God of War Catalog

Vast Nascent Soul Power covered the area, binding Yu Shier like chains of iron. He struggled with all his strength, but it was useless.

Yu Shier hurriedly said, "Gu Mo... make a deal with me. Save the Fire Spirit Race, and I'll tell you of a crisis that may destroy Gan Country, as well as the secrets of the laws!"

Gu Mo asked suspiciously, "You know the secrets of the laws?"

Yu Shier said, "Old Ghost Qi... ah, the old immortal bastard you call him, was an old monster who had lived for many years. Long suppressed, his heart had become deeply twisted. He took pleasure in toying with the mortal world and loved playing all manner of roles to satisfy the bizarre cravings within him.

"But inwardly, that man was arrogant and swollen with conceit. He fancied himself the Heavenly Dao, believing every matter in the world lay within his control. Thus, over these hundreds of years together, I learned many secrets from him, including the secrets of the laws."

Yu Shier looked up at Gu Mo and said in a deep voice, "Gu Mo, the reason I served Old Ghost Qi so devotedly all my life was not because he controlled my Nascent Soul and could take my life at any moment. It was because he gave me hope—hope that I could save the Fire Spirit Race and lift their curse.

"You definitely won't spare me now, and I do not ask you to. Of course, Old Ghost Qi will not come to save me either. Ever since I developed a method for him to control the Fire Kirin's power, I became someone expendable in his eyes.

"Gu Mo, will you make this deal?"

Gu Mo asked, "How am I supposed to help the Fire Spirit Race?"

Yu Shier said joyfully, "It is very simple. I created a martial technique called the Great Devouring Spirit Hand. It shares the same marvelous principle as the Taotie Divine Skill, the demonic art of the martial world, but it is even more exquisite. The Taotie Divine Skill absorbs others' inner force for one's own use, while my Great Devouring Spirit Hand absorbs the essences of sun and moon. A Cultivator who practices it will have a dantian without end.

"With your realm, you will learn it at a glance. I also have a Kirin Bone that I spent a hundred years carving. Use that Kirin Bone as a medium and perform the Great Devouring Spirit Hand, and you can draw the Kirin's Spiritual Energy from the bodies of the Fire Spirit Race. From then on, they will become ordinary people and no longer suffer the curse generation after generation.

"Furthermore, that Kirin Bone is an extraordinary treasure. After it absorbs the Fire Spirit Race's Spiritual Energy, it will be of little use to ordinary people. But for your good friend Ye Jinglan, it will be a tremendous opportunity. The Kirin Power within him is not especially dense, but if he refines that Kirin Bone, he will definitely rise another step. Should he one day comprehend the secrets of the laws, he might even become a new Kirin in this world."

Gu Mo pondered for a moment and asked, "Where are the items?"

"Thank you, thank you, Gu Mo!" Yu Shier said excitedly. "The Kirin Bone and the Great Devouring Spirit Hand manual are both in the ghost city beneath Chang'an City. There is a place there called Corpse Cocoon Cave. Back then, you blood-washed the ghost city twice. The first time was when you killed Smiling Buddha, Thousand-Faced Actor, and the others among the Ten Great Evildoers at Corpse Cocoon Cave. When those people were being hunted by you, they had intended to jump into the abyss beside Corpse Cocoon Cave Market Town, but you intercepted them. I... had always been inside Corpse Cocoon Cave."

Gu Mo's pupils constricted slightly. "So when I was fighting there, you were watching in secret the entire time?"

"Not only that," Yu Shier said. "I even disguised myself as a minor lackey and came into contact with you. Once, I was the one who rowed the boat for you and Ye Jinglan."

Gu Mo's brow twitched slightly.

With the strength he had possessed then, if he had fought Yu Shier, never mind winning—being able to survive would have been impressive.

Come to think of it, the most dangerous moment in his life had actually been one he had never even noticed.

Yu Shier continued, "I placed the Kirin Bone and the Great Devouring Spirit Hand manual in the abyss. Go down, and you will see my residence. However, there are many poisonous things and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures inside, as well as my insights from studying the medical path over the years. As far as I know, your medical skill and poisonous art are both quite formidable. If you are interested, you may take those things for your own use."

Gu Mo nodded slightly and asked, "Then what exactly are the secrets of the laws?"

Yu Shier said, "They are merely the direction beyond the Ascension Realm. To surpass the Ascension Realm, you must find a way to comprehend the laws governing how the world operates. You must trace things back to their source. For example, with the power of the five elements, you must comprehend the laws by which the five elements operate between heaven and earth. The Ancestral Fire of the Fire Kirin is the law governing fire in heaven and earth. Laws cannot be killed, so you cannot touch them. But Old Ghost Qi also grasped laws. Thus, he could pull the Ancestral Fire into his own laws, trap it, and seal it.

"To put it simply, when all is said and done, it is essence. You can transform into a dragon, but you possess only its spirit and not its form, because you have not found the essence of a dragon. Your dragon does not follow the laws of heaven and earth."

Gu Mo asked somewhat doubtfully, "Since you knew the mysteries of the laws, did you not explore them over these hundreds of years?"

"How could I not?" Yu Shier said. "It was only that Old Ghost Qi planted restrictions in my Nascent Soul. Every move I made was under his surveillance. He could even sense my consciousness. Therefore, my exploration was predestined to be futile."

Gu Mo asked again, "Fine. Then tell me, what is Gan Country's crisis?"

"It is one of Old Ghost Qi's games," Yu Shier said. "When you deployed your domain just now, you also sensed that my domain relied on the Void Array. I placed a Poison Bead within the Void Array. That bead was the Source of Ultimate Poison, condensed from every strange poison in the world. It could poison even a Nascent Soul.

"But when I was making it, Old Ghost Qi suddenly took a whim and had me make two. One was left for my use, while he took the other to play his game. He forged a Treasure Map and scattered it across the various countries, fabricating false legends to incite disputes in the martial world and stir up a vast war of treasure-seeking throughout the martial world.

"He hid that Poison Bead somewhere within Chang'an City. I do not know its precise location. However, that was not his only purpose. The latter half of his plan was for someone to find the Poison Bead and then detonate it, turning all of Chang'an City into a city of poison. Everyone would perish within it, and it would become an unsolvable mystery in history, drawing out even more stories.

"Then, many years later, he would assume a new identity as a young man of the martial world, lead the world to uncover the secret, and begin a new legend of the martial world. He has played such games many times. He is always playing different roles. Perhaps even he himself does not know how many identities he has had."

Gu Mo raised a brow.

Qi Miaoxuan definitely had an identity as a wanted criminal. Yet according to the System's rules, it could only record that identity if he knew the other party's wanted criminal identity.

For example, with the Grand Manager, the System had recorded the Grand Manager as a wanted criminal. But when the Grand Manager appeared before Gu Mo under the identity of Eastern Border Teacher, the System would not record the title Eastern Border Teacher as a wanted criminal.

Looks like I'll still need to find Qi Miaoxuan's disguises!

Gu Mo thought to himself, while also looking forward to seeing what level of wanted criminal Qi Miaoxuan's wanted criminal disguise would be.

Gu Mo asked, "What exactly is the story behind that Treasure Map?"

Yu Shier said, "This matter is somewhat related to you. In Jiang Kingdom, you killed the Worship Moon Sect Master Ye Nantian and many of the Worship Moon Sect's experts, causing the Worship Moon Sect to nearly fall apart overnight and plunge into internal chaos.

"At that time, Old Ghost Qi slipped a Treasure Map into the Worship Moon Sect. He forged it into the martial inheritance of Tie Hanshan, a Worship Moon Sect Master from two hundred years ago, and fabricated a legend: gather all eight Treasure Maps, and you could find the Cold Mountain Treasury. Within it were not only riches equal to a country, but also martial arts Invincible Under Heaven and the strongest divine weapon in the world."

Gu Mo chuckled. It truly carried the feeling of a martial world legend. The martial world never lacked such tales, and every such legend would be accompanied by wave after wave of bloody storms.

Just then,

the System Prompt suddenly rang in Gu Mo's mind:

[New target detected]

[Wanted target—Tie Hanshan?]

[Mission level—Nine Star]

[Mission reward—Max-Level Sacred Heart Art]

Seeing the martial art Sacred Heart Art, Gu Mo felt it was quite fitting. The reward for killing an old monster who had lived for more than a thousand years was likewise a martial art created by an old monster who had lived for more than a thousand years.

The Sacred Heart Art was a martial art that had already surpassed the level of martial arts. It possessed the abilities of eternal youth and resurrection from death, as well as the moves of the Sacred Heart Four Tribulations and Sacred Heart Four Arts, which had likewise surpassed the level of martial arts.

It also possessed special abilities such as Heavenly Palace Phantom, Seven Absolute Realms, Ascend Freely Step, Sea Embracing Sacred Heart Incantation, and more.

As for the question mark after Tie Hanshan's name, Gu Mo understood it as well. The System had detected that Qi Miaoxuan had more than one wanted criminal disguise besides Tie Hanshan. Otherwise, based only on the deeds Tie Hanshan had committed in his day, he would at most have been rated Seven Star, like Ye Nantian.

After all, the System's evaluation of wanted levels did not rely entirely on strength and cultivation. It placed greater weight on the impact of a wanted criminal's actions and the degree of their evil.

Some people committed many evil deeds in secret, but because no one knew about them, they did not meet the wanted standard and were never recorded.

"Do you have anything else to say?" Gu Mo asked.

Yu Shier shook his head slightly. "Tha... thank you..."

Gu Mo chuckled. "You really do trust me."

Yu Shier said, "Gu Mo has never broken his word. No one under heaven doubts your character."

Gu Mo rested one hand on his sword hilt and said, "In that case, Yu Shier, it is time for you to die!"

As his words fell,

Gu Mo drew the Grand Void Sword. His violent Nascent Soul Power clung to streams of Sword Qi, and in that instant, Yu Shier's Nascent Soul split apart and dissolved into specks of nothingness.

At that very instant,

a prompt rang in Gu Mo's mind:

[Eight-Star Wanted Criminal slain]

[Star Reward obtained—Max-Level God of War Catalog]

[Claim?]

Gu Mo muttered, "This should be the weakest of the Thirteen Taboos!"

Strictly speaking, Yu Shier was certainly not weak. He possessed an Ascension Realm Nascent Soul along with terrifying poison. Yet compared to the beings among the Thirteen Taboos, he was absolutely among the weak.

Even Jiang Ruoxu, another of the Thirteen Taboos, should have been stronger than Yu Shier in Gu Mo's estimation.

According to what Red Clothes and the zither master knew, Jiang Ruoxu had definitely reached the Ascension Realm. His realm would not be lower than Yu Shier's, but Jiang Ruoxu's fighting will and abilities were extremely strong. Yu Shier's combat consciousness, meanwhile, was not strong. He mainly relied on poison, and in a direct battle, he was certainly no match for Jiang Ruoxu.

However,

although Yu Shier's combat strength ranked at the bottom among the Thirteen Taboos, his wanted level was very high. After all, he had caused several city massacres and created an unknown number of plagues.

Immediately,

Gu Mo chose to claim the God of War Catalog.

In that instant, his Sea of Consciousness boomed as though hundreds of millions of thunderbolts had exploded simultaneously in the depths of his soul.

It was not pain, but the exhilarating sensation of shackles shattering.

His consciousness was like a roc breaking free from its cage, instantly piercing beyond the limits of his physical body.

The city beneath his feet suddenly shrank into dust. The sea of clouds churned like cotton piled up by children, while the veins of the earth emerged within his consciousness—the Earth Veins of crimson magma surging forward, the spiritual nodes where azure Spiritual Energy gathered, mountains and rivers pulsing like the blood vessels of a god.

With a pop, it was as though he had broken through a curtain of glazed glass.

Space and time twisted before him into spiraling bands of light, while countless stars flickered and dimmed in his pupils like breathing.

The stars of the heavens erupted in blinding crimson light. This was not sight, but a kind of "perception"—he "saw" the violent rhythm of fusion within the sun, "heard" the cry of gravitational collapse before a galaxy erupted, and even "touched" the lingering warmth of the universe's birth contained within interstellar dust.

His consciousness became a horse without reins, trampling and shattering the spiral arms of the Milky Way.

Nebulae flowed across his "fingertips" into rivers of Peacock Blue light. The black hole vortex of Sagittarius radiated the profound mystery of devouring all things. It was not darkness, but the ultimate destination of every light and color.

He saw countless versions of "himself" within parallel space-times.

"So that was it..."

At this moment,

Gu Mo suddenly understood the laws Yu Shier and Qi Miaoxuan had spoken of.

The God of War Catalog contained forty-nine diagrams. Each diagram held a Martial Arts Principle—a way in which the world operated, forty-nine martial philosophies that could reach the Ascension Realm. Any one of them was the supreme truth of the world. Yet if all forty-nine were fused together, one could surpass the Ascension Realm and comprehend the laws by which the world operated.

"Heaven and earth are not benevolent; they treat all things as straw dogs!"

At this moment,

the law Gu Mo comprehended was the central guiding principle within those words.

Those words did not mean, as some half-baked people understood them, that heaven and earth were unkind, cold, and merciless. Rather, they meant that heaven and earth were impartial. They were neither deliberately benevolent nor deliberately cruel, treating all things equally without distinctions of closeness or distance, nobility or lowliness.

Therefore,

at this moment,

Gu Mo saw the laws as well.

The next instant,

Gu Mo's domain dissipated, and the He Xu Ancient City, already beaten until heaven and earth had been turned upside down, appeared once more. Great fires blazed everywhere throughout the city.

Gu Mo swiftly raised his hand and used the wind-summoning, rain-calling art of the Dragon God Skill to bring down a downpour. He then activated the power of ice. Within moments, he extinguished the great fire throughout the city.

At this time,

there were many corpses and injured people within the city. Some were soldiers from the army, while others were members of the Fire Spirit Race.

Gu Mo immediately transmitted his voice to Ye Jinglan outside the city and told him to lead the troops in.

Before long, the army entered the city once more. Ye Jinglan ran at the front, flew to Gu Mo's side, and hurriedly asked, "Brother Gu, how is the situation?"

Gu Mo said, "The Fire Kirin is dead, the Plague God is dead, and that old immortal bastard Qi Miaoxuan ran off with the Fire Kirin's corpse!"

"Gah!"

Ye Jinglan stood there with a completely bewildered expression.

"We'll discuss it in detail later," Gu Mo said. "First, lead people to quickly gather the valuables in the city. As for the Fire Spirit Race, do not harm them."

"No problem."

Immediately, Ye Jinglan led the troops to search the city for treasures and wounded people.

Meanwhile, Gu Mo used spiritual perception and soon found Yu Shijiu.

Yu Shijiu had been fortunate. Although he was severely injured, he had not died.

Earlier, every member of the Fire Spirit Race had been controlled by the Fire Kirin and transformed into Kirins to charge the Military Formation. Though they had succeeded, more than half had been killed. Only a little over one hundred now remained alive.

However, the Fire Spirit Race possessed unique natural advantages. So long as they did not die on the spot, even injuries to their internal organs could heal on their own.

After the Fire Kirin was killed,

they recovered from that crazed state and all ran back to Fire Spirit Village.

Yet the Void Array was badly damaged at this time. Though Fire Spirit Village still existed between reality and illusion, it no longer possessed much concealment. Thus, the more than one hundred surviving members of the Fire Spirit Race stood tensely at the village entrance, each holding some kind of weapon.

Gu Mo took one step forward,

and arrived within Fire Spirit Village.

When Yu Shijiu saw that it was Gu Mo, he relaxed slightly and asked, "Great Hero Gu, does our Fire Spirit Race still have a way to live?"

Gu Mo smiled faintly and said, "I know the history of the Fire Spirit Race. Your ancestors were great people, and your Fire Spirit Race has rendered meritorious service to the mortal world. I came now to tell you that if you can repair the Void Array, repair it.

"Before Yu Shier died, he entrusted me with helping your Fire Spirit Race lift its curse. I will come soon. During this time, discuss it properly among yourselves. Whoever wishes to lift the curse, I will help them do so when the time comes. At the same time, I can help you find a place to live, so that from now on, you may live the lives of ordinary people."

Yu Shijiu dropped to his knees before Gu Mo with a thud, knocked his head hard against the ground, and said, "Many thanks, Great Hero Gu! Our Fire Spirit Race will never forget this kindness for all eternity!"

"You need not remember my kindness," Gu Mo said. "Shijiu, I am helping your Fire Spirit Race because I made a deal with Yu Shier. Therefore, neither you nor the people of the Fire Spirit Race should feel that you owe me a favor. You owe me nothing."

Gu Mo raised his hand slightly and pulled Yu Shijiu to his feet. "Shijiu, from now on, you can pursue your own life!"

Having said that,

Gu Mo turned and left, returning to the He Xu Ancient City.

Ye Jinglan was leading the army in searching the ancient city for treasures, while Gu Mo stepped onto the Grand Void Flying Sword and flew toward Chang'an City. Once again, he made his way with ease into the Underground Ghost City, went to Corpse Cocoon Cave, and found Yu Shier's residence.

Just as Yu Shier had said, it contained many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures worth a fortune, along with all kinds of poisons in enormous quantities.

However, Gu Mo could not take everything away for the time being. He only took the Kirin Bone and the Great Devouring Spirit Hand manual, then left behind a strand of Nascent Soul Power to seal Yu Shier's residence before flying back to Mobei without stopping.

On the way back,

Gu Mo flipped through the Great Devouring Spirit Hand manual while flying through the void.

Just as Yu Shier had said, with Gu Mo's current Martial Dao Realm, he truly learned this martial art at a glance.

Afterward,

Gu Mo did not immediately return to the He Xu Ancient City. Instead, he made a trip to the Mobei Six Doors.

The current Thousand Household Commander of the Mobei Six Doors was Chen Xiuyuan. Before Zhuo Qingfeng left, he had forcefully promoted him. Chen Xiuyuan had originally only been a General Banner in the Mobei Six Doors. By luck, when Gu Mo came to Mobei, Zhuo Qingfeng arranged for him to serve as Gu Mo's guide. He followed Gu Mo around for a while and picked up many great merits, soaring straight to prominence. Though already in his fifties, he had still staged a late bloomer's rise to greatness.

Gu Mo found Chen Xiuyuan and had him locate an abandoned village to arrange for the Fire Spirit Race.

Such abandoned villages were very common in Mobei. Chen Xiuyuan quickly found a suitable one and personally led people to make arrangements.

Then,

Gu Mo returned to the He Xu Ancient City.

Three days later,

where the He Xu Ancient City had stood, yellow sand once more filled the sky as a sandstorm swept through. The He Xu Ancient City slowly sank into the earth again and disappeared.

On a distant hillside, Ye Jinglan and Gu Mo stood together. Beside them, the army was slowly departing. Carriage after carriage formed a long dragon, proclaiming how smoothly Ye Jinglan's search for valuables in the He Xu Ancient City had gone.

Ye Jinglan looked at the gradually vanishing He Xu Ancient City and said, "The Void Array has already been destroyed. After it sinks this time, I fear the He Xu Ruins will never appear in the world again, will they?"

Gu Mo said, "They should never have appeared in the world to begin with. Every appearance caused quite a commotion. Besides, the valuables within have now been completely stripped clean. Whether they appear again or not no longer means much."

A faint smile appeared on Ye Jinglan's face. "At least we did not fail His Majesty's trust. The valuables recovered from the He Xu Ancient City this time are enough to support the frontline's expenditures for at least half a year and give the people at home a chance to catch their breath."

"They cannot catch their breath," Gu Mo said, shaking his head slightly. "As long as the war does not end, taxes will weigh on the people until they cannot straighten their backs."

Ye Jinglan fell silent for a moment.

Gu Mo held out a crystal-clear bone, one chi long and bowl-thick, toward Ye Jinglan. "This is the Kirin Spine Bone. As you saw, over the past few days, I transferred all the Spiritual Energy from those Fire Spirit Race members into this bone. Spend some time refining it, and it should let you climb another level."

Ye Jinglan accepted the Kirin Bone. "Then I won't stand on ceremony. I only cooperated with Qi Miaoxuan in pursuit of power to begin with. I really can't refuse something like this."

Gu Mo smiled faintly. "Remember to come find me for a fight when the time comes."

Ye Jinglan's mouth twitched. "Was that really necessary? I only looked at the sky from the bottom of a well once. Did you have to keep harping on it and drag it out to mock me whenever you had nothing better to do?"

Gu Mo teased, "Isn't this fulfilling your wish to spar with me?"

"I think you just want to take the chance to beat me up."

Ye Jinglan curled his lip. By now, he had completely seen clearly that his strength was indeed formidable, but it was still mortal power in the end. Gu Mo and Qi Miaoxuan were simply not on the same level as him. Calling it a spar was nothing but asking to get beaten.

"Eh,"

Ye Jinglan said, "It seems some people from the Fire Spirit Race didn't come out?"

Gu Mo nodded. "More than a dozen of them. They're all over a hundred years old. They weren't willing to come out and face this world, and they're too old. Once their Spiritual Energy is removed, they probably won't live more than a few days."

Ye Jinglan said softly, "Do you think the Fire Spirit Race will regret this choice someday? After all, once they become ordinary people, they'll suffer injuries and illnesses, and their lifespans will be shortened."

"I don't know," Gu Mo said, shaking his head. "But Yu Shijiu definitely won't regret it!"

"That kid," Ye Jinglan said with a soft laugh. "He'll definitely become a top-tier swordsman someday."

Gu Mo said, "For the time being, he'll definitely be run ragged. The Fire Spirit Race has always been isolated from the world, pure-hearted and ignorant of everything outside. They're all like children. Yu Shijiu is going to have quite the headache!"

Ye Jinglan grinned, though worry lingered between his brows. "I'm a little concerned that old bastard Qi Miaoxuan might have tampered with me!"

Gu Mo said, "Don't worry. He didn't."

"You're that sure? Was he afraid I'd notice?"

"No. He just doesn't think you're worth it."

Ye Jinglan: "..."

Gu Mo smiled, his pupils narrowing slightly. "What I want to know more now is whether that old bastard managed to defeat the Azure Dragon Remnant Soul inside him."

"Dragon Soul?" Ye Jinglan asked doubtfully.

Gu Mo said, "White Jade Capital mistook me for the Azure Dragon Remnant Soul before. And when I fought Qi Miaoxuan, Dragon Might appeared from that blade. From that, we can basically infer that Qi Miaoxuan is the Dragon Soul's servant. He was probably unwilling to accept it, so he plotted to use the Fire Kirin's power to counter the Azure Dragon—to have the servant devour the master!"