On this pitch-black, rainy night, thunder and fire surged violently.
The big yellow dog had originally been sleeping soundly in its kennel, only to be frightened into bolting out into the rain by Old Man Liu's words.
Thus, the very first time it spoke in a human tongue, it opened its mouth to "claim kinship."
Above Twin Trees Village, the scorched human skin drifted against the violent wind and pouring rain like a tattered kite, magma-like blood streaming from its eye sockets.
The fur across the big yellow dog's body stood on end. It stared into the night sky, baring its snow-white fangs.
It was beside itself with rage. It had already completed ninety-nine bows, with only the very last step left, yet someone had come looking for trouble—were they trying to drag it down into the grave with them?
It had chewed on chaff and swallowed wild herbs, endured the bitter elements, and suffered in forbearance for so many years. Had its life been easy?
It had finally been on the verge of enduring to the very end, with good days just around the corner, yet where had this wretched human skin flown in from? Stirring up wind and waves here to ruin its future!
Just moments ago, the yellow dog had been terrified, truly sensing that death was not far away.
Liu Mo stood before the window, watching the world beyond the curtain of rain, his eyes as deep as twin abysses.
A gaze like this caused even the sparse hairs remaining on the old skin to stand on end in the rain. It too acutely realized something was wrong, gripped by overwhelming trepidation.
"This junior meant no offense. I came only in search of sages and the virtuous," the old skin spoke in the night sky. Yet it showed no intention of retreating.
Deep within its eye sockets, an ancient formation diagram seemed to revive; crimson flames danced and flickered as it stared ahead, carefully sensing the conditions here.
The yellow dog's heart sank. The old skin acting alone was a small matter, but the key issue was that an unfathomable power likely backed it. Did they wish to disturb the peace of Black-White Mountain?
It glanced back at the courtyard, endless worry and fear churning deep in its heart.
Inside the house, black and white qi rose amidst Liu Mo's hair, turning ethereal and unfathomable.
"Let me handle it!" the big yellow dog cried out in fright. Cleansing its mind of all stray thoughts, it leapt into the night sky and swung a paw at the old skin.
In an instant, a furry dog paw blotted out the heavens and covered the earth. Colossal beyond measure, like dark clouds bearing down from above, it threatened to overturn the night sky!
Perched upon the Black-White Twin Trees, Yuque and the red squirrel trembled violently, their eyes fixed wide in astonishment.
"The dog... is actually this powerful?" They stood dazed upon the branch, finding it impossible to believe.
At this moment, the shock in the two small creatures' hearts had already surpassed their fear. Their eyes were wide as they stared blankly at the spectacle.
On ordinary days, the dog was often kicked around by Old Man Liu. Yet in this rainy night, it resembled a peerless great archdemon emerging into the world—truly terrifying beyond reason.
"From this day on, there is no more doggy. That is... Master Dog."
Yuque and the red squirrel were exceptionally clear-headed, promptly "promoting" the dog.
...
At Mount Chixia, torrential rain poured down while dense webs of lightning interlaced across the night sky.
Like a ghost, Qi Yunxiao dodged Qin Ming's attack.
He teleported repeatedly, shifting positions continuously and retreating again and again.
It was as though two shooting stars streaked across the night sky with blinding radiance, vaporizing vast amounts of rain along their paths and sending roiling plumes of white mist billowing into the upper air.
Qi Yunxiao's expression was grave. He had already unleashed two sword strikes, yet he had failed completely to suppress Qin Ming. Moreover, his nine-colored flying sword had shattered, and conscious blood essence dripped from the corner of his mouth.
In this battle, he had lost the wager!
In a dust-covered corner of the world, a youth of the third realm had actually wounded him. Such an outcome was thoroughly humiliating, utterly devoid of glory.
Before his spirit wandered forth, Qi Yunxiao had predicted that a single sword strike would suffice to strike down this native of the third realm, leaving him bedridden for months.
Normally, he should have retreated by now.
Before coming here, he had said at Mount Yuhua that it was merely a "spar," and that he did not intend to take Qin Ming's life.
Yet now he did not move. After trading two sword blows, he had actually ended up wounded and on the back foot, truly losing all face.
In truth, it was no longer a question of whether he wanted to leave.
Over where Qin Ming stood, a tangible spirit field extended outward. Ripples bearing immortal light expanded in ring after ring, seemingly prying open a rift in the black vault of heaven to link with the blazing thunder and lightning, locking onto his opponent completely.
"Do you actually intend to keep me here?" Qi Yunxiao spoke. His green robes billowed, maintaining an ethereal air amidst the rain and beneath the flashes of lightning arcing across the sky.
Qin Ming replied in a deep voice, "What do you take me for—a sparring partner? After striking at me twice, you think you can just pat your backside and walk away as if nothing happened? Who gave you the audacity to act this way?"
His gaze turned increasingly sharp as he said, "Who do you think you are? Coming and going as you please? Tonight, I'm sending you on your way!"
A ball of fury had truly been stifled within his chest. For someone to treat him as a mere chip in a wager was simply intolerable bullying!
Qi Yunxiao radiated a dangerous aura, his gaze turning frigid as well. Deep down to his bones, he was haughty and intensely arrogant.
Having already lost face, he had originally harbored reluctance.
Now, he spoke flatly, "If this is your choice, insisting on making an enemy of me, then I have no choice but to strike again."
"Stop posturing. Whose dog mouth is dripping with blood? Conceited fool!" After snapping back, Qin Ming decisively blasted out several thick bolts of lightning.
In truth, Qi Yunxiao could not have left even if he wanted to. Once locked onto, the other party unleashed the power of lightning at every turn, far outpacing his escape speed.
At this point, Qi Yunxiao fell silent. Breaking his original "intent" and no longer arrogantly setting limits on himself, he immediately slashed out a third sword light.
This was a sword of the mind, one of Qi Yunxiao's supreme arts: the Oblivion Immortal Sword.
With a resounding boom, the curtain of rain seemed to decay and crumble. After being sliced through by that seemingly modest beam of sword light, even the night sky fell dead silent.
Carrying only faint, pitch-black ripples, this sword of the mind nonetheless seemed to pry open an abyss, threatening to swallow everything in the area and reduce it to lifeless stillness.
Qin Ming conceded that this person's techniques were indeed profound and that he was quite an extraordinary figure.
However, tonight was special. Bolstered by the surrounding environment, Qin Ming was as if cloaked in a fearsome golden body, harmonizing with the overarching trend of heaven and earth. Thunder and fire cascaded like a waterfall; as he swung his fist, dense clusters of lightning plunged swiftly from the dark clouds.
Qi Yunxiao's hair whipped wildly about, his green robes fluttering as his conscious spiritual light instantly surged. His eyes wide, he slashed out that Oblivion sword intent with all his might.
Rumble!
That pitch-black, abyssal domain was pierced through by lightning. His sword of the mind could not shake the special spirit field linked with thunder and lightning, suppressed by the opponent through sheer, unadulterated power.
With a metallic clang, Qi Yunxiao's sword of the mind dimmed, riddled with dense cracks. His mental field flared violently as a result, his body swaying uncontrollably.
In an instant, Qin Ming swept forward carrying layer upon layer of spirit field ripples that manifested miraculous visions—an ancient temple, a Golden Crow, wind and thunder, and more all emerged within the spirit field, sweeping across to engulf him.
Qi Yunxiao let out a roar. He felt utterly stifled. A dignified figure of the fourth realm, to be countered and suppressed across realms by someone weaker—if word of this got out, it would inevitably stir up a massive uproar, and he would be reduced to nothing more than a stepping stone in someone else's legend.
Unleashing every technique at his disposal, a pitch-black lotus sprouted from his body. Resonating with him and carrying Daoist rhyme alongside the power of oblivion, it blasted toward Qin Ming.
"Huh?"
A look of surprise crossed Qin Ming's face. For a mere black flower to withstand the lightning of his spirit field was truly terrifying and extraordinary.
However, if it didn't shatter on the first strike, then striking it a few more times would do. Linking his spirit field to the storm clouds, he channeled even more formidable power of lightning and blasted it at his foe.
At this moment, even Qin Ming's hairs stood on end and his body tensed. Thunder and fire were merciless above all else; had his leveraging failed, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
The pitch-black lotus was struck. Its petals became covered in cracks before withering away, and under wave after wave of lightning, it eventually collapsed and disintegrated with a roar.
Spurt!
Qi Yunxiao coughed up a mouthful of blood. Struck by lightning, his surrounding conscious spiritual light nearly scattered, and facing the majesty of heaven and earth's nature, his face turned deathly pale.
"This isn't your own power!"
He was certain that no one in the third realm could possess such profound cultivation. The other party was clearly borrowing momentum, using the power of heaven and earth to suppress him.
Afterward, Qi Yunxiao slashed out a fourth sword, a fifth sword... all the way to a thirty-sixth sword!
His hair disheveled and his green robes in tatters, any thought of crushing his foe with a single sword was completely extinguished. Now he fought with everything he had. This was no longer a battle to reclaim face, but a fight for survival!
A chill rose from the depths of Qi Yunxiao's heart as he worried whether he would perish right here.
Qin Ming grew increasingly majestic, channeling heaven and earth as his spirit field layered various miraculous vistas, fully displaying sanctity. The magnificent and solemn Great Thunder Sound Temple materialized, the cry of a divine cicada overpowering the thunder within the dark clouds, while a terrifying fiery-red divine bird revived within the spirit field, bathing in Nanming Departing Fire...
Black and white qi even clung to the spirit field as yin and yang power surged, endless black and white particles making the mysterious ripples outside Qin Ming's body all the more terrifying.
Heavily wounded, Qi Yunxiao was like an insect caught in a web, struggling in vain to break free.
He coughed up conscious blood essence repeatedly, his form pierced through and sliced apart by the waves of the spirit field.
"Brother Qin, stay your hand!" the black-robed youth Cen Jinghong called out as he drew near.
"Stay away from me!" Qin Ming replied. Earlier, when Qi Yunxiao had controlled a flying sword over a thousand li to target him with fourth-realm might, this person hadn't lifted a finger to stop him. What was he playing the good guy for now?
Cen Jinghong's expression stiffened, not expecting the other party to show him no face whatsoever.
"Brother Qin, it was merely a spar. Let matters end here tonight," the purple-robed maiden Mu Xingyao from Earth Immortal Island in the West Sea also spoke up, stepping gracefully through the curtain of rain toward them.
"You shut your mouth too!" Qin Ming snapped without the slightest courtesy.
Had he not known the truth—that these two had also taken part in the wager, viewing him as a mere piece in their game—his tone would not have been so cold, harsh, and aggressive.
As things stood, he felt like grabbing both of them right alongside him.
However, for the moment, he needed to deal with the principal offender, Qi Yunxiao, first.
Cen Jinghong and Mu Xingyao possessed outstanding poise and beauty, standing side by side in the torrential rain like a pair of banished immortals, yet both had ugly expressions right now after being barked at by him.
Both possessed immense backgrounds; on ordinary days, who would dare treat them with such neglect or target them with disrespectful words? This was an experience neither had ever had before.
They did not stop, but continued walking forward for some distance.
At this moment, Qi Yunxiao erupted with full force. His conscious spiritual light verged on disintegrating as he broke free from that terrifying spirit field and soared toward the skies.
"Do you think you can escape?!" Qin Ming gave chase. Intertwining lightning and expanding spirit field waves surged forward to blanket the space ahead.
In an instant, the two pierced through the curtain of rain, arriving above the storm clouds where no rain fell.
Qi Yunxiao knew the source of the momentum Qin Ming had borrowed; thus, he had broken free from that battlefield to reach the vast night sky above, intending to fight here instead.
"Come again!" Qi Yunxiao said coldly.
There was no downpour here, far removed from the towering mountains and the earth. He believed that Qin Ming's resonance with the extreme sky field and earth field would plummet abruptly.
Qin Ming did not panic. Opening his Eye of the Newborn, he observed the sky field.
High above the nine heavens blew astral winds capable of scattering a person's consciousness, and moreover, he was not very far from the lightning within the storm clouds; he could still borrow momentum.
He had never relied on the curtain of rain as a bridge to link with the lightning; rather, he had attached his mental field to the spirit field to pry it into motion.
"Since you've chosen your burial ground, I'll send you on your way!" Qin Ming declared.
Just then, Cen Jinghong and Mu Xingyao also pierced through the storm clouds, following them up.
A strange expression crossed Qin Ming's face. At close range, through his Eye of the Newborn, he saw clearly that the two were very "insubstantial"; he had initially thought they were no weaker than Qi Yunxiao.
Now it seemed that they had only projected a portion of their conscious spiritual light here.
"In that case, get over here!" Not bothering to wait any longer, his spirit field expanded, ensnaring the two and sweeping them in.
"We have no grievance with you. Why attack us?"
Although trapped within the spirit field, the two remained calm.
"Your so-called 'small wager for amusement' drags me into your little game—who gave you the gall to act so recklessly and arbitrarily against me?"
As Qin Ming spoke, his hand shot out with blinding speed, snatching the two negligible wisps of conscious spiritual light over before delivering two sharp slaps—smack, smack!—striking each across the face.
Instantly, Cen Jinghong and Mu Xingyao were stunned. What had just happened? Each of them had actually taken a crisp, resounding slap across the face!
"What the f—!"
The two were infuriated. They had merely followed along to observe the fight, which could practically be called passing by, yet this person had grabbed them directly and slapped each of them hard across the cheek.
"Unhand me!" Mu Xingyao said, looking stern and inviolable.
"Qin Ming!" Cen Jinghong also barked, barely suppressing his fury.
"Smack, smack..."
Qin Ming struck repeatedly, nearly slapping them into explosive bursts on the spot.
Their conscious spiritual light boiled over with uncontainable rage at suffering such humiliating disgrace.
Bang!
At last, they exploded, yet they did not disperse completely. After re-manifesting, they were still trapped within the spirit field, unable to escape.
At that moment, Qi Yunxiao launched a fierce attack. In front of him, an immortal vista materialized, as though a heavenly abyss had swung open—boundlessly black, without end.
And a lotus of oblivion bloomed within the darkness. Standing atop the lotus, Qi Yunxiao fully displayed the Daoist rhyme of oblivion, channeling the terrifying power of the fourth realm as he formed immortal Dao hand seals and blasted them toward his opponent.
High in the vault of heaven, the endless nocturnal mist collapsed and the dark clouds below were torn apart; one could well imagine how violent Qi Yunxiao's energy fluctuations were at this moment.
Qin Ming knew no fear. At this moment, he stirred the astral wind of the night sky while drawing upon and leveraging the power of thunder, still able to borrow momentum.
Bolstered, his spirit field filled every inch of the void with tangible ripples that continually expanded, the miraculous vistas within growing ever clearer and more real.
Clang!
Within the spirit field, the Great Thunder Sound Temple, set against a setting sun, gave off a deep, resonant chime of a bell.
Even higher up, the astral wind swept in like monstrous, sky-churning waves.
And in every direction, a Golden Crow, a Vermilion Bird, and others emerged, resonating in turn to empower the spirit field, leveraging a certain grand momentum of heaven and earth to usher in Daoist rhyme.
As Qin Ming clasped his hands together, the myriad phenomena of heaven and earth within the spirit field resonated. A pair of colossal palms took shape amidst the ripples, born into existence and expanding outward.
The colossal hands moved in perfect unison with Qin Ming!
As Qin Ming brought his hands together, the giant palms closed in as well, crushing Qi Yunxiao and his black lotus of oblivion between them.
As Qin Ming exerted force, the giant hands formed within the spirit field shone with brilliant radiance, seemingly blessed jointly by the Great Thunder Sound Temple, the Golden Crow, the astral winds, and more, possessing a torrential, unfathomable power.
"No!" Qi Yunxiao screamed.
The conscious immortal vista he had manifested was crumbling. That boundlessly black heavenly abyss detonated, followed by the disintegration of the Oblivion Immortal Lotus, and then his very form began breaking apart.
"The foundation of a Sumeru field, the methods of a Heavenly Demon force field!" Mu Xingyao thought in shock.
Sacred and awe-inspiring, his whole body radiating radiant luster, Qin Ming stood at the center of the spirit field. He brought his hands violently together, then exerted force to twist them.
Qi Yunxiao fell into utter despair. His conscious spiritual light shattered, crushed to pieces by those colossal hands!
Chapter 369