Stepping onto the soil of Yezhou, Tang Yushang felt that even the air she breathed was sweet.
Though every land was shrouded in night, the Dao rhymes of different realms differed vastly. Having returned, her whole body felt light, agile, and wonderfully at ease.
Along the way, pedestrians cast sidelong glances, eyeing Qin Ming and Tang Yushang with strange looks as they whispered amongst themselves.
"Madam Bull?" Tang Yushang was baffled.
Then, in an instant, she remembered what she looked like right now.
Her long black hair was disheveled, translucent bovine horns sprouted from her head, and she was wrapped in beast hides, dressed like a member of some primitive tribe.
Her current appearance was truly... an assault on the eyes.
Any acquaintance who laid eyes on her would be left dumbfounded. Where was her aloof, heavenly maiden grace? She truly looked every bit the wild, untamed Madam Bull.
Yet upon closer inspection, her face remained incomparably exquisite.
Tang Yushang glanced beside her. Qin Ming was no better off—he bore massive, rugged bull horns, resembling the Bull Demon King with an aura of unrefined savagery.
The Bull Demon couple stood out far too much; it was impossible not to draw stares.
Tang Yushang's cheeks burned. Even while fleeing for their lives in the other realm, she hadn't felt this disgraced. Covering her head with animal pelts, she bolted into the night.
Qin Ming didn't care in the slightest. Possessing neither appearance anxiety nor psychological baggage, he displayed the grand presence and swagger of the Bull Demon King, striding after her.
"Why not head to my hometown to rest and regroup first?" Qin Ming suggested.
This ancient Mist Gate outside Jinrui City was less than a thousand li from the Black and White Mountain. For experts, such a distance was practically negligible.
"Let's go, quickly!" Tang Yushang only wanted to find a place to compose herself. It was supposed to be a big business venture into another realm, but after hanging around Qin Ming for half a month, she had practically turned into a cavewoman.
The five-colored treasure fragment immediately flew up into the night sky and said, "The mountains are high and the road is long; let us part ways here. If nothing is going on, let's not meet. And if something is going on... don't come looking for me either."
Qin Ming waved it off. He had thought that being clad in a Heavenly Immortal remnant would make him invincible, capable of slaying grandmasters, only for his supposed backer to crumble at the critical moment.
As they parted ways, each found the other thoroughly vexing.
Once blended into the pitch-black night, Tang Yushang immediately restored her true appearance and changed into a black dress, finally regaining her usual composure and cold elegance.
The moment she took out a pristine white conch to contact the outside world, peace vanished from her ears.
"Yushang, child, where on earth did you run off to? Did that brat from Black and White Mountain abduct you? Did he do anything to you?"
Even from a distance, Qin Ming could clearly hear the voice from the other end.
"Celestial Sister, you misunderstand," Qin Ming leaned in and greeted warmly.
Soon, the low voice of the silver-haired old man came through. "Are you planning to call this old man your brother too?"
Qin Ming stepped back at once, terminating the conversation.
He didn't think he was chickening out; his ears were just on the verge of ringing from the boom.
Tang Yushang said, "My ancestral grandfather and the others are at the Dayu imperial capital. I need to go there."
Qin Ming nodded. "All right. I'll head over shortly after as well."
Right now, he didn't want to court bad luck with the silver-haired brother, fearing a beating if he showed up just yet.
Over Black and White Mountain, snow fell in thick goose feathers, blanketing the earth in pristine white.
"Another winter."
At Twin Trees Village, Qin Ming returned, stepping across the snow.
At the village entrance, the Black-White Twin Trees took root beside the fire spring. Their leaves never withered, gleaming with a jade-like luster in the night.
"Uncle!" Wenrui was the first to notice and came sprinting out from the village.
"Your spirit and vigor are brimming; you've been working hard on your cultivation," Qin Ming said with a smile.
In the foreign domain, he had accidentally blundered into the longevity testing ground and faced deadly perils. Now, back in his cozy haven, he felt his entire body unwind completely.
"Uncle, you've gotten even more handsome!" Wenhui came dashing over. Compared to the honest Wenrui, his tongue was far sweeter.
Behind him trotted Liu Mo's young son, Liu Bai. The little fellow was about four years old, with pitch-black eyes, inherently endowed with a wondrous spiritual presence.
"So handsome," Liu Bai chimed in as well.
Qin Ming chuckled and ruffled their hair, stuffing several spiritual fruits into each of their hands. Having fresh fruit to eat in this freezing weather naturally made the children beam with delight.
Lu Ze and his wife prepared a sumptuous feast of wild game.
Before long, the red squirrel, Yuque, and the Thunder King Bird, who had been cultivating deep in the mountains, caught wind of his return and hurried back.
Yuque was especially well-informed, with informants and eyes all throughout Black and White Mountain.
"Mountain Master, you're finally back! This little bird missed you to death!" Yuque fluttered its wings, blinking its large eyes as it swooped in and circled around Qin Ming.
"It just wants to take credit," the three-headed, six-armed red squirrel exposed it.
The Thunder King Bird murmured, "Cui Chongxiao... formed an infant."
*Pfft!*
Qin Ming sprayed out the hot tea he had just sipped. Although he had imagined some possibilities, his eyes still went wide upon hearing the news.
Yuque said mysteriously, "At first, the Cui Family even threw banquets in celebration."
Qin Ming was astonished. "They actually celebrated? Did they think they'd been blessed with a prodigy, a child endowed by heaven?"
Yuque explained, "In the beginning, a golden core formed in Cui Chongxiao's belly, radiating multihued light, and only afterward did it mature into an infant."
Whether due to the Cui Family's deep foundations or the miraculous prowess of Cui Chongxiao's sect, they actually managed to find an ancient method from a cultivation civilization for him to practice.
Qin Ming was stunned. They truly believed that after consuming an exotic fruit, he had unexpectedly formed a nascent infant?
The red squirrel said, "The Cui Family even sent an invitation to you, Big Daddy Qin!"
Qin Ming was at a loss for words. After quite a pause, he drawled, "Then let us send them a congratulatory gift."
The Thunder King Bird chortled, "Chances are they won't want any gifts now. They aren't strutting around anymore."
Later on, Cui Chongxiao's belly swelled, and he gave birth to that nascent infant.
The news was so explosive that the entire Cui Family was struck completely dumbfounded, burned crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.
Qin Ming had originally thought the bizarre medicine would end up in Cui Chonghe's hands to help him recover his cultivation. Instead, the 'great dragon' of the Cui Family stepped up boldly and took it himself.
Naturally, this matter also alarmed Cui Chongxiao's sect.
Not only did several of his senior martial brothers rush over upon hearing the news, but even his elusive master, Xi Tian, made an appearance.
Word had it that this master—one of the two heroes of the esoteric sect alongside Chu Canglan—was currently seeking a way to step into the Seventh Realm without altering his lifeform.
"What happened after that?" Qin Ming asked.
Yuque marveled, "Cui Chongxiao was driven out of his mind with rage. Under his master's guidance, he temporarily refined that divine infant into an external incarnation."
Qin Ming quipped, "He does have some tricks."
Without a doubt, anyone who caught wind of this felt as though struck by lightning from a clear sky, finding it absurd beyond belief.
Having joyfully become a father, Cui Chongxiao was too ashamed to show his face in public, his lungs nearly bursting with fury.
And who was Xi Tian? A peerless grandmaster standing at the forefront of the esoteric sect, aspiring to become a true god. Naturally, he wouldn't let this rest, ordering a deep investigation into the matter.
It had to be admitted that his supernatural abilities were vast; he traced the source to the Scarlet Forest where such fruits grew.
Yet when he sought to unearth the whole truth, a chill gripped his heart and he could investigate no further—for he learned that a peerless Seventh Realm powerhouse had apparently harvested those fruits.
Presently, he had not reached that altitude.
"This was an accident, an evil medicine circulating from a foreign domain. Chongxiao was simply unfortunate enough to fall prey to it."
Nor was this an isolated case. Word had it that someone up above in the heavens had met with the same calamity.
Qin Ming showed an odd expression. So there truly were companions in misery.
Following this incident, prices of various herbs throughout the Yujing region plummeted; many people were terrified to purchase any.
It wasn't until the Golden Roster made its final appearance and revealed how to identify this bizarre medicine that the widespread unease subsided and herb prices returned to normal.
"The Golden Roster has completely... fallen asleep." This was another crucial piece of news Yuque shared.
Qin Ming asked, "What about the Blood Immortals, Changsheng Dwelling, and the Pure World Chamber? How did they fare?"
He hadn't played favorites. Having gifted the bizarre medicine to the Cui Family, the other organizations were naturally on the list as well.
Yuque said, "Initially, people within their ranks fought and killed one another to snatch it. Eventually, the fruits fell into the hands of grandmasters. Some of them formed infants as well. It was quite a spectacle."
As for the aftermath, nobody knew. The upper echelons of those gray organizations were likely incandescent with rage and had tightly locked down any further information.
Yuque puffed out its chest, its gem-like eyes gleaming brightly as it waited for praise. It felt it had executed this mission to absolute perfection.
Qin Ming did not withhold praise. "Well done. After dinner, all of you come to my courtyard."
He began taking stock of his spoils from this excursion. Although selling the bizarre medicine had fallen through, he had directly plundered 1,500,000 day gold. After sharing a portion with Tang Yushang, he still held a fortune of 900,000.
Qin Ming felt as if in a dream. He had never been this wealthy. And it seemed one didn't need to sell bizarre medicines to get rich after all.
Next was the feathering light rain. He had collected quite a bit. Even though a large amount had been consumed by the jade mirror at the final moment, plenty remained.
Then, the Longevity Tablet appeared in his hand. Archaic in style and carrying the profound weight of ages, this was another major gain. Qin Ming sensed by intuition that it was an artifact of immense antiquity.
He immediately resonated with it and soon learned that this was a key to entering and leaving Longevity Ridge, corresponding to nine super-arrays.
Normally, even if an outsider obtained this Longevity Tablet, it would be useless, as utilizing it required special hand seals and intricate incantations.
Qin Ming smiled. Through soul resonance, none of this posed an obstacle.
He had uncovered its inner secrets and mastered the method of unsealing, enabling him to step inside without a sound.
As for the so-called feathering light rain phenomenon and the like, they were deliberately concocted spectacles staged for outsiders, meant to lure practitioners inside to serve as experimental consumables.
"Unless absolutely necessary, I'd better not go back."
Qin Ming pondered. That place was indeed wonderful—it could nourish the physical body and strengthen the spirit—but old monsters guarded it, making it exceptionally perilous.
He didn't know whether holding the jade tablet and traversing those secret paths would allow him to slip silently into the body-nourishing grounds.
He shook his head; there was no need to take such risks for now.
"Hm? Something else?" Qin Ming continued resonating, delving deeper, and detected fragmented, faint, and ancient emotional remnants.
"This..." His eyes widened in shock. There were indeed nine Longevity Tablets, and this was one of them, but its true origin and background had initially had nothing to do with Longevity Ridge.
"Does it have to do with that supreme longevity ground beside the Rebirth Figurines' headquarters?" Qin Ming wondered, lost in thought.
Regrettably, past emotional traces had long been worn away by the ages. Time could slay any powerhouse and smooth over every mark.
Moreover, Qin Ming vaguely felt that a peerless powerhouse had used profound magic power to forcibly erase the most ancient emotional traces.
His expression turned grave. "Could it be someone was guarding against a special technique like soul resonance? That would have to be the doing of an Eighth Realm expert at the very least."
He realized this Longevity Tablet possessed an extraordinary background. Though it might not serve much purpose right now, it could prove immensely useful in the future.
Qin Ming took stock of his final batch of spoils: three physical bodies, lifelike to the touch, or perhaps one could say they truly might come back to life.
The two men and one woman all kept their eyes closed, devoid of conscious fluctuations. Yet over the course of drinking a cup of tea, their hearts would beat once or twice—extremely faint, but unmistakably present.
Qin Ming murmured, "Longevity... holds a lethal allure. The highest echelons of one powerful civilization after another have all been researching this."
Back at the Ninth Experimental Ground, he had already resonated through the Rebirth Figurines saint and learned that these reviving bodies had momentous backgrounds. Even the Godkin Society's old president and the Insect Emperor had ordered that they must not be lost or damaged.
The woman had waist-length silver hair and features like a painting, possessing a peerless, city-toppling beauty. She sat quietly cross-legged, her body retaining a touch of warmth and suppleness, with none of the stiffness of a corpse.
Qin Ming examined her. Her physical body was not only supple but resilient, containing extinguished patterns within. If illuminated, their level would likely be exceedingly exalted.
Unfortunately, those were merely remnant marks, sheared away by the passage of time.
"Reviving anew, severing all deathly qi, she is already in the grandmaster realm. Just how powerful was she in the past?"
Next, Qin Ming inspected the two male bodies. One had sword-sharp brows and starry eyes, quite handsome, dressed in tattered Golden Thread Jade Clothes—a member of the Rebirth Figurines organization.
The other man carried a certain wicked aura, appearing uncanny and demonic no matter how one looked at him.
Qin Ming attempted to resonate with the three, only to find all emotional traces had been wiped utterly clean. They had truly severed all ties with their pasts, as though waiting for a completely new life.
Even so, Qin Ming vaguely caught a lingering scrap of information: the final man came from the Strange Insect Alliance and had once been an extraordinarily powerful rare insect.
"Transformed into human form, solidified as human."
Qin Ming prodded and manipulated him, eager to know if he was a dream bug and hoping he might spin silk to save Xiao Wu and Xiang Yiwu.
Regrettably, after much fussing, the wicked yet handsome young man did not spit a single strand of silk.
The city-toppling woman, the handsome man, and the wicked man were the ones Qin Ming had meticulously selected and retained, hailing respectively from the Godkin Society, the Rebirth Figurines, and the Strange Insect Alliance.
"The higher-ups... wanted to protect them. The past backgrounds of these three are definitely out of the ordinary."
Yet having fallen into Qin Ming's hands, they could only serve as test subjects for his exploration of the Fifth Realm's True Form Tribulation.
To break through to the grandmaster realm and fuse Tathagata Force, Yuqing Force, Six Imperials Force, and the rest, he had to scout the path ahead. These three extraordinary bodies could test the hazards for him, helping him secure a foothold in the forbidden domain.
Three physical bodies... This was truly an unconventional gain; it was the first time he had ever acquired such unique spoils.
That night, Wenrui, Yuque, Liu Bai, and the rest of the young ones all gathered.
Qin Ming brought out the feathering light rain to baptize them, elevating their innate bone structure and natural talents. For them, this was beyond doubt a rare and wondrous panacea.
When Qin Ming bathed in the light rain, the improvement was negligible, but for others, it yielded immense enhancements.
"Mountain Master, are you a Heavenly God descended to the mortal realm? This... is rewriting our destinies!"
"Uncle, you look even handsomer at night!"
"Big Daddy Qin, Old Father, hurry up and bring my mother back!"
The group of little ones chattered noisily.
The Thunder King Bird, being the largest, had long been petrified in awe. It felt as though in a dream; following the right person and making the right choice was truly far more important than mere effort.
The following day, as Qin Ming entered Black and White Mountain to cultivate, he suddenly raised his head. In the night sky stood a figure holding a precious mirror as radiant as a blazing sun, projecting a beam down toward him.
*Whoosh!*
He vanished from where he stood, evading the beam of light.
"Could you truly be One Sword?" A voice echoed through the void. The figure made no further move, darting away in an instant before dissipating into thin air.
That was no true body, but a wisp of misty haze, and the precious mirror was merely condensed from runes. A mysterious figure had come here to probe Qin Ming's foundations!
Yet the mirror's light hadn't even touched Qin Ming—why had that person left in such a hurry?
That very day, a piece of news began circulating, claiming that the identity of One Sword was very likely Qin Ming!
"Brother Ming, was your cover blown?" Bai Meng contacted Qin Ming via conch at once.
"Not at all," Qin Ming frowned.
Bai Meng said, "Then I reckon someone is deliberately trying to muddy the waters."
Qin Ming asked him what was going on. Upon learning of the rumors spreading outside, his brows furrowed deeply. Was someone deducing his various identities?
Perhaps there was only suspicion without certainty, so that person recklessly flipped the table to force Qin Ming under everyone's scrutiny.
Qin Ming's expression grew serious. The situation was somewhat precarious. Now that doubts were cast, his strength needed to be vastly greater than what they imagined.
He murmured to himself, "Breaking through to become a grandmaster is imperative. I have to find a way."
Fortunately, he held three powerful physical bodies that could assist his breakthrough and self-improvement.
"Brother Ming, what did you do to my sister..." Bai Meng stammered.
"What are you talking about?" Qin Ming asked.
Bai Meng said, "My sister hasn't even noticed it herself, but she talks a bit oddly sometimes. I was too embarrassed to point it out to her."
Then, he invited Qin Ming to gather for a get-together in the Dayu imperial capital.
Qin Ming had originally intended to decline, dreading a run-in with the silver-haired elder of the Tai Ruins and fearing a beating from his 'older brother.'
Bai Meng said, "The Old Ancestor has returned home and left something for you. Do you want to come pick it up?"
A gift from an Earthly Immortal—Qin Ming definitely had to go.
Especially now, when rumors claiming he was One Sword were being spread and no one knew what might happen next, he could not turn down a gift from an Earthly Immortal.
"Have you heard? Qin Ming might be One Sword!"
That same day, Qin Ming arrived at Chongxiao, the Dayu imperial capital, and personally heard people discussing it.
Yao Ruoxian, Duke Pei, Cheng Sheng, Bai Meng... a crowd of familiar faces attended this small gathering.
Upon arriving, Qin Ming saw Tang Yushang. She had regained her pure, pristine grace, devoid of Madam Bull's wild aura or Cat Yushang's vulnerable demureness.
Yet as she lifted her snow-white chin and greeted Qin Ming with nonchalance, she inadvertently tagged on a "Meow"—and the entire room fell dead silent in an instant.
Duke Pei, Yao Ruoxian, and the others looked over, completely petrified, desperately wanting to dig into their ears. Had they really just heard that?
Tang Yushang maintained her haughty, aloof composure, entirely oblivious to the fact that her mouth had already betrayed her, promptly slipping in a second "meow."
Chapter 574