Qin Ming walked with light, effortless steps. Even in the gloom of the night, his face shone with a glow like morning clouds. After gazing upon the new realm, an indissoluble kinship seemed to have formed between him and the earth beneath him.
"Did your seclusion go smoothly?" Yao Ruoxian asked. She was leading an inspection tour of several major towns and great cities in the southeast of Great Yu; large metal mining districts were also among her primary destinations.
"It went well enough," Qin Ming replied with a smile. By now, they had long left the highlands and were traversing a snowy plain. Though early spring had already arrived, the frost and ice here showed no signs of thawing.
"It seems you reaped great gains."
The party Yao Ruoxian led numbered around twenty-odd people, all of them formidable experts. Among them, a silver-haired elder woman had reached the level of a grandmaster.
There was also an old man with hair cropped short like steel needles, who stood at the perfection stage of the fourth realm.
These two powerful experts exchanged a glance. Seeing Qin Ming tread so lightly, with wisps of earth essence steadily wafting up beneath his soles, both wore peculiar expressions.
This youth seemed naturally attuned to the earth. He walked with barely any effort, as if carried forward on cushions of subterranean qi—a rare sight indeed.
"Princess, why did he come all the way here to cultivate in seclusion? What miraculous art has he been practicing?" the silver-haired female grandmaster asked secretly via transmission.
Yao Ruoxian replied, "It should be the Wuji Classic."
The short-haired elder said, "That is an illustrious, extraordinary manual within the Five Elements domain."
The old woman's mind shook instantly. "Could it be... is he bringing legends to life, recreating in reality deeds recorded only in ancient texts?"
As a grandmaster possessing immense breadth of knowledge, she had already deduced something.
"What do you mean?" the elder asked.
The female grandmaster answered, "Gazing upon the new realm and plucking the hidden trove. If I am not mistaken, he must have obtained the legendary secret canon, the Classic of Earth Virtue. No wonder he is so intimately attuned to the earth."
"To think such a legendary feat has manifested in him!" A look of shock appeared on the elder's face.
As royalty, Yao Ruoxian had read extensively since childhood and was equally well-versed in ancient lore. She had harbored suspicions long ago, and her heart grew even more restless. She knew Qin Ming still intended to visit large metal mining districts and was actively searching for the sea. Could he be planning to pluck hidden troves in succession?
She transmitted her voice: "You two, keep this matter confidential. Do not leak a word."
Qin Ming was clearly preparing to view new realms one after another. Looking across the entire world, how many people could pull that off? Yet before such rare natural endowment could be cashed in for real power, it might bring disaster upon him.
The female grandmaster and the elder nodded, their gazes shifting as they looked at Qin Ming's back ahead. Previously, they had voiced mild objections, believing that the princess's inspection route should not be tailored to accommodate this youth's itinerary.
The snowy plains stretched for hundreds of li without a single human habitation. Pine winds roared in waves with an eerie, hair-raising wail, and ghostly silhouettes flickered in and out of sight. Such wilderness was fraught with peril.
Behind their party, an old man clad in a funerary shroud followed silently. He had dogged the expedition for well over a hundred li and still refused to give up.
"He is still there!" a guard whispered in a low voice.
"Quiet down. Ignore him."
Even with a grandmaster holding the line, Night Ruins creatures still tailed them, showing just how dire the current state of the world had become.
Before long, a bone-chilling cold gripped everyone. The path ahead suddenly turned pitch-black, so dark that one could not see one's outstretched hand. Then, two hanging red lanterns appeared abruptly, with two figures leading the way ahead.
"Halt!" the female grandmaster barked.
The elder remarked, "Something is wrong. We've stepped into a mysterious domain."
The female grandmaster said, "A stretch where reality overlaps with the Night Ruins. We are no longer in Night Province."
Instantly, a stir ran through the entire party.
Yao Ruoxian warned, "Do not act rashly! Activate all your blood qi, burst forth with your pure yang consciousness or heavenly light, and wait to reconnect with reality. Under no circumstances should anyone wander off!"
The two dark figures leading the way looked back. Beneath the glow of the red lanterns, snow-white fangs gleamed with a faint, chilling luster.
Behind them, the old man in the funerary shroud came charging up with heavy, thudding strides, intent on driving everyone forward.
Boom!
The earth qi beneath Qin Ming's feet erupted violently, blasting the shroud-clad elder straight into midair.
The female grandmaster struck. Pure yang consciousness slashed out like a blade of light, jolting the old man's entire body violently and causing blood to spray from his mouth as he tumbled into the darkness.
A moment later, the surroundings returned to normal, and they reappeared upon the snowy plain. Vaguely, however, red lanterns could still be seen suspended within the mist, and even further off flowed a hazy blue Fire Spring.
"Not ghosts. They have flesh, blood, and warmth," the female grandmaster remarked.
Qin Ming did not look at those rule-bound creatures of flesh and blood. Instead, he stared fixedly at the fading red lanterns and the eerie blue glow. "There are Fire Springs in the Night Ruins too?"
Yao Ruoxian nodded. "Yes. Most are predominantly blue."
Lost in thought, Qin Ming murmured, "Why do I feel that the greatest problem in this world stems from the Fire Springs?"
Yao Ruoxian, having studied numerous ancient texts, responded, "Many have thought the same. Even Earth Immortals once traced the origins of the Fire Springs, digging deeper and deeper, yet in the end they all withdrew and let the matter drop."
That same day, they arrived at a mining district six hundred li away.
This was a sprawling expanse of metal-bearing mountains with complex composition. It yielded various rare metals used for forging weapons, as well as day gold. In the past, miners had even unearthed sporadic grains of exotic metal here.
In recent years, Great Yu had halted mining in this massive district, preserving it as a strategic reserve.
Nowadays, territories across the realm had been cut off like isolated islands. The imperial family of Great Yu could not rest easy regarding this vital ground, which was why imperial scions had been dispatched to inspect it in person.
"Why is this village so bizarre?"
As they drew near a pitch-black settlement, everyone sensed something amiss. The Fire Spring that should have burned bright red had gone out. Silhouettes drifted within the village; deep in the night, many villagers were actually still awake.
"Hiss, it's a ghost village!" A guard inhaled a mouthful of nocturnal mist, chilled to the bone.
This place too had been eroded by the Night Ruins.
Every soul in the village was dead, transformed into rule-bound flesh-and-blood entities.
"Too tragic to behold. Specters walk the mortal world, walking corpses roam about," the female grandmaster sighed.
Calling these villagers ghosts was not entirely accurate. They were not spirits; their flesh still held warmth. Yet they were fundamentally different from before, carrying the bizarre rules of the Night Ruins.
"Mother, the Fire Spring is gone. I'm scared. I want to be with you..." In the village, a small child shivered, whispering faintly.
A dark shadow walked over, took his hand, and dragged him into the darkness.
Several guards moved to rush into the village to rescue the child.
The female grandmaster shook her head. "That was merely his final obsession from life. He died long ago."
At the far end of the village, a young girl's crisp laughter rang out—the final sound left behind in the gloom. She melted into an ink-like darkness, heading deep into the Night Ruins.
Qin Ming sighed softly. "Alas. I hope they can live on in another form, in another world."
"In remote regions, the problems are already this severe!" Yao Ruoxian felt a heaviness in her chest. These had all been subjects of Great Yu, yet isolated from the outside world, this was the fate they met.
Later, they even discovered a small town that had also been consumed, swallowed entirely in darkness.
Moreover, here they witnessed a strange "divinity." Deep within the pitch-black town, where the Night Ruins intersected with reality, a silvery-white light gradually shone forth, appearing remarkably sacred.
It was a being shrouded in a halo of white divine light, quietly watching the party outside the town.
Yao Ruoxian demanded sharply, "Was it a monster like you that dragged the entire town into the Night Ruins? How dare you slaughter so many innocent lives!"
"Why do you assume the realm you inhabit is serene, sacred, and peaceful? I am saving them," the being enclosed in the silvery-white divine halo spoke. Surprisingly, it was capable of communication.
"You brought death upon an entire town, yet you dare claim to save them?" Yao Ruoxian said indignantly, her fair, pristine face fraught with killing intent. She wished nothing more than to execute the creature on the spot.
The hazy entity within the divine halo said, "This nocturnal world is like a sea of bitterness. I am pulling them ashore to find rebirth on the other shore. That is far better than struggling to survive in your world."
Yao Ruoxian scolded, "Demonic deceit and ghostly nonsense!"
The creature in the divine halo spoke on: "You live in suffering without knowing it. Having made the wrong choice, you are doomed to end in tragedy. Just look at your realm: once someone chooses to become an immortal, their life form changes. Rarely does anyone remain sacred and aloof; most become bizarre, monstrous, and terrifying in shape."
"Still trying to bewitch people's minds?" the female grandmaster said coldly.
The entity in the silvery halo paid her no heed, continuing on its own: "That is because you entered the wrong place. Turning your backs on the true land of immortality, how could you hope for a good end?"
"What nonsense are you spouting?" the short-haired elder rebuked.
The mysterious being said, "If beings striving for immortality merely turned around and entered the Night Ruins, everything would be different. They would be destined for sacred transcendence, attaining genuine ascension. There would be no horrifying or eerie anomalies. From then on, they would break free from the sea of bitterness, standing transcendent above."
"Utter twaddle!" the commander of the guards snapped.
"You do not understand. Now the sacred world—what you call the Night Ruins—is converging with your realm. This is your privilege. You may seize this chance to reach the shore, while regions beyond the reach of Yujing can see no hope of ever obtaining such an opportunity."
From within the darkness, the creature in the divine halo was actually lecturing them, which naturally drew fierce rebukes.
"How many layers does the Night Ruins have?" Qin Ming spoke up.
The creature in the divine halo said, "As many layers as the heavens in your myths."
"What do you mean by that?" The female grandmaster's eyes turned sharp.
The creature in the divine halo said, "Think about why your supreme, exalted Yujing hangs upside down."
Outside the pitch-black town, the group fell into a brief silence.
Suddenly, an intensely terrifying wave of mental field surged from deep within the Night Ruins, accompanied by a low roar like a tsunami: "Fleeing Dream-talker, found you!"
At the same time, an enormous hand swept forward, blotting out the sky. It engulfed the entity within the silvery halo and dragged the entire town away with it.
The place fell dead silent, empty and bare, leaving nothing behind.
The sight sent a chill down everyone's spines.
A moment later, a guard said, "The depths of the Night Ruins are far more complex than we imagined."
The female grandmaster rebuked him: "Don't believe those words! Didn't you hear that giant creature call it a 'Dream-talker'?"
The party left that abnormal area, the atmosphere across the entire expedition growing heavy.
Eventually, brilliant Fire Springs appeared on the road ahead. The only settlements dragged into the Night Ruins had been the two they encountered earlier; the situation had not truly unraveled.
"Something is still wrong," the guard commander remarked.
In a village up ahead, demons were actually prowling about, and shrill screams echoed from within.
Qin Ming, Yao Ruoxian, and the others dashed over, arriving upon a bloody scene. An old jackal demon was devouring a human. Its upper half was a beast, its lower half that of a man.
A pale youth lay with his chest torn open. Though dead, his eyes remained wide, frozen in sheer terror.
Inside the houses, many villagers braced their door planks with all their might, their faces devoid of color, their bodies trembling faintly. Even the cries of infants had ceased in terror.
Heavenly light surged from Qin Ming's body, condensing into a giant hand that grabbed the jackal-man by the neck and nearly snapped it clean through with a sickening crack.
Yao Ruoxian's expression was as cold as frost. "Speak! How dare you commit such atrocities?"
How many years had it been since such a monstrous evil occurred within the territories ruled by Great Yu? An entire village had fallen, treated as mere fodder for demons.
The guard commander hauled over another bear demon from within the village, its massive paws likewise stained with blood.
"Let go! We are here on our King's orders..." Both the old jackal and the bear demon struggled violently.
Matters proved far worse than Qin Ming and the others had imagined. Many villages and towns in the surrounding region had fallen. Demons came and went freely, treating villagers as slaves and forcing them into the mines.
Yao Ruoxian's flawless face was frozen in fury. Nothing could be worse than this: order had completely broken down here, and the area was overrun by demons.
Two or three demons occupied every village, forcing the inhabitants out to dig mines each day under strict quotas. They acted without the slightest restraint, feeding on villagers whenever hunger struck.
With communication between regions severed into isolated pockets, this area had fallen into such tragic horror. Yao Ruoxian's killing intent surged, and she led her squad to purge the wolves, jackals, tigers, and leopards across the region throughout the night.
"Speak! Where do you come from, and who is your King?" The silver-haired female grandmaster was advanced in years, yet tonight her emotions roiled violently, burning with the urge to slaughter.
Soon, they learned that these demons had been conscripted from deep within the mountains, while the King they spoke of was an outsider.
At present, the King and his band of demons were stationed in a distant city.
Gengjin City was merely several dozen li away.
In earlier years, there had only been scattered villages and towns here. Later, due to the mining of large metal veins, the population grew, gradually coalescing into a city.
Over recent years, with mining halted, Gengjin City was no longer as prosperous as it once was.
After creatures from the Night Ruins began appearing everywhere, a consensus formed under these conditions: whoever could protect an area could become its lord.
Yao Ruoxian had never expected that an outside pack of demons would set their sights on this place. They had seized the city not to protect the common folk, but solely for its rare mineral deposits.
Villagers across many surrounding settlements had been enslaved. Those demons, after jade iron and grains of exotic metal, were savage and bloodthirsty, treating the people as subhuman. Some were worked to death; others were slaughtered for food.
These foreign demons were far more destructive than the Night Ruins creatures.
"They deserve death!" Upon discovering the truth, everyone was filled with righteous fury.
"Among those foreign demons, there may be grandmaster-level experts." After learning this detail shortly after, their expressions grew grim.
The guard commander suggested, "To be safe, let us mobilize some experts from the great city five hundred li away. There should be a grandmaster stationed there."
Yao Ruoxian nodded, personally writing a dispatch and sending someone to deliver it by night.
"We have been traveling without rest. Tonight, we replenish our strength. Once reinforcements arrive, we will reconnoiter Gengjin City and hopefully capture or kill all those demons."
That night, Qin Ming headed directly into the mountains. Unwilling to waste time, while the others rested, he went deep into a pitch-black mine shaft.
Deep in the night, the bottomless shaft felt as if it connected to an abyss, resembling an entrance to the underworld. The moment Qin Ming entered, he sensed something off. Chains clanked, and specters flitted about.
Evidently, this place had also become an intersection between the Night Ruins and reality. Far beneath the earth, he glimpsed a blue Fire Spring and several dreadful silhouettes.
Qin Ming did not stubbornly push deeper. Instead, he withdrew and chose another mining area.
These mountains lacked many things, but ancient mine shafts were plentiful, and all possessed a dense metal aura.
Deep underground, Qin Ming sat in quiet meditation, circulating the Golden Silkworm Classic. Instantly, an inexplicable aura began to stir within this massive metal mine.
He felt as though he had merged with the entire mountain, submerged beneath an intangible metal qi.
Around Qin Ming, dense golden threads manifested like divine silkworms spinning silk, piercing into the mountain walls before weaving into a web and cocoon that wrapped around his body.
"So the follow-up scripture is the Silkworm Sovereign Metal-Governing Classic." He successfully glimpsed the new realm and plucked the hidden trove.
At this moment, Qin Ming found himself in a lush forest of metal. He seemed to have transformed into a Silkworm Sovereign, feeding on metal qi. Upon a golden divine mulberry tree, he saw individual scripture pages hanging.
Most importantly, he was nourished by the unique, active metal qi here, accumulating a substantial amount of mysterious spiritual substance.
He felt that he might achieve a major breakthrough right here.
"There's a high probability I could step into the Mind Lamp realm." This was his instinctual intuition.
Yet on deeper reflection, an obscure premonition warned him that it was not entirely secure; failure remained a possibility.
If the mind lamp failed to ignite and the process was cut short halfway, his vital essence could suffer severe damage.
Qin Ming frowned. In the early stages, plucking a single hidden trove was enough to push him through a minor boundary, but as his cultivation deepened, subsequent realm barriers became increasingly difficult to breach.
"It seems just as I anticipated earlier: I still need to obtain the Sea-Overturning Classic."
Qin Ming cleared his mind and focused on comprehending the Silkworm Sovereign Metal-Governing Classic. Having glimpsed the new realm, cultivating in such a unique environment yielded twice the result for half the effort.
Around his body, metal qi transformed into various weapons, shooting outward in all directions, followed by silkworm threads weaving through the void as though distorting heaven and earth.
A long time later, he opened his eyes, his consciousness returning to reality. The entire mine shaft was dilapidated and on the verge of collapse, while his exterior was densely enveloped in Silkworm Sovereign force.
"Time to head back." Qin Ming stood up and exited the shaft.
On the return journey, he paused briefly before another abyss-like mine pit, seeing faint blue flames and the hazy illusion of a city.
"As many layers as the heavens in myth, so many layers in the Night Ruins?" he murmured, vanishing from the spot in the blink of an eye.
"We have identified them. The non-humans occupying Gengjin City are not indigenous demons of Night Province. There is a very high probability they are our old adversaries."
Upon Qin Ming's return, Yao Ruoxian delivered the news.
As shallow night arrived, they confirmed further: it was indeed their old foes, the very demon faction they had fought on the Plain of Divine Demise.
During this period, many events had transpired in Night Province. The demon faction from the extreme west had eyed these developments eagerly, wanting to send personnel close, yet they had not dared reveal their identities.
For instance, before Yujing fell, when geniuses from various lands entered the earthen city, members of the demon faction had also come in secret, yet they had only dared to loiter at a distance, never truly showing their faces.
Following the great upheaval of heaven and earth, they saw an opportunity. With communications severed everywhere, some among them decisively slipped into remote areas to plunder fortunes.
The guard commander reported, "They did not dare enter Night Province in force, sending only a small detachment. In Gengjin City, there should be one or two demon grandmasters, several seed experts, and possibly even the Jade Emperor."
"Indeed, some formidable heavenly demon seeds have arrived!" Yao Ruoxian was surprised. She was no stranger to the Jade Emperor, an extraordinarily prominent figure within the demon faction.
Qin Ming spoke: "On the Plain of Divine Demise, they were utterly routed, yet they still dare come stir up trouble? Kill them all!"
Hearing this, everyone present felt their anger blaze hotter, their killing intent surging. To think that those once-defeated foes dared penetrate deep into the heart of Night Province, taking advantage of the realm's great upheaval to ravage the land!
Chapter 426