Qin Mu sprinted wildly, his vital qi growing stronger and stronger. No one knew how many miles he ran, yet the villagers of Disabled Elderly Village kept up with him with ease. Even the blind man moved as though walking on flat ground, steadily following alongside the others.
Just as Qin Mu charged into a forested mountain pass, a pitch-black figure suddenly rose from the trees, roaring, "Little brat, die—!"
It was the demonic ape. Seeing the "little brat" trespass into its territory again, its fury was unimaginable. But Grandpa Ma—his single arm hanging by his side—glanced at the enraged beast.
That one glance froze the giant creature.
The demonic ape shuddered violently. It abandoned its territory on the spot, turned around, and bolted.
There had been no emotion whatsoever in Grandpa Ma's eyes—only the cold certainty of death. The giant beast felt, with chilling clarity, that if it dared to roar again, its head would explode the next instant. How could it stay arrogant? It fled.
The villagers didn't pay it any attention.
Qin Mu continued flying forward, vital qi roaring through his body. When they finally reached Disabled Elderly Village, he snapped out of his trance—and realized he was covered in filth. A thick layer of grime had formed on his skin at some point, black sludge mixed with greasy clumps—who knew whether it was foul blood or congealed fat.
Granny Si ordered, "Mu'er, go wash up by the river. Blind one, go with him. Be careful he doesn't get snatched away by anything in the water."
The blind man followed Qin Mu to the riverbank, leaning on his bamboo staff. Qin Mu immediately stripped naked and leapt into the river to scrub himself clean. The blind man tapped the water lightly with his staff—startling a massive fish lurking beside Qin Mu. The creature burst out of the river and leapt more than ten yards away. It was a giant azure fish over two zhang long, its whiskers like eight long tentacles.
As Qin Mu washed, he stared at the shimmering ripples of the river—and suddenly, a surge of heroic spirit rose from his young chest, blazing like fire.
His vital qi flared in response. It surged like a torrent, rushing straight up to his throat—like a celestial music treasury had opened within him. A deep, resonant howl erupted from his voice!
His cry shook the mountains; waves danced across the river!
With that roar, Qin Mu burst from the water in a leap—and suddenly began to dash across the surface of the river!
The instant his foot touched the water, the strength in his sole fused with the vital qi descending through his body. The two powers merged—then exploded outward. Wherever his foot fell, the river surface blasted apart in every direction!
Before the water could even fall back down, Qin Mu had already raced more than ten yards ahead—his other foot stepping onto the water.
Tap tap tap tap—
A string of crisp footsteps rang across the river. Qin Mu ran across the surface, stepping on water as if it were solid ground. In the blink of an eye, he had sprinted more than two miles over the river's surface.
His howl grew wilder, freer—carefree and unrestrained, like heavenly music, like immortals playing, like dragons and phoenixes singing. His strides were open and unbound, full of exhilaration, a young man running wild across the river as though playing!
The river gleamed under a gentle breeze, ripples spreading endlessly. Qin Mu's speed was astonishing. He sprinted from one bank all the way to the opposite shore—and then ran back again across the water.
The blind man stood at the bank with his bamboo staff. The river wind blew against his white hair. Listening to the youthful roar echoing from the river's heart, he nodded lightly, smiling.
Then he suddenly began to sing loudly:
"Though apes cry endlessly on both riverbanks,Wind howls, wind chills… and my crotch is freezing!Mu'er, you're running wild naked on the river—Your bare butt shining across the water! Isn't it cold?"
From the river came a startled cry. Qin Mu plunged into the water with a splash.
A moment later, the boy swam back to shore, face flushed red as he dried himself and put on his clothes.
In his moment of enlightenment by the river, he had been so intoxicated he forgot entirely he was naked. He had leaped onto the river and dashed across it with nothing on—truly a brisk, chilly naked run.
"Luckily Grandpa Blind can't see…"
Qin Mu straightened his clothes and suddenly looked up—only to see Old Ma, the mute, the deaf elder, and the rest of the villagers all standing in the trees nearby. Even Granny Si had come, and the village chief had been carried over on a stretcher.
Qin Mu's face turned scarlet. "Granny… when did all of you get here?"
Granny Si laughed, "Mu'er, we've seen your butt plenty of times. What's there to be shy about? We heard your howl and sensed your vital qi overflowing, so we came to take a look."
The village chief coughed. "Mu'er, come here. You were chased by five Spirit Embryo–realm martial artists. There might be hidden injuries. Let the Apothecary examine you."
Qin Mu walked over. The Apothecary examined him carefully and shook his head. "No serious problems—just external injuries."
The village chief checked him as well and signaled that he could leave. Then the Butcher immediately dragged Qin Mu off to practice knife techniques.
The Butcher was extremely dissatisfied that Qin Mu needed over five thousand strikes to defeat Senior Brother Qu—and even more dissatisfied that he had finished the fight with a sword instead of a knife. So he intended to train him harshly.
"What did the village chief discover?" the Apothecary asked quietly, looking at Qin Mu brimming with energy as he sparred knife-to-knife with the Butcher.
"His vital qi cultivation… is terrifyingly fast."
The village chief did not conceal anything. "Unbelievably fast. From yesterday until now, his progress has been astonishing. I heard his howl just now—it contained resonance between vital qi and the throat, faintly carrying the sound of gods and demons. Even cultivators who have broken the Spirit Embryo barrier cannot achieve divine-demonic resonance! If I were an ordinary person like him, it would take me twenty years to reach this level."
When Qin Mu howled on the river, he had unknowingly blended into his voice the demonic sound he heard in the canyon ruins. Last night, when he pondered the dark demonic sound, he had also listened closely to the divine sound of the goddess statues in the ruins, memorizing every subtle fluctuation.
Thus his howl naturally merged both divine and demonic tones.
Others heard nothing unusual—but in the ears of the village chief, it was monumental.
"Divine-demonic resonance?"
The Apothecary was startled. "How did he manage that? And to gain twenty years of cultivation in a single night… isn't that too frightening? Is this the power of the Four Spirit Blood?"
The village chief shook his head. "Although the Four Spirit Blood can enhance his body and vital qi, it cannot possibly increase his progress this drastically."
The Apothecary thought aloud. "Could Mu'er be a born prodigy meant for cultivation?"
The village chief frowned. "If he were born a prodigy, he would possess a spiritual body. How could he have an ordinary constitution? And divine-demonic resonance—what kind of prodigy could achieve that?"
The Apothecary asked, "Is this resonance in his howl good or bad?"
"I don't know."
The village chief said, "I heard divine and demonic sounds attacking each other in his howl—very fierce. Whether it's good or bad, I truly cannot tell."
The Apothecary's eyes flickered. "Then where did the divine and demonic sounds come from?"
"I don't know!"
The Apothecary felt a headache. The village chief felt the same. They had seldom encountered things they could not understand—but ever since they adopted Qin Mu, a little baby that floated down from upstream, the number of mysteries had only increased.
Night fell. Disabled Elderly Village sank into darkness. Qin Mu slept in the outer room, Granny Si in the inner room. In the middle of the night, divine and demonic sounds rose in Qin Mu's mind—the same ghostly demonic sound, then the divine sound, clashing and battling. The noise grew louder, sharper.
Their clash turned into a war between darkness and light within his mind. Qin Mu felt as though he had no physical form, as if his soul hovered above the battlefield, watching in a daze.
The scene resembled what he had seen in the canyon ruins, but grander, vaster. Darkness lashed like writhing tendrils, piercing light again and again. Light erupted, sweeping away darkness.
After a while, Qin Mu finally saw clearly what the light and darkness were. In the darkness surged countless demon gods, charging like a tide toward the light—their demonic sound not a single voice, but the roar of billions!
And light was the same—an oceanic deity clad in golden armor, battling the surging demons!
He "stood" so high above that these gods and demons were no more than tiny droplets, indistinguishable from afar. At first, Qin Mu thought it was simply a clash between light and darkness, but now that he saw clearly, he felt nothing but shock and terror!
Qin Mu jolted awake, drenched in cold sweat. He opened his eyes only to find his mind filled with those divine and demonic voices, clamoring so loudly it felt as if his head would burst.
At that moment, the jade pendant on his chest slowly floated upward, drifted to his brow, and gently settled there. Qin Mu felt a cool stream wash through him—the divine and demonic sounds vanished instantly.
He sat up abruptly, gasping for breath, bewildered and unable to understand what had just happened.
After a while, he walked out of the house. Using the faint glow emitted by the stone statues in the village, he examined the jade pendant.
The world beyond the village was pitch black, yet the pendant emitted its own dim, ghostly glow. Qin Mu stared at it in a daze; his eyes, like the pendant's light, were deep and unfathomable. He remained transfixed for a long, long time.
Behind him, Granny Si approached at some unknown moment. Seeing this scene, her heart ached slightly:
"We raised him, but Mu'er never truly belonged to our Disabled Elder Village. He's only a child we brought up… In the end, he'll have to leave us."