Temptation

The elder was tall and broad. He charged forward at terrifying speed, like a black tiger pouncing on prey, his chilling gaze enough to turn any ordinary person's legs to jelly. Gripping the long-handled dark-gold hammer, Qin Ming moved like an agile leopard. He surged fiercely forward, only to veer sharply to the side rather than meet the charge head-on, swinging the dark-gold hammer in a thunderous arc toward the man's flank. The elder frowned. The youth's speed was actually no slower than his own! With the two of them on the verge of collision, the boy had managed to shift direction in a split second, sweeping past on the right and hurling a hammer blow straight at him! Qin Ming felt a fierce tremor shudder up the long metal handle. The elder had actually struck the side of the dark-gold hammer with his bare hand—a terrifying feat. His first strike had been merely a probe, meant to gauge just how extraordinary a third Newborn's heavenly light force truly was, but the outcome only deepened the solemnity on his face. The elder swept past, enveloped in a protective shield of white heavenly light. The ground where he trod spiderwebbed with cracks, a clear testament to the immense force driving his charge. He was thoroughly astonished. Against any other low-tier Newborn, his heavenly light force would have sent their weapon flying from their grip long ago. Having crossed paths, the two had effectively traded places. The elder looked down at the mashed, meat-patty face of the Golden Rooster knight beneath his feet. The sight was gruesome, the man beaten beyond human recognition. When the elder looked up, his gaze was frigid. Qin Ming sighed inwardly. He had only been tidying up the Golden Rooster knight's remains so that nobody would discover the unusual death too early, yet this elder had barged right in. He had originally planned to observe third Newborns from the shadows and test the waters cautiously, but now he was thrown straight into a tough battle. The two shifted their feet without a sound, slowly circling closer like a pair of dangerous beasts gathering strength, ready to pounce at any second. "I'm from Chixia City," Qin Ming suddenly said. "Aren't you afraid of retribution if you kill me?" The armor he wore had been given to him by Cao Long and Mu Qing, making for quite a convincing disguise. Naturally, he did not expect this alone to cow the man. Still, it would give his opponent a fleeting moment of hesitation and calculation; Chixia City was the regional hub, after all, and its prominent clans were not to be trifled with. Yet a ruthless veteran like him would never hold back in the end. The moment the words left Qin Ming's mouth, he launched a sudden, explosive assault. Sure enough, the elder merely paused for a split second, but that was more than enough for Qin Ming. Seizing the opening, he struck first, bringing his heavy hammer crashing down. The two were already very close. With Qin Ming bursting into motion, the elder had no choice but to meet the blow head-on; dodging was already just a beat too late. *Thud!* A dull boom echoed through the cavernous karst cave, making the ground tremble slightly. The elder wrapped one palm toward the hammer while thrusting out his other hand. Yet this strike carried far more power than the opening probe. Qin Ming threw his full strength into it, hitting so hard that the white glow over the elder's palm surged violently, nearly shattering. The elder had intended to wrap around the hammer like dumpling skin and swat it aside, but the "dumpling skin" had nearly burst. He retreated rapidly. This youth, who had not even cultivated heavenly light, possessed strength that bordered on the absurd, leaving his palm throbbing with sharp, numbing pain. Having seized the initiative, Qin Ming gave no quarter. Hammer blow followed hammer blow in relentless succession, fighting with the reckless abandon of an untamed brawler pounding a seasoned master into dust. Every strike erupted with the roar of wind and thunder, fast and ferocious, battering the elder until he nearly coughed up blood. He drifted and retreated like a wraith, yet could not shake Qin Ming off—the youth kept pace with his every movement. Qin Ming was inwardly stunned. The elder had already weathered seven of his hammer strikes, and had parried every single one bare-handed. It was utterly abnormal. In terms of raw strength alone, even as a third Newborn, the elder could not compare to him at all. But reinforced by the protection of heavenly light, the man could clash head-on with a dark-gold hammer this heavy. Qin Ming was genuinely tempted; a fierce yearning stirred within him to birth heavenly light in his own body. Flushed red by the overbearing force, the elder alternated hands to slap at the hammer, yet he could barely withstand it any longer, both palms trembling violently. At this point, how could he care about saving face? Finding an open stretch of ground clear of jagged boulders, he threw himself sideways, tumbling and rolling like a slithering snake to break away. Though graceless, he had finally broken free of the boy's tempo. He looked down at his hands. Even with heavenly light nourishing and shielding his flesh, they were swollen and red, and he could feel that the bones themselves might be fractured. "What a freak. That didn't break him?" Qin Ming's expression darkened as he closed in fast. The elder's eyes burned with cold fury. He wanted to shout: *Who's the freak here?* How could someone who hadn't even cultivated heavenly light reach such a level of strength? He had already drawn the long saber from his back, silently swearing never to carry a blade strapped behind him again. In a pinch, he hadn't even had time to unsheathe it; earlier, his arms had whirled like windmills, striking repeatedly against the dark-gold hammer as it crashed toward his face over and over. With the saber in hand, the elder used his heavenly light to disperse the pooled blood and stasis, temporarily dulling the pain. "A pity my heavenly light force hasn't reached mastery, or I wouldn't need a weapon at all!" he snarled. While all third Newborns gave birth to heavenly light, mastering that mysterious heavenly light force was exceedingly difficult. Qin Ming knew that as one's realm advanced, cultivating certain rare and specialized forms of heavenly light force could shred weapons like scrap paper. Yet achieving such a feat at the third Newborn stage was virtually impossible. Even someone trained in the so-called Giant Spirit God force or Tathagata force couldn't do it without a correspondingly higher cultivation realm to support it. Qin Ming naturally had no intention of letting him recover. Wielding the long-handled dark-gold hammer and gripping his short sword, he hacked, pounded, slashed, and blasted, raining down fifty-eight hammer strikes and forty-two sword slashes in a single breath, granting the elder not a moment's respite. The elder was enraged. When had he ever been driven into such a corner on his own turf, let alone suppressed by a mere youth? White heavenly light blazed around him in full fury as he launched a desperate counterattack. Soon, however, alarm overtook his rage. The youth shifted away from his wild, manic onslaught; though the long-handled dark-gold hammer retained its crushing momentum, it underwent a startling transformation. It no longer resembled hammer work, but rather saber technique! As Qin Ming swung the great hammer at blistering speed, his wrists vibrated violently as if vibrating a blade. The hammer hummed with afterimages as it came smashing down, unleashing a terrifying wrenching force upon the saber blade. The saber in the elder's hand was nearly twisted from his grip, his face growing grim. Qin Ming shifted his style again. The hammer fell like descending thunderbolts, strike after strike, the sinister dark-gold gleam crisscrossing the subterranean chamber. He moved so fast that the fearsome arcs traced by the hammer wove into a dense web, like a cascading burst of lightning. With a loud bang, the elder was knocked flying, slamming hard into the stone wall. His right hand trembled; even with heavenly light shielding his body, he could barely endure it. His gaze turned chilling. Leaping off the stone wall, he threw himself into an aggressive offensive, and this counterattack genuinely strained Qin Ming. The old man had gone mad, wielding his long saber in one hand while using the other to batter head-on against the heavy hammer once more. *Clang!* Sparks showered from Qin Ming's shoulder. The elder's left hand grazed his armor, ripping away four or five plates in an instant. The sight made Qin Ming's pupils contract; the sheer power of heavenly light force left him deeply wary. Qin Ming grew cautious. Maintaining a strict distance from the elder, he refused to give him another chance to close in, whirling the heavy hammer like a pinwheel and hurling a relentless barrage of hammer silhouettes forward. The elder was certain that without the reinforcement of heavenly light, this brat would have smashed him to pieces long ago. What kind of monster was this? To be this outrageous before even birthing heavenly light! A moment later, amid layers of hammer shadows, the weapon in Qin Ming's hands let out a deafening roar. Like the sun bursting through clouds, his strongest strike broke through the flurry. He was simply too fast; the lingering silhouettes hadn't even dissipated, coiling like lightning bolts. As the true hammer crashed down with thunderous force, the saber in the elder's hands nearly ripped away. He channeled heavenly light to withstand it, but the effort left him utterly exhausted. Qin Ming unleashed nine such blows in rapid succession. The elder could endure no more; the heavenly light around him dimmed, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood. Seeing this, Qin Ming swept his hammer across again. This time it carried a piercing saber intent, like a lightning bolt tearing through the night sky. In the subterranean cave, loose stones and sand went flying in the gale stirred by the roaring hammer. The clash between hammer and saber was deafening. The elder could no longer hold his weapon; his arm spasmed, the saber clattered to the ground, and he violently coughed up blood. Qin Ming struck repeatedly, forcibly shattering the elder's protective heavenly light! With a sickening squelch, the elder's right hand turned into a mangled pulp of flesh and blood. Deprived of heavenly light force, he could no longer withstand a single blow from the heavy hammer, his finger bones splintering completely. The next instant, with bloody foam spilling from his lips, the elder felt an excruciating pain in his chest. His entire ribcage caved inward as a hammer blow sent him flying seven or eight meters away. "Third Newborns really are hard to kill!" Qin Ming panted, genuinely fatigued. That heavenly light force had been an immense nuisance. The elder had not fully expired yet. Choked with rage, he spat another mouthful of blood. The boy's words sounded utterly monstrous—how could someone who had never even cultivated heavenly light expect it to be easy to kill a third Newborn? Yet beneath the indignation lay sheer humiliation and grief. He had indeed been bested by such a person, and death was right upon him. Qin Ming stepped forward, preparing to deliver the finishing blow. "I'll gift you a flat meat-patty face too." "F-fuck... your mother!" the elder coughed blood, squeezing out the curse with great effort. He simply could not accept dying like this at the hands of a mere youth. "You people from Golden Rooster Ridge are far too crude, cursing at the drop of a hat," Qin Ming said, shaking his head. The hammer descended, flattening his face and crushing his frontal bone inward. He began to search the elder's body, then took a moment to tidy the remains. *When those mutated beasts storm in later, they should take care of both corpses for me.* Qin Ming moved through various parts of the vast subterranean karst cave, his brows knitted tight. In other tunnels, he spotted at least three other elders, all likely third Newborns. "This complicates things." He had no wish to take rash or aggressive risks. *Hm?* He spotted another familiar face—the very Golden Rooster knight who had barked at them earlier and lashed an elderly man with a whip, leaving a deep, bloody gash across his face. "Boy! Where did those villagers go? Get over here, I'm asking you a question!" Qin Ming simply executed a "Great Qin Flying Hammer." With a loud *thwack*, the area fell dead silent. He dragged the corpse into the darkness. The subterranean cave branched into a web of tunnels. A pack of mutant creatures had fought their way in through one of the routes, throwing the whole place into utter chaos. Qin Ming pulled back into the distance, entering an area interwoven with heavenly light. With no immediate need to hunt down people from Golden Rooster Ridge or the Three-Eyed Cult, he began to search in earnest for mysterious resources. He pressed steadily deeper, covering a long distance. Wisps of glowing mist drifted through the space, keeping the subterranean world from being entirely pitch-black. *Could my luck really have turned?* In a spot where the heavenly light was comparatively rich, Qin Ming sensed a faint fluctuation. Shortly after, he crushed a fist-sized stone, revealing an azure-blue glow. It appeared to be another variety of jade iron, roughly the size of half a hickory nut. "Only enough to make an arrowhead." Even so, Qin Ming was pleased. Any harvest was a good harvest, especially when it was something so extraordinarily precious. "Heh, double good fortune today!" Two people emerged from another tunnel, their faces lighting up with delight as they eyed the jade iron in Qin Ming's hand. Qin Ming recognized them at once as people from Chixia City. Without realizing it, he had traveled so far that he had crossed paths with another group. "Oh? Aren't you Qin Ming?" One of them, a young man, showed a flicker of surprise. Qin Ming studied him closely and recalled who he was. When he had fought Nie Rui and Shen Jiayun, this young man had been among the spectators watching from the sidelines. "Oh? This is that young hunter you mentioned, the one with astonishing spear skills who defeated Nie Rui and Shen Jiayun?" the other man, a middle-aged noble, chimed in. He appeared in his thirties, clad in scarlet armor. With a faint smile, he said, "Qin Ming, was it? Come over and let's have a chat." Qin Ming did not move, remaining where he stood. Earlier, he had possessed a favorable impression of Chixia City's nobility; from Cao Long, Mu Qing, and Wei Zhirou to Nie Rui and Shen Jiayun, they had all seemed decent. Right now, however, he sensed malice from the two nobles before him. They were likely eyeing the blue jade iron in his hand. Evidently, not everyone was benevolent. Or perhaps certain smiles and manners were meant only for public display; in deserted places like this subterranean world, those hypocritical masks could easily be ripped away. Qin Ming remembered that after he had defeated the twin stars, this young noble had spoken with him quite warmly before taking his leave. "Qin Ming, come over here. Help us with a small favor," the young noble said, his earlier smile nowhere to be seen, his tone completely flat. "A third Newborn?" Qin Ming ignored him and looked toward the thirty-something man. As the man casually clenched his fist, heavenly light surfaced over his skin. "Indeed. You'd do well to maintain proper reverence before someone like me. In this dark subterranean world, the praises others sang of you are utterly useless," the middle-aged man said. Qin Ming said nothing and walked toward them. The two had never worried that he might flee. After all, when Qin Ming fought Nie Rui and Shen Jiayun, his strength had been close to seven hundred jin—he was only a youth who had undergone a single Newborn transformation. Qin Ming had intended to get close to the two, but when the middle-aged man cast him a warning glance, he stopped short and merely followed them into a very spacious cavern. "That is..." Qin Ming was taken aback. Ahead, the glowing mist was incredibly dense, steaming up in thick plumes. In its center grew a three-colored flower, dazzling and brilliant, on the verge of full bloom. The middle-aged man smiled. "Little Brother Qin, seeing as your body seems unaffected after being eroded by the heavenly light, do us a favor. Once this three-colored flower fully matures, pluck it from the heavenly light for us." "What does it do?" Qin Ming asked. The middle-aged man said, "It is immensely useful. It can help one cultivate heavenly light force. Beyond the third Newborn stage, who wouldn't want to cultivate several kinds of heavenly light force? Yet mastering even one is exceedingly difficult. This flower is truly extraordinary!" "That really is tempting!" Qin Ming marveled.