The Pure Land, an important sacred site of the Dayu Imperial Dynasty, had sinews and veins running through the void, enacting transformations from disorder to order and organizing the rules of heaven and earth.
Qin Ming sat in quiet contemplation, questioning his heart and probing the path ahead, his thoughts more active than ever before.
This place was also known as Dao Land, the foundation upon which an Earthly Immortal dynasty would be established.
Ordinary people could hardly set foot here; even direct-line members of the imperial family had to submit reports and make reservations well in advance to enter. That Qin Ming could meditate in seclusion here was naturally because Yao Ruoxian had put in a word for him.
Using this land to cultivate, Qin Ming felt his complex thoughts shift from disorder to order, as though thoroughly purified.
Breaking through the grand barrier to become a grandmaster was naturally extraordinarily difficult.
Profound accumulation and rare, precious medicines were both indispensable. Sometimes, one even needed life-and-death bloodbaths to borrow external force to pierce that solid, near-impenetrable barrier.
Qin Ming had just broken through two stages in quick succession in the Scarlet Forest and Silver River Gorge. Merely days had passed since then, so he naturally did not expect to reach the goal in a single stride and step into the Fifth Realm overnight.
He had come here to clarify his heart and deduce the path ahead, to see whether he already possessed the qualifications to charge through the grand barrier.
The grandmaster barrier was like a heavenly chasm, holding back countless geniuses.
Even immortal seeds and divine seeds had been repeatedly ground down, lingering for long periods and unable to advance; only by internally refining the dragon and tiger while externally undergoing bloody tribulations could one attain the grandmaster seat.
The grandmasters of the world, after gathering all necessary prerequisites, had either fought their way up through battle or achieved it through long, agonizing years of endurance.
Deep within the Pure Land, curling clouds of fragrant smoke rose from a brass censer. Breathing in the spirit-calming incense, Qin Ming gradually found his state of mind more tranquil than it had ever been.
Undoubtedly, the pure yang transformation of Qin Ming's consciousness was extraordinarily advanced. The moment his mind became luminous and clear, it seemed to construct an immortal bridge reaching into the future and arriving at the other shore.
This was a terrifying divine perception that could foresee danger and evade calamity before it struck, as well as facilitate epiphanies, allowing his consciousness to achieve the utmost sublimation, briefly crossing the bridge to the other shore to gaze into the distance of the path ahead.
Of course, the conditions required to achieve such a luminous mind were exceedingly harsh, mostly triggered by rare chance. Yet Qin Ming was now utilizing this special environment to systematically induce it, successfully entering this state and even attempting to dwell in it for an extended time.
His consciousness was pristine, untainted by dust, and the fire of his mind burned brilliantly. Utilizing his special divine perception, he began simulating the path of breaking through to the grandmaster realm.
Qin Ming witnessed myriad visions: internally harmonizing dragon and tiger, externally refining flesh, blood, and viscera, his essence, qi, and spirit merging into one. Heavenly light, consciousness, and divine wisdom condensed, then collapsed, and just as a supreme golden core was forged, it shattered, pouring into his four limbs and hundred bones.
"Mhm, it's feasible. Once all the external conditions are met, if I push through, I can become a grandmaster. But... I exploded at the end."
Qin Ming frowned deeply. With his accumulations up to now, his foundation was frighteningly robust, already allowing him to attempt an assault on the Fifth Realm, but at the moment of breakthrough, his physical body would disintegrate.
His heart grew rather heavy as he said, "Is the True Form Tribulation so terrifying? The moment I break through, I'll have to face it."
This was understandable, after all. He had fused too many authentic scriptures, and the metamorphosis into a grandmaster was all about governing myriad forces to temper a True Form.
During this process, there was inherently a trend of myriad arts returning to one.
When all the arts he cultivated converged, it was truly terrifying.
Even founding patriarchs rewalking the New Life Path could hardly avoid this tribulation in the Fifth Realm.
The Fifth Realm was crucial; it would establish one's future primary path. For instance, the Six Imperials True Form, the Tathagata True Form, and the Yuqing True Form all truly began to manifest in the Fifth Realm.
Qin Ming's whole body shone, his pure yang consciousness churning. Standing on the immortal bridge to the other shore, he gazed ahead, striving to maintain this special state as he conducted a second deduction.
"After exploding, I won't die; I'll be able to reassemble my true body, but the injuries will be severe," he sighed softly, analyzing the result carefully.
Making full use of this rare opportunity, he began a third deduction.
With a soft whoosh, Qin Ming exited the fleeting state of luminous mind. He took deep breaths; in all three True Form Tribulations, he had ended up with flesh and blood raining down and his mental field torn to shreds. That experience was truly horrific and excruciatingly painful.
From the final deduction, Qin Ming realized the crux of the problem: the breakthrough was somewhat rushed, and he was being slightly too eager for success. If he polished himself for several more months, it probably wouldn't end so miserably.
At this moment, he thought of those silk book method patriarchs who had exploded.
"If you haven't blown apart at least once, you'd be embarrassed to claim you've trained in Chaos force," Qin Ming mocked himself, imagining those patriarchs would probably share common ground with him.
Words aside, if one could avoid it, who would willingly harm their own origin?
Then, he remembered the Golden Board's guidance at Silver River Gorge, which had urged him to patiently hone himself, settle his heart, and temper himself to the most consummate state.
Qin Ming decided to return to Twin Trees Village and lie low quietly for a few months, immersing himself wholeheartedly in comprehending Hunyuan force to bring himself to the most flawless, harmonious state of the Fourth Realm.
"I will cut myself off from the world for a while!"
When the time came to break through again, he believed it shouldn't be so catastrophic.
Consummate harmony achieved naturally as water flows into a channel—that was the supreme domain he sought. Forcing a breakthrough prematurely was disadvantageous to the future and would needlessly deplete potential.
As for the rare medicines required for the breakthrough, Qin Ming held a fortune in hand. If he sought to buy them, gathering what was needed was by no means out of reach.
"However, the Supreme Bloodbath has just ended, and all kinds of medicinal herbs are exceptionally scarce. Very few rare, precious medicines are circulating on the market, which is indeed a problem."
After some thought, he decided these factors shouldn't block his path upward.
If all else failed, Qin Ming felt that simply relying on his personal connections and face to borrow the medicines would likely be enough to gather them all.
As long as he was willing to humble himself to ask, the ancestral courts of the New Life Path, Tai Ruins, and the Dayu imperial family would probably lend him the medicine.
When thinking of these major organizations, Qin Ming inevitably thought of the Sage. That old monster was unfathomable, sowing seeds far and wide in the heavens, which truly inspired dread.
"Furthermore, have the other patriarchs of the New Life Path who mastered Chaos force truly perished completely?"
If anyone else was still alive, then the New Life Path was far from simple.
...
Cheng Sheng sighed, "Brother Qin is questioning his heart and clarifying his path ahead. Is he really about to enter the Fourth Realm? That's truly too fast. Back in the day, he was one or two whole realms below us."
Pei Shuyan nodded, equally stirred with emotion. Thinking back to those days, in their eyes Qin Ming had merely been a minor cultivator, simply not on the same level as them.
Yet only a few years had passed, and that minor cultivator was about to overtake them from behind.
Bai Meng's mouth twitched, but he held back. He felt that at crucial moments, he could still keep his mouth shut and preserve a secret.
In truth, after the Supreme Bloodbath ended, on their way fighting back from the outer domain, Pei Gong had also nearly touched upon the truth.
Unfortunately, when Yu Gensheng, Qin Ming, and Tang Yushang fought the powerhouses of the Traveler civilization, Pei Shuyan had fainted from agony and was carried far away on Bai Meng's back.
Yao Ruoxian, for her part, had suspected Qin Ming's true realm more than once, but upon rational reflection, she felt she was overthinking. Who in this world could possibly become a grandmaster within just a few short years?
Stepping out of the Pure Land, Qin Ming immediately bid farewell to the group, preparing to return to Twin Trees Village for seclusion. Until he firmly grasped the opportunity to become a grandmaster, he had no intention of leaving Black and White Mountain.
Pei Gong said, "Brother Qin's combat power was already greater than ours, and now he is about to break through another grand barrier. If we don't work hard, even our cultivation realms will be overtaken."
He resolved to cultivate bitterly as well, returning to the outer realm to charge through barriers.
Cheng Sheng nodded and said, "The New Life Path, early twenties, reaching the Fourth Realm... when these factors are combined, it truly constitutes a grand achievement that will shake the ten directions. Even patriarchs across generations would take notice."
Bai Meng felt like a hundred claws were scratching at his heart. He badly wanted to say: You're wrong; Brother Ming is a whole major realm higher than you think.
He could already imagine what kind of earth-shattering tempest would erupt in the near future when Brother Ming was finally exposed.
He felt that among the people before him, only his elder sister could still stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Brother Ming.
Of course, if he broke the curse left behind by his ancestors, he would also have a chance to follow along.
At present, Tang Yushang felt an acute sense of crisis. There was not a moment she did not dream of winning once to get the upper hand over Qin Ming, yet she truly could not suppress him.
She resolved to fight hard this time and completely sever the first set of bloodline shackles within her body.
As for the second set of bloodline manacles that had surfaced after being baptized by the feathering light rain, they served as a powerful impetus driving her forward; sooner or later, she would snap them as well to unleash her full potential.
Qin Ming quietly returned to Twin Trees Village and formally entered seclusion, making his final preparations to become a grandmaster.
Within the territory of Black and White Mountain, he sank into an enlightenment state, remaining motionless and steady as a boulder. Outside, however, an evil wind began to blow, whipping up waves of turmoil.
In just a few days, rumors flew thick and fast.
"Have you heard? On the Sword Dueling Platform back then, that mysterious expert 'One Sword Piercing Through the Thirty-Six Layers of Heaven' might actually be Qin Ming."
This news truly shook all quarters.
The key was that even notable figures were discussing it, which greatly amplified the impact.
Under such circumstances, heated discussions soared to the heavens.
Precisely because of this, all kinds of external factors—friendly, malicious, conflicted—surfaced together and converged toward the domain of Black and White Mountain.
Yet the peerless Beast God possessed a ferocious reputation and was also known as an unmatched sword immortal, inspiring immense dread in all factions; for now, no one truly dared to barge in by force.
Amidst this tense atmosphere, Qin Ming remained unmoved. After merely two days, he already felt his Chaos force grow even more harmonious.
He was surprised; this progress was far faster than he had anticipated.
"Achieving true, flawless consummation won't take several months," he thought, brimming with confidence.
At the same time, he was researching a marvelous technique, hoping to transform a single breath of Hunyuan qi into Taiyi, Realm Faction, and One Sword without depleting his own origin.
After all, the three physical bodies he had brought out from Longevity Ridge were Dao bodies and divine fetuses. Besides using them to probe the True Form Tribulation, he ought to utilize them in everyday situations as well; otherwise, it would be a terrible waste.
Outside, some worried for Qin Ming.
Others quietly waited for misfortune to befall him, sitting back to watch bloody entertainment.
It could be said that this juncture was extraordinarily sensitive.
Qin Ming caught wind of this. Demand that he prove his innocence? He had only one word for them: scram.
However, if an appropriate opportunity arose, he wouldn't mind making a simple statement; he couldn't let people besmirch his "innocence" out of nowhere.
Under these mounting pressures, he found his progress quickening yet again. Even he felt that his resilience against stress was exceptionally strong, making him well-suited for meditating in such a hostile macro-environment.
The storms outside made him increasingly tenacious, moving forward step by step as he continuously elevated his inner foundation and consolidated a terrifying groundwork.
External factors sprang up one after another; they could even be called "external demons." To Qin Ming, these winds and rains were all demons obstructing his path.
Evil winds blew fiercely from all directions, whipping up endless turmoil. Once external factors proliferated, all kinds of people naturally emerged.
Just like now, after many suspected that Qin Ming was One Sword, the various arts he cultivated were also scrutinized, and a small cabal even began coveting them.
The one drawing the most attention was the silk book method.
In truth, the inheritance of Chaos force in this world could never truly be severed; the several ancestral courts of the New Life Path surely kept ancient copies sealed away.
However, these scriptures, considered to carry severe hidden dangers, had long been treated like "demonic scriptures" by later disciples, buried beneath the dust of history in piles of old paper.
Meanwhile, the Pugong lineage had consistently preserved this legacy, and one could even go there to seek tutelage.
Yet some people dug deep into the origins and believed that nine hundred years ago, Patriarch Qin's lineage of the silk book might have possessed something extraordinary, which made them pay extra attention and covet it.
They reasoned that Qin Ming was able to embark on the path by himself without being guided by anyone, perhaps because of this somewhat unusual authentic scripture.
This claim began circulating within a small circle.
Even with Qin Ming far away at Black and White Mountain, people sent warnings telling him to be careful and stay vigilant.
Qin Ming chuckled in disbelief. The family heirloom copy of his silk book method wasn't even complete, with half the volume torn away; had he not possessed the method of resonance, he wouldn't have been able to see the full text at all.
Moreover, what he mainly cultivated was the revised, refined version recorded in the divine temple.
The claim that his family's ancestral silk book method was somehow special was completely groundless hearsay.
Did those people truly believe that once they got their hands on the silk book, they too could embark on the path alone and cultivate flawless, consummate Chaos force?
The corners of Qin Ming's lips curled upward with a cold edge.
"Mhm, my progress has quickened again. External pressure is simply the driving force urging me forward." He was very pleased with the results of his hard cultivation.
Outside, talk surrounding this topic was relentless.
At present, even notable figures were discussing it.
"I heard Qin Ming's silk book once fell into the Cui family's hands. They must have made a copy, right? That clan should possess a secret transcript as well."
"Oh, is that so? I wonder if we could borrow it from the Cui family to read."
"I think that shouldn't be much of a problem."
At this time, the Cui family was shaken to its core by the outside rumors. From top to bottom, everyone felt as though the sky had collapsed. If Qin Ming really was One Sword, it was truly unthinkable.
All those years ago, just what kind of peerless genius had they let slip away?
Originally, they held a winning hand, only to play it into complete ruin.
In this era, even the supreme top factions in the heavens—Star Mountain, Thunder Marsh Palace, and the Huang family—had no right to treat One Sword as an "abandoned pawn," yet their Cui family had done precisely that.
"I believe... the possibility isn't high!"
"This is practically like a fairy tale. I don't believe it."
"What if it really is him?"
The moment this last sentence was spoken, everyone in the Cui family fell completely silent.
Over the past few days, Cui Chongxiao's expression had grown increasingly frosty. While he considered the rumors untrustworthy, his mood had turned thoroughly foul.
His condition was practically like suffering from "postpartum depression."
At Black and White Mountain, within Qin Ming's body, his meridians resembled great dragons and his acupoints were like immortal lakes. Light rain steamed around his exterior. Standing beneath the Black-White Twin Trees with wide sleeves fluttering in the wind and snow, he looked as though he were about to ascend into immortality.
"Perhaps it's time to consider cultivating that sacred substance," he murmured with a solemn expression. If he began experimenting now, once he reached the grandmaster realm, it might have fully matured into something formidable.
Regarding the Fifth Realm, he had made all sorts of preparations, desiring to achieve the absolute best.
There were marvelous arts and methods he had continuously studied and analyzed; for example, the realm transcending nine-colored sword baleful aura was something he had been earnestly probing and seeking a path toward.
In these final few months, he would polish himself and deeply study various Dao-protecting methods so that upon entering the grandmaster domain, he would not only be able to cope with the True Form Tribulation, but also push his upper limit even higher.
Chapter 576