Lijiang Sect! Five Lijiang Disciples!

Boom!

A muffled thunderclap exploded in Qin Mu's mind.

The Spirit Embryo barrier that had blocked countless mortals from cultivation shattered under the impact of the vast vital energy.

The moment the barrier broke, brilliant light burst from deep between his brows.

In that strange space, a tiny golden phantom formed entirely from pure vital energy, looking exactly like Qin Mu, slowly opened its eyes.

Spirit Embryo Divine Treasury, broken through!

With the awakening of the Spirit Embryo, an incomparably powerful aura erupted from Qin Mu's small body.

The dust on the ground around him was blasted outward by the wave of air, and even the Buddha light in the ruined temple seemed to grow a little brighter.

Outside the Sky Screen, the soul masters across the entire Douluo Continent froze when they saw this scene.

"He just... broke through?"

In Shrek Academy, Ma Hongjun rubbed his eyes, his face filled with disbelief.

When other people broke through to a new realm, which of them did not find a quiet, safe secluded chamber and carefully enter closed-door cultivation for ten days or half a month?

But this little monster was something else. Trapped in a ruined temple by a great demon, listening to an alluring voice that wanted to eat people, he casually chanted a few incomprehensible incantations and just stepped into a whole new major realm on the spot!

Yu Xiaogang drew in a deep breath and suppressed the shock in his heart.

"Placing himself in mortal danger and then finding life, using the enemy's power to temper himself."

"This child's temperament is so tenacious it's frightening."

Inside the Sky Screen.

Xian Qing'er looked at Qin Mu, whose whole body radiated a powerful aura, and that devastatingly beautiful face of hers was covered in horror.

She knew that this time, she truly had no way to deal with this little monster.

Her charm technique had been broken, the opponent's strength had surged again, and she was still chained up. If she kept entangling herself with him, she would only be asking for trouble.

Xian Qing'er gritted her teeth, and her dark yellow vertical pupils shifted, landing directly on Hu Liena, who was hiding behind Qin Mu.

Since she could not eat this brat, eating a tender-skinned girl to nourish herself would do just as well!

"Little girl, come here!"

Xian Qing'er suddenly opened her mouth and let out a shrill scream at Hu Liena.

That beautiful face of hers instantly split open, revealing the hideous visage of the Centipede Spirit within, and two rows of half-broken venomous fangs spat green poisonous mist outward.

Hu Liena had only just woken from the charm technique, only to crash straight into this terrifying sight.

She had originally been the proud and lofty Saintess of Spirit Hall, but after being frightened again and again in these Great Ruins, her mental defenses had long since collapsed.

"Ah!"

Hu Liena screamed in terror and scrambled behind Qin Mu in a panic.

She reached out with both hands, tightly clutching the hem of Qin Mu's clothes, shrinking her whole body into a ball as she trembled like a frightened rabbit.

"Little brother, save me..."

Seeing Hu Liena like this, Xian Qing'er struggled and lunged forward twice, but the golden chain around her waist instantly drew taut with a clattering sound, dragging her firmly back in place.

Qin Mu turned around and gently patted the back of Hu Liena's hand to comfort her.

Then he held the wooden stick and walked forward at an unhurried pace, waving it at Xian Qing'er.

"Big bug, don't waste your strength. With that chain holding you, you can't eat anyone."

Hearing this, the fierce light in Xian Qing'er's eyes slowly dimmed.

She slumped to the ground and transformed back into the white-clothed young woman.

Only this time, her eyes were filled with despair and resignation.

"Call it my bad luck, falling into the hands of a little fiend like you today."

Xian Qing'er sighed, burying her head against her knees, her voice tinged with desolation.

The long night stretched on, and the ruined temple fell quiet.

Bored, Qin Mu simply started a bonfire not far from Xian Qing'er and roasted the dry rations he had brought from home over the flames.

The aroma of meat filled the air.

Xian Qing'er smelled the fragrance, and her stomach growled loudly.

"Hey, kid."

Xian Qing'er lifted her head and swallowed.

"What's your name?"

"Qin Mu. Mu as in herding cattle," Qin Mu answered casually while gnawing on his rations.

"My name is Xian Qing'er."

Xian Qing'er watched the flickering bonfire and began to speak softly of her origins.

"I used to cultivate deep in the mountains for a thousand years before I finally awakened my intelligence."

"Later, I got hungry, so I went down the mountain and ate a few passing merchants."

"Who knew I'd be so unlucky as to run into that bald donkey?"

"He beat me up without a word, locked me to this Buddha statue with this lousy chain, and made me suffer the burning torment of this Buddhist light every day."

At this point, Xian Qing'er looked at Qin Mu, a trace of pleading showing in her eyes.

"Little Brother Qin Mu, you're so smart, and your cultivation has broken through too."

"Please do a good deed and help me loosen the clasp around my waist just a tiny bit."

"Just a tiny bit, and I'll be able to slip out."

"Don't worry. As long as I can escape, I'll go back to the mountains and bring you a mountain of gold to repay you!"

Listening to Xian Qing'er's temptation, Hu Liena sat beside the fire and actually felt a trace of sympathy.

This monster looked fierce, but being trapped here for hundreds of years as hard labor really was pitiful enough.

However, Qin Mu swallowed the dry rations in his mouth and shook his head outright, without the slightest hesitation.

"No."

Qin Mu looked at Xian Qing'er, his tone especially serious.

"Granny told me that when I run into man-eating monsters, I must never let my kindness get the better of me."

"You ate people before, so you'll definitely eat them again."

"If I let you out and you turn around and eat everyone nearby, what then?"

"You just stay here and honestly do your hard labor."

The anticipation on Xian Qing'er's face instantly froze, then turned into boundless fury.

"You little bastard! Heartless brat! I curse you to get trampled to death by a beast of the Great Ruins the moment you step outside!"

Amid Xian Qing'er's furious cursing, the dark night of the Great Ruins finally slowly reached its end.

When the first ray of sunlight pierced through the thick fog and spilled over the ruined walls of the broken temple, the terrifying roars and chewing sounds outside the door vanished in an instant, like ice and snow melting away.

"It's daylight, big sister. Let's go."

Qin Mu stood, stamped out the fire, slung the herb basket over his back, and walked out of the ancient temple.

The two of them followed the old road outward.

Before they had gone far, they saw a small, skinny figure carrying a broken bamboo basket hurrying toward them through the thick fog ahead.

It was Granny Si.

"Mu'er!"

When Granny Si saw Qin Mu walking over safe and sound, the wrinkled old face of hers immediately relaxed in relief.

She quickly stepped forward and looked Qin Mu up and down several times before finally putting her mind at ease.

"You child. It got dark early last night. You scared Granny to death."

Granny Si glared at Hu Liena behind him, her tone somewhat stern.

"Count yourself lucky you found a broken temple to hide from the disaster."

"If you'd really run into those old ghosts outside, there wouldn't even be bones left!"

Qin Mu grinned and tugged on Granny Si's sleeve.

"Don't worry, Granny. Not only am I fine, I even broke through the Spirit Fetus barrier!"

Hearing this, Granny Si was stunned at first, then a gratified smile appeared on her face.

"Good, good. As expected of a child raised by our Crippled Old Village."

Granny Si rubbed Qin Mu's head, her gaze turning somewhat deep.

"Since you've already broken through the wall, it's about time I took you to see the dangers of this world."

"Come. Granny will take you out of the village for some tempering today."

As she spoke, Granny Si led the two of them away, not back to the village, but in another direction, toward a towering cliff at the edge of the Great Ruins.

Below the cliff was a dense primeval forest.

The three of them stood at the edge of the cliff wall and were just about to look down.

Suddenly, an utterly miserable beast cry rang out from the forest below.

The cry was filled with pain and despair, making their scalps tingle.

Qin Mu leaned half his body out, clinging to the rocks at the cliff's edge as he peered down.

In the forest clearing below stood five young men dressed in identical white sword robes.

On their chests, each had a sharp sword-flower emblem embroidered.

They were none other than the five disciples of the Lijiang Sect who had crossed the boundary marker yesterday and entered the Great Ruins.

At that moment, those five disciples of a famous orthodox sect, who looked so otherworldly and refined, were holding bloodstained longswords.

Pinned beneath their feet was a White Deer, snow-white from head to toe and brimming with spiritual energy.

This White Deer was clearly a spirit beast that had awakened intelligence; its eyes were filled with tears of terror and pleading.

But the cold-faced young man in the lead showed not the slightest trace of pity.

He used the tip of his longsword to lightly draw along the White Deer's neck, opening a gash.

Then he actually thrust his hand straight into the wound, grabbed the White Deer's hide and fur, and tore downward with force.

Riiip!

Along with the White Deer's heart-wrenching scream, a large sheet of fur and hide, still attached to flesh and blood, was flayed off alive.

The young man spread the bloody deer hide flat on the ground and began chanting some obscure incantation.

He pressed two fingers together like a sword, dipped them in the White Deer's fresh blood, and rapidly drew one twisted, eerie rune after another across the hide.

"What... what are they doing?"

Above the cliff wall, Hu Liena watched that bloody, cruel scene, her face turning deathly pale, her voice trembling faintly.

She had grown up in Spirit Hall since childhood and had always believed she had seen plenty of killing.

But methods like flaying a spirit beast alive to draw talismans were simply even more nauseating than the most evil soul masters.

Granny Si stood beside her, a cold glint flashing through her cloudy eyes.

"That is the Lijiang Sect's Soul-Extracting and Blood-Refining Technique."

Granny Si gave a cold laugh, her tone thick with mockery.

"Those fellows outside who call themselves famous orthodox sects spend all day talking about slaying demons and defending the Dao."

"But behind the scenes, for the sake of cultivation, there's no vile, utterly conscienceless trick they won't use."

"Mu'er, remember this."

Granny Si turned her head, looked at Qin Mu, and pointed at the five white-robed young men below.

"In this world, demons and monsters are certainly frightening."

"But this so-called righteous path draped in human skin is often a hundred times more vicious than demons and monsters."

The wind on the cliff blew past, carrying with it a heavy stench of blood.

Hu Liena's stomach churned violently, and she nearly vomited on the spot.

"Granny, why are they doing this?"

Qin Mu lay on the rocks at the cliff's edge, his little brows furrowed, his face full of confusion.

"When our village slaughters pigs, Grandpa Butcher always ends it cleanly with one strike. He never tortures livestock like this."

Granny Si snorted coldly, her cloudy eyes carrying a detached chill that seemed to have seen through the ways of the world.

"Because the cultivation method they practice takes shortcuts."

"This White Deer grew up absorbing the spiritual energy of the Great Ruins. Its bloodline carries a pure vitality."

"Those five little beasts flayed the living deer so that, when the White Deer was in the most pain and its resentment was at its peak, they could seal that vitality together with its resentment into the hide."

"Once the runes are finished, they'll drape this bloody skin over themselves, and their strength will surge in a short time. They can also use the resentment to cast certain shameful evil arts."

As Granny Si spoke, she stretched out her withered finger and lightly tapped the back of Qin Mu's head.

"Mu'er, you only just broke through the Spirit Fetus barrier last night."

"Today, Granny will teach you the first lesson of leaving the village."

"The bad people in this world never write the word 'bad' on their faces."

"The more polished and splendidly dressed they are, the more their mouths are full of benevolence, righteousness, and morality, the more you need to guard against them."

Qin Mu nodded thoughtfully, firmly committing those words to memory.

Outside the Sky Screen.

As the viewers of Douluo Continent listened to Granny Si's teaching, quite a few of them felt it deeply.

In the court of the Heaven Dou Empire, Great Emperor Xue Ye sighed.

"Though this old woman acts strangely, those words of hers are indeed reasonable."

"Between nations, between sects, how many filthy deeds have been done under the banner of justice?"

In Shrek Academy, Yu Xiaogang's face was likewise ashen.

He was a theorist, someone who had always believed in the rules and orthodoxy of the soul master world.

But the higher-dimensional world shown on the Sky Screen had laws of survival that were far crueler.

"So this is the Great Ruins..."

Yu Xiaogang murmured to himself, unable to recover for a long while.

In the image.

In a clearing in the forest below the cliff.

The stern young man in the lead had already finished drawing the last blood-red rune.

The White Deer hide spread out on the ground was now giving off an eerie dark-red glow.

The surrounding grass and trees, once illuminated by that red light, actually withered and decayed in an instant, as if all their vitality had been drained away.

The young man stood up and examined his handiwork with great satisfaction.

"Senior Brother, this Soul-Extracting and Blood-Refining Technique really is tyrannical."

A Lijiang Sect disciple beside him leaned in, his face full of flattery.

"With this blood-talisman hide, even if we run into those vicious creatures in the Great Ruins, we'll be able to retreat unscathed even if we can't beat them."

The stern young man's lips curled into a smug smile, and he was just about to put the deer hide away.

Suddenly, the smile on his face stiffened. He abruptly raised his head, his hawk-like gaze turning toward the cliff above.

"Who's up there!"

The stern young man shouted. With a flip of his wrist, the bloodstained longsword instantly let out a clear sword cry, and a sharp streak of white sword energy cut straight through a thick branch nearby.

The other four disciples reacted extremely quickly as well. In an instant, they drew their swords, stood back to back, and formed a sword formation, staring warily at the top of the cliff.

On the cliff face.

Seeing that their whereabouts had been exposed, Granny Si not only showed no panic at all, but instead unhurriedly rose from the rock.

Carrying that broken bamboo basket and holding Qin Mu's hand, she swaggered down along a steep little path to the side.

Seeing this, Hu Liena could only brace herself and follow.

The three of them soon arrived in the forest clearing and stood face-to-face with the five Lijiang Sect disciples.

When the stern young man saw clearly that the newcomers were only a shriveled old woman, a ten-year-old child, and a pretty girl with no cultivation at all, he immediately relaxed inwardly.

But the killing intent in the depths of his eyes grew even stronger in an instant.

The Soul-Extracting and Blood-Refining Technique was a forbidden art in the cultivation world.

If word got out, the Lijiang Sword Sect's reputation as a prestigious orthodox sect would be completely ruined.

"Old woman, how long have you been hiding up there watching us?"

The stern young man stepped forward, the tip of his sword pointing at Granny Si's nose, his tone icy.

Granny Si did not even look at him properly. She merely gave a cold laugh.

"The open road stretches to the sky, and each walks their own side."

"This old woman was taking her grandson out for a stroll. Who'd have the leisure to spy on you little beasts doing such disgusting business?"

Hearing the words "little beasts," one hot-tempered Lijiang Sect disciple instantly flew into a rage.