Chapter 33: Sword Pillar

The village was awash with water and littered with sharp swords, making it almost impossible to find solid ground. The scattered corpses added to the eerie and terrifying atmosphere.

The Village Chief surveyed the surroundings, frowning, and said, "Crippled One, go and tidy up. Prepare the bodies for burial; don't let them lie exposed in the wilderness. Send them downriver. Burn ingots, candles, paper boats, and paper cranes for them as well."

The Crippled One limped forward, glanced at the Blind One, and chuckled, "So sentimental, even reciting poetry. It's absolute nonsense!"

The Blind One was furious, his mustache bristling. "You couldn't recite a poem if you tried! You're practically illiterate!"

Granny Si quickly interjected, "Crippled One, remember to keep any valuable items when preparing the bodies. Don't put them in the coffins. They're worth some money, and we can sell them next time to buy some oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar!"

In the Great Ruins, the most expensive things weren't gold, silver, or jewels, but oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and silk. These items were not found in the Great Ruins and could only be brought by caravans from the outside world to Dragon-Adorned City. Residents of the Great Ruins then traded exotic treasures and animal hides for them. It could truly be said that salt was more valuable than gold.

Every time, Granny Si would pull a cart full of treasures and bring a few livestock to Dragon-Adorned City. Only by selling the livestock and treasures could she exchange them for some oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar.

The Apothecary stepped forward, applied medicine to Qin Mu's hand, and bandaged his injury. He shook his head and said, "Catching swords barehanded? Your vital qi isn't strong enough for that yet. Don't be so reckless next time."

Qin Mu felt a cool, numb sensation in his palm and no pain. He said, "My sword control isn't good enough. I can't be as nimble as that person from the Li River Sect. I feel I have a lot of strength, but I can't channel it effectively."

"That's normal. That Butcher fellow's sword control is terrible; he can't teach you."

The Apothecary smiled. "Someone in our village knows advanced sword control, but unfortunately, they don't want to teach you."

The Village Chief's expression darkened, and he said stiffly, "Apothecary, it's very wet here. Take me back inside!"

The Apothecary chuckled. "Then the Village Chief will have to wait a moment. I'm still bandaging Mu'er's wound."

After the wound was bandaged, Qin Mu watched as the Blacksmith, Mute, picked up a sword from the ground. He picked one up and lightly shook it, and thousands of flying swords automatically flew towards it, clinking and clanging as they collided with the sword in Mute's hand. All these swords then astonishingly vanished, merging into a single sword, a sight he couldn't help but marvel at.

He also stepped forward, picked up a sword, and lightly shook it. However, nothing happened.

Mute grinned, making a few "ah-ah" sounds since he had no tongue. Then he rubbed the sword in his hands, and the sword astonishingly became smaller and smaller as he rubbed it, instantly turning into a tiny silver pellet, no bigger than a fingertip.

Qin Mu looked at the sword in his hand and also wanted to try rubbing it to see if it would turn into a small silver pellet. The Apothecary quickly said, "Don't rub it! Your wound was just bandaged! Mute, stop teasing him, or I'll poison you!"

Mute kept laughing. He snatched the flying sword from Qin Mu's hand and then pressed the silver pellet into Qin Mu's hand.

*Crack.* Qin Mu heard a soft click from his shoulder, and then he was pressed to the ground by the silver pellet in his hand. Mute was startled and slapped his forehead. He had forgotten that this was a sword pellet refined from thousands of swords combined. How heavy would thousands of swords be when combined?

Qin Mu was caught off guard, and naturally, his arm was dislocated by the weight, leaving him sprawled on the ground.

Mute was about to set Qin Mu's arm when Granny Si, who had walked over, suddenly kicked him flying out of the village. It was unknown where he landed; only his "ah-ah" sounds could be heard echoing from the sky outside the village, growing fainter and fainter.

Granny Si, with a dark expression, reset Qin Mu's arm and angrily said, "Those who can't speak are all bad apples, full of mischief! Mu'er, these are mother-and-son swords. Among thousands of swords, one is the mother sword, and the rest are son swords. As long as you find the mother sword, you can recall all the son swords. However, the Li River Sect's sword pellets are very heavy; you can't pick them up yet."

She picked up a sword and lightly shook it, just like Mute. Thousands of precious swords flew towards it with a clatter and merged into this mother sword.

Granny Si smiled. "To turn the mother sword back into a sword pellet, you don't need to rub it; Mute was just fooling you. You just need to integrate your vital qi with the mother sword, and it will shrink back into a sword pellet. Similarly, you can use this method to unleash the son swords from the mother sword."

Qin Mu looked at the sword pellet in her palm, blinked, and wondered, "Granny, it looks like you have many of these silver pellets in your room!"

"Do I?" Granny Si blinked her hazy old eyes, looking puzzled.

"Yes!" Qin Mu remembered. He had seen many such silver pellets in Granny Si's room. Some were tossed under the bed, others were in unworn shoes, and there were many in the corners too.

When he was little, he even played with these silver pellets as marbles, flicking them around.

He had even seen Granny Si's old hen eat these silver pellets, mistaking them for grit!

Thinking about it now was truly terrifying. What if these silver pellets suddenly transformed into swords with a *whoosh* inside the hen's stomach? The scene would have been horrific.

Fortunately, that never happened.

Granny Si's eyes flickered, and she said, "If you could pick them up when you were little, they were naturally just ordinary silver pellets, not sword pellets."

Qin Mu was not entirely convinced. He said, "I also saw a large box in Grandpa Mute's blacksmith shop, full of these silver pellets."

Granny Si blinked her hazy old eyes, blinking even faster than Qin Mu. She smiled and said, "Do you think Mute could be that rich?"

Qin Mu was somewhat bewildered by her words. Mute certainly didn't look like someone so wealthy; he was clearly just a hardworking fellow who only knew how to forge iron.

Granny Si chuckled. "Don't overthink it. Everyone in our village is ordinary. We're all struggling, poor old cripples. We're just a very ordinary village, and everything is perfectly normal. If you suspect that Mute's box is full of sword pellets, you might as well suspect the water jar in the corner is a treasure too!"

Qin Mu looked at the water jar she mentioned. The jar was placed under the eaves of the blacksmith's shop, meant to collect rainwater when it rained. But the strange thing was that Qin Mu had never seen the water jar full; no matter how heavy the rain, the jar always contained only half a jar of water!

Moreover, the water in this jar never decreased, nor did it ever show its bottom. Mute used a lot of water for blacksmithing, scooping it out bucket by bucket, yet the amount of water in the jar always remained the same!

Granny Si saw his suspicious gaze and felt that this example was perhaps not the best. She quickly added, "You wouldn't think the pile of broken earthenware pots at the Apothecary's door are treasures, would you?"

Qin Mu looked at the broken earthenware pots at the Apothecary's door. The pots contained some unknown herbs and housed small insects like spiders, silkworms, and centipedes.

A moment ago, when the great flood spread, water entered the pots, and several insects crawled out, fighting on the rims. Suddenly, a black spider grew enraged, its entire body engulfed in flames. The spider then expanded to the size of a table, spitting fire at the other small insects. Amidst the flames, several golden silkworms grew wings, becoming over a foot long, and flew out of the fire, pouncing on the spider and biting it with high-pitched squeaks.

The Apothecary poked his head out and let out a scolding cry. The insects quickly shrunk their bodies and obediently returned to the pots.

Qin Mu grew even more suspicious. Granny Si gave a dry laugh and stammered, "These are all normal, nothing out of the ordinary..."

Qin Mu probed, "Granny, can people outside also fly, just like Grandpa Blind?"

Granny Si nodded. "Everyone outside can fly."

Qin Mu asked, "Are people outside also spirit bodies, just like everyone in our village?"

"They are all spirit bodies!"

"Are people outside as powerful as those in our village?"

"Extremely powerful! Otherwise, Granny and Blind One wouldn't have been forced to hide in the Great Ruins! Don't always try to run outside. Be careful not to die out there; people outside are far more ferocious than Blind One!"

...

Qin Mu was skeptical, yet half-believing. Were the people outside the Great Ruins really as powerful as Granny Si claimed, capable of anything and everything?

By the river, the Crippled One finished preparing the bodies and placing them in coffins. Grandpa Ma hammered wooden wedges into the coffin lids, sealing them. Then he pushed the coffins into the river, allowing them to float downstream.

The river flowed swiftly, with many hidden reefs and jagged rocks downstream. It would be difficult for these coffins to reach the sea; they would likely be shattered along the way, and the bodies would sink, becoming food for the great fish of Yong River.

"The Li River Sect will probably be erased from Southern Xinjiang."

The Crippled One watched the departing coffins and said mournfully, "The sect master is dead, and all the sect's experts are dead. It will be very difficult for this sect to survive."

"I'm not thinking about that right now."

Grandpa Ma shook his head, looking into the distance. "I'm thinking about the foremost person under the gods. Mu Beifeng was the governor of the Five Miao Prefecture in Southern Xinjiang. The Imperial Preceptor of Eternal Peace personally pacified him and granted him a second-rank official position. Now that he and the Five Elders of Li River are dead, will it alarm this foremost person under the gods?"

The Crippled One shook his head, stating emphatically, "It will alarm him! But he would absolutely never dare to enter the Great Ruins!"

Grandpa Ma glanced at him. "Don't forget, one Imperial Preceptor of Eternal Peace can't do anything about the Great Ruins, but behind the Imperial Preceptor is the nation of Eternal Peace! Eternal Peace is a formidable power operating under the guise of a nation! How could such a behemoth not covet the Great Ruins? This place holds countless treasures!"