle for expelling air.

The man dressed as a blacksmith gripped the two handles of the bellows; it was he who had just used it to inhale, sucking away the air beneath Qin Mu's feet in the air, causing him to fall uncontrollably.

By the door of a thatched hut on the other side, a plump old woman, who had been chopping dumpling filling, stood up, clutching two cleavers from which blood still dripped.

Behind Qin Mu, a man who had been pounding rice stopped his work, instead lifting the rice-pounding pestle. Beneath the pestle was a hammerhead the size of an earthen jar, dripping blood with a 'plink-plonk' sound, and shockingly, a human head rested in the mortar.

The tailor behind the village was cutting fabric, which, shockingly, consisted of sheets of human skin. The tailor stood up, holding scissors in one hand and a measuring tape in the other.

The dyeing workshop apprentice was hanging up dyed cloth; sheets of human skin were being pulled out of large vats filled with blood. Seeing the falling Qin Mu, the apprentice put down the human skin he was holding and wiped his blood-stained hands across his chest.

A child squatting in front of a house, eating, spat out a finger gnawed down to the bone. A plump, white pig grunted as it walked by, a ghastly pale arm dangling from its mouth. At the village entrance, an old man was puffing on a human bone pipe, the smoke rings he exhaled transforming into skull shapes that emitted piercing screams before dissipating.

More and more villagers appeared both in front of and behind Qin Mu, completely blocking his path forward and backward.

Behind Qin Mu, the fish-dragon spat out a sword, and he held a saber in his left hand with a backhand grip.

Suddenly, the vital qi within him surged violently, rushing into the drawing the Cripple had made on his body with flood dragon blood. Instantly, an incredibly terrifying power surged into his limbs and bones. Qin Mu's body was filled with the power of a flood dragon, and simultaneously, the Cripple's drawing made him feel as if he were a divine being at that moment!

Although he was currently in a skeletal form, this was merely an illusion; his flesh and skin were still present, just invisible and intangible.

He had realized this when the Village Chief awakened him to reopen the Nine Heavens of the Divine Eye.

Now, with the Cripple's drawing activated, Qin Mu immediately felt his body brimming with incredibly terrifying power. His vital qi was also surging wildly, immense and vigorous vital qi overflowing, manifesting as a colossal python coiling around him!

His aura soared, and thick water vapor suddenly rose from beneath his feet, transforming into surging waves, within which a profound turtle appeared and disappeared.

He was now like a deity, filled with boundless power!

He felt as if he had become a deity capable of manipulating water, able to alter mountains and rivers with a mere gesture!

Break out of this village!

Qin Mu had only this one thought: to fight his way out of this village, no matter the cost!

*Hiss, hiss, hiss*, the sound of human skin tearing could be heard all around him. The skins on the villagers' bodies burst open, and robust figures squeezed out from within. These people in the village were not human; they were Heavenly Devil beings!

Children, women, and even the pig, all transformed, becoming Heavenly Devil practitioners of divine arts, many of them even having opened the Seven Star Divine Treasures!

Only the old man smoking the human bone pipe remained sitting at the village entrance, unchanged.

"Kill!"

Qin Mu roared and charged towards the village entrance!

The moment he dashed out, Heavenly Devil beings erupted behind him, attacking him!

Qin Mu crossed his hands, and *boom*, colossal waves surged forth from between them. A mighty long river, like a massive python, rushed out, sweeping up all the Heavenly Devil beings surging from all directions. The long river python shook its head and lashed its tail, and houses shattered into pieces under the impact of the immense flood!

Qin Mu pointed his sword finger forward, and the Young Protector Sword plunged into the long river, striking like lightning at the Heavenly Devil beings swept into the current. Thrusting Sword Style, Lifting Sword Style, Slashing Sword Style, Cloud Sword Style, Chopping Sword Style, Hanging Sword Style, Pointing Sword Style, Wiping Sword Style – the most basic sword techniques taught to him by the Village Chief were unleashed, each strike executed with utmost perfection!

The long river immediately turned red with blood, transforming into a great crimson river, upon which floated numerous corpses – the Heavenly Devil beings he had slain.

Under Qin Mu's feet, with a *whoosh*, a wave surged up, and a profound turtle emerged, carrying him as it rose and fell in the river, heading towards the village entrance. Behind him, the entire village had been leveled, and after the great flood, the ground was covered in corpses!