"Don't push yourself," Zhao Yaoting said. He suspected Qin Ming was merely braving it out—having accidentally swallowed the outer heavenly light liquid and feeling too embarrassed to lose face before everyone. Particularly with two fairies so renowned in the outer realm present, each possessing kingdom-toppling beauty and standing as near-immortal seeds of their respective lands, it was only natural for a youth to yearn after fair maidens.
Yet if he toughed it out just for fear of humiliation, any consequences would be grave indeed.
Zhao Yaoting handed him a crystal enclosing a pale-gold liquid and said, "This is a medicinal liquid that can strengthen internal organs and heal injuries."
"I'm truly fine," Qin Ming replied, shaking his head.
"Stubborn to the bitter end," scoffed a youth standing nearby clad in reddish-gold armor. His tone was rather aggressive; his name was Sun Jingxiao, hailing from the pure land.
Qin Ming glanced at him and said, "Brother, how about you... give me a bottle of heavenly light liquid too, so I can act tough a bit more?"
Without a word, Sun Jingxiao pulled a thumb-length vial from his robes, brimming with dense heavenly light liquid, and thrust it toward him.
"Don't let petty spite get the better of you, it's hardly worth it!" Cai Jingcheng urged in dissuasion.
Yet Qin Ming immediately took it, wishing he could get a few more bottles. He had several types of heavenly light force waiting to fuse, so the more, the better.
Sun Jingxiao's expression shifted at once. "You all saw it. If anything happens to him, don't blame me. He insisted on drinking it himself."
"Don't!" Zhao Yaoting shouted.
Yet Qin Ming downed the whole bottle of heavenly light liquid in a single gulp. This liquid outer heavenly light was indeed intensely potent, stimulating him so much that a ray of light shot from his mouth as he exhaled.
Finally, he let out a burp.
Sun Jingxiao was dumbfounded. What in the world was this? He had truly seen a ghost!
"Another bottle!" Qin Ming held out his hand to him.
The expressions of the youths present changed completely. Even the two famous near-immortal seeds wore peculiar looks.
"Got any more?" Qin Ming asked. He wished the spite would continue so the other boy would give him two more bottles of heavenly light liquid.
Sun Jingxiao ignored him now. He was certain this guy could truly consume heavenly light liquid; for his body to remain unscathed, he surely practiced some extraordinary method!
"We still have urgent business to attend to," Su Shiyun from the immortal land reminded them. Wearing a bronze mask, this near-immortal seed was truly exceptional. Even standing motionless, hints of radiance shed about her; her green robes fluttered, giving her an air of ascending as an immortal into the sky.
Qin Ming instantly realized that being called a near-immortal seed was no empty boast—it meant having an affinity with certain inexplicable elements between heaven and earth.
"Brother, what should we call you? Did you also come to..." Zhao Yaoting began.
By rights, the premium cabins had been entirely chartered, so everyone present was supposed to be a participant in this mission. Yet this fellow seemed somewhat strange.
He had arrived so late as well, seeming rather out of place.
Moreover, he recklessly guzzled outer heavenly light liquid at the drop of a hat. What kind of bizarre behavior was that? Thus, Zhao Yaoting felt a bit uneasy about him.
Before Zhao Yaoting could finish, Qin Ming nodded at once.
From the emotions of one of the youths, he had sensed anticipation and excitement. Though faint, he had keenly caught the fluctuation. This so-called "mission" was no bad thing!
Qin Ming gathered that these youths came from different orthodoxies and barely knew one another, having formed a temporary team. Thus, he decided to play along recklessly!
"Do you know where we're going?" Sun Jingxiao asked, looking at him with irritation.
The others turned their gaze toward him as well, some even employing subtle techniques and conscious spiritual light to examine him closely.
"You sure poke your nose into everything," Qin Ming said with an impatient expression, showing blatant disdain. At the same time, he sensed the youth's intense emotional turbulence—clearly furious.
"Please answer," said Su Shiyun in her green robes. Exceptionally sharp, this near-immortal seed sensed something slightly amiss.
"Into the night sky," Qin Ming stated calmly.
As he spoke, he used a Newborn's absolute control over his physical body to maintain a steady, unrippled heartbeat.
In truth, when he resonated with Sun Jingxiao and sensed that their destination was somewhere in the night sky, he had been thoroughly startled.
Then he added, "They call it a mission, but isn't it really just a 'harvest'?"
"Watch your words!" someone warned.
"Don't be so blunt!" another said.
In truth, Qin Ming had no idea of the details.
He had only caught a few fragments of information from Sun Jingxiao before the fellow hardened his mind like iron, betraying no further emotional ripples.
Qin Ming's knowledge of this under-the-table "inside scoop" persuaded the others that he truly was one of their party. Evidently, this was a loose group that communicated very little.
Back in the main cabin, their identities had already been thoroughly exposed by chatter, so Qin Ming had a rough idea.
Zhao Yaoting, Cai Jingcheng, and Tang Yuguan came from three different esoteric sects; Su Shiyun came from the immortal land; Leng Yue came from the yang land; Xue Yunzheng came from the calamity land; and Sun Jingxiao came from the pure land.
Qin Ming realized that these people were in all likelihood the darlings of various veteran masters! Consequently, he was filled with anticipation for this venture!
Quiet settled over the place. Everyone carried exotic treasures, from precious vases and crystal cups to nearly transparent miniature cauldrons—all extraordinary.
Each was drawing in radiant glow and strange substances.
Qin Ming was especially interested in what one of them was gathering, for his body stirred with a faint yearning, and his Purple Palace Thunderfire grew restless, threatening to circulate on its own.
"Fairy Su, would you trade the purple mist in your jade cup?" he asked cheekily, eager to learn what effect it would have on him.
Su Shiyun held a jade cup in her hands, wonderfully marvelous, drawing down a purple mist that settled slowly into the cup, on the verge of condensing into liquid.
"I will not trade," she refused.
Qin Ming was out of options; no matter how thick-skinned he was, he could hardly force her when she had rejected him so flatly.
"I can give you a wisp, however." Considering that they still had to act together, Su Shiyun flicked her jade-white fingers. A ray of purple sunset glow flew out of the jade cup and resolved into a cloud of purple qi.
"Many thanks." After Qin Ming absorbed the purple qi, earthfire surged up from his feet and heavenly thunder cascaded down from his head, meeting in his chest and abdomen with a loud rumble.
The onlookers were astonished to discover lightning flashing and thunder rumbling within his torso, followed by a faint whiff of medicinal fragrance—utterly bizarre.
Qin Ming sighed; unfortunately, at the final moment, the Dragon-Tiger Great Medicine in his chest and abdomen dispersed.
Still, his body felt delightfully refreshed, as though nourished by abundant active substances.
The Vermilion Bird airship lingered here for a long time before setting sail again.
"Attention everyone, there are several more special regions ahead. We will halt there so you may capture celestial essence as you please," a woman transmitted via conscious spiritual light.
"Splendid!" many youths cheered.
Thus stopping and starting along the way, the airship journeyed nearly twenty thousand li, leaving just over fifteen hundred li before reaching the great city of Kunjun.
Everyone was quite satisfied. Halting roughly every thousand li, all aboard had tasted the wonders of celestial essence.
When the Vermilion Bird airship halted for the twentieth time, Su Shiyun, Zhao Yaoting, and the others rose. "Time to move!"
Qin Ming felt they were rather like thieves, sneaking around in secret.
The group exited through a secret passage from the premium cabins and reached the outer edge of the great ship, where a skiff had already been arranged and was waiting. Without a word, they boarded the skiff directly. Surprisingly, the captain of the Vermilion Bird steered it himself, escorting them to their destination.
The distance was not great—only a few li—and they soon arrived.
Black mist churned, pitch-black so one could not see one's own hand before one's eyes. Yet everyone could sense that something lay ahead, exuding a faint sense of pressure.
Then Qin Ming spotted several airships, all ruined and impaled by something, marooned in these ink-black clouds.
"I'll wait for you here." The captain said only this single sentence. He asked nothing and said no more, simply carrying out his duty according to orders.
Qin Ming was the last to step off the skiff, casually grabbing another parachute pack on his way.
The captain gave him an odd look. This fellow already had four strapped to his body, yet he still wasn't reassured?!
The other seven looked at him, equally speechless.
Qin Ming was indeed uneasy. In the past, when fighting aberrant beasts in the mountains, he had never felt fear. But this was his first time operating high in the night sky. If he fell from these clouds, even nine lives wouldn't survive the drop.
Who could have imagined there were "things" up in the night sky?
They leaped onto the impaled, ruined airships stranded here.
Qin Ming finally saw what had impaled the airships: faded "golden spines." Calling them spines hardly did them justice—they were so long one could not see their end at a glance.
They were as thick as water vats, originally golden in hue, but now dimmed as if gathered with dust over many years. Numerous dull spines disappeared into the depths of the night sky, their thickness uniform throughout, their terminus unknown.
Leng Feiyue, the near-immortal seed from the yang land, spoke up: "Since there are so many paths, we should set off separately so as not to interfere with each other."
The conscious spiritual light dormant within her was as blazing as a miniature sun, yet her words remained chillingly aloof. She was a famed iceberg fairy.
Though the original plan had been to act together, everyone nodded now, agreeing to split up.
Qin Ming stepped onto a pale-gold spine as thick as a water vat and moved forward. Applying his adhesive force, he did not worry about slipping off. Yet he was completely in the dark, knowing nothing about where this led or what kind of harvest could be found.
He racked his brain in confusion. This was high amidst the pitch-black clouds—why were there so many long spines here, and why didn't they fall?
High on the vault of heaven, it was as black as an abyss; astral winds gusted, and thick mist churned incessantly like a boundless ocean. The further Qin Ming walked, the more unsettled he became. He had advanced several hundred meters already, yet the spine showed no change, seeming endless.
He drew his mutton-fat jade iron saber and tested it against the pale-gold spine. Sparks flew; even such a rare and precious blade could not cut into it. Qin Ming took out his sword-shaped exotic metal pendant and gave it a test poke. It pierced inward, but elicited no reaction whatsoever.
Threading through the pitch-black fog, he murmured, "I truly am walking a tightrope in the clouds. How bizarre. Who put these things up in the heavens?"
The astral winds blew violently, tossing his hair into disarray. When a strand fell across his eyes and he brushed it aside with his hand, his heart jolted violently.
For he had formed an absurd conjecture—if true, it would be far too outlandish!
"Could there really be good fortune in a place like this?!" He was somewhat skeptical.
Qin Ming brushed aside his hair and looked down at the "spine" of indeterminate length beneath his feet, ultimately pressing on.
Several hundred meters later, he saw over a dozen pale-gold spines crisscrossing one another; he had arrived at a chaotic tangle.
"What kind of bizarre journey is this? Strolling alone through the clouds... I just hope nothing goes wrong. We're only fifteen hundred li from Kunjun City; who knows if there's a perilous ground directly beneath me."
Suddenly, Qin Ming's pupils contracted. Through the black mist, he spotted an even denser intersection of "spines"—and nestled there was... a nest!
This differed somewhat from his earlier guess—there was actually a creature nesting in such a place!
He felt a surge of panic, for the nest was immense!
However, he sensed no vital aura, and he noticed that the nest was quite weathered; it had likely been abandoned. Qin Ming approached, his heart far from calm.
The nest was around three zhang in diameter.
What kind of creature nested up in the clouds?
Clambering onto the ancient, giant nest, he discovered fragments of shattered golden eggshells along its rim.
"Just what kind of place have I stumbled into?" Qin Ming's expression turned grave.
Chapter 172