Qin Ming felt a faint stir in his senses and glanced toward the great mountains from which the purple lightning beast had charged, but he had no desire to look into it. Covering ground was his top priority right now.
Deep within the mountains, a man around thirty-seven or thirty-eight stood gazing out from a cliff, his green robes fluttering in the wind.
On the majestic mountain across from him, white mist drifted, a hazy vapor blanketing more than half the peak. From the fog emerged a high-order anomaly.
"New Lord of Chixia City, instead of taking up your post, what brings you to my domain?"
"Passing through this region, I came specially to pay my respects to the mountain lord."
...
After galloping for more than a dozen li, the purple lightning beast grew unruly once more. Purple mist swirled across its hide, and its frantic strides jolted violently, losing their earlier steadiness.
At times, it even slowed down without warning. Anyone else would have long lost their seat or been thrown clean off.
Seeing it act up again, Qin Ming pressed the phoenix-patterned long saber against its neck downward. A tuft of faintly glowing purple mane was instantly severed, and blood began to seep from its neck where a gash opened.
"If you won't see me on my way, I'll send you on yours!" Qin Ming had never intended to tame it completely anyway.
Nor did he feel any remorse. It was the beast that had kicked at him first; an ordinary person would have had their skull crushed.
"Get with the program, or you're heading for the grave!" Qin Ming pressed the blade down again. This time, the purple lightning beast was truly terrified as blood soaked its mane.
It immediately fell silent and became far more obedient. From then on, the ride went smoothly until barely a dozen li remained before Golden Rooster Ridge.
Qin Ming drifted into a brief reverie. Even without relying on his heavenly light force, he could sit firmly atop this anomaly's back and handle it with ease.
Yet before this, he had never ridden a horse or any other mount in this region of Black-White Mountain. What was more, he was riding bareback, having fitted no reins to the beast.
Faint memories flickered through his mind. Outside a massive city, he too had once galloped astride a beast, an anomaly that looked even more magnificent than this purple lightning beast.
He shook his head, pushing the thoughts aside. Yet out of habit, he treated his long saber like a riding crop, lightly tapping the beast's rump with the spine of the blade.
The anomaly jumped in fright, thinking it was about to be cut again. As if riding the wind, it accelerated, shooting forward like an arrow released from a bowstring, trailing purple glowing mist as it pierced the heavy night.
Astride the fierce beast, Qin Ming raided through the long night, drawing near Golden Rooster Ridge!
Ahead, the area was brightly illuminated. Even in the deep night, Golden Rooster Ridge was far from dark, for its Fire Spring bordered on grade two, nearly rivaling the one in Silver Vine Town.
The path was wide and led straight up the ridge, flanked by dense mountain forests. No anomalies lurked in the surrounding wilderness, knowing the bandits here were bad news.
Yet right now, Golden Rooster Ridge was far quieter than before. Their numbers had been drastically thinned while fighting for mysterious bounties at the Grand Rift Valley, when many anomalies in Black-White Mountain had gorged themselves on the fallen.
Around thirty men remained on the ridge. Those allowed to stay behind and guard the stronghold had connections, and they were even more wicked.
As Old Man Liu put it, if you swung a blade at any of the remaining bandits, you would never have to worry about killing an innocent—each of them deserved to die several times over.
Qin Ming sheathed his long saber, took the stiff bow off his back, and, astride the purple lightning beast, charged into the illuminated zone where the Fire Spring surged.
The first to notice him was not the bandits, but a golden rooster kept specifically as a lookout. This twice-mutated creature was indeed dutiful; hiding in the woods, the moment it saw an intruder storming the mountain, it let out a loud, piercing clatter: "Buk-buk-bawk!"
Qin Ming loosed his first iron arrow straight at it. With a thud, the golden rooster's head was pierced clean through by the high-speed shaft, cutting its cries short.
"What happened?" Some men in the stronghold were already thoroughly drunk.
A few veteran bandits jolted awake and bellowed, "Enemy attack!"
They leaped to their feet and saw a solitary rider bathed in hazy purple light on the road outside the stronghold, crashing toward the gates like heavenly light tearing through the night.
In the past, there would certainly have been a squad of archers on the watchtowers and palisades, but Golden Rooster Ridge was now crippled, and the remaining men rarely did any actual work.
In weather this frigid, with snowflakes still drifting from the sky, most were holed up indoors eating, drinking, and gambling.
Qin Ming rode in at full tilt. Under the purple lightning beast's heavy, powerful hooves, the sturdy stronghold gate shattered with a deafening crash, and rider and mount charged straight into the compound.
"Get up, all of you! Enemy attack!" Chaos broke out across Golden Rooster Ridge; even the drunkards realized what was happening.
The stronghold was brightly lit. Glowing with fiery crimson haze, the near-grade-two Fire Spring made this a treasured place, vastly superior to the villages outside the mountain.
Qin Ming wore gleaming armor, his face covered by the helmet's visor, leaving only his eyes, mouth, and nose exposed.
To the bandits, this lone rider was terrifyingly fast, bathed in purple radiance, bearing down upon them with incomparable momentum.
Qin Ming drew his bow and fired in rapid succession. Against the fiery haze, iron arrow after iron arrow flashed past like streaks of cold lightning.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
In a single exchange, he struck down five men back to back. Some bandits were dead before they could even react, an arrow piercing between their brows; two others were impaled through the chest by a single iron shaft.
"Shoot back, fast!" Someone sobered up and swiftly rallied the men, whistling shrilly to command their tamed golden roosters to charge the enemy.
Qin Ming had studied the Wu family's secret manuals thoroughly; claiming he was a master of both spear and archery was no exaggeration. The bow and arrow in his hands seemed possessed of a soul, and his eyes were extraordinarily sharp. Before the man shouting orders could finish speaking, a special heavy arrow blew his head apart.
Illuminated by the Fire Spring's glow, the scene was vivid: blood and shattered bone splattered across the other bandits. The sheer terror froze several of them in place.
Still, they were hardened outlaws who had spilled blood; vicious to the core, they roared in an instant and began fighting back, some drawing bows of their own.
Just then, five golden roosters rushed forward with outstretched wings, thrusting their massive beaks and extending sharp talons as they lunged at the rider and mount.
Forced up the mountain, the purple lightning beast had already been choking with indignation and pent-up fury; being attacked by these inferior golden roosters incensed it completely.
It roared. Though it possessed a horse-like head, its body was that of a tiger or leopard, fiercely powerful. Rearing up on its hind legs, it brought its massive hooves smashing down.
Two wet crunches echoed as two golden roosters died in succession—one crushed through the skull by the beast's hooves, the other trampled clean through the torso. Then, with a savage twist of its head and jaws full of razor teeth, it clamped onto another rooster's neck and tore its head right off.
Throughout all this—whether the beast reared or leaped—Qin Ming stayed glued to its back as if standing on level ground. He remained extraordinarily stable, continuously drawing his bow and loosing arrows, suppressing the bandits' fire all by himself.
Two bandit chiefs had already appeared silently, yet they did not make a move at once. They knew that anyone daring to storm the stronghold alone was no ordinary opponent; by all appearances, he was formidable.
In truth, they had still underestimated him. They were judging their enemy's level by the force of his arrows, unaware that the stiff bow's inherent material limit fell far short of Qin Ming's true capacity.
An instant later, they realized their mistake: one of the bandit chiefs drew his bow and loosed an arrow straight at Qin Ming.
With a flick of an iron arrow, amid a shower of sparks, Qin Ming batted aside that tremendously powerful shot. Such eyesight and judgment made both bandit chiefs' hearts sink.
At the same time, Qin Ming drew his bow and aimed right back at them.
Thwack!
The two bandit chiefs dodged, but a young man beside them took the arrow through his skull and fell backward to the ground without even uttering a scream.
One bandit chief growled low. The young man was clearly someone close to him, and his murderous intent surged violently.
Qin Ming shot in rapid succession!
In just these few moments, Golden Rooster Ridge had lost over a dozen men. Of the roughly thirty remaining, nearly half had been wiped out.
Directing the purple lightning beast toward the nearby wooden cabins, Qin Ming put away his bow and arrows and gripped his sharp heavy spear.
As the lone rider charged, chills ran down the spines of the bandits. It felt as if a whole cavalry vanguard were stampeding toward them. The mount was excessively ferocious, trampling several twice-mutated golden roosters to death in an instant, while the figure clad in cold armor atop the strange beast was like a god of slaughter, claiming a life with every shot. Many who caught his gaze could not help but tremble.
Arriving before them, Qin Ming thrust out his spear with a violent tremor, hoisting an entire wooden cabin into the air and shattering it into splinters in an instant.
The two men inside panicked and hacked forward with their sabers. But having completed only one Newborn transition, facing such a rider and beast was pure suicide.
Two blossoms of blood sprayed as Qin Ming's spear struck like lightning, impaling them one after the other before he charged once more toward the two bandit chiefs.
Fierce and wild, the purple lightning beast reared up and brought its heavy hooves down, causing another wooden cabin to collapse and splinter to pieces.
Sensing movement, Qin Ming heard wind rushing behind him. He spun abruptly and thrust his spear upward.
It was an elderly bandit whom Qin Ming had seen before at the Grand Rift Valley; anyone who survived that ordeal was naturally a third Newborn. This man was actually mounted atop a golden rooster far larger than its kin—a mount that had clearly undergone three mutations—gliding down from higher ground in an ambush attack.
"Golden Rooster Ridge does have its tricks, being able to cultivate such mutated creatures on a scale like this." Qin Ming was undaunted. His spear blurred into dozens of afterimages.
Midair, the old man swung his blade repeatedly, only to have his arms numbed by the impact. To his horror, he realized the gulf between them was far too vast; having failed his sneak attack, he was likely to die right here.
At his level, instinctual premonitions were keen enough to warn him.
In fact, death arrived even faster than he imagined. When Qin Ming shook his heavy spear, he not only blocked the old man's saber, but also punched more than a dozen bloody holes into the thrice-mutated golden rooster, killing it instantly.
"Ahhh!" The old man yelled and swung his blade, desperate to break away in midair.
Yet his opponent below was far superior. Amid the dense thicket of spear shadows, he could not tell what was real from what was an illusion. With a squelch, the spear pierced straight through his chest.
Having run him through, Qin Ming flicked the spear, sending the old man's corpse flying more than a dozen meters like a discarded scarecrow. It crashed into a wooden cabin, sending the men inside stumbling back in terror.
This was an expert second only to the two bandit chiefs in their stronghold, yet he had been slain with such effortless ease.
At Qin Ming's cue, the purple lightning beast slowed its pace, but its heavy hoofbeats resounded as it ignored the others and closed in directly on the two bandit chiefs.
Both bandit chiefs wore grave expressions. One drew a broadsword, the other gripped a long lance, and together they stepped forward.
Just then, another old man emerged silently from the shadows at the side, launching a surprise attack from behind Qin Ming to coordinate with the two bandit chiefs.
With one hand gripping the heavy spear, Qin Ming kept its tip aimed unwaveringly at the two bandit chiefs ahead. Meanwhile, his left hand swiftly drew the phoenix-patterned long saber from his back. Flashing like blinding lightning, the blade struck the ambush-assailant's sharp sword, sending it flying over twenty meters away.
Carrying immense power, Qin Ming's strike was not hindered for even an instant. After sending the sword flying, the blade swept through the night with even greater speed. With a wet slice, it severed the old man diagonally across the shoulder, killing him before his eyes could close—yet another third Newborn dead!
Chapter 57