Chapter 1113: Being a Slave to God

Chapter 1118: Enslaving a God

Seven days later.

Beside Nine Bends Mountain, a woman's melodious voice, like a lark's gentle song, flowed like a clear spring, echoing all around.

"Emerald peaks screen off immortal trails,Nine bends winding into the clouds.Azure waters softly murmur ancient stones' words,The evening glow leaves pine forests untouched by wind."

As the sound spread, from a distance, the entire Nine Bends Mountain could be seen, shrouded in mist. Within it, a stream descended from the mountaintop, winding through nine bends before reaching the foot of the mountain and flowing into a long, azure river.

Boats floated on the river, like fallen leaves.

"Senior, this is Nine Bends Mountain. Its stream flows through nine bends, and as it meanders, a celestial melody echoes, giving the mountain its name."

Inside the boat, incense burned and bright lamps stood.

Yunmen Qianfan played the guqin while gazing at Xu Qing, who was looking into the distance towards Nine Bends Mountain. The ripples in her heart had grown into a surging tide during their journey.

Even after seven days, the eerie image of the Earth Spirit Clan's Elder Guest's bizarre death still occasionally surfaced in her mind.

With a single glance, he caused a Seventh-stage Soul Incubation Realm cultivator to weep himself to death. Such a feat, in her opinion, could only be achieved by someone at the Grand Perfection of the Ninth-stage Soul Incubation Realm.

This made her realize even more clearly that Yan Xuanzi, currently before her, had only shown the tip of the iceberg of his abilities in the Spirit Dust Mountain Range. She knew that as long as they didn't encounter a Dominator on this journey, she would be safe.

Because of this, her sense of mortal danger significantly lessened, replaced by a feeling of wonder, turning the journey into a genuine tour.

Her relaxed mood also made her smile far more often than usual.

Her feelings flowed into the music, mingling with the sound of the river as the guqin's notes drifted.

With the burning incense and bright lamps, being there truly evoked a sense of 'clear springs babbling along the path, forgetting worldly dust and all emptiness.'

Listening to the celestial melody and gazing at the nine bends, Xu Qing took a sip from his wine flask.

Compared to Yunmen Qianfan's relaxed state, Xu Qing's mood, even amidst the drifting celestial music, found it difficult to forget the clamor of the mundane world.

The wine he drank, though melting in his mouth, evaporated into his memories.

Vaguely, he recalled a boat from years ago, also with two people, and music flowing in his heart.

As if sensing Xu Qing's current state of mind, Qianfan lowered her head, and the guqin's melody, accompanied by a soft hum, drifted across the clear river water.

"Birds flutter, seeking old dreams,My heart with mountains and rivers finds serene ease.I wish to stay here, accompanying your life,Asking not when the years will call us home."

The river water sparkled, and the wooden boat sailed past Nine Bends Mountain.

"I have a piece of music I haven't heard in a long time. Would you be willing to play it?" Xu Qing suddenly asked.

"Qianfan is willing."

Yunmen Qianfan quickly looked up at Xu Qing's back and replied obediently.

Xu Qing raised his hand, and a jade slip inscribed with a musical score landed before Yunmen Qianfan.

Qianfan raised her delicate hand, placed it in her palm, closed her eyes, and concentrated.

A moment later, the guqin's melody changed.

A familiar tune echoed throughout the world.

The long river, the solitary boat, slowly drifted away.

The woman on the boat played, while the man gazed into the distance.

Amidst the mountains and rivers, he searched for old dreams.

In the heavenly winds, a sense of the martial world drifted.

Within the guqin's notes, a lifetime of joy and sorrow seemed to be narrated.

Ultimately, everything transformed into a flask of turbid wine.

In solitude, Xu Qing drank it all in one gulp.

"Senior... this piece has a profound essence, embodying a lifetime of obsession. Though it contains sorrow, it also holds a sense of freedom. The composer is certainly no ordinary person. May I ask the name of this piece?" Yunmen Qianfan looked at Xu Qing and asked softly.

Xu Qing did not answer. Instead, he glanced at the river and then looked towards the horizon.

A strong wind blew, making his long hair flutter and his clothes whip. A hint of cold indifference also arose with the wind.

Then, the wind ceased.

The shimmering ripples on the river also stilled.

The next instant, the river surface in front of the wooden boat suddenly churned!

The river water hollowed out, and a gigantic head abruptly emerged from within.

This head resembled a serpent's, covered in scales, entirely black, oozing viscous fluid. Its eyes, like red flames, were filled with malice.

It was hundreds of feet in size. The moment it appeared on the river surface, compared to it, the wooden boat was like a child's toy.

Along with its appearance came whispers that echoed in one's mind.

When this sound entered one's ears, it induced madness, made the soul unstable, and caused the body to hum with agitation.

Simultaneously, with the emergence of the bizarre head, the surroundings began to twist, and a strong sense of blurriness pervaded the air.

And after meeting its gaze, Yunmen Qianfan's heart began to pound uncontrollably, as if trying to burst from her chest.

Her mind felt as if it were tearing apart, and a sense of madness aggressively invaded from outside.

She trembled, clearly feeling that at that instant, all the flesh and blood in her body seemed to acquire a will of its own, intensely repelling her, as if trying to separate.

As for the spiritual energy from all directions, it surged backward at that moment, invaded and occupied by an aura completely different from spiritual energy. While repelling each other, the spiritual energy was also being contaminated.

That was divine aura, that was anomalous matter!

That was... a deity!

Almost at the instant Yunmen Qianfan's mind was rattled, her cultivation suppressed, and her body and soul were on the verge of collapsing, a gentle force emanated from Xu Qing, enveloping her.

It shielded her from the outside.

Then Xu Qing raised his right hand and made a grasping motion forward.

Instantly, the distorted and blurry void before him roared, shattering into countless pieces and collapsing in an instant.

Under this grasp, the river water suddenly surged, forming a torrent of immense power that transformed into a gigantic hand, seizing the deity's head.

It yanked upward with immense force.

The heavens and earth trembled.

A heart-wrenching roar erupted from the deity's mouth. Its body was shaken by the immense force and forcibly pulled out of the river.

As the river water splashed, its complete yet bizarre body was revealed.

The head comprised ninety-nine percent of its body.

Beneath the gigantic head, hundreds of feet in size, was a relatively slender body with grayish skin, covered in flowing mucus.

Numerous orbs of light orbited it, constantly rotating and flashing, emitting mysterious and eerie glows.

A powerful sense of chaos and madness intensely surged.

Inside its body, a flame burned, but a lampshade made of runes encased the flame.

Under this lampshade, the flame was sealed and controlled.

Furthermore, a special jade slip rested on this lampshade.

This jade slip was like a living creature, covered in numerous tendrils that spread into the deity's brain, parasitically locking it down.

"A Divine Slave!"

"Senior, this is a Divine Slave that the Earth Spirit Clan purchased from the Dao Immortal Sect using vast resources back then. Divine Slaves... all possess Dominator-level combat power, Senior, you..."

After Xu Qing shielded Yunmen Qianfan from the external influence, she rapidly recovered. Her mind was trembling, clearly astonished that the pursuers would dispatch a Divine Slave just to kill her.

Thinking of the terror of Divine Slaves, Yunmen Qianfan trembled and instinctively tried to warn him.

But her words caught in her throat, her eyes already wide with disbelief.

Because what her gaze landed upon was the terrifying, monstrous deity, now held suspended in mid-air by an illusory giant hand, unable to break free no matter how it struggled.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing, standing before it, maintained his usual expression, his gaze examining the deity as if studying it.

This scene made Yunmen Qianfan's breathing quicken, and the image of the Elder Guest who had cried himself to death earlier flashed in her mind.

"A deity at the Divine Flame Realm."

Xu Qing's gaze swept over the flame within the deity's body, encircled by the lampshade.

He observed that the lampshade was composed of countless dense runes, each distinct, numbering in the hundreds of millions. They were extremely complex, and between each rune, there were variations in their arrangement, and not just one type of arrangement.

Furthermore, the living-creature-like jade slip on the lampshade was even more peculiar. Xu Qing had never seen it before and couldn't identify it immediately.

This wasn't his first time seeing a deity since arriving at the Fifth Star Ring. He had previously witnessed deities being enslaved and used by cultivators as magical artifacts or spirit beasts.

But from Yunmen Qianfan's words, he discerned the origin of these Divine Slaves.

"Controlled by orthodox sects in various regions, and available for sale?"

Xu Qing pondered, his interest piqued by this method of controlling deities into slavery. Through his observation, he found this method exceptionally ingenious.

Without understanding its inner workings, breaking it would be extremely difficult.

Forcibly breaking it would extinguish the enslaved deity's divine flame, cause its consciousness to collapse, and even lead to the disintegration of its soul and body.

"But since it's a slave and sold, there must naturally be a method to control it."

Xu Qing withdrew his gaze and looked towards the horizon.

Under the scarlet aurora, where Xu Qing looked, the void rippled, and four figures were forced to reveal themselves.

The moment she saw these four, Yunmen Qianfan immediately recognized them.

Three of them were Elder Guests from the Earth Spirit Clan, and one was a core Elder of the Earth Spirit Clan.

The former three were at the Seventh-stage Soul Incubation Realm, while the latter... had reached the Ninth-stage Soul Incubation Realm.

So she immediately informed him.

At this moment, these four stood in the sky, their expressions filled with horror and immense fear, their minds churning with monstrous waves of shock.

One of them held a small drum, but no matter how he struck it, the deity connected to the drum could not break free in the slightest from Xu Qing's illusory hand.

As Xu Qing's gaze fell upon them, the four immediately felt their minds tremble and their scalps tingle. Without a moment's hesitation, they sharply retreated.

But it was clearly too late.

Almost as they fled, Xu Qing took a step towards the sky.

The next instant, the heavens and earth changed color.

In Qianfan's eyes, it was as if a vast painting unfolded across the sky, obscuring everything and blurring all.

After a few breaths, the painting dispersed, the four cultivators were gone, and only Xu Qing returned.

He held a wine flask in one hand and a head in the other.

This head belonged to the core Elder of the Earth Spirit Clan.

He was not dead; his eyes revealed intense horror and despair as his soul was being searched.

The moment he returned to the wooden boat, the soul search was complete.

Xu Qing now knew the truth about this mission.

"The Yunmen family possesses a key to enter a certain Land of Creation. This is the root cause of the war between the two clans, but this key is special and seems difficult to forcibly seize in the end."

"So, after suppressing the Yunmen family to the extreme, the Earth Spirit Clan proposed a gamble that the Yunmen family couldn't refuse."

"The Yunmen family would send out fourteen core members, and the Earth Spirit Clan would pursue them. If all fourteen ultimately died, the Yunmen family would lose. If even one survived to reach the destination, the Earth Spirit Clan would lose."

"The stakes were that key and the continued existence of the Yunmen family."

Xu Qing had no interest in this key.

So, with a squeeze, the head in his hand turned to dust. At the same time, the small drum used to control the deity appeared in Xu Qing's hand. He lightly flicked it.

To the sound of 'thump-thump,' the deity before him transformed into a stream of light, merging into the drum, its totem appearing on the drum's surface.

After putting it away, Xu Qing turned to look at Yunmen Qianfan, who was breathing rapidly, her heart filled with disbelief.

"The wine's gone."

Xu Qing spoke, tossing the wine flask in his hand to her.

"Ah..." Qianfan instinctively caught it and held it to her chest, her body trembling. She quickly took out another flask and swiftly presented it to Xu Qing.