Chapter 8

"Grandma once said that if you get lost in the Great Ruins and can't return to the village before dark, don't panic."

Qin Mu steadied himself and thought, "There are many ruins in the Great Ruins. These ruins often have mysterious and supernatural qualities. Hiding in a ruin might even save your life. Whether a ruin can save you depends on two points: one, whether there are stone statues similar to those in the village, and two, whether there are many strange beasts in the ruins. These beasts are intelligent and know where to hide from the darkness..."

There were many ruins in the Great Ruins. During his flight, Qin Mu had seen some city and village ruins, with broken walls and ancient structures, but he had no time to stop and check for stone statues.

The sun was already halfway down the mountain when suddenly, the world became eerily silent, a silence that drove one to madness.

Then, a rustling sound came, and Qin Mu looked up to see large birds soaring through the sky, blocking out the light. The ground shook, and trees fell as strange beasts emerged from nowhere, running wildly.

Qin Mu even saw a lake where the water rippled, and several red fish, several yards long, leaped out of the water, using their fins as legs to run on the ground!

Qin Mu was somewhat bewildered. Fish running on the ground, were they still fish?

"These strange beasts are all running in the same direction; there must be a place to hide from the darkness!"

His spirits lifted, and he rushed forward with the beasts.

The sky grew increasingly dark, and the darkness approached like a flood, engulfing the mountains, valleys, and wilderness, submerging everything. Even though Qin Mu had seen the darkness before, he was still deeply moved.

The darkness came fiercely, and the beasts continued to run towards it. Qin Mu hesitated for a moment. The direction the beasts were running was the direction the darkness was coming from. Was there really a safe place ahead to hide from the darkness?

If not, wouldn't he die without a trace?

"Never mind, the darkness is coming too fast. Even if I turn back, I won't be able to outrun it. Now I can only run with the beasts!"

He gritted his teeth and charged forward.

About ten miles downstream from the village of the Elderly, the battle between Grandma Si and the five elders of Li River reached its climax. Initially, only four of the Li River elders were attacking Grandma Si, but as the attack failed, the leader of the five elders, Qi Yanbing, who was watching from the cliff, immediately joined the battle, forming a Five Elements Demon Subduing Array.

Unexpectedly, while Grandma Si was barely holding her ground against the four elders, her strength surged when Qi Yanbing joined. The Five Elements Demon Subduing Array of the five elders could not even contain her.

The five elders were both shocked and angry, realizing that the old woman had deliberately shown weakness to lure Qi Yanbing into the battle to prevent him from escaping.

Grandma Si, with her small feet, moved like a ghost, and the silver needles and threads in her basket seemed to come alive, instantly wounding the five elders all over. The threads pierced through the five elders, immobilizing their souls and bodies, making them unable to move.

The old woman smiled, holding a pair of scissors, "I haven't practiced skinning for a long time. I wonder if my skills have rusted..."

She approached Qi Yanbing, and suddenly, Qi Yanbing opened his mouth, and a silver pill flew out, heading straight for Grandma Si.

The silver pill grew in the wind, and a thousand sword auras burst out, expanding outward, instantly forming a sphere of pure sword light about a hundred feet in diameter!

Grandma Si, caught off guard, quickly retreated, her body becoming soft like a worm, moving up and down in the air to dodge the sword auras. At the same time, the scissors in her hand flew out, like two silver dragons, cutting through the sword auras.

Despite her quick reaction, she was still hit by a sword aura, which came from behind her. She was hunched, and her back was a blind spot, so the sword aura pierced her hump.

The sword auras disappeared, and broken swords fell from the sky, covering the ground for several acres.

The silver pill also fell to the ground, motionless.

Grandma Si landed, reached behind her, and pulled out the sword, frowning slightly.

"You still managed to dodge it..."

The leader of the five elders, Qi Yanbing, looked at her with despair, his voice hoarse, "I used the sword pill to ambush you at such close range, and it contained 6,842 swords, yet you still managed to dodge it. You must not be an ordinary figure in the demon world! There is no old woman like you in the demon world. Who are you?"

He suddenly noticed the wound on Grandma Si's back. The hump had been pierced, but no blood flowed out; instead, light entered, indicating that it was hollow.

Qi Yanbing was horrified, "This is not your true form. You are wearing someone else's skin..."

"You have injured my skin."

Grandma Si frowned, but her voice was not the usual old woman's voice; it was pleasant, and anyone who heard it would think she was a beautiful and vibrant woman, not an old woman on the verge of death.

Grandma Si pressed her throat, sighed, and muttered, "It's leaking..."

She took out a thread from her basket and sewed up the wound on her back, tried her voice, and it returned to normal.

Suddenly, Qi Yanbing's face changed as if he had seen a ghost, and he exclaimed, "I have heard your voice before. I know who you are! The leader of the Heavenly Demon Sect, Fu..."

Grandma Si's face changed slightly, and she placed her finger on the thread that pierced through the five elders. The five elders were instantly cut to pieces, their blood and flesh scattered on the ground!

Strangely, the thread did not get any blood on it and instead wrapped itself up, returning to the basket.

Grandma Si snorted and giggled, "Old cripple, how long have you been here?"

Not far behind her, the cripple, leaning on a cane, limped over, smiling, "Just arrived, just arrived. Sister, I didn't see anything, and I didn't hear anything."

Grandma Si glanced at him and smiled, "It doesn't matter if you saw it, as long as you didn't hear it. Let's go back to the village."

The cripple hesitated and said, "The leader of the Heavenly Demon Sect, Li Tianxing, was wise and brave all his life, but he did one foolish thing. In his later years, he fell in love with the most beautiful demoness at the time, so he deposed the original leader's wife and wanted to marry her as the new leader's wife. The demon world was in an uproar. On the night of their wedding, the new leader's wife secretly harmed Li Tianxing, ruining his centuries of cultivation and stealing the sect's sacred book. The elders and ancestors of the demon sect emerged from seclusion to hunt her down, but she managed to escape and has been missing ever since..."

"Is that so?"

Grandma Si chuckled, "I heard long ago that there was a person who had refined his legs to the level of a deity. His legs were called divine legs. He was the fastest in the world, but he didn't use his skills for good; he became a thief, and he loved to steal things, so he was called the greatest divine thief in the world. Although he hadn't become a deity, his name already included the word 'divine,' which made the gods jealous. When he went to Yan Kang to steal the imperial disc, the greatest divine thief in the world, who had never failed, was discovered by the national master and had one of his divine legs cut off. However, he managed to escape and disappeared with the imperial disc. The national master of Yan Kang, known as the first person below the gods, failed to capture the divine thief and should still be keeping the divine leg, waiting for it to be returned?"

The cripple's smile grew wider, and he said, "Grandma, we are all cripples in the same village. We once said that we each have our own secrets and don't ask about each other's past. From now on, I will be a mute and a deaf man, keeping my mouth shut."

Grandma Si snorted, picked up her basket, and walked towards the village, saying, "Was it Mu'er who told you to come and help me?"

The cripple shook his head, "The sound of your battle with those five old men was too loud, and the vibrations were too strong. We could feel it in the village, so the village chief sent me to see if you needed help."

Grandma Si's face changed, and she hurriedly asked, "Has Mu'er returned to the village?"

"I didn't see him when I came."

"Trouble!"

The two quickly returned to the village of the Elderly. Before they reached the village, they saw the sun set, and darkness rose from the horizon, spreading like a flood, rising higher and higher, swallowing everything in its path, and rushing towards them!

Grandma Si returned to the village and quickly searched, her face pale, "Mu'er hasn't returned?"

The darkness completely engulfed the village of the Elderly.

"Grandma, don't worry."

The village chief, carried by the cripple and the pharmacist, stopped Grandma Si, who was about to carry the stone statue to search for Qin Mu, and said, "We have taught him what we could. If he has learned it, he should be able to survive in the Great Ruins. Going out now won't help; it's already dark."

Grandma Si was dejected, knowing the village chief was right. If the darkness had engulfed the Great Ruins, and Qin Mu was still alive, he could survive the night without her help. If he was already dead, carrying the stone statue to find him would be futile.

"He still has the jade pendant to protect him..."

Although she thought this, Grandma Si knew that the jade pendant on Qin Mu's chest was only meant to protect infants and had a limited protective range. Qin Mu had grown up, and the light from the jade could only protect his chest.

"Mu'er, you must be smart..." Grandma Si whispered.