In the deep night, heaven and earth were as black as ink. All things lost their color, leaving the entire village as nothing more than a faint, hazy outline.
Qin Ming was preparing the blood snake. The skin of this spiritual creature was exceptionally difficult to peel; its scales were harder than refined iron, and when tapped with a wood-chopping blade, they rang with sharp, metallic clangs.
With the slightest lapse in attention, the bright red scales could slice right through a finger. They were like plates forged from refined gold; if crafted into armor, their defensive capability would surely be astonishing.
Qin Ming tossed the wood knife aside and prepared to switch to a sharper tool. Two days ago, besides the long-handled dark-gold hammer, Mu Qing had also given him a short sword.
He tested it. Though not as sharp as the longsword of the dark-faced man, when he gripped the short sword tightly and put more force into it, he could just manage to peel the skin.
Focusing intently, Qin Ming slit the skin at one end of the giant snake and pulled down with all his might. It instantly became far easier than slicing directly.
Several sunstones flowed with soft light, illuminating the blood snake until it shone a radiant, lustrous crimson, as if carved and polished from fine jade.
As the crimson snakeskin was peeled away bit by bit, the flesh revealed beneath was snowy white and delicate. The gallbladder was not dark and dull like that of ordinary snakes; it glowed an iridescent blue, translucent like a gemstone.
Qin Ming had already noticed that both the snake meat and the gallbladder contained dense, vigorous spirituality, faintly glowing with light. They were surely tonics of the finest quality.
"No wonder those people from Chixia City tore off their hypocritical masks the moment they saw them, not hesitating to kill and rob."
He cut the snake meat into sections with the short sword, washed them thoroughly, and immediately set a pot of water on the fire. If he could achieve his second Newborn breakthrough earlier, he would never delay it by a single night.
In the current climate, he felt a looming sense of crisis. All sorts of shady figures and powerhouses had arrived; major clans and organizations from Chixia City were showing up one after another, and there was no telling what might happen in these mountains next.
All these people were searching for "nodes" in the mountains. Special locales were always accompanied by strange phenomena, and that land radiant with five-colored mists, in particular, was something they coveted beyond measure—they were even offering rare, advanced scriptures as bounties for any clues.
Ever since the mountains' magnetic fields became disrupted, Fire Springs had died out and been reborn, and all manner of bizarre events had unfolded.
"There's also that wave of advanced creatures migrating from far away, bringing their whole broods to seize resources in the mountain range." Qin Ming pondered whether the so-called migration was merely a cover. Could those newly arrived, top-tier anomalous beasts also be searching for something?
The snake meat was already in the pot. As time passed, a rich aroma gradually wafted out, quickly pulling Qin Ming from his thoughts and whetting his appetite.
In the deep night, the wind and snow raged fiercely outside. Inside the room, the snake meat stew smelled intoxicating. Qin Ming felt a ravenous hunger, waiting patiently for it to be thoroughly cooked through.
"It really is fragrant, and incredibly fresh and flavorful." Taking his first bite, his eyes lit up. This spiritual creature was vastly superior in flavor to ordinary snakes, as if they belonged to two entirely different species.
He had originally felt somewhat squeamish about eating snakes, but now he couldn't care less. In his eyes, this was nothing less than earthly "dragon meat."
After just a few mouthfuls, Qin Ming felt a wave of warmth rising within his body. The effect was immediate; the spiritual substance was already getting to work.
"The gallbladder can be steamed, or steeped in pungent aged wine. Ah, there's no wine at home, so there's no choice."
Eating the snake meat, he placed the glowing blue gallbladder onto the steamer rack. It contained a mysterious spiritual essence, so he had to watch over it carefully.
Moments later, the gallbladder, resembling a large raw blue diamond, was fully steamed. Putting the meat aside, Qin Ming prepared to partake of the true "main course."
"My... Mountain God above, good heavens! This is pure misery!" With just a single bite, Qin Ming felt his tongue go completely numb with bitterness. Glancing in the mirror, he found that his mouth had even taken on an iridescent blue sheen.
He knew gallbladders were bitter and had braced himself mentally, but the concentrated essence in a blood snake's gallbladder possessed a searing bitterness far beyond his expectations.
In that instant, even the aroma of the snake meat seemed to lose its charm; he was numbed by the sheer bitterness.
He hastily gulped a mouthful of the savory snake soup to wash the bitterness down into his stomach, but it hardly helped; a thick, pungent acridity still permeated his mouth.
In terms of taste alone, not even a dog would touch this stuff. Even a Newborn who had established a foundation surpassing a golden foundation could barely stomach it.
Qin Ming hadn't swallowed it in one gulp, partly because the gallbladder was rather large, and partly because he felt chewing it thoroughly would make it easier to absorb the spiritual essence, accelerating his second Newborn breakthrough.
His pleasant mood from savoring such delicacies all evening had been almost entirely ruined by the bitterness. Looking at the remaining half, he gritted his teeth. Since things had come to this, he might as well keep chewing and swallowing slowly.
After finishing the entire gallbladder, Qin Ming looked in the mirror and found his lips looked as though painted with an alluring, bewitching blue, lending him an indescribably bizarre aura.
"Good thing I ate it in the deep night. If this were shallow night, I wouldn't be able to show my face outside!"
Yet the potency of the gallbladder was truly violent and overpowering. Not long after it settled into his stomach, his entire body heated up as if burning with a high fever.
Qin Ming remained calm. He continued eating the snake meat, not just to suppress the lingering bitterness, but to fuel his body with another surge of spiritual fire.
Eventually, his body grew scalding hot, like a stove brimming with vitality that repelled the bitter chill of midwinter. His entire being radiated light.
"Dietary tonic, medicinal nourishment—the effects are here!" Qin Ming rose, grabbed the long-handled dark-gold hammer, and walked into the courtyard to drill the lethal techniques from the saber manual.
Instantly, the snow on the ground was swept upward into the night sky. White mist curled around him, faint light flowed across the surface of his skin, and vibrant life-force surged through his flesh and blood. As he swung the heavy hammer, it whipped up rumbling sounds of wind and thunder.
Qin Ming's spirit, qi, and vitality continued to climb. He knew his second Newborn transformation had begun; it was a gradual process, not something achieved in a single bound.
Yet he could distinctly feel the changes: his strength was rising, his tendons felt stretched and reinforced, his senses grew sharper, and his eyesight improved.
"Every Newborn transformation is so intoxicating. Feeling myself grow stronger, even the impenetrable gloom of night seems to pale a little."
A vast wave of active power surged inside Qin Ming. From head to toe, he felt as if he were being purified and baptized, his muscles and bones seemingly vibrating and resounding in unison.
Under the shroud of night, his body was like a furnace, visibly radiating light.
It was as if a secret flame burned within his flesh and blood, purging old impurities, fostering new life, tempering his spirit and essence, and accelerating the flourishing transformation within him.
Qin Ming swung the long-handled dark-gold hammer in the courtyard, exerting himself relentlessly until his hair was drenched and sweat covered his body. Only then did he return indoors.
He sat quietly in the room, silently feeling the shifts within his body.
Then, he pondered whether his body would grow taller again after this second Newborn breakthrough. According to Old Man Liu, depending on the Yiqi Art or meditation art chosen, the physical changes could vary drastically.
Now he would test the caliber of his "unorthodox path" and see what kind of transformation it would bring to his body.
Qin Ming had originally been half a head taller than ordinary people, and after his first Newborn transformation, he had grown nearly two inches taller.
Earlier that evening, when chatting with Old Man Liu and Xu Yueping about the Newborn breakthrough, both men felt that his change in height hadn't been very pronounced, as some people could shoot up by a whole head.
Old Man Liu had rich life experience; in his youth, he had been very close to the veteran mountain patrollers and had heard many anecdotes about the Newborn stage.
"With certain Yiqi Arts, every time you undergo a Newborn breakthrough, your body swells up like blowing bubbles, growing taller and larger. But only a fraction of it is a solid golden body; most of it is just clay. That's why with many Newborn methods, once you reach a certain stage, you have to suppress your body from shooting up any further." This was one of the scenarios Old Man Liu had described.
He had particularly highlighted that some secret, esoteric Yiqi Arts were exceptionally precious. Practicing them would bring about mystical anomalies—such as developing a third eye, which was where certain divine legends had originated.
Such secret manuals were far too rare; even many major clans could never lay hands on them.
Lost in reminiscence over wine, Old Man Liu had recounted everything the older generation of patrollers told him, going on to speak of several special Newborn methods and their corresponding strange alterations and effects.
Lastly, he mentioned that there was a kind of Newborn method that required maintaining the body's golden height proportion from the earliest stage, forbidding uncontrolled growth.
Nursing his drink, Old Man Liu had looked at Qin Ming and said tipsily, "In my opinion, your height change wasn't all that noticeable."
Qin Ming kept a calm mindset. He only needed to wait two days to know which category his Newborn method leaned toward.
For the first time, he felt how cut off from information he truly was out here. Newborns in Chixia City were likely well versed in these matters, whereas he had to piece everything together from bits and pieces he heard.
What was more, some people didn't rely on becoming a Newborn to advance at all; there were other paths to take. Such things were simply too remote for him to have any way of understanding.
After sitting quietly for a long time, Qin Ming felt hunger gnawing at him. The effects of the second Newborn breakthrough were unmistakable. He immediately began eating the snake stew, replenishing his body's needs with food rich in spiritual vitality.
Finally, after rinsing himself down with cold water, he drifted off into dreamland amid the deep night's profound stillness.
Before falling asleep, he hazily saw the "jade burial suit threaded with gold" appear on his skin once more, silver light covering his body intertwined with golden threads, looking extraordinarily wondrous.
Qin Ming passed from light sleep into deep slumber, and finally into a state of half-dreaming, half-waking.
He felt his body sleeping soundly, completely relaxed and well-rested, yet a part of his consciousness remained active.
Hovering between sleep and wakefulness, he seemed to see a dust-covered black cloth shrouding his subconscious, blocking his sight from whatever lay behind it.
Yet during this second Newborn breakthrough, the dust was gradually blown away, and a corner of the black cloth was lifted. Behind it, he saw himself from his childhood days of innocence.
Though half-dreaming and half-awake, Qin Ming realized that the comprehensive elevation of his body from the second Newborn breakthrough was also strengthening his mental consciousness, bringing back fragments of childhood memories that had long faded into obscurity.
In a daze, it was as if someone were whispering in his ear: "This path... though it has an illustrious origin, can no longer be cultivated."
Then, through that lifted corner of the black cloth, Qin Ming saw a rough, weathered hand holding a very thin ancient booklet, turning to the first page before his young, childhood self...
Chapter 25