Before the shallow night had arrived, all things were engulfed in thick darkness. Trees crowded both sides of the path, their branches sprawling haphazardly in the howling cold wind like swaying phantom silhouettes.
In this profound gloom, Qin Ming decisively swung his blade. It was as though a streak of lightning ripped across the dark, instantly shattering the suffocating heaviness from earlier.
The black mist lunged at that exact moment, carrying dense malice in an attempt to blanket the two of them and swallow them into a vast swath of shadow.
Under this sky devoid of stars and moon, anyone else naturally would have seen nothing at all. Yet Qin Ming saw it clearly and could feel the black mist's clammy chill. As it closed in, a bone-piercing cold assaulted him.
With a soft sound like a hot knife slicing through butter, the short saber coated in mineral paint sank into the black mist, making the frigid air seethe.
"What's going on?!" Old Man Liu shouted. His reactions were surprisingly swift. With a swish, he drew his thick-backed broadsword at the same time and followed Qin Ming's lead, hacking into empty air.
Yet his broadsword passed straight through the black mist as if striking nothing at all.
"Get back, quick!" Qin Ming shouted.
At the same time, he heard a shriek—incredibly shrill. The black mist began to rapidly condense, actually coalescing into a humanoid form.
Old Man Liu was exceedingly receptive to advice; in an instant, he pulled back his blade and bolted decisively.
He could see nothing and hear nothing, and had no idea what was happening. But by raw instinct, he knew the situation was grave and utterly abnormal.
A man emerged from the black mist. The humanoid silhouette was somewhat indistinct, but with Qin Ming's vision, he could see clearly that it was a young man with a face twisted in agony, staring back at him with chilling eyes.
The short saber in Qin Ming's hand sliced into his body. The creature formed of black mist was actually bleeding profusely, spraying onto the ground.
This sight made Qin Ming's expression change.
Between opening his mouth and exerting his strength, the young man spat out a puff of black mist that formed an inky arrow, shooting violently toward Qin Ming's brow. It was clammy, sinister, and laden with bone-chilling cold.
Qin Ming tilted his head to dodge the black mist arrow while violently vibrating the mutton-fat jade iron saber, causing all the mineral paint clinging to it to shatter and fall away.
All of this unfolded in the blink of an eye. The black mist had pounced without a sound, Qin Ming had struck back with a reverse slash, and the man who had inexplicably taken form had counterattacked in a flash, aiming to kill him. Throughout it all, there was not the slightest hesitation; both had reacted in the first instant.
Qin Ming sensed tremendous peril—he could very well die. This unknown entity brought an inexplicable sense of oppression, truly making him feel the scent of death.
Yet as he vibrated the blade, a swift change occurred. The chilling mist rushing toward him and its razor-sharp, freezing aura began to weaken at extreme speed.
In the darkness, a dazzling, snow-white blade light surged, illuminating the woodland like a roaring blaze.
Once the paint was shaken off, the mutton-fat jade iron saber in Qin Ming's hand became entirely different upon meeting this sort of creature.
During this exchange, the young man formed of black mist was naturally retreating, desperate to pull away from this blade. Yet when the blade light flared like burning flames, his silhouette twisted, trembling continuously.
"Stop..." he shrieked, struggling with all his might to dissolve back into mist and take to the air, but he failed.
How could Qin Ming possibly stop? He noticed that the blood the young man shed onto the ground vanished with the wind like flying ash; it was not real human blood at all.
What on earth was this thing?
The young man could scarcely believe it. In such a remote backwater, any random young hunter he bumped into could actually pull out a mutton-fat jade iron saber.
Unable to dissolve into mist, he retreated as hard as he could, moving with the limbs of a human body, attempting to break free of the restraint and get far away from this brilliant blade.
After forging this saber, Qin Ming had never used it before and had known nothing of its properties. Only now, after striking this inexplicable creature, did he discover its miraculous utility.
His heavenly light force could actually flow smoothly into this blade. If it were any other weapon, doing so at his current realm would have been completely impossible.
Naturally, his heavenly light force was far less lethal to this young man than the mutton-fat jade iron itself, but because of it, he could employ many techniques—such as the adhesive property inherent to his own heavenly light force.
Qin Ming swung the mutton-fat jade iron saber. As white light billowed, it adhered to and enveloped the young man who was struggling to break free, burning him as if he were a ghost.
"No, stop!" the young man cried in terror, thrashing wildly.
Yet how could Qin Ming dare to stop? He did not even know what kind of monster this was; if he truly let it escape, he would be in mortal danger.
The young man raised his hands and opened his mouth several times, trying to unleash black mist to attack Qin Ming, but each attempt was burned away clean by the blade light.
Flames covered his entire body. It was no longer like a hot knife through butter, but more like a red-hot blade falling into dry grass, setting it ablaze.
Qin Ming deployed his intercepting force. The mutton-fat jade iron raged within the young man's body, setting fires everywhere. Whenever the black mist surged and the young man fought desperately to tear himself away, Qin Ming shifted to the silk-reeling force and adhesive force, locking him down firmly.
Evidently, when heavenly light pierced the night veil and fell upon mountains endowed with spirituality, the mysterious products nurtured there all contained inexplicable power.
At this moment, Qin Ming felt it deeply and understood what Cao Long, Mu Qing, and the others had spoken of.
The mutton-fat jade iron's light billowed, subduing the man formed of black mist completely.
In the distance, Old Man Liu's hairs stood on end. He could see nothing at all, only Qin Ming's snow-white short saber shining before turning into what looked like a blazing torch.
"Why am I blind as a bat, unable to see a damn thing?"
Hearing his words, Qin Ming immediately realized that this young man formed of black mist was even more terrifying than imagined. If ordinary people could not perceive him at all, how could they possibly contend with him?
The young man was driven to despair. With his entire body burning, he could not break free.
"In an age without a sun, it should have been completely safe for me to travel once I reached this level! How could I meet calamity here..." In agony, he naturally did not want to die like this. Weighing his options, he could only abandon part of himself.
"Are you one of those inexplicable creatures whose forms cannot be seen, yet make many great clans fearful?" Qin Ming barked.
"I am not one of those things! I am a person! Stop and listen to me!" the young man cried.
Hearing that, Qin Ming swung his blade even more fiercely, unleashing saber techniques within the man's body—crisscrossing, cleaving horizontally, slashing vertically, and even executing the saber intent from the manual!
The man formed of black mist dearly wanted to curse out loud. How was it that saying he was a person only brought down harsher violence?
"A person like you is scarier than a ghost!" Qin Ming said.
"I am from beyond the—" the young man shouted frantically.
He was terrified, but he did not have time to finish speaking, because his body was about to be thoroughly annihilated by the flames emanating from the mutton-fat jade iron saber.
Qin Ming found it absurd. His blade had passed through the man's head several times, yet the other party had remained unharmed; in the end, it was only the fiery light that was going to burn him to death.
*Bang!*
At the final moment, the man actually detonated himself, abandoning the thick body of sinister mist. A scrap of cloth wrapping a sliver of his essence broke free, trying to fly up into the night sky.
However, he was far too weak. When driving the bizarre scrap of cloth, his speed was vastly slower than usual.
Qin Ming reacted with lightning speed, striking it with a swing of his blade and knocking it down.
"Huh?" He noticed that the palm-sized scrap of cloth was undamaged. Though knocked down, it still wrapped around a wisp of black mist and tried to shoot up once more.
Qin Ming channeled the adhesive force of his heavenly light, sweeping it back toward him, and then drove his nail force, thrusting the blade tip through a gap where the cloth had not wrapped tightly.
"Ah, stop! I am from beyond the—" the young man shrieked, but it changed nothing. The final wisp of sinister mist was burned to cinders.
The palm-sized scrap of cloth drifted onto the ground. It was as though the young man formed of mist had never existed.
Gripping the mutton-fat jade iron saber, Qin Ming wore a grave expression. He had deduced the young man's path—the person was likely one of the so-called people beyond the mundane world.
This was different from what he had imagined. The other party was not one of those unseen, inexplicable "things," but a real human being, albeit in a highly peculiar state.
*Are people beyond the mundane world this difficult to deal with?* Qin Ming felt a heavy weight on his chest.
This person could actually fly, and ordinary people could not even see him. How was anyone supposed to fight against that?
When Old Man Liu had hacked at him with the thick-backed broadsword, it had been like slicing through air, completely ineffective.
Qin Ming stood still, his expression more somber than ever before, for one of his enemies was also a person beyond the mundane world.
If the ethereal, extraordinary youth in feather robes who had led men to burn down the entire village that night was walking this path as well, then in the future he would surely possess these methods, perhaps even far surpassing this dead young man.
Earlier, Qin Ming had felt pleased with his rapid growth, thinking he had achieved something remarkable in a short time. But now, as the biting wind carried snowflakes that slammed into his face, he was sobered. He could not afford to be complacent; he had to become stronger still.
The great faction he would have to face in the future was simply too mysterious and unfathomable.
Qin Ming recalled why the silk book had come to exist in the first place: several elders had felt there were too many shortcomings in the paths they walked, so they had joined forces to deduce a new method, hoping to rival the most glorious paths.
"The methods of people beyond the mundane world are truly mysterious and terrifying!" Qin Ming murmured to himself. His own path was still long; he had to tread toward higher peaks, one solid step at a time.
"Is it settled? What kind of monster was that? This old man was like a blind bat, didn't even catch a glimpse of a phantom shadow," Old Man Liu said, walking over with his broadsword in hand.
"A person beyond the mundane world," Qin Ming informed him.
"That background... is truly formidable!" Old Man Liu's expression grew serious. To think they had crossed someone like that.
Qin Ming used his mutton-fat jade iron saber to lift the scrap of cloth, circulating his heavenly light force. The blade gleamed snow-white with light, but the cloth did not react.
Waves churned within Old Man Liu's heart. He felt that the young Qin before him had grown somewhat unfamiliar—forging such a wondrous blade, and even slaying an invisible person beyond the mundane world.
However, he was advanced in years and had guarded Black-White Mountain for so long that he had heard of countless bizarre occurrences. His emotions soon settled back into calm.
Qin Ming carefully examined the scrap of cloth resting on the blade. It was clearly extraordinary, woven with metallic threads and embroidered with cloud patterns, along with what seemed to be other designs. But because the scrap was too small, the main motif was impossible to discern.
"Shall we head back to the village first?" Old Man Liu asked.
Qin Ming shook his head. "Let's still head to Silver Vine Town. We'll have breakfast first, then visit the household we arranged to meet."
Old Man Liu asked, "You don't need to go back and catch your breath? Are your nerves really that big?"
Qin Ming shook his head and said, "What is there to catch my breath over? The only reason those unknown and mysterious things can't be understood right now is because my strength is still lacking. Going to borrow and study that secret manual now is how I improve myself and truly set out on the path."
Chapter 53