In the deep of night, wearing a conical bamboo hat, a coir raincoat, and a bamboo sword on its back, the Dog Sword Immortal trod across the snow back to Twin Trees Village.
Having roamed abroad for two days, it had accomplished its mission flawlessly.
Beneath the Black-White Twin Trees, braving the biting cold, Old Man Liu stood by the Fire Spring as it gave off a gentle glow, gazing up at the pitch-black, fathomless night sky.
He murmured to himself, "The Dao chains lost control, and above the nine firmaments, the 'reserves' in the Golden Palace... have been completely depleted. Even if they notice something now, they have no way to strike at me, do they?"
"Master, are you all right?" the Dog Sword Immortal asked. It had watched the entire battle from start to finish. When the heavenly envoys saw the True Tribulation Light pouring down in full force, they looked as though they had seen a ghost, powerless to stop it even if they wanted to.
A peculiar look lingered in its eyes. Seen this way, Old Liu was truly devious—on the surface, he had instructed it to deliver a letter, baiting the two other Heavenly Gods into taking a beating, but in reality, he had made a major move of his own, striking straight at the heart.
"Did you take action?" it asked with concern.
Liu Mo shook his head and said, "My physical condition... has always been terrible, unsuitable for making a move. Originally, I did intend to risk severe damage to my vitality to do something in the heavens, but in the end, I made a different discovery. Thus, I restrained the impulse and simply steered events in our favor."
"Next, are you going to begin?" The Dog Sword Immortal's expression turned grave.
"Life and death are determined by fate." Liu Mo sighed. He had done everything he ought to do. Now came the final struggle, waiting quietly for the seed beneath the frozen earth to revive—either to sprout anew, or to wither away.
***
In the earthen city, Qin Ming never expected that he would gain a disciple.
How old was he? It was only two winters ago that he had stepped onto the Newborn path during his golden window. Now, he was barely past eighteen. Taking on a disciple today was simply far too early.
Yet Su Mohua was stubborn, prostrating herself and refusing to stand.
She was only around fifteen herself, not much younger than Qin Ming.
Nearby, among the crowd of youths, some were stunned, some wore faint smiles, and others showed strange expressions touched with gloating amusement.
Only the few who were close to Su Mohua stepped forward to dissuade her with all their might, but she refused to listen. A resolute look was etched on her face; her mind was completely made up.
In the heavens, Su Mohua was hailed as a prodigy girl, blessed with an aura of brilliance. Her talent was evident, and aside from occasional small bouts of rebelliousness, her ordinary conduct was consistently outstanding.
Moreover, her features were as exquisite as a painting, with icy skin and jade bones, her beauty remarkably striking, which earned her tremendous renown.
At this moment, even Su Moran felt a headache coming on. Once this cousin of hers set her mind on something, it was nearly impossible to change. This put Su Moran in an awkward position, suddenly making her a generation junior to Qin Ming for no reason.
Beside them, Gao Chan felt as though he had seen a ghost as well. That girl was usually very sharp and exceptionally gifted—had she been possessed today? Her antics had lowered his generation alongside hers.
Qin Ming found it utterly absurd. Before he had even agreed, he had been forcibly acknowledged as a master.
The news spread within a small circle, drawing varied reactions from the youths who had come down from the heavens.
"Has Su Mohua lost her mind? We hail from Sky City, descending to the ground merely to temper ourselves! The natives are nothing more than sparring partners, yet she actually took one as her master! How is that supposed to make us look?"
"Isn't this a total farce? What she did disgraces all of us!"
"She has suffered a cultivation deviation. To think she actually took a boy on the ground as her master! And to think I used to treat her as a rival—this so-called true phoenix of the Su family is finished!"
Over the course of a single night, the matter stirred up a tremendous uproar among the youths from the heavens.
Clearly, when these young men and women spoke of it, their opinions were overwhelmingly negative.
A cohort of prodigies aspiring to contend for the "Sun and Moon" felt offended, believing Su Mohua had needlessly dragged down their prestige.
In their eyes, was this humbling oneself to learn from common mortals and mend one's shortcomings? No, this was willing self-degradation.
"Could she have done this on purpose? In the Golden Palace of the heavens, there is a special technique that stresses tempering one's spirituality through the fires of the mortal world. No matter how many thousands of heavy waves crash from without, the inner self remains unmoved by honor or disgrace, nurturing and refining a pure yang consciousness before breaking through to the next realm," someone speculated with suspicion.
Most, however, shook their heads, deeming such an approach completely unnecessary.
A handful of more radical youths came looking for Su Mohua that very night.
Su Mohua tried her best to explain in a gentle tone, but in the end, she reached the limit of her patience, and a fierce argument erupted between the two sides.
Eventually, they even came to blows.
Had Qin Ming not intervened, followed by Xiang Yiwu and Wu Yaozu stepping out to forcefully separate them, the clash might have escalated into bloodshed.
In the final moments, Su Mohua shed her soft, ethereal demeanor and became fiercely domineering, ready to take on those youths all by herself—her skills were indeed extraordinary.
"Why do you insist on taking me as your master?" Qin Ming asked the girl in his quarters in the earthen city later that night.
"If I told you it was a sudden impulse, born of pure instinct, you might not believe me." At this moment, Su Mohua was quite candid.
She possessed a unique gift: occasionally, her heart and spirit would palpitate, prompting her to make crucial choices. It was a kind of mind lucidity akin to communion between heaven and man.
Reflecting upon her past experiences, several major decisions in the trajectory of her life had followed such instincts, and every single one had yielded immense rewards.
"Come here," Qin Ming said, gesturing for her to step forward, then resting his hand upon her head.
Then his brow furrowed as he resonated with several fragments of memory. This girl truly experienced exceedingly rare moments of "mind lucidity," which allowed her to seek good fortune and avert calamity.
"Very well," Qin Ming nodded, accepting her provisionally as a registered disciple. Whether she would truly be admitted into his inner lineage would depend on her future conduct.
Su Mohua let out a long breath. A light rose in her mind, enveloping her spiritual field and flowing into her flesh and blood.
During this moment of lucidity, although she saw tempestuous waves looming ahead, the path she took right now was unmistakably correct and tremendously beneficial to her. For the time being, she could not afford to worry about what lay further beyond.
As the night deepened, Qin Ming was taken aback. This newly taken disciple actually brought him a basin of foot-washing water. At their level of cultivation, their bodies remained untainted by dust; what need was there for such washing? She was simply demonstrating a respectful attitude.
"There is no need for this," he said, waving his hand.
Wu Yaozu was consumed with envy. With just one offhand joke, Brother Ming had gained an ethereal, fairy-like disciple.
He wondered if he too ought to make his attitude clear and take in an immortal disciple of his own.
"What on earth is Su Mohua doing?" muttered the young woman who had chosen to align herself with Chunyangzi.
Almost simultaneously, the youth who walked very closely with Yuan was also filled with doubt, even discussing the matter with Yuan in an attempt to uncover Qin Ming's background.
A crowd of top prodigies harboring aspirations for the "Sun and Moon" could not understand Su Mohua and held negative attitudes toward her.
Some mocked her in private, while others sneered openly in conversation—among them were Su Mohua's rivals, her adversaries, and even former close friends.
That night, some young experts even bypassed Su Mohua, intending to challenge Qin Ming directly—naturally having been egged on and manipulated by instigators.
Su Mohua went outside, intending to drive them away.
Qin Ming waved his hand and personally flicked his fingers. His Hunyuan force erupted outward like a Golden Crow streaking across the sky, heavily wounding the youth and sending him flying backward drenched in blood.
"A bone age of seventeen—hardly a child anymore. It seems the people from the heavens aren't quite as genius as imagined," Qin Ming said, turning to leave.
In the shadows, someone marveled, "This Qin Ming's combat prowess in the third realm seems to have surpassed some sort of upper limit. He truly has real substance!"
The next day, Qin Ming consulted with Xiang Yiwu and Xiao Wu, intending to leave the earthen city and return to Kunling.
Wu Yaozu was unwilling to go to Sky City to be the tail of a phoenix. Moreover, trouble seemed to have broken out in the heavens, so it likely was not a good place to visit.
As for Qin Ming, after the incident with the five-colored stele where he tore the Dao chains with the rag, he was quite wary of Sky City.
"The patriarchs have moved into the earthen city," Xiang Yiwu reported, bringing the latest news.
"Why?" This surprised both Qin Ming and Wu Yaozu, who had been planning to leave. That group of ill-reputed patriarchs never did anything meaningless.
Xiang Yiwu had obtained internal information from the Rulai Sect and said, "Supposedly, the True Tribulation Light in the heavens mysteriously dissipated, and the earthen city absorbed a small fraction of it. The patriarchs have come here to sense the lingering resonance, which will benefit their future breakthroughs."
"Then we'll stay for now too!" Wu Yaozu declared. The patriarchs had already set an example, so following along was the right choice, especially since that bunch of old men had come out as the winners recently.
Not long after, Qin Ming questioned his registered disciple, "We walk different paths. What do you wish to learn from me, and what is your primary art?"
"Master, don't you cultivate both the immortal path and the Newborn path?" Su Mohua asked.
"That is true." Qin Ming nodded, almost forgetting his identity as an immortal seed.
Su Mohua hesitated. She had heard of the Chaos force; even Earth Immortal Mu Qinghe had personally met Little Rulai and carefully evaluated it, concluding that this force possessed peerless, terrifying lethality among peers of the same level.
However, this force harbored hidden dangers in its later stages, making it prone to causing self-destruction.
Thus, the moment the thought surfaced, she suppressed it, choosing not to seek guidance on this mysterious and horrifying Hunyuan force for the time being.
"My primary art is the *Nine Firmaments Book*," Su Mohua revealed her immortal scripture. Even in the Golden Palace of the heavens, it was an invaluable true scripture.
She explained further, "The light of the mind can envelop the nine firmaments. By planting a seed in the heart and allowing it to take root and sprout, one who cultivates this scripture to great perfection can attain the status of a Heavenly Immortal."
Qin Ming was startled and said, "Beneath the mind lies an abyss, and plunging deeper still brings one to the underworld. If one falls into it, fortune and misfortune become impossible to predict."
"Master, you have obtained this true scripture?" Su Mohua asked in surprise.
Qin Ming was certain: this was the very scripture he had obtained from Qi Yunxiao, *Planting God in the Mind*. It was hailed as one of the strongest true scriptures in the Eastern Lands, yet hardly anyone dared to cultivate it, because a single misstep would ruin the practitioner, plunging them into the abyss.
Su Mohua said, "It is also called the *Underworld Scripture*, and carries another name: the *Abyss Treatise*."
With that, she took out a manuscript scroll. This was not the *Nine Firmaments Book* itself—true scriptures could not be brought out of the Golden Palace in the heavens. Rather, it was a predecessor's cultivation insights regarding the *Nine Firmaments Book*, which she kept by her side to ponder and study regularly.
Qin Ming did not stand on ceremony, taking it to read.
Before long, he was deeply stirred. It recorded several legends. One of them mentioned a person in the past who cultivated this scripture and was slain by an Earth Immortal—his skull shattered and his pure yang conscious spiritual light completely burned away.
Yet several years later, an arm of this person, which had been retrieved at great cost by experts of his sect, had not only remained uncorrupted, but actually began to revive.
*"His conscious spiritual light returned from the underworld, growing even more potent..."*
Qin Ming was inwardly shocked. This scripture was truly extraordinary. To be able to revive after being slain by an Earth Immortal meant that, at that moment, the practitioner's life and death had deceived even a seventh-realm entity!
He turned through the manuscript, pondering carefully and studying it for a long time.
*"The one who vanished returned from the underworld; it is hard to say whether he was a god, an immortal, or a demon. He ought to be the person who underwent nirvana, right?"* This was the question posed by the manuscript's author.
To understand this, Qin Ming did not hesitate to resonate, probing deeply.
His body swayed violently. Sure enough, many old fellows had studied this manuscript, and the intense emotions they left behind dealt him no small impact.
However, as Qin Ming's cultivation had grown far stronger than in the past, even when resonating with this manuscript, it no longer caused his head to feel on the verge of exploding.
Finally, he slowly opened his eyes, having decided to cultivate the *Nine Firmaments Book*—that is, the *Underworld Scripture*.
In the past, he had shelved it, as he had many scriptures to choose from. But now, having read the manuscript, he realized this scripture was truly miraculous!
It could save lives. Moreover, in Qin Ming's plans, it could complement other scriptures, perhaps allowing him to achieve a profound nirvana.
He cultivated the Hunyuan force and walked the Newborn path, yet he also integrated conscious spiritual light, divine wisdom, and the like. One day, there would inevitably be a grand unification, perhaps requiring a deep, fundamental metamorphosis.
Therefore, the singular scriptures that could be incorporated into the silk book needed to be prepared in advance.
This manuscript made Qin Ming realize that the *Nine Firmaments Book* was exceedingly important and would become one of the vital components in constructing his own cultivation system.
"Master, how do you feel?" Su Mohua asked with a peculiar look in her eyes. Could her teacher have been shocked by the records in the manuscript?
This scripture was far too famous. Throughout history, many had achieved minor success, but truly few had cultivated it to perfection. After all, it touched upon the status of a Heavenly Immortal!
Qin Ming spoke, "This scripture is excellent, exceedingly profound. If there is anything you do not understand, feel free to ask me."
Su Mohua's black hair cascaded to her waist, glossy as a mirror, while her fair, captivating face was filled with astonishment. She sorely wanted to say: *Master, are you boasting?*
During her moment of mind lucidity, she had followed her instinct to take him as her master, sensing that great opportunities might lie ahead. But she truly had not expected him to be capable of guiding her cultivation. To think this "little teacher" was so confident!
Since that was the case, she decided to test him. Biting her bright red lips, she began to consult him with questions.
And then... she was completely shaken!
Qin Ming's comprehension of the *Nine Firmaments Book* far exceeded her imagination. Even her trickiest questions, which could stump the elders of her clan, were answered effortlessly by this little teacher.
She had a profound comprehension of this scripture herself, and verifying his answers with her heart, she realized Qin Ming was not speaking nonsense—he was genuinely dispelling her perplexities.
"This..." She was dazed. Even for questions that ancient monsters in the heavens found ambiguous, this little teacher could provide true resolutions after careful reflection.
Qin Ming had already comprehended the earlier portions of the *Nine Firmaments Book* deeply, and by resonating with the manuscript and integrating the sparks of ancient wisdom, he naturally possessed unique insights.
At this moment, Su Mohua held immense respect for him. For a second, looking at his face glowing with intense concentration, awe welled in her heart, making her view him almost as a youthful Heavenly Immortal.
Earlier, she had taken him as her master out of an instinct to seek good fortune and avert calamity, but now she was genuinely convinced from the bottom of her heart. She solemnly bowed to him in deep respect.
In truth, Qin Ming felt this was mutual fulfillment. He had gained immensely; for this manuscript alone, taking her as a disciple was well worth it.
***
Time flew by, and half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
During this time, the patriarchs of Night Province prepared to dig a hole once more, officially setting out to explore the foreign domain.
When Earth Immortal Mu Qinghe heard this report, she felt sick to her stomach, and the old monsters in the city blanched in shock. Was that digging a hole? That was practically digging away the lives of a bunch of old men!
"Every time you dig, the commotion is bigger than the last! Sooner or later, you're going to dig up a wild Heavenly God!"
Over the past half-month, Qin Ming had mastered the arts in the *Nine Firmaments Book* and had also ventured to explore the underworld beneath the abyss of the mind.
"What's wrong?" he noticed Su Mohua looking weighed down with worry.
She whispered, "It has been half a month. My initial sparring match with some of my rivals is set for tomorrow."
Lately, she had been under tremendous pressure. Many people were talking about her—some sneered, some mocked her in secret, and others looked on coldly, waiting to watch the spectacle. All of them were former acquaintances, even close friends.
If she suffered a crushing defeat in this battle, there was no telling what nasty remarks they would make.
Hearing this, Qin Ming nodded and said, "I see. Since you are my disciple, I naturally ought to help elevate your strength. I have never suffered a single defeat in battles against peers of the same realm, and you cannot afford to lose face either."
Su Mohua still did not know enough about this little teacher. Hearing him claim to be undefeated among his peers, her beautiful eyes widened. How arrogant this master of hers was!
"The duel is tomorrow, with only one night left. Can I still... be elevated?" She truly could hardly believe it.
Qin Ming nodded. "Yes. After the elevation, you will at least be stronger than you are right now."
Suddenly, he sensed something. Ever since he planted a seed above the nine firmaments of the mind and ventured into the underworld to cast down a divine seed, his mental perception had grown substantially sharper.
Qin Ming even wondered if, over time, he too would develop moments of "mind lucidity."
At this very moment, his mind perceived danger approaching. He even discerned that it was connected to that "ape"!
Qin Ming's eyes turned sharp. Tomorrow, Su Mohua was to spar with others in a clash of prodigies, yet tonight, a formidable opponent was preparing to launch a night attack against him?
Did they intend to severely wound both master and disciple? In the eyes of many, this would naturally be prime entertainment.
*The one cultivating the Mind Ape... has appeared!*
Qin Ming felt this person was extraordinarily daring. Did they dare make a move even inside the earthen city? They likely had nothing to fear!
"Master, what's the matter?" Su Mohua asked.
"Nothing. Focus on your fight tomorrow, and strive to sweep away those close friends and rivals of yours," Qin Ming said, slowly rising and looking out the window into the misty night.
Chapter 398