870 Recovering the Galaxy Outside the Osmanthus Palace (1/2)
Seeing her smile, Qin Mu felt like his heart had melted.
It had melted in those days under the radiant sunlight, by the reed marshes along the river, where the snow-white reed catkins fluttered and the cowherd sat on his cow as the cow walked slowly by the riverside.
That day, there was a strange melody that echoed in his head. He wanted to hum it, to sing it out, yet he was not able to.
He had felt that the tune was so familiar, so dear, yet he couldn't seem to recall it.
At this moment, he remembered that nursery rhyme.
When he was swaddled in the basket, he had heard the nursery rhyme, he had heard this voice.
He walked to the side of the girl who was humming the nursery rhyme that was familiar to him yet one that he couldn't recall, and he sat down with a smile. ”It's been a long time since we last met. Do you still remember that baby called Qin Fengqing in the basket? I am him.”
Bai Qu'er looked at him, an expression of astonishment slowly appearing on her face, though it soon became a smile. ”Do you still remember that girl who sat atop the chest?”
”I remember.”
Qin Mu felt a burning sensation in his chest, but he couldn't tell if it was because his injuries weren't healed yet or if there were some weird emotions acting up within him.
Bai Qu'er hugged her knees with both hands, her body sitting upright as she looked down at the sight below with a dazed expression. ”Eternal Peace is really beautiful.”
Qin Mu looked downwards and saw tens of thousands of lit up homes. On the vast land, amongst the mountains and rivers, there were tiny specks of lights around the city. Where there were lights, there were people.
Even as Eternal Peace was undergoing dramatic change, these tenacious people were still trying their best to survive.
There was a different sort of beauty felt as he sat within the moon palace to look out at the mortal world.
The high and mighty celestial heavens which had eternal day would never be able to enjoy the beauty of the shadows, and they wouldn't be able to see the hope within the hearts of the people who lit up lanterns in the dark.
The moonlight shone brightly, and the moon formation in the sky map had opened up again and was soon to become a full moon. Qin Mu felt that he must have slept for at least five or six days.
”What brings you here?” he looked sideways at the face of the girl beside him and asked.
”Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor bumped into me, and we discussed swords for a few days. Then I heard that a girl named Si Yunxiang had sent out people to look around for the four great heavenly teachers and four great heavenly kings of Founding Emperor, saying that Son of Qin was in trouble and thus wanted them to go to the northern heavens to help.”
Bai Qu'er continued, ”Therefore, I hurried over here first, intending to enter the palace of Mahakala through the sky map. I had just cleaned out the gods from the extraterritorial celestial heavens in the sky map when Fatty Dragon brought you over.”
Qin Mu came to a sudden realization and laughed. ”Sneaking into the palace of Mahakala from the sky map, and even attacking Mahakala from his blindside, truly brilliant ideas. It would be able to avoid his senses.”
Bai Qu'er smiled. ”Yes, indeed. When you were unconscious, Wen Tiange, Han Tang, Yan Yunxi, and the others all came searching. They also entered through the sky map. Three of the four great heavenly teachers of Founding Emperor also came by. Han Tang wanted to tear open a hole in the sky map and send a fishing line into the palace of Mahakala to fish you out.”
Han Tang was the name of Heavenly Teacher Fisherman, while Yan Yunxi was Heavenly Teacher Zi Xi's name, though Yan Yunxi was the name she only used when she was dressed as a female.
Heavenly Teacher Fisherman claimed that his hooks never went out for naught, so he may really have been able to fish Qin Mu up.
”Yan Yunxi intended to set up a formation to attack Mahakala from his blindside, but Wen Tiange said that Eternal Peace and Mahakala didn't have any grudges between them and that there was a possibility for a neutral relationship.”
Bai Qu'er smiled. ”They all care about you a lot and only left when they saw that you were out of danger. How are your injuries?”
Qin Mu felt a warmth in his heart. ”Speaking of which, it's strange. When I woke up, all my injuries were healed. I had damaged my origin and initially expected that I would need to recuperate for a few years before I could cultivate to my peak. What spirit medicine did you feed me?”
He was very puzzled, as damaging his origin meant that his injuries were extremely serious. Even if he was a grandmaster in the art of healing, he would have to search for rare spirit medicine and slowly nurse his body into recovery.
Even so, he would require at least a few years to replenish the deficiency in his body.
Bai Qu'er had fed him medicine and used the dragon bead to condition his primordial spirit, which led him to assume that it was the effect of her spirit medicine.
”The spirit medicines that I gave you weren't anything special, they just helped to keep you alive and weren't able to treat the root of your injuries. However, I realized that while you were asleep, your wounds slowly healed by themselves. I'm very puzzled as well.”
Bai Qu'er pondered over it. ”While you were unconscious, Wen Tiange and the others came and sensed that you were performing self-recovery. Wen Tiange mentioned that a Dharma was working in strange ways within your body, and it was as though it had made you relive your life. But where this Dharma came from, he wasn't too sure. I wasn't able to detect its origins either.”
Qin Mu felt a slight jolt in his heart. It was like he had relived his life, and then all his injuries had healed. Even his origin had returned to its peak condition. This technique seemed to be related to Brahma Buddha's way of entering the path through dreams.
Could it be that he had cultivated Brahma Buddha's Emperor's Throne's true scriptures in his sleep?
But he had never learned this technique before!
Back then, Brahma Buddha had told him that there was a Buddha within his Qin word land that contained his Emperor's Throne true scriptures, but that it would require Qin Mu's own comprehension to be able to learn it.
However, the Qin word land had always been dominated by his brother Qin Fengqing, so the time he had spent in there wasn't long. Thus, he didn't have the opportunity to comprehend it.
So when exactly did he learn it?
Without learning it or comprehending it, he had obtained this Emperor's Throne technique. It was all too strange.
Suddenly, Bai Qu'er stood up and stretched her hand towards him with a beautiful smile. ”Do you want to see the real galaxy?”
Qin Mu stared at her blankly before reaching his hand out, holding her hand.
Bai Qu'er held onto his hand and flew about the sky map, flying away from the moon. She smiled and said, ”The astronomical phenomena within the sky map are fake, they are all formations. However, behind the sky map lies the real galaxy. I know of a hole in the sky map, if you go out from there, then you will be able to see the true galaxy.”
Qin Mu couldn't help but follow her. Turning his head around to look, he saw that within the moonlight in front of the moon palace, the dragon qilin who had dozed off by a pillar had also now stood up to look towards them, seemingly wanting to run over to see the real galaxy as well.
Qin Mu gave him a fierce look, and the dragon qilin quickly stopped in his tracks, lying back down and continuing his nap.
Qin Mu revealed a smile as the girl held on to his hand as they roamed the sky map together.
They flew by the galaxy of the sky map. The stars were formed by various complicated formations, and their structure was extremely complex. The gods who were here were already eradicated by Bai Qu'er, and there was no one guarding the formations now.
Although the galaxy was fake, flying through it as the brilliant starlight spilled all around them was still very romantic.
”Wen Tiange said that he was going to ask Emperor Yanfeng to send some scholars who were skilled in algebra to come and maintain the workings of the sky map.”
Bai Qu'er brought him through the galaxy. ”Over there is the sun within the sky map. Within the sky map, during the day, the stars will dull, and there will be no light in the galaxy. Only the sun will radiate light. However, when night comes, the sun will extinguish.”