Chapter 844 - 832: Omen

"What am I supposed to do with you lot?"

On the wooden corridor, Chen Mu sat in the bamboo chair beneath the window, looking at the Divine Soldier Fragments orbiting around the White Bird Divine Soldier.

Distribute them to my generals and create Commander-type Great Divine Power Users?

Chen Mu shook his head.

He had no plans to wage war and expand White Bird City, so he wasn't in a rush to strengthen his subordinates.

Refine them into the White Bird Divine Soldier?

That could work.

Chen Mu cast Qi Forbidden Hundred Miles and tried pushing the dozen-odd fragments closer to the White Bird Divine Soldier.

But the nearer they got, the stronger the fragments resisted. Like two magnets with the same pole repelling each other, there was no way to merge them into one.

"Looks like I'll need some special secret technique to pull it off." Chen Mu shook his head.

"Or… just swallow them directly?"

Chen Mu spread open his right hand, the nine orifices of his Heavenly Demon Body humming as a clump of black smoke rose in his palm.

Yama's Feast!

He'd relied on this Divine Skills before to devour the Exquisite Jade Plate, gaining the Linglong Celestial Secret Spell and Linglong Jade Disc Refining Skill.

If he directly swallowed the Divine Soldier Fragments…

After hesitating for a long time, Chen Mu finally shook his head and gave up.

"Inside the White Bird Divine Soldier lies not only the mysteries of the Rootless Scripture, but also other Heavenly Demon Secret Teachings. The Three Paths City Divine Soldier Fragments are probably the same."

"If I simply swallow the fragments, I'll get something out of it, sure, but I'll also discard most of the secret teachings inside."

"Better to slowly dig them out with the Life and Death Seal. A slow, steady flow actually yields more secret technique experience."

With a thought, Chen Mu drew a portion of the Life and Death Seal out from the White Bird Divine Soldier and sent it probing into one of the Three Paths Divine Soldier Fragments.

At once, the Three Celebrations Scripture, which he'd already cultivated to its limit, gained a bit more content.

Chen Mu wasn't surprised; the Rootless Scripture had been the same back then.

What was circulating outside was only one portion—another part was hidden inside the Divine Soldier, and only the wielder of the Divine Soldier could fully grasp it.

Now that he had the Three Paths City Divine Soldier Fragments, the Three Celebrations Scripture began to fill in as well.

It was a full Hour before the Three Celebrations Scripture stopped changing.

Chen Mu pulled the Life and Death Seal back and prepared to probe the other fragments.

But as he withdrew the Life and Death Seal, the fragment seemed to cling to it, dragged along toward the White Bird Divine Soldier.

Then with a crisp snap, it fused into the whole, as if it had always been part of the same body.

"That easy?"

"Just use the Life and Death Seal like a rope, grab both ends, and bump them together in the middle?"

Chen Mu's face was full of disbelief.

"This is probably related to the way I wield the Divine Soldier."

"The Life and Death Seal, huh…"

Chen Mu understood.

He used the Life and Death Seal for Manipulation of the Divine Soldier, fundamentally different from the traditional City Lords of Mist Ridge.

Traditional City Lords fused their own Spiritual Deity into the Divine Soldier, enduring its pressure and burning their origin; most of them died young.

"I not only avoid that damage, I can even use it to help smelt Divine Soldier Fragments."

"The Life and Death Seal really earned its keep this time."

...

The fusion of the Three Paths City Divine Soldier Fragments went very smoothly, taking just over a day in total.

The White Bird Divine Soldier grew a little larger. Its appearance was still that shabby grey stone, but inside it had changed quite a bit.

The experience it provided to the Seven Emotions Curse each day clearly increased by several tens. The Three Celebrations Scripture was thus fully completed.

And because the One Heart Scripture was also progressing well, the Seven Emotions Curse upgraded earlier than he'd expected.

A few days later.

In front of the thatched hut, a half-transparent grey Stone Gate appeared before Chen Mu's eyes.

Seven Emotions Curse: 3/10000/Sixth Rank;

"As long as I keep its effect, the Sixth Rank Seven Emotions Curse still can't cover the whole city—at most half."

"But that's already plenty."

The most bustling area of White Bird City lay within the central thirty li.

Besides the people living there, residents from the outskirts would also come in to have fun.

Covering this area was the same as covering nearly sixty percent of White Bird City's population.

As for the remaining forty percent…

...

"Organize a city-wide competition?"

Xu Gui looked utterly baffled.

Why on earth did they suddenly need competitions?

And compete in what?

"Anything's fine, even a contest in doing the splits." Chen Mu didn't really care.

"I just want to gather as many residents as possible, let them have fun, really enjoy themselves."

Lately the Black Wind Demon had shown up so often that everyone had more or less stopped fearing it.

Even after this period of desensitization, the result probably wasn't great.

But organizing all sorts of competitive matches was different—especially intense confrontational ones. They'd make everyone's blood boil, stir up all kinds of surging emotions.

Then add in the influence of the Seven Emotions Curse… heh heh!

"So it's just playing around? Then you've definitely found the right guy." Xu Gui finally understood Chen Mu's intent, and his face lit up with confidence.

What he was best at was eating, drinking, whoring—no, no, having fun!

...

Xu Gui truly knew how to have fun.

Chen Mu only gave a rough description of several ball sports from his previous life, and Xu Gui was already imitating them in pretty good form.

To get things going quickly, he directly dragged the soldiers of the City Defense Camp over to form the first batch of teams; after a few days of brief training, they started competing.

He even deliberately found a few people who could use Illusion Mirage-type Divine Skills, deploying real-time projections at the entrances of each Market District street. As soon as the games started, huge crowds of White Bird City citizens gathered to watch.

Chen Mu hadn't even used the Seven Emotions Curse to stir them up yet and was already gaining far more emotional desires than before.

Perhaps spurred on by the ball sports competitions, all sorts of preexisting entertainment in White Bird City were also arranged by Xu Gui into various tournaments.

In just half a month, Xu Gui had practically mobilized the entire White Bird City.

The Divine Power Chen Mu harvested rose to a new level every single day.

"What a talent."

By White Bird Lake.

Using Truth Listening Divine Power, Chen Mu observed the changes across the city and couldn't help but sigh.

"That fat Xu Gui really is a natural when it comes to having fun."

"I really did pick the right guy this time."

But as he watched all these activities that were similar-yet-different from those of his past life, Chen Mu suddenly felt a little dazed.

Without realizing it, he'd already been in this world for nearly thirty years.

The somewhat blurred memories of his previous life resurfaced once more.

"As if it were another lifetime? Heh, this time it really is another lifetime." Chen Mu shook his head, sighed once, and then… turned and threw himself into cultivation.

After so many years here, he'd been changed by this world; cultivation seemed to have become life itself.

Sometimes it was indeed dull, but at other times, it was endlessly fun.

...

Half a year flashed by in a rush.

That night, deep into the late hours.

On White Bird Lake, one hundred and eight Exquisite Jade Plates traced out subtle trajectories as they slowly rotated.

They were like stars scattered across the sky, shedding a faint glow, the lake surface rippling with shimmering light.

In front of the thatched hut, Chen Mu lay in his rocking chair cultivating as usual.

The Five Ghosts Paper Dolls sprawled all over his body in random directions, occasionally twitching their hands and feet like sleeping kittens.

At a certain moment.

Chen Mu opened his eyes, and a clump of black cloud rose behind him.

Above the black cloud, a lustrous round bead ascended, like a bright moon.

An invisible ripple spread outward from Chen Mu as the center.

At this moment, White Bird City was ablaze with lights, hosting a special match of cuju.

All the participants took to the air. Those who couldn't use Yin Wind Escape couldn't even join.

Compared to soccer in his previous life, this was harder, more intense, and drew even more spectators.

There were tens of thousands at the scene itself, and in front of the illusion screens at each Market District street entrance, even more people gathered to watch.

Whether players or spectators, no one realized that an invisible ripple was sweeping through.

Then, with no warning at all, the players flying and weaving across the sky started dropping like dumplings.

The spectators, still thrilled by the game, toppled like wheat blown over by the wind, eyes rolling back in unison.

The ripple kept spreading; anyone it brushed past went down, eyes turned white.

In just a few breaths, the invisible ripple swept across thirty li.

Aside from a few generals and commanders with powerful Divine Skills, nearly everyone in White Bird City lost consciousness.

The whole White Bird City fell silent in an instant.

At the center stands of the arena, Former General Cheng Hu felt the invisible pressure all around him, then looked at Xu Gui, whose mouth was crooked and eyes skewed as he lay paralyzed under the table. His face changed dramatically.