In Chixia City, Qin Ming inadvertently looked up and caught a terrifying sight in the night sky: someone was smiling down at him.
It was... a severed head.
The hair behind her head was exceptionally long, drifting in the night wind. To an inattentive eye, it looked remarkably like a massive serpent swimming through the nocturnal mist!
Qin Ming possessed the eyes of rebirth, so he saw with crystal clarity—he could even make out the subtle nuances of her expression.
She was a woman, deathly pale, severed at the neck. The wound looked fresh, wet with blood that still seemed to drip dark crimson droplets, soaking the long strands of black hair trailing behind her.
As she passed above, she seemed to sense his gaze and flashed Qin Ming a sweet, radiant smile.
A woman's severed head crossing the night sky all alone—what kind of spine-chilling spectacle was this? The world of the night mist was growing ever more incomprehensible.
Qin Ming's eyes turned deep as he watched her drift into the distance.
Not long after, he spotted another anomaly: a vermilion coffin, tattered and dilapidated, covered in claw scratches and bite marks. A withered, pitch-black human hand was even impaled into its lid. It drifted silently across the night sky just like that.
Qin Ming looked visibly alarmed. Had the situation deteriorated to such an extent?
Fortunately, both the blood-drenched head and the ancient coffin had merely drifted through the night sky outside the city, steering clear of where mortal presence was densest.
Yet if things continued to develop like this, catastrophe was inevitable!
Qin Ming had only been in closed-door cultivation for a few days, but stepping out to witness such consecutive nocturnal sights made his heart sink slightly.
"What must the pitch-black uninhabited zones without fire springs look like now?" Qin Ming surmised that travelers had probably vanished entirely from such areas, where survival would be next to impossible.
He went to see Meng Xinghai, and sure enough, learned that the wilderness had grown increasingly perilous. At this rate, the cities would likely turn into isolated islands one after another.
The sparsely scattered villages and towns would become like isolated reefs.
In the deep night, terrifying occurrences were multiplying.
"Even the path to Twin Trees Village has grown treacherous," the Thunder King Bird informed him. It had flown back there two days prior, and its feathers had bristled on end the entire way because a pale hand had suddenly reached out of the night sky to stroke its head.
At that moment, its heart had frozen and its scalp had tingled with terror, as if struck by lightning.
"Has the fall of Yujing caused this much fallout?" Qin Ming frowned.
Meng Xinghai said, "Most likely, this is what the world truly looks like, and it is merely reverting to its original state."
If so, it was far too early to lament how terrifying the overall environment had become. Looking to the future, the present might actually prove to be an extraordinary era.
"It chills me to the bone just thinking about it," Qin Ming remarked.
He then asked about the realms beyond: would the population of Night Province undergo a massive migration outward?
Meng Xinghai replied, "In the distant reaches of the Northern Wilderness, the Eastern Lands, and the demon habitats to the west, bizarre phenomena have gradually begun to appear as well."
Qin Ming was startled. In just a matter of days, the crisis had already spread outward?
Meng Xinghai shook his head. "Perhaps their regions are merely having the terrifying veil of night mist pulled back too, allowing the true nature of the world to emerge."
This meant that the entire expanse touched by Yujing's influence was facing an upheaval.
Qin Ming asked, "What about even farther away?"
"According to Earthen City, beyond the territories governed by Yujing, there are peaceful lands, but there are also vast foreign realms even worse off than ours."
Even in those worse regions, the conditions differed from Night Province, without such frequent eruptions of horrifying and bizarre incidents.
On the whole, the world of the night mist was far too vast to ever be fully explored. Conditions varied wildly from place to place, with fundamental differences between them.
Meng Xinghai shared, "Right now, opening a path out of the realm radiated by Yujing is exceedingly difficult, but some patriarchs are still trying everything they can."
If the situation collapsed entirely, migrating en masse might be their only option.
Yet that was far easier said than done. Relocating a single city or town was an enormous undertaking, to say nothing of an entire province—it was practically unimaginable.
"How are your cultivation gains?" Meng Xinghai asked.
Qin Ming said, "Not bad. The three extraordinary arts are just a hair away from perfection; they only need a bit more polishing."
Meng Xinghai said in astonishment, "So fast?"
Qin Ming smiled. "It's all the result of daily accumulation. I only hope the Golden Silkworm Classic, the Wuji Classic, and the Heluo Classic are truly as extraordinary as the legends say and contain hidden troves."
In truth, he had long since comprehended them thoroughly; he merely lacked something subtle and elusive—perhaps missing a certain mysterious opportunity.
Among the Five Elements scriptures, Lu Zizai had helped him obtain the ultimate edition of the World-Abiding Scripture from the Cui family. When cultivating the Departing Fire Classic, Qin Ming had witnessed a new domain and acquired the Nanming Departing Fire Scripture.
As for the Golden Cicada Classic, the Divine Cicada Scripture he obtained after discovering its hidden trove pointed onward to the Great Thunder Sound True Scripture, no longer falling under the Five Elements.
Meng Xinghai felt a touch of emotion. "Back then, when I gave you the Golden Silkworm Classic, I originally planned to introduce you to the Five Elements Palace after you mastered it so you could continue with their Five Elements scriptures. I never expected that by training it to the perfect level yourself, you'd be able to harvest secret scriptures on your own."
In the past, Meng Xinghai had indeed promised that once Qin Ming mastered the Golden Silkworm Classic, he would write an introduction so Qin Ming could acquire even more formidable scriptures.
Qin Ming asked how the red squirrel was doing.
Over the past several days, Meng Xinghai had kept a close watch on it.
"From the looks of it, it has completely stabilized. Aside from its altered physical form, there haven't been any adverse changes. Its skeletal frame and innate talent have both improved by a wide margin—it can be said to have rewritten its fate."
Over the past two days, Yuque had been beside itself with impatience, longing to undergo a "transformation" of its own.
Yuque squawked, "Mountain Lord, you have no idea! Three squirrels teamed up to beat me, and poor little Yuque was thrashed miserably! In the past, I could have taken on ten of them!"
The most astonishing thing, of course, was that the red squirrel's cultivation speed had increased.
Qin Ming said, "To be on the safe side, let's wait a few more days."
He returned to cultivating the extraordinary arts, eager to break through the major barrier as soon as possible.
Several days later, Qin Ming walked out into the courtyard, his brows knit tight as he muttered to himself, "Something's off."
By his estimation, all three extraordinary arts had reached the realm of perfection, yet he had caught no glimpse of any new domain.
To look into this, Meng Xinghai had painstakingly communicated with distant contacts and asked them to consult records, confirming that the Heluo Classic, Golden Silkworm Classic, and Wuji Classic all led to hidden troves.
Qin Ming pondered, *Could it be because the overarching environment has shifted, differing from the world of old, making it difficult to behold a new domain?*
He began reflecting on the *Rulai Notes* that Xiang Yiwu had shown him.
Back when he, Xiao Wu, and Xiang Yiwu were in the Dayu imperial capital, they had exchanged insights on scripture doctrines.
The notes contained real-world experiences and practical observations.
*Hmm... does seeing a new domain and obtaining a hidden trove require a specific environment?* Qin Ming spotted a clue. The *Rulai Notes* contained a brief mention: *May require selecting an appropriate location.*
This vague four-character hint was exasperatingly sparse.
Qin Ming recalled the conditions under which he had cultivated the Departing Fire Classic and the Golden Cicada Classic. Why had he been able to witness new domains so smoothly then?
*There truly seemed to be external triggers subtly matching certain conditions.*
His success with the Departing Fire Classic had much to do with the sun elves, as he had absorbed their solar fire.
When cultivating the Golden Cicada Classic, he had deliberately chosen the Thunder-Fire Gold-Forging Palace, where he had caught thunder-fire heavenly light—and that scripture's ultimate true scripture resided within the Great Thunder Sound Temple.
"The secret scripture following the Heluo Classic is the Sea-Overturning Scripture. Looking at it this way, would practicing this art near an ocean be the most fitting?" Qin Ming felt a headache coming on. Where in Night Province was there an ocean?
The nearest one, the West Sea, lay past the demonic habitats, at least a million li from Night Province.
By this logic, cultivating the Wuji Classic likely required a place with exceptionally dense earth-qi essence, while the Golden Silkworm Classic would best be trained near a massive metal vein.
However, the Golden Silkworm Classic was fairly complex; its primitive version had originated from the demon race.
The earth and metal locations were manageable enough; Qin Ming could probably track them down by tapping his connections. But where on earth could he find a sea?
*Wait.* A sudden thought struck him: the Night Ruins bordered the mortal world, and the once-vanished old peddlers and spectral fiends were appearing everywhere. Could he enter the Night Ruins to find a sea?
He just didn't know whether a real sea existed in such a place.
Qin Ming deemed it feasible. If all went smoothly, it would be vastly quicker than taking the gamble of traveling to the West Sea.
His spirits lifted. "If my luck holds, I might follow an old peddler into the Night Ruins and spot the ocean I need right away."
That very day, Qin Ming left the city and ventured into the pitch-black uninhabited zones. Upon encountering a disheveled monster with wild, tangled hair, he charged straight up and gave it a sound thrashing.
The ghastly, hideous fiend was utterly bewildered. Someone had dared to pick a fight with it unprovoked?
Alas, right up until Qin Ming pummeled it to pieces—dissolving into a frigid gust of air—it never retreated toward the Night Ruins. It appeared to be a monster born natively to Night Province.
"You never realize how scarce fiends are until you need one!" Qin Ming found it ridiculous. The harder he looked, the fewer he found; all the monsters, ghosts, and deities he ran across were "locals."
Covering his rear, Meng Xinghai watched the spectacle in speechless amusement.
In the end, they returned to the city empty-handed.
The moment they returned, Yuque looked at them with eager, longing eyes. "Mountain Lord, Silly Squirrel hasn't had any ill effects. Can we eat the treasure shoots now?"
"Alright!" Qin Ming nodded. Together with Old Meng, he stood guard for Yuque and the Thunder King Bird, severing the faint traces of chaotic consciousness lurking within the bamboo shoots during the process.
"I'm so hungry!"
Before long, having wolfed down the shoots, the Thunder King Bird and Yuque began their transformations.
They morphed to possess three heads and six wings, and sprouted a third claw, their strength surging violently.
The Thunder King Bird's most astonishing enhancement was its speed, crisscrossing the night sky like a beam of flowing light.
As for the bird rogue, after experiencing an all-around upgrade, its very first act was to lower its head and use its third claw to part its feathers, looking down again and again.
Without question, both birds had rewritten their destinies, breaking through their original limits of potential!
"Even a Thunder Imperial Bird might not be as fast as me now, let alone stronger!" the Thunder King Bird rejoiced.
Yuque was even more thrilled. "I feel like little Yuque has the makings of a Feather Sovereign!"
...
"How did the people in the mountains fare?" Qin Ming asked once the birds settled down.
"They've all met with misfortune!" Meng Xinghai reported. He had been monitoring the situation, and the news brought back by Yuque's avian companions was horrifying.
In the night mist, a floating ancient vermilion coffin had drifted into the mountain depths and swallowed the elder leading the Eastern Lands expedition whole. In the end, the entire party had lost all contact.
Qin Ming was astonished. Several days ago, he had seen a severed head followed by a coffin covered in claw marks crossing the night sky. Could it have been that very coffin?
"Yes!" Meng Xinghai nodded grimly after hearing his description.
Qin Ming said, "Forget it, let's avoid entering the mountains for the time being. The blood ginseng we brought back doesn't seem like good medicine either, and that place clearly isn't benign. Only the red and gold bamboo grove was relatively sacred and tranquil."
He then asked, "How is the perilous zone in Black-White Mountain? Have the beings there not come out to purge the nearby aberrations?"
After all, that was the lair of the Beast God and the former sanctuary of Liu Mo, where top experts still dwelled to this day.
"The perilous zones currently have their hands full just looking out for themselves; their days aren't easy either," Meng Xinghai informed him.
Deep within every perilous zone were distinctive landscapes and mysterious phenomena that had grown far clearer by now, confirming that they were all rooted in the Night Ruins.
Some perilous zones were now virtually adjacent to the Night Ruins—or even connected to them!
Moreover, the various perilous zones produced top-tier grand medicines like the earth immortal flower, drawing the covetous gaze of Earth Immortals from Earthen City and foreign domains, while patriarchs of Night Province kept watch as well. The situation was exceptionally tangled and complex.
A few days later, Meng Xinghai wore a solemn expression. Chixia City was truly about to become an isolated island; communications with major external cities had nearly ground to a halt. If one out of ten letters sent received a reply, it was considered lucky.
At this rate, within ten days, they would lose contact with the outside world entirely.
He said in a heavy voice, "Like isolated islands of the world, every city and town will become like this. The situation has grown dire to the extreme!"
Qin Ming looked equally grave. As he and Meng Xinghai stood upon the city wall gazing into the distance, in that brief span alone, they saw a headless corpse drift past through the night sky.
"According to the calendar, winter should be over. Yet why hasn't the ice and snow melted? The revival of the fire springs is coming along too slowly."
Four days later, after yearning day and night, Meng Xinghai finally received a letter from afar. When he opened it, he was overwhelmed with excitement, his voice pitching higher.
"Fire springs can repel ghosts, deities, spectral fiends, and other monsters!"
This was a proclamation issued to the world by Earthen City and the patriarchs of various paths across Night Province: if spring failed to arrive and revive the realm as expected, the entire earth would turn into permanent permafrost—no different from the netherworld!
"Now, all sides must join hands to excavate the subterranean springs and disperse the frigid aura. That may cause the terrifying phenomena to recede!"
Some regions had already begun doing so with remarkable results.
Certain Earth Immortals believed that the arrival of various mysterious phenomena—as if the underworld were drawing near—had stifled the revival speed of the fire springs. People needed to actively unearth them to frighten away demons, ghosts, spectral fiends, and other abominations.
"Though demons rise a foot, the Dao rises a yard—we need not fear!"
That very day, Meng Xinghai issued orders to first clear paths connecting to the surrounding towns.
Qin Ming was the first to answer the call. He wanted to forge a safe route to Twin Trees Village; though he knew it was unlikely anything had happened there, he still preferred to be cautious.
Without doubt, the ancestors had chosen settlements with great care: wherever human strongholds existed, subterranean springs were plentiful.
Qin Ming forged his way toward Twin Trees Village, relentlessly bombarding the earth with heavenly light to uncover several fire springs along the route.
The Thunder King Bird, Yuque, and the red squirrel were equally enthusiastic, serving as his eager helpers.
Behind them, the fire springs flickered like candle flames, casting their glow and scattering the darkness. Sure enough, sightings of horrifying entities plummeted.
Naturally, the most dangerous stretch was the desert zone. As they skirted near it, Qin Ming and the others ran into major trouble, coming under relentless assault.
Gales whipped through the desert, waves of sand surged skyward, and darkness completely engulfed everything until visibility fell to zero.
Qin Ming and his companions had originally set out to forge a road through the mountains, but merely skirting close to the desert had drawn this onslaught.
"Roar..." A blood-curdling howl echoed.
"Something's coming!" Yuque squawked in terror.
Qin Ming instructed the Thunder King Bird to protect Yuque and the red squirrel, fearing the two little ones might be swept away by the hurricane winds.
He himself charged into the towering waves of sand to do battle with the monster.
It was a colossal beast a full ten meters tall, bearing a pair of enormous wings and wielding two snow-bright broadswords.
Was this a spectral fiend? Qin Ming hoped so. He wanted to enter the Night Ruins to search for an ocean, so upon encountering a monster capable of giving him a real fight, he attacked without hesitation.
Amid the waves of sand, blade light soared to the sky. In his left hand, Qin Ming held the mutton-fat jade iron saber, and in his right, the Divine Measuring Ruler, clashing head-on with his opponent.
Though sand obscured his vision, he could feel that the creature was burly, with a black face and protruding fangs.
As they fought fiercely, intelligible words suddenly emerged from the surging sand: "Ouch! It hurts your grandpa to death! My teeth are about to snap!"
Qin Ming froze. A sense of familiarity washed over him, and the voice sounded recognizable. Then, astonished, he called out, "Palm-Sized Pig?"
"Ptui! Who's slandering your Pig Grandpa?" a muffled, resonant voice bellowed back.
Qin Ming was dumbfounded. It really was him! Two years ago, the creature had come to his aid, and the two of them had traveled through the desert together.
Too much time had passed, and Qin Ming had nearly forgotten his aura. He hadn't expected the beast to still be in the desert.
"I'm a friend!" Qin Ming called out hastily.
"A fellow pig?" Palm-Sized Pig stayed his hand and pulled back with Qin Ming from the desert area, arriving at a calm, windswept clearing outside.
Qin Ming chuckled helplessly. Where were any gigantic wings? Those were merely Palm-Sized Pig's pair of enormous ears, deliberately enlarged to their maximum so that they nearly drooped to the ground; flapping them allowed him to take flight, using them as wings.
As for the pair of snow-bright broadswords, they were forged from the tusks in his mouth.
"It's actually you, kid! It's only been two years, and your cultivation is about to catch up with mine?" Palm-Sized Pig was stunned, staring at the youth before him in disbelief.
"What's your situation here?" Qin Ming asked.
Palm-Sized Pig explained, "I plan to take root in this desert and cultivate here. But with the great upheaval under heaven, monsters keep popping up from time to time. I was meditating just now and thought another ghost or deity was creeping up on me."
Qin Ming said, "You could come visit Chixia City. It's quite safe there."
"I'll pass. I used the art of Nether Penetration to probe this area, and this place suits me best. I've already planted my Divine Wisdom imprint here; unless I reach the sixth realm, under normal circumstances I won't leave." Palm-Sized Pig had already split off part of his cultivation to take root in the desert.
Qin Ming conversed with him for a long time, asking him to keep an eye on this path to ensure the safety of those traveling through the night.
In the end, Qin Ming successfully opened the route to Twin Trees Village. Sure enough, this area was comparatively safe; without anyone noticing, the fire spring at the village entrance had already reached the third rank, shining with resplendent light.
He did not linger long, returning to Chixia City that same day, as he still needed to seek out locations to achieve his breakthroughs.
He already had an objective: travel to the Dayu imperial capital and seek the aid of Fourth Princess Yao Ruoxian.
Qin Ming reasoned that an imperial dynasty would certainly possess large deposits of rare metals to suit his needs, and finding an area rich in concentrated earth-qi essence shouldn't be difficult either.
As for locating a sea in the Night Ruins, that would require leveraging personal connections.
"What? You're going to see the princess? That's fantastic!" The Thunder King Bird was ecstatic. Having been reborn anew, it desperately wanted to see the Fourth Princess's mount—a Thunder Imperial Bird that served as its unrequited, idealized crush.
"Wake up and stop simping!" Qin Ming chided.
The Thunder King Bird said excitedly, "I've rewritten my destiny! I'm only stronger than her, not weaker!"
Qin Ming said, "If you come with me, on many stretches of the road you'll be reduced to a walking chicken."
"No problem!" Even if flight was impossible across many territories, the Thunder King Bird was more than willing to travel far.
...
Back in Chixia City, Meng Xinghai received the latest updates with a heavy heart. He informed Qin Ming that situations varied drastically across regions, and some areas had already fallen.
"Several cities have been swallowed by darkness, shrouded in bizarre, inexplicable phenomena!"
Qin Ming drew a sharp breath in shock. Had the environment degraded to such a dire state?
Meng Xinghai said, "The good news is that unearthing fire springs truly works. The situation in many places is beginning to shift."
Over these past few days, the ice and snow in Chixia City had already begun to thaw.
Meng Xinghai continued, "The Earth Immortals of Earthen City and patriarchs of various paths have issued an order: cities that have lost their lords and teeter on the brink of ruin must be rescued by all parties."
Moreover, whoever saved a city that lacked the power to protect itself could immediately assume lordship over it, with the title passed down to their descendants.
"Granting entire cities?" Hearing this, Qin Ming took on a solemn expression. Just how bad had things gotten for the higher-ups to offer such an astonishing "bounty"?
Meng Xinghai said, "Three hundred li away, the high-ranking leaders of Mingyao City ventured into the mountains seeking divine medicine and never returned; they're most likely all dead out there."
It was a major city boasting a population of around 1.3 million, and now it was left without a city lord.
Meng Xinghai wanted to forge a path connecting to it. Chixia City was too remote, and all sorts of living supplies had to pass through Mingyao City; allowing it to fall was out of the question.
Qin Ming said, "Alright. I was about to head out anyway, so I'll help Uncle Meng open the night road while I'm at it."
Across a mere three hundred li, monsters, specters, and fiends ran rampant. Qin Ming even called upon Palm-Sized Pig to come and assist them.
Making a rare exception, the pig stepped out of the desert.
Meng Xinghai was drenched in blood, fighting desperately along the way.
Qin Ming deployed an array of exotic metal weapons, as this material truly countered evil.
At critical junctures in deserted areas, he even unleashed the rag; bolstered by the ancient cloth, his heavenly light shone like a blazing sun.
Even creatures like those spectral fiends were burned to ashes.
"There is a sea in the Night Ruins, but the region near Chixia City isn't connected to an ocean." This was the intelligence Qin Ming gleaned after battling his way forward and slaying three old peddlers.
For a mere three hundred li, Qin Ming, Meng Xinghai, and Palm-Sized Pig spent five whole days fighting before finally clearing the passage, arriving at last outside Mingyao City.
Along the way, they also purged the area outside the city walls, marching through blood before dragging their exhausted bodies inside.
"Brother Meng, thank you for your assistance." Upon their entry, someone stepped forward leading a welcoming entourage.
Meng Xinghai was startled, then recognized the man: it was Cui Ming, elder brother to Cui Chonghe's father, Cui Qi, and a member of the main branch of that millennial clan.
Naturally, Qin Ming recognized Cui Ming at a glance as well. Behind him stood a good number of Cui clan youths.
Cui Ming was tall and imposing, with sword-like brows and starry eyes—a strikingly heroic figure. Beaming, he said, "Without Brother Meng's help, this city of ours would have fallen."
A bad feeling immediately welled up inside Meng Xinghai. He asked in a deep voice, "What do you mean by that? It was we who resolved this city's crisis."
"Brother, you are mistaken. We took charge of this city several days ago," Cui Ming replied with a smile.
They had indeed arrived in advance, but had done nothing to eliminate the perils lurking around the perimeter because they lacked the confidence to do so; they had accomplished nothing worthy of merit.
"You are utterly shameless!" Meng Xinghai said coldly. When they had cleared the dangers outside the walls, this bunch hadn't even bothered to show their faces or make a token effort. Yet now they had the gall to claim credit and vie for the city?
"Stealing the merits of heaven itself—what consummate shamelessness!" Qin Ming went even further, hoisting his ink jade great hammer until it was nearly shoved right into Cui Ming's face.
Chapter 422