The Divine Martial Stars

Bai Mochou strolled down the streets of Taibai County in amazement.

She had sensed a very ancient aura. The power of heaven and earth had never been so near at hand. She felt she had traveled to ages ago. That was absolutely abnormal. Bai Mochou darted an irritated look at Li Mu. “What on earth has the jerk done to deserve such a blessed place?”

In truth, Li Mu was a little stunned, too.

About eight months had passed since he left. With the nurture of the Dragon-assembling Pattern, Taibai County, the eye of the geomancy deployment, had gathered a breathtaking amount of Spiritual Qi. Its density had increased exponentially. Surrounded by such rich Spiritual Qi, even the laws of the Way had begun to grow clear. For martial arts practitioners, that was undoubtedly as helpful as fertilizers for crops.

The most obvious sign of those changes was that the plants and animals in Taibai County started to grow at an amazing speed or to mutate due to the excessive inhale of Spiritual Qi.

Li Mu noticed that some ancient trees already blossomed, and dead branches sprouted new buds and looked alive again. As for ordinary fruit trees, the fruits they bore were surprisingly huge and sweet. In the vegetable garden and the crop fields those county folks developed, the output was staggeringly large. One single cucumber was large enough for a family of four to make a hearty meal. The wild birds that should be living in the depths of mountains and scare in the county were flying over the roofs in doves. Pet cats the size of leopards also perched at the doors, their eyes gleaming with intelligence. A flock of sparrows streaked past, glowing red as if they were caped with the sunset glow. In the block a short distance away, several boys at the age of six or seven, grasping wooden spears while riding on the back black piglets as large as ponies, whirled past them like little cavalrymen. Before they could give their comment, they saw a few girls riding roasters the size of ostriches giggled after the boys and ambled down the road like a group of fairy maidens riding phoenix…

“The creatures all got intelligence?”

When Li Mu rigged up the Dragon-assembling Pattern, he never knew it would bring such big changes to Taibai County.

“If this continues, will the county be converted into a fairyland?”

Li Mu had earned himself a high prestige in the county. Wherever he went, the road was jammed by the folks who came out to welcome him. They all offered him a variety of vegetables and fruits they grew in their backyard. Even small children were singing nursery rhymes eulogizing Li Mu, though Li Mu had no idea who taught them those…

Seeing all those fruits and vegetables presented before it, Yuan Hou’s mouth began to water.

“Take them all,” Li Mu said to the ape.

The folks appeared to have no fear of the over-sized golden ape and quickly stuffed the food into Yuan Hou’s arms.

After all, many animals and stocks in the county had grown over-sized due to mutations. It took all sorts of creatures to make a world anyway. Now that they had seen hens the size of ostriches, a 10-feet-high ape was not scary to them at all. Given that the golden ape hoisting a huge cudgel had followed behind the county magistrate with a plainly ingratiating face, it looked rather silly. The folks all wondered if it was a dumb monkey the county magistrate had rescued from a certain circus.

The Huskie habitually stuck out its tongue, looking even more stupid than Yuan Hou. “Woof! I’m getting to like this place!”

It was unnecessary to go into details about the ardent welcome ceremony the county officials and folks held for Li Mu. Anyway, the new arrivals like the Goddess of Martial Arts and Bai Mochou were left open-mouthed.

The Goddess of Martial Arts was reminded of the scene that years ago the pasture herdsmen surrounded the Great Jebe in awe. It was no wonder that the Great Jebe had taken Li Mu as his sworn brother. She reckoned the young man from the Western Qin was charming in an indescribable way. He had a unique bearing that other people in the world, including the Great Jebe, did not have.

Bai Mochou, however, twitched her mouth in contempt and grumbled, “Humph! He is already so good at buying his popularity at such a young age… Well, I’ve seen lots of people like him. He is just gaining his reputation by hoodwinking the public.”

She simply had no good vibe for Li Mu. When she first cast eyes on Li Mu, no, when she first heard about him from Ting’er, she found the man rather repulsive. Since she met him in person, her loathing for him had kept deepening.

“Men are never good. I must keep an eye on Ting’er. She is such a kind and innocent girl. I shall never let her be taken advantage of by a jerk like Li Mu!”

Moreover, there was one more thing that made her very cross— she had recently discovered that the Goddess of Martial Arts from the pasture seemed to be having a crush on Li Mu as well.

“What in the world is she thinking?”

On the first meeting with Guo Qingyan, the Goddess of Martial Arts, Bai Mochou’s eyes were lit up by her beauty.

She was such a heroic, gorgeous goddess, standing out from all the other girls. In particular, her bright and valiant aura was peerless. Even Bai Mochou, who had seen countless breathtaking beauties who were once famous in the vast universe during her long life, was intoxicated by the glory of the pasture woman despite herself. She reckoned the goddess was a nice girl not less amazing than Ting’er. Sometimes she just wished she could become a man and cuddle her in arms.

Bai Mochou also rigorously approved the Goddess of Martial Arts’ icy attitude towards men.

Nevertheless, she could not understand why such a peerless Goddess of Martial Arts just had to have feelings for that bastard called Li Mu.

Whenever she thought of that, she became so vexed that she felt she was about to spill a mouthful of blood.

Yet, she should save her blood-vomiting for what she would see later.

The instant Bai Mochou stepped in the Dao Hut, she saw Xu Wan’er, Lu Shengnan, and a dozen other pretty girls bustled over and gathered around Li Mu. Picking up their passionate and awestruck looks, Bai Mochou felt her heart was about to break. Those girls were obviously beautiful and intelligent. They were rare beauties with their own bearing. Furthermore, each of them carried faint Natural Taoist Sense. Apparently, they all had the exceptional body constitution made for Taoism practice… “Gosh! How come that bastard has so many fabulous girls around him?”

“Li Mu, you bastard! You are definitely a brazen swindler who has hoaxed so many girls into staying with you!”

Bai Mochou believed she could not be mistaken on that.

Afterward, she spotted Zhao Ling, the female pharmacist, too.

“One more gorgeous girl?”

“A female pharmacist?”

“That’s rare. She does have a special aura… Em, she possesses the Natural Taoist Sense as well!”

“What the heck is this? Why do the women here all have the Taoist Sense?”

What made Bai Mochou spat blood again was the female pharmacist’s behavior around Li Mu. Although when she reported the conditions of her patients and the development of the Medical Centers in the county she clearly wanted to maintain her face aloof and distant as though it was just her routine, from the depths of her eyes Bai Mochou could read the joy she felt. It was the joy a girl with the first awakening of love would have when she finally met her lover.

She could tell that Zhao Ling was gingerly concealing her faint blush and expectantly observing if Li Mu’s expression changed when talking to her. She also noticed the girl’s disappointed look when she saw there was no change… With a quick glance, Bai Mochou knew the female pharmacist was screwed, for she was already smitten with Li Mu.

Also, she also noted that given the female pharmacist’s disposition, once she fell in love, she probably would not fall for another man anymore…

“You dog! How many girls have you messed with?”

Bai Mochou began to consider if she should find an opportunity to get rid of the shameless swindler once and for all.

“If I succeed, haha, the crowd of smart and fabulous ladies with the Natural Taoist Sense will be mine, won’t they?”

Bai Mochou’s eyes sparkled with excitement at that thought.

She did not breathe a sigh of relief until she saw the way Liu Zhiyuan hailed Li Mu.

“Thank God! Not every woman here is obsessed with that barefaced jerk!”

“But the jerk’s sister-in-law is certainly a beauty, too! She seems gentle and well-educated, and she has a kind of sophisticated beauty the girls don’t have. If I could take her into my arms… tut-tut… Oh, this is killing me.”

As Bai Mochou’s imagination ran wild, her eyes suddenly glinted with inspiration.

“Hold on. I’m in Shangguan Yuting’s body. The gorgeous lady ought to be a friend of Shangguan Yuting. Now that she is a friend, Shangguan Yuting can totally go over and give her a hug or something. Well, seize the opportunity… hahaha.”

But just as that idea just took shape in her head, Li Mu shouted out a warning from her side.

“Sister-in-law, there is one thing you’ve got to remember. For the time being, an old monster is dwelling in Ting’er’s body. The monster is kind of mad. She can cast evil witchcraft to take up other people’s bodies by force. So, you’d better keep a good distance from her these days… When all the issues in the county government are settled, we’ll set off for the pasture. I will send you and my nephew and niece to reunite with my big brother.”

Liu Zhiyuan immediately cast a sympathetic and concerned look at Shangguan Yuting. Still, she accepted Li Mu’s advice and decided to stay away from Shangguan Yuting for a while.

She was not the only one who did that. Xu Wan’er and the other girls as well as Zhao Ling, the female pharmacist, also backed away subconsciously.

Bai Mochou felt an upsurge of blood in her throat. How she wished she could charge forward and bite Li Mu’s flesh off one chunk after another.

When the day was almost over, Bai Mochou realized that if there was one man in the Dao Hut who she did not detest, that was definitely Qing Feng, the little attendant. That was not because she regarded Qing Feng with special respect but because he was just a little attendant, a kid wet behind the ears, technically not a man yet.

In the next couple of days, Li Mu had been busy dealing with the issues in the county government and renovating the Dragon-assembling Pattern in Taibai Mountain.

That had basically become his routine.

Every time Li Mu’s cultivation improved or he made a breakthrough, the first thing he did was to modify, refine, and perfect several thousand bases the Dragon-assembling Pattern branched out into.

This time, in particular, he had entered the Celestial Being Realm and refined the Heart Qi and mastered the Taoist True Fire of the Southern Fire Emperor. Therefore, he was able to execute the power of the Spiritual Qi and refine it with the True Fire so as to make the foundation of the tactical deployment more stable, the operation smoother, the power more formidable. After that upgrading, the tactic deployment could hardly be cracked even if a Sage came there. In the past, Li Mu might be fearless to battle a Semi-Sage or a Sage-to-be in Taibai Mountain. But by that time, he was already unable to confront a real Sage in that area.

Just as everything in Taibai County was well arranged and Li Mu was packing for the journey to the pasture, a letter from the Guanshan Pasture was presented before Li Mu. And that letter disrupted Li Mu’s entire plan.

It was a bloodstained letter.

The blood belonged to Qiu Yin, the Broadsword Man.

Something terrible had happened to Qiu Yin.