The Fire Spring gurgled softly, and the woodland lay hazy under the night mist, through which drifted the fragrant scent of wild blossoms and the crisp freshness of vegetation.
Water bubbled vigorously within the large cauldron. The flood dragon meat was translucent and tinged with a rosy glow, its rich aroma wafting in all directions, allowing the group to feast to their hearts' content.
Qin Ming remarked, "The Plain of Divine Demise has a rather unusual environment, making it prone to birthing creatures with wondrous blood."
During his last visit, although he had faced danger multiple times around its periphery, his harvest had indeed been tremendous.
Without a doubt, deeper within the Plain of Divine Demise lay species of even greater value possessing wondrous blood.
As the night deepened, Yu Gensheng was the first to take his leave, sighing, "Ah, I'm old. I can't stay up late like you young folks anymore. I'll head back first."
Flood dragon meat was a great tonic, but to him, a cultivator of the fifth realm, it was hardly significant.
Qin Ming, Li Qingyue, and Wu Yaozu, meanwhile, were bursting with vitality. Every pore across their bodies had opened, letting streams of rosy light spill forth.
Before long, they all sat cross-legged, taking advantage of the nourishing meal to cultivate their respective arts.
"Qingyue, I will teach you the *Vajra Scripture*," Qin Ming said.
"I have always practiced the *Immortal Willow Golden Body Art*. It suits me very well," Li Qingyue replied. As a top-tier immortal seed, she was naturally well-rounded and already cultivated body-protecting arts.
Even so, Qin Ming still imparted it to her, while also studying her immortal path scripture, which possessed extraordinary flexibility and defensive strength.
The two compared their insights and validated them against one another, both gaining substantially.
The *Immortal Willow Golden Body Art* was renowned throughout the outer realm; even Jiang Ran, Leng Feiyue, and others cultivated it on the side, which spoke volumes about its true worth.
After all, Jiang Ran was the foremost figure of her generation in the immortal land, while Leng Feiyue was a direct descendant of the path-blazing old freak Leng Mingkong.
"Brother Ming, Da Xiang and I will head back first. Take your time sparring," Wu Yaozu said, dragging away Xiang Yiwu, who was still reluctant to leave and kept trying to snatch a few more bites of flood dragon meat while cultivating.
"Why did they start fighting?" Xiao Wu watched from afar, at a loss for words.
He had been tactful enough to clear out and leave them alone together. Instead, heavenly light surged through the woodland and strands of conscious spiritual light intertwined as the two traded blows.
"Qin Ming seems to be faintly employing the Five Elements sacred baleful aura, concealed within his Five Elements Light Wheel," Xiang Yiwu observed closely.
Shortly after, they noticed that when Qin Ming executed the *Black-White Classic*, he also hazily brought forth the Yin-Yang heavenly light diagram.
Wu Yaozu was astonished. "Fairy Li really is overwhelmingly formidable. She actually forced out Brother Ming's true abilities."
In the woodland bathed in soft, fiery glow, both were exceptionally restrained. Neither their heavenly light force nor their conscious spiritual light soared into the night sky, extending only slightly beyond their bodies.
Their movements were fast as lightning and their forms fluttered like immortals, yet they caused little disturbance.
The two were merely testing techniques and sparring, not engaged in a genuine duel.
Qin Ming already knew that Li Qingyue had reached perfection in the third realm—Softening the Light—and could break through the great bottleneck at any moment to ascend to the next tier.
Starting from the realm of Softening the Light, cultivators of the immortal path had to undergo "tribulation," or undergo baptism with mysterious "immortal fire" to transmute their consciousness into Pure Yang, gradually granting it immortal properties.
The so-called tribulation entailed one's conscious spiritual light leaving the body and ascending high into the pitch-black celestial vault, enduring the corrosion and tempering of various lights from beyond the mundane world.
Under normal circumstances, even an immortal seed undergoing tribulation would be accompanied and guarded by seniors.
This was because above the dark clouds, in the depths of the heavens, lay many mysterious and unknown dangers where all manner of shifts and accidents could easily arise.
Beyond the mundane realm, unpredictable catastrophes might even strike on occasion.
Cultivators of the immortal path possessed genuine grounds for their self-confidence. Beginning in the third realm, undergoing tribulation or attempting to bathe in "immortal fire" were terrifying ordeals that allowed them to achieve startling metamorphoses.
After sparring and exchanging pointers with Li Qingyue, Qin Ming grew considerably more solemn; the techniques of the immortal path were truly formidable.
At the same time, he couldn't help marveling at how the realm names of the immortal path each had classical origins and specific connotations.
In comparison, the names for the Newborn path's realms were indeed rather "plain and direct."
Li Qingyue said, "The six realms of the immortal path are Fasting of the Mind, Yellow Court, Softening the Light, Embracing Simplicity, Pure Yang, and Seeking Truth. Starting from the third realm, Softening the Light, every realm is like ascending to a new heaven. Each time one breaks through a major bottleneck, the increase in strength is immense."
Qin Ming nodded. "Are you going to enter the fourth realm soon?"
"Yes. The Eight Trigrams Furnace possesses a faint will. It told me that beneath these immortal graves lies something vaguely familiar to it, so it would be best for me to break into the fourth realm."
Dressed in white, Li Qingyue gazed out into the boundless night sky. In the evening breeze, her black hair and fluttering hems drifted, making her seem poised to ride the wind and soar into the distant heavens.
...
As the shallow night arrived, massive flying vessels took off one after another.
Yu Gensheng was also preparing to leave. He had volunteered to return early, worried about his old partner Zhao Ziyuan and eager to reach the Plain of Divine Demise as soon as possible.
In the desert battle, his injuries had been minor—except that the hundred-odd sparse hairs on his head hadn't survived the opponent's lightning, which had infuriated him to no end.
"Little Qin, don't rush. Recover your injuries properly here, and travel back together with Elder Jin Yuan of the Five Elements Palace. He was severely injured and will depart later as well. You can consult him more on matters of the five elements."
Qin Ming had originally planned to set off with Yu Gensheng, but his interest was piqued by the suggestion, and he nodded in agreement.
Having successfully fused and tempered the legendary Five Elements sacred baleful aura, this was the perfect opportunity to exchange insights with a senior figure in this domain.
He soon learned that Jin Yuan had suffered catastrophic injuries during the great battle; his body had been blown to pieces more than once, requiring several days of quiet recuperation.
That day, many people embarked on their return journeys. Even Li Qingyue, Jiang Ran, and others departed aboard the flying ships.
It remained uncertain whether fighting had broken out in the Plain of Divine Demise; the distance was too vast and communication inconvenient, leaving everyone in the dark about the real-time situation.
"Qin Ming, come aboard my ship and travel with us," Helian Yaoqing said with a beaming smile. She still wore men's clothing, her waist-length black hair paired with crimson lips and pearly teeth, exuding an easy, dashing grace.
With Qin Ming's display of extraordinary combat prowess in the desert battle, she no longer mentioned having him follow by her side. Instead, she had shifted her stance, considering him a potential partner for the future.
"My injuries are too severe. I need to rest quietly for a few more days," Qin Ming replied with a smile.
Helian Yaoqing chuckled softly. "I have precious medicines and maidservants skilled in tending to the injured. If you depart early with me, your wounds will heal even faster."
Nearby, Helian Zhaoyu watched this exchange with veins bulging on his forehead. His cousin truly didn't care about his feelings in the slightest.
Cheng Sheng, a prominent figure among the esoteric sect's divine seeds, also called out a farewell before departing: "Brother, your performance this time was quite impressive! When can the two of us exchange pointers? Don't worry, when the time comes, I won't use my higher realm to bully you—we'll spar on equal terms."
"Sure, once I recover from my injuries," Qin Ming nodded. He was indeed quite curious about the esoteric sect's techniques.
Before leaving, Pei Shuyan also came over to exchange a few words upon seeing him.
Unquestionably, Qin Ming's dazzling feat of slaying third-realm seeds while standing only in the second realm had made a massive impact, drawing immense attention, at least among the younger generation.
Helian Zhaoyu had only just boarded his ship and had not even left yet, but some people already disregarded his reactions entirely.
In particular, after the Helian clan's grand vessel departed into the distance, even more people came over to strike up conversations with Qin Ming. Following that single battle, his standing and status seemed to have risen by a notch.
Qin Ming resolved that he had to convert the Vajra fruit into his own strength soon, maintaining this momentum of continuous growth.
After the bloody battle in the desert, he had unknowingly made acquaintances with quite a few figures: young nobles from the three great imperial dynasties, as well as seeds from the immortal path, the esoteric sect, and the Newborn path.
Even disciples of millennium-old clans he had known in the past—relationships that had grown cold over the last two years—warmed up once more.
"Is the Thunder King Bird heavily wounded? This is a medicinal powder specially made for superior lightning-attribute exotic birds; it should help it recover swiftly." Before departing, the Fourth Princess of Great Yu had her personal maid deliver a bottle of medicine.
Qin Ming was deeply grateful for this. Without this mount, he certainly wouldn't have achieved such a stunning tally of kills, nor would he have been able to smoothly evade the underhanded attacks of those fourth-realm old scoundrels.
After ingesting the medicinal powder, the purple-winged Thunder King Bird improved noticeably.
Initially, when Yao Ruoxian requisitioned it from its original young noble owner, it had been fiercely dissatisfied and recalcitrant.
Yet the moment it watched its new master decapitate early third-realm hunters one after another with single slashes, it had immediately become docile and obedient.
By the end, it was utterly submissive, its eyes glowing with admiration every time it looked at Qin Ming.
That day, a major event unfolded in the desert.
The ancestral masters stationed behind held a halting, indistinct exchange with the Earth Immortal sealed within the main tomb, resulting in a breakthrough development.
That very night, they could not wait to excavate a modestly sized ancient tomb; compared to the mountain-sized tumuli around it, it was utterly inconspicuous.
Throughout the process, they maintained suppression over the area with the thirty-six divine stakes, acting with extreme caution.
Soon after, the ancestral masters were electrified with excitement.
"This... involves spatial runes!"
Old monsters who wouldn't bat an eye even if Feixian Mountain collapsed before them were all smiling, unable to hide their thrill.
Beneath the ancient grave lay a mysterious stone immortal terrace, densely inscribed with a profusion of immortal dao runes.
"If we cross-reference and study this alongside the stone altar discovered in the Kunling region, there will likely be new breakthroughs. This Earth Immortal is truly willing to part with valuable treasures."
"He stated that this stone platform is connected to his homeland. He probably hopes to rely on our hands to decipher and activate it."
Five days later, three flying ships ascended into the sky together, and Qin Ming embarked on his journey back.
Elder Jin Yuan of the Five Elements Palace had reassembled his body and knit his flesh back together; though far from fully healed, he could at least fight if any emergency arose.
Qin Ming set out alongside this pale-faced old man.
During the interim, Qin Ming had paid visits to the elder, and the two got along quite harmoniously. Had it not been for Jin Yuan's dreadful condition, Qin Ming would have consulted him on all sorts of questions regarding the five elements long ago.
"Nearly everything under heaven can be encompassed within the five elements..." Two days into their journey, with his torn spiritual field largely healed, Jin Yuan began discussing the five elements with Qin Ming.
The night mist hung thick, and heaven and earth were pitch-black.
Along this return path, ninety percent of the regions lacked any light or Fire Springs, shrouded in profound darkness. Without knowing the route or possessing special positioning treasures, it was extraordinarily easy to get lost.
Qin Ming felt with increasing clarity how difficult it was for low-realm cultivators to venture alone into the depths of the night mist world.
Often, there would not be a single speck of light for over a hundred thousand li, resembling an abyss. Such regions were numerous, and there were even continuous stretches spanning a million li where one could not see one's hand before one's face, making it all too easy to be trapped and perish.
Compounded by the unknown creatures and perils along the way, there was simply no path of survival.
"Some substances do not fall within the five elements, and some arts cannot be overcome by the five elements. How does one resolve this?" Qin Ming inquired humbly aboard the large ship.
"Seek transformation through the five elements," Jin Yuan replied.
Suddenly, the pitch-black sky split open. A dazzling light crashed down, as though sundering the entire world of night mist.
Jin Yuan sprang to his feet. "What... what kind of place is this, where mere words are answered so swiftly? Could it be a variable falling from the heavens, beyond the five elements?"
A brilliant radiance plunged from the firmament, accompanied by vast white mist to form a colossal passageway. The sight was utterly terrifying, accompanied by a tremendous commotion.
Chapter 315