Chapter 428: Making Threats and Promises
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
Ten Thousand Beasts Hall Master’s heart tightened and he went to inform the magistrate. Qin Mu stopped him as he tilted his head. “Wait a moment, there’s no need to have everyone leave.”
Ten Thousand Beasts Hall Master was slightly stunned, but Hu Ling’er and Si Yunxiang instantly understood what Qin Mu meant. “There’s no point in them leaving. If the meteorological weapon gets activated, no one will be able to run away. Even if they run to the capital, they still won’t be able to avoid the explosion. This kind of weapon can travel thousands of miles in an instant. If it’s power was completely unleashed, it could probably shroud the entire Eternal Peace Empire.”
A chill ran down the back of Ten Thousand Beasts Hall Master.
They were tens of thousands of miles away from the capital, but they couldn’t escape even after running all that distance?
What kind of weapon was that huge bottle gourd in Fragrance Well?
Qin Mu straightened his s.h.i.+rt and walked toward Fragrance Well with unhurried steps. He’d been in a rush earlier, but now he was quite relaxed. “Don’t let the people in the city leave.”
Si Yunxiang was slightly stunned.
“The people in this city are the G.o.d’s hostages. If we let them go, he will have no hostages and will immediately activate the bottle gourd, starting the natural disaster!” Qin Mu whispered.
Si Yunxiang couldn’t help shuddering as she looked at him.
The power of the meteorological weapons was too strong; they had tested it in Granny Si’s manor and knew it full well. Not even one percent of Earthquake Cauldron’s power had been unleashed, yet it had injured Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor, Village Chief, and the rest of the experts with its tremors. The residue power had even traveled several hundred miles and shaken the mountains!
If the people in the city stayed, they’d be located at the center of the explosion. This way, if they died, they would feel much less pain.
Cough, cough.
The G.o.d coughed twice, but it wasn’t an act; his body was truly weak. His coughing came from near Fragrance Well, as did the sneering voice right after. “Little thing, you chased me all the way here, but aren’t you afraid I will activate this Five Thunder Pot?”
“Five Thunder Pot?” Qin Mu walked toward Fragrance Well, going up the steps. He had the divine flood dragon king follow beside him as he smiled. “This treasure is called Five Thunder Pot? May I ask which five thunders are within it?”
The divine flood dragon king looked at the courtyard in front and frowned slightly. He shook his body, and it instantly became smaller, taking the form of a youth wearing a sapphire blue robe. He looked somewhat fierce, but wasn’t bad-looking.
The dragon qilin also shook his body and sucked in his tummy, but it popped out again with a boing. Hu Ling’er immediately covered her face and said with embarra.s.sment, “Fatty Dragon, don’t call me Sister Ling’er anymore. This is so embarra.s.sing…”
Other flood dragons bared their fangs and brandished their claws while shouting ma ha ma ha. They shook the bodies as well, but none of them transformed into humans. Instead, they all sucked their tummy in before releasing them with a boing.
‘These guys have all gotten pretty fat after following young master. Their little tummies are all bulging out!’ Hu Ling’er surveyed the dragons with a serious face and thought to herself, ‘I should tell young master to take note of their diet from now on!’
The flood dragons had not learned the art of morphing before since Dragon Rearing Sovereign had only raised them for battle. He had never treated them as his disciples, so he didn’t teach them the human language either.
Qin Mu brought everyone to ascend up the steps. The courtyard before them showed up to be huge, like that of a large manor. In the center of it was the famous Fragrance Well of Purple Chaste City.
It was a famous historical site. Rumors said that the land had once been barren, so when a bunch of escapees running from soldiers came to it, they had no water to drink and died from thirst. The survivors then prayed to the heaven, and a miracle happened. The ground swirled and cracked up, revealing a deep well whose water had a lovely fragrance. Because of that, it was named Fragrance Well.
Around it was a courtyard built of bricks. It had a tight guard, plenty of which were divine arts pract.i.tioners. There were three layers of defense inside and three layers outside. But at that moment, all of those divine arts pract.i.tioners were sleeping on the ground, without a single one being awake. It was obvious that it was the doing of the G.o.d.
“Five thunder are actually cla.s.sified with directions – north, south, east, west, and middle, and they form five great thunderclouds.”
Qin Mu walked into the courtyard and saw that Fragrance Well was gone. It had cracked from being burst apart from inside by a huge treasure. It didn’t really look like it was a bottle gourd, but like it was made out of green jade in that shape. It was roughly fifteen yards tall, and the runes that appeared on it looked like clouds yet not clouds, like dragon yet not dragons, like lightning yet not lightning.
Under the bottle gourd sat a man with a horn who looked rather miserable. He was covered in injuries, and there were even a few broken bones sticking out from his skin. They looked quite horrifying.
His leg was also broken, resulting in a b.l.o.o.d.y mess. His bones there were shattered and much of his sole had already rotted.
Qin Mu couldn’t help feeling sorrowful and asked in concern, “How are brother’s injuries?”
“You are the one who smashed it, so what do you think?”
The one-horned man took a glance at him, his voice lacking politeness. His injuries had been caused by Qin Mu smas.h.i.+ng him with a broken moon, which crippled him. If that wasn’t enough, he even chased him all the way to the city and then dared to act courteously by asking him how were his injuries.
Qin Mu blushed with shame and revealed an apologetic smile. “A doctor treats a patient like the parents a child. Truth be told, this little brother has learned the art of healing and is known as a divine physician with sacred hands. I’m the most merciful, frequently treating people and saving them. I can’t bear to see people injured thus when I saw brother’s injuries, my compa.s.sion couldn’t help stirring. If brother can believe me…”
“I can’t!” The one-horned G.o.d sneered at him. “No need to say more. This Five Thunder Pot contains five thunderclouds which aren’t very big, so they can at most cover the territory of Eternal Peace Empire. There are fire bell divine weapons in the clouds, so with a single ring, the entire empire will be buried by lightning! You chased me this far, but aren’t you scared I will activate Five Thunder Pot?”
Qin Mu went forward and supported himself on the Five Thunder Pot. He said with a smile, “How can I not be scared? But if I don’t chase after you, won’t you still activate Five Thunder Pot? Not only will you activate it, you will even activate all the other meteorological weapons. Just Five Thunder Pot alone isn’t enough to kill all of Eternal Peace’s people, but if you activate all the other meteorological weapons as well, that would then be a fatal disaster. Wait, how should I address senior brother?”
The one-horned G.o.d looked at the youth who was the divine flood dragon king who opened his mouth to speak. “Your Majesty, he’s G.o.d Bai Xi of High Heavens.”
“Senior Brother Bai Xi,” Qin Mu said solemnly. “The fact that you didn’t activate Five Thunder Pot immediately means that there’s room for discussion. In that case, why don’t we discuss?”
The eyes of G.o.d Bai Xi were slightly farther apart than normal, but even though they were small, they were round. “What do you suggest?”
“You go to Great Ruins and turn into a stone statue, and you will live,” Qin Mu said with a smile.
G.o.d Bai Xi laughed loudly, his voice sounding like a huge bell. He sneered and said, “Just a brat like you expects me to turn myself into a stone statue willingly? I’m a G.o.d of High Heavens! if I came to this kind of agreement with you, wouldn’t I become a laughing stock to all the people in the world?”
Qin Mu refined a furnace of spirit pills to treat himself and replenish his life force. “What does senior brother suggests?”
“I’ll activate Five Thunder Pot and you will let me off, then I won’t touch the rest of the meteorological weapons!”
Qin Mu consumed the spirit pills and said weakly, “No can do.”
G.o.d Bai Xi’s tiny eyes shrank. “Don’t force me into the path of no return! If I can’t complete this mission given to me by the high G.o.ds, I won’t be able to live. Either you let me activate Five Thunder Pot and let me go, or I’ll activate it and fight you to the death! Even if I die, I’ll pull you guys down as well!”
Qin Mu shook his head. “You can’t pull any of us down.”
Bai Xi laughed loudly while Qin Mu took out the true dragon’s nest to fetch out the G.o.ds’ limbs which he had stolen from Xing An. He then pieced these limbs into the shape of a four-headed and many-armed devil G.o.d. “Senior Brother Bai Xi, I have ways to protect myself. I’m skilled in the art of teleportation and also know the art of summoning. This body is prepared for an old friend of mine. If you don’t come to an agreement with me, I will summon him from Dutian World, and there won’t even be a need to mention protecting me, since killing you will be a breeze for him.”
G.o.d Bai Xi’s gaze landed on the four-headed and many-armed body, and his eyes became even smaller. “You’re trying to scare me? How could you know any devil G.o.d?”
Qin Mu smiled and took out a white bone altar as well as a wooden sculpture of a devil G.o.d. He executed Ghost Transferring G.o.d Dispatching Runes Command and cast his spell on the altar. After a moment, evil wind blew in waves while devil qi churned. All kinds of runes began lighting up on the wooden devil G.o.d sculpture.
G.o.d Bai Xi’s face changed slightly, and he immediately said, “Stop! You can stop summoning. I believe you!”
Qin Mu immediately stopped and secretly sighed in relief. If he continued to summon, even if he managed to contact Dutian Devil King, the other might not pay any attention to him.
Dutian Devil King carried a heavy burden and his guts were small. Ever since he had left back then, he had never contacted Qin Mu again. He had also said that he would definitely not come back to his world again.
If Dutian Devil King knew that a hundred G.o.d statues had appeared in Eternal Peace Empire along with meteorological weapons of immeasurable power, he definitely wouldn’t dare to show himself.
Qin Mu took away the wooden sculpture and placed the body he had pieced together on the altar with a smile. “Now can we talk?”
G.o.d Bai Xi’s face flickered between clarity and grimness. After calculating for a moment, he gritted his teeth. “I have young and old in High Heavens, and if I can’t complete this mission, my whole race is going to be exterminated! I need to return to High Heavens to bring them out!”
“Your Majesty, don’t believe him,” the divine flood dragon king said in a low voice. “He indeed has a race in High Heavens, but High Heavens aren’t a place in which he can just come and go as he pleases. There’s a Receiving Official in High Heavens, and without his permission, no one can enter or leave!”
Qin Mu smiled.
G.o.d Bai Xi’s expression changed drastically and he sneered. “How did Dragon Rearing Sovereign raise a traitor like you?”
The divine flood dragon king sneered back at him. “If Dragon Sovereign wasn’t subdued by His Majesty, why would have I turned traitor?”
Dumbfounded, G.o.d Bai Xi he cried out, “Dragon Rearing Sovereign was subdued by him?”
“Similar to you, Dragon Rearing Sovereign was severely injured by me and had no choice but to submit to me in the end,” Qin Mu said with a warm smile. “My terms to him were extremely generous—to become the dragon king of Surging River! Every year, the people who commit suicide in the river and those that drown in s.h.i.+pwrecks are all his rations, so his meals are definitely good. On top of that, there are over a hundred Dragon King Temples of all sizes beside the river, and they all wors.h.i.+p him. Dragon Rearing Sovereign enjoys his incenses and offerings, living his days out in unmatched comfort.”
G.o.d Bai Xi smiled from anger. “Yet you want me to turn myself into a stone statue. I dare not accept it! Could it be that I’m inferior to that sc.u.mbag who raises dragons?”
“Senior Brother Bai Xi, what requests do you have? Just name them, and if I can satisfy you, I will definitely not be stingy. It’s just that the matter of activating Five Thunder Pot is too delicate. If you activate the treasure, either you or I will have to die!” Qin Mu said with utter sincerity.
G.o.d Bai Xi muttered irresolutely, unable to make up his mind.
Qin Mu’s gaze flickered, and he took a glance at Five Thunder Pot. He was truly afraid of the huge bottle gourd, so he probed, “How about this, can you wait a few days? If the G.o.ds of your High Heavens achieve victory and activate the other meteorological weapons, I will turn around and leave, allowing you to activate this Five Thunder Pot. I will return to Great Ruins and not dabble in the worldly affairs anymore, allowing the true G.o.ds to descend and erase the world. If you don’t receive any news of the G.o.ds of High Heavens activating other meteorological weapons, you and I will talk again. What do you think?”
G.o.d Bai Xi gritted his teeth and said firmly, “Alright!”
Qin Mu laughed loudly, then coughed a few times while gasping for breath. “Senior brother, little brother’s body isn’t in a good condition so I’ll take my leave now.”
Astonished, G.o.d Bai Xi thought to himself, ‘This brat sure is naive, leaving me here… If the senior brothers of High Heavens are able to activate the other meteorological weapons, it wouldn’t matter if I activate Five Thunder Pot or not. But if they don’t activate them, it would mean that they had all died, and there would be nothing wrong with me submitting.’
As Qin Mu walked out of the courtyard, his face turned dark, scaring Si Yunxiang and the rest. His expression had changed way too fast.
“Saintess Xiang, inform the emperor to have Sunshot Divine Cannon brought over here!” Qin Mu said ruthlessly. “Also, I will write down a prescription, for which Saintess you will have to help me grab the herbs. I want to refine a poison. Next, have all the experts who are skilled in Five Demons Transferring Technique to come over so we can send Five Thunder Pot as far away as possible!”
Si Yunxiang hesitated for a moment, then probed, “Cult Master, it isn’t good to do this, is it?”
“We need to be prepared, just in case! If things go sour, we can move Five Thunder Pot away and kill him!”