"Transforming from a serpent into a dragon inevitably requires a baptism of blood, but it is an elevation of life's tier—reborn through tribulation, possessing fierce and peerless might." Thinking of all the wondrous aspects of the Dragon Snake Scripture, Qin Ming felt as though a hundred claws were scratching at his heart; he craved it immensely.
He felt the current situation was ideal for practicing the Dragon Snake Scripture.
"Bro, did you finish mastering the Golden Cicada Scripture?" Wu Yaozu asked in surprise.
He was suspicious. Was Brother Ming changing scriptures again so quickly because he was fickle and tired of the old, or was his cultivation efficiency terrifyingly high?!
***
"You've mastered them all, and to complete perfection? That isn't too bad, then," Tang Jin spoke.
Ling Yu knew Senior Sister Tang held him to exceedingly high standards, so receiving such praise from her was already exceptionally rare. He realized he might finally be able to arrange a fight with the youth from Black-White Mountain!
Sure enough, Tang Jin, clad in black, made her decision.
She turned around briskly, the fine locks of hair beside her porcelain, flawless face fluttering with the motion. "Then get ready."
Ling Yu was thrilled. He had held back for days, waiting for this moment for a long time.
Tang Jin stood tall and graceful, taller than many men. She paced a few steps across the room and said, "Don't embarrass me. Master Wu has been grumbling constantly, blaming me for not choosing that person, and he even made a bet with me this time."
Hearing this, Ling Yu clenched his fists, his fighting spirit surging instantly. Master Wu didn't believe in him? Then he would win and show him!
***
The curtain of night was like an abyss, yet someone stood high above the heavens.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Sun Taichu stood upon a dark cloud and said, "Wind and clouds rise from heaven, dragons and snakes stir the earth. Kunjun is growing more bustling by the day. Factions from all over have arrived, and that plateau will soon be dyed red with blood."
This was his pure yang conscious spiritual light, no longer dazzling like a scorching sun, but currently identical to his true body. He strolled across the pitch-black mist, then turned and asked, "Will Cao Qianqiu come?"
Following behind, Pu Heng replied, "My master will arrive."
In present-day Kunjun City, people were arriving each day. Factions everywhere coveted the blood of the auspicious beast; even the founders of sects had their eyes on it. That plateau had already been locked down, and the mountain-sized auspicious beast had long been targeted.
However, it was not alone. It had called upon friends, dispatching mutated birds to seek reinforcements from other lands, and even intended to slaughter everyone near Kunjun in retaliation.
Recently, some unfathomable monsters and fiends had appeared. The plateau outside the Third Peril was growing increasingly perilous, and terrifying, eerie winds frequently howled across it in the deep night, stirring up vast expanses of clouds and mist.
A burly youth entered Kunjun City. His hands were large as cattail fans, his legs thick as pillars, his head large as a basin, and his black hair stiff as steel needles. He had thick eyebrows, wide eyes, a broad mouth, and a square nose.
With such a towering stature and striking appearance, he looked like a mutant at first glance!
In fact, even if an actual mutant stood before him, they would hardly seem bizarre enough. He was none other than the Tathagata renegade—Xiang Yiwu, who had also appeared here.
"Hm?!" Distant atop a high tower, Li Qingxu spotted him.
Xiang Yiwu sensed the gaze and spun around sharply. Looking toward the tower area of Feixian Academy from afar, he bared his teeth in a grin, completely indifferent to being watched.
"Should we go get rid of him?" a middle-aged man beside Li Qingxu asked.
Li Qingxu's expression was rather unsightly. Thinking back to when he had struck the Tathagata renegade with a staff, the fellow had retaliated with two slaps that made him cough up mouthfuls of blood.
The key issue was that they were of similar age, yet the other was a Newborn. Upon reaching the Outer Sage realm, his cultivation level surprisingly hadn't fallen behind Li Qingxu's at all, which was quite startling!
"Don't act rashly," Li Qingxu said, shaking his head. Everyone claimed this was someone the Tathagata lineage let run wild, on the verge of becoming a renegade.
Yet some analyzed that he was likely one of the individuals the old fellows of that lineage valued most. If someone used underhanded means to harm him, they might have to repay it tenfold.
A similar incident had occurred in the past.
That was five hundred years ago, and it had provoked the contemporary Tathagata to personally take action, blowing countless people to pieces.
***
"Cousin, are you telling the truth? During my closed-door cultivation, my brother Qin Ming mysteriously rose, and he's now that strong?" Ning Siqi asked skeptically.
He was habitually dressed in white and had a slight obsession with cleanliness. He, too, had arrived in Kunjun.
Back when many people avoided Qin Ming like the plague and distanced themselves from him, Ning Siqi had traveled thousands of li regardless of distance to deliver the priceless Departing Fire Classic to him.
"Only a few people know," Wang Caiwei nodded.
Then she sighed. "Unfortunately, he walks the Newborn path. Later on, his cultivation speed will suddenly slow down, and he won't be able to keep up with the pack. Otherwise, based on his past performance, so long as he was in the same realm, he might have been able to contend with near-immortal seeds."
"Sigh, there's nothing to be done about it," Ning Siqi sighed. There was a major flaw in the Newborn path. This was a reality no one could change, not even the patriarchs.
He then added, "I only hope he can eventually endure until he becomes a patriarch-level figure."
Dressed in black, Wang Caiwei said, "I wonder if he will show up here. But for him, this territory is far too dangerous."
Ning Siqi lamented, "I haven't seen him in a long time. I don't know when our brotherhood will reunite."
This time, virtually every youth with any foundation from the immortal path and the esoteric sect path had arrived.
For instance, Zheng Maoze and Zeng Yuan had also shown up.
Both felt uneasy in their hearts. The past few months had been downright cursed. Every time they explored ruins in search of opportunities, they inexplicably took beatings, ending up with fractured bones and torn tendons. Surely that wouldn't happen this time, right?
***
"Bro, we've already entered four academies in a row," Wu Yaozu said, feeling skeptical. Was there any need to continue?
"Yeah!" Qin Ming nodded and said, "We'll register and take the assessments first. We might not actually join in the end."
It was currently the registration season and formal classes hadn't begun yet. Qin Ming had his eye on the uncanny arts of the various academies, so naturally he wanted to tour them all and pick up an affiliation with each.
Jin Xiang ran ahead, pulling the nanmu carriage, and said, "Junior brothers, you two truly have guts. Thinking back to my day, we Old Sheep had no students like you. Do you intend to get registered at every academy?"
This senior brother from Shanhe Academy, covered in brilliant golden fur, was very talkative. Having been hired for the day, he offered them advice along the way, telling them the pros and cons of the various dao arenas and academies.
In the end, Qin Ming and Wu Yaozu successively passed the trials of Origin Academy, the Dragon-Elephant Dao Arena, and others, totaling six institutions before finally pausing.
Qin Ming had looked into them; these six institutions had very deep foundations, each possessing a repertoire of famous uncanny arts that interested him greatly.
Little Wu was also quite pleased. He needed uncanny arts as well. The primary issue with his path of rainbow transformation was that it viewed the physical body as a cage, ultimately discarding the mortal frame. At present, he was actively tempering his flesh.
"Junior brothers, call me again next time you need a carriage. I'll give you a discount." Jin Xiang turned and departed. For twenty years he had persevered, walking the path of tempering his heart in the mortal world.
"Senior Brother, we'll wait for you to rise in the mortal world and become a deity in the future," Little Wu waved.
Jin Xiang shook his head and said, "Sigh, how difficult it is to temper one's heart in the mortal world. In the very first step, I tempered away the person I loved."
Little Wu said, "Ah, you killed her?"
"No. I tempered my heart, and she got married." Jin Xiang moved into the distance, his breath mingling with the mortal dust drifting through the city.
***
No sooner had Qin Ming and Little Wu returned to their residence at Shanhe Academy than someone came looking for them.
"Are you Shen Wubing?" This was an upperclassman of the academy who seemed quite well known, named Tang Jun.
"That's me. What is it?" Qin Ming asked.
Tang Jun smiled and said, "It's like this. There are some exchange meets in the academy that may require sparring and duels. The winners receive day gold. I wonder if the two of you would be interested in participating?"
"How much day gold for winning a match?" Little Wu grew interested. Brother Ming spent money like water; just learning a few pages of the Golden Cicada Scripture had cost six hundred day gold, and they would soon be broke again.
"Ten day gold," Tang Jun said.
Little Wu was delighted and was just about to say, 'Arrange a hundred matches for me in the same realm!'
However, seeing Brother Ming unmoved and sitting there placidly, he also quieted down. After pondering, he said, "We don't know you. Why come knocking on our door? On whose behalf are you acting? Could it be a former defeated opponent?"
Feeling he had deduced the truth, he said, "Tell them to prepare one thousand..."
Little Wu stopped, looked at Qin Ming, and asked, "Bro, how much should we tell them to prepare? Two thousand day gold?"
Qin Ming shook his head and said, "I won't compete against them."
Little Wu immediately caught on. "Right, we won't participate. You can leave. Who are you looking down on? Coming at us with ten day gold right off the bat—it makes my blood boil!"
Tang Jun's expression changed slightly. He had thought one of the youths was rather naive, only to find the boy wising up at a pace visible to the naked eye, now looking down on him with utter disdain.
He hastily said, "Junior brothers, don't misunderstand! Let's talk this through properly."
Neither of them paid him any mind.
Tang Jun said, "Junior brothers, I swear, I won't pocket any middleman fee! This really was at someone's request, and... well, what I just said was indeed out of line."
Wu Yaozu said, "Even if the principal comes in person, we might not agree."
Tang Jun found that the two were remarkably composed; they simply headed to the lakeshore to angle for dragon carp. This was a blatant violation of academy rules, yet they weren't even afraid he might report them.
In the end, helpless, he turned and left, reporting the outcome to the principal party.
***
Ling Yu came in person. Getting straight to the point, he demanded a match against Qin Ming.
Wu Yaozu glanced at him and said, "Why should my brother fight you? You're already a defeated opponent; you'll have to carry that loss for the rest of your life."
Ling Yu had originally been quite calm, but hearing this, his chest instantly tightened with frustration. He retorted, "That was an ambush. I didn't lose."
"Just go!" Little Wu waved him off.
"One thousand day gold. How about one match?" Ling Yu already knew from Tang Jun that these two likely had a strong need for day gold.
Little Wu said, "Are you trying to brush off beggars? Last time, my brother struck only a single palm strike and earned over a thousand day gold. Does he only need to strike a single palm this time, too?"
Veins bulged on Ling Yu's forehead. He badly wanted to say: Did you two 'earn' that day gold? You snatched it straight from my chest! At the same time, the back of his head started aching again.
He thought to himself that this seemingly rustic youth wasn't simple in the slightest!
He finally caught on. While this fellow claimed they wouldn't fight him, every word was calculated to needle him—talking about defeats and single palm strikes. Was he trying to jack up the price on the spot?
"What on earth do you want?" Ling Yu asked in a heavy voice.
Little Wu said, "My brother lacks uncanny arts; he needs the Dragon Snake Scripture. I'm focusing on health preservation; I need a secret scripture where the physical body binds the soul. Besides, we're short on funds and already owe ten thousand day gold in outside debt. You get it, right?"
Ling Yu clenched his fists, sorely tempted to charge forward and brawl with them directly. This was simply an outrageous extortion!
Wu Yaozu waved his hand and said, "Don't look so indignant. Let me do the math for you. You fought a match with Xin Youdao, drawing massive public attention—didn't you get a huge cut of the proceeds? You're hailed as a Young Ancestor, but both you and Xin Youdao are defeated opponents of my brother and me. If my brother and I reveal ourselves and go out to fight a match, how much do you think the cut would be?"
"I didn't lose!" Ling Yu corrected.
"Then just go, and carry that knot in your heart forever." Little Wu cast his rod, tossed out the line, and resumed fishing, paying him no further mind.
Ling Yu turned and walked away. The price these two demanded was far too ruthless and greedy; he had no authority to make such a call, but he desperately wanted to fight.
Finally, Tang Jin appeared, dressed in black, graceful and poised. Her dark hair drifted in the wind, and her flawless, exquisite melon-seed face looked extraordinarily cold and enchanting.
Because Lu Zizai had given him advance warning, Qin Ming wasn't intimidated at all, even though he knew she had deduced his identity and understood her cultivation was profoundly deep.
"Miss Tang, we meet again." Qin Ming put down his fishing rod and rose with a smile.
"I couldn't tell at all. A youth gentle as jade would actually make such outrageous demands." Tang Jin was tall and slender, her waist lithe, swaying gracefully with every step.
Qin Ming remained placid. Since he had already been exposed before her, there was naturally no need to stay low-key. He said, "Actually, my brother asked for too little; he was being far too modest."
Beside them, hearing this, Ling Yu clenched his fists. That was modest?!
Qin Ming had his own valuation. A Young Ancestor drew all eyes and received massive profit shares; if he took the field, how could he settle for so little?
Tang Jin spoke coolly, "Since you demand such a massive wager, what can you offer if you lose?"
"Two uncanny arts!" Qin Ming said.
Tang Jin smiled through her chilly elegance. In an instant, the frost thawed, looking remarkably radiant. "Quite confident, aren't you?"
Qin Ming nodded and said, "Yes, I have always been confident. Actually, I would prefer to spar with Miss Tang in the first realm—would you be up for it?"
Chapter 196