By the shore of the fiery red lake, Zhou Chengru, Cui Chongxuan, and the other three had already spotted Li Qingyue, Qin Ming, and the rest.
In an instant, the atmosphere grew exceedingly tense. The people across from them were on high alert, their eyes fixed on the spotless, graceful, and slender Li Qingyue.
Moreover, their gazes were almost entirely focused on her alone, paying little attention to Qin Ming and the other three gold-armored guards.
Among the core disciples from beyond the mundane world, none knew each other better than themselves. Over the past two years, Li Qingyue had risen with such ferocious momentum that she cast an immense aura of deterrence.
Though she appeared ethereal with skin like ice and bones like jade, once engaged in battle she swept through opposition like dry tinder, crushing many powerful disciples along the way.
Over these two years, she had cemented her unshakable position as a core disciple through real and astonishing battle achievements.
Zhou Chengru wore a grave expression. He had quite a background himself; his master held immense seniority, and his martial uncle—who was also Cui Chonghe's master—was an esteemed senior whose renown shook the night fog world, fearing Li Qingxu's master not in the slightest.
Though Cui Chongxuan was not well-acquainted with Li Qingyue, he had seen her in the past, and backed by the influence of his thousand-year clan, he was well aware of how extraordinary this core disciple was.
"The others can be ignored. In a moment, we will focus our attack on Li Qingyue!" someone beside Zhou Chengru said.
"Li Qingyue's four gold-armored guards are easy to deal with," another chimed in. They all practiced special force arts, which gave them immense confidence.
Another added, "We can't be careless either. We'll pierce straight through those four with thunderous momentum first and send them out quickly."
Without a doubt, they did not take Qin Ming and his companions seriously, treating them merely as an easy side dish.
Li Qingyue stepped forward lithely and said, "Zhou Chengru, since this is a competition between core disciples, why don't just the two of us spar? The victor advances and the defeated is eliminated. Perfectly fair."
By the edge of the crimson lake, Zhou Chengru shook his head. He certainly could not accept. No one wanted to face Li Qingyue in a one-on-one duel, not to mention that the retinue Cui Chonghe had arranged for him was formidable.
How could he possibly handicap himself and pit his own weakness against the enemy's strength? He smiled faintly and replied, "Senior Sister Li, since the elders of the various factions set the rule allowing us to bring four gold-armored guards inside, there is profound purpose behind it. This, too, is part of one's strength."
"Then let's begin!" Li Qingyue did not drag things out. Her silver armor, illuminated by the glowing crimson lake, gleamed even more brilliantly, radiating a valiant and heroic air.
"The three of you just gang up on one person together. Don't worry about the rest," Qin Ming spoke in a low voice to the three gold-armored guards beside him.
Had anyone else dared to speak like that, the three would have felt deeply disrespected. But towards this Tathagata renegade—or rather, successor of the Yuqing force—they were thoroughly convinced. He was simply too ferocious, fully qualified to make such a claim.
Qin Ming called out to the opposing side, "We are all fellow travelers on the Newborn path. Can't we have a friendly exchange here? If that really won't work, we can hold a few serious bouts."
Someone across from them chuckled. Although they were wary of Li Qingyue to the utmost, they had thoroughly studied her followers beforehand and knew they could take them down with ease.
"To tell you the truth, aside from you looking unfamiliar, we know everything about the rest of you. Anyone from our side could step over and punch right through all four of you."
Qin Ming's spirits immediately lifted, and he said, "Fine by me. Why don't we test that? If you can't punch through the four of us, let's sit down and discuss the Dao, without meddling in the core disciples' business."
"What are you dreaming about? Let me send you all home first!" an Outer Sage spoke up, closing the distance in a single stride as if teleporting.
He saw that Li Qingyue and Zhou Chengru were about to clash, so he wanted to deal with her followers quickly.
This Outer Sage was indeed no simple opponent. Circulating his heavenly light force at full power, he produced the roar of a tiger, and behind him, a black tiger coalesced from baleful qi faintly materialized.
"Watch out, that's Black Tiger baleful force!" the female gold-armored guard behind Qin Ming shouted. When heavenly light force coalesced with baleful qi, its might could increase by a massive margin, even doubling.
Evidently, this was no "new Sage"; he had to have stepped into this realm for at least two years before he could fuse earthly baleful qi, fire essence, and the like.
As the woman cried out, the two had already clashed.
Furthermore, Qin Ming did not employ the Overlord Lance, meeting the blow head-on bare-handed.
He did not underestimate his foe. With over a dozen kinds of heavenly light fused into one, his left fist and right palm struck with effortless grace, yet bore the overwhelming force capable of capturing dragons and subduing tigers.
His left fist smashed forward, scattering most of the opponent's Black Tiger baleful force, while his right palm brushed lightly past. As if struck by lightning, the man found his hands drenched in blood; those so-called tiger claws were torn away, every single fingernail ripped off.
Amid crisp cracking sounds, all of the man's fingers snapped. His body shuddered violently under the bombardment of an immense force, and he flew sideways like a scarecrow for more than a dozen meters.
He spewed a mouthful of blood, his face turning deathly pale, and struggled unsteadily to his feet.
"Quite strong!" Qin Ming remarked.
Having struck him with his unified heavenly light force, the fact that this man could still stand proved he was truly extraordinary, already qualifying as an expert.
Yet falling upon the ears of those across from him, those words carried an entirely different flavor. Was this not blatant mockery?
*Crack!*
Bone fractures rang out from the young Outer Sage's arms. Only now had the heavenly light force Qin Ming injected into him finished detonating.
He could no longer lift his arms; the fractures had even spread to his shoulders, leaving fine cracks across his shoulder armor and filling him with horror!
"I can't go on. I cannot fight any longer," he said with an ashen face.
At the same time, Li Qingyue and Zhou Chengru engaged by the lakeshore. A tempest of conscious spiritual light erupted between them, churning the crimson lake into towering waves that hurled fiery red glows high into the sky.
Cui Chongxuan and the other two shot Qin Ming a deep look before rushing together toward Li Qingyue, intending to help Zhou Chengru wound her.
"Didn't we agree that you'd punch right through the four of us? Are you going to reverse it instead? I haven't even stepped into the Outer Sage realm yet—you guys are no good!" Executing the movement technique Skimming Across Grass, his feet barely touching the ground, Qin Ming darted into the battlefield like a wisp of smoke, instantly intercepting one of them.
His right hand shone as he caught the man with adhesive force. Without lingering, he hurled him dozens of meters away, splashing heavily into the fiery red lake and sending up huge sprays of water.
"Senior Brother Zhou, hold on! We'll deal with him first," Cui Chongxuan called out to Zhou Chengru. He saw that Qin Ming was dangerous; if they didn't take him seriously and he launched a sneak attack from behind, things could easily go wrong.
"Who on earth are you?" Cui Chongxuan demanded. He was certain now that this youth had indeed not yet entered the Outer Sage realm; like himself, he was still in the Newborn stage, perhaps at an even lower cultivation level. That made him truly terrifying.
For someone in the Newborn stage to fight an Outer Sage was beyond ordinary capabilities. It required unparalleled natural talent and mastery of a renowned heavenly light force method.
"Look closely. Just who do I resemble?" Qin Ming stood by the lakeside, facing the two men before him alone.
"I don't care who you are!" The expert who had fallen into the lake climbed ashore, his heavenly light surging around him and extending over a foot from his body as he charged back into the fray.
Qin Ming pointed one hand to heaven and the other to earth, glancing in all four directions with a smile on his face. This sight brought the charging youth, who had been barreling forward like a colossal elephant, to a sudden halt.
"The Tathagata renegade?!" he cried out involuntarily, his face changing as the Giant Elephant force around him grew unstable.
According to legend, the Tathagata force suppressed their lineage's force method so thoroughly that they could never lift their heads; even their founding patriarch had once been an outer guardian of that tradition's mountain.
"Seeing me, you still don't withdraw?" Qin Ming said indifferently.
"You're a renegade, not the orthodox line! Why should I withdraw!" The tall youth came to his senses. His Giant Elephant force surged as he cracked the ground beneath his feet, lunging forward.
This time, Qin Ming did not "toss the elephant." Having drawn their attention, he had ample time to calmly slap toward the opponent's Giant Elephant Fist.
Meanwhile, Cui Chongxuan and the other person attacked as well; now was hardly the time for a fair duel.
Qin Ming's heavenly light force erupted across his entire body, cloaking him as though in a sacred suit of armor. With his left hand, he brushed against Cui Chongxuan's dazzling, sun-like fist, while his right hand locked onto the tall youth who wanted to clash head-on with him.
It had to be said that Cui Chongxuan's Six Imperials force put tremendous pressure on Qin Ming. That brilliantly glowing fist smashed against his left hand, sending violent tremors rattling through his entire body.
Though his blood and qi churned, he still withstood it firmly.
Not long ago, he had fused multiple body-protecting arts, such as the Vajra Armor, Golden Light Shroud, and Golden Silkworm Art... even the Extraordinary Art of Blazing Fire had wondrous defensive applications.
His right hand struck repeatedly, causing the tall youth to vomit blood continuously. The youth's Giant Elephant force collapsed, his hands turned into a bloody mess, and all his finger bones shattered.
Most terrifying of all, that inexplicable power traveled along his arms, fracturing his arm bones, then shattering his shoulder blades, before expanding into his chest.
"It really is... the Tathagata force!" The tall youth was filled with horror. His Giant Elephant Fist was utterly useless, inherently suppressed. Intense pain tore through his chest, and worse yet, his internal organs were bleeding.
Blasted backward, he crashed into the fiery red lake.
Clearly, Qin Ming had gotten serious this time. Facing Cui Chongxuan's Six Imperials force, after all, he needed to eliminate interference from the others first.
"Hurry and take him outside to find a healer, or his internal organs will be severely damaged!" Cui Chongxuan shouted.
The youth who practiced the Black Tiger baleful force and whose arms had been broken earlier waded into the lake to fish him out, and the two quickly disappeared.
Cui Chonghe had longed for that legendary object and had enlisted top experts; otherwise, with Qin Ming's terrifying heavenly light force, they would have been blown apart on the spot.
While Qin Ming was clashing with Cui Chongxuan, the other opponent had tried to strike at him. Even when Li Qingyue's three gold-armored guards tried to intercept him, they failed to hold him back, which showed just how powerful he was.
Qin Ming did not dodge. Circulating the mutated Golden Silkworm Art he had fused, he took the palm strike squarely on his back.
"You..." The expert who ambushed him was astounded. He hadn't even budged him! More critically, gold threads interwove across Qin Ming's body, slashing bloody cuts into the attacker's palm.
When his other hand came down, it triggered a counter-surge from the golden threads. Wisps and strands of gold shot out like needles, piercing his palm until it was soaked in blood.
Cui Chongxuan's Six Imperials force had indeed caused Qin Ming considerable trouble; otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen to endure those two palm strikes directly.
Having gravely wounded the expert who wielded the Giant Elephant force, he freed up a hand and shifted his feet at top speed, preparing to finish off the person behind him.
"That is not the Tathagata force!" Cui Chongxuan came from a thousand-year clan with close ties to those beyond the mundane world, so he naturally knew many secrets and had his own judgment.
Qin Ming brushed his left palm across once more, blocking Cui Chongxuan's Six Imperials force. Then, his right fist, white as jade, smashed toward the youth who had struck him twice. "Why don't you try my Yuqing force as well!"
"Ah..."
The youth screamed in agony. The terrifying heavenly light force mangled his hands into bloody flesh, shattering his finger bones into multiple fragments. At the same time, his arm bones and shoulder blades cracked in rapid succession with bursting sounds, followed by a fractured collarbone as blood poured continuously from his neck.
He flew backward more than a dozen meters, all his internal organs injured, mouth full of bloody foam. Struggling to get up, he gasped, "I can't hold on... if I don't find someone to heal me, I'll die!"
Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and fled.
Outside the Luofu Immortal Mountain ruins, the tall youth who wielded the Giant Elephant force was having medicine applied to his wounds. He told the onlookers, "The person I encountered might not be a renegade, but an authentic successor of the Tathagata lineage. He suppressed my Giant Elephant force so completely that I couldn't bring even a shred of its power to bear."
Soon, a dissenter appeared. The youth whom Qin Ming had gravely wounded last stumbled out, gasping, "No, he might be the successor to the Yuqing force."
Everyone learned that the mysterious youth was currently fighting Cui Chongxuan, capable of standing against the legendary Six Imperials force!
The crowd was astonished that such a fierce clash of titans was taking place inside.
Evidently, to stand against the Six Imperials force, one's power also had to be a legendary heavenly light force!
"Everyone, did anyone keep an eye on that youth earlier and bet on his victory across the major bookmakers? This is an unexpected rise and explosion out of nowhere—one could make a fortune!"
Many carrier birds of prey spread their wings, soaring into the night sky to carry the news outward.
Some members of the Cui clan wore dark expressions. The young experts they had invited had been grievously injured in succession by the same person, swiftly knocked out of the fray.
...
By the edge of the fiery red lake, Li Qingyue had wounded Zhou Chengru.
On the other side, Qin Ming clashed with Cui Chongxuan repeatedly, gradually adapting to that terrifyingly formidable Six Imperials force.
"I never imagined that someone also in the Newborn realm could shake my Six Imperials force!" Cui Chongxuan was profoundly shocked. His golden armor clanked loudly. Radiating heroic vigor, he once again channeled the Six Imperials force throughout his entire body.
"'Now, if one mounts the true course of heaven and earth, and harnesses the variations of the six qi to journey through the boundless...' There is a flaw in how you practice it!" Qin Ming said.
Chapter 106