Chapter 6: Die, Young'un!

"Could she be using this fine thread to control the sword? But... considering how thin the thread is, how can she make the sword change direction?"

Before he could think about the wondrous thread any further, Qin Mu immediately sprinted away.

A moment later, the sword shot past him, stabbing deeply into the trunk of a huge tree with a dull thud.

As if the sword were alive, it twitched in the tree trunk, yet couldn't pull itself out. Soon enough, the girl floated over and grabbed onto the treasure sword's hilt, pulling it out in exasperation. "My White Tiger vital qi still isn't strong enough to control my sword as if it were an extension of my body..."

"Junior Sister Qing, it's already remarkable that you're able to shape your vital qi into a thread and use it to control your sword for battle."

The boy who had ran across the river's waves with the girl arrived at her side and gave her a gentle smile. "Your experience is lacking, not your cultivation. This is why our masters have brought us to the Great Ruins—to train and improve upon our shortcomings. In the past, all we cared about was cultivating, so we lack actual combat experience. This little devil is our chance to participate in actual combat. You'll be able to perfectly control your sword with your qi right away."

The other three youths caught up with the pair, and one of them smiled and said, "The little devil turned into an elk. Since elk are very nimble, he was able to dodge senior sister's flying sword."

Senior Sister Qing regained her spirit and continued to direct her sword to stab at Qin Mu. She gave lovely laugh and said, "Senior Brother Qu, don't attack for now. Leave this little devil for me to train my sword control on."

Senior Brother Qu was the young boy who had ran across the river with her. He nodded at her words and said, "Come, junior brothers. Let us admire the sword skills of Junior Sister Qing."

Questions swirled within Qin Mu's heart as he struggled as he dodged the sword chasing him from behind. "Controlling a sword with qi? Could it be that the thread in the girl's hand is her vital qi and not an actual length of thread? Vital qi can be used to control a treasure sword to that extent? Will I be able to do that?"

When he learned to use a Pig Slaughtering Knife, Butcher only taught Qin Mu how to use both his hands to control the knife. Butcher never taught him how to use qi to control the knife, so he knew nothing in that regard.

Seeing that female practitioner controlling her sword with her qi, an idea formed in Qin Mu's. Since qi could be used to control a sword, could his vital qi be used to control other things?

However, he didn't have time to ponder that question. That Senior Sister Qing continued to control her sword and have it pursue Qin Mu. In addition to that, since Granny Si had turned him into an elk, he found his limbs to be inconvenient. Even the vital qi in his body had become dormant and did not respond like it usually did.

Chii—!

The sword flashed as it struck from behind, grazing Qin Mu's back. He felt a chill run down his back which was soon followed by the burning sensation of pain. He could tell that Senior Sister Qing had managed wound his back.

"This is bad! An elk might be fast, but it's still slower than someone with an actual spirit body. If I get injured again, I'm afraid it'll be difficult for me to escape as an elk..."

As soon as he finished that thought, he felt his mouth suddenly start to split apart.

Yet it wasn't actually his mouth splitting apart, but the elkskin starting to peel away from his body starting with the mouth.

Qin Mu immediately recalled the moment that Granny Si had urged him to run. At that time, she had secretly removed a needle that had been protruding from the space between his eyebrows. It was the very needle that had pierced his Heaven Soul!

Soon enough, his head had separated from the elkskin.

The sword sliced through the air, slashing toward Qin My in an attempt to take his life. Qin Mu leaped forward with all the strength he could muster and freed himself from the elkskin, tumbling several yards ahead before getting to his feet and running.

Behind him, the sword controlled by Senior Sister Qing cut the elkskin to pieces. Its movements were light like a falling petal and as fast as lightning. Pursuing Qin Mu and trying to kill him had apparently improved her sword skill tremendously.

Getting free from the elkskin had momentarily delayed Qin Mu's escape, resulting in one of the youths traversing the treetops to land in front of him, cutting off his escape route.

Both of them were only about ten yards away from each other. With this distance, they would run into each other in the very next instant!

Qin Mu didn't have the time to change directions. So, without thinking, he subconsciously utilized the leg technique that Cripple taught him. Seeming to stumble forward, Qin Mu moved forward by clawing at the ground with his hands in place of his feet. His legs, which were now in the air, twisted along with the rest of his body, increasing in speed until they resembled a whirlwind. Like a spinning top, he sped toward the youth in front of him!

The youth, who was older than Qin Mu by a few years, smiled at him derisively.

He raised both of his arms to block, and they radiated a murky green glow as dragon scales began to appear on his skin.

"Green Dragon's Arms!" the youth cried.

In the next instant, Qin Mu's legs collided with the youth's arms. A metal clank rang out twice, and before the smile could even be wiped from the youth's face, he grunted and lost his balance. Qin Mu's onslaught forced him back.

The youth's sleeves were torn to shreds, remnants of the cloth fluttering around like paper butterflies. Dragon claw tattoos could be seen on the skin of both his arms. The claws coiled around them in a lifelike manner, and it was clear that the scales had come from those claws..

However, both arms had become red and swollen after taking Qin Mu's legs head on.

"You hid iron weights on your legs?" the youth exclaimed, both furious and astonished.

Both of his arms trembled with pain. His gaze then landed on Qin Mu's feet. "Even your shoes are made of iron?"

Qin Mu got back to his feet and hurried away.

Yet, the youth's words reminded him that he still had two iron weights strapped to his legs.

Since Qin Mu was learning leg techniques, Cripple had requested that he wear iron weights all the time and made him promise to never remove them.

As Cripple kept track of his progress, seeing that Qin Mu's body became sturdier and his strength grew over time, the one-legged man saw to it that the iron weights strapped to Qin Mu's calves got heavier and heavier. In addition to that, Cripple also had Mute the Blacksmith forge a pair of iron boots for Qin Mu, further increasing the weight.

That pair of thick-soled iron boots weighed five kilograms altogether, while each iron weight weighed ten kilograms. A total weight of twenty-five kilograms was strapped to Qin Mu's legs!

Cripple had asked Qin Mu to train until he could no longer feel the burden of the iron weights and boots. Only after that was he allowed to take them off. Qin Mu had only recently gotten used to them, so he hadn't remembered that he was wearing them as he was frantically escaping.

However, if he tried to remove them now, he'd definitely be caught. There was no way that he could afford to stop moving.

"Trample on Mount Meru!'

As Qin Mu ran, he suddenly gathered strength into his right leg and used the skill, Trample on Mount Meru. The thick sole of his iron boot splattered like mud, shattering the entire boot into flying debris.

At the same time, his calf muscles flexed and expanded, bursting out of the iron weight and shooting its remnants into the trees as if they were sharp arrows.

Qin Mu stepped forward with his other leg, shattering the other iron boot and weight as his foot landed.

Whoosh—!

Suddenly leaping into the air, Qin Mu felt extremely light! He easily reached a branch at the top of a tree, which frightened him greatly.

High up in the tree, barefoot, Qin Mu's weight caused the branch to dip slightly.

Sword lights flashed from below and came shooting upwards. Upon looking down, Qin Mu saw the tips of a dozen swords!

Senior Sister Qing's sword handling became progressively stronger by the minute. She wasn't controlling a dozen swords, she had created the illusion of a dozen swords with just one!

Qin Mu suddenly recalled Cripple's words.

"Don't think about whether or not a foothold will be able to withstand your weight. As long as you're fast enough, even water will be like solid ground. Grass... air... everything will become solid ground!"

Pushing off with the tips of his toes, Qin Mu leaped forward. The sword lights burst into the sky, shredding the top of the huge tree he had perched in.

Two youths leaped up and landed among the treetops just in time to see Qin Mu striding through the tips of the trees, dashing away like a flowing wind. They could only stare blankly, astonished by Qin Mu's speed.

"Why is he so fast?" one of them asked. "That kid is younger than us, but his cultivation seems to be... slightly stronger ours..."

As the two youths thought about it, they saw their Senior Brother Qu vanish like smoke and begin to chase Qin Mu at an even faster speed.

"As expected of Senior Brother Qu! He's much more powerful than we are, having reached the pinnacle of the Spirit Embryo."

Both of them sighed in admiration. "With Senior Brother Qu personally going after him, there no way that little devil will be able to escape."

At this exact moment, a dark shadow suddenly materialized in the forest.

A hairy palm the size of a woven mat came hurtling towards Senior Brother Qu, slapping him as he dashed through the air.

Senior Brother Qu flew backward, spinning uncontrollably and crashing to the ground. He tumbled for a short distance before coming to a stop, coughing up a mouthful of blood as he tried to sit up. "Don't go over there! There's a devil ape! That's the territory of a devil ape!"

The other four youths immediately stopped in their tracks.

As the shadow emerged from the trees, they saw that it was a huge, terrifying black gorilla. Its eyes were a deep red, and its fangs protruded from its mouth.

Beating its chest like a drum, it bellowed, "Die, young'un!"

Qin Mu, who had run ahead earlier, had also been struck from the air by this devil ape. He was currently lying at the devil ape's feet, unmoving. The youths couldn't tell if he was dead.

Staring at Qin Mu intently, Senior Sister Qing mumbled. "Since one palm strike from that devil ape heavily injured Senior Brother Qu, and that little devil also received the same hit, he should be dead... right?"

Before she could finish speaking, she jumped in surprise. Qin Mu, who was lying on the ground in front of the devil ape, had tilted his head slightly to ascertain the situation.

"That kid isn't dead yet?" she said in disbelief.

The pitch black devil ape roared a few times, then stopped when it saw that the rest of the youths didn't dare to step forward. Then it looked down at Qin Mu, slipping his body over with two fingers.

"Young'un, die?"

Seeing Qin Mu's wide open eyes, bleeding from his entire face and even the tongue which was sticking out, it was clear he could not be any more dead!

Snorting in satisfaction, the devil ape threw Qin Mu's body aside. It then sat down and started picking leaves from a nearby tree, eating them.

"Even though it's so fierce, the devil ape is actually a herbivore.." Qin Mu continued to bleed from his face, keeping his eyes wide open as he slowly crawled away using his elbows.

All of a sudden, the devil ape turned its head to look at Qin Mu's body, which had gone limp again. As it continued to glare at Qin Mu's 'body', it remained motionless.

Stretching out its finger and poking what it thought of as a corpse, the ape discovered that Qin Mu's body had already become icy and hard.

"Young'un, die," it said with renewed satisfaction, then turned back and focused on eating tree leaves without a care.

Witnessing all of this from a distance, Senior Sister Qing could no longer help herself. "Hey, big fella! Don't you find it weird that the... young'un... corpse became so cold and hard so quickly?"

Seemingly able to understand her, the devil ape slapped its forehead and immediately turned around. The young'un 'corpse,' however, had already gotten up and started to frantically flee.