Standing at the doorway, Qin Ming felt a profound sense of grandeur and could hardly believe his eyes. At the far end of the main hall, a glowing path actually stretched straight into the night sky.
A woman in white, her black hair drifting in the night breeze, walked out from within a bright moon. Shrouded in mist and utterly ethereal, she seemed to descend from the highest heavens.
Could such a person truly exist? Qin Ming was skeptical.
Wu Yaozu's grandmother had told him that even the most formidable seniors of the Fourth Peril who pursued the path of rainbow transformation were unable to descend once they ascended to the moon.
How could this woman reside upon it?
Moreover, with effortless grace, she ambled along the path as though strolling through a peaceful courtyard, bathed in moonlight, descending with absolute ease!
"Flowers in a mirror, the moon in the water—begone!" Qin Ming shouted, emulating Lu Zizai when they first met. Lightning blossomed from his tongue with sharp crackles, electric arcs intertwining as his body released a surge of utmost yang force.
Yet nothing happened. Along the path at the hall's far end, the woman remained cloaked in bright, pristine radiance, approaching unhurriedly.
Silence filled the main hall.
From a distance, clad in a robe of pure white, she appeared transcendent and untainted by the mortal world—a peerless beauty of her era.
As she drew nearer, her tall, graceful silhouette revealed delicate curves beneath the white fabric, and specks of light shimmered in her lustrous hair. Everything seemed flawless.
Yet her face alone was hidden from sight. Black tresses veiled her features, and as she drew closer, this not only dispelled her unearthly grace, but also lent an eerie, supernatural chill to the air.
It was all too easy to imagine a female ghost in white emerging from the night mist. Qin Ming's expression turned grave.
He stepped into the grand hall, only to nearly collapse headfirst onto the floor. Oppressed by a force as heavy as a mountain, he could scarcely bear the weight.
The source of this pressure was none other than the glowing wall of the hall, upon which scriptures were carved!
Left behind by one of the founding patriarchs of the silk book method—the old man who had visited this place long ago—each character of the text was like a radiant mountain, pressing down so hard it suffocated the breath in one's chest.
Even with a body as formidable as Qin Ming's, burning like a blazing sun, he felt on the verge of breaking apart.
Yet he strained to raise his head, fixing his gaze on the wall, determined to engrave every single character into his mind. Though his physical form could hardly endure it, he refused to look away.
"That wretched old man, scrawling his graffiti here," the white-robed woman murmured to herself. With a gentle flick of her sleeve, a dense white fog unfurled, obscuring the wall until nothing could be seen.
The pressure on Qin Ming vanished, but he felt no joy. He spoke up, "Senior, I wish to study the text upon that wall."
"You came for this scripture," the white-robed woman said.
"I did!" Qin Ming nodded. Before an entity of her level, honesty was by far the wiser choice.
"If you wish to gain something here, that is fine. But it depends on your upper limit, on what level you can reach." Her voice was gentle and her temper mild, exuding none of the oppressive aura that might bring discomfort.
Even so, Qin Ming's heart leaped into his throat. If she truly had such a gentle temper, countless visitors would not have entered this temple never to return.
"In the past, a hundred schools contended, and dozens, even hundreds of paths advanced side by side. Yet most proved to be empty talk. How many remain today?" Her tone remained serene.
She paused briefly before continuing, "I have grown tired of sitting and debating the Dao. I would much rather see it brandished in true combat. That is why so many losers have accumulated in this temple."
A chill ran down Qin Ming's spine. If she intended to step into the fray herself, how could he possibly fight back? He had not anticipated the danger to be this extreme!
"Among the Newborn who have come here, who was the strongest?" the woman in white asked.
A spectral silhouette suddenly manifested, bowing in reply, "The elder who inscribed the text upon the wall and left behind the scripture."
Standing at the far end of the hall, the woman in white remarked, "Forget him. His physical form is gone, and no lingering intent remains, so he cannot be summoned for a contest."
She turned to glance at the cobwebs in the hall. "Zhu'er, you have listened to others debate the Dao here for centuries, so your attainment is not shallow. Go exchange moves with him."
Next, she looked toward the base of a wall, where a footprint had caved deep into the stone, enclosing a pool of pulpy paste.
With a point of her finger, a beam of snow-white light shot forth, pulling a black spider from within the footprint.
Qin Ming felt his hair stand on end. The true form of that spider appeared to have been as massive as a mountain—yet back then, had someone casually crushed it to paste with a single step?
"Little Spider walks the divine path," the confused black spider replied. It, too, was merely a wisp of lingering obsession, having died many years ago.
"I never restricted the methods of any path, so long as you remain within the first realm," the white-robed woman replied.
At that, the black spider expanded with the wind until it was the size of a millstone, gleaming with the luster of dark gold. Divine wisdom overflowed from its body, as though it were clad in sacred armor.
Qin Ming turned solemn. This was the trial within the main hall of the divine temple, a perilous domain unprecedented in danger; of all the predecessors who had ventured here throughout history, scarcely any had emerged alive.
Taking it with the utmost seriousness, he pushed his heavenly light force to its peak. It burned fiercely until he resembled a true sun rising to illuminate the hall.
Naturally, he had to give it his all!
Ahead, thick mist rolled out from around the black spider, weaving gossamer strands of silver. These were no tangible webs, but the expansion of its divine wisdom.
In an instant, Qin Ming felt a faint dizziness. The attack had already begun, striking into the mental realm!
Yet this discomfort lasted only a moment. Flames instantly erupted around his body, and the enemy's mental threads, as if given physical form, were set ablaze.
Qin Ming respected his adversary. In a place like this, he dared not hold anything back, unleashing the full might of his newly reunified heavenly light force.
Boom!
Like an avalanche or a surging tsunami, he swept across the hall like a Golden Crow blazing in the sky. Unfettered by a physical flesh body, his speed in this state was even faster, and his heavenly light could take shape.
A great golden lance materialized in his grasp.
The giant black spider was shocked. Layer upon layer of its mental ripples were incinerated directly by the golden radiance blazing from his form, entirely unable to halt or resist his advance.
This time, the divine wisdom covering its body wove into a web that swept forward.
Unfortunately, it was still useless. The web woven from the divine path was scorched by the blazing sun crashing through the air, swiftly shattering, unraveling, and reducing entirely to ash.
Gripping the Overlord Lance with both hands, Qin Ming cleaved downward.
The giant black spider had no way to evade or hide, for this was a heavenly light force never seen before—capable of spirit wandering and moving as swiftly as conscious thought.
It could only brace itself to take the blow. Its eight legs whipped through the air, clutching a demon-subduing pestle, a treasure vase, a thunder hammer, and other implements, smashing them forward together. For a moment, thunder and fire surged, lightning crashed, and divine wisdom splattered in every direction.
In the blink of an eye, the giant spider was reduced to paste once more, sinking back into the deep footprint. Qin Ming's Overlord Lance had swiftly cleaved it in two.
The white-robed woman nodded. "Mm, not bad. Zhu'er was merely the threshold here. Only by passing it do you earn the right to spar with others and test your upper limit."
Qin Ming fell silent. Though this woman appeared ethereal and spoke with gentle warmth, he felt she was setting traps for him. Just how many opponents did she intend to arrange?
He could not help asking, "Senior, how many people must I spar with?"
He spoke candidly, stating outright that his goals in entering the temple were twofold: first, to find the lost scriptures of his lineage; second, to seek a five-color bottle.
The woman in white said, "If your performance is dazzling enough, a single duel will suffice. But if it is merely mediocre, you will simply have to go through a few more rounds."
With a beckoning wave of her hand, she summoned a fairly handsome young man from a patch of dried blood on the ground. The moment he appeared, pure yang conscious spiritual light flowed within him.
Qin Ming looked on in astonishment. Pure yang conscious spiritual light in the very first realm? That was utterly absurd!
He immediately spoke up: "I suspect that even across the greatest orthodoxies of the outer realm, no one could achieve such a feat in the first realm."
"Have you never heard of the pure yang physique?" the woman asked with a faint smile.
Qin Ming said, "A pure yang physique merely aids cultivation, allowing one to manifest a small amount of pure yang conscious spiritual light ahead of time. If one has achieved full pure yang transformation, that person is already an esteemed senior expert."
He stared at the young man with a serious expression; this had to be an elder of the past.
"I am not of this path. Well, is that true?" the woman asked the young man.
"It is! Back then, you killed me with your own hands," the young man replied.
Qin Ming realized the master of this temple truly was treacherous. If that were the case, could he actually walk out alive? Even so, he chose to place his trust in Wu Yaozu's grandmother.
The woman in white said indifferently, "That was because you were mere dross. Everything you learned was far too outdated, utterly useless for pioneering new paths. Better to consume fewer resources and make way for the youth."
With a wave of her sleeve, the young man dissolved once more into the pool of dried blood on the ground.
She looked toward Qin Ming. "Your detached heavenly light force can already take preliminary shape, which is equivalent to the means of an Outer Sage. This is somewhat beyond the curriculum. How about this: I shall guide your physical body over and sculpt a figure myself, having her spar against your true body using the techniques of your path."
Qin Ming suspected she intended to take the field herself!
In the night mist, the main divine temple loomed dark and immense like a mountain range, exuding immense grandeur.
The beings in the bizarre town could not see through the dense fog; they could only faintly perceive light dawning over the temple as glowing vapors swirled, creating a wondrous spectacle.
Just then, people were astonished to discover that from the dilapidated courtyard on the other side of town, a physical body wrapped in glowing mist soared through the sky and sank into the divine temple.
Many extended conscious spiritual light, divine wisdom, and other senses in an attempt to discern the body's true appearance, only to be repelled by the luminous vapor. Each of them groaned as severe, throbbing pain struck their seas of consciousness, as though they had taken a hammer blow.
"I told you he wasn't on the Newborn path! See? In the end, he had to use his conscious spiritual light to haul his true body over for battle."
Some remained convinced that he was an eminent figure from the outer realm!
Another countered, "Nonsense! That was clearly a technique of our esoteric sect to summon the physical form."
"Perhaps all of you have guessed wrong. He has already suffered a crushing defeat and is about to be utterly obliterated; it was the master of the divine temple who dragged his true body over." Others held this view, believing Li Wanqiu would never make it out alive.
Inside the main hall of the temple, Qin Ming returned to his flesh body, feeling in better condition than ever before. Earlier, channeling his heavenly light had been relatively smooth, yet it had felt like duckweed without roots.
Now, with his feet planted firmly on the ground, he felt as though he had merged with the entire world, falling into rhythm with heaven and earth—a sensation deeply resonant with the Dao operating in harmony with nature.
"Mm, it seems you are indeed extraordinary."
For the first time, the white-robed woman offered sincere praise. Then she added, "You carry a bit of my former flair."
Qin Ming doubted whether she truly was an ancient senior; her mindset did not seem like one at all!
"How many times have you undergone rebirth as a mutant?" she asked, shaping a figure from a distance as flecks of white light radiated toward it.
"Seven rebirths," Qin Ming answered truthfully.
"Very well, she is also set to seven rebirths." The woman in white waved with a smile.
Not far away, a figure approached—an old woman with a head of white hair, an emaciated frame, and a slight hunch. The moment Qin Ming saw her, his mood plummeted. It was that old crone from the Cui clan! Had she not been smashed to pieces?
The woman in white said, "Yes, she is a dead person. I patched her remains back together, and some lingering obsession still remains. Go on, spar with her."
The old woman's eyes were initially dull, but as her obsession surged, she actually recognized Qin Ming, gritting her teeth in rage before he could even move.
Then she grasped her situation and state, finding that her mind held many insights and wondrous arts of the Newborn path that she had never possessed in the past.
"Heh, a divine temple... Though I have never heard of it, I can feel all manner of obsessions and resentments here. None of them can leave, and you will stay behind as well, becoming a corpse that can never return to the outside world!" Like a madwoman, the old crone charged forward to kill.
Qin Ming circulated the Heluo Classic, instantly calling forth a damp mist, followed by the release of thunderfire force. With a loud crash, a bolt of lightning descended, striking the old crone and making her white hair stand straight up.
It had to be said that the white-robed woman was profoundly mysterious; she had temporarily raised the old woman's potential ceiling to a terrifying degree. Though the old crone's flesh was charred black, it had not been pierced through.
Even so, Qin Ming felt reassured. He had only been testing whether this old wretch was truly within the Newborn realm, and now his mind was at ease!
A surge of fury burned within his chest. To encounter this dead crone once again gave him the chance to vent his rage and sever a lingering knot in his heart.
Ever since embarking on the Newborn path, he had never suffered so miserably as when she had used her spirit field and heavenly light force to blast him apart, subjecting him to a mortal tribulation!
The white-robed woman watched in mild astonishment. The battle before her turned rather bloody, and it did not last very long.
Qin Ming came out fighting with reckless abandon, his combat will erupting and his heavenly light boiling within his flesh and blood. He had never put so much "heart and soul" into pummeling an opponent.
At this moment, he unleashed one lethal technique after another, each trump card blossoming in rapid succession. Every punch landed solidly to draw blood, and every kick struck true to fracture bone.
Like a tattered rag doll, the old crone was battered across the hall, missing arms and legs, quickly beaten out of any human shape.
"How is this possible?!" She felt that her current attainments were countless times greater than when she had been a young maiden, having truly reached the highest hall of the Newborn realm, enough to look down upon the world and dazzle the night mist.
Yet Qin Ming seized her wrist, treating her like a scarecrow, swinging her like a sledgehammer to slam her repeatedly against the floor—a ground reinforced by runic restrictions, making it exceptionally hard.
In the end, her arm was ripped away, her body smashed like cracked porcelain, and every bone in her frame broken.
"Vile beast!" Enraged to the extreme, she felt utterly humiliated. Given her status, how could she be subjected to such torment, battered to the point of bursting? With a dull thud, her jaw shattered, and a mouth full of yellow teeth went flying.
Filled with disgust, Qin Ming raised his right foot in the final moment. His entire sole blazed with dazzling brilliance before stomping down viciously. With a bang, he crushed her to pieces, wiping her out of existence.
"You're cheating!" The white-robed woman found it hard to believe. That was a combat tool she had sculpted with her own hands; how could it be defeated so quickly and in such brutal fashion?
Qin Ming stood candidly before her, gesturing that she was welcome to examine him.
"My own hands are itching!" The white-robed woman walked over with graceful steps, runes blooming beneath her feet as moonlight enveloped her entire form, sacred and transcendent.
The only jarring detail was the black hair veiling her face, marring her peerless grace.
"Very well! As long as you stay within the first realm, I would be glad to keep you company!" Qin Ming said, his heart surging with excitement. He truly wanted to test the master of the divine temple on equal footing.
Chapter 181