Yamafu Military Affairs

Chapter 665 Xuan Mu
"Damn it, it's already a dream, and you still won't let me see it clearly!"

Qin Huai floated in the chaotic darkness, staring at the hazy reflection on the other side of the frosted glass, feeling rather anxious.

Suddenly, Qin Huai saw a black light rapidly enlarging in the area where Si Chen was. In the blink of an eye, it pierced through the hard glass-like interface and violently wrapped around him. The black, thunderous snake tail was unstoppable and also destroyed most of the monsters fighting in the distance.

Just then, Qin Huai, who was entangled by the snake's tail, suddenly saw a dramatic change in his vision. The lotus flower remained, but the dividing line had disappeared, replaced by a massive, boundless portal that stretched as far as the eye could see.

At the tall plaque above the gate, Qin Huai can see four large characters: "The Gate of the Mysterious Female".

"Mysterious Female? Isn't that something from the Tao Te Ching?"

Feeling the extreme pain emanating from all parts of his body, Qin Huai forced himself to maintain the continuity of his thoughts, trying to weaken the immense pain that was pushing his senses to the brink of collapse simply by coming into contact with the Ba Hui by recalling the Daoist scriptures.

"The spirit of the valley never dies; it is called the mysterious female. The gate of the mysterious female is called the root of heaven and earth; it exists continuously, and its use is inexhaustible."

Qin Huai stubbornly resisted fainting, his mind racing as he tried to connect the clues he had gathered during this time.

"Is this the chaotic sea filled with blind ignorance? Or the outer heavens where the Great Deity of Fate resides? Is the demonic contamination the unconscious spread of chaotic source matter, and the influence of numerous fragmented relative entities on all things? Then, is the core of this Mysterious Gate the core of the fruit? The core of the twin fruit?!"

Qin Huai looked down at the stars beneath him, then looked up at the pitch-black sky beyond the heavens.

He suddenly understood, but there was still no clue about the Di Ting.

Just as Qin Huai was about to collapse from the pain and faint, the giant snake tail that had been gripping him suddenly retracted, pulling him into the Gate of the Mysterious Female.

Perhaps because Ba Hui had caused such a commotion, the terrifying monsters inside the gate, who were fighting fiercely over the sex essence, all turned their attention to Qin Huai.

Immediately afterward, what Qin Huai saw was a series of wondrous, kaleidoscope-like scenes—a shocking and eerie spectacle based on terror and the unusual.

In that wondrous scene, the closest to Qin Huai was a golden Bodhisattva, wearing a jeweled crown and adorned with necklaces, with long ears and a broad forehead, six arms, and bright red blood on his lips. He held half of a beautiful lotus arm in one hand and stood on a thousand-petaled blue lotus.

"This is?"

A brilliant golden halo enveloped the entire body, obscuring its full appearance. Qin Huai opened his eyes wide and realized that the Bodhisattva was actually composed of Buddha relics of various sizes. These relics could rotate like the eyeballs of a living person, and the thousands of rays of light they emitted could even illuminate the entire dark space.

This golden-bodied Bodhisattva is the most normal-looking of the twelve earthly branches. Looking at the other earthly branches, they are all even more bizarre than this one.

Looking at the golden Bodhisattva before him, Qin Huai felt a sudden, inexplicable fear rise in his heart, and this fear grew deeper and deeper, instantly taking over his mind.

At the same time, the Fearful King, who held the Fire Jade Gourd and whose whole body was engulfed in flames, opened his mouth wide, and Qin Huai's fear was instantly swallowed up. What followed was the rising flames and the terrifying howls of the other Sichen.

"His physical body is incorruptible, and his form displays the nature of gold! Is He Ksitigarbha?!"

Qin Huai, who had just emerged from her fear, suddenly realized what was happening.

However, just as he was about to take a closer look at the golden Bodhisattva, the snake tail that was wrapped around him suddenly curled into a hammer head and swept towards the Sichen with unparalleled force!

"No, brother, I'm still inside!"

Qin Huai's heart skipped a beat. He couldn't care less about the pain in his limbs and bones. He immediately ignoring the pain and stirred his blood. A deep bronze color with a metallic sheen seeped into his body, instantly strengthening his scales, skin, muscles, and bones several times over!
Bronze Throne!

Although it was just a dream, who knows what Ba Hui was trying to do? Qin Huai didn't think that the scene being replicated in the dream would be exactly the same as what happened during the Si Chen War.

call!
Despite the absence of air in the chaotic darkness, the serpent's tail still unleashed a deafening roar, instantly forcing back the golden bodhisattva closest to it and charging towards the three great suns in the distance that were still devouring the corpse of the dream woman.

The three intertwined suns, sensing the approaching serpent tail, unleashed a cold, deathly radiance. The serpent's hard scales, like those encased in tar, gradually vaporized, and its body, constructed from pure pain, began to become transparent and ethereal.

Entangled and bound by the snake's tail, Qin Huai watched helplessly as everything unfolded on the other side. The extreme pain coursing through his body lessened considerably, replaced by a powerful urge to self-destruct.

At the same time, the other Sichen were also affected by the attacks of Ba Hui and San Yang, and they all became restless. For a time, the entire Xuanpin Gate was filled with sword energy, raging flames, sweeping glaciers, and endless chanting.
Qin Huai, who had taken in all these strange sights, was inevitably corrupted by the extremely intense demonic influence. His body instantly underwent a deformity, with ugly and terrifying fleshy mouths growing from his lower jaw and cheeks, with hundreds of jagged teeth clustered together into worm-like mouthparts.

In addition, his body underwent a major change; feathers stained with viscous blood, like sharp thorns, forcefully emerged from his flesh, which was as white as gold paper.

"Ascension! Master Wu is about to ascend!"

Immediately afterwards, three voices—one from a young man, one from middle age, and one from old age—simultaneously emanated from the three mouths above Qin Huai's head: "What's this about the God of Destiny and the God of Fate? If I'm going to be someone, I'll be the boss of the entire Outer Heaven!!"

boom! !

With a loud bang, the snake tail of the Ba Hui was severed by the bronze giant sword with countless black cracks all around. Qin Huai's vision blurred for a moment, and when he came to his senses, he found himself rushing toward the Gate of Mysterious Female together with the snake tail.

Suddenly, three inconspicuous brown dots appeared in Qin Huai's field of vision.

They were those brown-robed men who had somehow infiltrated the Xuanpin Sect!

They tore at the strings of the flesh-and-blood balloon, desperately trying to control the turbulent airflow, and even amidst the dangerous aftershocks of battle in the chaotic darkness, they struggled to get as close as possible to the severed tail.

After these three people paid the heavy price of two lives, the last surviving member finally grabbed the severed tail of the serpent, revealing a face indistinguishable from that of the Yi people, and began to tear and chew on this pure and unadulterated pain.

As he ate, his aura changed noticeably, becoming more ethereal and lofty, gradually giving him a sense of being a powerful and elusive spirit.

"Is he stealing the power of the Basil, cutting through [Pain]? Prometheus the Fire Thief?!"

Qin Huai was deeply shocked, and even the changes in his body seemed to slow down.

In the distance, Ba Hui was still engaged in a chaotic battle with Si Chen. Perhaps the pain of losing its tail had awakened a deeper level of power in its nature, for it was now fighting against many opponents without being at a disadvantage, and managed to snatch the head of the Dream Maiden from the deep shadows.

Soon, the brown-robed man, carrying the severed tail that had been mostly devoured, rushed out of the Gate of Mysterious Female together with Qin Huai.

The moment they stepped out the door, Duanwei and Qin Huai's body suddenly separated.

Looking at the nearly transparent remnant in the distance, before Qin Huai could make a move, the brown-robed man burst open like a bubble. Then, some different colored things dispersed from his body, expanded, and reassembled into a huge figure a hundred feet tall and charred black.

"Is this... ascension?"

As Qin Huai watched all this, the enormous figure, as big as a mountain, raised a scarred and withered giant claw and reached out to grab him.

Just as the enormous shadow was about to engulf him, from the very depths of the Mysterious Gate, a delicate sound, like a suona horn, rang out. As soon as this sound appeared, everything in Qin Huai's eyes began to distort—no, perhaps it shouldn't be called distortion, but rather a return to normalcy.

The chaotic and dark outer heaven shattered in an instant, and the environment around Qinhuai was distorted and changed, freezing into a wide, dark and deep cave.

All those terrifying and bizarre monsters have disappeared, replaced by cold rock walls that seem to stretch all the way to the depths of the earth.

"Come in. This is the snake cave in the Dream Realm. Few Fate Masters will pay attention to this place. Even if you are a visitor from outer space, you will not be discovered."

The hissing, hollow sound echoed through the cave. Qin Huai's heart tightened, but without much hesitation, he immediately followed the sound, passed through layers of stone doors, and found Ba Hui, who had transformed into a snake-man, in the deepest part of the cave, in a stone chamber covered with ancient murals.

"The Serpent of Pain?"

Qin Huai looked cautiously at the ancient snake-man who was dragging a black-scaled, severed tail and holding a noble snake staff, and asked.

"What are the views of the outer heavens and the other shore like?"

Ba Hui nodded and started the conversation by posing a question.

"Unexpected, yet reasonable."

Qin Huai thought for a moment and then summarized what he had just seen and heard in eight simple words.

“I already know why Shura summoned you to Serpent City. You will obtain the Embrace of Pain and become a Serpent Saint. After that, you will have to do a few things for me.”

Ba Hui stared at Qin Huai with his vertical, emerald-green pupils and spoke slowly.

"【Embrace of Pain】? What is that?"

Although Qin Huai could roughly guess that this was the ultimate purpose of Yu Gongcao's mission to come to Yazhou to collect rewards, understanding it only from the literal meaning was too abstract and he could not know the details.

"Embrace pain, enjoy the torment. The Embrace of Pain can greatly increase your pain tolerance and give you the ability to draw strength from pain."

Ba Hui tapped Qin Huai's heart and said softly, "The Asura's [Blood Receiving] ritual is extremely dangerous, bringing unimaginable pain to the recipient. Even snakes find it difficult to survive that immense suffering. But with [Embrace of Pain], the situation is different."

Hearing this, Qin Huai nodded knowingly and continued to ask, "What about the five recruits from before?"

"It was destined that I would go astray."

Apart from these eight characters, Ba Hui did not reveal a single additional word.

However, Qin Huai understood the implied meaning and did not continue to ask. Instead, he cautiously probed, "Just now, the deity mentioned visitors from outer space. What are they?"

"People like you."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ba Hui's cold, vertical pupils stared intently into Qin Huai's eyes, the pressure emanating from him feeling suffocating like the deep sea.

"To be honest, I don't care about your background. As long as you can complete the task I give you, I can tell you everything I know. Including Di Ting, who has been trying to find Ksitigarbha."

Finally, Ba Hui took the initiative to speak, breaking the increasingly awkward and dead silence.

'He not only knows about visitors from outer space, but also about listening? Doesn't that mean the celestial officials know of the existence of those who travel through Jambudvipa?'

Qin Huai's mind raced, and he continued the conversation, saying, "I wonder what the gods require me to do?"

"Three things: find the [Gu] in the mortal world, kill it, and take back the shattered [Pain]; kill the puppet emperor of the Southern Ming and destroy that broken dragon; as a reward, you can ask me three questions, and I will answer them truthfully and tell you everything you want to know."

Ba Hui held up two fingers and hissed.

"I want to know everything about the Listening."

Qin Huai's eyes flickered, and after much deliberation, he decided to ask the most important question first.

“I am mortal enemies with [Boundless Venerable], and I don’t know much about that extraterrestrial beast. I only know that Di Ting once accidentally broke into the Outer Heaven, looking for [Ksitigarbha] who had perished in the Second War of the Stars, but unfortunately it was in vain. Later, Shura said that it went to Da Shun in the mortal world, and since then, I have never heard any news of it from the suffering of the world.”

Ba Hui pointed to his missing tail and continued, "It's also possible that the pain he suffered went to Gu, which is why I don't know his current condition."

'Ksitigarbha, Dashun, Gu?'

Qin Huai secretly memorized these terms, thought for a moment, and then asked his second question.

"Regarding the Second Battle of Sichen and Ksitigarbha, is there anything you can tell me?"

"What you just saw in your dream was the first War of the Gods. Ksitigarbha was that golden-bodied Bodhisattva, and the nature he possessed was the complete [Eternity]. The second War of the Gods was a great war triggered by the conflict between [Three Yangs] and [Gold Forging]. In the end, [Three Yangs] who possessed [Light], [Ksitigarbha] who possessed [Eternity], and [Netherworld] who possessed [Death] all died under the siege of many great evil spirits of the Gods of Fate. These three natures were also shattered and could never be reunited."

Ba Hui paused, a strange light flashing in its green jade snake eyes: "One last question."

What exactly is the lotus seed in the Hundred Lotus Sect?

Qin Huai suddenly asked.

"The nourishment nurtured by the root of heaven and earth, or rather, a part of the root of heaven and earth, has the miraculous effect of transforming mortals. Even for Si Chen, it is an invaluable treasure."

"I see."

Qin Huai frowned, as if he had realized something.

"Aren't you curious about what kind of 'Gu' I want you to kill?"

Ba Hui looked at Qin Huai, his tone somewhat unfriendly.

"You have already arranged for the first Battle of the Stars to be reenacted for me in my dream. If I still can't guess the identity of [Gu] after all this, then I would be too foolish."

Qin Huai shook his head and continued, "That brown-robed man who stole a portion of [Pain], that must be [Gu], right?"

(End of this chapter)