Tales Of Herding Gods | Chapter 935 - The Hundred Moves to Kill Mu
"This is the 26th time that Celestial Venerable Hao has killed me."
Qin Mu quietly drank his tea, though it became slightly too plain for him. He put his cup down and said, "You didn't repeat a single divine art in the 26 times that you killed me. Very impressive… I have been very busy since I came to the celestial heavens, I wonder what good teas there are here? Since the celestial heavens is where the powerful and nobility congregate, the tea here should be better than in the lower bound, right?"
An idea formed in his heart. He wanted to buy some tea leaves and take them down to the lower bound, gifting them to his friends.
At this moment, Celestial Venerable Hao killed him again in his illusion.
"It's just, what's the currency in the celestial heavens? I certainly can't buy anything with the great abundance coin of the Eternal Peace."
Qin Mu couldn't help but miss Hu Ling'er and Si Yunxiang. If they were here, he wouldn't have to fret over money.
"After a while, Celestial Empress will be able to establish the Spirit Energy Mutual Shift Bridge and open access between the Primordial Realm and the celestial heavens. By then, I'll be rich."
He closed his eyes to meditate. 'I have died 51 times at the hands of Celestial Venerable Hao, who used 51 different divine arts to kill me. How impressive. I didn't think that my divine arts and techniques contained so many flaws.'
His admiration for him grew naturally.
As the saying goes—the onlooker sees clear. One could hardly see their own weaknesses and flaws clearly.
For people as proud as Qin Mu, their techniques and divine arts were perfect in their eyes and contained no flaws. However, for the onlooker, many flaws usually still existed.
Celestial Venerable Hao was a Celestial Venerable after all. He was the second person to open a divine treasure, with the first being Celestial Venerable Yu.
After all these years of research, he created the Hundred Moves to Kill Mu, which proved Qin Mu's techniques and divine arts contained at least 100 flaws. Having someone like him to help perfect one's techniques and divine arts was surely fortunate!
In Celestial Venerable Hao's world, Qin Mu died again and again. Strangely, after he killed Qin Mu, he would return to the beginning, every time.
The beginning was him standing at the pavilion, facing the sea as Qin Mu walked towards him and stood beside him.
Every time, his first sentence was the same.
"Celestial Venerable Mu doesn't seem surprised at all."
Yet, as Celestial Venerable Hao grew more and more shocked, he also grew to be more and more confused. This scene gave him a surprisingly familiar feeling, which only grew. It was as if he had experienced it before, more than once!
Ever since obtaining the Grand Primordium Origin Stone, Qin Mu's consciousness grew stronger and stronger.
Before he arrived at the celestial heavens, his consciousness was already strong, as seen by how he was able to find the flaw in Left Assistant Minister Yan Shaoqing's consciousness technique. This caused Yan Shaoqing, the number one consciousness practitioner, to be stuck in a cycle of illusion, unable to differentiate reality from illusion.
Now, his consciousness was several times stronger. With the master of creation's Supreme Palace Enclosure Higher Knowledge, the Grand Primordium Origin Stone, and the Three Primordial Spirit Undying God Consciousness, his improvement was immense.
This time, not only did he use a consciousness divine art, but he also used an immature unchanging divine art that turned the small pavilion into an unchanging space!
Celestial Venerable Hao went through the cycle again and again in this unchanging space!
On top of the unchanging space, Qin Mu also used Brahma Buddha's Boundless Calamity Sutra. Instead of using it to put himself in a dream to shape a dream world, he used it to put Celestial Venerable Hao's Qin Mu clone in a dream world, unable to escape.
This dream would repeat again and again in the unchanging space as it washed away his memory and put him back at the beginning.
'It's the 81st time already.'
Qin Mu removed the tea and washed the tea set beside the Jade Sea under the pavilion. He leisurely thought, 'I have already died at Celestial Venerable Hao's hands 81 times! Each time, it was a perfect kill, and each time, my death was a unique one! He definitely figured out my Raising Calamity Sword, Opening Calamity Sword, and other divine arts. This fellow is too powerful. Now there are only 19 ways left to die…'
Suddenly, he frowned.
There was a wave that went through the space in the pavilion. Celestial Venerable Hao had discovered that something was wrong!
'The unchanging divine art that I comprehended from the peachwood hairpin and the ghost ship is still too shallow. It's easy to trap him, but my divine art still isn't as perfect as Celestial Venerable Ling's.'
Qin Mu realized something. 'The flaw got bigger and bigger with each round, and after the 81st round, the shred of consciousness that Celestial Venerable Hao hid within the clone saw the flaw!'
In the unchanging space, Celestial Venerable Hao killed Qin Mu, and Qin Mu laid on the ground with all of his bones shattered as he took in his last breath.
Celestial Venerable Hao stared at this body as the doubts that colored his eyes grew thicker and thicker.
At that moment, everything returned to its original state. The memory in the clone of Qin Mu was also washed away as everything returned to the beginning.
He stood beside the pavilion, looking at the Jade Sea, and on it, Qin Mu walked towards him.
The doubt coloring Celestial Venerable Hao's face became even thicker as he looked back at the pavilion. Within it, a pair of bloody detached feet remained.
He turned around to look at the Qin Mu approaching from the sea. The approaching Qin Mu lacked feet, yet he was perfectly stable when walking!
His face revealed his confusion, and as his confusion receded, his third eye grew clearer and clearer.
"How daring of you to play such a trick in front of me!"
An unbelievably strong consciousness bombarded the unchanging space of the pavilion from outside!
At that moment, the world surrounding Celestial Venerable Hao's clone of Qin Mu fell apart, and the real Jade Pool appeared in front of him!
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead as he sensed that something was wrong. Thus, he unleashed another wave of consciousness to dismantle Qin Mu's spell and prevent himself from being stuck in this cycle!
However, a bombardment by his real consciousness would alert the other strong practitioners of the celestial heavens who would come to investigate. This would deprive him of the chance to kill Qin Mu silently and replace him!
The plan of creating a new Celestial Venerable Mu to replace Qin Mu collapsed. His opponents in the celestial heavens wouldn't give him a second chance!
Celestial Venerable Hao was furious as the Qin Mu at the pavilion suddenly turned around. Seeing Qin Mu standing outside the pavilion, he looked at himself with a vague smile.
Celestial Venerable Hao's frame of mind recovered quickly as he smiled and complimented, "Great trick, Celestial Venerable Mu, foolish me is impressed."
"Well said, well said."
Qin Mu asked, concerned, "Celestial Venerable Hao isn't shocked, are you? You only displayed 82 moves out of the Hundred Moves to Kill Mu and are left with 18 ways undisplayed. Shall we restart and try again?"
Celestial Venerable Hao's heart turned cold as he replied, "I think not."
"You should."
From Qin Mu's third eye, a sword pellet slowly flew out, changing its shape midair to form a treasure sword. Qin Mu smiled and said, "Since you can't leave and are destined to die here, why not display the other 18 divine arts used to kill me? This time, I won't use my consciousness divine art to give you a chance."
In the sky above the Jade Sea, terrifying waves of consciousness arrived. It was impeccably dense and disrupted the meteorological phenomenon, causing booming thunder to fill the skies.
Many of the strong practitioners in the celestial heavens were alerted and sent their consciousnesses to scout the Jade Pool without going themselves.
Qin Mu laughed. "Maybe you can use your remaining 18 divine arts to kill me, or maybe you will die in my hands."
Celestial Venerable Hao's Qin Mu narrowed his eyes in a fashion very similar to Qin Mu.
Qin Mu frowned as, even now, he was still imitating him.
"What if, instead of using the remaining 18 divine arts, I use the 82 divine arts that I've already used?" Celestial Venerable Hao joked with him.
Qin Mu smiled. "You can try."
Celestial Venerable Hao's Qin Mu clone suddenly moved as the power contained in the first strike of the Hundred Moves to Kill Mu was unleashed. His finger approached Qin Mu. This strike was aimed at the flaws in Qin Mu's technique. Although there were thousands of variations to Qin Mu's sword moves, there would always be a flaw when he used this technique, which he would be able to flit through instantly, like passing through a crack!
His finger skill was aimed at Qin Mu's flaw, which allowed him to kill Qin Mu with one finger in the illusion!
Now, the scene from the illusion replayed itself. Qin Mu raised his Raising Calamity Sword to defend himself with the same unimaginable changes.
Yet, in the next moment, a beam of light from the sword flashed through, and the finger of his Qin Mu clone was chopped off. It fell into the Jade Sea harmlessly.
Celestial Venerable Hao changed his divine art, and he used the eighth move out of his Hundred Moves to Kill Mu. Beams of light burst forth from his three eyes, and they collided, reflected, and formed a thousand nets.
In the illusion, he used this move to break Qin Mu's technique and cut him into countless pieces.
Yet, as three sword lights flashed, the three eyes of his clone of Qin Mu were stabbed blind!
A loud roar came from Celestial Venerable Hao as his muscles bulged to unleash his big fist skill, which carried enough strength to pluck out mountains. In the illusion, he used this divine art to beat Qin Mu into a living pulp!
Suddenly, his wrists hurt as both of his arms had their wrists cut off.
"This is the way to break the second move of your Hundred Moves to Kill Mu!"
Qin Mu's sword followed him as sword light surrounded and flew around Celestial Venerable Hao, who was rooted to the ground. The beam of sword light rang out, and the sword went into his body in the next moment before emerging from his back, like light and electricity.
"This is the way to break the third move!"
"The fourth move!"
"The fifth move!"
"The sixth move!"
…
In the small pavilion, countless sword lights flew in all directions, and in a split second, Celestial Venerable Hao's Qin Mu clone was covered in blood and injuries. Qin Mu had avoided his vital organs time and time again in order not to kill him immediately!
Those sword lights stabbed not just the clone of Qin Mu but also the heart of Celestial Venerable Hao, figuratively. It used the bloody truth to show him how useless the effort and hard work he put in over the past million years was!
The Hundred Moves to Kill Mu that he worked so hard to create was broken by Qin Mu after just one use!
Not only did he break it, but he also used the flaws it pointed out to modify his own Overlord Body Three Elixir Technique and cultivate his sword moves, making his techniques and divine arts more perfect!
On top of that, Qin Mu also abandoned the sword pellet and executed punches, kicks, and divine arts. The flaws in his battle techniques and divine art decreased!
Soon, the eighty-two moves in the Hundred Moves to Kill Mu were broken, one after another. Qin Mu's clothes fluttered as the sword pellet flew back into the heart of his brows.
In the pavilion, Celestial Venerable Hao's clone of Qin Mu was completely covered in blood.
"What's the 83rd move?" Qin Mu inquired.
The bloody clone of Celestial Venerable Hao smiled peculiarly. "You will know them eventually, Celestial Venerable Mu. I will impart the remaining 18 ways to my disciples, and they will kill you."
His consciousness rapidly dissipated, only leaving behind laughter and a proclamation, saying, "You still have 18 flaws, and they will kill you 18 times!"
"How stubborn!"
Qin Mu gave a cold humph as he raised his finger. The brain of the Qin Mu clone exploded as his body wavered and fell into the Jade Sea.
The other surging consciousnesses in the sky couldn't help but feel dumbstruck when they saw the scene.
"As soon as we arrived, we saw Celestial Venerable Mu killing Celestial Venerable Mu…" a voice silently said.