Li Qingxu reflected, "I walk the path of breaking and establishing. I must shatter everything from the past—not merely the issues with my cultivation techniques, but also what touches upon the realm of my state of mind."
He felt his spirit had lacked boldness in the past. Looking at Qin Ming’s performance right before him, he finally understood what true breadth of mind and grandeur of vision meant.
Li Qingxu was enlightened. Nodding to himself, he murmured, "As grand as one's heart, so grand is one's world, and so boundless is one's future!"
Taking his place, Qin Ming stood before the golden two-headed wolf.
There was no need for words now. He boldly swung his saber and engaged in a "fierce battle" with this wondrous-blood creature!
The golden two-headed wolf was covered in thick, long golden fur, radiating an intensely blinding glow, like a mighty monster standing within a "sun."
It was indeed formidable, rivaling immortal seeds at the peak of the second realm. Otherwise, it would not have fought Li Qingxu to a fierce stalemate.
Expressionless, Qin Ming traded blows with it continuously as sparks flew. The golden wolf’s massive paws were comparable to secret metal, exceptionally tough and sharp, daring to clash head-on with the saber's edge.
And then, its "claws" received a complimentary trim.
"Roar!"
With a furious roar, its golden fur bristled. Its left head opened its jaws to unleash a streak of lightning, while its right head spewed forth a blaze of fire.
Though a strange beast, it walked the divine path, naturally endowed with the twin abilities of lightning and fire.
With a flick of Qin Ming's fingers, he struck with thunder-fire heavenly light. With a deafening boom, sand and stones flew across the area, and the night sky lit up with brilliant radiance.
Countering pure thunder and fire with thunder-fire heavenly light, he followed through with saber light laced with lightning, slashing relentlessly forward.
Unable to dodge in time, the golden two-headed wolf had a bloody gash carved into its shoulder. Pale-golden radiance flowed within its dark-red blood as it retreated explosively.
Shock and fury were written across both of its wolf faces. It was a direct descendant of a sixth-realm powerhouse—how could it be wounded right after clashing with this human?
Sensing carefully through the seeping blood, Qin Ming confirmed it was indeed a wondrous-blood creature!
In this domain, he was richly experienced; he caught a faint whiff of a strange, delicate fragrance.
Instantly, an ardent look entered his eyes, as though he were gazing upon an extraordinary treasure.
Blood medicine from the same species had little effect after a single consumption, and this was Qin Ming's first time encountering the two-headed wolf race.
A wondrous-blood panacea would not only raise one's ceiling, but could also help him cultivate the Vajra Scripture and elevate the Physical Body Chapter left behind by the silk book method patriarch.
This golden two-headed wolf was of extraordinary value—priceless beyond ten thousand pieces of gold!
The two-headed wolf had still been furious, but seeing that look in his eyes, a violent shiver ran down its spine. Was this human male out of his mind?
It felt that whenever it wore such an ardent gaze, it was usually eyeing a stunning she-wolf of its pack. This human boy was a pervert!
Had Qin Ming known what it was thinking, he would have chopped off both of its wolf heads in a single stroke!
He fought with apparent difficulty because he had to exercise restraint. If he killed a prodigy of the golden two-headed wolf clan right off the bat, that would be going too far.
After all, in the eyes of everyone on the immortal path, he was currently only at the middle stage of the second realm.
Even so, Li Qingxu nearby still sighed. He was at the peak of the second realm and could break through to the next major realm at any moment, yet he was clearly no match for Qin Ming.
He thought to himself, *To compete against the sun elven race, Qin Ming decisively consumed auspicious beast blood in the Dayu imperial capital to break through. Walking the Newborn path, he didn't even save it for a critical moment. As a disciple of the immortal path, I've been hesitating and overthinking—how narrow-minded of me! As soon as this is over, I will take the panacea and pull ahead of him!*
After a bout of "fierce fighting," Qin Ming swept his saber across, severing both furry heads. He did not wish to drag things out too long; securing the precious medicine came first.
Mainly, he suspected there might be other wondrous-blood creatures here. Now that he had found one, there might be more pleasant surprises waiting.
Time was precious to him.
A few drops of blood splattered onto Li Qingxu's robes, leaving him in a daze. Since Qin Ming could slay this wolf with thunderous momentum, it meant he could swiftly kill him as well.
Mixed emotions overwhelmed him. Half a year ago, he had still looked down upon this acquaintance on the Newborn path.
Yet in how much time, he had already lost to him more than once.
Worst of all, every time he made a fresh breakthrough, he would suffer a brand-new blow.
"I must cultivate a grand spirit. My heart must have room for mountains, rivers, and all things... Holy shit!" Just as Li Qingxu was hyping himself up, his eyes suddenly went wide.
What was he seeing? A golden heart glowing like a miniature sun.
His eyes bulged, and he could not help gulping. The delicate fragrance wafting from before him was utterly intoxicating, like a newly unsealed furnace of peerless panacea.
Qin Ming retrieved the blood medicine from the golden wolf's body; it was concentrated primarily within the heart.
Li Qingxu was astounded, and then his heart swelled with regret and bitter remorse. He had missed out on a tremendous opportunity—something like that could elevate one's foundation and deepen one's potential.
As a disciple of Cao Qianqiu, he naturally understood its worth; he had consumed similar blood medicine in the past.
He wrung his hands in anguish, nearly throwing all pretense aside to charge over. The guy had poached his kill! Qin Ming had obviously noticed the signs early on, which was why he had stepped in on his behalf!
Li Qingxu’s heart ached terribly, as though his own heart had been gouged out.
He was resentful and unwilling, yet he had no choice but to hold back. He had stepped aside voluntarily just now, leaving the golden two-headed wolf for the other to slay. Snatching someone else's spoils now would be completely unjustifiable.
In truth, the biggest reason was that he was simply no match.
What vision? What boldness? Li Qingxu felt like coughing up blood.
Now was not the time to refine precious medicine. Qin Ming sealed it inside a jade box and stowed it into his storage pendant.
Witnessing this, Helian Zhaoyu's heart churned with turmoil. Boundless resentment consumed him, and killing intent lurked deep within his eyes. That pendant had originally belonged to him—what a humiliating disgrace!
Steering the Thunder King Bird, Qin Ming cruised through the night sky. Beyond slaying hunters, he paid close attention to the battles everywhere, searching for special creatures.
At this moment, his concentration was dialed to its peak as he maintained the Eye of the Newborn throughout.
Sure enough, he made a new discovery. In an extremely remote part of the desert, a black biao caught his attention. Though it served as a mount, the vitality surging within its body was exceptionally robust.
He suspected it might also be a special creature.
Though called a black biao, it was in truth a black tiger with wings sprouting from its ribs. It appeared sickly and spent most of its time fleeing, tumbling down toward the ground from time to time.
And the hunter on its back was in even worse shape, nearly thrown off several times whenever the biao plummeted.
Like a streak of purple lightning crossing the night sky, the Thunder King Bird carried Qin Ming as he swooped in, a gleaming snowy saber light slashing forward.
As expected, the black biao had been concealing its strength. It had long noticed Qin Ming and knew he was a super seed, and that his arrival meant trouble. In an instant, it erupted with surging, violent power, its conscious spiritual light burning as brightly as a blazing sun—formidable indeed.
"Fuck your mother!" It hurled the hunter off its back to serve as a meat shield against Qin Ming's mutton-fat jade iron saber while extending its claws to attack from behind.
It was no mount at all; normally, it was the black tiger that drove humans!
*Slash!*
The hunter died with unclosed eyes, cut in two at the waist on the spot.
A roar shook the heavens. It was a variant tiger of extraordinary bloodline, at the early stage of the third realm, and utterly savage.
Unfortunately, it had run into Qin Ming. Outmatched, its massive head was ultimately lopped off.
To Qin Ming's regret, this was not a wondrous-blood creature. He had known as much as soon as the wounded black biao shed its blood.
This was hardly surprising; wondrous-blood panaceas were exceptionally rare, after all, and could not be encountered at every turn.
Steering the Thunder King Bird, Qin Ming swept across the expanse of the sky, striking in every direction. Often, with a single flash of snowy saber light, a hunter and their mount would be severed in two, plummeting from midair.
With flight speed comparable to the fourth realm paired with his thunderous strikes, almost any opponent he set his sights on had little hope of surviving.
By now, he seemed to have become an avatar of death, showing no mercy whatsoever. If the patriarchs fell in defeat this time, the lands behind them would inevitably be stained with blood, and the ancestral grounds of every faction would be breached and laid waste.
In the night mist world, wherever hunting civilizations of any scale passed, rivers of blood almost always flowed.
Dense flocks of birds of prey, flying beasts, and the youthful hunters on their backs all trembled whenever they caught sight of that purple thunder bird and the pure white mutton-fat jade iron saber.
*Spurt, spurt...*
In the night sky, blood constantly sprayed. In the hunters' eyes, Qin Ming was like a demon; wherever he passed, the corpses of their companions rained down continuously.
Qin Ming became increasingly practiced in slaying aerial foes. When swooping down from on high, a single downward slash would cleave rider and mount in two from the crown of their heads; in head-on charges, a horizontal sweep would send bloody heads flying.
"He has nearly slain a hundred of us in a row!" The hunters were accustomed to life and death, their hands soaked in blood, yet now their scalps tingled with sheer terror.
Now, they had become the prey, systematically hunted down by him.
Naturally, higher-level experts sought to target Qin Ming, but his mobility was simply too great; the Thunder King Bird's speed rivaled exotic birds of the late fourth realm.
A flock of third-realm hunters attempted to encircle and intercept him, but they could not catch up at all.
Instead, Qin Ming turned the tables, killing several individuals at the early and middle stages of the third realm.
Some fourth-realm experts could bear it no longer and attempted to cross boundaries, only to be intercepted by Jin Xiang, who personally cleaved two of them with his saber. Combined with Li Qingyue having burned a fourth-realm expert to death earlier, no one dared cross over from that sector for the time being.
When Qin Ming slew a silver-haired young woman at the peak of the second realm, it was like stirring up a hornet's nest; multiple third-realm seeds charged at him.
Without question, the silver-haired girl had been a formidable figure among the hunters, a seed-level entity.
Using the Thunder King Bird's extreme speed to maneuver around them, Qin Ming then intercepted one of the early third-realm seeds.
Employing the dragon-sparrow combined strike, he channeled two sacred baleful auras. The Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird blazed with dazzling brilliance, tearing that hunter apart and painting the sky with blood.
"A super seed in the second realm of the Newborn path killed a third-realm seed of the hunting civilization?" This stirred no small commotion, drawing many sidelong glances.
Sun Jingxiao, a seed of the immortal path, felt his scalp go numb. He had just advanced to the early third realm. If he encountered Qin Ming in a desolate, secluded spot, wouldn't he meet the exact same fatal end?
An Youxing was also somewhat stunned. Back during the joint training at Kunling, he had picked bones with Qin Ming, believing that standing at the early third realm was enough to look down on him.
Looking at it now, if the two of them cast aside all restraints in an all-out battle, his higher realm wouldn't grant him the upper hand at all—he would very likely be decapitated by that mutton-fat jade iron saber!
Seeing this, Helian Zhaoyu's pupils constricted slightly.
Wei Cheng was even more unsettled. "How can he be so ferocious?" he muttered.
He was close to the middle stage of the third realm, but could he completely suppress that youth of the Newborn path? Clearly, if the other were allowed to break through again, he might not be his match.
Wei Cheng comforted himself, saying, "Fortunately, he walks the Newborn path. Breaking through is extraordinarily difficult for him. Where in this world could there be so many panaceas to allow him to undergo nirvana?"
Seeing Qin Ming's extraordinary battle record, Yao Ruoxian murmured to herself, "If he can slay immortal seeds across realms now, then several centuries hence, should he become a patriarch-level figure, wouldn't he be able to sweep through the various ancestors and single-handedly cleave a seventh-realm immortal with his saber? Terrifying!"
"Chonghe, what do you think?" a senior figure of the Cui clan secretly asked Cui Chonghe.
In the night sky, Cui Chonghe stood atop a strange flying beast, his robes fluttering. Calmly, he said, "If he and I fought at the same realm, life and death would truly be difficult to predict. Regrettably, such a day will hardly ever come, making it a pity that we cannot clash to our hearts' content—for he will never catch up to the speed of my breakthroughs."
The Cui clan elder secretly cautioned, "Do not underestimate him. He must have mastered the techniques recorded on the silk book; that much is certain. As long as his body doesn't explode, in terms of combat strength alone, he will be terrifyingly formidable at the same level!"
Cui Chonghe replied impassively, "Second Uncle, I have already mastered the *Indestructible Immortal Scripture*, and my indestructible immortal embryo is newly formed. Even if he possesses the scriptures recorded on the silk book, and even if he were granted vast amounts of time to amass cultivation and achieve a miracle to level the realms between us, I would still have nothing to fear."
Qin Ming cut down vast numbers of hunters, drawing astonished gazes from many.
*Hmm?* Maintaining the Eye of the Newborn throughout, his focus had been exceptionally sharp. As he skimmed low over the ground, he inadvertently resonated with an emotional fluctuation within a pile of corpses.
With a squelch, he cleaved open the mound of corpses with brilliant saber light. Instantly, a fire lizard completely enveloped in crimson glow burst out, its scales gleaming brightly as though cast from blood gold.
*A wondrous-blood creature!* Qin Ming had a hunch that he had likely run into another precious panacea worth more than ten thousand pieces of gold.
He surmised that both wondrous-blood creatures were likely direct descendants of sixth-realm patriarchs.
*Rumble!*
In the main battlefield, boundless bloody light surged up like an expanding mushroom cloud enveloping the desert. A sixth-realm powerhouse had fallen.
Almost simultaneously, terrifying energy fluctuations erupted continuously, sending chills through everyone's hearts as several massive blood clouds surged one after another, blotting out the entire night sky.
Qin Ming knew that sixth-realm experts were perishing in rapid succession; the great battle would likely come to an end very soon.
He did not worry for the patriarchs of his own faction, for they were nearly all top-tier sixth-realm experts and held an absolute numerical advantage, practically outnumbering their foes two to one.
"The battle is coming to a close!" Many looked toward the main battlefield.
*Boom!*
As if heaven and earth were splitting apart, torrential blood rain poured over the core battlefield. Once more, several enormous blood clouds rose, blanketing all directions and turning the boundless desert into a world of crimson.
Chapter 312