In the Wilderness Forest, the fire spring gurgled, its shimmering ripples looking as though bathed in the glow of the setting sun.
At the crucial moment, Qin Ming reined in his impulse. Though he had already gathered all his force to strike, he forcefully halted his foot less than a finger's breadth away from Tang Yushang.
After all, the two were quite well acquainted, and she had arrived brimming with supreme confidence and radiant vigor. Had he truly kicked her without mercy while the situation remained well under control, it might have bred genuine enmity.
Tang Yushang's face was fair as mutton-fat jade, but her gaze was dazed. What had she just gone through?
She felt as if she had been sleepwalking. In a daze, someone had pinched her cheeks, pulled on them hard, and repeatedly demanded to know whether she yielded. Incredulity flooded her heart, and she thought to herself: *All of this must be fake!*
Yet in the span of a lightning spark, she snapped back to reality—it had all truly happened. As the confusion cleared, her eyelashes fluttered slightly, and her starry eyes widened as beams of spiritual brilliance shot forth.
Even though Qin Ming had pulled his kick, the gale whipped up by the motion remained fierce, fluttering the hem of Tang Yushang's skirt. A sudden chill gripped her, instantly stiffening her body, and she shifted sideways at extreme speed to put distance between them.
For a time, the entire area fell completely silent.
In the surrounding Wilderness Forest, swathes of towering trees had collapsed, the ground was rent with massive black fissures, and several of the low, stony hills had crumbled.
This time, Bai Meng was remarkably alert. With a loud *thud*, his feet left the ground, and he proactively flew backward under his own power, vanishing beyond the pale-golden light curtain. Discretion was the better part of valor, after all.
Qin Ming broke the silence with a laugh. "I looked out for you pretty well, wouldn't you say?"
Tang Yushang saw this as barefaced mockery—taking advantage of her and then cracking jokes. She mistakenly assumed that in the final moment, she was the one who had narrowly dodged his kick by a hair's breadth.
Mainly, Qin Ming had a knack for causing trouble and had proactively kicked her twice in the past. How could his nature suddenly change today?
Qin Ming stared wide-eyed. "What's that supposed to mean? You're ungrateful?"
"You're still sneering!" Divine, flame-like beams shot from Tang Yushang's lovely eyes. The memory of that dreamlike humiliation made her feel as though she were about to explode on the spot.
She forced herself to calm down. Lost face had to be regained through strength; getting angry was entirely pointless and would only dull the sharpness of her divine senses.
"Big Tang, calm down," Qin Ming said. Yet the slight curl of his lips made him appear as though he truly were teasing her.
Tang Yushang had previously been grazed by the aftershocks of the Script of the Primal Myriad Thunderbolts. Her long gown, woven from rare materials, was now tattered and charred black, exposing lotus-root-like arms and fair, smooth shoulders.
With bare, snow-white feet, she strode slowly through the devastated Wilderness Forest. At that moment, her slender, lithe figure—delicate as a celestial willow—exuded an ethereal clarity. It was as though she had severed all mortal dust, approaching harmony between heaven and man, like a true immortal fallen to the earthly realm seeking to ascend the heavens once more.
Qin Ming felt a premonition of danger and said, "Still not stopping, are you? Then don't blame me for getting rough."
Shortly after, he witnessed Tang Yushang unleash all manner of marvelous arts, every one of them a supreme, peerless technique. Some were even rather familiar—techniques that Yun Jianyue, the core holy apprentice of Yujing, had displayed in the past.
Qin Ming was now certain that the rumors were true: a select few direct descendants of the Tai Ruins were indeed the posterity of the Lord of Yujing. Though Tang Yushang had not ascended to the heavens, she had inherited part of the supreme legacy.
Take the Seven Arrows of the Big Dipper, for instance—that was an art of the heavens. Where Tang Yushang stood, fallen blossoms swirled as a hazy altar materialized, enshrining a rugged, massive bow accompanied by seven feathered arrows.
Tang Yushang took up the bow, drawing upon the Dao charm of the void. Each arrow was more powerful than the last, forcing Qin Ming to summon his Nine-Colored Hunyuan Sword Baleful Aura to sever them before finally blasting the altar apart.
Next, Tang Yushang hovered high in the night sky, standing before a golden palace. Wisps of golden glow streamed from her fingertips like trickling brooks, descending toward the ground to form a divine golden chain that sought to bind her foe.
This was unmistakably a forbidden technique recorded on the final page of some profound scripture. If a Heavenly God stood tall beyond the nine heavens, they could wield it to seize experts across the mortal earth.
With a solemn expression, Qin Ming repeatedly swung the Inner Landscape Heaven-Opening Axe until he hacked the chain into pieces, leaving the hazy divine chain of order to disperse into the void.
Finally, her black hair dancing in the wind and her charred, torn dress fluttering, Tang Yushang wore a look of utter solemnity on her exquisitely fair face. All her marvelous arts resonated together, bathing her entire body in sacred radiance.
The nine deities within her inner landscape reappeared and fused into one, clutching a nine-colored branch that unleashed a light capable of destroying myriad arts—truly possessing an air of transcendence.
Yet this was merely the beginning. Next, wondrous visions churned around her as countless profound techniques bolstered her being. She was executing a forbidden supreme art.
This was no single scripture, but the simultaneous manifestation of various arts, resonating in tandem with the inner landscape deity and harmonizing with her true body.
As the deity bearing the nine-colored branch merged with her physical form, she unleashed her strongest strike.
With a thunderous roar, the vast Yujing celestial palace, meteors, lightning tribulation radiance, the abyss, and a multitude of gods and devils surged into being. An overwhelming tide of myriad phenomena cascaded toward Qin Ming, crushing down in one concentrated force.
Qin Ming's hairs stood on end. The battle had spun somewhat out of hand. Though he had treated the duel with utter seriousness from the start, the orthodox heritage of Yujing was genuinely terrifying beyond measure.
Taking a deep breath, he blended all of his cultivation into one—harnessing the nine-colored sacred baleful aura and even weaving the perilous purple golden core, born of the Script of the Primal Myriad Thunderbolts, into the true meaning of the silk book, subsuming it into his Chaos force.
In an instant, Qin Ming blazed with brilliant radiance, bathed in dozens of halos of light and clad in an armor forged from the scriptural patterns of myriad classics. He rose into the air, hovering high above the night mist.
Treading upon the void, accompanied by lightning and cloaked in a faint tribulation aura, a yin-yang diagram spun behind his back. Like a lamp of the Dao piercing the heavens, he stood forth stronger than ever before.
Faced with the supreme heritage unleashed by a descendant of the Lord of Yujing, Qin Ming had no choice but to reveal his strongest form to keep the situation from spiraling out of control.
He did not wish for both of them to end up grievously wounded, nor for either side to suffer crippling harm.
Qin Ming's flesh and blood became translucent. Even his breath carried an intensely dense Dao charm, and brilliant, mysterious runic light flowed along his brow and eyes.
At this moment, every shift of his posture was a marvelous art in its own right!
This was his supreme battle body. It withstood Tang Yushang's Proliferation of Myriad Phenomena, entirely fearless against Yujing's forbidden-realm supreme art.
In the night sky, dense clouds ruptured. Qin Ming wielded a long saber carried down by a golden crow, cleaving apart the golden palace standing tall in the heavens, and then seized a heaven-cleaving halberd formed of lightning to tear through the abyss—
Tang Yushang's expression changed. She had exhausted all her methods, pouring forth the Proliferation of Myriad Phenomena and every wondrous vision upon her foe. It was enough to slay a grandmaster, yet it was not only held at bay, but being methodically dismantled.
In the night sky, the countless anomalies flickered out: meteors shattered, phantoms of gods and devils vanished, and the Yujing celestial palace collapsed—leaving only a lone figure bathed in dozens of halos standing tall in the heavens.
Tang Yushang had fought with all her might, but in the end, she was defeated. Unable to withstand Qin Ming in his supreme state, her hair fell into disarray and her face turned pale with shock. Her gown shredded further, exposing part of her slender legs as she plummeted toward the earth.
Bai Meng stepped back inside, arriving just in time to witness his sister's defeat as she was forced back into the Wilderness Forest.
Though entering this place was quite risky and often led to a beating, Bai Meng had no choice; the people outside had offered him far too much day gold.
Qin Ming panted slightly. Resonating so many scriptures had taken a heavy toll on him as well, but at least no blood had been shed, and he had successfully subdued Tang Yushang.
With a flash, Qin Ming teleported to the ground, pinned both of Tang Yushang's arms, and captured her alive. No matter what techniques she attempted, she could not break free.
At this point, Big Tang was also utterly exhausted. Having unleashed one trump card after another, her condition had deteriorated noticeably.
"So, who's the weak one? Who needs to be carried out on someone's back?" Qin Ming asked her.
Tang Yushang held back any harsh words, mostly because she did not want to suffer any immediate disadvantage.
"Let's leave it at that. Have you felt my goodwill this time?" Qin Ming said.
Tang Yushang wanted to roll her eyes. Both her arms were pinned behind her back—and he called this goodwill? Was this man forged from solid exotic metal? Restraining her like this while claiming to express goodwill was truly absurd—
What was worse, Qin Ming was not using light force at all, seemingly afraid that she would refuse to yield and rebel again.
Consequently, Tang Yushang was held down firmly, a captive in every sense of the word. It was a far cry from her usual demeanor of an immortal maiden descending to earth.
A person under the eaves had no choice but to bow their head. With her back to Qin Ming, she kept her voice as gentle as possible: "Then aren't you going to let go?"
"Do you yield this time?" Qin Ming asked.
In the distance, Bai Meng originally intended to look away, but hearing those words made him want to stop and shout: *Brother Ming, you're destined to die alone.*
He was utterly speechless. What kind of moment was this to be so dense?
"I admit defeat. You won this round," Tang Yushang said. If she did not give in, the fellow behind her would not only refuse to let go, but would continue applying immense pressure. She truly could not bear this kind of "goodwill"; forced to lean forward, her waist was bent, and strands of black hair fell across her fair cheeks.
Qin Ming said, "Then let's turn the page. As they say, out of blows friendship grows. From now on, we're on the same side."
Hearing this, Bai Meng in the distance could hardly resist covering his face for him. What kind of rough brute spoke like that? He could easily have phrased it so much more sweetly and gently.
Once Tang Yushang was released, she rubbed both her wrists, which bore clearly visible finger marks.
Across this stretch of land, many towering trees had been reduced to ashes, destroyed by the lightning and divine fire of their fierce battle. As far as the eye could see, the ground was a desolate expanse of black.
Her garments were in tatters, accentuating skin fair as congealed fat. Her bare, snow-white feet treading upon the dark ashes were exceptionally striking, the rosy glow of her toes especially eye-catching. Swaying her slender figure as she walked, she asked in a mild tone, "Just how many scriptures have you integrated into your Chaos force? Why do I feel that the patriarchs of the silk book method were nowhere near as strong as you when they were in the Fourth Realm?"
Qin Ming smiled and asked, "Want to exchange scriptures? We could have an in-depth exchange. Supplementing our own paths with another's marvelous arts benefits us both."
He truly coveted Yujing's heritage somewhat.
Even so, he was not in a desperate rush. After all, upon reaching the Fifth Realm, he would still be able to integrate the Rulai force, Yuqing force, and others, meaning there was no need to envy the arts of others.
Clearly, behind those forces lay profound scriptures—the fruits of refining hundreds of wondrous techniques into one. That was what he needed most.
"We can exchange," Tang Yushang said gracefully, strolling alongside Qin Ming toward the edge of the Wilderness Forest.
A gentle expression graced her breathtaking face. After the intense battle, her words and demeanor had softened considerably. Every frown and smile was filled with boundless charm, shedding her usual cold arrogance.
She asked, "What do you think of that technique where I stood before the golden palace and used a divine chain to bind formidable mortal foes?"
With that, she recited a mnemonic chant.
Qin Ming was captivated immediately, pondering and deducing it seriously, finding it to indeed be a supreme, marvelous art.
*Thump!*
Completely out of the blue, he was kicked. Before he could react, he saw Tang Yushang flee, riding her swiftest escape light and shrinking the earth to inches as she bolted out of the Wilderness Forest.
Qin Ming was left speechless. He truly did not know whether to call her vengeful and spiteful, or simply far too mischievous. They had already made peace, yet Tang Yushang still had to sneak in a kick before running off—what kind of person did that?!
At this moment, he had not fully disengaged from his peak state. With a muffled roar, he blended heavenly light and consciousness, even weaving in the divine wisdom of the esoteric sect.
*Boom!*
The entire void violently shuddered and churned under Qin Ming's low roar. The towering ancient trees that had avoided being reduced to ashes disintegrated into fine powder on the spot, and countless boulders exploded.
This roar—like a blazing sun melting snow and ice, dissolving all things—was utterly terrifying to cultivators of the immortal path and the esoteric sect, sufficient to shatter their pure yang consciousness into fragments.
In the distance, Bai Meng clutched his head and cried out in agony.
He had truly felt Brother Ming's terrifying raw strength—this guy was genuinely a monster capable of slaying grandmasters!
Tang Yushang's lovely eyes lost their focus, and her fleeing figure froze. Her pure yang consciousness was once again knocked out of her physical body, and her rapid escape light extinguished on the spot. She was powerful enough that her consciousness did not shatter, but being targeted so closely by such concentrated might left her temporarily dazed, groggy, and disoriented, unsure of where she was.
Qin Ming teleported over, the corners of his mouth curving upward. "See that? I was reining in my urge not to kick you, but you just had to give me an excuse."
Bai Meng shook his head to clear it and said, "Brother Ming, were you being so blunt and reckless just now just to fish for a pretext?"
"Don't talk nonsense," Qin Ming denied.
Bai Meng said, "My sister doesn't have that bad an impression of you. Couldn't you two be a bit gentler? Look at you two, always like this with each other—what is all this, what are you even doing?"
Right then, he saw Qin Ming unceremoniously land a solid kick squarely on Tang Yushang.
"Stop!" Bai Meng yelled, but it was already too late.
Tang Yushang's physical body flew out lightly, landing atop a large bluestone.
Qin Ming said, "Don't worry, she's not broken. Besides, her consciousness is muddled right now, so she won't even know she took that kick."
He tilted his head and added, "Right, you won't tell her either, will you?"
Bai Meng felt thoroughly threatened.
Immediately after, Qin Ming let out another low rumble, ensuring that Tang Yushang's spirit body—dislodged from her physical shell—would remain dazed and unable to sober up quickly.
Reaching out, Qin Ming grabbed her spirit as if molding a clay doll, stretching the miniature Big Tang's lovely face, flicking her forehead, and finally lifting her by the ear to guide her back into her body.
He declared, "All right, the grand battle has drawn to a satisfying close. Your sister suppressed her cultivation to the Third Realm to spar with me, and narrowly lost in the end."
Bai Meng tilted his head and stared at him. Those techniques could already take down a grandmaster, all right?! And here he was, still claiming it was a Third Realm spar.
He understood, though: Qin Ming was setting the official narrative for this duel.
Both Tang Yushang and Qin Ming possessed numerous secrets that they did not wish to expose to the outside world for the time being.
To tell the truth, Qin Ming felt a sense of pressure. The orthodox heritage of Yujing was formidable. If Tang Yushang were to break the bloodline shackles within her body, she would likely be terrifyingly powerful.
Still, he was not panicked. Once he reached the Fifth Realm and began integrating the various branches of the new life path, the silk book method scriptures in his possession were bound to undergo a transformation.
When that day came, so long as his body did not collapse and his spirit did not shatter, he would stand as a grandmaster who had unified all the arts of the new life path into one.
Tang Yushang returned from her "spirit wandering." Waking within her wondrous body, she instantly felt a sharp pain from behind. Without even needing to think, she knew that after her failed sneak attack, she had been caught, subjected to harsh retribution, and shamefully kicked.
She had arrived in such high spirits, brimming with overflowing confidence, only for reality to hand her a kick like this. The blow left her feeling thoroughly stifled, no longer able to hold her fair chin high.
"You kicked me."
Qin Ming shook his head. "I gave you face and didn't hold it against you. If you don't believe me, ask Bai Meng."
Bai Meng's hairs stood on end, and with a whoosh, he bolted away ahead of them.
Near the forest edge, the pristine white divine chain chimed in: "He did kick you. And he knocked your pure yang consciousness out of your body and pinched your face fiercely."
Tang Yushang's face flushed red and white in turns, overcome with shame and indignation. Yet what could she do when her skills fell short?
She retrieved a set of black robes, put them on, and only then walked out of the Wilderness Forest. Immediately, waves of throbbing pain washed over her.
When she took Qin Ming's kick while her spirit wandered out of her body, she had failed to instantly sever his Dao charm. Even someone as strong as she could hardly heal such an injury immediately afterward.
At this moment, Hunyuan force remained entangled within her.
Tang Yushang felt that today had gone entirely against her favor: a crushing defeat, being tormented, and on top of that, a sharp pain from behind. She truly felt like curling up in grievance, sobbing and whimpering.
It was hard to imagine that someone who usually carried the demeanor of a celestial maiden descending to earth possessed such a side—so earthly, so down to earth, even to the point of wanting to find someone to complain to.
*Golden Ranking, are you going to ignore this, venerable elder? I've been bullied!* she called out inwardly.
The Golden Ranking fell into a brief daze. Considering that she was a descendant of its former master, it gave a very serious yet perfunctory reply: *I'll discipline him later.*
Outside, the onlookers saw Tang Yushang emerge in her black robes with a cold, aloof demeanor. Tall and slender, untouched by mortal dust, she walked with graceful elegance, drawing near with an immensely ethereal charm.
Qin Ming followed behind her, also stepping out of the area shrouded by the golden light curtain. Seeing the stark contrast between Tang Yushang's current poise and her earlier plight, he nearly burst out laughing.
Pei Shuyan said, "You two, now that the spar is over, did you record the battle with a memory crystal? Bai Meng was completely unreliable, only giving us a verbal recount."
Yao Ruoxian nodded and smiled faintly. "Indeed. I'm very eager to watch such an evenly matched, peak duel."
"No peeking!" Tang Yushang raised her head proudly, refusing flat out.
Immediately after, she shot a glance at Qin Ming. Though she did not speak or glare, it was unmistakably a warning: he was not to leak the truth of the battle.
After all, she found it far too humiliating.
Qin Ming accorded her sufficient respect, saying, "Fairy Tang possesses peerless grace, every movement carrying marvelous arts. It was a remarkably arduous battle for me. Even at the very end, Fairy Tang held true to her promise and never unsealed her cultivation to unleash her strongest power. She truly possesses noble character and integrity—"
The crowd was surprised, reacting with mixed expressions.
Bai Meng tried his best to keep his face straight, feeling that this nonsense was utterly unbearable to listen to.
Even Tang Yushang herself could hardly stomach it. Qin Ming's praise started off fine, but bringing up "noble character and integrity" sounded like eulogizing an ancient senior.
Still, her emotional composure remained impeccable. Her lovely eyes glinted with flecks of flowing light, radiant with spirit as she looked around before gracefully departing, leaving behind an exquisite silhouette.
In truth, she was silently cursing the length of the road. With his Dao charm entangling her and the Chaos force impossible to sever in short order, she was in considerable pain behind, yet she had to grit her teeth and maintain an elegant stride. It was both humiliating and hateful.
That day, Bai Meng did not even dare to visit his sister, terrified of becoming the target of her wrath.
He sighed inwardly: others got grumpy waking up, his sister got grumpy losing, and when it came to him, all that was left was swallowing his own frustration.
That evening, he decisively headed into the city with Qin Ming to mooch meals and collect benefits, naturally accompanied once again by Pei Shuyan.
That night, Qin Ming met briefly with Meng Xinghai in the city. Using the yellow silk canopy umbrella to isolate their aura and the five-colored treasure fragments to shield their surroundings, he secretly shared the control art for a special weapon located in the abyss.
Meng Xinghai felt that he could hardly unleash the true might of such a supreme treasure and suggested it would be better for Yu Gensheng to retrieve it instead.
Qin Ming nodded; that had been his thought as well.
Many events unfolded that night. The Golden Ranking distributed several heaven-and-earth treasures, such as the Qi of Absolute Beginning and Black and Yellow Qi. These could sustain the condition of certain old monsters, allowing them to take action boldly without reservation.
Upon hearing this, Qin Ming drew in a sharp breath of the night mist. Even such substances were being bestowed? It seemed the grand clash was about to erupt at any moment!
He still remembered that after encountering the Dream Bug, a phantom of the old bug had pursued him relentlessly precisely because it possessed a wisp of Black and Yellow Qi, allowing it to strike repeatedly.
That night, the heavens trembled, and word spread far and wide: the great battle was imminent.
Entering the bustling urban district after meeting Meng Xinghai, Qin Ming hurried off to another engagement—he was scheduled to meet people from the Huang family later that evening.
Among the nine old mountain strongholds in the heavens, the Huang family was the only major faction to monopolize an entire grotto-heaven under a single surname. They were exceptionally transcendent, holding an exalted status.
The clan was ancient yet ever-flourishing, having produced more than one Heavenly Immortal.
Regrettably, in this era, Heavenly Gods and Heavenly Immortals had decayed and could no longer emerge. Otherwise, the clan might well have produced another powerhouse of the Eighth Realm.
"Drawing closer to the Huang family will yield boundless benefits in the future," members of other old mountain strongholds had advised Qin Ming.
Qin Ming observed proper etiquette and met with members of the clan with a calm, unruffled heart, neither fawning nor aloof.
As he was leaving, he unexpectedly caught sight of Wei Shouzhen.
Currently, five individuals had initially obtained Yujing's supreme heritage, and this man was one of them. Moreover, he also hailed from the mortal realm below.
Qin Ming studied his back intently, unable to determine whether he was the true master behind the mind monkey.
"That's Wei Shouzhen! Soon to become a supreme grandmaster, a future titan! Even the direct daughter of the Huang family met with him personally. His future achievements are bound to be limitless," many onlookers murmured among themselves.
Pei Shuyan and Bai Meng stopped in their tracks, listening intently.
Qin Ming said, "Let's go. It has nothing to do with us. We've gathered more or less enough benefits; it's time to properly consolidate our cultivation and prepare for the battle that could erupt at any moment."
Late that night, upon his return, Bai Meng was snagged by an old monster of the Tai Ruins, who asked, "Xiao Bai, did something happen to Yushang? Why is she quietly whimpering and sniffling?"
"I have no idea," Bai Meng played dumb at once, putting on a completely bewildered look.
The elder asked, "I heard that Yushang had a private spar behind closed doors with that young man named Qin Ming. She couldn't have been... bullied, could she?"
Bai Meng said, "My sister is probably just upset because she lost."
The elder muttered to himself, "A minor defeat, what does that matter? Could something have happened between her and that Qin Ming? Hmm, should we arrange a marriage and recruit that Qin Ming into our Tai Ruins?"
Bai Meng was shocked. Were the thoughts of the ancient seniors always this wild? Where on earth was his mind going?!
"Wouldn't you know if you just asked my sister?"
"I'm afraid of upsetting her further," the elder replied.
Bai Meng said, "I think she was probably just hit too hard and hurts all over. The Dao charm is still entangled within her and hasn't been severed, so her injuries haven't healed yet. She's naturally sensitive to pain, which is why she's in a foul mood."
"Is that so?"
That day, Qin Ming was in high spirits upon seeing that Yu Gensheng had successfully retrieved a snapped black spear.
With Old Yu temporarily armed with a special weapon for self-defense, his chances of surviving the grand clash between supreme civilizations had undoubtedly risen by a significant margin.
During this time, Qin Ming noticed an old monster in the distant sky glancing at him repeatedly. What was that about? The gaze was bright and piercing, yet lacked hostility. It felt distinctly peculiar.
*Wuuu—*
A terrifying war horn sounded, shaking the nine heavens. The Golden Ranking warned everyone that they could embark at any moment, urging all the conscripted to prepare for war.
Chapter 533