The sword seed shot forth amidst a sky filled with golden mist. Wherever it passed, every obstacle was shorn flat; boulders weighing tens of thousands of jin turned to dust in the blink of an eye, and several feet of earth were gouged from the ground.
Eight-colored sword baleful aura swirled between Qin Ming's fingers like condensed thunderbolts, while fourfold sword domains linked the four poles of heaven and earth, drawing down Dao rhymes.
When the sword seed arrived, it surged like a golden core gushing with an inexhaustible torrent of divine brilliance, sweeping through the terrain. A cliff to one side collapsed, yet Qin Ming, standing close at hand, remained utterly motionless, reaching out to catch it barehanded.
It erupted like an immortal sword, unleashing raging sword qi that pierced the night sky. Viewed from afar, it looked as though giant swords of light were plunging one after another into the curtain of night.
Outside, silence fell. Someone dared to catch sword intent like this with bare hands?
Even Grand Wizard Karon was retreating at full speed to evade the shockwave.
Qin Ming captured the sword seed with his sword domains and ground it down with his eight-colored sword baleful aura.
His sword domains, transformed from his spirit fields, seemed capable of warping the void. They sought to tear the sword seed apart, while the eight brightly colored hues of sword baleful aura were incomparably sharp.
Amidst clanging metallic reverberations, the sword seed that had arrived trailing a sky of golden mist was blocked, imprisoned, and stripped of its layered aura of slaughter.
It was only the length of a finger joint, shaped like a miniature sword, truly resembling a seed radiating divine radiance in all directions.
Now, locked by Qin Ming's sword domains and sword baleful aura, tiny tears were torn across its entire form.
Qin Ming seized this opportunity to scrutinize its interior and underlying essence.
The sword seed was translucent, shimmering with endless luster that reflected nothing but sword beams. Ordinarily, it could never be held and toyed with in anyone's hand, yet right now it was battered and completely suppressed.
*There's flesh and blood?* Qin Ming was astonished. He had thought this was related to a certain method of cultivation recorded in ancient texts—golden core substance from an alternative immortal path.
However, the sword seed was clearly quite different.
It possessed a vigorous vitality: the essence of flesh and blood accompanied by majestic sword intent, which had nurtured a substance resembling sacred sword baleful aura.
Qin Ming opened his Eye of the Newborn to probe further.
The sword seed contained golden meridians, through which sword baleful aura and sword blood flowed, making it exceedingly bizarre.
Qin Ming attempted to resonate with it, capturing fragments of scattered emotion and unearthing disjointed truths.
The path of the Sword Master could not be trodden by ordinary people. He had been born with the physical constitution and skeletal structure of the sword path, his meridians distinct from those of others, suited for circulating sword qi and capable of nurturing supreme sword intent.
When a sword seed matured to its end, it would be indestructible, gradually transforming into a sword embryo.
Capturing these fragmented pieces of information, Qin Ming felt a stir in his heart. When he practiced the *Nanming Departing Fire Scripture* and the *Body-Refining Dao Harmonization Scripture*, tempering his physical form with divine fire and undergoing physical nirvana, similar wondrous changes had appeared within his body—winding dragon-shaped meridians had formed, and acupoint immortal lakes had been opened, making his body extraordinarily suited for sword baleful aura to circulate within.
Looking at it this way, his flesh and skeletal constitution were equal, if not superior, to that of the Sword Master.
He murmured to himself, "Does this mean I also possess the physical constitution, bones, and meridians of the sword path? No wonder I could become a sword cultivator."
"This holds reference value." Yet Qin Ming would never nurture a dedicated sword embryo inside his body; his physical form as a whole was his strongest weapon.
Although the path of the sword seed was not his own, it offered him plenty of inspiration—such as naturally nurturing a sword baleful aura exclusive to one's own body.
This was worth careful study. If his own flesh and blood also gave rise to the sacred "substance" of the sword path and blended it with various sword baleful auras, it might make his journey as a sword cultivator even more harmonious and complete.
Qin Ming wiped away the slaughterous aura within the sword seed, rendering it no longer so dangerous, and then stored it away.
This item contained a unique kind of active sword baleful aura and was pricelessly valuable. But if he were to refine and absorb it directly, Qin Ming could not help feeling as if he were consuming human flesh.
Most importantly, he believed that the essence nurtured by another person's sword seed was far less meaningful than the sacred sword-dao substance born of his own flesh and blood. The latter would inevitably be the most compatible with himself, perhaps even capable of commanding and governing all kinds of sword baleful aura.
Nevertheless, even if he did not use this sword seed himself, it was worth keeping. Perhaps it could be used to foster another sword-dao master.
All of this transpired in the span of an eyeblink. After all, this was an active battlefield, leaving him no room to truly let his mind wander.
Qin Ming's gaze fell upon the Grand Wizard, his killing intent undisguised. "It is all because of you that I missed out on the Longevity Leaves."
Grand Wizard Karon frowned. What did that have to do with him?
"You broke our tacit understanding and led people to hunt me down, forcing me to painfully give up trading you lot for Longevity Leaves in favor of retaliating in kind..." Qin Ming charged straight at him.
The Grand Wizard's gaze instantly turned frosty. This person was truly arrogant to the extreme, having treated them as prey on his cutting board from the very start!
In front of the black pagoda, a crowd of people stood petrified, feeling as though the heavens had caved in. Just moments ago, that terrifying sword cultivator had consecutively slain the God Hunter, the Sword Master, and the Spiritualist.
The three great experts were all legendary figures, each standing atop the pinnacle of the pyramid, virtually undefeated. Yet when they joined forces to attack, a single person had cut them down.
"An unsolvable sword demon!" That was the evaluation many foreign outsiders held deep in their hearts for this sword cultivator, though they dared not voice it aloud.
Over on Yujing's side, the crowd of onlookers was incomparably invigorated. The young sword cultivators in particular were practically ready to prostrate themselves before that figure commanding the eight-colored sword baleful aura.
"Like a heavenly god descending to the mortal realm!"
"Did you see? The people beneath the black pagoda look like they've swallowed dead rats! From the looks of it, they're talking about how the ones cut down were legendary figures on their side!"
"Slaying Through the Thirty-Six Heavens with a Single Sword—the prestige of this name has soared another notch with these battles against the foreign powerhouses!"
...
Bathed in sword light, Qin Ming swooped down toward the Grand Wizard like a meteor crashing to earth.
Karon's silver robes billowed wildly, light particles boiling across his entire body. As a legend of a generation, he possessed an unyielding conviction; he refused to bow his head on this foreign battlefield.
As he chanted an incantation, chains of law wove crisscrossed through the night sky, resembling winding rivers of starlight.
"Weakness, Decay, Death!" he whispered, as if uttering divine decrees that affected the arrangement and distribution of spiritual substance and Dao rhymes throughout heaven and earth.
The power of his triple true words swept toward his opponent.
Qin Ming indeed felt uncomfortable. This stretch of heaven and earth seemed to be siphoning his essence, qi, and spirit, and as those luminous chains of law descended, the effect grew even more severe.
Yet as a sword cultivator, what did he have to fear? Cut through it with a single stroke!
*Clang!*
A portion of the Grand Wizard's chains of law was severed by the eight-colored sword baleful aura. Sword radiance surged, continually slicing through the void, while the expanding sword domains twisted the night sky, severing the silver runic chains one after another.
The Grand Wizard roared, his magic power erupting as light particles blotted out the sky. He was indeed an extraordinarily formidable figure; fighting with all his might, he shattered the earth and pulverized stone cliffs with immense ferocity.
His ability to clash head-on with Qin Ming's eight-colored sword baleful aura was proof enough of his transcendent standing in this realm.
Yet Karon did not see it that way. Having spent his life dominating others, he refused to submit, unleashing ferocious assaults with everything he had in what was arguably the most grueling battle he had ever fought in the third realm.
He had an intuition that this opponent was very likely a young person, not an old monster who had cultivated for centuries like himself.
At that thought, his mental field roared even more violently, silver particles surging like tides as he fought with desperate abandon, regardless of the cost.
With a wet squelch, blood stained his shoulder as an arm was severed clean and went flying.
Next, his chest was impaled by eight-colored sword baleful aura, piercing sword qi venting outward and nearly tearing away half his torso.
He wanted to disperse his physical body into a stream of silver particles to reattach his severed arm, but he was given no opportunity. One beam of sword baleful aura after another struck from Qin Ming, locking him in place.
"To be able to fight me to this extent, you have reason enough to be proud," Qin Ming said, driving his eight-colored sword baleful aura toward Karon's glabella.
Grand Wizard Karon's face darkened. Who had the right to look down on him like this? Not even gods could do so—it was not as if he had never captured foreign deities before.
Special patterns intertwined at his brow, followed by the spread of a terrifying aura that held the fatal sword radiance at bay.
Alarm bells rang in Qin Ming's heart. That power seemed to surpass the third realm; this old fellow was likely reviving beyond the allowed limits, resorting to unscrupulous means.
Qin Ming leaped back, riding sword radiance across the night sky to arrive at a desolate, deathly silent region.
Upon entering the ruins, he had chosen this terrain specifically to guard against certain perilous crises.
The New Board had warned that certain areas in these grotto-heaven ruins were perilous, and this place was one of them; he was prepared to bore right through it at a moment's notice.
However, Qin Ming first attempted to communicate with the New Board.
"You people show no regard for rules." In fact, the New Board had intervened at once, communicating with the black pagoda.
Yet it met with resistance. The black pagoda remained silent while secretly obstructing its intervention.
The New Board manifested intense emotional fluctuations, displaying indignation akin to that of a flesh-and-blood creature.
"Jin!" It no longer even manifested text, instead releasing a terrifying fluctuation directly, seemingly calling upon a certain existence.
With a swish, everyone saw a golden board appear above the night sky, shrouded in hazy immortal mist and completely blank, bearing no names.
The black pagoda shook, realizing that the foundations of the Yujing territory were truly profound. If it continued interfering, it would be under immense strain.
"Karon, stand down," it secretly warned.
The New Board sent out a fluctuation: "Stand down just because you say so? Let the one who revived against the rules remain here forever!"
It immediately informed Qin Ming that the issue was resolved and told him to finish the man off.
Then, people witnessed an eerie scene.
The terrifying sword cultivator cleaved the Grand Wizard in half and, giving Karon no chance to turn into a stream of silver particles, completely incinerated his flesh and blood, slaying him on the spot.
In an instant, the Grand Wizard reappeared, only to be met by a second round of slaughter.
"This man is too formidable!" Over on Yujing's side, many cultivators gasped in astonishment.
In front of the black pagoda, the crowd was equally shaken. For the Grand Wizard to possess such methods—actually able to revive from death!
Only Karon himself tasted profound bitterness. His essence of flesh, blood, and spiritual power that surpassed the third realm had been divided into several portions, only to be subjected to round after round of slaughter here.
In the end, he was slain five times in succession!
Deep within the black pagoda, Grand Wizard Karon's true body swayed violently, his face deathly pale. The essence of flesh, blood, and mental strength that he had improperly sent into the battlefield had all been obliterated, dealing him a devastating blow.
The Sword Master had merely lost a single third-realm sword seed, whereas Karon had lost the equivalent of five sword seeds.
From the depths of the pagoda dozens of stories high came an agonizing, suppressed roar of fury.
"The old fellow suffered a massive loss," Laylaya the God Hunter's true body muttered to herself.
...
Though the Grand Wizard possessed "boundless vitality" and had miraculously revived several times, he still could not escape the fate of being slain in the end. This further showcased to everyone just how invincible that sword cultivator was.
Before the black pagoda, the crowd fell completely silent; for a long time, no one spoke. A total of five legendary figures had been slain by that sword demon.
Even five great masters joining forces could not match a single opponent. What an awe-inspiring sword cultivator!
Qin Ming departed that battered terrain. The ground beneath his feet was densely covered in sword marks, and the knolls and sheer cliffs were half-collapsed, retaining heavy sword intent—most of which he had caused.
"What? He came out? Doesn't that mean the five senior elders... failed completely?!"
When Qin Ming walked out, someone spotted him from afar, their face instantly blanching.
"How is that possible? Those were five legends! Even working together, they were defeated? They couldn't even stop a single sword cultivator?" The people on the outer battlefield could hardly believe it.
Evidently, they had also played a part: whenever someone from Yujing drew near, they would lure them away, hoping to prevent the coordinated hunt of the sword cultivator from being discovered and interrupted.
Soon, the news reached the foreign participants, leaving them all bloodless.
They had been fighting a mobile skirmish, engaging and retreating, because they were at a numerical disadvantage; their strongest experts had led a team to kill that terrifying sword cultivator, so their forces out here had suffered heavy casualties and lost many people.
Now that the five great masters above had been cut down by a single person with a sword, it felt to them no different from the sky falling and the earth splitting—it meant this battle was already over before its time!
The survivors had clung to the hope that the Grand Wizard, the Sword Master, and the others would make a triumphant return to turn the tables, only to receive such disastrous news.
Had they not been fighting mobile skirmishes, those on the outer battlefield would have been annihilated long ago.
Even so, it was fortunate that a mysterious gold-robed powerhouse had drawn away Withered Tree Greening in Spring, Giant Spirit God, and others; otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
That gold-robed person had struck only once, heavily wounding Tiangang, one of Yujing's top ten experts. Thereafter, he had roamed across various regions, constantly luring strong foes to pursue him without ever committing to a genuine showdown.
"What? All five senior elders were defeated and slain by that sword cultivator?" Hearing the black pagoda's telepathic message, the gold-robed figure stopped dead in his tracks.
He had already reached the edge of the ruins. Astral winds howled across the Night Mist Sea, blowing back the gold robe that had concealed his head and face to reveal a young, handsome countenance with long, fluttering golden hair that danced like golden flames.
Before the black pagoda, some people recognized him and cried out in surprise.
"The Saint... actually entered the battle as well!"
Clearly, the blond youth held an exceptionally high status.
"Is he an old monster?" the blond youth asked.
The black pagoda informed him, "Grand Wizard Karon says he should be a young man."
"Then I shall fight him!" the blond youth declared at once.
Earlier, he had wanted to enter the field to challenge "One Sword," but feared the opponent was an old monster who might suddenly revive beyond limits, posing an extreme hazard. Thus, five senior masters had been dispatched to conduct the hunt instead.
The black pagoda said, "Forget it. Not many of your people remain, and the tide has turned. There is no longer any need to clash."
It solemnly reminded him that the sword cultivator likely held a standing equivalent to the blond youth's—a Saint on Yujing's side, effectively one of the core successors.
The black pagoda was preparing to concede defeat and have the survivors withdraw.
"Though I did not cross swords with those five senior elders, since this sword cultivator is a fellow young Saint, I have nothing to fear and am willing to fight him!" The blond youth's battle intent surged; he strongly desired a confrontation.
After charging into this battlefield, Qin Ming learned that Heavenly Immortal, Bodhi Saint, Changxi, and the others had reaped abundant harvests, their defeated opponents readily handing over Longevity Leaves to ransom their lives. His eyes instantly grew red with envy.
To think that he, the top ranker of the third realm, had not touched a single leaf since the melee began! He felt as though he had suffered an immense loss.
In truth, others felt he had gained far too much. Spiritualist Cole's heart was bleeding; having lost that Myriad Gods Banner swirling with sacred baleful aura, he felt utterly hollow inside, as if he had made the wrong choice at a pivotal crossroad of destiny.
Before this, he had not placed immense value on the Myriad Gods Banner, as he had been unable to refine it. Yet after truly losing it, his mind turned luminous and clear, giving him the feeling that the item was far more important than he had ever imagined.
*Could that be a dust-covered supreme treasure?* he wondered wildly.
"Grand Wizard Karon isn't the biggest loser—I probably am!" With a wet cough, he spat out a mouthful of blood.
Within the grotto-heaven ruins, Qin Ming felt more and more that despite slaying five great experts in a row, he was the biggest loser. Bursting forth, he hunted down the foreign combatants with bloodshot eyes.
Unfortunately, Withered Tree Greening in Spring, Heavenly Immortal, and the others were far more familiar with the terrain of this battlefield, tracking down enemies with precision and efficiency.
"Who dares fight me?" Many noticed that he had become exceedingly dangerous, seemingly turning into a sword lunatic, bathed in colorful sword baleful aura as he tore across vast stretches of night mist.
He rampaged unopposed; no one dared bar his path.
After all, the foreign fighters all knew he must have emerged after slaying five legendary beings. Who would dare cross blades with him?
They would rather plunge like moths to a flame toward Giant Spirit God, Changxi, or Bodhi Saint than encounter this sword lunatic.
"Old Bodhi, Heavenly Immortal! Those were opponents I spotted first! How could you snatch them away like that?" Qin Ming grumbled in dissatisfaction.
"Hm?" Qin Ming halted. At the edge of the battlefield, he spotted a blond young man standing motionless, like a divine statue inside a temple.
"Stand down. We concede." The black pagoda sighed, communicating with the New Board and judging that there was no need to continue this full-scale battle.
At the edge of the ruins, the moment the blond youth saw Qin Ming, two bolts of golden lightning shot from his eyes, his hair streaming behind him in the astral wind.
A vast expanse of golden mist rose from his body, his entire being glowing like a blazing sun. Immediately, numerous mysterious symbols surfaced in his flesh and blood, expanding outward.
The golden symbols detonated the night mist like the brilliant flames of a divine fiend, condensing into the form of a great sun that enveloped him within.
Qin Ming was slightly surprised. The blond youth seemed rather dangerous, even stronger than Grand Wizard Karon or the Sword Master. Could this be the foreigner who had previously claimed the top rank and styled himself the "Lord of Yujing"?
Since they had crossed paths, he would give him a taste of his sword first!
Resembling a young divine fiend, the blond man watched coldly. As one of the core successors of a supreme orthodox lineage, he naturally had his own confidence and pride.
Qin Ming cared nothing for his status. Fusing his terrifying, gorgeously colored sword baleful aura into one, he tore through the pitch-black night sky and slashed forward with a single sword!
At that very moment, the black pagoda's voice echoed through the Night Mist Sea: "The match is concluded!"
Chapter 448