Qin Mu Breaks Through!

Yu Xiaogang swallowed hard, his voice terribly dry.

"On the surface, he looked like an enlightened monk who subdued demons and vanquished evil, yet behind the scenes, he used such vile methods to pen demons like pigs and dogs, using them to eat people and nourish his golden Buddhist body?"

"The cultivators in these Great Ruins conduct themselves even more shamefully than some of the evil Soul Masters on our side."

Tang San stood nearby and nodded in deep agreement, his eyes filled with horror.

He had always considered himself clever, skilled at observation and calculation.

But if he had been in Qin Mu's position, he absolutely would not have been able to see through the truth behind it all in such a short time, merely from a single chain.

"This ten-year-old child's mind and insight are truly terrifying."

Tang San watched Qin Mu on the Sky Screen, carrying a medicine basket and smiling with pure innocence, and a deep wariness unexpectedly rose in his heart.

On the Sky Screen.

Within the ruins of the broken temple.

After her brief breakdown, Xian Qing'er once again fixed her bloodshot vertical pupils on Qin Mu.

Her mind now held only one thought: tear apart every living thing before her and vent the resentment and rage in her heart.

"You little bastard, even if I'm just a laborer, I'll skin you alive and drain you dry today!"

Xian Qing'er shrieked, her two claws frantically raking the ground and carving deep furrows through the mud.

Seeing her look as though she wanted to eat someone but could not, Qin Mu jumped down from the large rock beside him.

He dusted off his backside and walked toward Xian Qing'er step by step.

Hu Liena, standing in the distance, was so frightened that her heart nearly leaped out of her throat.

"Little brother! What are you doing? Come back, it's dangerous!"

Hu Liena shouted loudly, wanting to rush over and pull Qin Mu back. But the terrifying Centipede Spirit left her legs rooted to the ground, unable to move even a single step.

Qin Mu ignored Hu Liena's cries.

He leisurely walked to within two finger-widths of Xian Qing'er and stopped.

This spot was exactly at the very edge of her claws' reach. A single inch farther, and she could not touch him.

"Big bug, do you want to eat me?"

Qin Mu crouched down, propped his chin on both hands, and blinked at Xian Qing'er. He looked especially endearing.

Xian Qing'er stared at the prey right before her and inhaled the sweet scent unique to a human child. A greedy swallowing sound came from her throat.

"Come closer... little brother. Take one more step."

"Big sister promises it won't hurt at all. I'll bite through your neck in one bite."

Xian Qing'er suppressed her violent fury and forced out a smile uglier than crying, her voice full of temptation.

Not only did Qin Mu not retreat, he really leaned his head forward.

"Sure, but I have a rule."

Qin Mu grinned, revealing two rows of neat white teeth. His smile was incomparably bright.

"If you want to eat my meat, you have to pay for the meal, right?"

Butcher Grandpa in our village taught me that taking someone else's things without paying is something only hooligans do."

"If you want to eat me, hand over all the valuable treasures on you. Then I'll stand here and let you take a bite. How about it?"

Upon hearing that.

Xian Qing'er froze.

Hu Liena in the distance froze.

The entirety of Douluo Continent outside the Sky Screen was left dumbfounded as well.

Asking a demon to pay for a meal? What kind of absurd train of thought was that?!

Xian Qing'er's dark yellow vertical pupils stared at Qin Mu. Though she felt something was off, the temptation before her was simply too great.

As long as this brat moved even one inch closer, she could end his life with one bite.

"Fine! Big sister will pay you! Big sister has plenty of treasures!"

Xian Qing'er stretched out a mud-covered hand, pulled a jade pendant glowing faintly from between the gaps in her carapace, and tossed it by Qin Mu's feet.

"This is thousand-year cold jade. Wearing it will protect you from all poisons."

"Come pick it up. Once you do, it's yours."

Qin Mu glanced at the jade pendant on the ground.

He did not reach down to pick it up. Instead, he used the walking stick in his hand to lightly nudge it behind himself.

Then he crouched down in his original spot again.

"Just one lousy stone? That's not enough to buy my meat. Take out something else."

Qin Mu curled his lip, looking thoroughly disdainful.

Xian Qing'er was so furious that her teeth itched, but in order to get a bite of that fresh meat, she could only swallow her anger.

She pulled out a sharp gold-inlaid dagger, several round, lustrous pearls, and a small heavy pouch of gold coins from her clothes, then tossed them all over at once.

"That should be enough, right?! Get over here now!"

Xian Qing'er's eyes had gone red, and her two claws swiped irritably through the air.

Qin Mu still used that wooden stick to pull all those items over.

He inspected them carefully, poured the gold coins into his hand and weighed them, then nodded in satisfaction as he listened to their crisp clinking.

"Fine. Since you're so sincere, I'll come over and let you take a bite."

With that, Qin Mu stood up and truly took a small step forward.

With that step, most of his body had entered Xian Qing'er's attack range!

"Hahaha! You little brat, die!"

Xian Qing'er let out a wild laugh as the savagery she had suppressed for so long erupted at once.

Her fanged maw flew open, carrying a foul stench, and snapped viciously toward Qin Mu's head with lightning speed.

Hu Liena let out a despairing scream and shut her eyes in agony.

The viewers of Douluo Continent also turned their heads away, unable to bear the sight.

Yet at the instant Xian Qing'er's fangs were about to touch Qin Mu's hair.

Qin Mu's figure suddenly blurred where he stood.

Blind Man's Footwork, Willow Swaying in the Wind!

His body slid backward by half a foot in a strange, nimble motion that defied all reason, brushing right past Xian Qing'er's fangs.

Crack!

Xian Qing'er's upper and lower fangs slammed together with a sharp crunch that made one's teeth ache.

Two of her venomous fangs even shattered on the spot from the excessive force.

Not only had she failed to bite Qin Mu.

Because her pouncing movement had been too large, the golden chain around her waist instantly pulled taut to its absolute limit.

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!

Dazzling Buddhist light erupted along the chain, and golden runes branded themselves directly onto her black carapace.

Xian Qing'er screamed as the immense Buddhist power backlashed against her, slamming her heavily into the ground.

She writhed across the ground in pain, streams of foul-smelling black smoke rising from all over her carapace. The bone-deep burning agony made her wish she were dead.

Standing outside the safe boundary, Qin Mu unhurriedly placed the gold coins, pearls, and dagger from the ground into his small cloth pouch one by one.

He looked at Xian Qing'er, who was in such pain that life was worse than death, spread his hands, and wore an innocent expression.

"Big bug, your teeth aren't much good either."

"I even came over and let you bite me. You couldn't bite me, and you broke your own teeth. That isn't my fault."

Qin Mu tossed the cloth pouch twice in his hand, making it clatter, his smile especially brilliant.

"I've taken the money, and you've taken your bite."

"Fair trade. No cheating the young or the old."

"Big sister, let's go pick mushrooms."

Qin Mu turned around, waved at the still-dazed Hu Liena, and walked out of the broken temple with cheerful steps, never looking back.

Behind him, Xian Qing'er remained amid the temple ruins, letting out wave after wave of heart-rending, hysterical, impotent rage.

"You little bastard! You'll die a miserable death! I'm going to kill you! Aaaah!"

Xian Qing'er pounded the ground madly, having completely lost her composure.

She had lived for several hundred years and deceived countless travelers in these desolate mountains.

Yet today, a ten-year-old cowherd had toyed with her like a monkey. Not only had she failed to get a single bite of meat, she had even lost her savings of several centuries!

Watching the two figures, one large and one small, recede on the Sky Screen, while listening to the miserable screams from the broken temple.

Douluo Continent outside the screen remained silent for a long while.

After a while, within Pope Palace in Spirit City.

Bibi Dong reclined on her throne. Watching Qin Mu's retreating figure, she suddenly burst into hearty laughter.

"Good! What a 'fair trade'!"

"Unbound by worldly rules, he not only feared no danger, but even turned around and extorted a demon."

"Such courage, such ruthless methods—he is simply a natural-born overlord!"

"If Nana follows this child and learns even a tenth of his abilities, then among the younger generation of Douluo Continent, who could still be her match?"

At this moment, all the viewers across Douluo Continent felt an absurdity beyond measure.

The little boy who should have been weak and helpless, facing a crisis of life and death.

Had actually relied on extraordinary courage and mysterious footwork to swindle a brutal great demon into bankruptcy and mental collapse.

This cowherd from the Great Ruins behaved even more like a demon than demons did!

Within the Sky Screen's scene.

Hu Liena followed Qin Mu for a long stretch of road. She could still faintly hear the Centipede Spirit's desperate roars behind them.

Looking at the little boy ahead counting gold coins with his head lowered, her gaze became incomparably complicated.

There was awe, there was gratitude, but more than anything, there was confusion she could not see through.

The two continued along the ancient road, preparing to head toward Pheasant Ridge as Pharmacist had instructed.

But just as they had climbed over a small hill.

The bright sky above them suddenly darkened without warning.

This darkness was not the gloom of clouds covering the sun.

It was as though someone had covered the sky with a massive black pot and instantly drained away every trace of light.

"What's going on? Why did it get dark?"

Hu Liena jumped in fright and abruptly looked up.

She saw the fiery red sun at the horizon vanish without a trace, as though some invisible giant mouth had swallowed it whole.

The surrounding temperature plummeted at a visible rate, and a thin layer of white frost even formed over the withered grass on the ground.

Night in the Great Ruins had arrived early!

"Not good!"

For the first time, an unprecedentedly solemn expression appeared on Qin Mu's ever-smiling little face.

"It got dark much earlier than usual today. We can't make it back to the village!"

Qin Mu grabbed Hu Liena's wrist and gave it a hard tug.

"Quick! Big sister, let's go back to that broken temple! Only the Buddhist light there can keep out the night!"

The two ran back along the original route for their lives. The moment their feet entered the collapsed courtyard wall of the broken temple.

The endless darkness outside the gate surged toward them like a flood bursting through a dam.

This darkness was ten times, a hundred times more terrifying than the night Hu Liena had seen in Crippled Old Village yesterday.

There was not even the faintest sound of wind within the darkness.

However, just as the darkness was about to swallow them, the armless Buddha statue in the center of the broken temple lit up with gentle golden light once again.

The light formed a semicircular barrier, firmly blocking the night outside three feet away.

Teeth-grinding chewing sounds and terrifying howls came from the darkness.

Hu Liena collapsed onto the broken bricks of the temple, gasping heavily, her chest heaving violently.

She stared at the ink-thick darkness beyond the barrier, cold sweat constantly streaming down her cheeks.

Just as the two had finally breathed a sigh of relief, a crisp jingling of pendants suddenly came from a corner of the broken temple.

Along with that sound, a sweet, cloying fragrance spread through the air.

Qin Mu turned his head and saw that the Centipede Spirit, who had just been burned black all over by the Buddhist light and forced to reveal her true form, had changed her appearance again.

She shed her ferocious black carapace and transformed once more into an incomparably beautiful young woman dressed in thin white gauze.

The young woman reclined against half a broken stone pillar, her clothes half-slipped from her shoulders, revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin.

Her watery eyes gazed affectionately at Qin Mu, and a pitiful tear still hung at the corner of one eye.

"Little brother..."

The young woman parted her crimson lips. Her voice was so soft it seemed as though water could be squeezed from it, carrying a charm that drilled straight into one's bones.

"It's so dark outside, and the temple is cold. Why don't you come sit with big sister for a while? Big sister is nice and warm."

The instant this voice entered her ears, Hu Liena felt her mind buzz and her gaze immediately turn hazy.

As the Holy Maiden of Spirit Hall, her spiritual power was not weak to begin with, yet before this great demon's seductive voice, she could not resist for even a moment.

Qin Mu stood where he was, and his clear eyes also became slightly unfocused.

That sweet fragrance entered his nose and spread through his organs, making his entire body heat up as his Blood Vitality began to churn uncontrollably.

Seeing this, Xian Qing'er curled her lips into a triumphant sneer.

She was trapped by the golden chain, so fighting head-on was certainly impossible.

But as long as she could use illusion and seductive sounds to lure this brat over, she could still bite through his neck in one bite.

Qin Mu's foot lifted slightly, as if he were about to step forward.

Suddenly, Qin Mu bit down hard on the tip of his tongue.

A faint taste of blood spread through his mouth. Borrowing that sharp pain, his gaze instantly regained its clarity.

Those demonic sounds seemed to be meant for dealing with this kind of trickery.

Qin Mu remained where he was. His small mouth opened slightly, and a string of strange, obscure syllables suddenly emerged from his throat.

"Duo! Ma! Ni! Ba!"

The sound did not seem like something a human could make. It was more like countless ancient demons hidden beneath the depths of the Nine Netherworlds, murmuring some bizarre scripture together.

The moment the demonic sound rang out, the air inside the ruined temple began to tremble violently.

The cloying, ghostly fragrance emanating from Xian Qing'er shattered instantly beneath the impact of that demonic sound.

Not only that, the Blood Vitality within Qin Mu's body, which had been roiling endlessly under the effects of the seduction, was guided by the demonic sound and transformed into an unprecedented surge of vital energy.

That vital energy was like a raging river, flowing upstream through his meridians and charging straight toward the space between his brows.

"What a chance!"

Qin Mu's eyes lit up. He had long heard Village Chief say that to enter the path of cultivation, one had to use vital energy to break through the Spirit Fetus Barrier deep between the brows.

When he cultivated normally, his vital energy was always just a little short.

Today, with the Life and Death pressure brought by the darkness outside, coupled with the upheaval in his Blood Vitality caused by the Centipede Spirit's seductive art, it was simply the perfect opportunity to break through the barrier.

Qin Mu closed his eyes, and the demonic chant from his mouth grew faster and faster.

He twisted all the vital energy in his body into a single rope and slammed it fiercely against that invisible barrier deep between his brows.