Chu Pianran's dark hair fell like a waterfall, her beautiful eyes deep and soulful, as though she had returned to that ancient era where immortals traversed the world, speaking with gentle eloquence.
What she spoke of was the breakthrough method for certain extraordinary strongmen.
Qin Ming listened in silence, his thoughts drifting far and wide.
Were there supreme powerhouses among the strongmen? Yes, but forging one was extraordinarily brutal: it required replacing their bones with divine bone, grafting on immortal skin, and then simmering them within an immortal furnace.
Without doubt, this was the method of ancient supreme figures—they had not treated strongmen as human beings at all, approaching the process almost as artifact refining.
In the end, this method could temper a top-tier War Body.
Naturally, most such specialized strongmen were puppets.
For supplying divine bone, supplementing it with immortal skin, and all the rest—the materials involved were outrageous and exceedingly precious. If the result could not be controlled entirely for oneself, who would be willing to make such an investment?
Qin Ming offered a faint smile and nodded slightly, occasionally asking a question to inquire in greater detail.
Chu Pianran was surprised. She had mentioned those special strongmen merely to illustrate the cruelty of the path, which had become utterly impassable today now that the greater environment had shifted.
For in this era, divine bone and immortal skin could not be found anywhere unless one ventured deep into the night mist world to hunt living godlike and near-immortal creatures.
She was quite surprised that he appeared to have had an epiphany, looking as though he had gained a great deal.
Qin Ming asked further, "What was the ancient outer heavenly light like? And what about the essence of starlight fire, the outer purple mist, and the like—how do they compare to today? Were they denser or slightly thinner?"
A smile graced Chu Pianran's fair, luminous face as she replied, "In terms of density, they should be fairly similar. However, the things you mentioned are actually of the same kind—they all belong to branches of outer heavenly light."
Qin Ming grew even more invigorated. In the path he had charted for himself, these were all external substances from beyond that could be fused. To hear her mention now that they could all be regarded as heavenly light made things far more interesting.
"Heavenly light comes in many varieties as well," he thought, feeling the way ahead grow clearer.
Chu Pianran said, "Some types of heavenly light are relatively gentle, while others are incomparably violent and mostly used to refine artifacts."
Qin Ming nodded repeatedly, pondering his path forward. Naturally, he would never tear out his bones for divine bone or graft immortal skin to replace parts of himself; while those ancient specialized strongmen might rapidly elevate their strength in the short term, their upper limits were inevitably sealed shut.
He considered his own advantages: others feared outer heavenly light, yet he could endure it directly.
Back in Chixia City, he had entered the Thunder-Fire Gold-Forging Palace and faced that violent substance head-on!
The heavenly light cultivated by the human body differed considerably from outer heavenly light, the former naturally being much gentler.
Others primarily drew upon outer heavenly light bit by bit through three-colored flowers, five-colored spirit branches, fallen fruit, and the like, whereas he confronted the source directly and could undergo the most ferocious baptism.
In Qin Ming's original plan, he had intended to temper his heavenly light with essence of starlight fire, earth fiends, and the like. Later, he felt that temporarily melting and refining them inside would do no harm either, as he could afterward visit places like the Thunder-Fire Gold-Forging Palace to temper them a thousand times over, "blasting" out the harmful substances and "baptizing" them clean.
Now, after hearing Chu Pianran's words, enlightenment struck him.
Since even the essence of starlight fire and outer purple mist were branches of heavenly light, there was even less need for concern; these would serve as his divine bones and immortal skin.
To others, these were unapproachable substances carrying far too much fiendish aura, capable of destroying physical flesh, yet he had been immune to the erosion of heavenly light from the moment he set foot upon the Newborn path.
He could fuse them first, then temper and refine them.
Naturally, he had no need to return to Chixia City to visit the Thunder-Fire Gold-Forging Palace. Right here in Kunling City stood many sky-reaching towers, which he and Xiao Wu had seen on their very first day.
Those tall towers were ordinarily used to capture outer thunderfire heavenly light, which practitioners of the immortal path utilized to refine artifacts and the like.
Moreover, the fundamental essence of the silk book method he practiced aligned seamlessly with this!
One founding master had even left an inscription in the silk book; after a barrage of curses and scolding, he had added a special note whose key takeaway boiled down to a single principle: "It all comes down to one word: fuse."
"Seek within oneself, and borrow from without." This was an insight he had gained back in the first realm of the Newborn path.
At his current stage, it remained equally applicable.
He needed to practice extraordinary skills and assimilate them, while also refining various formidable forms of heavenly light and fusing them together.
Additionally, he possessed another train of thought: combining thunder and fire, meeting dragon and tiger, and inwardly refining the great medicine. He had previously used this to refine all his heavenly light force as medicine, unifying it into seamless harmony and resolving the hidden perils of the silk book method.
Now, he could integrate this seamlessly.
"Incorporate new extraordinary skills, refine brand-new heavenly light substances like essence of starlight fire into it, merge dragon and tiger into medicine, refine it internally into a golden core, and then detonate it to nourish myself."
At the same time, he considered that such internal refining required precise mastery over Mundane Fire, thunderfire heavenly light, and the like.
The Purple Palace thunderfire and Five Thunders Viscera Tempering he commanded might not remain sufficiently reliable now that he had reached the second realm; as his cultivation continued to advance, they likely would not suffice to support his internal refinement.
In an instant, Qin Ming thought of the Eight Views Divine Radiance Classic, that legendary manual.
Things like Purple Palace thunderfire and Five Thunders Viscera Tempering were all encompassed within it.
This pinnacle scripture of the Newborn path was not lost; it had likely fallen into the hands of the Fangwai Immortal Land. When they went to challenge the Six Imperials ancestral court last time, the Immortal-Combating Classic those people used bore heavy traces of it.
"It matters not if I don't have it right now; I don't need it just yet."
However, all of these concepts required him to endure them through sheer natural endowment.
To ordinary people, directly resisting the corrosion of outer heavenly light was completely impossible.
For now, Qin Ming had no way to make this universally applicable. He could only raise his own strength first, and once his cultivation was high enough, trace back to the source and find a way to decipher it.
Qin Ming and Chu Pianran spoke for a long time, drawing sideways glances. The other immortal seeds, divine seeds, and their peers actually all wished to discuss the dao with this foremost successor of the ancient divine immortal dao arena.
Among them were Cui Chonghe, Su Shiyun, and others, all wearing peculiar expressions. Even Li Qingyue, upon arriving, cast several glances in this direction.
There was also an ancient cultivator looking over with evident displeasure: Zhao Shuyu, a core disciple of the divine immortal dao arena and one of Chu Pianran's supporters.
He was at the peak of the third realm and possessed formidable strength. When Chu Pianran had narrowly lost to Qin Ming previously, he had pursued him and slashed out several full-powered strikes.
Chatting with people of the immortal path, Zhao Shuyu asked, "In this era of yours, have strongmen ascended to heaven? Can they actually suppress immortal seeds in the same realm?"
"Mind your words. If you dare show disrespect again, someone will beat you back to ancient times," said a youth passing by.
His appearance was striking, marking him at a glance as an "eccentric": a head large as a basin, legs thick as pillars, hands like cattail leaf fans, a head full of black hair like steel needles, a wide mouth, square nose, thick eyebrows, and large eyes.
"Who are you?" Zhao Shuyu asked.
"Tathagata renegade, Xiang Yiwu."
Instantly, Zhao Shuyu fell silent.
Over the past two days, his ears had practically grown calluses from hearing about it: several grandmasters of the Newborn path had fought a great battle against the patriarchs of the immortal path, shaking the night mist world. How could he not know names like Rulai and Qingtian?
After parting with Chu Pianran, Qin Ming walked over toward Xiang Yiwu.
"Brother Xiang!"
"Should I call you Brother Qin or Brother Li?" the burly youth asked with a grin.
He had cultivated a pair of "Wisdom Eyes" that could perceive the true reality, so Qin Ming's disguise back then had failed to fool him.
Soon, the two were chatting warmly, having felt like old friends from their very first meeting.
"Want to trade scriptures?"
"Deal!"
Qin Ming felt this fellow suited his temperament perfectly. He had originally held the exact same thought, yet the other had taken the initiative to bring it up.
As fellow prodigies of the Newborn path, they naturally had much to discuss.
Inevitably, Qin Ming mentioned the choices concerning the second realm and the extreme difficulty of gathering various mutated substances.
"Here in Kunling, there is a fiend land containing all kinds of mystical substances, but it is extraordinarily dangerous," Xiang Yiwu informed him.
Kunling was a remarkably unique region where forbidden lands, blessed lands, and fiend lands coexisted, alongside legends of the lost Yujing and more.
Deeply intrigued, Qin Ming questioned him in detail.
In just moments, he could hardly wait to rush over, feeling certain that it held the "night substances" he needed.
Xiang Yiwu mentioned that not only were there various earth fiends, yin fiends, and the like, but also outer astral fiends. Furthermore, they were not limited to a single type; legendary-tier fiends were likely present as well.
So-called astral fiends referred to substances originating from beyond this world—perhaps another form of heavenly light!
Qin Ming realized that the issues troubling him could all be resolved in the vicinity of Kunling. He felt an urge to set out immediately and achieve something in the second realm.
He only wondered whether his various plans could drastically shorten the cultivation time required for the Outer Sage stage.
He not only desired formidable heavenly light force, but also wanted to rise as quickly as possible.
At this moment, many were secretly observing Qin Ming, such as Luo Yao, the white-clad maiden from the immortal land, who was currently approaching.
However, upon spotting a woman in black, she came to an abrupt halt, her expression darkening; this person had once used a top-tier rare treasure to intercept her elder sister.
Tang Jin sensed her gaze, looked back, and saw her. "Has your sister arrived yet? I miss her dearly."
"She'll be here soon enough!" Luo Yao responded defiantly.
...
"Little Yuque, why are you always speaking so well of him? Do you know him?" In the distance, the purple lightning beast in human form had an undulating, curvaceous figure with purple hair draped over her shoulders, looking rather languid. Holding a stemmed goblet, she sipped fine wine, her gaze slightly unfocused.
Yuque shook its head at once and said, "No, we don't know each other. It's mainly that we both hail from Black-White Mountain, so I admire him greatly."
The young woman into whom the purple lightning beast had transformed had no fond feelings toward Black-White Mountain whatsoever. There, she had inexplicably been ridden twice by someone—a matter she regarded as a monstrous humiliation, and one that remained "unsolved" to this day!
Swirling the wine in her crystal glass, the purple-haired maiden asked nonchalantly, "Oh? Was he very famous there in the past?"
Yuque stood on the tabletop, cradling a tiny goblet between its wings, also drinking and already growing rather tipsy.
It nodded earnestly. "Back when he had just set foot upon the Newborn path, he rid the people of a scourge by riding alone on a mount to trample Golden Rooster Ridge flat. Afterward, he even lay in wait for the Golden Bandits and wiped them out too."
Without doubt, having indulged in a few too many cups and feeling flushed, its head was buzzing and nowhere near as sharp as usual.
"What?!" On the purple-haired maiden's lovely face, a blank daze first appeared, followed by utter shock, before twisting into furious outrage. Her fur stood on end.
The cold case had actually been solved today?! In an instant, fire spouted from her purple eyes as she whipped around to stare at that immensely famous youth on the Newborn path!
Hiccuping, Yuque used its little wings to slap its own beak several times, crying out in dismay, "I'm finished! A slip of the tongue! Mountain Lord, I am so sorry..."
Chapter 250