Chapter 939 The Portal to Chaos
Old Swindler’s reaction was exactly what Li Mu had been hoping for.
“He really knows Ding Hao!”
“Who is he?” Li Mu pressed.
“I’m not too sure myself,” Old Swindler muttered gravely, “But I’ve heard rumors about him. They say he’s a being comparable to the Divine Emperor Ye Qingyu. In fact, he achieved enlightenment even before Ye Qingyu did. They call him the Imperator of Blades. For reasons unknown, he has a certain bond with Earth. Powerful and omnipotent across the galaxy, everyone believes that he’s on par with Ye Qingyu and Sun Fei; all three of them being among the greatest in the universe.”
“He said you would know how to save s.h.i.+yu.”
“Amitabha,” lamented the priest, “This is a test… This young la.s.s was not destined to achieve enlightenment. Yet by will and resolve, she managed to find one herself. And to think she’s acknowledged as the heiress to the Imperator of Blades’s swordcraft…” He reached into the jade sarcophagus and took w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu’s wrist. “Indeed. She has only one psyche and one soul left. The rest are missing…”
He reached into the jade sarcophagus and took w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu’s wrist. “Indeed. She has only one psyche and one soul left. The rest are missing…”
Li Mu looked on grimly.
“To save you, she employed a forbidden craft that burned up her psyches and souls—essentially, her own life—so that she could activate the power of the sword of the Imperator of Blades. Let me have a look at that rusted sword.” He took the sword and examined it closely, running a finger down the length of the sleek but rust-peppered steel. Next, he began making some calculations.
“The remaining of her psyches and souls are no longer in this world.”
The old priest shook his head morosely.
“What?!” Li Mu yelped.
“Not here, then where?! Completely disintegrated?! Does that mean that s.h.i.+yu would be here, forever asleep in this jade casket like a vegetable?!”
“Pipe down,” said Old Swindler. “It’s not what you think. Her psyches and souls are not here but in the realm of Chaos. Come to think of it, the Battlefield of Chaos should be open by now. It’s time you foray inside for a look.”
“Wait. The remainder of s.h.i.+yu’s psyches and souls are inside the Battlefield of Chaos. That’s what you’re saying?” Li Mu confirmed skeptically.
“According to the auguries, yes,” said Old Swindler.
“Auguries?!” Li Mu stared at his mentor with undisguised doubt, “Since when your auguries are reliable?”
“Since when my auguries are NOT reliable?!” snapped Old Swindler hotly.
“If it was not for your mistake, s.h.i.+yu would not have been transported to the Heavenly Lands in the first place! Reliable? Don’t make me laugh!” Li Mu retorted viciously.
“That’s her destiny,” Old Swindler defended himself, “There’s no stopping destiny when it hits.”
“Really? So all that losses you’ve been raking up in mahjong, that’s destiny too, eh? As if your auguries are good to prevent yourself from being steamrollered in mahjong.”
The elderly priest could have sworn that he nearly suffered an aneurysm.
Talk about rubbing salt in his old wounds.
“I’ve heard all about the Battlefield of Chaos before. Where is it exactly? Is it a pocket dimension somewhere inside the mountains? I heard that the great mountains in the countries make up the outer peripherals of this Arena.”
“That’s the gist of it,” said Old Swindler. “But to really gain entry into the Battlefield, you’ll never find the entrance easily. At least not inside all those mountains. Not even the higher echelons of the Divine Clans can locate the entrance easily, never mind an uninitiated brat like you. Scouring all over the place will only be nothing but a fool’s errand. Stay here and train for now. Leave finding the entrance to me.”
For the next few days, Li Mu stayed in the temple, using the time to train and meditate and prepare himself for entering the Battlefield.
His time in Molderad had given him enough experience and knowledge in combat techniques, although he would need a proper setting to test if what he had learned there would be of use to him. At any rate, he would also need to make sure if the combat techniques would bring the same effects as when he used them at Molderad.
But life at the temple wasn’t boring in the least; people kept coming to look for him.
And Li Mu had to entertain them.
But what surprised Li Mu was Bi Yan came looking for him.
“We meet again,” said the Green Fox G.o.d to Li Mu, her lithe and rapturous features grinning like old friends meeting.
Her retinue of six champion mutants waited outside the temple.
Bi Yan might be a friend, but the Green Fox G.o.d that now stood before him was a complete stranger to him.
He had heard enough from Silly Dog about what happened in the Immortal Palace and putting all the pieces together, he now knew what really happened. He now has a good idea of her role in the struggle of the races of the Six Great Traitorous Devils to come back to Earth. In fact, he could almost recognize her handiwork in the string of incidents beginning from the Six Major Channel incident until the opening of the entrance into the Immortal Palace area. That so-called “gift of providence” was only a sham since it was just a hand. Her hand—the hand of the ancient mutant G.o.d whose soul has now occupied Bi Yan’s body.
The foray into the domain of the Immortal Palace complex had seen the near decimation of the Six Divine Clans and even Li Mu himself was nearly killed.
Was she really the innocent young la.s.s that he had met back when he was still on White Earth?
What nefarious deceptions could those crystal-clear eyes be hiding?
He did not blame her for forsaking him and w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu when Imperial Lord Void arrived. The blame was not his to lay on her. But when he thought of the many catastrophic incidents that had occurred as a result of the Six Traitorous Devil races landing on Earth, he could no longer bear to think of her as a friend anymore.
“I’m sorry about w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu. But I’m afraid I was unable to do anything back then,” said Bi Yan, looking rather apologetic.
Li Mu did not respond.
“You’re planning to enter the Battlefield of Chaos, aren’t you? I have here a missive containing all information you’ll need about the Battlefield. You can have it,” she tossed into the air a jade medallion imbued with the information she just mentioned.
Li Mu flicked a finger, firing a tiny bolt that deflected the medallion back at her.
Bi Yan stared at him incredulously.
Still, Li Mu refused to say anything.
Bi Yan’s lips formed a thin simper. “Quit acting like a child. If you want to save w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu, you’ll gonna need this.”
Still refusing to respond, Li Mu sent the medallion hurtling back to her.
His gaze was firm and steady.
Bi Yan betrayed a fleeting hint of surprise as she recovered the medallion. Looking at LI Mu, she said, “You’re blaming me?”
Li Mu shook his head. “Just saying goodbye to some good old days with a friend who’s long lost. It’s time we part ways. Forever.”
“Just because I left w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu there alone?” Bi Yan glared at Li Mu unflinchingly.
“No,” said Li Mu curtly, shaking his head.
Bi Yan looked like there was something to be said, but she held herself back. With a last smile, she turned around and leave.
Li Mu did not rise to see her out of the temple.
Bi Yan descended the steps of Randeng Temple. Just then, she paused to look back for one last time.
The six mutant champions did not fail to notice the sparkle of tears that welled in their mistress’s eyes when she looked back. Never had they ever been so surprised at all, yet here they were, perplexed by this.
“We’re leaving.”
The tears were gone from her eyes. Bi Yan sighed and all of them could detect the tone of lamentation and moroseness in her voice.
Without a word, they followed closely behind Bi Yan as they left.
Li Mu only appeared at the entrance of the temple after they left.
He exhaled heavily as a tacit farewell to all the good things that he has had in the yesteryears.
He made a good recovery during his stay at Randeng Temple and used much of his time to study the various combat techniques that he had learned from Molderad. The results were promising. It was as he expected: the combat techniques from Molderad emphasized the effective use of every shred of Mana in the atmosphere and using it here in a world where Spiritual Qi is rich and dense would make the techniques at least ten to hundreds of times stronger and deadlier.
From then on, he immersed himself in the perfection of his skill, reflecting on his mastery of the saber and trying to a.s.similate what he had learned so that he could use them in tandem with the Four-Blade G.o.d Killing discipline in the future.
His mentor had told him before about the Battlefield of Chaos, that it is a place teeming with untold perils and innumerable foes both powerful and dangerous. Li Mu needed to make sure that his conditioning and his abilities were all at his peak. Or else, his entry into the Battlefield to recover w.a.n.g s.h.i.+yu’s psyches and souls would only be a one-way ticket.
Li Mu tirelessly pushed himself to his limits.
In the meantime, the Chieftain of the Yellow Dragons came to visit.
Li Mu recounted what happened in the dimension of the Immortal Palace.
Moved to tears, the Chieftain exclaimed joyfully, “Thank you so much, sir! At long last, the curse on my race is lifted!”
Li Mu produced the Rings of Heaven and Earth and said, “I found this pair of rings there.” He went into thorough detail about the provenance of the rings. “With the destruction of the garrison there, there is no need for these rings to be there any longer. I know that one of them is an heirloom relic of your race. Take it back then. Trust that your race is no longer under threat of that curse anymore.”
The Chieftain did not know about that. Never did he realize that the Ring of Myriad Beasts that was the relic left to him by the race’s forefathers was one of the pair that made up the Rings of Heaven and Earth—one of the legendary Emperor-cla.s.s relics. But as much as he was tempted to return the ring to its rightful place with his race, he nevertheless chose to entrust it to Li Mu, allowing Li Mu to keep the entire set. An Emperor-cla.s.s relic might sound enticing enough, but at the same time, it might invite the wrong attention from parties coveting it.
Li Mu did not decline the offer. But in return, he gifted the Chieftain with ma.n.u.scripts of what he had learned from Molderad.
The Chieftain left with his children, feeling immensely grateful.
Luo Liang’s relations.h.i.+p with Huang Ye’Er seemed to be improving too.
Old Swindler came back to Randeng Temple on the eleventh day of Li Mu’s stay there.
“Imagine my surprise when I discover this: someone had opened a portal in this city that leads into the realm of Chaos! d.a.m.n, what luck you have, brat!” Old Swindler was hollering at the top of his voice as soon as he saw Li Mu.
“This city?! Baoji City?! Where?!”
“At Hidden-dragon Bay. You remember that huge tree?” Old Swindler revealed cryptically, “That one fabled to have magical fruits and a tiny pond with gold and gems? That’s where the portal into Chaos is.”