After Li Mu and the others returned to White Emperor City and the news spread, the rest of Mount Shu in the city finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, the situation was still not optimistic.
Because the Dreamy Drug inside Ye Hen had begun to take effect. She was in a trance, and sometimes simply mental. She was extremely unstable for the moment. Li Nianhao, the future leader of Li Shan Sect, treated her at once. He made Ye Hen take medicine to fall in deep sleep so as to reserve her vigor.
Li Mu, on the other hand, busied himself setting up the Soul-summoning Deployment in White Emperor City, ready to try to summon the complete soul of Ouyang Huanyu, though he had been dead for several days.
The good news was that Mount Shu on Bitter Star was extraordinarily well-located. Otherwise, Li Bai, the Great Sword Fairy, would not have established the Mount Shu Sect there. White Emperor City was the utmost-blessed place in Mount Shu. With the convergence of Earthveins, it was a place with natural geomantic omens.
Li Mu spent a good six hours setting up the tactical deployment.
The eye of the deployment was in the Fairy Hall.
The atmosphere was solemn. The power of the Earthveins began to flow, and strange ancient figures started whirling in the void.
Ouyang Yu, the Jade Young Master, and the others were waiting anxiously outside the hall.
The aura coming out from the Fairy Hall was inexplicably mysterious, as if the souls from the netherworld was whispering, or as if an ancient demon was chanting something. The whole thing was full of secrecy and murkiness.
Two full hours later, Li Mu stepped out of the hall.
“Sect Master, how is it?” Ouyang Yu went up to him with a face full of anticipation.
Li Mu nodded and said, “Glad I didn’t fail you. The pieces of the soul of Pavilion Master Ouyang have been gathered, but he still needs to recuperate in the Soul-nourishing Coffin for a few days before recovering his consciousness.” Li Mu took out a coffin-shaped jade piece and handed it to Ouyang Yu, and then taught him some methods of soul-nourishing.
“Thank you, Sect Master.” Ouyang Yu held the small jade coffin and cried with joy.
The disciples of the Sky-overlooking Pavilion all knelt down. They were deeply grateful to Li Mu, the new Sect Master. Ouyang Huanyu had very high prestige in the sect. Now Li Mu had secured him the hope of rebirth, everyone regarded Li Mu as their benefactor.
Li Mu then went to the Moon Dao Sect to visit the unconscious head of the Moon Dao Sect, Ye Hen.
Ye Hen’s injury was caused by taking the Dreamy Drug. It was different from ordinary trauma, or damage to the Cultivation Method or the spiritual force.
Therefore, though Li Mu knew a little about medicine and he had the wood qi of the Five Emperors’ Immortality Scriptures, which was also the power of vitality, he was still helpless in such a situation.
Led by several elders of the Moon Dao Sect and Ye Wuhen’s maid, Qing’er, Li Mu came to a Green Lotus Pool to check Wu Ming’s body, which had been lying at the bottom of the pool.
“Like Mr. Ouyang, his soul is still there, which can be gathered again.”
After observing for a while, Li Mu breathed a sigh of relief.
Since entering the Void-breaking Realm, the life of a martial arts expert had undergone some changes, especially in the aspect of the soul, which had been greatly enhanced. This might have something to do with the Divine Tribulation. Thus, after the expert died, he could still retain his soul for a certain period of time, which Li Mu found worthy of thorough study.
The Soul-summoning Deployment in the Fairy Hall was ready-made.
Li Mu took Wu Ming’s body back to the Fairy Hall. After a round of soul gathering, he also gathered all the pieces of Wu Ming’s soul and sent them to the Soul-nourishing Coffin. Then, he handed the jade piece to Qing’er, the maid, and asked her to take care of it. It would take some days before Wu Ming’s soul could fully be resembled and he could recover some of his old memories and consciousness.
For the people of the Moon Dao Sect, this could not be better.
After comforting the members of the Moon Dao Sect, Li Mu went to Dragon King Ridge to check Dragon the Fifth’s injury.
Li Mu clearly felt how busy he was as the master of a sect. There was no time to take a break at all.
Fortunately, Dragon the Fifth’s injury was caused by the Sword Intent of the Sunset Sword during his battle with Ran Guangyao, the Lord of Sunset City. This kind of injury was not a knotty issue for Li Mu. After some treatment, Dragon the Fifth woke up and was already able to walk around.
The Dragon King Ridge was filled with jubilation.
The young Dragon Head was even more impressed by Li Mu, the new Sect Master.
After learning about what had happened in the past few days when he was in a coma, Dragon the Fifth sighed with emotion.
“Thank god Sect Master had come out of closed-door training in time. Otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable.” Mr. Shuiyue also felt waves of lingering fear. Her daughter had almost died in the ring today.
“Send a message to the whole sect immediately that we now have a new Sect Master. From now on, Duan Shuiliu is the leader of our Mount Shu. According to the old tradition, there should be an inauguration. But given the current situation, we don’t have much time to prepare for it,” Dragon the Fifth said, frowning.
Li Mu said, “As we’re in the face of a strong enemy, all formality should be simplified. So, let’s save those complicated procedures.”
Dragon the Fifth nodded.
Mr. Shuiyue said, “Even so, it should be a grand ceremony. It’s just that tomorrow you’re going to battle…” he said with some worry in his tone, gazing at Li Mu. “Qin Rushuang’s strength has increased considerably. It must be a work of the extraterrestrial cultivators. Now that he’s been killed by our leader, those extraterrestrial cultivators will definitely hatch another conspiracy. I’m afraid that it will be the following three battles will not be easy to get over with. Sect Master, you still need to be careful.”
Dragon the Fifth nodded and chimed in, “Exactly. These cultivators from outer space are the most shameless. When they dealt with the old Sect Master, they also used all kinds of schemes and maneuvers. They named themselves the decent alliance, but in fact, they’re a group of criminals. They’re capable of anything.”
Smiling, Li Mu replied, “It’s fine. No matter what happens, I will deal with it.”
As he had entered the Void-breaking Realm, he was full of confidence now.
However, the great man had taught us that strategically we should look down upon our enemies, whereas, tactically we must not underestimate them.
Therefore, before the battle, Li Mu also needed to do closed-door training to adjust his state.
In particular, Li Mu, who had just entered the Void-breaking Realm, still needed to carefully study the control and applications of his new forces.
“Great, Li Mu, the prey, has finally shown up.”
In the dark hall, the girl in the black gauze was extremely excited.
The reason why she didn’t make a move today was that as an assassin of the Black Killing Tower, without absolute certainty, she wouldn’t make a move rashly. Otherwise, if she couldn’t kill him in one blow, she would fall into a passive situation.
But from the process of Li Mu killing Qin Rushuang and destroying the Western Sea Sword Sect, she at least caught some clues—Li Mu’s strength had become stronger again.
Nonetheless, it was only the Worm Realm.
As a cultivator who had passed through the Life and Death Bridge, the girl in the black gauze was very confident in her ability to deal with a Worm Realm cultivator.
However, Li Mu was, after all, a man who had created a miracle in the Tomb of the God of Sin.
Out of her fear of Li Mu’s incredible combat record in the past, she decided to test him again.
Anyway, Li Mu was in the open while she was in the dark. It wouldn’t hurt to observe more.
The code of assassins told her that the closer she got to success, the more patient and cautious she had to be. Failing short of success for lack of a final effort could never happen to an experienced killer like her.
After thinking for a while, she had a plan in her mind.
Soon, except for Ran Guangyao, who had lost an arm, the other heads of the seven major sects were summoned to the hall by the girl in the black gauze. They began to work on the strategy for the battle that would be on the next day.
First of all, she gave them Red Jade Fate-shifting Pill to help them improve their strength.
But that was not enough.
“Here are some extraterrestrial weapons. At the critical moment, they can help turn defeat into victory.”
The girl in the black gauze then handed them some hidden weapons, such as the “Darkest Thunder”.
“Remember, there is only one Duan Shuiliu in the Devil Cult. You just need to consume his energy and find a chance to severely injure him with the Darkest Thunder. Then, Mount Shu will be finished. You don’t need to fight desperately. If any of you can injure Li Mu, I’ll take him as my disciple and teach him the extraterrestrial Skills and introduce him to the Immortal Clan.”
The girl’s remark sounded highly tempting and encouraging.
The eyes of the seven Sect Masters all lit up.
They saw the hope and opportunity to enter the immortal world.
In a private room.
“My spiritual force seems much stronger than before. Feels like it’s liquefied. It’s completely different from the previous state.”
Li Mu was sitting cross-legged.
He was carefully feeling the change of the power in his body after entering the Void-breaking Realm.
In addition to the increasing number of meridians that had been opened and the primitive natural qi raging in some hidden and unknown meridians, Li Mu gradually discovered that his spiritual force had also undergone a change, which was completely different from before. His spiritual force could be operated more smoothly, and he could control it just with a stir of his mind.
“This is no longer a regular spiritual force. If I’m not mistaken, to put it in the terms of the extraterrestrial practitioners, this is Divine Consciousness.”
Li Mu was enlightened.
He had read cultivation books of various extraterrestrial sects, such as the Heavenly Devil Sect, the Gold Sun Sect, the Wind Sword Party, the Tianyi Palace, etc. In particular, he had some knowledge of the division of realms above the Void-breaking Realm, as well as theories and layout of power above that realm.
The spiritual force was also divided into several levels. Below the Void-breaking Realm, it was called spiritual force. Once one entered the Void-breaking Realm, it would be called Divine Consciousness.
There were some secret methods particularly devised to cultivate Divine Consciousness in the outer-space sects.
The Divine Consciousness was also like the power of natural qi, which was a kind of power of the cultivators. But its effect and power were completely different from the power of natural qi. Most of the weapons refining, elixirs refining, talismans drawing, deployment arranging needed to be supported by mighty Divine Consciousness.
The old faker had also mentioned a word about this in the past.
While feeling the change, Li Mu gradually indulged himself in the magical function of Divine Consciousness.
In the blink of an eye, a whole night had passed.
When the sunlight penetrated the clouds from the east and dyed the entire White Emperor City bright red, Li Mu ended this short closed-door training.
Outside the quiet room.
The experts of Mount Shu, such as Dragon the Fifth, Mr. Shuiyue, the young Dragon Head, Young Master of Guqin and Sword, were waiting quietly.
Now, the entire Mount Shu had pinned all their hopes on today’s Li Mu.
“Let’s go out and fight.”
Li Mu did not say too many words to boost morale. Instead, he stepped straight on the divine flying shuttle.
To revitalize Mount Shu, strength was the most important thing instead of one’s speech skills.
Today was the day he would expunge his shame.
Li Mu would make the whole Bitter Star know that Mount Shu was about to rule over the world again, and the nine sects would be eliminated as the dust of history. What was more, those extraterrestrial cultivators hiding in the dark like ghosts in the underworld would also have a taste of the rage from Earth.
The shuttle broke through the air and arrived in front of the floating fighting ring in an instant.
Li Mu had also once carried stones to build this fighting ring.
Now, he walked out from the protective shield of the divine flying shuttle, marched across the air, and stepped onto that fighting ring himself.
“Duan Shuiliu, Sect Master of Mount Shu, is here. Who volunteers to let him take his life first?”
Li Mu looked at the packed flying ships of the nine factions on the opposite side and slowly made that remark.
His absolute confidence and invincible aura came crashing down on the opposite side.
Just one remark and one look of his made thousands of experts of the nine major sects feel as if a heavy rock was weighing on their hearts, causing them to suffocate.
