The earthen city was not imposing; in fact, it looked somewhat dilapidated. Its walls were rammed from plain sun-dried earth, without a single brick or tile, yet they radiated a desolate, heavy sense of antiquity. Because it was backed by Yujing, its intangible heritage was all the more awe-inspiring.
People would never forget that during the ages when it lay dormant, the corpses of super-beings were strung up across its tightly shut gates. Dried blood clung there, striking terror into the hearts of onlookers, accompanied by battered wind chimes that swayed and uttered hollow, primeval echoes.
Now, an Earth Immortal had emerged from this earthen city, and with such overwhelming force that her opening strike was an absolute trump card, shattering massive mushrooms by the score beyond the walls.
"An Earth Immortal!" The ancestral masters trapped within the earthen city had their pupils contract in shock. Sure enough, the earthen city harbored fathomless depth, and at this critical juncture, such a supreme powerhouse had stepped forth into the world.
She was a woman who appeared to be in her early thirties. While not breathtakingly beautiful, her temperament was peerlessly transcendent. Her green robes billowed, and her fair face was serene and peaceful, her eyes as profound as a star-filled void.
Immediately, several founding ancestors stepped forward to bow in greeting.
A living Earth Immortal represented the highest echelon of combat power in this era!
Everyone knew that in the depths of the night mist world, there were bound to be beings at higher planes, but who had ever seen one?
Even an Earth Immortal was the stuff of legends.
In all these years, this was the very first time an Earth Immortal stood alive in the flesh before the people of Night Province.
The Twelve Golden Immortals also stepped forward, ready to follow her every command.
Whether from the esoteric sects or the outer pure lands, the ancestral masters present glanced at the founding ancestors gathered there, sorely tempted to curse: *You old fogies were indeed hiding your true depths, keeping an Earth Immortal tucked away under wraps!*
In truth, the bunch of "living ancestors" wished even more to beat them senseless. To excavate such a hair-raising Purple Dawn Cave—were they trying to betray their masters and wipe out their ancestors? A pack of unfilial descendants!
The Earth Immortal Mu Qinghe waved her hand, telling them there was no need for formalities. She stood upon the rammed-earth battlements, watching the vast tracts of collapsing mushroom forests.
Under the long night, even the main body of the Great Dream Divine Mushroom had fractured, to say nothing of the other kaleidoscopic spirit mushrooms, of which at least seventy percent had been obliterated.
This was utterly terrifying. This territory was immensely vast, yet with just a single strike, the Earth Immortal had nearly cleared the field!
Towering into the heavens and piercing above the dense clouds, the colossal Great Dream Divine Mushroom unexpectedly let out a low roar. After more than four months, its consciousness had grown remarkably distinct.
In an instant, divine spores danced across the night sky like countless flickering fireflies.
On the ground, massive numbers of spirit mushrooms broke through the earth and grew frantically. In the blink of an eye, mountain-sized, sky-piercing giant mushrooms appeared everywhere once more, all ablaze with vibrant colors that turned the night hazy and dreamlike.
They continued to expand. Spores surged upward, and particles of light boiled, churning into a "sea of stars" that swept toward the earthen city in roaring billows.
Furthermore, boundless Fire Springs surged up from deep beneath the earth, steaming into earthlight that transformed into brilliant divine dawn, nourishing the dense "offspring" of the Great Dream Divine Mushroom.
In the night sky, the boundless particles of light directly coalesced into mushroom men, plummeting toward the earthen city. For the first time, a blood-soaked word rang out from them: "Kill!"
Spoken in terrifying unison, the killing intent condensed into that single word from countless mushroom men carried through the Heaven-Anchoring Divine Stakes to the outside world.
In a flash, everyone outside felt their scalps tingle. Was the final battle at hand?
For a moment, every heart leaped into people's throats.
Outside the earthen city, those mountain-sized colorful spirit mushrooms also took human form, like colossal spirit gods. Striding forward with heavy footsteps that made the earth tremble, they launched a full-scale offensive.
Most critically, the true body of the Great Dream Divine Mushroom transformed for the very first time, moving personally to confront the Earth Immortal.
Upon the city walls, everyone watched in dumbfounded amazement as its cloud-piercing, gargantuan form suddenly condensed until it stood less than a meter tall.
It became a rather stout little old man, clad in a ten-colored robe and wearing a bamboo hat. With every step, he flickered in and out of existence until he stood before the earthen city.
The conical hat on his head was, in truth, a mushroom cap.
The little old man, standing under three feet tall, had ten-colored immortal radiance swirling in his eyes. With his hands clasped behind his back, he murmured, "Clouds carry fleeting fame away; the bell tolls, waking the grand dream."
He seemed overcome with boundless emotion as he sighed, "To bear the name of the Great Dream in vain, only for my very self to be ensnared within it, sinking through thousands of autumns, sealed in a land of death, not knowing what year it is today."
Just as the rumors suggested, the Great Dream Divine Mushroom had indeed once been sealed by someone. Whose handiwork was that? One had to realize that according to legends, he might have been a Heavenly Immortal!
However, judging by his current display, he was a being at the Earth Immortal tier.
Upon the earthen wall, Mu Qinghe spoke. "You should not have infringed upon this earthen city, for it is tied to Yujing."
"Yujing..." Hearing those two words, the diminutive old man seemed triggered. The mushroom cap on his head shone with ten-colored immortal light. He rubbed his temples in agony and uttered a low, rasping roar.
Then, as if losing control, his eyes blazed with savage blood-red light. He vaulted into the air and, leading the dense mushroom army, charged toward the earthen city.
*Rumble!*
With a casual strike of the old man's hand, the dark clouds in the vault of heaven burst apart. As he swept his hand downward, nine heavens' worth of lightning cascaded down in a dense, torrential downpour.
This sight made onlookers' scalps turn numb. Countless streaks of lightning, all immensely thick, inundated the entire earthen city.
This was an Earth Immortal: every gesture marshaled the grand momentum of heaven and earth, and a casual motion could wipe out an entire city.
Mu Qinghe pointed one finger toward the sky. The night sky trembled, and even the dark clouds on the horizon were shredded to pieces. With a tremendous blast, divine fire descended from above as if channeling the vanished sun, a boundless blaze of fire essence boiling over to engulf the little old man.
The moment the two clashed, their might shook heaven and earth.
The defensive light barrier of the earthen city instantly warped and caved in. From every direction, the endless mushroom horde surged forward to the base of the walls, and the mountain-sized giant spirit gods looked poised to tear the entire fortress apart.
The Earth Immortal battle erupted!
Boundless mushroom men could be seen blowing apart and shattering, yet the entire earthen city was also rocking, looking as though it might collapse at any second.
***
Qin Ming discovered that the divine spores filling heaven and earth had become thicker than ever before.
Hiding near the Heaven-Anchoring Divine Stakes, across layered mountain ridges, he could not see the battle before the earthen city, but he knew the decisive clash had broken out.
"Turn spores into medicine. Refine, refine, refine!"
Near him, an Eight Trigrams Furnace stood looking archaic and solid, its mouth drinking deeply like a whale sucking in the sea, drawing the dense divine spores from the night sky into its chamber.
This was the physical manifestation of the *Four Jade Book Pages*, one of the three most difficult true scriptures of the immortal path that he had comprehended.
Qin Ming knew he did not have much time left to refine the divine spores into medicine here. He had to seize the moment and brew a few more furnaces.
Before long, a nose-tingling medicinal fragrance rose from the furnace. When he unsealed it, a pool of liquid gave off a potent, colorful aroma—a lethally enticing allure.
Lifting the furnace body formed of heavenly light, he poured it toward his mouth with utter abandon, drinking it down in one gulp.
In an instant, Qin Ming nearly burst apart. Bloody fissures covered his body; this batch of medicine was indeed lethal, far beyond what ordinary people could ever endure.
Because this was fundamentally not a precious medicine.
Even unrefined, the divine spores were deadly, let alone having their essence concentrated and their origin brewed down—it made them far more fatal.
Even though Qin Ming had adapted somewhat over recent days, he still felt on the verge of disintegrating right now.
Moreover, layered illusory realms threatened to project themselves around him.
"Tempering my true body with fierce medicine." While using this to forge his physique, Qin Ming was also testing his arts, probing the limits of the silk book method.
He understood very well how formidable this true scripture was, but it was equally perilous. In the later stages, the physical body was prone to blowing apart; the more doctrines one integrated and the stronger they were, the more perilous it became for the practitioner.
He had previously suffered a bodily breakdown and had only managed to rectify the technique with the *Destiny-Altering Scripture*.
Now that he had reached the third realm, he had yet to experience that desperate brink of collapse, and he was eager to push the boundaries here.
The divine spores had eroded and shattered an immortal seed like Tang Xumi, which showed just how destructive they were.
Now, Qin Ming actively raised the stakes. After brewing them into a potent concoction, he drove the silk book method—which integrated various scriptures—into a frantic frenzy, testing the absolute limits of the pressure it could bear!
"I see a glimmer of flawed light—it can be improved!"
Inundated by the illusory realm and over-nourished by the spore "divine medicine," Qin Ming felt a tipsy, floating sensation, accompanied by excruciating agony. His body was truly tearing apart into pieces.
Even the heavenly light fused with his consciousness was unraveling.
Naturally, he had no intention of courting death; everything had to be kept in moderation.
A short while later, after the violent medicinal properties passed, he sat directly inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace. Rather than calling it brewing himself, it was more like nursing and nurturing his own body.
"Others comprehend the four jade book pages to refine heart medicine, while I refine body medicine. No matter—step by step." Qin Ming was crystal clear on where his foundation lay. The silk book method was his most crucial cultivation system!
Once his injuries fully healed, he again channeled the spores from the hazy night, drawing countless glowing particles in a churning stream toward the Eight Trigrams Furnace.
At the same time, Qin Ming made fine adjustments to the silk book method. By magnifying that glimmer of flawed light, he located the deficiency.
Not long after, the Eight Trigrams Furnace manifested from the *Four Jade Book Pages* once again exuded a rich, fragrant medicinal scent.
"Another furnace down!"
As the lid opened, the colorful liquid was swallowed down as soon as he parted his lips. Like scalding five-colored magma, it burned his flesh until it nearly smoked, packing astonishing destructive force.
Soon, Qin Ming cracked open again.
The silk book method ran wildly, still bearing the extreme load as he repeatedly probed where the ceiling lay.
He demanded perfection of himself. Because he would integrate many true scriptures in the future, if he did not find the flaws and eliminate the hidden dangers now, it would inevitably become unimaginably dangerous down the road.
Qin Ming had seen the centipede-like scars all over Past Rulai's body. The man was extraordinarily strong, yet he had undoubtedly blown apart before; some of those scars were likely beyond his own ability to heal and had to be stitched together with flood dragon sinews or immortal tendons.
Qin Ming did not want to be forced into patching himself up like a rag doll one day.
In truth, if he ever reached that stage, he would rather abandon the silk book method altogether, for needing to heal in such a manner proved that the path had run into a dead end—that integrating true scriptures had a hard limit.
He wondered why that living sage far away in Pugong had never exploded, and had seemingly even broken through to the seventh realm. Given the peerless combat strength of this technique, that sage could perhaps look down upon the Earth Immortal domain!
Using the divine light of his consciousness to inspect himself from within, Qin Ming observed the "oversights" in the silk book method.
"Five furnaces of medicine aren't enough. Drink ten more."
Taking advantage of this place, he brewed the precious medicine, using the tearing of his physical form to temper himself and refine the silk book method.
In total, Qin Ming discovered several flaws and readjusted his most essential technique.
By the end, he found that he genuinely could detect no further flaws.
Such harsh self-discipline, not hesitating to tear himself apart, was all for the sake of utterly rooting out future perils. What he wanted was "no upper limit"!
To his eyes, the Pugong lineage's silk book method was like dancing in shackles—it had a ceiling. Past Rulai's gruesome scars were the most direct proof of that.
Even after he could pick out no more flawed light and see no further defects, Qin Ming still did not stop. He kept refining the spore medicine. It seemed to offer little benefit, repeatedly fracturing his body in what amounted to self-torture, subjecting himself to brutal torment.
The heavenly light merged with his consciousness was compressed over and over, condensing into a dazzling golden core like a blazing sun, shrunk to the absolute extreme before detonating again.
Qin Ming tempered his true body, tempered his consciousness, tempered his heavenly light, and tempered the true scripture, paving the road for his future.
Finally, his spirit grew full, his physical body became flawless, and his form and spirit blended into harmonious unity. For a fleeting instant, he seemed to hear the snap of order chains breaking.
From his soul to his flesh, everything turned crystal clear and incomparably relaxed, as though he had severed some invisible shackle in the dark.
Qin Ming believed that neither the third-realm silk book method nor his own body harbored any remaining issues.
Across heaven and earth, dense divine spores drifted, and in the distant night sky, many giant-spirit-like mushroom men roared as the fierce battle raged on.
Qin Ming sat quietly refining medicine, waiting for this place to be unsealed.
When he consumed yet another furnace of dazzling medicinal broth, his body erupted with blinding radiance. Vast swathes of sacred mist surged, and his spirit field, bearing illusory realms, rapidly expanded outward.
"Over four months of bitter enduring, tempering my consciousness and flesh a thousand times over... I thought I was merely polishing my foundation, but in the final moments, I truly broke through once more."
Qin Ming felt immense joy. He knew that refining the medicine, tempering his true body, and fine-tuning the silk book method had shattered some invisible shackle within him.
His cultivation had advanced, reaching the seventh heaven of the spirit field, corresponding to the late stage of the third realm.
This step was critically important; it meant that even when facing the top seeds and radiant talents of the fourth realm, he would not flinch in the slightest.
Most importantly, he seemed to have forged a Great Dream spirit field.
***
Before the earthen city, the battle of Earth Immortals had reached a fever pitch, entering its decisive phase.
The little old man under a meter tall possessed an undying nature. He underwent countless transformations, just like the pervasive spores filling the sky, omnipresent and swapping bodies at will as he madly assaulted the earthen city.
He had even summoned falling meteors from beyond the sky to bombard all his opponents within the walls.
"He cannot be killed; so long as spores remain, he can reincarnate," the founding ancestors within the city said, their brows knit tightly.
"There is no way to hold back anymore; we can only deploy a supreme killing weapon," one of the Twelve Golden Immortals stated.
The Earth Immortal Mu Qinghe's wide sleeves fluttered. Though not a peerless beauty, her otherworldly bearing and composed demeanor made her appear completely transcendent.
Her pale hand rose, holding a scroll of painting. Gently unrolling it, she revealed the hazy silhouette of Yujing City. As she chanted an immortal incantation, the city within the scroll suddenly flared with light, beaming its brilliance outside the walls.
"Aaaah!" The little old man let out an agonized howl. Immediately, he caught fire—a sight that terrified onlookers.
The earthen city possessed a terrifying killing weapon capable of harming beings at the Earth Immortal tier.
The little old man swiftly dissipated and revived within another mushroom man, but it was futile. A sheet of immortal light that endured through ten thousand tribulations seemed to lock onto him, hunting him down relentlessly.
"This is channeled light from Yujing. You cannot withstand it," Mu Qinghe said placidly.
Then, across heaven and earth, all the mushroom men and spores illuminated by that light disintegrated, turning into roaring infernos.
"She can borrow the power of Yujing?" The ancestral masters of the various paths revealed expressions of astonishment.
The city depicted upon the painting scroll blurred slightly; deploying power of this caliber clearly damaged the treasure.
The entire territory boiled as the Great Dream Divine Mushroom and his "offspring" were purged.
It had to be said that this legendary divine mushroom was truly unnatural. Even after shattering dozens or hundreds of times, he remained alive, refusing to perish unless every last one of his offspring was annihilated.
In truth, he knew the situation was hopeless; once the earthen city unleashed the light of Yujing, even an Earth Immortal form could not withstand it.
"The day will come when I return, my true body breaking the seal to re-emerge in the world!" The Great Dream Divine Mushroom fractured and dimmed. Countless mushroom men thoroughly came apart, and all the spores were ignited, rustling down as ashes.
Many drew in sharp breaths of night mist. His true body was very likely an ancient Heavenly Immortal!
In the distance, Qin Ming, who was in the middle of refining medicine, found that the colorful liquid in his furnace dimmed and turned to ash.
Moreover, the spores clinging to the corners of his eyes and brows dissipated entirely. The Great Dream Divine Mushroom in this region had been utterly destroyed, and everything connected to him scattered with the wind.
The crisis of the earthen city was dismantled in a single stroke.
***
Soon, word spread to the outside world that a slumbering Earth Immortal had been awakened, and wielding the light of Yujing, she had suppressed and slain the seventh-realm Great Dream Divine Mushroom, thoroughly resolving the great menace.
*Hiss!*
People were stunned. The earthen city was truly unfathomable; an Earth Immortal had actually been lying in wait there. Were there other inscrutable masters inside?
Afterward, many breathed sighs of relief. The perilous crisis had finally ended.
Under the night, the news spread in all directions, shaking the world.
"Night Province, the temporary resting ground of Yujing... Its waters are indeed deep; an Earth Immortal actually lives there in seclusion!"
Beyond the province, when certain major factions heard this, many old monsters became cautious. Night Province was no wasteland of cultivation; true supreme powerhouses watched over it.
"I feel that the leaders of the current paths in Night Province are all ruthless figures. Even when facing their own ancestors, they first shove them into a pit to test their foundations and depths, checking whether they walk the same road."
"Surely it isn't that extreme?"
"It's really hard to say!"
Outside Night Province, some old monsters discussed the matter with palpable dread.
After the death of the Great Dream Divine Mushroom, the ancestral masters of the various paths did not immediately pull up the Heaven-Anchoring Divine Stakes. Instead, they retrieved the Sky-Patrolling Divine Mirror, stained it with the aura of the spores, and used it to shine over the besieged territory, inspecting whether any hidden dangers remained.
Li Qingyue immediately put forward a request: she wanted to enter the forbidden zone to search for someone once more.
Old Meng's eyes were red, and he also demanded to go in.
"Brother Ming, out of our three brothers, you were supposed to have the toughest fate. How could you exit the stage so early?" Wu Yaozu arrived, his spirits deeply dampened.
Xiang Yiwu sighed. He truly had not expected a dear friend who was blazing a trail for the Newborn path to suffer such an untimely death!
"It should not have been like this..." Yu Gensheng was more sorrowful than ever. In the battle of the Plain of Divine Demise, he had lost his old partner Zhao Ziyuan, and now the youth he valued most had also passed away ahead of his time, grieving him to the core.
"Little Qin, how could this happen? You shouldn't have perished so young." Li Qingyun felt suffocated with grief as he arrived at Kunling. After being heavily wounded in the battle against demons in the western territories, he had been recuperating until now, only to miss seeing the youth he held in such high regard one last time.
By now, many were certain that Qin Ming had truly died in that forbidden zone.
While some grieved, others naturally smiled.
In the Cui clan, after receiving these confidential reports, many people immediately broke into relaxed smiles.
"I was truly worried he might grow into a full-fledged threat later. After all, as various truths surfaced, his talent seemed rather frightening."
"So-called extraordinary potential and dazzling talent are worthless in the face of fate!"
Within the thousand-year-old clan, many felt the same way. Ever since Lu Zizai had brought Qin Ming to their doorstep, that youth had actually brought them a sliver of pressure, causing quite a few to worry that he might genuinely mature and threaten them.
Now, to them, what more was there to say about a dead genius? Yesterday's splendor was today just a handful of yellow earth.
"Heh..." Accompanied by cold sneers, many spoke of it no more. How could a thousand-year clan be shaken by a mere youth? Before he could even grow up, he had died prematurely.
Far away, the youth behind the mind monkey also chuckled softly and shook his head. "A pity. I wasn't even given the chance to act. And here I thought you were someone of note; you were merely the calamity ash of this era."
In an outer pure land, Grandmaster Helian Yunji was drinking tea with a friend, remarking, "He actually died. It seems the boy was nothing special after all—he couldn't bear the heavenly fortune of the Newborn path and was no trailblazer."
"Back then, I was even somewhat worried after intercepting his Four Sacred Baleful Energies," Grandmaster Su Yuxiao said with a laugh.
"Qin Ming, the representative figure of the Newborn path, falls at Kunling!" The *Night Gazette* reported directly on the matter.
"Dead just like that?" Helian Zhaoyu stood within Kunling, muttering to himself, "In this era, the last one standing is king!"
"Good riddance!" Having had his cultivation crippled by Qin Ming, Qi Yunxiao ground his teeth upon hearing the confirmed news.
***
Soon, the earthen city opened, and after being purified, the people emerged toward the outside.
At the same time, the thirty-six Heaven-Anchoring Divine Stakes were uprooted and gathered back by the ancestral masters.
Outside the forbidden zone, many people from the various paths had arrived, waiting for the seeds and masters inside the earthen city to return.
Consulting a portrait, Wu Yaozu spotted Mu Xingyao at a glance and immediately rushed over, urgently sending her a voice transmission: "Fairy Mu, could we speak privately for a moment?"
"Who are you, and what is this about?" Clad in purple robes, Mu Xingyao looked puzzled.
"Fairy, I heard you were very close to my Brother Ming, roaming by candlelight at night, flying wing to wing..." Xiao Wu transmitted secretly.
Immediately afterward, Mu Xingyao nearly exploded on the spot. Reading between the lines, this fellow was actually probing her to ask whether Qin Ming might have left behind an heir!
Was he suspecting her?
At this moment, Mu Xingyao dearly wished to throw a delicate fist straight into his face.
***
"What... The Sky-Patrolling Divine Mirror caught a living creature? Not a being related to the Great Dream Divine Mushroom, but a flesh-and-blood human?"
An abrupt piece of news arrived, immediately sparking an uproar.
Outside the forbidden zone, a vast throng of cultivators was gathered, along with those returning from the earthen city, all stunned to hear such astonishing news.
It was impossible for Qin Ming to slip away unnoticed. When the ancestral masters swept the area with the Sky-Patrolling Divine Mirror, they had already discovered him.
"That person wasn't in the earthen city, but staying alone in the wilderness? Heavens, who is it? To have such an absurdly tough fate!"
People found it unbelievable. Could there truly be such a ferocious individual?
Before long, an exceptionally slender figure was personally brought out by an ancestral master.
"Is this... a ghost? How on earth did he survive!" Even several seed-level figures were thoroughly shaken.
Cui Chonghe, who had been smiling faintly, froze the moment he saw that figure.
"How is this possible!" Helian Zhaoyu was dumbfounded, finding the situation utterly preposterous.
The entire crowd stood dazed, feeling that this was a miracle that should never have occurred.
Chapter 378