"In all likelihood, something has gone wrong again!" someone said with a dark expression.
They were responsible for gathering intelligence and dispatching personnel, and by now, they desperately wished they could step into the fray themselves.
Several of them could barely hold back. Even if rushing over was already too late, they still longed to act.
***
Qin Ming was thoroughly dissatisfied. He had interrogated Cui Qing about the World-Abiding Scripture, but the result was a great disappointment.
"You little cur..." Even at the final moment, Cui Qing continued to berate him.
"What good are you, then!" Qin Ming chopped him down with a single stroke of his blade, instantly reducing him to a headless corpse.
Next, he shot down another spirit bird in the night sky, tidied up the battlefield, and swiftly departed.
He had not come away completely empty-handed; he had obtained a fragmentary portion of the World-Abiding Scripture.
Cui Qing had not mastered the entire scripture. Having only recently stepped into the spirit field realm, he had yet to receive the full text.
In the Cui clan, the detailed, annotated World-Abiding Scripture was divided into four volumes. Members of the main lineage were permitted to study them, and Cui Qing had only cultivated the first volume so far.
*Looking at it from another angle, any gain is better than none. Besides, at my current level, I can't cultivate the World-Abiding Scripture anyway; my priority is unique arts. I'll have chances to obtain the remaining three volumes later. In the future, whenever I see green hair, I'll just hunt them down.*
The Cui clan had withheld his family's ancestral silk book, so Qin Ming intended to pry into their clan's World-Abiding Scripture—a matter of "returning courtesy for courtesy."
*Today I've wiped out two groups from the Cui clan in a row, and some of them belonged to the direct line. This enmity has grown huge.* He sighed. The tree wished for calm, but the wind would not cease.
Even so, he had nothing to fear. Since they stood opposed, it was simply kill or be killed. Things were destined to end violently, and backing down was utterly useless.
He was certain the Cui clan had made up its mind to root him out once and for all.
Otherwise, they would not have been so resolute this time, sending wave after wave of people.
*Are they going all out?* Qin Ming judged strictly based on available information.
Regardless, the Cui clan had come brimming with malice. This was an exceedingly grim reality, and he had to consider how to survive.
*It seems the identity of Shen Wubing has been completely exposed and discovered by the Cui clan.*
Qin Ming reflected that every persona he had assumed had shaken the world—Qi Zizai of the Six Imperials ancestral court, Demon One in the secret realm, and now Shen Wubing. All of them were mysterious and powerful.
He mused that once word spread that he had mastered the silk book method, it might indeed make him famous far and wide, but his future would be precarious, and he would face even greater crises.
***
At this moment, someone else was also lamenting the predicament brought by a change of identity.
Wearing a mask, Li Qingxu suffered another crushing defeat after a fierce clash with Xiao Wu.
This was already the tenth consecutive defeat of his life, and today alone, he had lost twice.
Nearby, whether fiends or human cultivators, all marveled at the immense strength of the two combatants, convinced both possessed extraordinary backgrounds.
The persona of the "Masked Man" had made quite a name for himself here today. He was certainly not weak, yet his performance had been utterly tragic.
Li Qingxu felt desolate. How was it that any random opponent he bumped into could beat him?
At this moment, he began to question his very life.
"You're strong, but you're a cut below me, and two cuts below my older brother. Oh, by the way, he's the same age as me," Xiao Wu remarked.
Hearing this, Li Qingxu nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. *The guy has an older brother too?* That meant if he truly intended to challenge all comers, he was still short one defeat.
"What? Qingxu... lost again?" When the members of the Li clan received the report, many went numb.
If this continued, would the "immortal seed" their clan prized so dearly be ruined?
Many looked exceedingly grim. How could there be so many monstrous youths on this plateau?
"From this day forth, I am Li the Defeated!" On that day, Li Qingxu officially renamed his masked persona.
Yet the fire in his eyes had not died out. Instead, he recalled what his master, Cao Qianqiu, had once told him: break down before you can rebuild!
***
"It has been confirmed—Cui Qing is dead!"
Upon receiving the report, Cui Changming, Cui Cheng, and the others felt a suffocating weight in their chests. In just a short span, members of their direct line had fallen one after another. The dignity of the Cui clan was being trampled upon!
"Just what level of strength does the person protecting Qin Ming possess?" someone asked darkly, preparing to mobilize their forces for retribution.
Cui Cheng spoke up. "I suspect they haven't surpassed the third realm. After all, based on the reports from our spirit birds, none of the encounters was an instant kill; there was always a fight."
Gathering intelligence had proved quite costly in birds. Whenever one strayed even slightly close to that area, even the swift lightning sparrows and thunder falcons were shot to pieces.
As a result, toward the end, the Cui clan's spirit birds only listened for commotion from afar, not daring to fly closer to peer inside.
"This old man will go in person!" Cui Changming declared. He truly could not sit still any longer.
"We will go as well. We can be fairly certain that whoever is shielding him is not in the fourth realm, which means we will be more than enough to take them down!"
The others chimed in, all intending to follow.
Along the way, the group received a piece of news that made their hearts pound wildly: one of the Cui clan's "seed teams" had gone to intercept Qin Ming and had already engaged him.
"Wasn't Chongkong outside that area?" Cui Changming asked urgently. In the youth division, the Cui clan had prepared ten teams, but only two were seed teams.
Someone reported, "Upon hearing the news, Chongkong and his group rushed over on a rare bird, so they arrived first despite departing later."
Cui Changming, Cui Cheng, and the rest felt a foreboding dread.
Cui Chongkong was a youth whom the clan elders held in extraordinarily high regard, and he was the youngest grandson of Cui Changqing.
Cui Changqing was the second eldest of the Chang generation, a figure of immense power in the Cui clan who had walked far along the immortal path while cultivating the World-Abiding Scripture to a relatively high level.
Cui Changming shouted in fury. If anything happened to Cui Chongkong, he would have no way to answer to that formidable second brother of his—a man far more terrifying than Fifth Uncle Cui.
***
Qin Ming had originally intended to flee, unwilling to fight the Cui clan to the bitter end here. The circumstances were unfavorable to him, and what he needed to consider was survival on the plateau.
To his surprise, Cui Chongkong had pursued him aboard a winged mount.
Since the other side gave him no way out and escape was impossible, he showed no mercy.
Cui Chongkong was half a year older than him. Having joined the esoteric sect early on, he was exceptionally gifted and well-known throughout the Cui clan.
In the past, when Qin Ming was still in the Cui clan, those older "cousins" who knew the truth had treated him rather coldly.
Meanwhile, the Cui clan youths around his age had mostly maintained good relations with him, but this Cui Chongkong had not been among them, having acted quite arrogant back then.
Otherwise, Qin Ming might have hesitated to be ruthless.
Opposite him was another "green-hair"—an elder with a full head of long green hair.
Evidently, the Cui clan had paired the young with the old this time. Behind every youth trailed an expert tasked with their protection.
Seeing this, Qin Ming seized the initiative and charged forward; he wanted to collect more of the World-Abiding Scripture.
After testing his techniques in the previous two battles, he had expended a great deal of energy, but he had also grown increasingly proficient. This time, he abruptly unleashed the Starfire Essence, making his ambush even deadlier than before.
"You..." The elder was grievously wounded. He turned to flee, but found escape impossible.
"Green-hair, leave behind your scripture before you go!" Qin Ming pursued relentlessly.
Nearby, Cui Chongkong was dumbfounded. *This cast-off scion can actually kill someone of the third realm?*
Facing him, Qin Ming hesitated not in the slightest, striking when it was time to strike.
Cui Chongkong had flown all the way here to hunt him down, his intentions crystal clear. Consequently, Qin Ming was swift and decisive in putting an end to him.
A terror-stricken head flew into the air, its eyes wide with fury. Cui Chongkong's body froze in place, his hands reaching out feebly in his final moments, though there was no longer a head for them to find.
He was only six months older than Qin Ming and had recently broken through to the middle stage of the second realm—a remarkable achievement. Yet he could not withstand the cast-off scion's heavenly light force.
His divine wisdom had not yet guttered out, and he sought to struggle, only to discover that it was ignited by that heavenly light.
*Is this the heavenly light cultivated through the silk book method? It's even more terrifying than the Tathagata force and the Six Imperials force!* That was Cui Chongkong's final thought before death, laced with shock and regret. He truly should never have come here.
In the end, Qin Ming obtained the first two volumes of the World-Abiding Scripture, effectively securing the upper half.
Fairly satisfied, he muttered to himself, "This will suffice. The latter half is studied by those old fellows and requires an exceptionally profound realm to support."
Once he reached that level, his strength would already be there. Why worry about not being able to seize the rest of the scripture then?
***
In the night sky, Cui Changming, Cui Cheng, and the others felt their vision darken as word reached them that their third team had been annihilated.
"Chongkong is dead?!" At this moment, every face turned grim beyond measure.
Cold sweat even beaded on several foreheads.
Before coming to the plateau, everyone had held high hopes for Cui Chongkong. Yet instead of obtaining the auspicious blood, he had lost his life!
***
Beneath the cloak of night, an advanced rare bird flew into the distance, quickly locating Yu Gensheng and Zhao Ziyuan.
"I feel something isn't right. That young brother has wiped out three groups in a row, and every team had a third-realm expert. Fearing he might capsize in the end, I rushed over to deliver the message."
Yu Gensheng was stunned. "What are you talking about?"
*Qin Ming killing third-realm experts?* That sounded like an utter fantasy.
Zhao Ziyuan grew anxious as well, demanding, "Why didn't you inform us sooner?"
The advanced rare bird replied, "Didn't you two say that as long as he could overcome the hurdle himself, even if he ended up battered, bruised, and heavily wounded, I didn't need to intervene so long as his life wasn't in danger? In the end, what I saw truly terrified me, so I came to tell you."
It was in the third realm, circling the plateau to keep watch over Qin Ming and Xiao Wu.
Without question, Yu Gensheng and Zhao Ziyuan placed immense hope in the two youths, which was why they were being so attentive.
It was precisely because this raptor was of a higher realm and kept its distance that Qin Ming had only caught fleeting glimpses of it; drawing a bow to shoot it down had been completely out of the question.
"How can you be such a thick-headed bird! He's already killing people of the third realm, and you didn't report it earlier? This... this is impossible! Has the world gone mad? There's going to be major trouble!"
"Lead the way, quickly!"
The two old men were thoroughly frantic, rushing off in great haste.
Cui Changming, Cui Cheng, and the others were equally murderous, suppressed fury churning within their chests as they charged toward their destination.
At this moment, Qin Ming was sprinting across the plateau, traversing the nocturnal mist. Having slaughtered three groups of the Cui clan, he naturally knew the gravity of the fallout; the other side would surely be seeing red.
"He must have fled in that direction!" Cui Changming, Cui Cheng, and their group were closing in rapidly.
Across the plateau, fiends bled and fled in disarray while forces from various factions pursued them, leaving the entire region in chaos.
Under these circumstances, very few took notice of the Cui clan giving chase.
"Curse them... the Cui clan!" Yu Gensheng and Zhao Ziyuan arrived in a fiery rush, already spotting that small band of experts in the distance.
Chapter 238