"Who is tolling the bell?" Even from afar, Qin Ming could hear the chimes echoing through the deep night, booming as if against his very heart.
He looked into the distance. At the horizon's edge, purple light surged and other halos expanded, each rivaling the earlier blue light that had torn through the clouds. It was truly terrifying.
He murmured, "Brother Rag, hurry up and absorb the divinity in the pool. We can't stay here long!"
Qin Ming raised his head and saw a large black rat emerge at the far end of the mist-shrouded street, trailing a dense swarm of yin spirits as they rushed forward.
Far outside the Divine City, Li Qingyun was practically straining his eyes from staring. Watching a horde of minor demons enter the city, he rubbed his hands together and sighed, before glaring fiercely at several old men.
"You fellows have no morals at all!" he snapped in fury.
He had been fortunate enough to encounter the "Divine City" descending here, only for several sneaky old men to appear at the same time and stop him from bringing Qin Ming inside.
The old fellows had told him that it wasn't their turn yet. First came the "little ones," then the young and middle generation, and only then would it be their turn.
In an instant, Li Qingyun realized what was going on. These old fellows hailed from different lineages and were utterly shameless. Each had slipped over quietly, predicting that the Divine City might manifest in this region, and each intended to break the rules by sneaking into the city unnoticed.
As a result, they ended up bumping into one another. It became awkward—none of them trusted the others, each terrified someone would blow the whistle. In the end, checking and balancing one another, they were forced to follow the rules together.
Li Qingyun had only just crashed with his bird when they spotted him.
The old men had thought to themselves: *This old rascal is ruthless. To rush here, he actually dared to cross the night sky in the middle of a battle to stop a god. We have to stop him.*
And so, Li Qingyun was left seething with resentment, drooling over the Divine City with no way to get across.
The old men hadn't paid any mind to the youth unconscious on the ground back then; they had only dragged Li Qingyun away, naturally taking along his mount as well.
"You shameless bastards! Two of you are actually acquaintances of mine—who are you wearing masks for?!" Li Qingyun walked both paths and had wide connections, and he pointed accusingly at two of the old fellows.
Inside the Divine City, beside the blue Fire Spring, the ground at Qin Ming's feet was a mess of debris, such as black rat pelts and silver fox tails. By now, of the folk "Five Immortals," he had killed quite a few from all four other kinds except for the great serpent.
"So lacking in discernment. Wouldn't it be better if we kept out of each other's way? You thought having numbers meant you could kill me..." Qin Ming muttered to himself, holding his mutton-fat jade iron saber.
Though he spoke lightly, he remained grave and maintained a vigilant guard. Even with a jade iron saber that suppressed yin spirits in hand, he dared not be careless in the slightest.
For more and more yin spirits were entering the city, hazy and shifting. The commotion raised by the Divine City shook the entire region. Only after enough "trophies" accumulated beneath his feet did the anomalies virtually cease looking for trouble with him, temporarily maintaining a fragile peace.
"Why isn't this divinity as effective as imagined? Strange!" a black tiger yin spirit spoke, having come from the distant mountains.
It was not that their physical bodies could not enter, but rather that projecting their yin spirits was faster, allowing them to traverse the night sky and arrive first to seize the fortune of divinity.
Qin Ming also played along, blending in among them. He placed his bow, arrows, and saber into the pool to be nourished, and even quietly slipped the pendant in.
The one with the most noticeable improvement was the precious bow taken from the silver-eyed giant hedgehog of the Divine Plains; it gleamed brilliantly, streaming with silver radiance.
The mutton-fat jade iron saber and jade iron arrows had some effect, though not very pronounced. When Meng Xinghai forged them for Qin Ming, he had inscribed some runes using esoteric sect methods, but he was not a professional after all, and Qin Ming had never refined or nurtured them regularly.
As for the snow-white sword-shaped pendant, it showed no reaction whatsoever. Back then, Meng Xinghai had wanted to inscribe runes upon it but couldn't manage it at all—the material of this exotic metal was far too unique.
On the horizon, several giant birds appeared, traversing the heavens and flying straight toward the Divine City.
Qin Ming's pupils contracted. He spotted acquaintances. The first to catch his eye was Li Qingxu standing on the back of the leading giant bird, holding a glowing purple bamboo stick.
Because his master, Cao Qianqiu, had stepped forward on behalf of the outer pure land, Li Qingxu was naturally brought here to obtain a great opportunity, and even intended to use this place to become an "immortal seed" like Cui Chonghe and Li Qingyue.
"Wang Caiwei, Zheng Maoze, Zeng Yuan, Lu Zhenyi..." Qin Ming saw some familiar faces, wondering if Li Qingyue would appear. Time was tight; he sighed inwardly, knowing one couldn't monopolize every benefit.
However, he glanced at the Fire Spring pool. The dense blue had faded considerably; the divinity contained within had diminished by at least sixty percent. He felt he shouldn't be overly greedy and ought to stop now. From here on, he could simply sit back and watch the winds rise and clouds churn—he had already taken the lion's share of the spoils.
Then, Qin Ming suddenly discovered that the area truly was churning with turbulence. Thick black mist billowed up, nearly obscuring all the buildings.
He sensed something—it was caused by that scrap of cloth again! Qin Ming immediately realized it was changing once more.
"What's going on? Why has fog rolled in?!"
"Could it be... that the god hasn't fallen and is enraged, about to punish us?!" Some yin spirits panicked, their conscious spiritual lights trembling.
Qin Ming seized the opportunity to pull out the cloth scrap. Once out of the Fire Spring, it dimmed again, looking ordinary and unremarkable, yet no longer lifeless as before; it was now in a state of "restrained containment."
Sure enough, it had undergone changes: it had expanded to the size of two palms, and more of that incomplete golden sun was exposed.
Moreover, across from it, along the opposite edge, an area of black mist had appeared, looking capable of blotting out the sky and sun. It was precisely the expansion of this pattern woven from black exotic metal that had caused the pitch-black mist to billow forth.
Qin Ming tucked it away against his chest, thoroughly satisfied. This was truly an unexpected boon!
The material of this cloth was not inferior to the near-immortal item, the Eight Trigrams Furnace; its origins fired the imagination. He could not test it right now, but surely it possessed wondrous uses.
Qin Ming figured that back when the cloth was lifeless, the young man capable of mist transformation likely hadn't known its true nature and failed to unearth its rightful value.
He just wasn't sure whether the cloth had been brought out of the outer yang land by that young man, or discovered in the underground Grand Rift Valley of the Black-White Mountain.
After all, that young man had spent days bustling around beneath the Black-White Mountain and had even set up an altar.
Qin Ming looked down. The color of the Fire Spring had faded a bit further, though fortunately it wasn't completely drained of essence, still glowing with flowing blue light. He quietly left the spot and slipped into a building, wrapping up his bow, arrows, and long saber, slinging them over his back, not planning to use them for now.
His joints cracked and popped as he adjusted his facial features, differing from before. Such an alteration was enough to fool a crowd of youthful disciples.
Li Qingxu and the others swiftly entered the city, driving away the swarm of anomalies and striking down anyone who dared resist.
*Tang Xumi and Hu Tingwen, you're here too as expected. You still owe me a copy of the Divine Ape force!* Qin Ming did not walk toward them, but instead approached another group.
He spotted Yu Zhuohan among the esoteric sect group. Yu Zhuohan was Zhuo Ya's cousin, and Qin Ming had fought a decisive duel with him outside Chixia City, making them acquaintances through combat. "Old Yu!" Qin Ming hailed.
Yu Zhuohan was quite distinctive: powerfully built, with shoulder-length silver hair glistening strand by strand, and sharply defined facial features.
"Old Yu?!" Hearing someone wave and call him that, Yu Zhuohan immediately strode over, itching to slap the brat.
How old was he? Not even seventeen!
"Brother, it's me," Qin Ming quickly sent a secret voice transmission, hoping to join their group. In general, he wanted to "Harmonize with Light and Dust," keeping out of the limelight.
From here on, whether dragons fought tigers or a storm of blood broke loose, he could watch with detached amusement.
"How is it you?" After a brief exchange via transmission, Yu Zhuohan was slightly startled. Soon, Qin Ming learned the "truth."
The various factions were hunting a bug, interrupting its ascension to godhood.
This Divine City and the surrounding territory were constructed from its essence, energy, and spirit. It had originally intended to fuse with the real Chixia City into one, but had been intercepted.
At that moment, heaven and earth shook violently, and the distant sky burned blue.
A bug covered in wounds, its blooming conscious spiritual light blasting apart the clouds, roared and charged frantically from the far horizon toward them. In an instant, a blazing sun swept across the sky, barring its way. Inside was an old six-tusked elephant; with a flick of its trunk, it shattered the clouds and whipped the bug back.
Qin Ming was shaken. What kind of power was this? It shook heaven and earth!
Even an anomalous bug on the verge of godhood couldn't compare in strength to that old elephant.
That old elephant certainly hadn't put in false tusks; moreover, it actually had a pair of dragon horns on its head. This had to be a six-tusked dragon elephant.
When Qin Ming learned from Yu Zhuohan that of the "four suns" dominating the sky hunting the divine bug, one of the suns was actually Li Qingxu's master, Cao Qianqiu, he became even quieter.
This old fellow was notoriously protective of his own, frequently shedding all dignity to personally enter the fray; even the peerless Overlord had died tragically at his hands.
"If you stick with us and need to fight, will you use Newborn path methods?" Yu Zhuohan asked in secret.
"I know a bit of esoteric sect methods too," Qin Ming replied. Water mist immediately surged around him, followed by the deployment of wind-thunder force, lightning weaving nearby.
"When... did you learn this?" Yu Zhuohan was dumbfounded. A youthful disciple like him genuinely couldn't tell what discipline this belonged to.
"Oh, that elder is here too." Qin Ming noticed that inside one of the blazing suns in the distant sky was a tall, imposing old man—Meng Xinghai's Martial Granduncle, who had fished alone above the abyss for a hundred years. This brought him considerable peace of mind.
"You know that senior?" Yu Zhuohan asked.
"Mm, he was the one who taught me how to enhance my divine wisdom." Qin Ming wasn't really lying.
Yu Zhuohan told him that many of the esoteric sect disciples who came this time belonged to that senior's lineage.
Up ahead, conflict erupted among the youthful disciples, and fighting broke out.
This was the first time Qin Ming had seen people from esoteric sects clash with those from the outer realms. The battle was dazzlingly magnificent and truly a sight to behold.
Soon after, anomalies came barging in as well.
Qin Ming not only spotted the purple lightning beast, but also saw the speech sparrow from the Black-White Mountain that was always clamoring to follow him. That fellow was far too sly—it had actually infiltrated the ranks of the anomalies, and being glib and articulate, it was doing remarkably well! Even the speech sparrows and mynas in service to the purple lightning beast took their cues from it.
With an ear-splitting elephant trumpeting, the four-tusked white elephant among the anomalies also joined the fray, seeking to contest for the divine power within the Fire Spring pool.
A chaotic melee broke out!
In the distant night sky, "five suns" bestrode the heavens, too bright to gaze upon directly. Inside one of those blazing suns was a giant centipede—earlier, it was the very creature bordering on godhood that had ripped open the night sky from the ground and shattered the clouds across the sky.
Yet a creature as formidable as this, a "great entity" in the eyes of the scarecrow and the serpent, had nevertheless been reduced to prey, severely wounded.
It was not in a flesh-and-blood state now, but a divine form coalesced from conscious spiritual light, resembling a blazing sun of extreme brilliance that illuminated heaven and earth.
"You have no small courage, seeking to subdue the mountains and rivers of this Chixia City domain. You must have heard the legends from the Great Reclamation era of godlike beings appearing here, haven't you?"
From within a piercingly bright sun, a bald-headed elder spoke. It was none other than Meng Xinghai's martial uncle, tall and ruddy-faced.
"The enmity of severing my path is irreconcilable under the heavens!" the centipede roared. It had completely lost connection with the Divine City, and the piercing blue light upon its body burned furiously.
From within a silvery sun, a woman's cool voice rang out: "If we did not stop you, were we supposed to let you swallow Chixia City and all the surrounding towns and villages?"
"When a single bug falls, everyone can feast! Haha..." In a crimson sun, an old man with white hair and beard laughed loudly, overbearing and domineering to the extreme, holding a bell coiled in purple qi.
He was Li Qingxu's master—Cao Qianqiu, a renowned figure of the outer pure land!
He gave it a gentle shake; in an instant, a tremendous sound issued from the purple bell, more terrifying than thunder, echoing through heaven and earth. The chimes carried terrifying patterns, like immortal swords sweeping across the night sky.
"Ah..."
The giant centipede clanged all over, as if cast from blue "exotic metal," solid and indestructible; it actually withstood the sweeping blast of the purple bell's chimes head-on.
Yet it was wounded after all. Within the blue sun, cracks appeared along its hundred-legged body, weeping piercing blue "divine blood."
Without doubt, aside from their weapons, the five blazing suns in the sky were all forms manifested from conscious spiritual light.
"Cao Qianqiu, I'll turn you into Cao Half-Autumn!" the giant centipede said chillingly, radiating a towering mist of light that instantly shook heaven and earth. Down below, every living creature trembled, ready to prostrate themselves upon the earth.
It crossed the night sky like a bolt of blue lightning, blowing apart every cloud!
Cao Qianqiu laughed heartily. Though an elder with white hair, he was flamboyant and peerlessly domineering, directly tossing the weapon in his hand.
In an instant, the bell, blazing with purple twilight, dispersed the night mist across the sky and illuminated the firmament. Expanding continuously, its grand and lingering tolls drowned out the sound of thunder as it hurtled toward the divine bug. At the same time, the other three suns swept across the sky, joining forces to suppress the great blue centipede.
Chapter 164