The Cui Clan Bleeds

With a smile, the Cui clan had shot an "arrow of information," intending to make clever use of the Li clan as their blade. Yet in the end, that arrow had struck their own people. "Call them back!" an elder barked. Someone reported, "It's too late. They should be arriving there soon." The group exchanged glances. Where had things gone wrong? Their expressions turned grim. They felt a pressing need to get to the bottom of this. How had it come down to them having to step into the fray in person? *** The members of the Li clan were well pleased. The hotheads of the Cui clan had been rampaging across the plateau, hunting down many fiends, and upon receiving word, they were now rushing there one after another. "To tell the truth, I actually hope an ancestral master who cultivated the silk book method is still alive. If the Cui clan provokes him, a resounding slap across their entire clan could break their bones and cripple them for a hundred years!" Some in the Li clan leaned toward the belief that no one could master the silk book method alone without a predecessor to guide them. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so cautious this time. "If that youth truly mastered the silk book method on his own, that would truly defy heaven. We'd have to capture and study him." Soon enough, their good mood soured. Messages from spirit birds ahead reported that Li Qingxu, traveling alone to hone himself against fiends, had seemingly run into another formidable foe. Though a full-scale battle had yet to begin, they had just traded a palm strike, and the situation did not look promising. At that moment, both Xiao Wu and Li Qingxu were questioning their very lives. Both wondered how anyone they casually bumped into could be this ridiculous. In that first clash, Li Qingxu had taken an extra step back, ruining his mood completely. Was he about to suffer two defeats in a single day? What's more, this was another youth following an unorthodox path! Xiao Wu's brows were furrowed tight. Recently, he had gathered materials on all the immortal seeds and divine seeds and studied them carefully, yet none matched this masked figure. He was beginning to doubt his own strength. Could it be that in the same realm, he was inferior not only to Brother Ming, but even to those near-immortal seeds? He had casually run into some "wild man," only to jar the other back a mere single step more than himself—he should have swept through him with overwhelming force! "I must reflect on this and redouble my bitter cultivation hereafter," Wu Yaozu muttered, thoroughly dissatisfied with his performance. As for right now, his priority was naturally to topple this masked man first. *** Qin Ming swept across the land, reaping rich harvests. Occasionally, he would turn back to deliver fiend heads, asking Jin Xiang to hold onto them for him. In truth, with the memory crystals, losing trophies was hardly an issue. Certain stretches of the plateau had no trees, only waist-high meadows. Qin Ming spotted spirit birds watching him in the night sky and sensed malice rapidly closing in. He came to an abrupt halt. The grasses shook violently as four figures arrived, bringing a gust of wind. Qin Ming remained outwardly calm, but internally his mind was far from peaceful. These were people of the Cui clan. Though he wasn't close to them, he had seen them all before. He wondered: where had he exposed a flaw? "Chonghe... no, Qin Ming, is that you? Little brother!" A woman among them walked forward, surprisingly calling him "little brother" with a look brimming with affection. After reaching the second realm, Qin Ming's perception was extraordinarily sharp. In particular, his spirit had just resonated, allowing him to clearly detect the malice they were trying to hide. Cui Xueying appeared in her early twenties, with raven-black hair, phoenix eyes, and vivid red lips. Among the younger generation of the Cui clan, her looks were striking and she was fairly well-known, though her cultivation achievements were average; she followed the path of the esoteric sect and was currently in the middle stage of the second realm. In the past, they had had little interaction. "Qin Ming, you could be considered a brother of ours. I never expected a chance encounter here," a young man spoke. He was a disciple from the outer yang land, possessing strength in the late stage of the second realm. His name was Cui Chongsheng, a direct descendant of the Cui clan and the biological grandson of Fifth Uncle Cui. Back then, Old Fifth Cui had kept an iron grip on Qin Ming in his childhood. It was he who had deceived the young Qin Ming into persevering with the silk book and not distracting himself with other methods, effectively cutting off every avenue. Cui Chongsheng was several years older than Qin Ming and had long known the latter's true background. Thus, like the older cousins, even back in the Cui clan he had treated this stand-in for Cui Chonghe with cold indifference. The elder standing in the meadow was named Cui Changkong. His body was burly and thick, his white hair coarse and tangled like a beast's mane. Standing a head taller than ordinary men, he bore traits of fiends, with a rhinoceros horn growing from his head. He followed the path of mutation, capable of shifting from human to beast and transforming into an anomaly. Qin Ming felt profound wariness toward him. This man was in the third realm, someone who posed a lethal threat to his life. The last youth was named Cui Chongyun, the elder's biological grandson. He was the weakest of the four, currently in the early stage of the second realm and a disciple of the immortal path. "Gentlemen, and lady, who might you be..." Naturally, Qin Ming wouldn't admit it to their faces. He feigned confusion and stepped back to create distance. In truth, he knew this was futile. Given the Cui clan's temperament, once they suspected, they considered it settled; killing the wrong person was of no consequence to them. "Little brother, how could you be like this, refusing to acknowledge us? We truly see you as kin," Cui Xueying said, blinking her beautiful eyes and sighing. Such words were mere lip service. Qin Ming was certain that their earlier malice had been genuine. "Cousin, there is no need to hide from us!" Cui Chongsheng said. Just as in the past, he offered no smile before Qin Ming, his expression indifferent. Undoubtedly, they could not be entirely certain this was Qin Ming; they had simply rushed over upon receiving the secret report. Just as Qin Ming knew them, suspicion alone was enough. The Cui clan acted with just such overbearing arrogance: seize the person first, verify their identity later. "Friends, do not make things difficult for me. I don't know you," Qin Ming said, gripping the hilt of his saber, prepared for self-defense. With a whoosh, aside from the weakest, Cui Chongyun, the other three closed in, blocking his path from three directions. In fact, in their eyes, with Cui Changkong present, no matter how much this suspect defied heaven, he couldn't stir up any real trouble. Moreover, if it really was Qin Ming, how long had he been cultivating? Less than a single year. Cui Chongsheng, at the late stage of the second realm, possessed absolute confidence that he could take the person before him immediately. And indeed, that was exactly what he did, striking with vicious force right from the start. Holding a spiritual saber ablaze with conscious spiritual light, he slashed forward at top speed. At such a juncture, Qin Ming naturally held nothing back. His life was on the line; the Cui clan had arrived with malicious intent, and he already treated this as a fight to the death! Clang! The mutton-fat jade iron saber left its scabbard. In an instant, an exquisitely brilliant flash of saber light was soul-shaking, as if a rising sun had vaulted from the sea before blazing furiously, illuminating the entire area. Cui Chongsheng's spiritual saber was quite extraordinary, inscribed with multiple runes that amplified conscious spiritual light, yet in terms of durability, it couldn't even begin to compare to a mutton-fat jade iron saber. The spiritual saber snapped, severed in two in a single exchange. Unleashing his full power, Qin Ming moved like a phantom shadow, silent in his steps, lightning-fast. In the blink of an eye, he surged forward, carving out an enchanting arc of saber radiance. "Ah!" Cui Chongsheng let out a shriek as his right arm fell to the ground. In just a single clash, this late second-realm expert had suffered a devastating loss, half his body drenched in blood. He felt none of this could be real. He retreated explosively, at the same time casting a resentful glance at Cui Changkong. With a formidable third-realm expert standing guard right here, how could he possibly have been allowed to lose an arm! Cui Chongsheng's heart was flooded with indignation, humiliation, and bitter hatred. Cui Changkong was speechless, sorely tempted to snap: *Why are you glaring at me? Are you useless? A late second-realm expert losing an arm in a single exchange—this is utterly absurd.* He had originally been standing quietly, believing that with him present, the outcome was settled. He truly hadn't anticipated this result. Glanced at with that look, Cui Chongsheng felt pain, rage, and hatred all at once. Cui Xueying fell back, while Cui Chongyun in the distance tensed all over. Both felt this was almost surreal; no one knew Qin Ming's origins better than they did. He had stepped onto the Newborn path for less than a year. Was he the reincarnation of a god? To actually sever an arm from a late second-realm expert! Now, they truly believed: Qin Ming had genuinely mastered the silk book method! Cui Changkong was closing in. With every step he took, this meadow trembled, as if a colossal beast were advancing ferociously. He spoke, "Hurry and reattach the severed arm. It can still heal." Yet when Cui Chongsheng picked up the severed arm from the ground, it burst with a squelch. The lingering heavenly light force within it was far too domineering, destroying everything. Cui Changkong's face darkened. Failing to preserve his junior's arm bruised his pride. Throughout this, he advanced unhurriedly while Qin Ming backed away; the disparity in their auras was clear at a glance. Qin Ming felt uncertain. In the past, every time he crossed paths with an uninjured third-realm expert, he had suffered terribly, narrowly escaping with his life. "Watch closely," Cui Changkong said. Emitting a jade-like radiance, his body partially transformed into a beast as his upper torso transformed into a rhinoceros, and he charged forward violently. At this moment, Qin Ming did not dodge. He lunged to meet him. Just as the collision seemed unavoidable and they were about to crash together, a blinding radiance suddenly erupted in all directions. Qin Ming's right hand was stuck to the rag, and in front of it lay the black meteorite. Channeling his heavenly light force with all his might, he triggered the Starfire Essence like a miniature sun detonating. For a fleeting instant, he once again experienced that all-conquering sensation, as if he could cleave through all creation and incinerate the night sky. In that split second, the consumption was immense. The blend of heavenly light and Starfire Essence thrust forward like an immortal sword leaving its sheath, piercing through the elder's chest. Fire flared, and the stench of charring drifted into the air. "Ahhh..." Cui Changkong screamed shrilly, stumbling backward in a state even more wretched than Cui Chongsheng. A gaping hole appeared in his chest, clear from front to back, pierced and burned entirely through by the sword radiance of heavenly light fused with Starfire Essence. Half his heart was gone, and a large chunk of his lung was missing; he had suffered unprecedented trauma. This was no normal battle. In an instantaneous exchange, the surge of Starfire Essence proved unstoppable even for an early third-realm expert. Cui Chongsheng turned and fled, cursing inwardly: *You old bastard! A third-realm expert, yet you fared even worse than me—getting your chest pierced right off the bat!* "Hm?" Something felt off. Why was he falling? Soon, sheer terror gripped him: his head hit the ground, while his body... collapsed behind him. He had already been decapitated. Only in delayed realization did he comprehend that Qin Ming had caught up and lopped his head off with a single stroke! "Ah..." Farther away, Cui Chongyun cried out in agony. Though he had run a great distance, he still could not escape death: an arrow blew his heart apart, followed by a second arrow that shattered his skull like a watermelon. At the same time, the two spirit birds in the night sky exploded, shot down almost simultaneously! "Grandson!" Cui Changkong roared, his eyes nearly tearing at the corners. Cui Chongyun was his biological grandson, and he had watched with wide eyes as the boy died violently right before him. "Don't rush. You two will be reunited soon enough!" Qin Ming let out a quiet sigh of relief. He hadn't known if he could kill an early third-realm expert in an ordinary confrontation, but right now, there was no need to dwell on that. "Qin Ming, please don't do this..." Cui Xueying backed away, her face drained of color, her courage shattered. She truly never imagined that even with a senior expert accompanying them, they would suffer such a catastrophic defeat. *Pfft!* In the end, her expression froze. A flash of bright snow-white saber light sliced through, crimson blood splattered in all directions, and her head went flying through the air.