Stars hung low, the moon sank, and the river of thunder shimmered with light. As a dying deity reviving from the ashes, the three-eyed elder was completely suppressed and countered, crumbling into streaming radiance.
Meng Zhiyan stared in a daze, feeling his worldly experience was utterly lacking. How could there be a grandmaster barely in his twenties in this world?
Yu Gensheng marveled. As expected of the youth he held in such high regard—every step of his journey left behind a brilliant footprint, creating miracle after miracle.
Holding the thunder saber, Qin Ming said, "Is he truly a grandmaster? I feel his attainment was lacking, falling a bit short."
Hearing such an appraisal, Meng Zhiyan's expression froze slightly. Little Qin actually looked down on the three-eyed elder?
Yet the fierce battle was still underway, leaving no time for daydreaming. Meng Zhiyan launched a fierce assault against the pitch-black strange bird—a hazy avatar of the dying deity.
Yu Gensheng said, "His divine fire has been extinguished before, tainted with wisps of ghost-god aura. He fears magnificent heavenly majesty above all else. Moreover, those seal scripts in Little Qin's lightning are far beyond the norm."
As he spoke, one of his hands gripped his opponent—the golden-armored divine being. Heavenly magnetic light swirled around his large hand as he slowly crushed the divine avatar to pieces.
Old Yu was truly a figure on the verge of becoming a great grandmaster, his cultivation profound. Over the past year and more, he had polished himself to flawless perfection, on the verge of breaking through at any moment.
"Hm? He wasn't destroyed?" Qin Ming sensed something amiss. The scattered streaming light had seeped fragment by fragment deep into the purple soil.
Plowing the ground with his snow-bright long saber, thunder rumbled, lightning flashed, and sparks flew in an enormous commotion. He shouted, "You still want to hide? Come out!"
A shower of light rushed out in haste, billowing dense cyan smoke as if set ablaze, re-manifesting the three-eyed elder's body in midair.
In wretched disarray, he said, "Do you know the consequences of offending a god? Gods are hard to kill, and immortals are hard to destroy. Godslayers rarely come to a good end! Let today end here. We can swear an oath together: our wells will not cross each other's rivers. How about it?"
Qin Ming refused to be intimidated. "From the moment you chose to parasitize Uncle Meng's body, this matter was never going to end peacefully."
In an instant, the purple-golden core inside his body, inscribed with patterns of heaven and earth, shone with immense radiance. As his hands formed seals, nine "pages" appeared, covered in thunder seals, arrayed around him.
As he pointed forward, text after text of thunder seals, as if channeling heavenly majesty, flared blindingly bright and blasted the three-eyed elder to pieces, exceedingly yang, exceedingly unyielding, domineering beyond measure.
"Ah..." The three-eyed elder screamed. Even after bursting into a rain of divine light, he had nowhere to hide. Locked on by the nine texts of thunder seals, he was blown apart several times in succession.
This sight was truly too brutal. No matter how diminished he was, the three-eyed elder was the root of a deity, nurturing the power of new life, yet all his hopes were being utterly severed.
Li Qingyun fought his way inside. Seeing this scene, he froze on the spot, petrified.
He even began to wonder: would he himself currently be a match for Little Qin?
He gradually began to understand Meng Xinghai's mindset. If this continued, Qin Ming would soon be hot on the heels of their generation, leaving even the older generation feeling a little panicked.
Qin Ming felt that the three-eyed elder was hardly a grandmaster in truth—he seemed not even as strong as his two avatars.
Yu Gensheng saw through the underlying reality and said, "The black strange bird and the golden-armored divine being carry boundless decaying aura and could dissipate at any time. They could only be used as guardians. Meanwhile, the old tree root is his only surviving vitality, a burgeoning seed."
Li Qingyun was also from an esoteric sect and understood the path to godhood relatively well. He said, "Little Qin, keep him alive. Perhaps we can use him to nourish Xinghai in return."
The three-eyed elder had rooted himself in Meng Xinghai's body, treating him as fertilizer. Now, they might be able to use secret arts to reverse the process.
"That is feasible!" Meng Zhiyan nodded as well.
Qin Ming had originally been worried that Meng Xinghai's vitality would be heavily damaged. After all, being parasitized by a deity reviving from dead ashes was by no means a good thing.
If they performed the technique according to certain scriptures of the esoteric sect, they might open up a "new horizon."
"Outside, there is still a grandmaster from the Three-Eyed Cult and several strands of divine intent. I will go out and take a look." Yu Gensheng went to assist; he had already completely obliterated the golden-armored divine being.
Seeing that the situation in the divine soil was settled, Li Qingyun also withdrew outside.
Qin Ming struck repeatedly, beating the three-eyed elder into a cluster of origin divine wisdom, slapping nine pages of "light paper" onto it in succession. These were naturally not real sheets of paper, but the materialization of thunder path patterns.
After slaying the black strange bird, Meng Zhiyan also rushed out of the divine soil to deal with the people outside.
With that, the dust settled completely. When four grandmasters took action, there was no suspense at all; the Three-Eyed Cult experts outside were wiped out entirely.
In the purple divine soil, Meng Xinghai lay motionless, still unconscious.
Earlier, the three-eyed elder had used methods on him to plunge him into a deep coma, turning him into fertile soil to nurture the deity's root. Without rescue, he would have been drained completely dry in the end.
Qin Ming repeatedly formed seals, sending showers of purple-golden rain falling down. These were thunder seals, but very gentle, as he conducted a sacred purification upon Meng Xinghai.
"Am I... dreaming?" Meng Xinghai revived, finding it hard to believe.
Earlier, he had experienced a nightmare, submerged in endless ashes, with an old ghost nesting inside his divine wisdom.
Qin Ming had actually fought his way into the divine soil and rescued him.
"The enemies are completely wiped out!" Yu Gensheng walked in.
Meng Zhiyan said, "Later, we should study how to seal off this divine soil, so we don't attract other evil gods."
Qin Ming helped Meng Xinghai up and said, "Though Uncle Meng suffered this calamity, danger has passed without disaster, and you might even turn misfortune into a blessing."
Li Qingyun chuckled to lighten the mood, saying, "This 'old tree root' has turned into ginseng—no, more like a divine ginseng—saved for Little Meng to steady his nerves."
They purified the divine soil and helped Meng Xinghai seal the place before carrying the "old ginseng" back to reality, appearing inside the City Lord's Manor.
"Father!" The two children threw themselves onto the sickbed, weeping tears of joy upon seeing Meng Xinghai open his eyes.
Holding the two children, Zhou Qingxuan expressed boundless gratitude to the four grandmasters and Qin Ming.
Li Qingyun said, "We're all our own people. No need to stand on ceremony."
"All family," Meng Zhiyan said. His expression turned grave. This matter was far from over!
First, that deity of the Three-Eyed Cult had not perished completely; part of his power in his divine lair had yet to "migrate" over.
Second, someone was stirring up trouble behind the scenes, which required a deep investigation.
Qin Ming radiated killing intent. If his suspicion was correct—that someone's true target was him, using a seemingly casual rumor to pry out the Three-Eyed Cult's deity, dragging Meng Xinghai in to lure him out—then it was truly far too vicious.
Xie Zhaoming covered his mouth and coughed, revealing blood on his hand.
"Old Xie, are you injured?" Meng Zhiyan asked with concern. Then he noticed that including himself and Li Qingyun, there were traces of blood at the corners of their mouths as well.
He immediately understood: in this harsh world, even grandmasters could only barely walk the earth. Engaging in battle inevitably brought injury.
Yu Gensheng was in much better shape, largely because his cultivation was deep enough. Joining this hunt, he could completely rely on "health-preserving skills" to strike down his opponents.
At this moment, the four grandmasters all looked toward Qin Ming with fervent gazes, deeply feeling... it was good to be young. His vitality was boundless; he had brutally bombarded and crushed the three-eyed elder without suffering the slightest harm.
Qin Ming explained once more, "I genuinely think he focused on rebirth and severed his decaying yet powerful main root. That so-called god root is slightly inferior to a grandmaster."
Meng Zhiyan smiled and patted his shoulder, then turned to the other three grandmasters: "I have precious medicine here. Fellow Daoists, please take it at once; your bodies will be fine."
To save Meng Xinghai, though he had come in a hurry, he had brought many astoundingly valuable medicinal herbs from his clan's treasury.
The Meng clan was a top-tier aristocratic family; their collection was naturally extraordinary.
"To have made several seniors bleed and exhaust yourselves on my account makes me feel deeply apologetic." Meng Xinghai had recovered enough to get out of bed and walk around.
Li Qingyun said, "Little Meng, after tonight, if you polish yourself patiently, in a few years, grandmaster is within your reach!"
Zhou Qingxuan was startled to hear this. The two children were born into the Meng family, so they naturally knew what a grandmaster meant. Their eyes widened—was their father about to "take flight"?
"Brother Qin Ming will probably be even faster."
"There will soon be six grandmasters here."
When the two children laughed, tear tracks still lingered on their faces.
The atmosphere in the City Lord's Manor was no longer heavy, gradually filling with laughter and cheerful voices.
...
After resting briefly, the group prepared to set out in the latter half of the night to march upon the Three-Eyed Cult deity's ashram.
In truth, it was primarily the four grandmasters who needed rest. Qin Ming was full of vigor and vitality, completely unfazed by the harsh overall environment.
Yet it was he who fell into dreamland fastest. In an instant, he realized something was wrong: why would he need sleep? He had clearly been ensnared!
"You condemned me to sink into eternal perdition! My divine fire is about to be utterly extinguished! Between you and me, only death will suffice! Even if I turn to ash, I will drag you down with me!"
Dense mist swirled. A creature with all three eyes bleeding wailed, bringing a gale that whipped up sky-filling ashes, seeking to lock Qin Ming in pitch-black chains and drag him into darkness toward death.
Qin Ming shone like a blazing sun, banishing darkness and illuminating heaven and earth. He said, "A god whose divine kingdom collapsed years ago, who should have died long since, possessing only scraps of remnant power like some yin spirit or ghost, dares to offend me?"
In his right hand, a great seal condensed and pressed forward. With a thunderous boom, like a heavenly god unleashing magic and thunder rocking the nine heavens, he crushed the ghost-god in the fog to pieces.
At the same time, Qin Ming woke from the dream.
"Little Qin, you were actually sleep-talking, and lightning was popping from your body!" Li Qingyun was somewhat speechless. It was just a nap, yet he had caused such an uproar.
Qin Ming said, "The god of the Three-Eyed Cult entered my dream, attempting to lock my soul while catching me off guard. I smashed him apart."
"As expected, faint traces of power remain in his crumbling divine kingdom. It appears he cannot leave that decayed ground for long—it has already become his burial ground. Let us depart."
Meng Xinghai strongly insisted on coming along.
This time, they brought no other experts, setting out with just the six of them—on average, one could consider it six grandmasters traveling together.
If it were a true divine kingdom, not even patriarch-level figures would lightly venture deep inside. However, the deity of the Three-Eyed Cult had ostensibly perished over a decade ago.
With six grandmasters sallying forth together, it was enough to flatten that place.
The Three-Eyed Cult deity's ashram was very close to Chixia City, less than three hundred li away. Now overgrown with weeds and with dilapidated buildings, it had fallen into decline a century ago.
Fearing implication, his believers had relocated elsewhere.
In this revival, that he could mobilize a grandmaster and a group of experts was already no small feat.
Yu Gensheng spoke: "This god was originally a native of our Yezhou. He worshipped the Three-Eyed Cult that spread from deep within the night mist world and eventually attained godhood."
Qin Ming asked, "In other words, he isn't the true god revered by the Three-Eyed Cult at all?"
Meng Zhiyan nodded. "Reportedly, the most powerful deity of the Three-Eyed Cult can be called a chief god, a high-ranking member of the 'Godkin Society' deep within the night mist world."
Qin Ming said, "Tonight, through this three-eyed elder, I want to experience the various techniques of the Three-Eyed Cult."
He had a premonition that if he marched into the depths of the night mist world in the future, he would most likely encounter people and gods of the Godkin Society. Last time at the Feixian Mountain remnant ridge, he had crossed paths with members of that organization.
The Godkin Society was spread everywhere, its framework truly immense.
Without extraordinary methods, it was difficult to open a closed divine kingdom.
The six grandmasters had brought along that "god root," so opening the divine kingdom did not take excessive effort.
Outside, ancient trees stood like thickets of wolves, and ruined buildings were overgrown with weeds and brambles. In the deep, quiet night, the occasional screech of an owl sounded eerie.
Inside the divine kingdom, it was equally pitch-black and gloomy, existing outside the real world. A dense aura of decay hung in the air. As the six strode forward, ashes covered their feet.
Qin Ming called out, "Three-Eyes, didn't you want my life? I've come on my own initiative!"
Instantly, a sinister wind howled. Across the dilapidated divine kingdom, ashes swirled up, blinding the eyes. A hazy figure issued a bone-chilling voice, sounding as though it came from the Nine Nether hells.
"Godslayers will eventually suffer backlash. Even if I perish today, none of you will have it easy in the future." The three-eyed elder manifested, holding a divine contract stained with the blood of his divine wisdom, inscribed with numerous characters. Standing before the fractured altar, he began to pray.
In fact, his primary altar had already been sent into the purple divine soil; what remained here was merely a leftover foundation.
The divine contract burned, transforming into ripples that vanished into the pitch-black night sky of the divine kingdom.
Crack!
Qin Ming sent out a bolt of thunder from his hand, scattering the divine contract and shattering it into flying ash.
The three-eyed elder said, "It is useless. I had already prayed nine times previously, and this was the tenth divine contract. In the future, when the chief god revives and descends upon this place, the godslayers will inevitably repay their blood debt in blood!"
Qin Ming didn't care. "Never mind whether the Three-Eyed Cult's chief god is even alive. Even if he revives one day, are you certain he would emerge from the depths of the night mist world to come here for your sake? You think too highly of yourself."
Meng Xinghai spoke: "At the same time, you underestimate Little Qin's future far too much."
Xie Zhaoming said, "I'm afraid you will be disappointed. Right now, Dao rhymes are surging wildly, and a 'torrential downpour' will follow soon after. Your divine contract will be destroyed along the way."
Meng Zhiyan spoke even more coldly: "And there is an even bloodier truth: your divine kingdom is decayed, your altar shattered, yet you still delude yourself into thinking you can pray and transmit messages through the unseen realms? In your prime, if you sent out hundreds or thousands of divine contracts, you might not have succeeded once, let alone now."
They cared nothing for the threats of a dying deity. Today, they had come specifically to slaughter a god.
The three-eyed elder said, "Truly a dragon stranded in shallow water, a tiger bullied by dogs on flat ground! With my divine fire extinguished, I am actually humiliated at my doorstep by lower beings like you. But even if I return to dust and ashes, I will drag two or three of you down with me!"
Li Qingyun said, "Boastful nonsense! A mere ghost-god dares to overturn heaven? You've committed plenty of evil, and even facing death, you still want to harm the region. What do you have to be proud of? Your intimidation and threats are worthless!"
Qin Ming spoke: "Seniors, it is not suitable for you to fight, lest you cough up blood again. Let me do it."
He stared at the three-eyed elder ahead. The opponent could indeed be considered a genuine grandmaster.
This god was filled with an aura of decay, doomed never to achieve new life—he was the rotting root that had been discarded.
Yu Gensheng nodded. "Mm, we'll watch the battle first."
Then, turning to Xie Zhaoming, he said, "Little Xie, stand guard outside the divine kingdom to prevent any accidents."
"Understood!" Xie Zhaoming nodded gravely.
Ahead, ashes filled the sky. In front of the shattered altar foundation, the three-eyed elder roared, shaking the entire divine kingdom as the area once again blazed with brilliant light.
His silver hair hung loose, the vertical eye between his brows glared open with fury, and his shriveled body swelled, as if regaining the vitality of the past, no longer lifeless.
In his right hand appeared a divine spear—snow-bright, razor-sharp, dripping blood. For a fleeting moment, he felt as if his glorious years had returned.
The three-eyed elder's divine radiance surged violently. Pointing the spear at Qin Ming, he was consumed by endless despair and humiliation.
"This old man was once a god, yet must cross blades with lower beings like you. Tragic."
"Tragic your divine mother!" Qin Ming couldn't stand his airs. In an instant, a pair of dazzling wings sprouted behind his back, illuminating the entire pitch-black night sky.
Grasping the thunder saber and vibrating his lightning wings, he vanished from his spot. Accompanied by the roar of wind and thunder, with brilliant blade light, he teleported right in front of the elder.
Amid deafening noise, Qin Ming's thunder saber severed the divine spear condensed from divine wisdom, slashing the elder so hard that green smoke billowed all over him as he staggered backward continuously.
The three-eyed elder indeed possessed the attributes of a ghost-god, dreading utmost yang and unyielding lightning. His body seemed made of paper, part of it even catching fire.
Like a specter or phantom, he shifted positions repeatedly, finally chanting true incantations to empower himself. At his shattered altar and across the entire divine kingdom, remnant divine fire ignited, sending flames surging up from the ashes.
In an instant, he unleashed a sect-guarding secret technique.
Upon his body, over a thousand eyes opened, directly invading his opponent's sea of consciousness. A thousand eyes glared, divine fire burned the heavens, and over a thousand beams of light shot forth.
This trump card ignored spatial distance, not only wounding the physical flesh but also intending to ignite the opponent's soul. It was a method where over a thousand divine eyes snapped open at once, burning divine origin.
Yet Qin Ming's body glowed, densely packed with symbols, draping him in a suit of armor—the protective light woven from the Script of the Primal Myriad Thunderbolts.
Even the god's thousand-eyed gaze was useless, unable to invade, and every single gaze was shattered by the thunder.
Ultimately, the three-eyed elder was currently feeble and decrepit, not a true god. Even while executing wondrous techniques, he only operated at the grandmaster level, without an eruption of true divine might.
Qin Ming smiled faintly. Even his hair strands glowed translucent. Bathed in lightning, serene and transcendent, twin-stemmed thunder flowers appeared in his hands—one black, one white, both intertwined with patterns of the thunder path domain.
Like an immortal or Buddha holding a flower, or a peaceful and serene heavenly god, the black and white blossoms bloomed radiantly in his hands, petals layering upon petals, each flowing with pure white and dark-gold electric light.
With a flick of his wrist, Qin Ming sent forth the twin thunder flowers.
With a colossal blast, the entire divine kingdom shook violently. The black and white flowers collided, engulfing the three-eyed elder and blowing him into fine powder.
Meng Zhiyan was dumbstruck. This time, Little Qin wouldn't say this wasn't a genuine grandmaster again, would he?
Yu Gensheng glanced at him and said, "Little Meng, you saw nothing."
Meng Zhiyan paused, then nodded quickly. "Uh, right. Forgotten the moment seen."
Gods were hard to destroy. Even if the towering tree of the divine path had rotted away until only a fraction of its roots remained, he still possessed extraordinary methods. The three-eyed elder reappeared once more.
His eyes were like abysses, filled with disbelief. Were youths of later generations this ferocious? Far surpassing peers of his own era, it felt so unreal.
The three-eyed elder whispered, "Dust of the Gods!"
A plume of flame surged from his crown—the essence of his entire being, divine wisdom sublimating, rising as it turned into a ring of divine light. Wherever it passed, the ground of the divine kingdom collapsed, everything reducing to dust.
Exerting all his strength, he sought to reduce Qin Ming to divine dust.
Facing such a trump card, Qin Ming remained composed. Forming hand seals, the purple-golden core inside his body, etched with heaven and earth patterns, radiated myriad beams of light.
A wondrous vision appeared outside his body: a thunder whale leaping from the sea.
The whale's body was composed of purple-black thunder, its dorsal fin like a sharp lightning blade, its mouth spouting "thunder water"—blazing heavenly lightning. Behind the thunder whale, the hazy sea consisted entirely of electric light.
Li Qingyun and Meng Xinghai felt their hair stand on end. Every technique Little Qin unleashed was wondrous, its lethality utterly terrifying.
With a roar, the thunder whale leaped from the sea, pouncing upon and crushing the brilliant circular divine light and the three-eyed elder, blasting them into a shower of light and destroying the altar foundation.
This area was completely swept clean; not even dregs of the elder remained.
"Ah..." Yet in the end, the three-eyed elder's phantom struggled to emerge once more. Inside his divine kingdom, he was truly hard to eradicate.
He snarled, "Kill!"
This time, he actually summoned a phantom of the "Three-Eyed Progenitor." That hazy deity seemed to open myriad eyes simultaneously, manifesting the "Divine Eye Purgatory" to cast his young opponent inside, condemning him to endure eternal burning and sink completely into ruin.
Qin Ming remained calm and said, "Fine then. It gives me an early look at the various techniques of your Three-Eyed Cult's chief god."
He formed seals once again. This time, the mystical vision around his body was even more extraordinary—actually "weaving the heavens with thunder patterns," crisscrossing and filling the void, while copious thunder seals appeared, blanketing the area ahead.
The three-eyed elder and the phantom he summoned, the Three-Eyed Progenitor, collapsed entirely.
Qin Ming repeatedly unleashed wondrous arts from the Script of the Primal Myriad Thunderbolts, blowing his opponent apart and blasting him down time after time.
The three-eyed elder fell into despair. He had been worn down almost completely; even inside his own divine kingdom, he could not escape annihilation.
Shortly after, Qin Ming stopped using the thunder scripture and switched to other arts.
Yu Gensheng said, "Little Meng, go outside and take a look. Help Little Xie guard the entrance."
Meng Zhiyan was speechless. He finally understood why Xie Zhaoming was stationed outside: right now, Old Yu didn't want him seeing more of Qin Ming's techniques either.
Subsequently, Qin Ming deployed the nine-colored sword baleful aura, the Inner Landscape Heaven-Opening Axe, and other methods one after another, testing his arts to his heart's content and thoroughly verifying the fruits of his cultivation over the past year.
Beside him, Yu Gensheng, Li Qingyun, and Meng Xinghai watched in dumbfounded amazement.
Finally, gazing at the altar reduced to flying ash, the completely shattered divine stele, and the fading characters throughout the divine kingdom, Qin Ming sighed softly: "Ah, he's dead after all. What a pity to lose such a fine sparring partner. His body and soul are utterly wiped out."
Chapter 507