“Could this be Doushuai Palace?”
For a moment, everyone was stunned.
Li Qingyue in particular was deeply affected. She possessed the damaged Eight Trigrams Furnace, and its artifact spirit had mentioned Doushuai Palace to her more than once, urging her to set out. Had she truly arrived at that very place today?
Yet that legendary realm was said to rival Yujing—a grotto-heaven high above the nine firmaments, standing beyond the mortal world. How could it have fallen to the ground?
Qin Ming, Xiang Yiwu, and the others suspected that these stones might simply be fragments left behind by ancient architecture.
Li Qingyue pressed for answers, asking what place this truly was. She sought to communicate with the faint consciousness.
Beneath the pitch-black night, countless stones lay scattered about. The smaller ones were barely a palm's length, while the larger ones resembled recumbent oxen. All were capable of transmitting simple words.
“Flames incinerating the nine firmaments... You are... Doushuai Palace...” A slightly larger stone sent out a crude, indistinct wave of consciousness.
Xiao Wu said, “Just as I thought! I knew there was a misunderstanding earlier. When asked where it came from, it ended up talking about Sister Qingyue's background instead.”
Everyone breathed a long sigh of relief. If this place really had been Doushuai Palace, it would have scared them half to death!
If even that legendary sanctuary had crashed to the ground, it would feel as if a massive expanse of the firmament had collapsed—as though the very heavens had tilted and fallen.
In the distance, someone remarked, “This is merely an expanse of wilderness in the dark of night. If there is anything special about it, it must be that we have left the domain reached by Yujing's influence. We are far enough from Night Province that perhaps the upper limit is no longer locked.”
Nearby, quite a few people discovered these “wondrous stones.”
However, Li Qingyue, Jiang Ran, and the others believed that since these scattered stones could recognize the flames of Doushuai Palace, they had to have an extraordinary origin.
Despite the barrier to communication, the group remained patient and continued to reach out.
“Once stones beneath the palace gates of the Divine Capital, now scattered in the dust, unknown to all.”
The moment these words emerged, Xiang Yiwu, Xiao Wu, and the others tensed once more. What this implied was hardly any less shocking than the fall of Doushuai Palace!
Qin Ming resonated directly with the surroundings, seeking to trace the fundamental truth of this place.
He beheld towering flames. A magnificent cluster of palaces suspended far beyond the heavens had been torn apart, bathed in blood and fire as it fell like a meteor into the darkness.
Were these wondrous stones on the ground fragments left behind in the mortal world after the Divine Capital shattered into ruin?
Regrettably, though stones covered the earth, their consciousness was far too primitive and crude. Qin Ming could only capture scattered glimpses, catching sight of but a single corner of the past.
An inscrutable set of rules had erased the imprints that should have remained upon them, leaving behind no intense emotions with which he could resonate.
This was merely a corner of the Divine Capital that had fallen into this territory from beyond the mundane world. Yet its significance was immense. Full of anticipation, Qin Ming and his companions wished to explore it thoroughly.
They ventured deep into the dense forest, hoping to find even more extraordinary ruins of the Divine Capital.
The forest was boundless. Although Fire Springs were not lacking, most were buried beneath the soil, making the light extremely dim—as if they were traveling in the deep night.
“Did you see that vine as thick as a water vat?” Xiang Yiwu found it absurd. Just how many years had it been growing?
There were also dense stands of massive trees, easily hundreds or even thousands of meters tall.
Just as Wu Yaozu thought he had finally spotted some small trees a few meters tall, he realized they were merely a patch of weeds.
Jiang Ran remarked, “The spiritual essence that shattered from the Divine Capital has truly nourished all living things. Yet strangely enough, none of them have become spirits or monsters.”
Li Qingyue replied, “It is dictated by the rules here.”
Xiao Wu chuckled. “Could it be that the Divine Capital is so overbearing that it forbids anything from turning into a spirit atop its ruins?”
Leaves larger than bedboards drifted down through the night sky—a marvelous spectacle peculiar to an alien realm.
Qin Ming cautioned, “Stay alert. If we encounter living creatures, like ferocious monsters, they might be just as colossal. A single toe of theirs could crush us.”
Half an hour later, both Jiang Ran and Li Qingyue turned solemn. Someone was actually stalking them.
It was not sensed through their own perception, but rather through warnings from the special weapons they carried.
Judging by this, the situation was precarious; the person trailing behind them might possess a higher cultivation level than any of them.
“It's no great issue. Even if it's an old fellow who refuses to play by the rules, we'll ensure he never returns alive this time,” Jiang Ran said.
Li Qingyue's expression also grew cold. She took out the Eight Trigrams Furnace and conversed with Jiang Ran in secret. Both held special weapons and were prepared to strike back.
A moment later, the two women vanished into the darkness, stealthily circling back according to the guidance of the artifact spirits.
“Why do I feel like the three of us are just freeloaders living off women?” Qin Ming remarked.
Wu Yaozu solemnly corrected him. “Brother Ming, you're the one living off them. The two of us are just tagging along for free drinks, basking in your reflected glory.”
“Someone is approaching!” Qin Ming suddenly spun around.
The darkness in the distance gave him a very bad feeling. It seemed that formidable experts had locked onto them.
In the damp night wind, several ghostly figures approached without a sound.
“Far away from Yujing, in this uncharted wilderness, some people have stopped suppressing their true nature!” Qin Ming warned in a grave tone.
As a leaf several meters long drifted down, Qin Ming suddenly slashed upward with his blade. Lighting up the night sky like thunder, he blasted the massive leaf to pieces. A figure there swiftly shifted laterally, then swooped down in the blink of an eye.
Immediately after, five more figures appeared from behind the trees hundreds of meters tall. All rushed into the clearing at extreme speed, their murderous intent no longer concealed. Brandishing spears, wielding sabers, or fighting barehanded, they charged forward to kill.
From the very first exchange, Qin Ming felt a chill run through his heart. These attackers were not youths; they were seasoned men in their prime, every one of them ruthless and vicious!
Wu Yaozu let out an odd shriek as he was struck, his blood and Qi churning violently. He was pitted against a heavily bearded expert in his thirties.
“None of these people were seen back in the earthen city!” Xiang Yiwu shouted. He too stumbled backward, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
On the spot, he unleashed his trump card—living reincarnation!
This time, the display was even more astonishing than before. Heavenly light overflowed as a tall, imposing figure emerged within the wondrous vision behind Xiang Yiwu, struggling free from a millstone and drawing close to reality before directly merging into him as one.
In an instant, Xiang Yiwu's aura surged dramatically. From head to toe, he blazed with piercing rays of heavenly light.
“Pah!” Xiao Wu spat a mouthful of blood. Filled with both shock and rage, he snarled, “Damn it, are you really going to force me to enter the fourth realm?” Driven to desperate fury, he was about to unseal himself at all costs.
Suddenly, the jade plaque hanging on his chest blazed with radiant light. Different from before, the golden mist it released was so dense it seemed almost solid, and the image of his grandmother materialized.
“Grandmother!” Wu Yaozu's eyes welled with warmth, tears nearly spilling over. He had not seen his grandmother for more than a year, yet at the critical moment, she was once again manifesting her power.
The kindly old lady formed of golden mist obliterated the heavily bearded man with a single palm strike.
Both Qin Ming and Xiang Yiwu twitched at the sight.
On the other side, Qin Ming had already pushed his own cultivation to the absolute limit. Invoking the principles of the silk book to govern all techniques, layer upon layer of wondrous phenomena manifested outside his body—a Golden Crow traversed the sky, and black and white particles boiled...
In addition, he pulled out the rag and wrapped it around his fist. He did not possess terrifying weapons capable of liquefying, but this cloth was slightly unusual and could amplify the power of his strikes.
Immediately, the expert charging toward him felt excruciating pain in his hand as heavenly light tore through his flesh. His entire hand was drenched in blood, exposing the pale white bones of his fingers.
This was not Night Province. Encountering others in an alien realm meant life or death in an instant, with no room for friendly spars. Friend or foe, everyone unleashed their deadliest methods right from the start!
To the side, a middle-aged man let out a muffled groan.
“Taste my Three Burials force!” Xiang Yiwu roared. Within his fan-sized hand, tri-colored divine radiance erupted, blocking the man who had previously suppressed him and blasting him backward.
This was a mutated variant of Tathagata force—an even more formidable heavenly light force, and the one best suited to him.
“Now taste my Four Burials force!” Xiang Yiwu bellowed. His fan-sized hand reached forward like the claw of a celestial roc. With a squelch, he tore off his opponent's forearm.
Even a close acquaintance like Wu Yaozu stared dumbstruck, feeling as though he hardly recognized him.
Qin Ming was thoroughly shaken. Was this still Xiang Yiwu? Why did he seem to see the shadow of a peerless expert upon him?
“I undergo living reincarnation not only to pioneer a path for the Newborn system, but also to settle karma!” Xiang Yiwu's voice was low and deep. Through several clashes, his Four Burials force shattered half of his opponent's body.
Wu Yaozu's blood surged, and he felt a sudden impulse to stop pretending and forgo tempering himself, choosing instead to walk the world under his true identity to vent his feelings freely.
In the end, however, he restrained himself and watched as his grandmother battered the remaining opponent to pulp.
With a loud bang, Qin Ming used his strongest Chaos force to tear his foe into pieces. Blood and broken bones rained across the forest.
A total of six seasoned experts had arrived, expecting to easily take down the three young men. Yet in the end, all met their doom, leaving bloodstains, severed limbs, and mutilated remains scattered across the ground and trees.
Qin Ming had originally been deeply worried about his two good brothers, which was why he had even used the rag. He had not anticipated that both possessed their own means and had swiftly dispatched their foes, regardless of whether they relied on external aids.
Jiang Ran and Li Qingyue had already returned without anyone noticing, having clearly dealt with their enemies as well.
Undoubtedly, the opponents they encountered had been exceptionally powerful and of a higher realm; had their special weapons not sounded an alarm, they wouldn't have been able to sense them in advance.
“These were two separate groups coming from different directions, both seeking to hunt us.”
They were certain none of these people had been seen back in the earthen city.
At first, Qin Ming had suspected whether these thugs were individuals from the Eastern Lands who held grudges against them.
Then it occurred to them that the attackers might simply be natives of this forest, rather than the adversaries they had imagined.
Just as they moved to examine the corpses closely, flames suddenly surged in the distance. Immediately after, a massive mountain near them began to rumble and sway, “toppling” toward their direction.
“Hiss... That's not a mountain, that's a living creature!”
It was shaking, sending earth and stone tumbling down. It was a monster whose back arched slightly, though its full form could not be seen clearly because its back was overgrown with vegetation. It was absurdly colossal, having clearly remained motionless for many years.
Naturally, there were no trees hundreds or thousands of meters tall growing on its body—only low shrubs, brambles, and the like—yet it remained terrifying nonetheless.
Moreover, frightful spinal spikes pierced through the layer of soil upon its back, lending it a ferocious and hideous appearance.
It was precisely the terrifying flames that had abruptly erupted in the distance that had awakened it.
Qin Ming, Xiang Yiwu, and the others began sprinting frantically away from the area. A colossal monster of this scale could snap peaks and trample ridges. Even without radiating spiritual light, the sheer physical might of a single paw strike would be enough to flatten them into paste.
“What is this...?” Li Qingyue suddenly began to float upward. The Eight Trigrams Furnace awakened on its own, dissolving into wisps of sacred rain of light that draped over her. Without giving her time to react, it carried her flying toward the distant flames.
Qin Ming looked back, intending to give chase, but Li Qingyue departed far too swiftly. With a whoosh, she sliced through the night mist, vanishing into the distance like an awe-inspiring divine rainbow.
“Something's happening!” Jiang Ran's body glowed faintly, her skin glistening like crystal. The special weapon upon her had also awakened, though its destination was not the flaming region.
“What's happening to you two?” Qin Ming asked.
Jiang Ran quickly explained, “We engaged powerful foes just now and unleashed our special weapons. They must have resonated with certain mysterious things within the ruins of the Divine Capital.”
She had not yet flown into the night sky, but she could already hear a distant calling.
“Mystic Maiden, Jade Consort...” she murmured softly.
With a rustle, the Nine-Colored Immortal Robe enveloped her, lifting her aloft amidst a flurry of radiant light rain like an ascending immortal. She too merged into the night sky, swiftly vanishing into the distance.
The colossal beast with soil, stone, and thorny brambles on its back—having remained still for countless years—had not been drawn by the terrifying flames; it was fleeing.
Qin Ming and his companions stepped clear of its path. Amidst deafening rumbles, it actually dove headfirst into an abyss in the distance, and only then did the forest fall still once more.
Yet the distant flames and the multicolored clouds even further away remained strikingly vivid, showing no signs of fading.
Qin Ming muttered to himself, “In ancient times, when the Divine Capital collapsed, a corner of it fell here. It seems some power within has awakened the Eight Trigrams Furnace and the other relics.”
Could it be that the previous masters of those special weapons had once participated in that battle?
He couldn't help but look at the rag in his hand. Sure enough, it was useless, showing no reaction whatsoever.
“You are also woven from various exotic metals. Why are you so... pathetic?” Qin Ming sighed.
Suddenly, his body jolted. The rag actually moved! It shook violently, nearly throwing him off balance. Had his adhesive force not taken effect at the critical moment, he would have definitely lost his grip.
“Brother Ming, are you flying away too?” Wu Yaozu's eyes widened.
Xiang Yiwu was likewise struck dumb. His brother had already taken to the skies!
The rag still showed no waves of energy and radiated no brilliance, yet it had already plunged into the night sky. Qin Ming held on with a death grip, carried off the ground as he flew toward an unknown distance.
“Old Cloth, don't be angry! If you're feeling cooped up, hurry up and say something to me!” Qin Ming felt somewhat nervous, unsure whether it was enraged or fleeing.
This territory bore remnants of the power scattered from the Divine Capital. There might well be strange hazards here; it was truly unwise to dash about so recklessly.
As the night wind blew past, Qin Ming had already traveled several tens of li with it.
High in the air, he was riding a tiger and found it impossible to dismount; he truly dared not let go.
Up ahead, the mist grew denser and denser until it was impossible to see one's own fingers.
Soon after, Qin Ming felt the rag descending. Darkness surrounded him on all sides, giving him the sensation of his true body plunging into a spiritual hell.
At last, he passed through this unsettling zone of mist. Ahead lay light—soft, pure, and bright.
Qin Ming widened his eyes in utter disbelief. Even though he had never lived through the Era of Radiance, he already recognized that this had to be moonlight.
Chapter 405