The freezing wind howled like the wails of ghosts and spirits, sweeping up a sky full of raging snow. It crashed down from the night sky like vast sheets of white waterfalls pouring forth.
Amidst the wild gale and cascading snow, two figures resembled thunder tearing through the darkness, engaged in a battle of peaks. A rainbow flying sword shot out like lightning, clashing against black and white light, churning vast expanses of ice and snow into turbulent, surging waves!
Helian Zhaoyu truly possessed the capital for arrogance. His comprehension of the *Imperial Immortal Classic* had reached peak mastery. As the snowfield surged with mountain-toppling, tsunami-like force, he rode the momentum. The rainbow flying sword drew along a roiling white deluge, seemingly mobilizing the power of the entire mountain range.
Even from far away, every spectator could distinctly feel the suffocating pressure.
Right before their eyes, a white wave of snow roared past, carrying biting cold and dense snow pellets that battered down furiously.
The ice sheet trembled violently—an avalanche had erupted!
Using the rainbow flying sword as his spearhead and harnessing this grand momentum, Helian Zhaoyu blasted forward toward the figure ahead.
The hair on many onlookers stood on end. They truly experienced what it meant to overturn mountains and upend seas, feeling as if they were about to be buried under an ocean of snow.
At this moment, Helian Zhaoyu seemed fused into one with the entire icefield. His every move commanded myriad things, channeling the grand momentum of heaven and earth.
Yet amidst the snowy waves, Qin Ming moved with his saber. He actually held off the sect-defining Imperial Immortal Art, unleashing heavenly thunder and earthly fire to destroy the overwhelming white torrent.
His fist light reflected life and death, flourishing and decay, yin and yang, crushing dry leaves and smashing rotten wood as it punched back through the rolling waves of snow, shattering the massive avalanche.
The snowfield was like a river or sea blown apart. White waves dispersed in every direction, and dense snow pellets blanketed the spectators.
At this moment, even taking a slight breath felt like swallowing crushed ice. Bone-chilling cold invaded deep into their mouths and noses, carrying a faint scent of frozen soil.
The dazzling flying sword that traversed heaven and earth let out a mournful cry, forcibly snapped apart by Qin Ming's yin-yang power.
Across the rioting snowfield, time and space seemed to freeze instantly.
The so-called power to command myriad things, the grand momentum of heaven and earth, had all been blasted apart by a single burst of fist light.
A breath later, the collapsed wave of snow crashed down from the night sky. The boundless white airstream nearly surged into the outer pure land.
The onlookers scrambled to evade, almost swallowed whole.
The rainbow flying sword had broken into three pieces. Qin Ming held a small section between two fingers and said, "This is the strength approaching the realm of the ancient sages? You are slandering their name!"
He flicked the broken sword. Like northern auroras slicing across the night sky, it shot straight toward the black-robed youth's brow.
Helian Zhaoyu flicked his finger. With a sharp clang, he knocked the broken blade away, his expression chillingly detached.
"Even his flying sword broke!"
"That was a rare treasure he nurtured for years!"
Many spectators wore strange looks, secretly marveling. Qin Ming could be so formidable even against a sect-defining art, actually snapping the rainbow flying sword with bare hands.
Helian Zhaoyu showed no trace of defeat. On the contrary, his momentum climbed, appearing even more dangerous than before.
He spoke coldly, "If I had fully stepped into the realm of the ancient sages' youth just now, would you still be standing here in one piece?"
Qin Ming wagged a single finger at him and said, "Incompetence is incompetence. If that's the extent of your skill, then it's time for everything to end."
The aura within Helian Zhaoyu abruptly surged, sending nearby ice and snow surging upward into the night sky, swirling around him at high speed along with a great mass of stones.
With an icy face, he said, "I underestimated you before. I originally intended to save my strongest form for the future, to meet the foremost figures of the immortal path and the esoteric sect."
Then his voice deepened. "I didn't expect you to be somewhat troublesome. Since that's the case, have your wish—come pay audience to a sage in his youth!"
Before Qin Ming could reply, an uproar broke out behind them.
"My foolish cousin really knows how to put on a show!" spoke Helian Yaoqing, dressed in robes as white as snow. Still clad in men's attire, she looked patterns of indescribable dashing charm.
The youth Helian Mingxu, whose jade pendants jingled softly, voiced his displeasure: "Little Aunt, whose side are you on?"
Many people looked grave, wondering whether Helian Zhaoyu was being overly arrogant. He had already used a supreme scripture like the *Imperial Immortal Classic*; what else could he display next?
Helian Zhaoyu took one step after another. His personal aura indeed surpassed his earlier level by a tier, his entire body flowing with unfathomable power.
Under the dense night and amid the furious wind and snow, as he stepped forward, all methods seemed to retreat. Layer upon layer of dazzling divine rings manifested around his body. Striding across the ice sheet, he resembled a youthful deity descending to the mortal realm for the first time.
He spoke in a cold voice, "You are fortunate today to witness the power of this realm!"
As he spoke, several young disciples who had just joined the pure land suddenly felt pressure multiply. In a daze, they seemed to truly see a legendary figure recorded in history books, returning to his youth and striding step-by-step toward this era.
Qin Ming's expression remained calm as he said, "If the ancient sages knew of this from beyond the grave, they would probably kick off their coffin lids and slap you hard across the face for dishonoring them time and time again."
He swung a slap straight across, thoroughly sick of the other's posturing!
In an instant, the entire snowfield exploded with roaring noise. Snowflakes flew horizontally across the sky, and the night curtain seemed about to be torn to shreds like a rag.
Clad in black, Helian Zhaoyu countered with a punch, meeting the palm head-on. Dazzling light flashed through heaven and earth like passing lightning.
At the same time, the swirling wind, snow, and boulders around Helian Zhaoyu all blew apart, sending ripples undulating outward with him as the center.
"Hmm?" Everyone froze before displaying looks of shock.
The ground beneath Helian Zhaoyu's feet transformed into a pure land, looking very much like the third realm of the esoteric sect—the inner landscape—expanding outward.
Instantly, surging rivers appeared faintly within his pure land, and towering mountains revealed hazy outlines through the clouds and mist.
Though they were distant scenery, they carried immense pressure, as if a terrifying mountain-and-river painting was about to descend upon the snowfield.
"I see now. Even though he is a disciple of the immortal path, he is actually a divine seed! Born into the Helian clan of the pure land, it wasn't convenient for him to join the esoteric sect directly," someone revealed the truth.
"In ancient times, gods and immortals were never strictly divided. Inside the pure land, he could naturally walk the path of the esoteric sect as well, certainly lacking no corresponding texts. This is his true skill and foundation."
People were shaken. Only now had Helian Zhaoyu brought out his real specialty.
The esoteric sect's third realm—the inner landscape—was the foundation for future godhood.
This was the divine path chosen and visualized in one's heart. Once constructed and polished, the inner landscape would manifest, destined to merge with special geography and heavenly scenery in the future.
Now, what Helian Zhaoyu manifested was actually a magnificent mountain-and-river painting.
Evidently, this was a divine pure land formed by merging a mountain god and a river god.
Where he stood, radiance burst forth, as if forming a miniature world of its own.
In a flash, a Mountain-River Seal appeared, bearing dense dao rhyme. Like a magnificent mountain range crashing down, it loomed over Qin Ming.
Qin Ming remained placid, casually thrusting out a palm. Instantly, endless blinding light erupted, so bright that no one could keep their eyes open.
In a daze, people seemed to see a legendary Golden Crow shattering the abyss, piercing the darkness, and soaring straight across the sky—far too radiant to behold.
With a sharp crack, the Mountain-River Seal was torn apart. The Golden Crow sliced through the night curtain, as if about to illuminate the entire snowfield.
Everyone was astounded. Anyone could tell that Qin Ming's palm strike had seemed utterly simple, yet it unleashed such formidable power.
Even Helian Zhaoyu wore a solemn expression, his heart chilled. He had spoken of stepping into the realm of the youthful sages, only to meet a heavy blow the instant he struck.
The Mountain-River Seal disintegrated, shattering into pieces.
At the same time, his expanded inner landscape swayed, and the pristine divine land nearly fractured.
"Could that be the *Golden Crow Illuminates the Night Classic*? He actually mastered it!"
Someone realized the truth, understanding why Qin Ming's seemingly plain palm strike held such immense might.
"*Hiss!*"
In an instant, the middle-aged and younger generations sucked in cold air. Qin Ming had only just emerged from studying the scriptures in the immortal land, yet he had already achieved results? What terrifying natural talent!
"That's the *Golden Crow Illuminates the Night Classic*! He gained comprehension in such a short time?" Even the senior figures were deeply shaken.
Everyone was stunned.
At this moment, all truly felt how powerful Qin Ming's natural endowment was.
"A pity that this true classic is severely incomplete, consisting of only a thin booklet," someone sighed. Although the *Golden Crow Illuminates the Night Classic* possessed immense renown, it remained a fragmentary text after all.
Nonetheless, it was exceedingly practical and terrifying. Once mastered, it could augment consciousness power and heavenly light force!
"Is that all?" Qin Ming's expression turned cold. He struck swiftly, wanting to bring the fight to a speedy close.
*Crack!*
Lightning surged. Within Helian Zhaoyu's mountain-river pure land, the scene shifted once more. The Duke of Thunder and the Mother of Lightning actually emerged. He possessed yet another divine pure land, now stacking them together.
This meant that should he choose to become a god, he had multiple paths.
Furthermore, he was still stacking them. Dense golden specks appeared within the pure land—a type of rare insect shaped like throwing daggers, barely a thumb long, infused with lightning.
"Blade insects!"
Someone cried out in surprise. It ranked near the very top of the rare insect list, renowned far and wide. In the past, someone had even cultivated a Blade Insect God.
"Has his inner landscape expanded to the point where it can nurture living creatures?"
"Those aren't real blade insects. That's an insect domain manifested by his inner landscape. He has many choices for achieving godhood, and he's still stacking them."
The crowd murmured in low discussion.
Though Qin Ming was curious to see how many divine pure lands the man had, he would not simply stand by and wait. He launched an attack directly. With a boom, his fist light grew even more dazzling, unleashed through the power of the *Golden Crow Illuminates the Night Classic*.
That expanse of mountains and rivers dimmed once more, and even the lightning was broken.
However, blade insects hid behind the mountains and rivers, swarming out at this moment. Denser than a rain of arrows and sharper than flying swords, their wings buzzed in the wind and snow like real living creatures, lunging toward their opponent.
Qin Ming swung his fist. With a single thought, decay and flourishing manifested, augmented by the *Golden Crow Illuminates the Night Classic*. In an instant, all the blade insects seemed frozen in the river of time.
Within a breath, they decayed and fell away in showers.
With a boom, Qin Ming's fist punched clean through the pure land, striking toward Helian Zhaoyu.
At this moment, cracks spread across the bright inner landscape ahead, on the verge of shattering.
Helian Zhaoyu did not block. Instead, he took the opportunity to erupt, his pure land undergoing a world-turning transformation. Boundless freezing cold emerged, blending with the outside world of ice and snow.
His pupils were pitch-black, as if connecting to the netherworld. Pointing forward, his pure land expanded, and black snowflakes blanketed the sky, sweeping over Qin Ming.
"This is his primary inner landscape—the divine land! Everything before was merely a concealment," someone stated solemnly.
Many understood that rarely could anyone master so many divine pure lands; it divided one's focus too much, making it impossible to reach the pinnacle.
Those earlier inner landscapes were likely methods Helian Zhaoyu projected using rare treasures.
In a flash, Qin Ming's figure was sealed in ice, frozen inside a pitch-black block.
"*Hiss!* Nether Black Water! It can freeze a person's consciousness and seal their soul!" someone gasped in shock.
Suddenly, golden haze bloomed within the black ice. Frozen by the Nether Black Water, Qin Ming gave a forceful jolt and broke straight through, shattering the divine ice.
Helian Zhaoyu let out a faint sigh and said, "You truly are remarkably strong. In that case, take my final strike—the realm of the ancient sages!"
As he spoke, he fully displayed his inner landscape, the foundation pure land for his future godhood.
To his left, black marshes steamed; to his right, white flames soared into the sky. Two opposing inner landscapes were actually fused together in perfect harmony.
In an instant, a black-and-white yin-yang diagram formed where he stood.
This startled even Qin Ming. An inner landscape transforming into yin and yang—the divine pure land this fellow possessed was indeed extraordinary.
To Helian Zhaoyu's left, a formidable man with a human face and a serpent body emerged within the yin diagram. To his right, within the yang diagram, appeared a man enveloped in a halo of fire, wielding a long spear.
"That is the Gonggong dharma idol and the Zhurong golden body! Helian Zhaoyu actually refined such opposing, conflicting powers into the same divine pure land, using them to generate yin and yang. Truly remarkable!"
Even senior grandmasters nodded repeatedly, offering high praise.
Helian Zhaoyu let out a great roar and erupted with all his might. This was the first time he had revealed his trump card in public.
His eyes looked different now, shining with black and white light. Those were Yin-Yang Eyes, capable of seeing through all illusions.
Simultaneously, within the yin-yang diagram of the pure land, the Gonggong dharma idol and the Zhurong golden body resonated together. Augmented by Helian Zhaoyu's cultivation, they grew increasingly distinct, blasting toward his opponent.
Qin Ming did not dare be careless. His invisible spirit field expanded, and he directly unleashed the silk book method. Consciousness power blended with heavenly light and divine wisdom, erupting massively here!
The ice sheet shuddered violently, and the nearby mountain peaks triggered another massive avalanche.
To all the onlookers, the Gonggong dharma idol and the Zhurong golden body within that divine diagram appeared incomparably formidable, as if ancient sages had truly regained their youthful bodies, drawing close to the real world.
Yet in the next moment, that wondrous domain abruptly dimmed. Gonggong and Zhurong dispersed, for the yin-yang diagram had actually been punched clean through. Helian Zhaoyu coughed up a huge mouthful of blood and went flying backward.
Chapter 345