Heavy night mist lingered, and the rain continued to pour. The towering mountain was strewn with debris: four-colored plumage, scarlet scales, broken silver quills... all stained with blood.
Had any outsider arrived, they would have been shocked to their core: the mountaintop was littered with aged monsters covered in cuts and bruises.
Qin Ming stood as though immersed in a golden blazing sun. Despite the torrential downpour cascading around him, not a single drop touched his body. Gazing upon his spoils, he felt thoroughly satisfied.
"Bring the wondrous medicine here."
At the command, Old Donkey shuddered violently. Trembling, it scrambled to its feet, ignoring the murderous glare of the Black Peng. Cradling the flawless crystal in both hooves, it walked forward with a look of awe and reverence.
Qin Ming smiled as he took it. Within the head-sized crystal, dark light blazed intensely; the black liquid possessed potent medicinal properties, appearing exceedingly extraordinary.
The Black Peng couldn't stomach it. Its bare, plucked body shook with rage, and it gritted its beak so hard it nearly snapped. That was a great medicine it had secured at immense cost from a luminary of its own clan—only to end up nourishing its enemy!
It opened its beak to spit a beam of dark light, but Qin Ming sent it flying with a kick, cracking its beak.
"Stop!"
"King!"
This was the Black Peng's domain, and some of its subordinates were fiercely loyal. Mostly bird demons, they spread their wings and swooped in, desperate to rescue it.
Qin Ming raised the jade iron blade in his hand. First, he slashed several birds of prey to pieces, and then he directly channeled lightning from above. In an instant, silver serpents danced wildly across the summit, arcs of lightning intertwining.
Amid the deafening glare of lightning, the flock of raptors was pierced through and crashed to the ground, every single one dead.
Though Qin Ming looked clear, handsome, and otherworldly, in the eyes of the surviving aged demons, he was undeniably like a youthful fiend god.
Lifting his blade, he summoned lightning from the night sky and struck down an entire flock of bird demons, casting an immense sense of dread that made many of the monsters shudder uncontrollably.
"Move those sworn brothers of yours into that tall building," Qin Ming instructed Old Donkey.
"Old Third, you spineless cur!" the Fire Qilin Lion snarled in fury.
Old Donkey hung its head, not daring to look at it. Channeling heavenly light force through its front hooves, it dragged its sworn Second Brother toward the colossal palace.
"Donkey Three, do you think he'll spare you just for this?" the giant silver hedgehog wheezed, grimacing in agony. Its quills had all been shot away, and blood oozed from every inch of its body.
Qin Ming walked over and picked up its silver bow engraved with cloud patterns. He praised, "A fine bow. To think its draw weight can be adjusted as needed. This means I won't have to replace my ranged weapon for a long time."
The giant silver hedgehog's eyes spat fury, but it was already a helpless prisoner; harsh words were utterly pointless.
Ignoring it, Qin Ming kicked off the mask of the heavily injured human male, revealing the face of a middle-aged man in his thirties.
"Speak. Where are you from, and why are you targeting me?"
To his surprise, the man proved remarkably cooperative:
"I come from the Godkin Society on the Plain of Divine Demise. I answered the Black Peng's invitation to aid it in battle."
Soon, Qin Ming learned that the supreme leader of this organization might be connected to godkin creatures!
The Godkin Society on the Plain of Divine Demise was merely a small branch node of the organization, modest in scale, and the masked man was its second-in-command.
Inside the tall building constructed of black gold stone, Qin Ming summoned Old Donkey and asked, "Last time when I went to the Wolf Palace, how did you find out in advance that I was coming?"
"Information sent by the Godkin Society," Old Donkey replied.
"Is that true?" he asked the man lying on the ground.
"We do indeed trade in intelligence, but I'm not familiar with that particular deal. Our chief handled it personally."
Qin Ming engaged in spiritual resonance and found that neither Old Donkey nor the man was lying.
Back then, the Godkin Society had sent a bird demon to deliver the message, for which the Black Peng paid a hefty fee.
A chilly look appeared on Qin Ming's face. The node chief of the Godkin Society was also human, yet he had actually sold information about his own kin to alien beasts.
He pressed for the organization's location and more detailed information.
Afterward, he smiled and said, "I'm quite interested in your sword art. Let's exchange insights."
The man remained expressionless. The youth clearly wanted to seize his sword manual!
He knew for certain he wouldn't survive, so why should he hand it over? He had already accumulated a measure of heavenly light, preparing to end his own life to spare himself suffering.
However, Qin Ming was currently engaged in spiritual resonance with him. He instantly dispersed the man's heavenly light, preventing his suicide.
"Speak quickly. Recite the full sword art, and I'll grant you a swift death," Qin Ming said.
The man remained stubborn, churning with dark emotional turmoil. In the end, he recited a sword technique riddled with traps, titled the Blazing Sun Sword Classic.
The manual was exceptionally profound, having once produced grandmaster-level sword cultivators!
Through spiritual resonance, Qin Ming sifted the wheat from the chaff. Witnessing clear scenes unfold in the man's mind, he obtained the authentic, complete scripture.
Finally, holding his mutton-fat jade iron saber, he executed the sword classic right there. Before long, wisps of fire flared across the snow-white blade.
"Impossible!" The man was stunned. The scripture he recited was riddled with errors and deadly traps; practicing it as spoken would undoubtedly lead to disaster.
Moreover, even if he had handed over the genuine scripture, how could this youth grasp it in such a brief time? Even the founding masters of various sects at this age would have found it immensely difficult to comprehend immediately!
"Not bad. A profound sword classic, truly worthy of being called an absolute art," Qin Ming evaluated earnestly, expressing genuine admiration as he sheathed his blade.
The man felt as if his mind were unraveling. The other party had truly mastered his ancestral sword classic. He couldn't accept it. What kind of monstrous aptitude was this? To master it even from a corrupted text!
Qin Ming caught a newly mutated sparrow to test the medicine.
When he opened the pure crystal, a dense, alluring fragrance drifted out immediately, drawing the gaze of the aged demons.
The Black Peng shuddered violently, its eyes bulging with rage. Had it known this would happen, it would have rather dumped the wondrous blood out. Watching its rival prepare to refine it shattered its composure completely.
Qin Ming first tempered a glowing drop of the black liquid with heavenly light, injected the medicinal efficacy into the sparrow's body, and observed its condition.
The medicinal effect was immediate. The sparrow's eyes grew far clearer, its spirituality noticeably amplified, and its foundation had evidently been enhanced.
Qin Ming waited a long time without seeing any adverse reaction. In fact, its condition grew better and better, as if it had unlocked "divine wisdom," becoming far sharper than its previously dull, clumsy state.
Reassured, he began refining the wondrous blood in the crystal.
Dark light coiled around him, and misty vapors surged. Dense medicinal aroma submerged Qin Ming as he extracted the purest essence of the medicinal properties using the method from the Destiny-Altering Scripture.
"Ahhh..." The Black Peng's heart ached so much it couldn't breathe. Screaming in anguish, it slammed its head against the ground in an attempt to end its life. Old Donkey rushed forward to stop it, instantly scattering the heavenly light it had gathered.
This was the task Qin Ming had assigned it: do not let any of the aged demons die.
"Old Third, Lu Chongxiao, curse your ancestors! You've completely stopped acting like one of us!" The Black Peng was beside itself with rage.
While refining the black wondrous blood in the crystal, Qin Ming walked over, taking advantage of its wild emotional turbulence to probe for valuable knowledge.
"As one of the Peng clan, don't you have some trump-card techniques tucked away? Why do I feel you're rather weak?"
The Black Peng glared at the crystal in his hand. It was already teetering on madness, and now, provoked by his words, its eyes turned bloodshot. Propping up its charred, blackened-red body that had been struck by lightning, it lunged to fight him to the death.
Soon, Qin Ming discovered that it possessed an incomplete copy of the Black Peng Scripture.
Resonating with the mind of a lunatic was exceedingly difficult. Only after much effort did Qin Ming finally obtain this remnant scripture. Within it, the Black Peng Steps and Peng Claw Technique were quite formidable, both driven by Black Peng force.
The scripture explained how to cultivate once transformed into human form, so the latter portions designed for post-transformation were equally applicable to humans.
"You're a good bird, truly generous with your contributions."
Having gained much, Qin Ming had no desire to humiliate it further. He struck its head with a palm, killing it instantly.
Meanwhile, he tempered the purest essence of the black wondrous blood from the crystal and absorbed it all into his body. Instantly, the vitality of his flesh and blood surged as if he were about to ascend in broad daylight, his body enshrouded in luminous mist.
He stood quietly for a long time, silently sensing the changes within himself. His foundation had indeed risen!
"At this stage, every step forward is immensely difficult. Breaking through my current ceiling is anything but easy, yet I saw hope—and I succeeded."
Qin Ming turned his gaze upon the brocade sparrow. To avoid alarming the other aged demons, he carried it to a side hall. First, he initiated spiritual resonance, only to find that all the arts it possessed were avian methods entirely unsuited for humans.
In the end, he extracted its wondrous blood directly and refined it right there. Enveloped in multicolored mist and waves of delicate fragrance, this great medicine was exceptionally precious.
Once he thoroughly absorbed the medicinal essence, his joints popped and cracked. The Golden Thread Jade Clothes surfaced automatically before fading away once more. His latent reserves seemed to have crossed a whole new threshold.
Qin Ming sensed that his original foundation now exceeded sixteen hundred jin of raw physical strength.
He sighed softly. It was indeed arduous: from Huang Yuan to the Silver Wolf King, then to the Black Peng clan's wondrous medicine, and now to the brocade sparrow's wondrous blood—four sources in total had only raised his original foundation to just over sixteen hundred jin.
In truth, by this point, raw physical strength offered diminishing returns in battle, as his future progress would rely primarily on qualitative transformations in his heavenly light force. Nevertheless, the original foundation heralded a certain potential. The figure of sixteen hundred represented not merely jin of physical force, but the height and depth of his future cultivation!
None of the founding masters across the various sects throughout history had ever reached the fifteen-hundred mark, which spoke volumes.
"Climbing even higher will be truly difficult," Qin Ming mused.
Fortunately, another portion of wondrous blood remained outside for the taking.
Qin Ming returned to the great palace and looked at the Fire Qilin Lion. He didn't act immediately; having absorbed two wondrous medicines in rapid succession, he needed a brief respite.
"I haven't undergone an eighth Newborn transformation. Is it because these two types of wondrous blood, like Huang Yuan's, only enhance reserves without triggering rebirth? Or is it because I only recently completed my seventh Newborn transformation, making another impossible in the short term?" Qin Ming pondered, though he didn't dwell on it.
"Brother Hedgehog, didn't you mention you wanted me to scrub your back and wash your quills?" Qin Ming approached, holding his mutton-fat jade iron saber.
Hearing this, the giant silver hedgehog bristled with humiliation and indignation. Circumstances were stronger than pride; it had spoken too rashly before, and now it was mocked into speechless shame.
"I observed that your archery is extraordinary, bordering on the master level. Let us compare and discuss our arts," Qin Ming said with a smile.
"Keep dreaming! I'll never teach you my archery!" The giant hedgehog saw through his intentions.
Qin Ming wasn't angry. Right in front of it, he recited the archery techniques he had mastered, truly engaging it in discussion. He asked, "How does it compare to your archery?"
Though the giant hedgehog had lost all its quills and was dripping with blood, an arrogant expression still crossed its face: "Your archery manual is mediocre at best. What I possess is an extraordinary Archery Classic transcending the mundane!"
"Then recite an excerpt. Let me see where its brilliance lies!" Qin Ming bantered with it.
"Then listen closely and broaden your horizons!" The giant hedgehog was stingy, reciting only a brief passage.
"Quite mediocre. I don't find it any more profound than my own archery."
Qin Ming engaged in a relentless psychological tug-of-war, constantly stoking its emotional turbulence. Even he felt mentally exhausted before he finally obtained the complete Archery Classic!
This manual was truly extraordinary; even in major sects, it would be considered a secret heritage art. In comparison, the archery technique Qin Ming had acquired from the Wu family on Black-White Mountain paled considerably.
When the giant hedgehog saw Qin Ming holding the great bow and practicing archery in the rain, it felt as though it had seen a ghost!
Having studied the Archery Classic for many years, it naturally understood the subtleties. With a single glance, it saw that he had already grasped the core secrets—insights never casually passed down.
"Th-This is impossible... How could you have learned it?" It was utterly flabbergasted. Even if it had handed over the complete classic, how could the other party master it instantly?
Confident in his own talent, Qin Ming merely offered a faint smile and did not reply.
"Are you human, a ghost, or a god?!" the giant hedgehog cried out in a daze.
Founding-master-level aptitude was no exaggeration. Qin Ming already possessed superb archery, and now his practice reached the realm of divine mastery!
"You're a good hedgehog, truly generous with your contributions. I'll grant you a swift death."
Qin Ming shattered its head with a palm strike, sending it on its way cleanly.
"I'd rather end my own life than dance to your tune!" the Fire Qilin Lion roared.
Qin Ming didn't care and made no move to stop it. "Suit yourself. Aside from a heart containing the wondrous blood of a Fire Qilin, there's nothing on you worth coveting."
He was that blunt. Having already resonated with its emotions, he knew its techniques were suited only for beasts. Such brutally direct words infuriated the Fire Qilin Lion to the point of apoplexy, nearly causing it to explode on the spot.
In the end, Qin Ming helped it "end its life," taking the massive heart that surged with scarlet haze and fiery radiance to refine its wondrous blood.
Faintly, within the blood radiating scarlet haze, the illusory silhouette of a Fire Qilin cloaked in surging crimson flames seemed to roar—terrifying and awe-inspiring!
Near the towering mountain, a bird flapped its wings and flew into the distance.
High in the sky, a colossal white peacock hovered. Upon hearing the report, it was immediately shocked and blurted out:
"He harvested all the wild 'wondrous medicines' discovered by several elders of the Ancestral Court? No, he even pulled them up by the roots!"
Chapter 149