Senior Brother Qu finally panicked. "He's planning to use that little wooden stick to beat me to death—keep beating until I die!"
He truly wished the thing in the other boy's hand were a knife—any knife—even a dull one.
The little wooden stick wasn't powerful by nature, but after being struck for so long, the swelling on his head and face had already turned into bruised abscesses. The swelling narrowed his eyes to two slits, and his vision grew increasingly blurred.
The skin on his body was black and blue, several muscles had already been beaten into mush, and his joints had received Qin Mu's special attention.
Qin Mu wasn't targeting the bones of the joints, but the ligaments and fascia. The ligaments and fascia of all of Senior Brother Qu's joints were shattered by that tiny stick; even the slightest movement sent tearing pain shooting through his body.
To be beaten to death slowly by a little wooden stick—this was the most terrifying way to die. The agony and fear were stretched out endlessly, yet he could not die for quite some time.
By now, the stampeding beasts above their heads had vanished. They had fought their way out of the ruins' gateway, and the beasts had scattered.
Qin Mu's strength was also fading. He had been "swinging a blade" countless times, and he could no longer keep going. Battling beneath the belly of giant beasts, dodging both his enemy's sword and the beasts' hooves or claws, changing footwork nonstop—his legs were swollen and aching beyond belief.
During his training with the Butcher, even though the Butcher often went mad, he still knew the limits of training and would never push Qin Mu this far.
Now, Qin Mu had no strength left to keep swinging. Only sheer willpower kept him moving.
He knew that the moment he stopped—so long as Senior Brother Qu had even a wisp of vitality left, even the ability to move slightly—he would be decapitated on the spot!
He could only keep beating, until Senior Brother Qu was dead!
Thud.
Senior Brother Qu finally collapsed, and his sword clattered to the ground.
Qin Mu dropped the wooden stick and grabbed the sword, but he couldn't lift it—his arms had lost their last ounce of strength.
He raised his foot and nudged the sword hilt bit by bit, angling the tip toward Senior Brother Qu. The senior brother could barely perceive what was happening, struggled desperately to move, trying to avoid the tip, but his ligaments were nearly all destroyed, and his muscles could not move at all.
He was completely unable to move, forced to watch as Qin Mu painstakingly adjusted the sword's angle and then slowly nudged it forward with his foot, letting the blade pierce his throat little by little.
Finally, the sword pierced through his throat. Blood gurgled out, bubbling with air. Before long, he was dead.
Qin Mu let out a breath and collapsed onto the ground. He was exhausted—he had never been this exhausted in his life.
A corpse lay beside him. The feeling was deeply unpleasant. Qin Mu tried to shift his body, but the pain immobilized him, so he gave up.
This wasn't the first corpse he'd seen—the woman who crawled out of the cowhide by the river, and the two junior brothers of Senior Brother Qu, had all become corpses.
Once, Granny Si took him to a neighboring village to deliver a baby—besides sewing clothes, Granny Si was also a midwife. But when they arrived, the villagers were all dead—men, women, children, and even the woman who was about to give birth.
Qin Mu's mind went blank; he felt as if floating weightlessly above the village, looking down at the carnage. Later, Granny Si called him back. She said he had been so frightened that his soul left his body, and she had pulled it back and stuffed it into him.
She didn't say who had killed the villagers, only told him that such things were common in the Great Ruins, and so—
"You must never give your enemy any chance," Granny Si told him sternly.
The corpse of Senior Brother Qu made him uncomfortable, but this was the nature of the Great Ruins: the strong prey on the weak, and only the fit survive. Qin Mu had grown up watching beasts slaughter each other; Senior Brother Qu's corpse was no different from the carcasses of other beasts to him.
He was regulating his breathing when footsteps approached. He forced himself to turn his head and was startled. Senior Sister Qing was limping toward him, holding a sword. Her face was swollen like a pig's head, completely unrecognizable.
Qin Mu struggled to rise. Every bone and muscle in his body burned and throbbed, so he could only stop and gasp for breath, silently activating the "Three Elixir Body Tempering Art."
His vital energy slowly grew lively again, flowing into his sore muscles and torn bones. Wherever it passed, the swelling eased slightly, but his senses also sharpened, causing the burning pain to intensify.
Senior Sister Qing kept limping closer. Qin Mu had crippled her legs in their earlier duel; her face had taken countless kicks, and the final kick—where he used his full strength—was the worst.
That kick, like a venomous dragon wagging its tail, flattened her once-beautiful face, now swollen like day-old dough left to rise.
Her teeth were likely all knocked out, and saliva mixed with blood kept dripping from the corner of her mouth.
But her hand was steady. The sword in her grip still shone coldly—her hatred toward Qin Mu was immense; she wanted to tear him apart.
Qin Mu increased his effort to circulate the body-tempering art, trying to recover even a sliver of strength, but the intense battle earlier had pushed his body far too hard.
Only by opening the Spirit Embryo Wall and absorbing the Spirit Embryo Divine Treasure could one truly become a martial practitioner. Qin Mu was not yet one—but he had managed to beat a martial practitioner like Senior Brother Qu to death. That was already an incredible achievement.
But nothing more.
He had no strength left to fight Senior Sister Qing.
She finally reached him. She tried to speak, but her mouth and throat were too swollen to make a sound. She raised her sword and stabbed down at Qin Mu!
"What a cute little girl—you're just adorable, my dear,"
Senior Sister Qing suddenly froze. The sword met an invisible barrier and stopped.
Terror filled her eyes as she saw a tiny old woman walking toward them, carrying a basket and tottering on small feet.
Senior Sister Qing trembled, slowly retreating. Then she heard a booming voice behind her:
"Mu'er! You actually used my pig-slaughtering knife technique as a wooden stick! It took you five thousand four hundred and seventy-six strikes to bring this brat down, and in the end you killed him with a sword!"
Senior Sister Qing turned back with difficulty and saw several strange figures approaching—one with a staff feeling the ground like a blind man, one missing a leg, one with all four limbs severed, and a burly man with only his upper body left.
The upper-body-only brute was being carried in a bamboo basket, while the limbless man was carried on a stretcher.
Their appearances were miserable and horrific. The only normal-looking one was the middle-aged man carrying the basket—but his face had been completely flayed flat, looking the most terrifying of all.
The one speaking was the burly half-man in the basket. His face full of fierce muscles, he glared angrily and scolded Qin Mu loudly from afar:
"Looks like your training is still lacking! Don't talk to me about not having a knife, or about using a little stick. If your blade technique is sharp enough, even empty-handed you could've killed him with one stroke!"
Qin Mu let out a sigh of relief, his voice hoarse. "Granny Si… Grandpa Butcher… Grandpa Apothecary… you all came?"
Granny Si giggled. "We raised you with so much effort. It's your first night away from home with a strange young girl—we couldn't possibly rest easy. Of course we came to check on you."
Qin Mu blinked and asked cautiously, "How long have you been here?"
The butcher snorted. "We arrived the moment you two started fighting under the beasts' bellies. Otherwise, how would I know you swung exactly five thousand four hundred seventy-six times?"
Qin Mu's face darkened. These old grandpas and grandmas had clearly arrived long ago, yet they still let him fight to the death, nearly losing his life.
Only now did he understand—no wonder the beast herd hadn't attacked him or Senior Brother Qu. They had been scared off by the butcher and the others.
People from other villages say Granny and Village Chief are all bad people… could it be true? But I think Granny and the others are all good. They must have believed I could defeat that Senior Brother Qu, so they only watched from the side… He comforted himself in his heart.
"As a hegemon body surpassing the spirit bodies, for you to be beaten into such a miserable state… we are very disappointed."The blind man tapped his bamboo cane and smiled cheerfully—toward empty air.
Qin Mu coughed. "Grandpa Blind, I'm over here."
"I know you're there."
The blind man turned toward Qin Mu with a pleasant smile. "You used a staff to beat that boy, which means my teaching was effective. But don't get proud. You're a hegemon body—being stronger than him is only natural! Your training will be doubled from now on. Don't pull such a long face…"
The butcher said coldly, "Blind man, he clearly used my knife techniques. What are you so proud of? And besides—why are you babbling at a corpse?"