"Refuse them!" Qin Ming said decisively.
Meng Xinghai was taken aback. "Turning them away so flatly?"
Inside the spacious reception hall, spirit-calming incense curled up from a purple bronze burner, giving off a tranquil fragrance that soothed the soul. Qin Ming sighed. "The people I want to see aren't here, while most of the ones I don't want to see have shown up."
Li Qingyun nodded. "A youth should have this kind of spirit. If you don't want to see them, just turn them away." In truth, Qin Ming could already picture how those meetings would go.
"Wang Caiwei wishes to see you," a man in black entered to report.
"Tell her I'm in seclusion!" Qin Ming said.
Those people knew he was in the manor, which was precisely why they wanted to see him face-to-face.
Afterward, Lu Zhenyi, Zheng Maoze, Zeng Yuan, and others had messages brought over one after another.
Qin Ming did not appear. He had no desire to watch certain people flaunt the superiority of having stepped onto the immortal path—as if he hadn't already witnessed that back at Silver Vine Town by Black-White Mountain.
"Mm, speaking straight from the heart," Li Qingyun chuckled.
Meng Xinghai said, "Uncle Li, you'd better drop those last few words. It sounds a bit like Cao Qianqiu's style."
Soon after, Qin Ming was dazed to learn from Meng Xinghai that Cao Qianqiu—whose conscious spiritual light resembled a blazing crimson sun—had once reached a finger out through the night sky, intending to poke him to death on the spot.
Qin Ming broke into a cold sweat. He had kept such a low profile, hiding his edge in the Divine City and harmonizing with light and dust. How had he still been an eyesore and provoked Cao Qianqiu?
"It makes no sense," he said, thoroughly baffled.
"He said he saw a trace of the Overlord's shadow on you," Meng Xinghai informed him.
Qin Ming's expression shifted slightly. That old monster's instincts were terrifying. Qin Ming hadn't even utilized the Overlord's mental art, yet the man had still seen through him to some degree?
He vividly remembered the scenes recorded in the Overlord's Testament. Cao Qianqiu had been incomparably ferocious and brutal, striking with six palms in total to blast apart the Overlord's limbs, torso, and skull.
When the Overlord's blood fell to the ground, its spiritual glow surged instead of extinguishing, only for the old monster to crush it into ash beneath his foot, scorching the entire ground into charred earth.
One pool of blood, carrying the Overlord's intense emotional ripples, had splashed onto his testament. Sneering, Cao Qianqiu had swept his hand across it, extinguishing every shred of spirituality within the blood.
"He's that overbearing and aggressive—has he never kicked an iron plate?" Qin Ming asked.
Li Qingyun looked solemn. "Any iron plate he kicks gets pierced through and shattered into pieces. He is one of the representative figures of the outer pure lands."
Meng Xinghai nodded with a grave expression. "Presently, he is one of the few standing at the very forefront of the outer pure lands!"
Qin Ming fell silent. That old monster was simply too formidable and dangerous!
"My Martial Granduncle has already returned and probably won't emerge again for the next ten years," Meng Xinghai said.
"Has Old Cao left?" Li Qingyun asked.
Meng Xinghai said, "Not yet. Word is he plans to take a stroll around Black-White Mountain."
Hearing that Cao Qianqiu was still in the city, Qin Ming instantly lost all sense of security.
The old monster acted with complete disregard for rules, doing whatever he pleased. If he were to remember Qin Ming again, he could crush him with a single finger.
Before long, Meng Xinghai received a report from a confidant and smiled. "Just a moment ago, he departed."
Qin Ming let out a soft breath of relief, followed by a burning desire to grow stronger. Living in the night mist world was hard enough already; with old monsters like Cao Qianqiu around, he felt an acute lack of security.
Afterward, setting aside the topic of Cao Qianqiu, the atmosphere gradually lightened.
Qin Ming brought up what he had witnessed at the edge of the world. When they learned he had hunted wondrous blood creatures one after another, both men in the hall were stunned.
"Do you know the value of a portion of wondrous blood? Every portion can create a mutant!" Meng Xinghai marveled.
Li Qingyun said, "Some of the old fogies in the Six Imperials ancestral court must be bleeding from their hearts right now. Behind every single extraordinary creature, there's bound to be an elder."
Qin Ming grew solemn. "Doesn't that count as nurturing beasts to bring about disaster?"
Meng Xinghai shook his head. "Not quite."
They had drawn clear boundaries, forbidding those old demons from setting foot in human settlements.
The Plain of Divine Demise had always been a contested land of chaos that had yet to be reclaimed. If these captive old demons didn't occupy the border territory and hold the line, other demons and monsters would cross over at any time, slaughtering villages, harming people, and causing far more bloodshed.
Li Qingyun felt Qin Ming's bone structure and remarked, "With your foundation, even I can't evaluate it anymore. Perhaps the Newborn path has been marginalized for so long that even the heavens couldn't stand by, and you might truly carve out a domain of your own."
Qin Ming shook his head. "What does my current achievement amount to? Once I reach the Outer Sage stage, advancing further will be like crossing a chasm with every step. This path is simply too difficult. Sigh, I only have two Newborn opportunities left."
Meng Xinghai said, "I believe with a foundation as profound as yours, there might be a turning point. The path ahead might not necessarily stop you."
Qin Ming sighed. "How magnificent is the Six Imperials ancestral court? They possess the legendary Six Imperials Heart Scripture and have a mature path to tread. Yet what did I see there? A crowd of skin-and-bone old men who could only match individuals from the Fangwai Immortal Land who weren't even old, despite being a great deal older than them!"
He indeed felt a sense of crisis. He had inquired into the details: in their youth, those emaciated, withered elders had also shone brilliantly in all directions as mutants, and some had even suppressed core disciples from the outer realms. Yet upon reaching the second major realm, their rivals had overtaken them.
And after desperately grinding to the third major realm, they could only compete against the descendants of their former rivals. A psychological journey like that was truly unbearable for ordinary people.
Even top mutants fared little better. The greater their early brilliance, the harsher the psychological plunge. The despair of making zero progress across long, dragging years was truly terrifying.
Most critical of all, someone had once tried to make the Six Imperials Patriarch serve as a laborer. That was horrifying beyond belief.
The topic was too heavy, so Qin Ming spoke no more of it.
He consulted the two of them on another matter, hoping for an answer.
"Today, are the patriarchs of great sects like Rulai, the Six Imperials, Qingtian, and Yuqing still the original founders?"
Having experienced events at the Six Imperials, met Lu Zizai, and caught what seemed to be a half-dream glimpse while practicing the Heluo Classic—catching sight of the Six Imperials Patriarch and the terrifying, gold-radiating giant stained with blood standing behind him in the night mist—Qin Ming had far too many unanswered questions.
Meng Xinghai grew serious and said, "In my view, they have probably all been replaced. No one can live that long."
That was his answer. The ancestral courts of the various Newborn sects had existed for a millennium at the shortest, while the most ancient great sects dated back over three millennia.
"There is also a saying that a few patriarchs are still the original founders," Li Qingyun noted.
Meng Xinghai said, "At the very least, Rulai has certainly changed. They themselves speak of the 'Present Rulai,' referring to the current patriarch, while 'Past Rulai' refers to former patriarchs."
Li Qingyun added, "Rumor has it that in the past, a particular scripture crippled more than one patriarch."
Hearing this, Qin Ming felt a tremor in his heart, guessing that it was very likely the silk book method.
Afterward, the two helped Qin Ming research where he should ultimately go, conversing until the late hours of the night.
The next day, having learned of Qin Ming's return, the speech sparrow appeared in his room early in the morning.
"Mountain Lord, you're finally back! While you were away, little Sparrow here has been living a flavorless life, waiting until my eyes nearly fell out. This time, when you go far away to study, take me along, won't you? Don't go sneaking off onto the road again."
Qin Ming gave it a sidelong glance. "I heard you've been mingling with a bunch of anomalous creatures, having so much fun you forgot home. You haven't gone and taken another wife, have you?"
"How could that be? I'm a faithful bird!" the speech sparrow cried out in indignation. It was quite extraordinary now, its plumage even more brilliant, its beak and claws glinting with a crystalline luster.
Qin Ming chuckled. "Do you even believe that yourself?"
The speech sparrow patted its chest with a wing and declared, "We speech sparrows breed only once a year, in early spring! During that time, I am utterly devoted to my mate!"
Qin Ming offered no comment; otherwise, it would surely start spouting about how that was a bird's life, that it was a great gentleman, and that its fatherly love was as vast as the sea.
Two days later, Qin Ming finally left the City Lord's Manor, figuring those people must have mostly moved on.
As luck would have it, on his way to meet Xu Sheng, Sister Fenfang, and Wu Zheng for a meal, he ran into Zheng Maoze, Zeng Yuan, and the others, who were wrapped in bandages and hadn't left yet.
Had Lu Zhenyi and Chen Bingyan not been present, Qin Ming would have gladly turned around to avoid them; those two had spoken up for him back at Silver Vine Town by Black-White Mountain.
"Qin Ming, you really aren't a good friend. Coming to your turf, and you actually hid from us!" Zheng Maoze spoke up.
"Big Zheng, why are you covered in injuries?" Qin Ming asked. During the chaotic battle in the Divine City, he hadn't been able to resist giving Zheng Dazhuang a slap.
It had to be said that the life-saving spiritual artifacts on Zheng Maoze were formidable; his spiritual shields and spiritual armor had shattered one after another, allowing him to escape with his life.
Hearing this, Zheng Maoze's face darkened. Lately, every time he went out to vie for opportunities, some inexplicable fellow would break a dozen of his bones. It was so miserable it had given him psychological trauma.
Zeng Yuan was in much the same state.
Qin Ming wasn't keen on entertaining the two of them and chatted with Lu Zhenyi and Chen Bingyan instead.
"Didn't you say you were in seclusion?" Wang Caiwei was actually behind them as well, having not left yet. Clad in a black dress, with hair like a waterfall and skin like congealed cream, she was just as beautiful as before, smiling brightly and infectiously.
"I just came out today," Qin Ming replied.
Under the circumstances, he had no choice but to treat them. He chose a lakeside restaurant in the city and invited Xu Sheng, Sister Fenfang, and Wu Zheng over.
Yet even this didn't stop Zheng Maoze from flaunting his superiority over having stepped onto the immortal path—and he really did manage to show off.
"For those beyond the mundane world, a single jade-armored guard can be passed down through three generations," Zheng Maoze cracked a dry joke.
His meaning was obvious: a jade-armored guard was formidable, but could rarely advance in rank. Unable to keep pace with a master's cultivation speed, they would be overtaken by juniors on the immortal path, serving one family across three generations.
The speech sparrow blinked its black-gem eyes and asked curiously, "Big Brother, does your family raise jade-armored turtles? In the end, does one turtle outlive three generations of your family?"
"Whose damn bird is this? It sure doesn't know how to speak!" Zheng Maoze slammed his hand toward the table.
"I live in the City Lord's Manor," the speech sparrow said.
Xu Sheng stepped in to smooth things over. "Brother, have a drink. Let me tell you some tales from my years as an itinerant merchant."
He continued, "You see, out in the night mist we often encounter dead corpses, and once in a while we see them walking about alive in bustling cities. The consequences are utterly terrifying."
"Wait, you... hiss... why do you look so familiar?!" Xu Sheng's face went pale as if stunned, and he hurried away.
Zheng Maoze stared blankly, then erupted in fury. There was no continuing the meal, and the gathering ended abruptly.
"Qin Ming, if there's anything you need, don't hesitate to tell us. We'll help if we can," Chen Bingyan said.
Qin Ming was not shy about it. "If you come across any extraordinary arts in the outer realms, make me a copy if you can."
"Alright!" The group departed.
That evening, someone had a parcel delivered to him.
Qin Ming opened it. Beneath layers of oiled paper lay a book, its cover bearing four large characters: Five Thunders Viscera Tempering. This technique was definitely extraordinary; he had heard of it before! Who had sent it?
Before Qin Ming could recover from his surprise, a grave-faced Meng Xinghai informed him and the still-lingering Li Qingyun of an urgent secret report that had just arrived.
"Incredible! Major news—Cao Qianqiu was severely wounded at Black-White Mountain! This is a massive event that will shake the night mist world!"
Chapter 166