By now, even the naive young disciples trembled in bone-chilling dread as they gradually made out the human skin sloughing off inside the colored mist. It was anything but an auspicious omen.
Soon, everyone saw the human skin break free from the bounds of the passage. It fluttered lifelike in the celestial gale high above.
"It seems... to be smiling at us!" a young girl cried, her face pale.
As the skin swelled, blood continuously dripped from the corners of its mouth. Its eye sockets were like dark abysses, bobbing in the violent wind as though nodding in greeting.
The night was deep. Across the rest of the celestial vault, it was pitch-black, so dark one could not see one's own outstretched fingers; only the area around that human skin shone with light. It was an exceptionally eerie, chilling sight.
"When an ancient god smiles, life and death hang in the balance!" a renowned elder of the immortal path remarked.
"Shut your mouth and stop spouting nonsense!" Qian Yuan rebuked.
By this point, both airships were speeding away from the area behind them. No one had expected that after waiting for a legendary ancient grotto-heaven to collapse in hopes of scavenging some opportunity, they would end up greeting a sloughed immortal skin instead.
"It's following us!" someone said with a trembling voice.
The airships flew at high speed, yet the skin—dripping with blood from head to toe—was by no means slow. Floating along, it trailed close behind.
A few individuals with keen senses even thought they heard a shrill voice, as if someone were calling for them to turn around.
Everyone now understood that the red energetic substance discovered earlier inside the corridor had indeed been blood, blood linked to immortals and gods.
However, it was no divine blessing; it was more like purged foul blood.
"A being of that caliber... is someone trying to return? And we just happened to run into one!"
"Why is it pursuing us relentlessly? We never bore it any ill will!"
By now, many voices were quavering.
Jin Yuan swore to himself that he would never speak carelessly again in an unfamiliar domain or amid circumstances shrouded in mystery; otherwise, his words might actually come true.
Within the massive colored mist, thunder erupted. It was impossible to tell whether celestial lightning was striking down an evil anomaly or if that unknown being was generating the colossal commotion itself.
Then, many people watched as broken bones tumbled out, breaking free of the passage.
"Hiss!" Several young disciples lost their composure at the sight.
Scraps of flesh still clung to the pale bones, streaked with threads of blood. As they swayed, a severed half of a skull opened its mouth, and even across the vast distance, a distinct crunching sound could be heard.
"Full speed ahead! Push to the flight limit!" Jin Yuan shouted.
The captain replied, "This isn't a warship, only a small rescue vessel. It suffered damage earlier, so the hull itself might not withstand an over-limit burst."
Qian Yuan said, "We can't worry about that now! Hurry up and fly!"
Without an ancestral master present, what would they fight with? Throwing their heads into battle would be pure suicide; their only choice was to flee with everything they had.
Not long ago, they had been discussing the surrounding lands, mentioning legends from the northern wilderness where an Earth Immortal played chess with a human skin.
Those were not mere tales. Now that a thing of legend had truly emerged, who wouldn't dread the blood-red skin behind them?
The only good news was that the pale bones, trailing threads of blood and scraps of flesh, did not follow them. Instead, they plummeted into the night sky below.
Moreover, everyone noticed that the distance between them and the human skin was widening. After the airships accelerated, its outline even grew somewhat hazy.
Yet it remained certain that it continued to sway and drift, pursuing them in their direction.
Some even vaguely heard its laughter echoing in their minds, like the cold sneer of a thousand-year-old wraith—deeply unsettling, making the hair stand up on the necks of even seasoned elders.
As the gap widened, the tension in people's hearts eased slightly.
Many regained their composure, and Qin Ming spoke up: "Is it possible that although it intended to approach, having just been peeled from its original host, its vitality is depleted to rock bottom? It might lack the strength to pursue us and is simply being carried along by the celestial gale."
"That makes sense," many agreed, nodding.
After all, they were traversing the highest reaches of the sky, where the celestial gales were terrifyingly fierce. Without the protective barrier projected by the airship's runes, many would have been unable to endure it.
The two grandmasters blushed slightly, then ordered the crew to alter course and test the theory.
Sure enough, the blood-dripping human skin vanished and did not follow them down.
"We thought there would be a great opportunity, but it turned out to be a terrifying scare. If that human skin had landed on the ship, the consequences would have been unimaginable."
"It's hard to say what kind of mindset such an old monster would have after just breaking free. Perhaps peaceful, or perhaps twisted and depraved. It's best not to cross paths with it."
A wave of lingering dread washed over the crowd as they hurried away.
A few simple-minded youths only grasped the situation in hindsight, remarking, "Could the true self behind that bloody human skin be an Earth Immortal, or perhaps an even more formidable being? Returning from a mysterious realm, did it strip itself to reshape its original true self and walk its past path once more?"
Seeing the lingering terror on the youths' faces, Qian Yuan sighed. "Be content. To witness such a sight with our own eyes and still escape safely—we should consider ourselves fortunate."
Jin Yuan spoke up: "See that? Even an Earth Immortal has regrets! This further proves that our ancestral masters made the right choice. If you take a wrong step and try to turn back, even setting aside the passage of time, people and circumstances will have changed. To make up for the past, you must inevitably pay more than ten times the price."
Qin Ming pondered this and found it reasonable.
He had seen a real example himself.
At Black-White Mountain in Twin Trees Village, Old Man Liu—Liu Mo—had still not awakened. Five hundred years had passed, yet he had not fully achieved his new birth.
Only after confirming that the bloody skin was no longer trailing them did Qian Yuan feel at ease. He ordered the airship to lower its altitude, adjust its heading, and speed on its journey home.
He declared, "From now on, even if an Earth Immortal Flower blooms right in our path, do not stop! Let us court no more complications!"
Once calm settled over them, everyone felt lingering fear.
"Terrifying. A being capable of reaching such heights must have an extraordinary will—to be so ruthless toward oneself, gouging out immortal bones and peeling off one's own skin."
"If I were an Earth Immortal, looking down upon the world of night mist and wandering freely in the mortal realm, why would I suffer through such agony?"
Someone countered, "Standing at different heights naturally brings different pursuits and ambitions. Once you become an Earth Immortal, you are still suppressed by Heavenly Immortals above. Anyone who achieves the realm of an Earth Immortal has likely stood atop the clouds throughout their life. If there remains a chance to alter their destiny, they naturally wouldn't bow their heads to a Heavenly Immortal."
Jin Yuan said, "Make no mistake: any entity capable of becoming an Earth Immortal or a Heavenly God possesses tremendous resolve. Every one of them was the most formidable figure of their era."
Qian Yuan nodded in agreement. "In ancient times, those who dared to turn back and sever their own immortal or divine bodies were by no means isolated cases. For instance, when immortal sanctuaries replaced the divine bones or grafted the immortal skins of supreme drudges, where did those materials come from? Even great sects wouldn't lightly hunt immortals or slay gods. Moreover, those gods and immortals might well have been their own ancestors. One can only say that in that era, a fair number of immortals and gods voluntarily chose to return. Once the lingering consciousness clinging to the discarded divine bones and immortal skins faded away, some of those remains eventually became materials."
Many nodded, finding his words very convincing.
Yet where were those returning immortals and gods now?
In the end, had such beings advanced further, or had they failed and perished completely?
If one thought carefully about it, even the territory familiar to them held deep and unfathomable waters.
Suddenly, someone stared at the ground beneath the night mist in shock and said, "Senior, could that truly be an Earth Immortal Flower?"
Brilliant rain of light rose from the ground where an immortal blossom was unfurling, sending beams of radiance soaring into the sky in an utterly sacred display.
Jin Yuan said, "Hurry, move! Not a blade of grass grows here, and there isn't a single Fire Spring for a hundred thousand li. How could an Earth Immortal Flower ever be born? We probably... haven't shaken that thing off yet!"
Sure enough, as they flew farther away, the place where the immortal blossom had appeared turned out to be nothing more than a swath of fog. A bloody human skin shot up into the sky, giving vent to bursts of chilling whispers and laughter.
"The laughter is echoing inside my mind!" Several people felt a chill from head to toe, covered in goosebumps.
"Is this skin, discarded by an Earth Immortal, holding onto lingering negative emotions and resentment? Instead of tangling with its true master, why must it pursue us?"
Over the next two days, they occasionally caught sight of the blood-red human skin. Its eye sockets were hollow, bleeding from every aperture, as it drifted through the night and followed their journey.
Qian Yuan comforted everyone: "Don't worry. It hasn't gathered enough strength yet and likely can't do anything to us, or it would have struck already."
People still felt uneasy. There was no ancestral master here, nor any grandmaster at the peak of the fifth realm—only two middle-stage fifth-realm grandmasters nursing their injuries. It hardly felt secure.
On the third day, whenever anyone fell into slumber, they encountered that bloody skin in their dreams. Nightmare followed nightmare, draining their vitality and spirit.
"Senior, do you know Senior Liu Mo?" Qin Ming met it in his dream as well, but trying to forge a connection proved completely useless.
In the end, he had to rely on his own unyielding willpower to forcefully shake off the nightmare's clutches.
On the fourth day, Jin Yuan and Qian Yuan looked ahead from the airship at the same time, their expressions suddenly shifting. "Prepare for battle!" they barked.
In the pitch-black night sky, dense swarms of strange birds and flying beasts—fully over two hundred mounts—were carrying humans, two-headed werewolves, fire lizards, and more.
"Raiders! A remnant of them is still around!" Everyone was instantly stunned.
"Could this be another illusion created by that human skin?"
"No, it's an enemy attack! Prepare to break through!"
The bloody human skin had indeed appeared earlier, startling this group while they rested along the way. Alerted, the raiders had taken to the sky to intercept them.
"Kill them all! Avenge our ancestors!" a grandmaster-level figure among the raiders roared, leading the charge to slaughter them.
In an instant, both airships disintegrated, completely unable to withstand their onslaught.
These were not warships, only small rescue vessels; they fractured in the night sky, blown to pieces.
Qin Ming called out to Jin Yuan, and together they mounted the Thunder King Bird, darting out from the shattered airship.
The two airships had carried numerous mounts. Now, all of them bore riders as they fled into the thick night mist. Under these circumstances, a direct clash would mean total annihilation.
"Hunt them down! Don't let a single one escape!" an old man commanded viciously.
A brutal melee broke out abruptly.
Qin Ming's side had around a hundred people in total, less than half the enemy's numbers. Worse still, they were the last group of casualties to leave the desert, meaning they were the most severely injured.
Though several days had passed, none had fully recovered.
In the midst of battle, Qin Ming roughly grasped the situation through emotional resonance.
Multiple ancestral masters, joining hands with experts of the sun elven race, had swept westward like a broom, completely razing the raiders' stronghold.
However, some raiders had been away. Upon hearing the disastrous news, they were driven half-mad with rage, yet they lacked the power to seek vengeance against ancestral masters.
Ultimately, they split into several groups and set out one after another, intending to head for the Plain of Divine Demise to take refuge with demonic civilization and then retaliate against their mortal enemies.
Qin Ming's group had departed late and happened to encounter one of these contingents along the way.
It was a bloody, horrific slaughter. Over a hundred heavily wounded individuals, already in poor condition, were cut down alongside their mounts.
Some were blasted to pieces in the night sky together with their beasts.
"Go! Escape if you can!" someone roared.
Everyone was fighting to break out, but only a handful succeeded.
Top experts had keen perception. As Qin Ming fought his way clear, a grandmaster-level figure sensed something and locked his gaze onto Jin Yuan, who was riding the Thunder King Bird alongside him.
Moreover, that grandmaster-level raider urged his mount forward at extreme speed. Beneath him was a monstrous bat-like beast, flapping blood-red leathery wings as fast as lightning.
This mount was actually at the early stage of the fifth realm, even faster than the Thunder King Bird.
Jin Yuan rose to his feet atop the Thunder King Bird. Turning his back to Qin Ming, he said, "Young Qin, prepare to fly far away. Don't look back. You aren't as prominent a target; you might be able to escape."
"Senior!"
Jin Yuan said, "Say no more. I'll go intercept him. At the very least, I will strike down his mount so he cannot pursue, and perhaps I can drag him to the grave with me!"
Waiting for the enemy to close in, Jin Yuan prepared to pounce.
He sighed. "A pity. Though my shattered body has healed, a torn spiritual field cannot recover so easily. Otherwise, against a grandmaster like him, my Five Elements Divine Skill could take on three at once!"
Qin Ming immediately said, "Senior, I have auspicious beast blood here!"
Jin Yuan shook his head. "On the battlefield, I clashed with formidable grandmasters and was even intercepted once by a grand grandmaster. My body was torn apart multiple times. How do you think I survived? It was by drinking auspicious beast blood. It is of little use to me now."
"Go!" he barked in a low voice. Then, as the opponent drew near, five-colored divine light manifested beneath his feet. With a swoosh, he crossed the night sky and charged straight onto the back of that massive evil beast to intercept the grandmaster.
"Watch out for that ghost—the human skin—on the road ahead. It must have been what alerted these raiders on the ground and prompted them to block us." This was Jin Yuan's final divine transmission.
"Senior!" Qin Ming's eyes reddened with fury.
Guiding the Thunder King Bird to conceal itself within the dense night mist, he watched with his own eyes as the old man's blood splattered across the vast sky.
Jin Yuan's spiritual field was unstable, riddled with massive cracks that severely impaired his perception and reflexes, leaving his strength far below its peak.
He fulfilled his promise, slaying the evil flying beast, but his own body was once again torn apart, spraying blood everywhere.
At the final moment, a mass of five-colored heavenly light surged from within him, transforming into a Five Elements Mountain that crashed down upon his foe.
The grandmaster-level raider's physical body was destroyed as well, driving him into a fury.
The two clashed repeatedly in the night sky. Jin Yuan fought with a mutual destruction strategy, knowing his wounds were too severe and that this was the only way to drag his enemy down with him.
Ultimately, the raider let out an enraged roar. His conscious spiritual light grew faint, on the verge of extinguishing, and he began calling out for nearby subordinates to come to his aid.
Moving swiftly through the night mist atop the Thunder King Bird, Qin Ming successively caught one of Jin Yuan's thighs, his torn torso, and his falling head.
"Senior, are you still there?" he called out.
"Barely hanging on." A hazy cluster of five-colored light flew over.
"That's wonderful!" Qin Ming showed a look of relief and excitement.
"Senior, where is your other leg?"
"After it was torn off, it probably fell toward the east. Don't look for it! Hurry and go! Over a dozen fourth-realm raiders are about to close in on us!" Jin Yuan urged.
Qin Ming directed the Thunder King Bird to dive toward the eastern ground. In the end, he retrieved Jin Yuan's mangled leg, then sped away into the distance.
Behind them, a large pack of raiders pursued in fierce pursuit!
"We fell short—he's actually still alive!" Jin Yuan looked back and sighed helplessly. That grandmaster-level raider had not perished.
However, with his early fifth-realm flying mount slain, the enemy would find it difficult to catch up in the short term.
There had been more than one grandmaster among these raiders. If other powerhouses joined the chase, they would still be in grave danger.
"No grandmasters are following us. They're probably hunting Qian Yuan. Old Qian's injuries were lighter than mine; I hope he can survive this," Jin Yuan said.
Behind them, it was not just a pack of powerful raiders giving chase; not far away, that blood-drenched human skin had appeared once more.
Qin Ming spoke, his voice icy: "Let them chase. Be it man or ghost, give me one more day, and I'll wipe them all out!"
Chapter 318