People were stunned. Who was this?
With a head of white hair and clad in coarse hemp robes, he had plunged one hand straight into the blood sun, wounding Pu Heng right off the bat!
Pu Heng's status was exceedingly exalted; he was known as "Little Cao Qianqiu."
In every respect he imitated his master, and objectively speaking, his cultivation was indeed terrifyingly high!
Roaming the world as pure yang conscious spiritual light, his mere presence made many people tremble involuntarily.
Yet someone who stood right below the patriarchs had now suffered a devastating blow.
His head was splitting open.
Everyone stood petrified, unable to believe what they were seeing.
Qin Ming’s heart surged. Senior Brother Lu had come after all.
Back then, Lu Zizai had spoken only a single simple line: "Strive with all your might for the auspicious beast blood, and I will ensure you receive fair treatment!"
Now he had arrived to make good on his promise.
Calm, confident, and formidable, he suppressed Pu Heng with a single hand.
Pu Heng's gaze seemed to emanate from hell, making onlookers deeply uneasy—laden with heavy malice and piercing cold.
Outside his form, the great crimson sun boiled as runes flashed within his conscious spiritual light, turning into blade after blade of light that sought to shred the massive hand.
Yet rich heavenly light force blossomed along Lu Zizai’s arm, more dazzling than a blazing sun. Each descending sword of light was shattered by the shockwave and ignited.
With a dull pop, Pu Heng’s head shattered!
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Lu Zizai crushed his skull with a single grip.
It was no less shocking than a volcanic eruption or a passing hurricane; the entire plateau trembled faintly.
"That... that is the direct eldest disciple of Cao the Undefeated!" someone cried out in shock.
Even more people went pale, swaying on their feet as they scrambled to retreat into the distance. The suffocating pressure radiating from the storm’s epicenter was stifling.
Swaths of crimson glow blossomed across the night sky—Pu Heng’s conscious spiritual light re-coalescing.
This was the terror of the immortal path. Once consciousness attained the pure yang tier, it gained a touch of immortality; even if torn to pieces or detonated on the spot, it could still re-form.
"Lu Zizai!" Pu Heng’s colossal face manifested, its scarlet light illuminating the pitch-black night sky with stifling pressure, looking much like the sunset glow of the "Old World," staining half the heavens red.
Aside from patriarch-level figures, he was considered among the very forefront, yet someone had grasped him so easily, going straight for a fatal head-crush.
There was no worse experience than this!
Pu Heng could no longer remember when he had last suffered such humiliation.
High in the air, his conscious spiritual light shot outward, instantly blanketing the heavens and earth.
From afar, it looked as though meteors from beyond the sky were blazing, piercing through the curtain of night with long trails of light to bombard the figure below.
Many felt a chill run down their spines, acutely sensing their own insignificance.
Now Pu Heng needed no words. As Cao Qianqiu’s eldest disciple, only destroying his opponent could wash clean this disgrace.
Standing on the ground, Lu Zizai remained completely placid. He made a motion as if drawing a sword from his back. Nothing had been there before, but now intense heavenly light surged up from his spine, followed by rolling draconic roars.
With a metallic ring, a greatsword manifested into physical reality, drawn from his spine, condensed entirely from heavenly light radiant as a scorching sun.
Spectators were stunned. A colossal dragon soared upward, immensely thick and carrying an indestructible sharpness as it thrust straight into the firmament.
Lu Zizai grasped its tail, swinging the dragon sword and splitting open the night sky!
Every meteor-like burst of conscious spiritual light detonated in that instant, burned to ash by the heavenly light carried by the colossal dragon sword.
And with a tearing sound, the massive face high in the air was split clean in half!
Then his face detonated again!
Pu Heng let out a muffled groan of agony. This time, a portion of his conscious spiritual light was permanently destroyed; even his immortal traits could not fully withstand it.
Instantly, the shattered pure yang power convulsed violently in the night sky.
The sunset-like conscious power raged ceaselessly, sweeping across heaven and earth with fury far more terrifying than any real hurricane.
The earth tore open, and the sea of night mist roiled across a vast expanse!
Pu Heng’s pure yang light no longer held human form. It turned into clouds and mist, whipping like wind through scudding clouds, drawing upon the pure qi of the nine heavens and channeling the ancestral veins of the earth.
He was linking heaven and earth. A millstone of mist and cloud formed—one half grinding down from the night sky, the other rising from the earth, spinning madly to crush his opponent into bloody paste.
Such an immense spectacle made hearts palpitate. Even from far away, onlookers felt as if they were trapped inside it, terrified of being destroyed alongside him.
Between heaven and earth, Lu Zizai stood quietly, the massive dragon sword vanishing from his hand.
The crowd watched in alarm as the pure qi of the nine heavens and the subterranean ancestral qi merged. Heaven and earth seemed to rush together, about to close shut and annihilate everything.
Lu Zizai struck one hand toward the night sky and the other toward the earth.
The dense pure qi of the nine heavens detonated with a boom, and the subterranean ancestral qi was scattered completely.
Everyone was dumbfounded, profoundly shaken.
That cloud-and-mist millstone seemed to embody heaven and earth, yet the seemingly tiny figure between them had punched straight through it with bare hands, causing it to collapse in ruins.
Pu Heng’s colossal face reappeared, dimmer than before; another portion of his pure yang conscious spiritual light had been permanently obliterated.
Yet no sooner had he materialized this time than another strike arrived.
Lu Zizai’s heavenly light force surged, shaping into a massive hand in the night sky just like pure yang conscious spiritual light, and slammed against that face with a resounding slap.
Scarlet light splashed across the sky as the massive face shattered. Pu Heng took the blow squarely, like boundless sunset clouds churning in tumult.
"You..." Enraged, he had been slapped right in front of everyone.
Lu Zizai had publicly slapped him across the face—immensely damaging, and utterly humiliating.
All quarters in this region were stunned.
No one had anticipated such a confrontation.
"Your face is quite large," Lu Zizai remarked.
Then, looking impassively at the night sky, he said, "Who gave you the gall? Claiming those exploits were fabricated—who do you think you are, trying to blot out the sky with one hand and turn black into white!"
Lu Zizai’s white hair hung loose, looking a bit more weathered than before, but Qin Ming knew this was merely the old body he sought to shed, not his new vessel.
People’s emotions churned. He was standing up for a youth of the Newborn path.
A youthful Outer Sage had actually drawn out such a heavyweight!
Qin Ming’s exposure in this manner caused a tremendous stir.
Many were hearing his name for the first time; before this, he was virtually unknown.
In Kunling, several geniuses from various academies showed astonished expressions.
For they realized with a shock that they had met this Qin Ming before; when exploring the secret realm together, they had rejected his request to team up.
Except for a handful of people like Jiang Ruoli, Liu Hanya, and Gan Jincheng, the other geniuses only learned his true depths today, and they were terrifying.
For a time, they were petrified. Remembering how they had thought him a burden back then, or suspected he was faking his enlightenment, their faces burned with embarrassment in retrospect.
"And that Wu Yaozu—he was one of the youths from that day too!"
A group of top geniuses, including Zhao Muyao and Wang Lijie, were completely dazed. Both youths they had tactfully declined had earned two or more portions of auspicious beast blood.
Qin Ming’s tally had even surpassed those immortal seeds and divine seeds.
"Do you intend to stand against my pure land?" Pu Heng’s massive head resembled a great mountain, shaking the night sky as he spoke.
Many felt their skin crawl, feeling as if heaven and earth were about to overturn.
"Can you represent the outer pure land?" Lu Zizai replied.
He raised his right hand, all five fingers glowing as each shot forth a blast of heavenly light force brilliant as a scorching sun, like five golden chains spreading swiftly into the pitch-black night sky.
Pu Heng’s conscious spiritual light could gather and disperse formlessly, coming and going without a trace, yet now his heart pounded in terror as though he had been locked onto.
He soared toward the heavens, seeking to flee the area.
However, the five divine chains of golden heavenly light transformed into five golden dragons. Breaking free of Lu Zizai, they plunged straight into the depths of the clouds and caught up to him.
With a whoosh, the five dragons locked around his body, binding him and swiftly dragging him back down.
The sight sent hearts pounding across all quarters. Lu Zizai of the Newborn path possessed truly heaven-defying methods—was his heavenly light any different from pure yang conscious spiritual light?
Pu Heng burned with bottled-up fury. In this brief exchange, nothing had gone his way; he had suffered blow after crushing blow, and now he was actually bound.
He struggled fiercely, turning into a blazing red sun to tear the shackles apart.
The five dragons raised their heads, each constricting tighter as their dragon maws bit into him, tearing the red sun apart and hauling him down toward the plateau.
"This..." Many could hardly believe it. How long had it been, and Pu Heng had already been captured alive?
The disciples of the immortal path were dumbstruck. Weren’t they told their path held every advantage and could look down on all Newborns?
What they witnessed today overturned their world. This white-haired man named Lu Zizai had delivered far too great a shock.
Meanwhile, those on the Newborn path felt their spirits surge as never before, realizing for the first time: Our path can be this strong!
After all, Lu Zizai had not subdued some ordinary person beyond the mundane world, but the famed eldest disciple of Cao Qianqiu. The weight of such an accomplishment was astronomical.
"Lu Zizai, are you going to wage war against my immortal path for the sake of a youth on the Newborn path?" Pu Heng spoke, having already crashed to the ground.
Five great dragons bound him tight; no matter how he shifted and transformed, he could not escape. Now, dread gripped his heart.
"You are not worthy," Lu Zizai said, slapping him across the body and detonating him on the spot.
Moreover, after disintegrating this time, Pu Heng failed to escape; he remained trapped by the five dragons, which corralled all his conscious spiritual light within.
"You..." His glowing crimson radiance dimmed further. Even his so-called immortal traits could not endure repeated heavy devastation.
If this went on, he would be ground down to death, or even die abruptly.
"You lack Cao Qianqiu’s fortune, yet you’ve caught his sickness. Want to show off your domineering might? Your malice toward our path runs too deep. You deserve a beating—you deserve to be slain!"
With that, nine phoenixes coiled around Lu Zizai’s foot, radiating dazzling heavenly light. He kicked out, and with a boom, Pu Heng blew apart!
Many stared wide-eyed. What kind of ruthless powerhouse was this? Kicking Pu Heng to pieces in a single blow was simply overwhelming.
Pu Heng was immensely conceited, having acted domineeringly for years, but now he had finally run into a tough wall.
His capture and savage beating made everyone tremble—some with churning anxiety, others with boiling blood.
Only Pu Heng knew how catastrophic his losses were.
Lu Zizai’s attacks were terrifyingly lethal, capable of severing his immortal traits; he had already lost twenty percent of his pure yang conscious spiritual light.
If word of this got out, it would undoubtedly strike fear into the people of the outer realms.
"Where did you get the nerve to look down on my Newborn path?" Lu Zizai pressed a foot onto Pu Heng, gazing down at him.
Without question, this image would remain permanently etched into everyone’s memory.
No matter how many years passed, Pu Heng would never wash away this shame.
"You want to cut off the Newborn path?" Lu Zizai asked.
Resources in this world were limited. Even ordinary people’s living environments were in dire need of improvement; populations continued to swell, and Fire Springs were growing scarce. These were major crises, and the various paths stood in competition with one another—otherwise, the leadership would not be preparing for the Great Reclamation.
On the Newborn path, powerful figures were not numerous, but the foundation was vast.
For many ordinary folk could walk this path without needing extraordinary natural gifts.
The prospects of the Newborn path were indeed rather dim; ordinary people seeking to grow strong in the first stage could only rely on mutation.
And starting from the second realm, their progress slowed even further.
Cao Qianqiu’s faction had more than just deep prejudice against the Newborn path; their smothering of the Overlord had offered a clear glimpse of their intense hostility.
Pu Heng was naturally influenced by his master.
A silver mace appeared in Lu Zizai’s hand. With a thud, he made the man beneath his foot detonate once more.
Pu Heng’s pure yang conscious spiritual light blew apart repeatedly. Beyond sheer humiliation, he was thoroughly terrified; if this continued, he faced a calamity of life and death.
Lu Zizai spoke no more, focusing entirely on thrashing Pu Heng and grinding down his pure yang consciousness. Many could see that he intended to cripple him!
"Lu Zizai, when one can let someone off, one should." At this moment, an elder appeared, with a full head of silver hair, a fair complexion, and profound eyes.
Many disciples of the immortal path were deeply shaken. Another heavyweight had arrived—this was Wei Yunqi, the second disciple of Sun Taichu, a figure standing in the very first rank below the patriarchs!
"The punishment is not yet enough!" Lu Zizai said.
"Lu Zizai, your Six Imperials Patriarch is already on his last legs, and you still dare act so brazenly? Release my senior brother!"
In the distant sky, two dazzling flames appeared like two comets hurtling from beyond the heavens, diving down toward the dark earth with an aura of destruction.
People trembled in fear. Several masters recognized that within those two balls of pure yang conscious spiritual light were two powerful disciples under Cao Qianqiu.
They arrived in an instant, striking out at Lu Zizai.
At the same time, Sun Taichu’s second disciple Wei Yunqi also stepped forward, his conscious spiritual light illuminating the heavens.
"Hoping to overwhelm him with numbers?"
"Come at us, then!"
Yu Gensheng and Zhao Ziyuan stepped forward, their wide sleeves fluttering. With a resonant crash, they shattered the night mist filling the sky, intercepting the two diving figures.
For a moment, heavenly light soared into the sky, pure yang power boiled, and multiple experts collided violently.
"No matter. Seniors, please step back. Let them all come!" Lu Zizai declared.
At the same time, he repelled Wei Yunqi with one palm strike while lifting Pu Heng with the other hand.
"Ahhh..."
Pu Heng shrieked in pain, a cry completely at odds with his usual domineering, forceful disposition. As he thrashed violently, the sound resembled pure wailing.
Everyone’s expressions changed. Was Lu Zizai about to cause a monumental incident?!
Employing thunderous, brutally violent methods, he seized the greater portion of Pu Heng’s conscious spiritual light in his grip. As Six Imperials force erupted, flames scorched the heavens, obliterating and melting that portion of crimson glow to wipe it out completely.
In the end, Pu Heng’s dim silhouette re-coalesced in the night sky, his strength plunging!
For in total, sixty percent of his pure yang conscious spiritual light had been severed—he was half-crippled.
"How dare you!" Pu Heng’s two junior brothers supported him, their faces filled with shock and fury.
Lu Zizai said impassively, "So your lineage is permitted to act tyrannical, but no one else may strike back? Today I will not indulge you. I shall cure you of your rotten habits."
Standing with hands clasped behind his back, he signaled Yu Gensheng and Zhao Ziyuan to retreat, facing the four masters before him alone.
A few sharp-sensed old hands realized that something truly momentous was going to happen today; the storm seemed to have only just begun.
Lu Zizai standing up for that youth might have been merely a catalyst—an intentional move to shatter the silence today, very likely aiming to establish prestige for the Newborn path.
Indeed, his actions might only be the opening movement.
Further on, an even more terrifying event was likely to unfold.
Wei Yunqi spoke up: "Lu Zizai, striking with such a heavy hand, are you not afraid of inciting strife between our two paths?"
Yu Gensheng had a fiery temper and could no longer hold back. "Who is the one picking a fight here? The genuine achievements of our Newborn path’s young prodigy are right there for all to see, verifiable through memory crystals! Anyone who isn't blind could see it. Yet that bastard Pu Heng not only wanted to fling mud, he even wanted to strangle our path's miracle talent in the cradle! What intolerable bullying!"
Zhao Ziyuan sneered even more coldly, "Laughable! He wanted to blot out the sky with one hand, yet lacked the ability, making a complete fool of himself here."
Instantly, crimson glow swirled around Pu Heng. Even though gravely wounded, he wished he could lunge over and tear the two old men apart.
"If you resent it, swallow it down. Otherwise, you die," Lu Zizai said calmly, looking at the opposite side.
Pu Heng and his two junior brothers felt a suffocating bile trapped in their chests. Usually, they were the ones suffocating others with arrogance, leaving people daring to be angry but not daring to speak.
Yet now, someone was even more domineering than they were, driving them past all endurance.
"Strike!"
In an instant, Pu Heng’s two junior brothers attacked. Two great suns hung suspended in midair, illuminating the night sky as bright as day as they charged forward!
At that moment, Lu Zizai’s true body did not budge. Four surges of concentrated heavenly light burst from his form, each coalescing into a human figure.
The four figures radiated boundless brilliance, sundering the night sky with heavenly light.
Some wore ceremonial imperial crowns with beaded tassels, some held jade scepters, and some had imperial seals hovering beside them. All appeared exceedingly majestic, each treading upon the void and ascending into the heavens.
In an instant, Pu Heng, his two junior brothers, and Sun Taichu’s second disciple Wei Yunqi were all held back.
"Fusing heavenly light with consciousness can allow one to wander the great void as well?" Those on the Newborn path were thrilled beyond measure, seeing a vision of their future prospects.
"The Four Imperials!"
Several veteran seniors took on solemn expressions; even Wei Yunqi, Pu Heng, and the others looked slightly shaken.
"Is that the Four Imperials force of the Six Imperials ancestral court?" a youth asked his grandfather.
"No. This represents four domains—or rather, four supreme beings at the apex of the pyramid, manifested by him through heavenly light. It is truly terrifying!"
Across the plateau, everyone was alarmed.
Without moving his true body, Lu Zizai manifested the Four Imperials to battle four great experts.
In a flash, they shot far from this place, penetrating into the depths of the plateau and soaring above the pitch-black cloud layer, erupting into a battle of paramount terror.
No one had imagined things would develop to such an extent!
Everyone looked on from afar. Although eager to watch the clash, none dared enter the plateau's depths for fear of being caught in the fallout.
The distance was simply too vast. People could only see the dark clouds repeatedly torn apart and night mist dispersing, as blinding beams of light—thicker and more brilliant than lightning—flashed across the sky from time to time.
Terrified yet desperate to witness a duel of that caliber, the crowd felt their hearts itch as if clawed by a hundred paws.
Soon, many eyes turned toward Qin Ming. It now appeared highly probable that his actual achievements truly warranted four portions of auspicious beast blood.
"Mentioning his name alone might mean nothing to many, but if we speak of his origins, I suspect quite a few have heard: he is a cast-off scion of the Cui clan," someone secretly disclosed in the shadows.
An uproar spread across the area. There was actually such hidden history?
In truth, several major clans already knew about this, particularly the Cui, Li, and Wang clans.
The faces of the Cui clan members turned ugly, their hearts deeply unsettled.
He was merely a stand-in, an abandoned discard, yet today he stood under the spotlight of all four quarters, having earned the most auspicious beast blood! How would outsiders look upon the Cui clan?
They felt as if they had been struck across the face, severely affronted.
Especially in front of so many acquaintances, it was thoroughly humiliating.
A matter they had previously suppressed was dragged out into the open once more today.
Back when Qin Ming had not yet risen and possessed no dazzling achievements on the Newborn path, after Meng Xinghai had firmly protected him, Father Cui and the others had spared his life, but warned him never to set foot in his former circles again, never to appear before clan acquaintances. Yet today, his fame had involuntarily spread far and wide.
Qin Ming simply revealed his true appearance, standing there upright and undisguised.
At once, whether acquaintances or those seeing him for the first time, all wore strange expressions.
A youth like this had actually been cast off by the Cui clan?
"You can't really blame the Cui clan either. Before setting foot on the Newborn path, who could have known how many times his body would mutate? This path is mysterious; physical mutations aren't tied to early demonstrations of comprehension."
Still, many glanced toward the Cui clan, feeling their loss was immense!
"It's really him?! How is that possible!" Zheng Maoze and Zeng Yuan stared with wide eyes as if they had seen a ghost. Not having seen him for just a few months, he had risen at breakneck speed, undergoing a world-shaking transformation.
Rumble!
In the depths of the plateau, lightning flashed and thunder roared as astral winds ran wild. The dark clouds across the heavens dispersed, thoroughly blasted apart.
Four figures, dim and tottering, began to flee.
"How can this be?!"
Many cultivators of the immortal path were struck dumb, finding it impossible to believe: Wei Yunqi, Pu Heng, and the others were the ones fleeing, pursued by the Four Imperials, all gravely wounded!
How long had it even been?
"Weren't we told that the masters of our immortal path hold total dominance in the later stages? Why is this Lu Zizai powerful to such an extent!"
Many on the immortal path found this outcome hard to accept. Four against one, and they were still defeated?
"He is mysterious, a singular exception. It is said his natural gifts are even higher than those of the Six Imperials Patriarch!" an elder sighed softly.
Those on the Newborn path watched with fervent eyes. How many years had it been since they witnessed such an uplifting, high-level battle? The seniors of their path were finally no longer keeping a low profile, showing their radiant side to the world.
"Do you think that by luring this old man away, you could turn the heavens upside down?"
In the distance, a blood-colored sun spanned the sky, instantly dispersing the night mist across the entire plateau. Exceedingly piercing and dreadful, it caused many to shudder uncontrollably.
Cao Qianqiu had appeared, descending upon this place!
Tingles of fear crept over everyone’s scalps. Even people from the outer realms held dread for him far exceeding any respect.
His notoriety was too immense—despised by gods and loathed by ghosts, steeped in sheer infamy.
Yet while everyone cursed Cao Qianqiu and hated Cao Qianqiu in their hearts, everyone also wished they could become Cao Qianqiu.
"You wish to bully the young with your seniority?!"
Along the way, a blazing sun rose—a figure condensed from pure heavenly light, its golden glow shining in all directions, radiating an unimaginably terrifying aura.
"The Six Imperials Patriarch... has arrived in person!" a veteran gasped.
Sure enough, everything had carried omens from the start. Someone truly intended to stir up a momentous event today.
Members of the various paths immediately began speculating, strongly suspecting that the Newborn path’s patriarch had little lifespan left and was choosing to unleash his remaining radiance and heat at the final moment, hammering out a "peaceful" future!
"Lu Yu, calm your wrath. Why go this far?" Sun Taichu appeared, standing upon the firmament, strolling forward.
Though his words were gentle, he was clearly siding with Cao Qianqiu.
A cold snort shook heaven and earth. The entire vault of heaven seemed to tear open as an unimaginably dreadful curtain of light appeared, like a titan capable of lifting the high heavens striding forward.
"Hiss, Qingtian has come!" Even heavyweight figures of the esoteric sect showed shocked expressions.
"Having remained in secluded cultivation for years without showing ourselves, do you think there are no longer patriarchs on the Newborn path?!"
Another radiant sun rose from the horizon, composed of heavenly light, blasting apart the night mist at the edge of the sky and causing the entire plateau to violently tremble.
Chapter 243