In the pitch-black night, astral winds howled. Bathed in brilliant radiance, Qin Ming streaked across boundless mists and clouds, vanishing into the distance in an instant at an unfathomable speed.
Now flying under his own power in his true body, he found it an extraordinary experience. Compared to the ethereal detachment of pure spirit wandering, taking flight in the flesh made physical sensations, wind speed, and the buffet of air currents vastly more real and incomparably more intense.
Qin Ming had always yearned to soar into the sky in his physical body, roaming above the dense cloud banks, and that wish was now preliminarily fulfilled.
Clad in the legendary armor, he felt light enough to ascend to immortality, completely unburdened by weight. Though clearly forged from exotic metal, it felt as light as a feather.
Moreover, the armor breathed remarkably well, seeming to inhale and exhale in unison with him. He could clearly perceive even the air currents and ambient humidity. It effectively blocked harm while still allowing him to keenly detect changes in the broader environment.
Qin Ming could not help but marvel. This truly was a specialized weapon that conformed perfectly to his desires.
Yet on second thought, he felt it only natural. After all, this was that divine furnace from Bajing Palace.
Bajing Palace—which was to say, Doushuai Palace—what kind of place was that? A supreme realm of legend.
The more Qin Ming pondered it, the stronger that strange, unsettling feeling grew.
According to books excavated from beneath the earth, back in the era when the sun still existed, for quite a long stretch of time, people had lived ordinary lives among buildings made of steel and concrete.
Bajing Palace was merely something out of myth. Though mentioned, it had never been taken as real.
Once the sun vanished, everything changed.
Colossal beasts and mountain-sized flora sprang into existence inexplicably, and living conditions deteriorated drastically.
Later, the bodies of certain beings began to undergo rebirth, and their consciousnesses could leave their flesh to spirit-wander through the night mist, giving rise to all manner of extraordinary abilities.
Eventually, even Doushuai Palace ceased to be an ethereal myth, as physical relics from legend began surfacing in this world.
Qin Ming asked, "Just how ancient are you? What era were you born in, and how many ages separate you from the present world?"
The armor hummed softly and replied, "I am merely a shattered weapon spirit; I cannot answer your question."
Then Qin Ming reminded it, "The night mist world is boundlessly vast. Traveling like this is far too conspicuous. You had better rein in that brilliant divine radiance."
There was another reason: while he had not felt much at first, after some time he found the drain immense. Traveling in this manner would only leave him endlessly exhausted once the novelty wore off.
In truth, the furnace lid had been testing him to see just how deep his foundation went. The weapon spirit was already startled. Though a damaged artifact, its tier was terrifyingly high.
Yet this youth had actually endured it, holding on for quite some time.
"Rest assured, I have scouted this region; there is no danger." As it spoke, the armor extinguished its flames of light, dimming completely.
Its flight speed slowed, and the consumption of spiritual substance dropped sharply.
Qin Ming realized that this legendary furnace had likely been measuring him on purpose.
"With your aptitude, even if you do not formally enter Bajing Palace, you could still become an external mountain guardian of very high status," the old furnace formulated its words, unexpectedly trying to recruit him just as the weapon spirit Six Desires had.
The truth was that it had observed him for a year, and the more it interacted with him, the more shocked it became. This youth before it possessed all manner of incredible feats.
Qin Ming asked, "Setting aside blood chains, Dao chains, and the like, if I become a guardian of your Bajing Palace, will you give me a Moon Consort?"
"No! Our Supreme Realm has no such rules!" The Eight Trigrams Furnace's shattered weapon spirit answered in displeasure, feeling offended.
Qin Ming smiled. "Then are you offering a Moon Empress?"
The furnace lid replied, "I can offer a Tribulation of Samadhi True Fire."
"See? You lack sincerity." Qin Ming knew when to stop. Even if an ancient weapon spirit like this was muddled by ignorance and its fractured consciousness was clouded with dust, one still should not speak too flippantly to it.
Soon, the dimmed divine garment carried Qin Ming in a dive, touching down upon the earth cloaked in thick darkness and heading toward an area shrouded in heavy fog.
"A Mist Gate!" Qin Ming knew they were about to cross between macro-realms. Once they stepped through this gate, there was no telling how many tens of thousands of li they would be teleported across.
Ever since the sun vanished and the night mist emerged, the entire world had become incomprehensible. It was certainly no longer confined to a single celestial body; the night mist seemed to connect boundless expanses of land.
Mist Gates could swiftly bridge the distance between two unknown lands.
Qin Ming walked in. This was quite different from the void paths forged by the Night Province patriarchs.
Dense fog churned. While surrounding sights remained faintly discernible at first, his vision grew increasingly obscured the farther forward he traveled. Striding out, he charged ahead at a rapid pace.
Moments later, he broke free of the heavy haze. Piercing cold assailed him. The world was a vast expanse of white, heavy snow actually falling, and every breath he drew released plumes of frigid white mist from his nose and mouth.
As far as the eye could see, mountains and rivers were encased in ice and snow.
One had to realize that just behind him, on the other side of the heavy fog, it had been a season of lush, thriving flora.
"Just how far have we traveled from Night Province?" Qin Ming asked.
"At least five hundred thousand li," the damaged weapon spirit informed him.
In this region, the weapon spirit acted much more discreetly, as it claimed to have spotted the lair of a rather formidable being when scouting the path.
Even so, they did not linger in this area where fire springs clustered in relative abundance; they soon located another Mist Gate and slipped away quietly.
Thus, Qin Ming spent many days traveling, traversing twelve Mist Gates in succession before finally drawing near his destination.
He could not help feeling astonished. Had it taken such a staggering journey just to reach the outer edge of the territory touched by Yujing's influence?
This had to be at least several million li away, perhaps even more distant than his estimate.
Qin Ming inquired of the Eight Trigrams Furnace and was told that it had never measured the route either; it had only crossed one or two domains in person, relying on Mist Gate conduits for the rest.
The weapon spirit told him that their destination lay just past one more Mist Gate.
In truth, Li Qingyue and Jiang Ran had originally been exploring nearby, but over the past half year, as things grew increasingly "lively" in the distance, they had formally stepped beyond the scope of Yujing's influence.
"This unknown land—which supreme civilization does it belong to?" Qin Ming asked.
"It is an unclaimed land. You must understand that even among the strongest tier of Daoist lineages, each is like an isolated island set deep within a boundless ocean across the infinite night mist world. Vast distances separate them, with countless incomprehensible perils and unexplored, mysterious zones lying between."
Hearing this, Qin Ming felt completely numb.
He truly could not wrap his head around this boundless world. Even if the sun, moon, and heavenly constellations were to plummet down, this vast, endless Night Mist Sea would probably be able to receive them all, wouldn't it?
"Pitch-black, devoid of light, boundless in scope... Has this mysterious heavy mist linked together the stars of the former heavens?
"Or could it be that abyss civilizations, originally separate and apart, were enveloped by this bizarre mist and mysteriously interconnected through the night mist?"
Qin Ming felt that neither explanation held up; neither matched reality in many respects.
He asked the weapon spirit, "At the very beginning, before the night mist existed, where was your Doushuai Palace? Were mythical realms like this back then as well?"
The divine garment on his body hummed softly, as if in contemplation, before finally sighing, "That day..."
Qin Ming's heart jolted. Could it truly answer? In that moment, he even held his breath.
"On that day, after my true consciousness was shattered, my core memories collapsed completely. I can no longer recall the important scenes of the past. All that remains is a lingering resonance clinging to this decayed furnace body, not yet fully dissipated."
Even as disappointment washed over him, Qin Ming drew a sharp breath. Pondered deeply, the revelation from the old furnace was chilling. The present Eight Trigrams Furnace was clearly extraordinary, yet it claimed to be decayed, with its weapon spirit being merely a lingering remnant. The real artifact seemed... dead!
The old furnace said, "Later generations repaired my decayed body several times, but to no avail. A genuine 'clash' will still reveal its true state."
Qin Ming asked a few more questions, but it acted entirely like a senile elder with nothing left but decay. As for its glorious past, that had long scattered to the winds; it could speak of nothing.
"Why has it gotten 'lively' up ahead?" Along the way, Qin Ming inquired closely about the state of their destination.
The weapon spirit said, "A little over a year ago, someone made the startling discovery that the place is a remnant ridge that fell from Feixian Mountain. Roughly half a year ago, it was fully exposed, and outsiders from other domains have been rushing there continuously to explore."
Qin Ming looked visibly shocked. He was naturally no stranger to the name Feixian Mountain.
It belonged to legend, situated in the utmost depths of the night mist world, yet its name was spoken everywhere. There was even a saying: No mountain surpasses it in size.
"Rumor has it that Feixian Mountain once hung beyond the heavens as a colossal mountain range. No one knows in what era it was struck down. After the main mountain crashed to earth, it became an unfathomable land, yet many powerhouses believe it to be extraordinary. Divine magnetic storms frequently sweep through its vicinity; even should a Heavenly God wish to explore its depths, they would be blown into oblivion by those storms."
Many speculated that, let alone Earth Immortal herbs, even Heavenly God herbs could grow there.
Qin Ming's heart stirred immediately. He thought of the notes Old Man Liu had left behind in Kunling.
Liu Mo had once mentioned that shortly after fleeing Yujing, he had spotted a cultivator who had reached the great perfection of seven stacked suns near Kunling, virtually on the verge of becoming an eight-sun stacker. That being had ended up stranded there because of a divine magnetic storm.
Since the main mountain of Feixian Mountain was so miraculous and inaccessible, a remnant ridge that had crashed into another domain could naturally be no simple place; in all likelihood, it held opportunities and secrets.
Hence, once that remnant ridge of Feixian Mountain was discovered, that obscure, nameless land ahead abruptly became a bustling hub.
Not far from the Mist Gate ahead, Qin Ming was about to officially step beyond the territory influenced by Yujing.
Suddenly, the Eight Trigrams divine garment over Qin Ming not only dimmed rapidly but also suppressed all its spirituality entirely, blending into the night.
Hiding motionlessly within the mountain forest, Qin Ming was completely isolated from the outside by the armor, with not a shred of aura leaking out. He communicated with the weapon spirit in secret.
He sent a transmission: "That is a grandmaster-tier creature. We had best avoid courting unnecessary complications."
The weapon spirit replied, "A grandmaster decayed to the utmost limit. He is close to death. Hm? I didn't see it earlier, but in his prime, he was very likely a god!"
In the night sky, an emaciated humanoid figure hunched over as it flew. Its face was deathly white, like a corpse newly placed in a coffin. Behind it stretched a pair of pitch-black wings, from which inky feathers dropped from time to time as they flapped.
A massive black feather drifted down not far from Qin Ming. Upon touching the ground, it actually turned to ash, corroding the surrounding grass and trees until they withered away, before crumbling to ash alongside the feather.
"This is... a god?" Qin Ming stared at the retreating back.
The weapon spirit said, "Hard to say whether he was once a lesser god or an Earth Immortal-tier being, but right now he is merely at the grandmaster level. He cannot stir up any major waves."
If he had been a lesser god, a patriarch could have dealt with him. If he had once been an Earth Immortal, his past must have been dazzling indeed, making it all the more pitiable that he had ended up in such a wretched state.
"Let alone an Earth Immortal—even a Heavenly Immortal at the end of their lifespan, once fully decayed, is scarcely better off than him. They drop down major realm after major realm until, at the very last moment, when all their spiritual substances scatter back into heaven and earth, they are weaker than an ordinary human, easily mauled to death by a stray dog."
Because of this, once Heavenly Immortals, Earth Immortals, and their ilk were on the verge of total decay, most would immediately choose to pass away in meditation. That way, they could preserve their dignity and leave behind an enduring immortal husk, rather than painfully suffering until the bitter end and rotting away completely.
Evidently, that god just now had not given up even at death's door. Perhaps out of deep obsession, or perhaps simply out of temperament, he sought to fight until the very last moment to save himself.
Without a doubt, his destination was the remnant ridge of Feixian Mountain, hoping to seek an immortal opportunity.
Qin Ming and the spirit followed unhurriedly. Only after waiting a while did they pass through the Mist Gate. Immediately, a shrill, agonizing roar reached their ears, like the harrowing wails of a tormented specter, making one's scalp tingle.
Above the mountainous terrain ahead, that decaying god tumbled violently through the air. Black feathers withered and fell from him one by one, turning to ash in the night wind.
Blood began seeping across his aged, deathly pale face as the flesh split open, contorting into an utterly hideous grimace.
In the end, his wings were stripped bare. Wrapped in black robes, his hunched humanoid body plunged into the mountain woods, trailing muffled roars as he gradually faded into the distance.
"What happened to him?" Qin Ming asked.
"Do you feel nothing?" the weapon spirit asked.
"Feel what?" Qin Ming asked, puzzled.
The weapon spirit said, "For over a year now, the broader environment of heaven and earth has been shifting day by day, and lately it has grown even more severe. Now that you have left the lands influenced by Yujing, where the Daoist rhymes differ, does your body feel no discomfort?"
"I'm all right," Qin Ming said noncommittally.
The moment the Eight Trigrams Furnace heard this, it knew at once that he had suffered no adverse effects whatsoever.
"Your foundation... is so profound it's almost unreal!"
Whether once a lesser god or an Earth Immortal-tier being, that creature had undeniably enjoyed past glory and possessed an exceptionally solid foundation. Yet upon entering a different realm, he had suffered such excruciating agony.
"Perhaps it's because his realm was too high," Qin Ming remarked.
Back in Night Province, those affected first were the Earth Immortals and patriarchs, followed by the great grandmasters; now, even grandmasters had gone into seclusion.
Things in the outer domains were likely just as harsh.
Shortly afterward, Qin Ming came across several aged remains, all mutilated. Wild beasts had gnawed upon them, only to abandon them in the end.
"With the clash of Daoist rhymes, not even the beasts of this place dared sink their teeth into them."
Some corpses were completely decomposed, while others still had flesh clinging to bone. All were elderly cultivators with little time left who had journeyed to an alien domain to prolong their lives, only to fail at enduring the clash of Daoist rhymes. None of them had been grandmasters.
"A year has passed in a flash, and even fourth-realm cultivators have been severely affected," Qin Ming muttered to himself.
"More than that—even third-realm beings have suffered dreadful effects," the weapon spirit informed him.
"Is the Dharma about to end following this drastic upheaval of the world?" Qin Ming frowned.
The weapon spirit refuted his guess: "Wrong. It will become exceedingly flourishing. The strong will survive and the weak will be culled. As the true world pulls back its veil, stronger Daoist rhymes will surge forth. After a brief period of suffocation, an era of extraordinary brilliance awaits!"
Qin Ming said, "Yet for those born in this era, the outcome might be grim indeed. A generation—perhaps several generations—might have to be sacrificed."
The weapon spirit said, "True gold is refined in fire. Besides, it likely won't last that long."
Along the road, Qin Ming spotted an old spider the size of a house, writhing in torment. Only after a long while did it unsteadily rise to its feet and crawl off into the distance.
This creature, too, had crossed over not long ago. At the grandmaster tier, it had ultimately managed to endure through sheer struggle.
The domains beyond the supreme Daoist lineages were boundlessly vast. After several more days of travel, Qin Ming finally arrived near the remnant ridge of Feixian Mountain. Looking ahead from afar, layers of mountain silhouettes lay cloaked in night mist, appearing completely ordinary, yet what lay within defied imagination.
In fact, local beings had known since ancient times that this place was special, exceptionally dangerous and terrifying. Generation after generation had ventured in to explore; some obtained fortuitous encounters and emerged alive, but far more remained trapped inside forever.
Now that news had spread to other domains, the situation here had grown even more convoluted.
"Have you sensed Qingyue and Jiang Ran's auras?" Qin Ming asked.
Under the hazy night, the so-called "remnant ridge" ahead actually stretched on without end in immense grandeur, range after range folding upon one another as far as the eye could see.
"They must have entered the mountains. I can only sense them vaguely; the depths of this mountain range are far too unique, completely severing connection with the outside world." Normally, the weapon spirit should have been able to instantly sense the main body of the Eight Trigrams Furnace.
At that moment, deep within the remnant ridge of Feixian Mountain, numerous expeditions were on the move, comprising all kinds of species. They ranged from flying elephants dozens of meters tall circling in the sky down to swarms of fingernail-sized silver-spotted insects scuttling swiftly through the soil.
Two young women, having deliberately smeared their faces with dirt and grime, were currently following an all-human expedition, their clear, bright eyes their only giveaway.
Clearly, these two seemingly disheveled yet clever and spirited maidens were precisely the ones Qin Ming sought, having spent the past few months adventuring here.
Even with special weapons at their disposal, they had narrowly escaped danger more than once. Nonetheless, they had reaped considerable gains, gaining a profound appreciation for the dread and mystery of Feixian Mountain's remnant ridge.
...
"What? A divine magnetic storm occurred here as well, toppling a colossal black tower that stood amidst the clouds?" While lingering outside the mountain range and making inquiries among the locals, Qin Ming was astonished to learn of this news.
He strongly suspected that the colossal tower belonged to the Black Tower civilization that had abruptly intruded when he was competing on the New Board high in the nine heavens. Who would have thought they had come here as well?
"The black tower departed, but their holy disciples stayed behind."
Qin Ming looked surprised upon learning this.
He had fought both of those holy disciples before. One had claimed to be the Lord of Yujing, and before a victor could be decided between them, the match had been halted by the New Board and the black tower; the other, a female holy disciple, had suffered defeat at his hands.
For the Black Tower civilization to get involved as well meant that this place was bound to be extraordinary.
"I sense... the aura of a demon cultivator," the yellow imperial parasol suddenly transmitted. Cultivators from its own civilization had actually stepped into the arena as well!
Hearing this, Qin Ming drew in a sharp breath of the night mist. Had multiple supreme realms stepped onto the field? Was Feixian Mountain truly so vital that even its remnant ridge proved this alluring?
He surmised that perhaps more than just these two pinnacle civilizations had appeared—other supreme realms might have dispatched people as well.
Fortunately, the broader environment of heaven and earth was deteriorating, preventing the truly ancient figures from roaming at will.
Being completely unfamiliar with the land and its people, Qin Ming decided that after getting his bearings, he would join a local team and follow the main body into the mountains.
He had a premonition that some extraordinary artifact or fortune might well emerge here.
"Did my eyes deceive me? Sis, I thought I just saw a familiar back vanish in a flash?" In the distance, someone caught sight of Qin Ming's fading afterimage and couldn't help looking skeptical.
Chapter 476