"Tiangang tore through all opposition to breach the top three with overwhelming force, yet even he failed his challenge. This twentieth-ranked wooden puppet... Realm Faction, probably won't manage it either."
Beneath the sword-dueling platform, everyone craned their necks to watch, but ninety percent held little hope for the wooden puppet. The Heavenly Immortal's oppressive aura in the second realm was simply too overpowering.
In the night sky, the black-and-white diagram shed a flood of luminous particles. Spinning at dizzying speed, it slashed into that finger resembling mutton-fat jade, instantly sending blood splashing.
All chatter vanished. Countless jaws dropped. The Heavenly Immortal was actually... wounded! Quite a few drops of blood dripped from that slender, delicate finger.
Not long ago, a single descending finger from the Heavenly Immortal had suppressed Tiangang, the newly ascended old monster. The very palm that had vanquished the Giant Spirit God had been pierced straight through with a bloody hole.
Now, the Heavenly Immortal was cut and injured instead!
After a brief hush, an uproar erupted among the crowd. A true master had finally arisen to shake the Heavenly Immortal's supremacy.
The Heavenly Immortal's projection blurred and faded away from the platform.
Having wounded her, Qin Ming was deemed eligible by the New Board to face the Heavenly Immortal's true self.
"Th-the wooden puppet has the upper hand?" Helian Zhaoyu went pale, his convictions shaken once more.
Gazing at that old monster on the sword-dueling platform who championed the Realm Faction, Helian Zhaoyu felt a suffocating knot tighten in his chest.
If the wooden puppet ultimately defeated the Heavenly Immortal, what kind of bitter despair would that spell for an adherent of the Extreme Realm Faction like him?
Li Qingxu marvelled, "This senior is truly an exemplar of our Realm Faction. Through practical deeds, he is forging our convictions and demonstrating what the correct path truly is."
Beneath the sword-dueling platform, fervent discussion broke out. The twentieth-ranked wooden puppet—Realm Faction—was about to battle the Heavenly Immortal's true self. The spectacle filled the crowd with immense anticipation.
At the very zenith of the Nine Heavens, the Heavenly Immortal responded immediately: she would meet the Realm Faction in combat.
However, she was quite far away, having already fought her way to the cities corresponding to later realms.
This bought time for experts from the neighboring cities, enabling them to rush over to watch the clash in person.
Many realized that a brand-new, formidable challenger had emerged, one who might truly possess the power to shake the reigning dominion of the Heavenly Immortal and the Lord of Yujing.
"Is that the Black-White Classic? Only a genuine old monster could thoroughly master its first few realms. As for what lies beyond... it's immensely difficult!" someone sighed.
This true classic possessed a tremendous pedigree and was extraordinarily abstruse. Chu Pianran, who had emerged from an ancient immortal sanctuary, had once disclosed that even the senior elders of her sect developed splitting headaches when facing this text.
An elder remarked, "The wooden puppet must be a peerless Earth Immortal. Otherwise, he could never have obtained this classic, let alone comprehended and cultivated it to such a state of consummation!"
On the horizon, a divine rainbow streaked in from afar like an immortal flying from beyond the heavens. A woman dressed in black descended slowly from the night sky, her skin like pristine snow, exuding an unmatched cold elegance.
Her features were strikingly exquisite, without a single flaw, yet a palpable imperiousness showed between her brows and at the corners of her eyes. When her phoenix eyes swept over, they carried a suffocating weight.
Qin Ming took only a brief look before preparing to act. In a place like this, even if an opponent possessed peerless grace and unrivaled beauty, it meant nothing. The face was very likely fabricated, so there was no need to commit it to memory.
Just as with himself: first a scarecrow, and now a wooden puppet.
The black-robed woman was exceptionally aloof. Without truly touching down upon the sword-dueling platform, she hovered high in the night sky and raised a slender hand, striking forcefully toward Qin Ming.
Qin Ming did not hold back either. He preemptively seized the initiative, boldly swinging his greatsword and cleaving toward her lustrous, snowy forehead!
The sword light resembled brilliant morning clouds emerging from the edge of the sky before bursting upward through the void. The dreadful sword intent shattered the expanse of night mist, and even the transcendent Heavenly Immortal saw her hair whipped into wild disarray behind her.
In the night sky, that fair, delicate hand clashed against the greatsword. Thunder roared and lightning flashed as a terrifying storm of energy particles erupted with the two at its center.
The entire sword-dueling platform trembled, faint cracks webbing across its surface.
Even several old monsters showed looks of astonishment. From the very first exchange, both had struck straight at the peak realm, damaging the sturdy raised platform.
Standing on the sword-dueling platform, Qin Ming stared at the woman in the night sky. His opponent's strength had exceeded his expectations by a fair margin.
In this realm, very few dared to clash with him in head-on collision!
Beneath his feet, black and white mist billowed as a yin-yang diagram rotated, carrying him soaring toward the sky as he took the initiative to attack.
The greatsword in Qin Ming's grip was no longer blindingly luminous. One edge of the blade was inky black, while the other was snow-white and crystalline, embodying the true meaning of the Black-White Classic.
The Heavenly Immortal possessed a lithe, slender silhouette, her black robe billowing as though she were about to ascend amidst radiant clouds. She lacked the softness typical of ordinary women; the divine beams gleaming from her beautiful eyes grew increasingly sharp.
Suspended high in the night sky, she joined her right index and middle fingers together, slashing out a terrifying beam of light. This was the renowned Immortal-Slaying Finger, a technique that throughout all of Night Province only Leng Mingkong, the pathfinder of Yang Soil, had cultivated to its ultimate domain.
This woman had clearly comprehended it thoroughly and truly mastered it. True to its name, this art was reputed to possess the power to slay immortals at the sixth realm, bearing horrifying lethality.
With a sharp crack, slight fractures appeared along the black-and-white sword formed of heavenly light and sacred baleful aura. From this alone, one could imagine how astonishing the Immortal-Slaying Finger's power truly was.
Yet the onlookers were also shocked to discover that fresh blood dripped once more from the black-robed woman's two fingers. She had been cut, with the injury striking deep into her finger bones.
At the same time, Qin Ming closed the distance, his left fist and right palm distinct in black and white, blasting toward the aloof woman in black.
"He must be an immortal-path body refiner, aiming to fight the Heavenly Immortal in close-quarters melee!" someone murmured.
In the first two realms, it was extraordinarily difficult for pure practitioners of the immortal path to forge a genuine pure yang consciousness, which was why few made the board.
The Heavenly Immortal was evidently one of that rare minority, and ranked at the absolute apex.
The black-robed woman's entire body flared with brilliant light, dazzling all eyes. The spectators understood at once: she possessed a Pure Yang Constitution. Otherwise, it would have been nearly impossible to manifest such terrifying conscious spiritual light in the second realm.
Moreover, her degree of pure yang transformation far surpassed that of Zhou Tiandao.
Zhou Tiandao was a youth after all, lacking the corresponding accumulation. If his pure yang power was like the morning twilight, then the black-robed woman's pure yang power was like the sun at high noon, at the very peak of its glory!
At this moment, she resembled a majestic sun so blazing that no one could look at her directly without weeping from the glare. She was so radiant that even her black dress was dyed golden, unleashing ten thousand rays of brilliance.
Soaring across the sky and bearing her pure yang power, the Heavenly Immortal launched a fierce assault toward Qin Ming, utterly unfazed by his status as a body refiner. With every gesture and movement, she wielded thick, indissoluble golden mist.
Every time she swung a fist or pressed her fingers together into a blade, it seemed as if a multitude of blazing sun shards showered down, poised to incinerate all creation and sweep away the night mist with pure yang power.
"Her yang qi is this potent!" Qin Ming was greatly astonished. This was the first time in the second realm he had ever encountered a woman possessing such startling pure yang power.
Furthermore, the black-robed woman was clearly employing a profound classic of unfathomable origins, one that was not in the least inferior to the Black-White Classic. Paired with that billowing pure yang qi, it was practically flawless.
Qin Ming stood planted within the black-and-white diagram, cloaking himself with it. Not only that, he infused other sacred baleful auras into it as well. Since they took him for a body refiner, he would live up to the name and engage this Heavenly Immortal in close-quarters melee.
In the next instant, Qin Ming's black-and-white fist seal smashed into that solar halo, trading brutal blows with the woman who refused to yield and chose to clash fist-to-fist against him.
For a time, dazzling colors swirled across the night sky amidst rolling thunder and flashes of lightning. Fist radiance, black-and-white sword qi, the power of sacred baleful auras, and pure yang light illuminated all creation.
Spectators watched with pounding hearts; a battle of this caliber was truly staggering.
"Meeting a body refiner head-on with an immortal-path Pure Yang Constitution... The Heavenly Immortal's talent is truly peerless. When she reaches the later great realms, who could possibly stand against her?"
Yet the crowd also watched the wooden puppet fight with mounting valor, breaking into that blazing sun illuminating the night sky and nearly locking down the Heavenly Immortal as her black robes and raven tresses danced.
"She is too proud. She shouldn't let her temper drag her into a clash of wills. If this continues, she will fall into a disadvantage."
Several experts saw the Heavenly Immortal losing ground; that majestic sun had nearly been shattered by the wooden puppet's black-and-white light.
Suddenly, an entirely different beam of light bloomed from within that blazing sun. Like an immortal-flying sword, it proved exceedingly perilous and terrifying, piercing straight through Qin Ming's protective light curtain.
At the critical moment, the black-and-white diagram coalesced between his hands, and he caught the dazzling immortal sword between his bare palms.
Qin Ming instantly grasped the situation: the black-robed woman was not purely an immortal-path practitioner.
With a sharp snap, he shattered the immortal sword with both hands, unleashing a burst of multi-layered baleful qi outward.
The black-robed woman did not retreat. Instead, she took the initiative to press him in close combat. Alongside her surging pure yang power, her fair palms coalesced the aura of heavenly baleful qi.
With a booming crash that sounded like thunder falling from the ninth heaven, the entire night sky quaked violently.
The spectators saw that the black-robed woman showed no intention of pulling back. She traded barehanded blows with the wooden puppet, every pore of her body erupting with the aura of other-worldly sacred baleful aura.
"Dual cultivation of two paths! She is an immortal-path body refiner as well!" someone gasped in amazement.
Many experts felt a wave of understanding. In the first two realms, only by doing this could one truly ascend to the highest ranks and stand at the forefront.
"No wonder she dared to clash like that. She possessed full confidence and absolute assurance."
In an instant, the energy particles erupting between the two grew even more horrifying, sweeping through the night sky like one radiant storm after another.
Undaunted by her shift, Qin Ming fused the sacred baleful auras within his body into the black-and-white diagram one by one. Using the Black-White Classic to harmonize yin and yang, he brought multiple sacred baleful auras under his dominion.
Immediately after, yin and yang eyes were dotted onto the diagram. As if endowed with a spirit, it completely came alive, formally transforming into a black-and-white Taiji diagram.
Cloaked in the diagram, Qin Ming fought on. His fist radiance blazed with increasing ferocity, repeatedly piercing that majestic sun illuminating the night sky and rattling the black-robed woman until blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
"The Heavenly Immortal, who exerts such boundless pressure, is actually wounded! What on earth is that wooden puppet's origin to be formidable to such a degree?!"
Draped in the dao diagram, Qin Ming's battle intent surged. Wherever his fist and sword radiance pointed, the Heavenly Immortal was forced into continuous retreat. Blood stained her crimson lips, and her black gown was torn in several places, revealing snowy arms and slender legs.
With a sudden whoosh, she streaked away at extreme speed, finally giving up on melee to put distance between them.
Qin Ming pursued. Harnessing the black and white mist, he could traverse the night sky for short bursts, moving at the absolute peak of speed.
The Heavenly Immortal possessed a tremendous background and had mastered numerous true classics, wielding all manner of supreme arts with effortless ease. At this moment, the movement technique she displayed surpassed all reason, like a streak of flowing light flashing across the firmament.
An elder gave voice to the truth: "That is the Body of Flowing Light, a Heavenly God-grade technique! To manifest even a shred of its true meaning in the second realm is truly defying the heavens."
What astonished the crowd most was that the wooden puppet, riding the black-and-white Taiji diagram, was barely any slower, almost catching up to the black-robed woman.
In the end, the Heavenly Immortal managed to open up a gap.
Her expression grew solemn, lacking the casual demeanor she had shown before. Her dark hair danced in the night wind as pure yang power gathered, manifesting diverse strange phenomena around her.
With a clear chime, ranks of immortal swords materialized on either side of her. Spreading them like a phoenix unfolding its wings, she unleashed hundreds and thousands of sword beams streaking outward.
She no longer approached Qin Ming. Instead, she deployed immortal-path methods from an appropriate distance, intending to execute her opponent with pure yang sword qi.
Harnessing the black-and-white diagram, Qin Ming naturally would not stand rooted to one spot.
Yet the Heavenly Immortal's speed was indeed faster. Displaying the Body of Flowing Light, she maneuvered around her opponent to attack. Furthermore, with a single thought, her pure yang conscious spiritual light took shape, constructing a golden bell that crashed down in an attempt to pin him within.
"Those are all extreme realm sword lights!" the crowd watched in shock as the Heavenly Immortal, using sword light as wings, soared through the night sky and loosed ten thousand swords at once, presenting a terrifying sight.
Possessing extreme speed coupled with matchless offensive might, she seemed practically insurmountable.
Yet the onlookers also saw the wooden puppet, draped in the black-and-white Taiji diagram, manage to withstand that sky-filling barrage of sword light.
As his dao diagram rotated with resounding clangs, it severed the pure yang bell and detonated it into pieces.
Qin Ming felt that if he melted all nine sacred baleful auras into a single crucible to forge chaotic baleful aura and traveled on primordial heavenly light, he could easily catch up to that woman.
Moreover, if he did so, his offensive methods would be far more astonishing.
However, after some thought, he chose not to. He decided to develop a new method. Who said only she could practice dual paths? Could he not do the same?
He then deployed the methods of the esoteric sect, supplemented by heavenly light and sacred baleful aura.
Normally, Qin Ming practiced the fundamental classics of both the immortal path and the esoteric sect, but the pure yang spiritual light and divine wisdom he cultivated would mostly be blended away by his heavenly light, leaving little behind.
Yet now that he stood in the fourth realm, looking back, he had more than enough divine wisdom to meet the requirements of the second realm.
Furthermore, he reversed the power within his body, separating a portion of divine wisdom out from his blended heavenly light.
In an instant, Qin Ming became someone capable of walking the path of gods, appearing as though he had cultivated the fundamental classics of the esoteric sect for many years.
In truth, the fundamental classic he possessed for this path held a tremendous pedigree, not in the least inferior to those sect-protecting texts.
Back then, the giant blue centipede that had sought to become a god had been besieged and slain by various experts. Its remnant soul had targeted Qin Ming, only for Qin Ming to obtain the scriptural principles etched upon a golden scale within its divine kingdom.
Where Qin Ming stood, the void seemed to fracture. Golden rifts appeared, followed by the emergence of a pure land.
Many eyes widened in shock. This body refiner was also a dual cultivator—he walked the path of godhood!
Helian Zhaoyu had been able to open an inner landscape and reveal a pure land in the second realm; Qin Ming could naturally do so with even greater ease. The moment he circulated the esoteric fundamental classic, he succeeded.
In the blink of an eye, an ancient tree materialized within the pure land. Qin Ming sat quietly beneath it as if comprehending the dao. The tree shifted between inky black and jade-white, at times lush with foliage, at other times shedding withered leaves.
The Heavenly Immortal naturally would not stand idly by while he manifested divine arts. Moving at high speed with the Body of Flowing Light, she slashed out dense torrents of immortal sword light. She even drove her pure yang power to fashion a divine fire furnace, hurling it into that pure land.
Qin Ming sat motionless, summoning a god within the pure land.
With a flash, a golden figure appeared, resembling a dharma-protecting Vajra. Gripping a demon-subduing pestle, it swung the weapon boldly, shattering the divine fire furnace with a thunderous blast the moment it entered the pure land.
Qin Ming discovered that the Vajra Scripture he had obtained at the immortal grave seemed remarkably compatible with the methods of the esoteric sect, allowing him to manifest a deity in this manner within the pure land.
"Is he an old senior of the esoteric sect?" Several people from Night Province showed astonished expressions.
"This is an old monster seeking to become a Heavenly God!" Experts from other regions turned solemn.
The Heavenly Immortal spoke: "I've finally forced out your true background. So you walk the divine path. In that case, it is time to settle this!"
She pointed a finger, and a silver runic rope plunged like a heavenly dragon, reaching into the pure land to tear through this inner landscape and bind the wooden puppet.
Qin Ming's body glowed. The ancient tree behind him swayed, casting down black and white light blended with various mysterious sacred baleful auras that caused the god-binding rope to snap repeatedly and crumble into ash.
Then he rose to his feet, the entire pure land carrying him forward as he closed in on his opponent.
Though he appeared to take slow strides, his speed was extraordinarily fast. Radiating wisps of divine majesty, he sought to lock onto the woman darting like a streak of flowing light across the night sky.
"It is time for an outcome!" The Heavenly Immortal prepared her ultimate strike.
Around her, immortal swords, the Divine-Reflecting Mirror, the Seven Treasures Cauldron, the Nanming Li Fire Furnace, and countless other weapons manifested from pure yang power appeared in profusion.
Furthermore, sacred baleful aura transformed into beams of light that coiled around her body. Dual-cultivating two paths, the Heavenly Immortal commanded them in perfect harmony.
Her entire being steamed with immortal light as she unleashed a technique from a supreme classic. A shower of luminous rain poured from the night sky, closing in upon her opponent's divine pure land.
"This... is definitely a technique from a Heavenly Immortal-grade scripture! For her to manifest its rudimentary form in the second realm... this black-robed woman has an astonishing background!"
Several old monsters recognized it as a trump card from immortal legends—Heavenly Immortal Descends to the World!
The black-robed woman neared the pure land, preparing to enter in her true body to tear apart her opponent's foundation of godhood and bring about his collapse.
Clearly, this was the decisive clash!
Her speed no longer appeared as rapid, yet it left no room for evasion.
Qin Ming had originally intended to summon more gods, manifesting several divine forms.
Yet upon seeing this spectacle, he checked himself. Instead, he concentrated on evolving his divine pure land: a blazing sun rose into the sky, a bright moon hung high, earth took shape, fire disasters surged, wind tribulations howled, and heavenly lightning flickered faintly...
He brewed deadly intent, blending the nine great sacred baleful auras into the pure land.
With a thunderous roar, the black-robed woman arrived, blazing with immortal light from head to toe. Growing ever more sacred and transcendent, she descended as if from beyond the heavens, poised to suppress the mortal realm with the body of a Heavenly Immortal.
Qin Ming flung open the pure land, allowing her to charge in and wreak havoc.
Abruptly, astral winds, blazing fire, and lightning tribulations manifested simultaneously within the world of the pure land. Qin Ming used sacred baleful auras to evolve tribulation qi. Since the other party was a Heavenly Immortal descending to the world, he would simply let her undergo tribulation.
This battle was terrifying in the extreme. In her overbearing attempt to destroy the pure land and shatter her opponent's foundation of godhood, the black-robed woman naturally suffered a backlash.
Yet never could she have imagined that it would prove an utter nightmare.
"A Heavenly Immortal undergoing tribulation?"
"What is happening? Why do I feel like genuine tribulation qi has formed within that divine pure land?!"
Watching the two upon the sword-dueling platform, the crowd was thoroughly shaken.
Inside the pure land, the ancient era when Heavenly Gods and Heavenly Immortals walked the world seemed to return. Tribulation qi descended from the heavens, shattering the black-robed woman's immortal radiance and the immortal weapons formed of pure yang power.
Qin Ming naturally showed no mercy. Driving the nine sacred baleful auras, he forced her to face tribulation within the divine pure land.
Ultimately, the Heavenly Immortal... failed her tribulation. Blasted to death within the sacred pure land, she collapsed beneath the tree of enlightenment.
Silence fell in every direction. People stood dazed. The Heavenly Immortal had actually been defeated!
When she reappeared, she could no longer maintain her aloof composure, her beautiful eyes fixed intently upon the mysterious wooden puppet.
Standing within the pure land, Qin Ming had already turned his gaze toward the first-ranked sword-dueling platform. Just what identity did that Lord of Yujing possess, and how strong was he?
Before the onlookers could recover from their shock over the battle that had just concluded, Qin Ming leapt onto the high platform, directly challenging the Lord of Yujing.
Yet upon this grandest of sword-dueling platforms, no phantom of the powerhouse manifested.
A moment later, the New Board unfurled across the night sky, glittering with resplendent light. The wooden puppet's name—Realm Faction—boldly appeared at the very head of the rankings.
Chapter 438