Chapter 172: Mound Prefecture’s Insect Army
Translator: Ninetales Editor: Fish_Creek
The three cult heavenly kings exhausted their strength to barge out of Heaven's Lightning Restricted Area only to see Qin Mu's figure flickering repeatedly and becoming smaller as he went further and further away from them.
The three of them let out sighs of relief.
"If I knew this mission was so hard, I would definitely not take it…"
Heavenly King Lu wiped the soot off his face and muttered, "The sacred cult master of this generation is too unexpectable."
The other two elders also had the same sentiments. Heavenly King Shi said, "Luckily it has finally ended. For Sacred Cult Master to reveal his outstanding talent at such a young age is the fortune of our sacred cult. Now that this has ended, we should go investigate the matter regarding Heavenly King Qian."
The hearts of Heavenly King Lu and Heavenly King Yu turned stern and they replied with resolute expressions, "That's precisely what we're going to do, to investigate the one that laid their hands on our sacred cult!"
Heavenly King Shi had a grave expression and said solemnly, "What I'm most worried about isn't this, it's whether the teleportation flag of our cult has been leaked out. A year of many troubles… Take a look below, it seems to be the borders of Mound Prefecture!"
"Mound Prefecture? Our cult's sacred ground has traveled to the top of Mound Prefecture?"
Heavenly King Yu's heart trembled slightly and he let out a murky breath, "Mound Prefecture has revolted and the emperor's relatives have rebelled with quite a decent sized power. Now that the sacred cult master has landed in Mound Prefecture, I'm afraid…"
Saint Arrival Mountain was hidden among Heaven's Lightning Restricted Area and levitated high above the sky. This sacred ground wasn't stationary and was always moving. There was a place called Viewing Abyss and one could see the scenery below Saint Arrival Mountain when they looked down Viewing Abyss, even the ants on the ground could be seen clearly.
However, it was pretty rush this time, therefore, they had no time to check Viewing Abyss and ended up letting Qin Mu out of the sacred ground when it was passing by Mound Prefecture.
"Hope the sacred cult master doesn't land in the battlefield," Heavenly King Lu muttered.
Qin Mu fell from the sky and Hu Ling'er executed demon wind for Qin Mu to travel on the wind. Not long later, he had finally touched the ground. His vital qi had been exhausted by half but at least he was considered safe and sound.
"It's been quite a long time since I've been to Imperial College. As the first imperial academician and an official conferred by the emperor, I had only listened to one lecture."
Looking around, he let Hu Ling'er take out the geographic map of Eternal Peace Empire from his backpack. Looking at the topography of the mountains, he tried to find similar topography from the geographic map.
"It's Mound Prefecture. However, there's still quite a distance from the city."
Right at this moment, he saw a ship floating by in the sky and Qin Mu's heart moved slightly. He immediately executed Heaven Pilfering Divine Legs and ran after that ship along the foothills.
That ship hung the flag of merchant thus it was a ship that was dual-used for merchants and guests. Now even with all the turmoil and chaos of war, there were still quite a number of merchant ships. There were still ships coming to and fro even in the areas of the armed rebellion.
Qin Mu ran faster and faster until his feet suddenly stepped on the air. As he stepped on the air, he sprinted crazily through the sky as though it was flat land, catching up to the ship with just a few breaths time and landing on the ship in a flash.
Swang swang swang!
The sounds of swords unsheathing traveled out as there were dozens of flying swords pointed at his neck just as he landed on the ship. The swords were everywhere in front and behind of his body.
"Everyone, don't panic, I'm just trying to take the ship," Qin Mu raised both of his hands and said carefully.
There were dozens of people on the deck of this ship and most of them looked like merchants. There were also divine arts practitioners hired by the merchants as well as a few officials. Those that had pointed the flying swords at his neck were those officials and divine arts practitioners.
"Youth, where do you plan to go?" the coxswain who was bare-armed and covered in tattoo sized Qin Mu up and asked with an astonished expression.
Qin Mu asked, "Is this the ship to the capital city?"
The coxswain nodded his head and said, "To the capital city, the ship fare is a hundred great abundance coins."
Qin Mu was astonished and cried out, "So expensive? From River Tomb to the capital city was only ten great abundance coins, how did it increase by ten times in a blink of an eye?"
"The circumstances aren't good now and there are wars every day. The journey isn't going to be smooth so the ship fare would have to increase as well. Hehe, ten times is already little, we are literally putting our necks on the line now, of course, you had to give more for our efforts."
Qin Mu agreed.
If he was to head to the capital city by himself and meet with turmoil and chaos on the journey, he would take over ten days to reach the capital city. If he executed Heaven Pilfering Divine Legs, he would require extremely dense cultivation and he would completely exhaust his cultivation after running for just a while, therefore, it was still more convenient to take a ship.
"The world is not in peace, I've heard that Qiu Dieyi of Forest Prefecture has also rebelled."
Qin Mu paid the ship fare and heard a few merchants discussing. An elderly mister said, "Qiu Dieyi is no small figure, before relying on the imperial court, she was a great impress empress of Passion Parting Palace who had a world-shaking cultivation. Passion Parting Palace had an enormous power and there were many disciples from the palace who had become generals in the borders army. Now that Passion Parting Palace's great imperial empress has rebelled, hehe, the world is going to be even chaotic."
"I've heard Passion Parting Palace was the number one big sect created by a woman, having power that surpassed many others and wasn't much inferior to the three great sacred grounds. Most of the female generals in imperial court have come from Passion Parting Palace."
"Three Wonders Castle has also revolted. Three Wonders Castle was well loved by the emperor back then and Consort Che was from Three Wonders Castle. I've heard she is the granddaughter of Che Zhengli, one of the three wonders! Now that Three Wonders Castle has rebelled, Consort Che had been banished to the cold palace."
"Why have so many sects rebelled?"
"Don't you know? Three months ago, Daozi of Dao Sect went to block Imperial College's gate and Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor went forward to give a lecture. After that, there were people who could see that Imperial Preceptor was injured. I've heard that Imperial Preceptor's wound has started to smell and he purposely used perfume to cover it up yet it still couldn't cover up the stink of the wound."
"When the news was spread out, many sects still couldn't believe it, then another story came out. Dragon Rider Sect Master had visited Imperial Preceptor's Manor late at night to fight with Imperial Preceptor and actually made it out alive! Dragon Rider Sect Master's ability can't be considered top notch but he had raised a dragon which was transformed from a snake, barely considering him an expert of the sect master level. For Imperial Preceptor to not take even him down, it shows how serious his injuries are."
"Shhh, stop talking about it. Those few officials are looking over."
…
Qin Mu's heart moved slightly as he thought back to the time where Imperial Preceptor was giving a lecture. Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor did look a little frail but Qin Mu was proficient in the art of healing and by buying rouge and powder frequently with Granny Si, he could confirm that the flush on Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor's face wasn't from being sick and was from applying rouge.
As for using perfume to cover the rotting smell of the wound from what these merchants had said, Qin Mu had indeed smelled two different kinds of smell back then but he wasn't concerned at all.
Learning how to distinguish herbs from Apothecary since he was young, these two smells were from ordinary herbs and perfume.
Qin Mu frowned, "Imperial Preceptor's injuries had already healed yet he still borrowed the chance to let the people of the outside world know that he was still gravely injured when he had come to Imperial College for a lecture, making the people who were thinking rebelling but didn't dare to rebel. Isn't this scheme a little too terrifying."
It had been three months since Imperial Preceptor gave a lecture in Imperial College and in this three months, the situation had gotten even messier. There were sects revolting and officials rebelling everywhere, making Qin Mu feel that he wasn't understanding Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor more and more.
Imperial Preceptor had thrown the current political situation into such a disorder and had already become such a hard to fix extent. Even if he was able to quell the rebellion, the strength of Eternal Peace Empire would still be greatly damaged.
Furthermore, Eternal Peace Empire also had other enemies like Barbarian Di Empire of the western borders and Wolf Store Country of the northern borders, being in a mess both domestically and abroad.
"Could Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor think of seizing the throne?" he revealed an expression of doubt.
With the imperial family fighting with the rebels, Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor could take this chance to seize the throne and make himself the emperor when both sides suffered from their battles.
However, even though Qin Mu didn't know Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor well, he felt a person with such a breadth of mind wouldn't use such a method to seize the throne.
Suddenly the ship began to tremble violently and Qin Mu's heart leaped. He hurriedly leaned to the side of the ship to take a look and saw this ship sailing into a battlefield.
This battlefield was in the air and other than the warships, there were still flying cars, flying clouds, flying mounts and all kinds of weird flying treasures or mounts.
Luckily their ship was located at the borders of the battlefield and when the coxswain saw things were looking back, he immediately steered hard left and the ship almost tilted over. The ship barely avoided a warship and slid past the battlefield.
Qin Mu stabilized himself and prevented himself from falling over. Suddenly a cavalry controlled a golden wings birds and flew over. From afar, he could see swords flying out into the sky from the sword cases and swept towards the people on the ship.
The coxswain immediately shouted, "We are merchants passing by and not soldiers!"
The cavalry turned a deaf ear and the sharp swords shot towards the people on the deck. There were also a few swords slicing towards the sails, cutting away the ropes and instantly slowing the ship down hugely.
Everyone on the ship felt their scalps turning numb. This was a standard battle between armies and it was evident that one side was Eternal Peace Empire's army which was pacifying the rebellion while the other side was the rebel army. This wasn't simply just a sect creating havoc.
When a sect created havoc, other than large-scaled sects like the three sacred grounds, it was hard for the other sects to bring out the strength that could rival the empire's army.
Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor's reform had not only reformed primary schools, colleges, and Imperial College, he had similarly reformed the military arms. In the army, the soldiers all had standardized spirit weapons and even if they weren't opponents of the sect's disciples, as long as their numbers were greater and could manipulate sword using qi, all of the soldiers could work hand in hand and release ten thousand swords simultaneously, creating an astonishing power!
Other than the army working together, there were also land and sky combination, spells combining with all kinds of fighting method. Ten soldiers of Five Elements Realm could easily kill a Six Directions divine arts practitioner by working together.
All the famous sects in the martial world had no power to fight back when they encountered the encirclement and annihilation of the imperial family. Using this kind of fighting method from the army, there were still quite a great numbers of sects being eliminated like this in the history of Eternal Peace Empire annexing other countries!
On the ship, Qin Mu stabilized his mind and was about to use his sword case when he suddenly remembered the flying swords in his sword case had all been destroyed in Rolan's Golden Palace, therefore, he had thrown his sword case away.
"Use Junior Protector Sword!"
Qin Mu avoided the flying swords that were stabbing over and his vital qi went into taotie sack and a crisp hum sounded out. With a gentle rotation with Wave Sword Form, the flying swords that came flying over were all sliced into halves by him. The bodies of the swords landed on the ship and only the handles were left.
With his proficient sword skills plus the sharpness of Junior Protector Sword, it could be said that there was no disadvantage for him.
Qin Mu let out a sigh of relief and suddenly saw the cloth sack of those soldiers who were on the back of the golden wings birds opening up. Buzzing sounds instantly traveled over and countless of golden insects flew out from the cloth sack.
"It's the insect army!"
The other guests on the ship had a huge change in expression and cried out, "The insect army of Three Wonders Castle!"
The few soldiers stretched out their hands and countless of flying insects grouped up and rushed towards the ship like venomous dragons, biting and tunneling into everyone they saw. Not far from Qin Mu, there was a big-bellied merchant whose cultivation wasn't weak but he got infiltrated by the insects which tunneled into his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. In the next moment, the entire fat merchant deflated like a balloon and only a piece of human skin laid on the deck.
Under the human skin, countless of insects squirmed around and crawled out from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose before flapping their wings to fly away.