During the shallow night, Qin Ming carried the long-handled dark-gold hammer on his back and the short sword at his side. Wind seemed to rise beneath his feet as if he were about to take flight, charging into the dense forest at tremendous speed.
He felt a sense of urgency. The nobles of Chixia City had arrived; once they stepped foot into the great mountains, they would surely scour the area for spiritual substances of every kind.
He did not want anyone beating him to the Blood Bamboo Forest, for it concerned his second Newborn breakthrough.
The night fog dispersed. Though the forest remained somewhat dim, with his eyesight he could clearly discern distant scenery.
"The Blood Bamboo Forest won't be that easy to enter. There must still be danger."
Otherwise, Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng would have taken action long ago instead of waiting around only to die with lingering regret.
"I've gotten a bit impetuous."
Icy snowflakes drifted onto his body, some even slipping down his neck. The chill gradually calmed Qin Ming down.
The frantic way he had been rushing just now was no different from Old Man Liu last night, wishing wings would sprout from his ribs so he could fly into the Blood Bamboo Forest and pick up the frozen blood snakes.
"Calm the mind." Qin Ming slowed his pace and adjusted his breathing amid the mountain forest.
Wasn't it just a second Newborn breakthrough? Even without obtaining spiritual substances, with his own baseline conditions he could still smoothly break through.
"An unsettled mind invites mistakes." Stepping through the thick snow, Qin Ming walked at an unhurried pace, growing steady and composed.
The Blood Bamboo Forest was bound to be exceedingly dangerous. Even with a second Newborn like Fu Entao among them, the mountain patrol team had hesitated to make a move for so long, which said plenty.
Qin Ming moved silently through the dense forest and finally dug up that saber manual from a hidden spot. The old leather pages were curled at the edges and heavily worn, showing that people had often leafed through it in the past.
The entire book was not thick, bearing motley traces of antiquity; there was no telling where Fu Entao had obtained it.
"Reading the crystallized lifeblood of predecessors should quiet my mind." Qin Ming sat down in the glade.
Moments later, he was completely captivated, throwing himself heart and soul into the book.
Without realizing it, he rose from the snow. Holding the leather booklet in one hand, he gripped the long-handled dark-gold hammer in the other, swinging it as if it were a long saber.
It was originally a heavy weapon, yet in his hands it felt as light as a wooden mallet, wielded at will and gradually taking on a free, natural grace.
To achieve Newborn, one needed to practice the corresponding scriptures—such as the Night Meditation Art, the Yiqi Art, and the like—which could enhance physical qualities across all fronts, including strength, flexibility, and speed.
Combat arts, on the other hand, belonged to technique, utilizing bodily strength, speed, and other attributes to achieve efficient strikes.
Qin Ming's physical constitution was exceptionally strong, surpassing a golden foundation, yet his combat techniques had never undergone systematic training; most were practical, loose forms.
Some were derived from the unorthodox Newborn method he had practiced for years, drawn from those idiosyncratic movements, while others were learned from old hunters in the village.
His actual combat capabilities were formidable, honed in the great mountains.
The forest beneath the night was treacherous. Hunting in such an environment meant facing sudden attacks from all kinds of ferocious birds and beasts; being half a beat too slow meant death.
Though most of what he practiced were loose forms—unorthodox ways, even—their lethality was undeniably immense. Fighting beasts to the death followed no set patterns; it relied on strength, speed, and real-time adaptability.
It was precisely because of this that Fu Entao had found him so exceptionally tricky to deal with. In Qin Ming's offensive, there were no fixed patterns to be found, no traces to follow.
Now, as Qin Ming read the saber manual, combining it with his hard-won experience battling wild beasts and his insights between life and death, he became thoroughly entranced. Unconsciously holding the book in one hand and the hammer in the other, he continually varied his "saber stances" according to his evolving comprehension.
Qin Ming absorbed the lifeblood left behind by past practitioners. When his spirits soared, he put greater force into his swings. Though there was no blade light, an aura of saber intent pervaded the air, sweeping the snow off the ground and whirling it into midair. The long-handled dark-gold hammer turned into a streak of swift lightning, tearing through the glade's tranquility.
He "slashed" toward a large tree, and in an instant, its thick trunk shattered with a blast. Such a "slash" was simply too violent. Several strange beasts that had been eyeing him hungrily from the dark for a long time were frightened into tucking their tails and fleeing.
Among them was a mutated black tiger over four meters long, which turned on its heels and bolted.
"Still daring to spy here and refusing to leave, are you?" Qin Ming spotted a human-faced vulture far larger than its kin, circling close above the treetops about twenty meters from the ground, lingering stubbornly.
Having just grasped the "Tossing Saber Stance" from the booklet, he executed it at once. The heavy "hammer-saber" in his hand instantly vanished into the night, flying into the sky.
*Pfft!*
Blood splattered in midair, and feathers fluttered across the sky.
With a wingspan of several meters, the mutated human-faced vulture had originally been quite ferocious, yet now it was as fragile as porcelain, blown apart by Qin Ming's "Tossing Saber Stance"!
His arms possessed a thousand jin of strength, leaving no suspense in such a strike. The long-handled dark-gold hammer smashed the giant bird of prey to pieces beyond recognition, sending heaps of mangled flesh and messy feathers showering to the ground.
Some strange beasts watching from afar fled madly at the sight, feeling that this two-legged human beast was extraordinarily savage. They had to get far away from him; this area was no longer safe to stay in.
"What a great saber art!" Qin Ming praised. Picking up the long-handled dark-gold hammer, he practiced once more.
To him, this saber manual was like a bright lantern in the night fog, illuminating the path ahead and blending his various combat experiences and unorthodox fighting methods, rapidly sublimating them.
Qin Ming read with fascination, eventually losing himself entirely, immersed so deeply he could not pull himself away.
He practiced every saber stance from beginning to end. While he could not claim complete enlightenment, his combat techniques had genuinely improved, and his strength had grown significantly.
This saber manual was well worth studying; it had given him deep insights and was of immense value!
"If Fu Entao had mastered this saber manual completely, he really would have been trouble," Qin Ming muttered to himself. Then again, if Fu Entao had possessed the ability to comprehend this book fully, he wouldn't have been halted at the second Newborn stage.
This was not merely a saber manual; it also contained observations and studies regarding Newborn methods, which offered him great inspiration.
For instance, the book mentioned "heavenly light," which first manifested during the third Newborn transformation but ran through the entire Newborn realm; even after reaching Newborn perfection, one could not do without an in-depth study of heavenly light.
Heavenly light—in this era when the sun had vanished, it harbored humanity's cherished hopes and bore boundless yearning.
The heavenly light mentioned in the book was naturally not the sky's radiance that people longed for, but a light within the body, bestowed with a poetic name.
Once a person underwent the third Newborn stage, this "heavenly light" would begin to manifest, born within the body as a sign of an elevated life-tier.
At this stage, a Newborn's strength would increase dramatically, allowing them to battle dangerous strange beasts bare-handed—all thanks, naturally, to "heavenly light."
For once heavenly light was born in the body, "heavenly light force" would emerge. This was a special kind of internal force with tremendous penetrating and tearing power.
Otherwise, compared to colossal beasts, a Newborn's body was far too delicate and small; how could they possibly confront such behemoths?
The emergence of heavenly light force allowed a Newborn to tear through a mutated behemoth's scales, its force capable of piercing right through tough, solid flesh.
Within the Newborn realm, however, heavenly light force could only coat the body's surface, extending just slightly beyond the fists and feet, unable to spread into weapons.
In fact, "heavenly light force" was merely a general term; subdivided, many varieties existed. This book had likely passed through quite a few owners, with various insights, notes, and annotations inscribed across the pages in different hands.
Among them, someone held one specific heavenly light force in utmost esteem, leaving behind a lament: *If only I could master the Tathagata force!*
To an unorthodox Newborn like Qin Ming, the various records and descriptions in the book filled him with quiet fascination.
Regrettably, although the saber manual mentioned the names of a few exotic and powerful heavenly light forces, it contained no record of how to cultivate them.
Qin Ming drifted into contemplation, mulling it over for a long while.
Turning further back in the saber manual, the material became somewhat unsuitable for him to read; he had not yet reached that level.
However, among the insights left by previous owners, he discovered a very practical secret art named "Harmonize with Light and Dust," which could safeguard one's well-being.
After studying it closely, he couldn't help breaking into a cold sweat, while simultaneously feeling fortunate to have discovered this entry.
According to what predecessors had written, the gaze of higher beings was terrifying. In a single glance, they could see right through the vitality within other creatures; even in the deep night, they could "see" biological fields of varying intensity.
That was frightening: lower creatures held no secrets from higher beings.
In particular, once heavenly light was born within a Newborn or a strange beast, to higher beings it appeared just like clusters of blazing fire in the dark night.
"I have to master this right away!" He wiped away a cold sweat, suddenly feeling the perilousness of the great mountains.
Fortunately, Harmonize with Light and Dust was merely a practical secret technique, not some abstruse, difficult scripture.
"Visualize emptiness and stillness, body like dry wood, mind like cold ashes, veiling one's vitality till it dims to a faint glimmer, cloaking the spirit in dull obscurity." He slowly gained an understanding and crossed the threshold into the art.
Qin Ming sat in silence for a long time, quietly experiencing and deciphering it. Gradually, he uncovered more of its inner workings. Harmonize with Light and Dust could mask a portion of one's vitality, allowing him to blend in among ordinary people.
Furthermore, this degree of concealment could be controlled. Once practiced to a certain level, even if heavenly light were born in his body after the third Newborn stage, he could cloak it as needed.
With that, Qin Ming let out a long breath.
Yet on second thought, he chuckled helplessly. Perhaps his sense of crisis was simply too sharp. Even if a higher being passed through this place and could see right through the strength of his vitality in a single glance, they likely wouldn't care, would they? After all, he had only undergone Newborn once. In the eyes of such strange beings, he was still just one of the teeming masses scattered across the great mountains.
Then he thought of the upper echelons of Chixia City. Since they could negotiate and face off against the mysterious entities in the mountains, they presumably possessed comparable capabilities.
"Biting off more than one can chew helps no one. Learning this much today is plenty. I need to consolidate it, master it, and grasp every bit firmly!" Qin Ming stood up, found a secluded spot, and buried the saber manual once more.
Without a doubt, his harvest today was enormous. After thoroughly studying those saber stances and blending them with his own comprehension, his strength had risen significantly.
Qin Ming murmured to himself, "If I were to encounter Fu Entao, Feng Yi'an, and the others now and fight them again, I think it would be far easier."
Most importantly, the book had broadened his horizons, letting him learn about many things he had never had access to before.
"Fu Entao wasn't so bad after all; he gifted me a good book."
Emerging from the dense woods, he set out toward the location of the Blood Bamboo Forest.
Chapter 20