The Black Peng looked as though cast from black gold. Perched atop a great mountain, it looked down upon the plains beneath the night, radiating astounding waves of energy as it nursed its wounds.
"Third Brother, you're truly ruthless, inviting outside demons straight into our territory?!" the Black Peng grumbled. Fortunately, it had healed quickly enough to defend itself; otherwise, formidable outsiders might well have challenged it.
The Old Donkey hurried to explain, "Eldest Brother, I panicked! He's refining Fourth Brother's silver blood, so he's bound to take another step forward."
More imposing than an elephant, the Fire Qilin Lion glowed across its scarlet scales. It too was nursing its wounds, cloaked from head to toe in firelight as low growls rumbled from its throat from time to time.
Any other Outer Sage would have died instantly from having their forehead pierced through. Though it was in agony and had briefly gone mad, its condition was steadily improving, and the bloody hole in its frontal bone was slowly mending.
A trace of wondrous true blood glowed faintly within its body, its bloodline traced back to a supreme species dwelling in the deepest reaches of the night-mist world—the Fire Qilin.
The Black Peng spoke, "Since you've already summoned the demons, issue a kill order in my name. Invite more fellow cultivators to surround and eliminate him. Under no circumstances must he leave the Plain of Divine Demise!"
"Understood!" The Old Donkey nodded at once.
Beneath the night sky across the Plain of Divine Demise, beast roars echoed one after another. Flocks of raptors spread their wings, cleaving through the dense night mist to circle above the thick forests.
Once the kill order went out, a wild frenzy of demons danced across the domain ruled by the four old monsters. Powerful anomalies appeared everywhere, joined by a small scattering of humans.
The silver haze wreathing Qin Ming was completely absorbed, and the rich medicinal fragrance sank into his body. His seventh renewal had begun!
The sensation was unmistakable: blood scabs formed over his wounds, broken bones knit together, and his whole body burned hot as his flesh and blood were purified. Auspicious haze swirled around him, and his spirit and vitality grew increasingly exuberant.
Between his internal organs, clouds gathered and mist drifted like immortal vapors. A vigorous, burgeoning vitality emerged, as if early spring had arrived and all living things were bursting into life.
His broken bones aligned and grew at top speed. At this rate, they would be fully mended even before his renewal finished.
Without the scent released by the silver heart, Qin Ming's predicament was much better than before. Circulating Harmonize with Light and Dust, he merged into the nocturnal forest, where he had already stood silently for a quarter of an hour.
Yet the tranquility was broken after all. Too many demons and monsters roamed this region, and a creature soon spotted him.
It was a goat, pitch-black as ink and fully ten meters tall. Its build was even sturdier than that of the Fire Qilin Lion. Its two horns looked coarse and unsharpened.
Even so, Qin Ming sensed danger at once.
Sure enough, this black goat was extraordinary. It released no demonic aura, relying solely on pure physical power to smash through everything in its path, snapping all manner of massive trees as it charged.
Qin Ming suspected the black goat had practiced the Iron Shirt. Cloaked in a layer of black light, it was invulnerable and excessively ferocious.
Being in the midst of his renewal with his bones newly rejoined, he had no wish to clash with any powerful creature and risk knocking them out of alignment. He spun around and fled.
Rumble!
A boulder obstructing the plain was shattered by a single kick of the black goat's hoof. Wherever its rough horns swept, towering ancient trees disintegrated in swaths, as though it were tearing through the very sky.
"This old man is Yang Dingtian," it spoke. "Hearing that you possess a silver heart, I have come specifically to claim it. Hand it over, and I shall spare you."
"I ate it!" Qin Ming retorted.
Yang Dingtian gave chase, saying, "Refining you will amount to the same thing. In the short term, its medicinal potency remains."
With a splash, Qin Ming leaped into a broad river. Yet after swimming only a few li, he was forced back ashore by a giant fish more than ten meters long in the water.
Before long, a mountain ape appeared—another colossus, fully fifteen meters tall. Setting aside its heavenly light force, its innate physical might alone was not something an ordinary Outer Sage could withstand.
Qin Ming firmly committed this mountain ape to memory!
As the ape pursued him, its giant foot stomped down repeatedly, grazing past Qin Ming's body several times.
The earth cracked and trees splintered. Wielding a bone blade carved from a giant beast's rib, the ape swung down with strikes that truly shook the earth and mountains.
Unwilling to fight back so his bones could heal properly, Qin Ming eventually leaped into a great lake.
Soon, grimacing in pain, he scrambled to the opposite shore. The lake teemed with electric eels; fortunately, their cultivation was not particularly deep. Qin Ming spent the entire day on the run.
In the deep night, he finally settled down. Enduring the stench, he hid inside the mouth of a giant crocodile. Never had he imagined that to survive, he would be reduced to such a pathetic state.
After fleeing giant beasts all day, he had ducked into a swamp and smeared mud over himself to conceal his presence, only to encounter an Outer Sage-grade crocodile.
Driven past his limit, he had charged straight into the giant crocodile's maw, detonating his heavenly light force from within to extinguish its life force while leaving its exterior untouched.
Lying inside the crocodile's mouth, Qin Ming finally relaxed completely.
"The Six Imperials ancestral court's core disciple assessment..." he murmured softly.
This time, the elder had assigned testing grounds according to their strength.
While only in the Newborn realm, he had ended up pitted against terrifying, ancient monsters like the Black Peng, the Fire Qilin Lion, and Yang Dingtian—beings far stronger than ordinary Outer Sages.
If he stepped into the Outer Sage domain, would his next assessment be set in an area overseen by spirit-field-grade entities, pitting him against creatures of the third major realm?
That night, Qin Ming slept deeply as wondrous changes took place within his body.
Across his skin, golden needles drew thread to stitch and mend him, while silver paste spread over him like a potent medicine.
Every injured part of Qin Ming—including his broken bones—emitted faint rustling sounds. Stitched together and nourished by the medicine, they healed with remarkable speed.
The next morning, he awoke bursting with vigor, in unprecedentedly fine form!
Aside from the wretched environment of a crocodile's mouth, he had nothing to complain about. All his injuries were healed, his strength had risen, his five senses were razor-sharp, his heavenly light force was abundant, and his reserves of conscious spiritual light and divine wisdom had deepened.
"At this rate, my seventh renewal will finish in barely more than half a day!" Qin Ming felt immensely confident now that his broken bones were healed and would no longer hinder his movements.
Stepping out of the giant crocodile's jaws, he washed repeatedly in a pool of clear water. In truth, shielded by his heavenly light, he had not caught any of the foul stench.
Qin Ming roasted an electric eel and ate some wild fruit, his eyes flashing like cold lightning. He was already plotting his revenge; yesterday had been far too miserable.
Thinking back to those old monsters, he suspected the Fire Qilin Lion carried unique wondrous blood that might further deepen his foundation.
With the night behind them, the monsters' eagerness to hunt him had waned, as they assumed he had already absorbed all the medicinal potency of the silver blood, rendering him worthless.
At noon, when the night was at its shallowest and a thick fog blanketed the Plain of Divine Demise, Qin Ming was in high spirits. His seventh renewal was fully complete.
By pure instinct, he realized that his foundation had once again slightly broken through its upper limit!
Yet even after acquiring two types of wondrous blood to enrich his reserves, the growth was not as exaggerated as he had imagined; it was merely a slight breakthrough beyond the ceiling.
"It seems a foundation of fifteen hundred jin of strength in both arms during the initial renewal is extraordinarily difficult to surpass." After all, even patriarch-level figures of past generations seemed never to have achieved it.
After his seventh renewal, Qin Ming's physical strength had exceeded the ten thousand five hundred jin threshold, though it fell just short of eleven thousand jin. Naturally, this was only an intuitive, rough estimate.
"To break past the upper limit and deepen my foundation further, I need to hunt down more wondrous blood!"
Qin Ming noticed that the Plain of Divine Demise seemed unusual; creatures endowed with special bloodlines were not exceedingly rare here. At the very least, he had already found three!
Beyond the dramatic leap in his physical constitution and combat strength, the wondrous light in his flesh and blood had grown denser, and beside it appeared a cluster of golden haze, like a shattered sun mingled with glowing mist.
This was an ability gained from his seventh renewal!
Taking a deep breath to steady his mind, Qin Ming knew his strength had not finished climbing. To be precise, the true qualitative transformation was only just beginning!
Glancing across the forested plain, he said, "What a fine place. Perfect for practicing the Yimu Scripture!"
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he circulated the art. A crisp, invigorating aura instantly drifted through the area. Grass and trees rustled as faint wisps of greenery flowed toward his body.
Qin Ming had long since developed Yimu force; now, he began consuming the fallen fruit to advance it.
The rich, otherworldly heavenly light within the fallen fruit was nearly liquefied. Pouring into his mouth with dazzling brilliance, it surged violently inside him; an ordinary person would never have endured it and would have been cooked through from within.
Yet Qin Ming could bear it. As he swallowed one fallen fruit after another, his Yimu force surged higher and higher until green light enveloped his entire body.
More importantly, the forest resonated with him, feeding him life force. This truly was a marvelous art, capable of extending lifespan and elevating the essence of life!
Green haze swirled amid misty vapor as potent vitality gathered toward Qin Ming. The entire forest rustled softly, as if conversing and communing with him.
In the end, Qin Ming's skin was as fair as jade, while his hair turned emerald green, each strand crystalline, making him resemble a spirit of the mountains. Aided by the fallen fruit and his resonance with the forest, he had cultivated the Yimu Art to an advanced level, reaching the current limit of his body.
"The Yimu Scripture not only nourishes life, but packs immense power!" Green light flared from Qin Ming's palm. With a gentle slap against the ground, the earth caved in with a boom, the force penetrating deep beneath the surface.
With a light flick of his hand, a stream of green heavenly light force brushed past a nearby boulder, instantly grinding it into fine powder. Once he ceased circulating the Yimu Scripture, his hair returned to its glossy black color.
Next, he began practicing the wind-thunder force. This was the technique recorded in the Wind-Thunder Saber manual he had obtained from the weasel. He valued it immensely, having always wished to grasp the power of lightning.
Though not pure thunder and accompanied by wind, Qin Ming was already well satisfied.
The Wind-Thunder Saber was suspected to be an ultimate technique of a major sect, and its force was equally astonishing. Arcs of lightning wrapped around Qin Ming, accompanied by wind force. With a casual punch, a rolling clap of wind and thunder boomed out!
Most importantly, it carried immense power!
Afterward, he integrated lightning force from the Five Elements Palace. Though not an advanced lightning art, it was still remarkable.
From there, Qin Ming advanced his heavenly light forces one by one: Shaoyang Force, Wind-Fire Force, Gold-Severing Force, Dragon Claw Force, Bright Light Force, and Jade Splendor Force.
Governing them through the silk book method, he fused them all into one!
Yesterday, he had faced mortal peril, hunted down by monsters and demons as if cast into an abyss. Now, through his seventh renewal and the fusion of varied forces, he had returned once more to the clouds.
Qin Ming had integrated nine kinds of force all at once—an unprecedented feat!
Most had been acquired on Luofu Immortal Mountain when helping Li Qingyue retrieve the near-immortal item.
In truth, three kinds of heavenly light force remained unadvanced and unfused, mainly because his fallen fruit was completely exhausted.
Even the many pouches Meng Xinghai had prepared had been depleted, largely because the techniques were formidable and devoured massive amounts of energy.
Furthermore, Qin Ming genuinely could not stomach any more fallen fruit. For the first time, he felt he had a limit and was temporarily "stuffed"; had he eaten any more, he felt he would explode on the spot.
By now, he had fused four wondrous arts and twenty-seven types of heavenly light force in total!
When Qin Ming rose, the unified heavenly light force poured from his body, clearly undergoing a qualitative leap and growing far stronger than before!
So dazzling was this heavenly light force that he seemed bathed in otherworldly radiance, clad in sacred armor like a youthful deity stepping out from a radiant sun. Every gesture carried an air of transcendence, accompanied by an overwhelming aura.
"Time to set out!" Qin Ming departed, traveling alone across the Plain of Divine Demise with the mutton-fat jade iron saber in hand.
Chapter 145