Chapter 463: Fallen Sin Maitreya

Silence!

Deathly silence!

A living Saint Grade powerhouse—their captain, no less—had died so effortlessly right before their eyes. Every member of Dawn's Blade fell dead silent, trembling in terror.

They had even lost the courage to flee.

The image of Zhou Qiong attempting to run, only to be teleported right back by distorted space, remained fresh in their minds. Any smart person knew that fleeing now was suicide.

Their only chance of survival was to beg for forgiveness.

Not a single God Hunter active year-round in the Divine Ruins was a fool. They yielded to their fear with practiced speed.

By the time Su Mu turned around, the group had already dropped to their knees, pressing their heads hard against the dirt. Their trembling breaths sucked dust from the ground into their lungs, yet not a single one dared to move.

Chu Ying, still standing, looked somewhat lost. She stared blankly at her kneeling teammates for a moment, and then—thump!

Perhaps feeling that standing made her stick out too much, she dropped to her knees as well.

She knew she hadn't targeted Su Mu, but remembering how she had called him foolish earlier made her instinctively terrified. She feared he might start killing on a whim and slaughter her while he was at it.

"My lord! Have mercy!"

"It was all Captain Zhou... Zhou Qiong's idea! It has nothing to do with us! If you spare us, we are willing to serve you like beasts of burden!"

Chu Ying raised her small hands above her head, offering up an archaic Bronze Incense Burner. Trembling, she said, "Lord... Lord Su, this is the divine taboo object left behind by the Carrion Buddha you just killed. I picked it up for you! Please don't kill me!"

Su Mu smiled faintly and reached out to help her up. "Why would I kill you? After all, you're my... savior."

Hearing the word 'savior,' Chu Ying shuddered. "I wouldn't dare claim that! Even without me, that Silent Spirit couldn't have hurt you, Lord Su. Rather than saying I saved you, it's more accurate to say I was the Silent Spirit's savior."

Su Mu took the Bronze Incense Burner from her hands and examined it closely. Countless complex, obscure patterns were carved into the ancient burner, and it was filled with a good amount of pale gray ash.

The burner was clearly the sort commonly used for burning incense in temples. It emitted a faint sandalwood scent, but the aroma was impure, laced with a nauseating stench of rot.

"What is a divine taboo object?"

"My lord! I know!" a man kneeling on the ground hastily answered, his tone ingratiating. "A divine taboo object is—"

"Did I tell you to speak?" Su Mu shot him a flat look.

The man's face instantly went deathly pale. "My lord, I... I didn't mean to, I..."

"You're still talking?"

Boom!

A terrifying black baleful aura erupted behind Su Mu, shaping itself into a massive, pitch-black python that opened its blood-red maw and lunged at the man.

The man didn't even have time to scream. His entire upper body was swallowed by the python. Flesh and blood flew from the severed stump as organs spilled across the ground.

Having done this, Su Mu slowly turned back and smiled gently at Chu Ying. "Continue."

Gulp.

Chu Ying swallowed hard, carefully weighing her words. "A divine taboo object is—"

"Ah! Ahhh!" Another kneeling man had his courage utterly broken. He suddenly scrambled up from the ground and bolted, his fear completely overriding his reason.

Boom!

The baleful python roared past, and the headless corpse instantly crumpled to the dirt.

Chu Ying shuddered violently. Looking at the man standing before her with that gentle smile, sheer terror bred wildly in her heart.

Su Mu signaled for her to continue with a glance.

Terrified, Chu Ying spoke at breakneck speed. "A divine taboo object is an item tainted by the dead qi of a god! They possess all kinds of miraculous abilities, but they also carry severe side effects. If someone without enough strength uses one for too long, they'll suffer a backlash and eventually mutate into a divine abomination!"

Su Mu nodded. "So the Carrion Buddha was the person who previously held this divine taboo object?"

"It wasn't human. I'm guessing this is the incense burner's ability—it can conjure the Carrion Buddha."

It could conjure a Carrion Buddha with Saint Grade power? That certainly lived up to the name of a divine taboo object.

With a thought, Su Mu poured his boundless psychic energy into the Bronze Incense Burner. The next moment, he felt a terrifying suction force surge from within the vessel, as if it were trying to consume his flesh and blood.

Hum!

The Divinity of the Six Gods hummed within his body, and the terrifying suction was instantly suppressed.

"It absorbs flesh and blood?"

He lifted the Bronze Incense Burner, aiming it at the corpses of Zhou Qiong and the others.

The terrifying suction surged out once again. Severed limbs, mangled remains, and pools of blood defied gravity, floating up to form a torrent of gore that poured directly into the Bronze Incense Burner.

Immediately after, an ethereal stick of sandalwood incense slowly materialized in the burner.

Looking at the now-solid stick of incense, realization dawned on Su Mu. As long as he lit this sandalwood, he could summon the Carrion Buddha to fight for him.

The Carrion Buddha's duration was tied directly to this incense; once the incense burned out, the Buddha would vanish.

As long as there was incense left, he could summon the Carrion Buddha repeatedly. However, if the Carrion Buddha was completely destroyed in battle, the entire stick of incense would dissipate and need to be condensed anew.

"Underwhelming."

That was Su Mu's assessment. This divine taboo object wasn't of much help to him. He didn't need the Carrion Buddha to deal with enemies he could handle himself, and the Carrion Buddha wouldn't be of any use against enemies he couldn't.

Still, it wasn't completely worthless. Relying on the Bronze Incense Burner in everyday fights could at least hide his true strength.

As for the backlash of the divine taboo object, Su Mu paid it no mind. This level of backlash couldn't even breach the Divinity of the Six Gods, let alone the power of the nightmare he possessed.

"Lord... Lord Su, could you spare me? I have my uses! I can be your mount! My spatial abilities can take you anywhere you want to go!" Chu Ying pleaded, desperately trying to prove her worth.

Su Mu smiled warmly. "Relax, I don't plan on killing you."

Chu Ying immediately breathed a sigh of relief. She believed that a powerhouse like Su Mu wouldn't stoop to lying to a mere Gold Transcendent.

However, Su Mu's next words made her want to break down and cry.

"However, I do need a mode of transportation."

Although Twisted Divinity allowed him to teleport, using it would make people mistake him for an Evil God Cultist, so he needed to use it as sparingly as possible.

Chu Ying was speechless.

"By the way, do you know how to leave the Divine Ruins?" Su Mu asked.

Chu Ying nodded vigorously. "I know, I know! Inside the Divine Ruins, the power of the gods isn't distributed evenly. As long as you find a weak point, you can shatter the space of the Divine Ruins and leave.

"Earlier, Captain Zhou... Zhou Qiong sensed a weak point in the Divine Ruins, which is why we were heading in this direction. But then we ran into the Carrion Buddha, so we couldn't make it out in time."

"Oh?" Su Mu's eyes flickered. "Has Dawn's Blade already completed its mission?"

"Mhm, it's done. We explored the core region of the Divine Ruins earlier. Although we didn't dare enter, we searched for clues on the outskirts. We discovered that the core of this particular Divine Ruins is constructed from the corpse of a demigod known as the Fallen Sin Maitreya.

"It isn't the Merciful Holy Mother of Myriad Blossoms that the Lord of Dawn wants, so we can return and report back."

Fallen Sin Maitreya?

Su Mu pondered for a moment, ultimately abandoning the idea of heading to the core of the Divine Ruins to claim a piece of the Fallen Sin Maitreya's Divine Corpse. Having just arrived, there was no need to waste time on a demigod's corpse for now.

He was confident in his invincibility within the Saint Grade, but facing a demigod's Divine Corpse was still an unknown. Furthermore, the path he walked was the path of the nightmare. Even if he obtained the Fallen Sin Maitreya, it would be useless to him.

What he needed to do was gather the fragments of the God of Nightmares and assemble them completely. Inserting other puzzle pieces along the way would only lead him further astray.