Chapter 703: Dead City

“If this devil god stone statue revives, the other stone statues will also revive! This stone statue is unlucky to have transported his corporeal body here. However, the other stone statues in Eternal Peace are all perfectly fine!”

Qin Mu was astonished. Aside from that unlucky stone statue, there was another unlucky one, the one under Mount Meru.

That stone statue rose from the ground and ended up hitting Mount Meru. Mount Meru of Great Thunderclap Monastery and the Mount Meru of Buddha Realm were basically the same nature. Knocking into Mount Meru of Great Thunderclap Monastery was equivalent to hitting a Buddha-Realm.

However, the other stone statues didn’t encounter situations like those. Instead, they popped out from all corners of the world without incident. Those stone statues were incomparably heavy and couldn’t be moved at all; thus, Emperor Yanfeng ordered all of them to be guarded heavily.

After Qin Mu had experienced a stone statue reviving for himself, he clearly understood how terrifying the stone statues were. If they were to revive, it would be a catastrophe to Eternal Peace even without the divine weapons that could descend calamity!

“If Tian Shu still doesn’t come, I can only go ahead by myself…”

Just as he thought until there, a divine light shone down from the sky, and from the light, a majestic god stretched his hand out to grab the Imperial Gate Divine Knife that was underground!

‘Mingdu Heavenly King is here!’

Qin Mu was delighted and raised his head to take a look. He saw Tian Shu holding the Imperial Gate Divine Knife and chanting phrases to turn it smaller and smaller. Not long later, it transformed into a huge knife that was over a hundred yards long.

Tian Shu kept the divine knife and tried his best not to touch the blade. “Stay here, let me go and meet the disciples of Mingdu!” After saying that, he rose into the air, and light filled the sky. Both he and the knife vanished.

Qin Mu was about to stop him, but he had already gone far away.

Qin Mu frowned slightly and rose into the air to get out of the underground space. Looking into the distance, he could only see a beam of sunlight flying towards the east.

Suddenly, his taotie sack vibrated, and peals of thunder came out. Qin Mu was astonished and quickly poured the things in his taotie sack out to see the surroundings of Five Thunder Pot crackling with electricity. The meteorological weapon looked to be on the verge of losing control!

“The five great thunderclouds are about to be activated.”

Qi Jiuyi sighed and said with a solemn face, “Brother Qin, Eternal Peace is no longer a place we can have a footing in. Once the five thunderclouds rise into the air, Eternal Peace will transform into a sea of lightning and the fire bell divine weapons will scuttle around in the sea of lightning. Furthermore, other than Five Thunder Pot, there are also meteorological divine weapons like Earthquake Cauldron and Hurricane Bottle Gourd. If all of their power burst forth together, Eternal Peace would be even more terrifying than hell! I’m ready to hide in High Heavens, second brother, are you following me? I can bring you to leave this world and enter the High Heavens. The calamities won’t reach there.”

The dragon qilin hesitated for a moment and looked at Qin Mu. He shook his head and said, “Wherever Cult Master goes, I go. I’ve followed Cult Master for so many years and ate a lot. I can’t just leave when I’m needed.”

Qi Jiuyi had a complicated expression and sighed. Flames surrounded him as he transformed into a nine-headed phoenix to soar towards the west. His voice rang out, “In that case, you’re on your own! Second brother, don’t die, no matter what! This is the token that represents the bloodline of Southern Heaven Red Deity; it might just be able to save your life!”

A token flew into Qin Mu’s hand.

Qin Mu was slightly stunned and handed over the jade token carved with a nine-headed phoenix to the dragon qilin.

Qi Jiuyi’s token wasn’t for him; it was for the dragon qilin.

“Fatty Dragon, Qi Jiuyi is still pretty nice to you.”

Qin Mu said with a smile, “Let’s start on our journey, back to Eternal Peace!”

The dragon qilin stepped on fire clouds and brought Qin Mu to rise into the air. Qin Mu saw the sword pellet on his body and hesitated for a moment. However, he still didn’t let the dragon qilin throw the sword pellet off.

He didn’t know the situation in Eternal Peace, and he didn’t have any weapon that was suitable for him. Besides, if he threw away the unfinished sword pellet, it wouldn’t increase his speed much.

‘What can really increase my speed is my primordial spirit!’

On the back of the dragon qilin, Qin Mu projected his primordial spirit and executed Secrets of Three Primordial Spirit Assembly. Soon, he had gathered all of the talents in Eternal Peace for a meeting. The primordial spirits of Dao Master Lin Xuan, Wang Muran, Xu Shenghua, Ling Yuxiu and the rest were all gathered in Hall of Supreme Learning.

“Has there been a large-scale incident of death in Eternal Peace recently?” Qin Mu asked.

“Yuzhi County in the south-east, in one night, all of the people died.”

Ling Yuxiu said, “From the cities to the countrysides, everyone died at the same time, and that included the young magistrate of Yuzhi County who was a strong practitioner on Divine Bridge Realm that wasn’t far from being a god. My father has already dispatch men to scout that place, and from the reports, all of the people in Yuzhi County still look alive. Many people are on the streets with walking poses, and there were also old farmers farming in the fields. However, they have all died, and there were no breaths at all. Father has already suppressed news from spreading to prevent panic in the hearts of the people.”

Qin Mu frowned and asked, “What about the livestock?”

“Livestock, pets, and beasts—none were spared,” Ling Yuxiu replied.

Dao Master Lin Xuan, Wang Muran and the rest still didn’t know such a huge incident had occurred, and in an instant, the Hall of Supreme Learning was in an uproar.

Ling Yuxiu continued, “Imperial Preceptor, First Ancestor, Sacred Teacher and the rest assembled the experts of Crimson Light and the devil race to find the location of the enemies. These enemies must definitely be Lou Yunqu and the rest.”

Qin Mu looked at Si Yunxiang and said solemnly, “Saintess Xiang, immediately pass down the order to contact all disciples of the sacred cult, make all of the disciples supervise the activities of every single stone statue. Report any abnormalities to me immediately!”

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Si Yunxiang nodded her head and said, “There are tip-offs from various regions that those stone statues are starting to revive, some stone statues are revealing the color of flesh. I even heard the news that Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor suppressed the meteorological divine weapons in the treasury. Not long ago, the weapons started to give off power and crumbled the treasury. Just today, the capital city quaked fifteen times and the dragon veins are splitting apart.”

Everyone’s hearts leaped, and they instantly became silent.

“The other thing you have to take note is for any large-scale incidents of death, if there is, inform me at once!”

Qin Mu quickly said, “Sister Xiu, inform the emperor and get him to give the order to summon all scholars that are skilled in Soul Guide to take fast ships to Yuzhi County. Dao Master, Brother Wang, if there are people who are skilled in Soul Guide in Dao Sect or Little Jade Capital, get them to hurry there as well! We might still be able to save them!”

Everyone nodded in acknowledgment.

The primordial spirit assembly was dismissed, and Qin Mu’s primordial spirit returned into his body. He immediately ordered the dragon qilin to head towards Yuzhi County, but after some time, he stopped him.

The dragon qilin didn’t understand but still slowed down to run forward at a steady pace.

Qin Mu’s expression flickered with uncertainty. Yuzhi County was close to the coastal area in the south-east of Eternal Peace Empire. The journey was long, and it would take a day to reach there. The coastal area was secluded, and if he had just rushed there without thinking it through, he might fall into the trap of luring the tiger away from its domain in the mountains.

If all of the divine arts practitioners that were skilled in Soul Guide were gather in Yuzhi County, no one would be able to react if another large-scale incident of death suddenly erupted in other prefectures and counties.

‘Just the people of a county are probably not enough for the stone statues to revive, more people have to die to wake the stone statues up.’

Qin Mu’s gaze flickered, and he took out the map of Eternal Peace from taotie sack. Eternal Peace was no longer what it was before, and their territories had increased drastically. The population was also several times what it was before, but the human traffic was still mainly concentrated at places where trade was flourishing.

‘The water transportation of the Surging River is the most developed, and along the river, there are many cities with populations of a million, especially in this stretch of River Tomb. However, River Tomb is close to the capital city so Imperial Preceptor, First Ancestor, and the rest would respond quickly.’

Qin Mu checked the map, and the most suitable location was still none other than Yuyuan Chuyu’s Lizhou Prefecture.

It was far enough from the capital city and far enough from Yuzhi County. It was also in the center of Eternal Peace.

‘If I was Lou Yunqu, I would choose that place and sacrifice everyone in Lizhou Prefecture to awaken the stone statues.’

Qin Mu’s expression was uncertain. Lizhou Prefecture was in the south of Heavenly Saint Academy, and there was also the Surging River Academy there. High Minister Su Yunzhi was a grand chancellor there while Yuyuan Chuyu and Yuyuan Chuyun were the chancellors.

‘If they use the Life and Death Book to sacrifice everyone in Lizhou Prefecture, not only could they get the entire Surging River Academy in one fell swoop, even my Heavenly Saint Academy would be wiped out. It’s no trouble for Lou Yunqu and the rest to wipe out Heavenly Saint Academy along the way as well.’

‘Lizhou, Bazhou, there are more than enough people to allow many stone statues to revive. Once the stone statues are revived, it’s simple to wipe out a few prefectures. After that, they can completely destroy Eternal Peace by activating the meteorological divine weapons to descend calamities.’

When Qin Mu thought until there, he immediately ordered the dragon qilin to head towards Surging River Academy in Lizhou.

The speed of the dragon qilin was very fast. He sprinted quickly on the Surging River and churned up waves. Two huge dragons swam under the water and followed the dragon qilin closely.

When they reached Dyke River County, Qin Mu ordered the dragon qilin to descend. On the Hundred Years Mountain that was opposite of Dyke River County, a snow white god with a horn on his horse head looked over from afar.

Qin Mu waved his hand, and God Bai Xi concealed himself.

Beside the river was Surging River Academy, and the reason why Su Yunzhi had chosen to build the academy there was because of the talents on both shore and river. Over at the Surging River, there was Surging River Dragon King Dragon Rearing Sovereign, Divine Flood Dragon King and God Bai Xi living there. Usually, when they required the three gods to provide lessons, they just had to give offerings, and among them, God Bai Xi was the cheapest—they didn’t need to spend much.

Qin Mu hurried over to the academy and saw numerous new and huge spirit weapons. The huge spirit weapons were parked on both sides of the roads, and some scholars were teaching the divine arts practitioners how to control the weapons.

It was obvious that the scholars of Surging River Academy didn’t know that calamity was imminent and the place was still very peaceful.

Qin Mu made the dragon qilin stop to take a look. He saw that some spirit weapons were wind carriages that had seven blades and a small delicate pill furnace. By putting medicinal stones inside the pill furnace, the blades would be able to spin.

When the blades spun, blades of winds would slice along the ground and very quickly, it overturned a field.

After overturning the ground, one could then push the wind carriage forward to overturn other lands.

‘A tool for plowing the land!’

Qin Mu was astonished. During Eternal Peace’s reform, divine arts practitioners that cultivated wind divine arts were mostly hired to use spells to plow the land—they used wind blades.

But someone had created that kind of wind carriage spirit weapon which utilized the energy from medicinal stones to execute divine arts. It was truly an elaborate concept.

He asked the scholar beside the wind carriage, and the scholar replied, “Other than wind carriages, there are also cloud carriages, rain carriages, mining carriages, and furnaces for smelting metal. They are all designed by Heavenly Works Hall and Heavenly Works Bureau. Imperial Preceptor ordered them to be promoted throughout the empire.”

‘Could Grandpa Mute have designed the spirit weapons for everyday use? However, if they are being popularized throughout the empire, the medicinal stones wouldn’t be enough for the usage, would they? Even planting spirit herbs requires time for the herb to mature.’

Qin Mu asked, “Is Grand Chancellor Su Yunzhi in the academy?”

“Grand Chancellor is right in front. She is checking the medicinal fields with Jade Face Poison King from the Imperial Physician Bureau.”

Qin Mu’s heart stirred slightly. ‘Grandpa Apothecary is also here? Isn’t he with Empress Dowager and the rest of the beauties? Could he have a thing with High Official Su Yunzhi as well? Bah, bah, why am I badmouthing Grandpa Apothecary behind his back…’