Night mist curled. In Twin Trees Village, the crimson Fire Spring flowed steadily, and the leaves of the Black-White Twin Trees rustled in the warm breeze. Outside the village lay vast stretches of thriving crops.
"Old Immortal, you've come again." At the village entrance, Old Man Liu grinned. He looked honest and simple, his complexion ruddy as he held a porcelain bowl, eating his meal.
Though Cao Qianqiu was the materialization of pure yang consciousness, he had restrained his blazing, sun-like radiance. He looked no different from a being of flesh and blood, his silver hair lustrous, his face softly glowing, his feathered robe wide and billowing.
"Mm." He nodded, sizing up Old Man Liu, and then glanced at the old yellow dog lying by the courtyard gate. With his level of cultivation, he could naturally tell with ease that this was just an old hunter from a remote hinterland.
Old Man Liu chuckled and asked, "Have you eaten yet, Venerable One? Why not come inside the courtyard and have a bite? Your complexion keeps looking better and better—you'll surely live to a hundred!"
Cao Qianqiu swept a glance over him. What he pursued was immortality; was this old man wishing him an "early death"? All of his disciples, except for Li Qingxu, were already over a hundred years old.
Old Man Liu hurriedly slapped himself across the mouth and said, "Pardon me, Old Immortal, I spoke out of turn! You are surely bound for boundless longevity!"
Fierce and domineering as Cao Qianqiu was, there was no need to lower himself to dispute with an old villager. He looked toward the forty-odd households beneath the night sky—blue bricks, gray tiles, and curling hearth smoke. It could not have appeared more ordinary.
He reached out to touch the Black-White Twin Trees at the village entrance, confirming they were not dead wood blooming anew, but merely saplings newly grown to maturity.
Afterward, he paced out the grounds on foot, circling the village in a wide loop. Roosters crowed and dogs barked from time to time; the rustic atmosphere of a remote village was unmistakable.
The only unusual sight was a mutated squirrel whose fur was like red satin, accompanying a toddler in training, both grunting and shouting in unison.
The red squirrel threw punches, kicked its legs, dodged around, and whipped its tail with practiced poise. Divine wisdom was already flowing through its body.
Cao Qianqiu captured its mental impressions, sensing a surprisingly formidable fighting spirit.
"Through wind and rain, I will rise! One day, I'm going to raid that guy's nest too!" That was the conviction driving the red squirrel forward, pushing it to grow stronger.
Cao Qianqiu returned to the village entrance, looked at Old Man Liu, and said, "Recount the blood-stained kite incident from your childhood in detail once more."
At last, he ascended into the sky and vanished into the pitch-black night!
***
In the Kunling region, the atmosphere was fraught with tension; an ultimate war was on the verge of erupting at any moment.
Old seniors walking the forefront of certain paths arrived, and founding-master-level figures revealed themselves, drawing the gazes of countless people throughout the night mist world.
Such a grand spectacle had not occurred in many years.
At the same time, this meant something was amiss with the plateau beyond the Third Peril. Otherwise, why would eminent figures from more than one path be disturbed?
The various academies made tense, rapid preparations, dispatching airships to evacuate their disciples and planning to recall them only after the storm of this incident blew over.
At Shanhe Academy, in Qin Ming and Xiao Wu's residence, emerald bamboos looked fresh, golden vine trees shone brightly, and before their doors lay a gleaming blue lake. The two were fishing for five-colored dragon carp and grilling them to entertain Ling Yu, Xin Youdao, and a few other acquaintances as a farewell meal.
"We should be reuniting in Kunling soon, shouldn't we?"
"Hard to say. The atmosphere feels wrong this time, and too many top experts have gathered."
During the meal, Qin Ming gained a great deal. He learned much about the new arts researched by Ling Yu's master, which provided him with immense inspiration.
One of them interested him most of all: Planting Immortal Lotus in Heavenly Light.
With heavenly light as mud and flesh and blood as soil, a seed of pure yang was planted to temper a luminous conscious lotus of the immortal path, which would ultimately thrive and grow into an immortal lotus.
This was an exemplary new method that thoroughly merged the Newborn path and the immortal path, remarkably extraordinary with unique merits.
What Qin Ming cared about was not its raw power, but its ability to alter a person's spiritual aura and temperament.
He could manipulate flesh and blood to alter his physical appearance, but his spiritual presence was difficult to change. Now, this new art provided a method that made it entirely possible for him to transform into another person altogether.
Ling Yu explained the technique: burying the seed of pure yang in one's flesh and blood was effectively merging it with heavenly light; whatever cultivation art one channeled, one's spiritual aura would shift accordingly.
Qin Ming grew contemplative. For him, this did not seem particularly difficult, as his heavenly light had long been fusing with divine wisdom and conscious spiritual light.
He tested the art on the spot, planting the accumulated conscious spiritual light that had not yet been integrated into the "soil" of his flesh, blood, and heavenly light.
Then, he began to probe and circulate the technique.
How domineering was his heavenly light? Bathed by it every day, his accumulated conscious spiritual light had long possessed pure yang qi, fearless against such tempering.
Thus, the arduous seed-nurturing stage that took others great pains was bypassed entirely by him with hardly any difficulty.
Moreover, when he blended divine wisdom into it as well, the effect seemed even better.
Ling Yu was dumbfounded. He had only described it in broad strokes, and yet he watched as Qin Ming mastered it on the spot.
One had to know that his own teacher considered this art somewhat unpolished and unrefined, making it rather difficult to practice.
Furthermore, Ling Yu himself was still in the middle of cultivating it, having only just buried the seed of pure yang deep into the soil of flesh, blood, and heavenly light, unable to achieve much yet.
At this moment, he was thoroughly shaken.
Tang Jin arrived. Seeing this, she was likewise astonished. Why did her teacher's new art pose not the slightest difficulty in the hands of this youth from Black-White Mountain?
Master Wu also stared wide-eyed with his purple eyes, saying, "No bottleneck at all—he just mastered it outright? And he figured it out on his own based purely on the general concept!"
Afterward, Tang Jin personally passed on the specific chants to him so he could refine and perfect the new art—Planting Immortal Lotus in Heavenly Light.
Qin Ming manifested it on the spot. All his conscious spiritual light coalesced within the heavenly light of his flesh and blood, giving form to a heart lotus that merged with the heavenly light to slash out astounding beams of radiance.
Without intending to, he had mastered a trump card technique!
"This..." Tang Jin felt a pang of regret. A heaven-sent genius like this truly should have been brought before her teacher back then; he was born suited for new arts.
Then she knitted her brows and asked, "Why does your Planting Immortal Lotus in Heavenly Light carry an additional mysterious luster, with power far greater than it should have?"
"I integrated divine wisdom into it as well," Qin Ming informed her.
"You can cultivate three paths simultaneously?!" Even Master Wu was shocked. He had heard of practitioners advancing along two paths together, but it was his first time encountering a monster strong in every domain.
Qin Ming shook his head and sighed, "Alas, I can only take the Newborn path. I've been 'hijacked.'"
Even so, everyone present was dazed. He was only bound to it because his heavenly light force was too domineering.
It took a long time before they recovered their wits.
During the gathering, Tang Jin maintained restraint and refrained from asking further about the demon seed, Demon One.
Qin Ming, on the other hand, was quite generous, sketching Demon One's appearance to show them.
The purple-eyed crow said, "The outside world has gone crazy with rumors now. In the same domain, he battered Cao Qianqiu! The material from the secret realm has already landed on the desks of the major sects. He's viewed as the next generation's demon god, bound to be targeted and studied by people from every path."
"Fame brings trouble just as fattening invites slaughter. Making a name for oneself at a young age isn't necessarily a good thing," Xiao Wu remarked. If an actual demon seed truly existed, surviving would be hard.
The others nodded as well. Without the protection of a founding master, how could a young demon seed ever grow up? He would surely meet an early death.
Afterward, the atmosphere relaxed.
***
"Time for us to leave as well!"
At Shanhe Academy, giant airship after giant airship set sail one after another, flying into the night sky.
"Weren't we holding the advantage? Why are we retreating?" someone asked in confusion.
"The academy's higher-ups made this decision with profound reasons of their own," some said with solemn expressions.
Qin Ming and Xiao Wu boarded the same airship. Their destination was the neighboring empire—Great Yu.
After boarding, Qin Ming paid a high price to purchase extra escape parachutes, splitting them evenly with Xiao Wu.
"Brother, is this really necessary?" Wu Yaozu gave him an odd look, never imagining Brother Ming was so terrified of dying and had such severe fear of heights.
"Do you remember how we first met? Falling from the sky!" Qin Ming sighed. He had developed a psychological trauma; he had plummeted from midair more than once.
Then he chuckled and added, "Didn't you say you couldn't find the way back? No need to worry at all. If all else fails, just take an airship over that region and jump—you'll land right at home."
"Hey, come to think of it, that really is an idea!" Xiao Wu nodded.
That day, a vast number of airships set sail, heading toward the three great empires: Yu, Gan, and Rui.
Kunling was situated between them, and because multiple perils existed here, no faction dared claim sole possession of it.
Xiao Wu looked back and sighed, "Why do I feel like once we leave, there's no going back? Sigh. We just got familiar with this place, only to pack up and leave in such a hurry."
The night mist hung heavy as the airship traversed the heavens. Qin Ming and Xiao Wu entered the territory of Great Yu that very day. Without pausing along the way to harvest celestial essence or the like, their travel was swift.
***
Under the ink-thick night, Twin Trees Village was peaceful, without any sign of abnormality.
Yet in the night sky, black mist churned. In the abyssal heights, Cao Qianqiu had vanished for a long time. An indescribable aura permeated the air, alarming several night birds.
Whenever a bird of prey with strong spiritual perception passed by, its feathers would bristle, and it would instantly veer away, not daring to draw close to this expanse.
Dull-witted birds that noticed nothing would plummet silently the moment they blundered into this area.
That day, the villagers managed to gather a few dead birds, making for an extra dish at mealtime.
In truth, this was merely what could be seen. In unseen depths, it was terrifying and horrific beyond measure, for Cao Qianqiu was currently crawling his way out from within the black mist.
He seemed to be inside an invisible tunnel.
Though a pure yang spiritual body, he looked virtually indistinguishable from a physical form, yet he was covered in blood—a sign that his pure yang spiritual essence was leaking away.
This was his second time coming here, and once again, he had kicked an iron board!
Moreover, this time he retreated even faster!
Hardly anyone could have imagined that Cao Qianqiu was now pale-faced. Glancing back, his facial muscles twitched with deep dread and considerable unease.
Behind him, something seemed to have appeared. Slow though it was, it appeared to be pursuing him.
Long strands of hair were wrapped around his hands—pitch-black, glistening, and stained with blood. Clearly not his own, they had adhered to him as he crawled through the invisible tunnel in the night mist.
Originally a pure yang spiritual body whose palms could unleash sun-like beams of light, his face was now gloomy and his brow furrowed deep. As he advanced through the tunnel, all five fingers had been corroded, puffing white smoke as though burning.
A sound stirred from behind. His expression changed drastically. The moment he turned his head, his pupils constricted, and he bolted forward.
At this moment, his face was faintly pale—an expression never seen on him on ordinary days. Today, he had suffered a colossal loss here!
Finally, Cao Qianqiu crawled out of the tunnel, burst out of that patch of night mist, and reached midair. His footing staggered, for he was gravely wounded.
One of his feet felt as if he had kicked a slab of exotic metal; the toes of his pure yang spiritual body were snapped, drenched in blood.
Furthermore, a rust-mottled spear was thrust into his body, rendering his steps unsteady and floating. Rather than pulling it out immediately, he chose to surge frantically into the distance.
"The Old Immortal really can fly!" Below, beside the Fire Spring of Twin Trees Village, Old Man Liu cried out in amazement.
At that moment, Cao Qianqiu cast a deep look at him, but did not halt, nor did he intend to attack anyone. He flew off into the night sky like some grotesque bird.
He did not unfurl his crimson blazing sun; his body merely gave off a faint glow, far more subdued than when he arrived. Moreover, he moved in frantic haste, as if fleeing for his life!
"The Old Immortal seems to be bleeding. Why does he look a bit like a blood-stained kite himself?" Old Man Liu watched from behind.
"Uncle Liu, look! The Fire Spring has brightened again," Village Head Xu Yueping said.
The Fire Spring gushed and bubbled, flowing into the fire fields outside the village to nourish all the crops in a vibrant red.
Old Man Liu said, "Last time, it was also thanks to his arrival that our Fire Spring became more active. At this rate, it's about to become a second-grade Fire Spring."
"Then he truly is an immortal! To think that in my lifetime, I'd see a person who can fly!" Xu Yueping marveled, gazing toward the direction where Old Cao had departed with boundless reverence.
"B-but... the immortal was bleeding!" Yang Yongqing said in a trembling voice full of terror, staring up at the night sky. So the blood-stained kite incident Old Man Liu spoke of from his early years had been real all along!
***
Cao Qianqiu sped away, yet he constantly felt something was pursuing him from behind. But he could neither see nor touch it. Only after traveling three thousand li did the palpitation and dread in his heart gradually fade.
At this point, his face turned grim. The wounds he suffered today exceeded those of last time; he had truly snapped his foot! If word got out, the old bastards on other paths would surely laugh themselves to death!
"Ah, Senior Cao?!" someone cried out in surprise.
In truth, Cao Qianqiu had already sensed someone in the distance beforehand.
With a cold expression, he pointed a single finger. With a boom, a beam of bloody light shot out, instantly blasting a pure yang conscious spiritual light apart.
Evidently, that was an expert as well. Anyone capable of traveling via conscious spiritual light was an illustrious figure, yet he had been killed in an instant.
Cao Qianqiu's face remained impassive. Wounded as he was, he did not want anyone to know.
Soon, he began tending to his injuries. An inexplicable aura entangled within him, infuriating him because he could not purge it for now, though on the surface he appeared to have recovered.
It was also at this moment that he pulled out the rust-mottled spear and gripped it in his hand. Only now did a faint smile finally grace his face.
The value of this spear was beyond measure!
Yet whenever he thought of that region, his face turned unsightly again. The myriad experiences filled him with rage and indignation; he wished he could charge straight back and fight another round.
Cao Qianqiu gathered his composure, once more becoming cold and unyielding. His wide sleeves were no longer tattered, and pure yang light shone through his body.
When he set out again, he was like a crimson sun crossing the sky once more, shining upon all things, heading straight toward Kunling City twenty thousand li away.
"Hiss—Cao Qianqiu has appeared again! He's returned from Black-White Mountain, and this time he's so high-profile! Could he have taken his revenge?!"
Along the way, as he passed cities without concealing his presence, he soared across the vast night sky, shaking the firmament. The dense night mist violently churned, burned away into nothingness.
For a time, the crimson blazing sun hung high, illuminating the entire route.
However, as he passed over a desert, his pure yang conscious spiritual light suddenly went out. Old Cao plummeted abruptly, crashing into the earth with a violent impact.
With a thud, an enormous crater appeared.
Cao Qianqiu flared with rage. How could he plummet from the sky? This should never happen to a pure yang spiritual body!
"Is it because of the desert? Even so, it shouldn't come to this!" He thrust the rust-mottled spear into the earth.
In the end, however, he stumbled out of the great desert, his face grim as water. Countless grotesque visions haunted his conscious spiritual light, corroding his mind.
Only after sprinting over a thousand li across the ground did he shake off that state.
Cao Qianqiu took to the road again, still piercing the night sky with his conscious spiritual light.
After flying another thousand li, he suddenly plummeted into a pitch-black abyss, feeling as though he had dropped into an icehouse, chilled to the bone.
In a place like this, even he felt a trace of dread.
Ultimately, an illusory, withered claw tore away a piece of his pure yang flesh and blood.
"What happened? That's Cao Qianqiu traveling, yet along the way, his pure yang conscious spiritual light has 'extinguished' several times and vanished inexplicably! Has something gone wrong?"
Along his route, countless people were watching him. After compiling the news, people discovered in astonishment that Old Cao had "plummeted from the sky," nearly meeting disaster in several unusual areas.
Cao Qianqiu was incensed. It was as though bad luck possessed him; he plummeted from the sky five times in a row, each incident more severe than the last. He encountered inexplicable, nameless entities, his very life threatened.
When he was very young, his master had told him that when traveling through the night mist world, no matter how profound your cultivation or whether you had reached the pinnacle of creation, you could never be flashy—otherwise, disaster would surely strike.
Cao Qianqiu had always kept his master's teachings in mind. Yet once he ascended to the absolute pinnacle, he believed nothing could threaten him anymore. As long as he refrained from intruding upon special grounds or plunging deep into the heart of the night mist world, the land beneath the endless night was his to roam at will.
Today, however, he was taught a lesson again and again, making him recall his master once more.
Back then, that path-forging elder had ultimately returned to the night mist in spirit, dying an incomprehensible death.
Still refusing to accept it, Cao Qianqiu set out again. Ahead, the night mist was vast and hazy, an ordinary stretch of land, yet today it made his hair stand on end.
In the night mist, an old wooden cabin stood silently in deathly stillness. It caused him to plummet from the sky; enveloped by bizarre vapors, he was inexplicably dragged into the cabin.
"You go too far!"
Cao Qianqiu was enraged. In this single day, he had experienced more plummeting incidents than in his entire past lifetime, frequently ensnared in inexplicable crises.
Inside the old wooden cabin, a tremendous commotion erupted. In the end, Cao Qianqiu tore open the doors and windows with the rust-mottled spear and burst out, his Pure Yang blood streaming ceaselessly.
This time, his injuries were severe.
"Senior Cao seems to have fallen yet again, encountering another inexplicable and perilous incident."
Along the way, onlookers spoke in shock.
Because Cao Qianqiu was traveling so conspicuously, whenever that crimson sun extinguished, something had certainly happened. People could see it from afar and even feel the furious ripples of his conscious spiritual light.
"It is only normal that the essence of the night mist world cannot be penetrated. If it could be understood, that would be abnormal," an elder said.
Someone even stated bluntly, "Even founding-master-level figures must keep a low profile when traveling, or else trouble will find them!"
When Cao Qianqiu plummeted from the sky for the eighth time, even his own face turned pale. This time, he landed in a dense forest—a place he recognized.
Back then, after his master's spirit returned to the night mist without a trace of his corpse remaining, Cao Qianqiu had erected cenotaphs across various lands. This was one of those locations.
The old grave had been swallowed by mugwort, even collapsed level with the ground, yet he recognized it at a single glance: he had crashed right onto the original site of the ancient mound.
This time, Cao Qianqiu felt no danger, yet his dread deepened. In the dark unseen, some unknown power seemed to have tangled around him.
Could it be that he still hadn't escaped the influence of Black-White Mountain? But he had already fled fifteen thousand li!
The tenth time, as he traveled through the night sky, he inexplicably collided with a meteorite wrapped in outer heavenly light that crashed into him. Any other expert would have exploded.
After all, such a colossal meteorite paired with outer heavenly light was enough to bore through the earth and cave in vast stretches of land.
Yet Old Cao endured it. His pure yang spiritual body shattered and swiftly reassembled. He was outraged and horrified; everything had slipped beyond his control.
He wondered whether this terrible misfortune was going to dog him forever.
Cao Qianqiu was conceited and stubborn. When his fiery temper flared, he refused to back down and set out conspicuously once more.
As he passed over a rumored nether realm, trouble struck again as expected. It was said that a godkin creature had perished here, turning into frigid underworld soil.
Cao Qianqiu was wrenched by an inexplicable force and dragged underground.
He struggled there for more than half a day before seeing the night mist world again. By then, he was covered in wounds, and his pure yang conscious spiritual light had dimmed.
After Old Cao crashed out of the sky thirteen consecutive times, he finally reined himself in. No longer traveling as a blazing sun traversing the sky, he flew toward the Kunling region with a low profile.
Over the final few thousand li, Cao Qianqiu met with no further mishaps. The journey was smooth and completely peaceful. He remained silent. Had he simply been taught a lesson by the night mist world earlier?
Or had he fallen victim to something in the region of Black-White Mountain, only gradually breaking free after escaping eighteen thousand li?
When Cao Qianqiu finally arrived in Kunling City keeping a low profile, it stirred up fervent discussion.
"Did something happen to you on the road?" Sun Taichu arrived in person upon hearing the news, asking with a solemn expression.
"I nearly died!" Cao Qianqiu said in a deep voice. He was exceptionally aggrieved. This journey had been far too grueling; he was merely traveling, yet disaster had struck him again and again.
Sun Taichu said, "The night mist world is vast and boundless, holding far too much unknown and mystery. There are things even we cannot see clearly. Do not place blind faith in your present power!"
***
In Great Yu, Qionghua City was bustling with boundless prosperity, its streets flowing with carriages and pedestrians.
"Boss, your business is booming! This food is really unique," Xiao Wu praised, stopping before a street stall that had everything from candied spiritual fruits to bear paws. He called out, "Give me a skewer of candied softshell turtle!"
"This is preserved in honey, called Honeyed Turtle!" the vendor corrected him.
A moment later, Qin Ming and Xiao Wu were each munching on a skewer of candied softshell turtle as they began familiarizing themselves with the city. After all, they might be living here for quite some time.
Two days later, a piece of news arrived like an explosion, shattering the peace of Qionghua City and stirring up towering waves across the entire night mist world.
The founding masters of various paths had struck in the Kunling region, fighting their way into that plateau. The earth caved in, and even the Third Peril was suspected to have been leveled.
Yet from that moment on, there was no follow-up.
The entire Kunling region seemed to sink into absolute dead silence, dense night cloaking every stretch of land.
That day, many experts entered one after another to investigate. Blood-red light was suspected to have flared, and none ever returned.
The Kunling region remained dead silent and devoid of sound, while the entire night mist world erupted into a frenzy!
Chapter 223