Under the dim night, great mountains stood tall. Stands of larches, hazels, and birches spread across the slopes. Though of differing species, most had already shed their foliage, leaving only bare branches weighed down with white snow.
Qin Ming crunched through the snowdrifts, crossing several towering peaks until he neared the Blood Bamboo Forest.
He had never set foot in this region before; it could no longer be considered the mountain's outer perimeter.
Along the way, mountain beasts had prowled in great numbers, and strange birds had screeched incessantly. Yet once he arrived here, apart from the howling winter wind, every other sound had vanished.
Qin Ming realized the peril of the Blood Bamboo Forest. The mountain's creatures all detoured around this place, rarely daring to appear nearby.
And this was merely during the bitter, snowbound winter. If the Fire Spring entered an active phase, bringing the revival of life when the blood snakes emerged to hunt, the surrounding area would likely grow even more dead and silent.
"The scenery is certainly beautiful, though," Qin Ming murmured as he stood outside a mountain valley, gazing inward.
The Blood Bamboo Forest lay within the valley. Though the light was faint, he could still clearly see the vast expanse of bamboo standing proud against the wind and snow—a blaze of fiery red dusted with white snow, breathtakingly gorgeous.
The valley was entirely filled with blood bamboo. From stalks to leaves, every plant glowed a translucent scarlet, looking like red coral that had grown into a dense forest upon the snowfield.
"What a truly fine place," Qin Ming marveled.
Under ordinary circumstances, no one dared come here to admire the view. The ferocious reputation of the blood snakes was widely known, striking immense dread even into the mountain patrollers.
No light steamed up from the Fire Spring in the valley; it truly seemed to have died out.
Even so, Qin Ming did not take a single step inside. He suspected that "embers" still lingered beneath the frozen soil, meaning the Fire Spring might not be entirely extinguished.
He skirted the perimeter to survey the surrounding terrain, climbing a high slope to look down from above. Sure enough, in the very center of the valley, an extremely faint smudge of "crimson blush" remained.
After a moment's thought, Qin Ming turned and left this silent expanse, heading toward the area thick with strange birds and beasts, where he caught a rabbit in the snow.
"Forgive me," he said. Carrying the plump snow hare, he returned to the vicinity of the Blood Bamboo Forest. Standing upon the high slope, he hurled the hare with great force toward the crimson blush in the center of the valley.
With a thud, the large rabbit slammed into the deep snow, kicking up a shower of white flakes not far from the dying embers of the Fire Spring.
Almost simultaneously, a red line shot out and skimmed across the snow, charging at the rabbit with astonishing speed and instantly piercing straight into its body.
Qin Ming focused with intense concentration, shattered golden ripples surfacing across his skin. His eyes remained fixed on the center of the valley, not too far away.
Without a doubt, that was a blood snake. Just over three feet long, its body was indeed as hard as refined iron, just as the rumors claimed. It could leap into brief flight, piercing through targets like an iron arrow.
"It really is a troublesome creature. And that's just a relatively small one. If a large snake several meters long appeared, it would be difficult to deal with," Qin Ming mused, frowning.
Most importantly, in such freezing weather, the blood snake remained active and could briefly move through ice and snow. That was deeply troubling.
Next, he watched several more red lines emerge from the crimson blush, all only a few feet long. This time, they did not shoot forward like iron arrows. Instead, they slithered across the snow to the snow hare and plunged their hard heads into its body.
Such spiritual serpents could not be judged by ordinary logic. They did not fear the freezing snow as much as he had imagined, and they would not easily stiffen with cold over a short period.
"Am I providing you with winter nourishment? An unexpected meal?" Qin Ming watched the Blood Bamboo Forest. The blood snakes were clearly drinking the snow hare's warm blood.
The serpent took its name from blood, which was closely tied to its feeding habits. Unlike ordinary snakes, it did not swallow prey whole.
They fed extremely quickly, perhaps because they were unwilling to linger in the snow for long, and soon slithered back toward the nearly extinguished Fire Spring.
"Hm?" Qin Ming noticed that two of them did not return to the nest immediately. Instead, they crawled swiftly through the Blood Bamboo Forest, seemingly searching for something.
At the same time, he spotted a larger snakehead emerge from the crimson blush, continually flicking its bright red tongue as if sensing its surroundings.
"A bit troublesome." Qin Ming could tell that this lethal spiritual creature was remarkably powerful and extraordinarily alert, far more difficult to handle than other mutated beasts.
He wondered if he could fight poison with poison by feeding them tainted meat. However, seeing that the large snake showed no inclination to feed at all and that a smaller snake had gone first to test the food, he felt such a plan was unlikely to work.
Qin Ming observed that after making a wide, swift patrol around the Blood Bamboo Forest, the two small snakes—each three to four feet long—noticeably slowed down. Concluding their territorial inspection, they retreated into the crimson blush of their lair.
"The freezing cold still has a major effect on them. That's good news, at least." He descended the slope and retraced his steps.
He intended to transport his various weapons over. Once he ventured deep into the Blood Bamboo Forest, he would definitely don three or four layers of armor from the mountain patrol team. He had no desire to be ambushed by a blood snake; once that iron-hard head pierced the skin, even a Newborn would surely die.
Before long, he dug up the iron spears and armor sets, moved them over, and concealed them near the Blood Bamboo Forest.
"Against blood snakes, Fu Entao's sharp saber is actually more useful than the long-handled dark-gold hammer."
Using a heavy weapon against large anomalies certainly packed tremendous lethality and could shatter a skull in one blow. But against slender snakes, it was far less handy than a saber.
Qin Ming pondered when the Fire Spring in the Blood Bamboo Forest would die out entirely. The longer it took, the weaker the blood snakes would become. Yet he did not have much time left, as the final round of negotiations between the higher-ups and the top-tier anomalies of the mountains would conclude in the next few days.
"I startled the snakes today and put them on alert. I'll come back tomorrow." Qin Ming withdrew. Although time was pressing, one day would not make or break his chances.
"I should be able to deal with this nest of blood snakes, right?" he contemplated on the road. Feng Yi'an, Shao Chengfeng, and their group had designs on the Blood Bamboo Forest, and he had wiped out the entire lot.
He could not afford to be careless; he had to remain cautious and vigilant.
On his return journey, he spotted three large raptor-like creatures sprinting through the woods at extraordinary speed, carrying riders on their backs as they cut across the dense forest ahead.
"People from Golden Rooster Ridge?" Qin Ming ducked behind a large tree and guessed their identities upon seeing the sight.
Those were three mutated ground fowl, each taller than a man and exceptionally powerful, capable of carrying riders swiftly through mountain forests. In this region, only Golden Rooster Ridge could breed them.
Qin Ming had heard of Golden Rooster Ridge. It possessed a near-tier-two Fire Spring and had originally been home to a band of brigands before they were eventually pacified and brought into the fold.
Their mutated ground fowl were exceedingly practical, to the point that mountain patrollers sometimes had to hire their Golden Knights to scout conditions deep within the mountains.
"Golden Rooster Ridge is far from here. Why have their people come over?" He watched the three ground fowl recede into the distance. One of the riders wore exquisite armor and did not look like a local, dressed entirely differently from the other two from Golden Rooster Ridge.
"From Chixia City?" Qin Ming noted that the person's black armor style differed from the Cao, Wei, and Mu families. It likely belonged to another great clan.
Seeing that they were not heading toward the Blood Bamboo Forest, Qin Ming resumed his way back.
Just as he was dragging a hunted quarry near the edge of the mountains, he caught sight of four peculiar Newborns.
Two of them wore no armor, but their attire was clearly extraordinary. Black robes woven from metallic threads enveloped their bodies, concealing even their faces.
Qin Ming was surprised. The mountain-clearing operation had not even begun, yet the mountains were already growing lively. What sort of crowd was this?
The other two Newborns appeared to be locals in their early thirties. One of them smiled and called out, "Little brother, do you happen to know of a fissure nearby that emits silver light?"
Qin Ming realized they were searching for a special node. It seemed the two black-robed men were most likely from Chixia City as well.
"Head that way. Walk straight for three li, and you'll be there!" Qin Ming pointed out the direction. It was no secret location; many people already knew of it.
"Little brother, how about leading the way for us? We'll give you a piece of night silver afterward," the man asking directions said with a smile.
Qin Ming took two steps back and said, "I'm scared of that place. The fissure is dangerous. Besides, I'm in a rush to get home. I haven't caught any game in days, and my old mother is nearly starving."
"Let's go," one of the black-robed men said, his voice sounding quite young.
Hearing that, Qin Ming prepared to leave as well.
However, the black-robed man's next words froze him in place.
"Get rid of him. We cannot allow too many people to know we are here." With that casual remark, the black-robed man decided the fate of a "young hunter."
Qin Ming was taken aback. What sort of monstrous fiends were these? Deciding life and death with a single word showed utter contempt for an ordinary person's life.
He had met Cao Long, Wei Zhirou, and Mu Qing. Though they also hailed from Chixia City, they had all been pleasant enough. Regardless of whether they were merely upholding the courtesy expected of nobility, they maintained decent manners on the surface and did not arouse distaste.
Yet this black-robed man was excessively ruthless, casually ordering the two local Newborn guides to commit murder without the slightest ripple of emotion.
"Brothers, we're all locals. You can't do this," Qin Ming said.
One of the men smiled. "Sorry, brother. We were ordered to accompany these two distinguished guests into the mountains, and we must obey their every command."
"Who are you...?" Qin Ming asked.
"We are from the Three-Eyed Cult." The two locals stepped forward together, closing in.
The next instant, Qin Ming moved like an agile leopard, leaving an afterimage where he stood as he charged forward at top speed. The short sword in his left hand slit both their throats in a flash.
The two men from the Three-Eyed Cult were dumbfounded, terrified, and incredulous. They had assumed they were dealing with an ordinary hunter since Qin Ming's game was small—merely a rock sheep. Yet before they knew it, their throats had been cut; he was far too fast.
When the two black-robed men saw Qin Ming charging toward them and noticed the exceptionally heavy long-handled dark-gold hammer he drew from his back, their expressions changed drastically.
The dark-gold hammer in Qin Ming's right hand crashed toward one man's head, while the short sword in his left thrust at the other.
Since they had already resolved to kill him to conceal their tracks, further words were useless; he could only fight back with everything he had.
Instantly, the screeching clash of metallic weapons erupted between the three.
With just a brief exchange, Qin Ming gauged their depths: one was a second Newborn, while the other was of little concern, having undergone only a single rebirth.
He poured his full strength into attacking the second Newborn; only this one posed any real threat.
Had this been earlier, he might have had to wage a drawn-out battle. But reading the saber manual today had helped him immensely; though not quite an overnight enlightenment, it had dramatically elevated his combat technique.
*Clang!*
After several collisions, the formidable black-robed man's saber bounced high into the air from the hammer's impact, leaving his arm utterly numb.
At the same time, his pupils contracted. Like a bolt of lightning, the long-handled dark-gold hammer swung forward with deceptive ease, smashing toward his chest at a speed he could never match.
It was too late to dodge. His chest caved inward, and he coughed up mouthfuls of blood, clearly on the verge of death.
"Matching sabers with me?" Gripping the long-handled dark-gold hammer, Qin Ming used a saber stance, not even sparing the dying man a glance as he turned to advance on the remaining black-robed figure.
The other man was horrified. Having just been knocked back, he saw his companion perish in mere moments. It had happened far too quickly. How could a youth who looked like a hunter be so terrifying?
Knowing he was no match, he spun around and bolted into the dense forest, desperate to flee.
"Saber-Throwing Stance!" Qin Ming uttered.
With a boom, the long-handled dark-gold hammer flew through the air, and not far away, the black-robed man's head shattered like a rotten watermelon.
Without hesitation, Qin Ming quickly cleared the battlefield, wiped the blood from the dark-gold hammer with snow, and dragged his quarry onto the trail home.
Yet he felt uneasy. With so many people entering the mountains from all walks of life, he could not stay away from the Blood Bamboo Forest for too long.
After eating a meal, he quietly returned to the mountains.
"With each passing day, the Fire Spring dims considerably, which works to my advantage. But I also have to watch out for outsiders rushing in to seize the spiritual treasures," Qin Ming muttered to himself. For now, he could only stand guard here.
He did not leave until deep night approached, as no one would choose to act at such an hour. The pitch-black night had little effect on serpents, but it severely limited Newborns.
The next morning, he entered the mountains early and discovered that the crimson blush in the center of the valley had indeed dimmed significantly.
Encouraged by this discovery, he decided to wait a little longer, intending to strike before the shallow night ended today at the latest.
Two hours later, the entire mountainous terrain suddenly blazed with radiance. Boundless "earthlight" steamed upward as a rain of light filled the sky, illuminating the surrounding area.
Earthlight surged forth while brilliant halos flowed. The spectacular sight captivated Qin Ming; it truly was magnificent.
Especially here, the fiery-red bamboo forest contrasted against the pure white snow, appearing remarkably fresh and stunning—a breathtaking spectacle unlike anything ordinary.
"Hm?" Right then, Qin Ming noticed something. A group of people was approaching in the distance.
Far from growing anxious, he calmly retreated into the shadows. This was fine too. If this group had come for the spiritual treasures of the Blood Bamboo Forest, he would let them scout the path first.
Chapter 21