On Mount Chixia, atop the Thunder-Fire Gold-Forging Palace, lightning interwove across bright tiles as rolling fireballs tumbled, an extraordinary spectacle that drew exclamations of wonder from many nobles.
On the other side, weeping broke out as family members identified corpses, grief impossible to hide upon their faces.
"That fellow doesn't look like an honest sort. He deliberately let the corpse soak up more heavenly light and spiritual substance inside."
Not far away, two men whispered, glancing at Qin Ming's corpse retriever. As peers in the same trade, they knew all the tricks inside and out.
"He took it a bit too far."
"Wait, that's not right. Look at the corpse he hauled out—it doesn't seem torn up at all. It's almost like the very first batch pulled out."
The two looked astonished and immediately leaned closer for a better look.
Thick clouds hung in the sky amid flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder, while earth glow steamed up from the ground. The entire mountain was far from dark—in fact, it was quite bright, clearly revealing that Qin Ming had met a gruesome end, his exposed skin completely blackened.
In truth, he had blackened it himself, obscuring his true features.
When Xu Hai saw the intact corpse, his heart gave a lurch. Could it be that his delay had snuffed out a peerless genius?
He had dragged his feet on the rope until six waves of heavenly light had descended, and the seventh wave had seemingly brushed past the youth as well.
"Old Xu, didn't you pull him out too late? This person was quite something—he could actually take the thunder-fire and heavenly light head-on," someone remarked.
Xu Hai kept a calm face and said, "What are you thinking? I already hauled him outside the gates of the golden palace ahead of time; I just didn't pull him all the way back right away."
Someone beside him nodded. "That makes sense. He doesn't look very old; one or two strikes of heavenly light would have blown him to bits."
Qin Ming memorized the name Xu Hai. The man was spouting pure nonsense. Anyone else put through that kind of ordeal inside the Thunder-Fire Gold-Forging Palace would have died without question.
He had already driven the secret technique Harmonize with Light and Dust to its utmost limit, leaving him indistinguishable from a corpse.
Qin Ming sighed inwardly. This area was full of 'acquaintances.' Seventy-two-year-old Old Zhao was at least eighty percent cooked, his body not even pieced back together yet.
Aside from a bunch of old men hoping a withered tree might put out new green, the others had all come here out of their own desperate plights.
Given any choice, no able-bodied youth would willingly come here to stake their life. Some had enemies who had driven them to despair, some were bullied and pressured until they could no longer survive, and others were condemned criminals to begin with.
Earth glow steamed, fine rain drifted, and the piercing wail of suonas sounded. Soon, coffins were carried up the mountain accompanied by bursts of weeping.
These were the families of the prominent old men, coming to collect their corpses.
Xu Hai found a relatively clean piece of black cloth, wrapped Qin Ming in it, and carried him down the mountain on his back.
Qin Ming thought to himself that at least Xu Hai was professional enough not to toss the 'corpse' around carelessly; otherwise, he certainly would have had to spring back to life a second time.
But he soon changed his mind!
"Old Xu, how much for this thunder meat? Looks pretty intact. Hand it over to me, and I'll help you deliver it to a grand noble's manor."
Before they had even reached the foot of the mountain, someone approached Xu Hai, clearly having done such transactions before.
Xu Hai said, "This is top-grade medicinal human. I let him 'steep' in there for quite a while—he absorbed at least six or seven waves of heavenly light and rare spiritual substance."
"Quit your bluffing!"
"Believe it or not, suit yourself. Besides, I'm not planning to sell this thunder meat whole. If you want some, I can sell you a few jin. After all, the employer paid a high price, so I can't really lose the corpse. Kidneys, heart—take your pick."
Qin Ming was thoroughly astonished to find he had run into man-eating monsters.
As Xu Hai carried Qin Ming down the mountain, four separate parties approached him, expressing interest in buying a few jin and haggling over the price.
During all this, Qin Ming could bear it no longer. He quietly pressed his Yellow Clay Palm—which he had never before used on a human—against Xu Hai's back. The gentle force was extremely subtle and would not erupt immediately; only after several days would the man start coughing up blood.
Soon, Qin Ming's body began to heat up steadily. He realized that any further delay risked exposing him.
The mixture of thunder-fire and heavenly light had bred a unique spiritual substance that was now beginning to take effect; his fourth Newborn breakthrough had officially commenced.
"Let me tell you, this isn't some old withered husk. He's a tender-skinned youth. If you don't believe me, feel for yourself—his body hasn't even stiffened, and there's still warmth in him."
"Xu Hai, what do you think you're doing?!" Xu Sheng arrived, entirely shrouded in a black robe and furious. Fortunately, he hadn't waited at the mountain base; otherwise, his brother's corpse would have been sold off piece by piece.
With a thud, he kicked Xu Hai flying, caught Qin Ming, and quickly carried him down the mountain on his back.
When Wu Zheng saw them at the foot of the mountain, he wailed mournfully, "Oh, Brother Qin, rest in peace! I hope in your next life you're reborn into a wealthy family, preferably a millennium clan, so you won't have to fight this desperately."
Xu Sheng also sighed. "Little Qin refused to listen to advice. To die so young is truly heartbreaking!"
Soon, however, he realized something was wrong. Why was his back getting hotter and hotter? At the same time, he caught a very faint whisper: "Brother Xu, find a secluded spot."
Xu Sheng's hands jerked, nearly dropping the body.
"A corpse resurgence?!" Wu Zheng's eyes went wide.
Shortly after, Qin Ming washed his face with clear water in a dense forest and changed into a brand-new set of clothes.
"I'm actually seeing someone survive the brunt of heavenly light and walk out alive from the Thunder-Fire Gold-Forging Palace!" Xu Sheng was deeply shaken.
Wu Zheng was struck dumb, then grew intensely excited. "Brother Qin, you're truly miraculous, coming out alive from a pile of corpses like that!"
"Let's talk back there!" Qin Ming took the lead and set off. His body was scalding hot, nearly smoking, and he urgently needed to return to the inn.
Not long after, he finished bathing, washing away every trace of ash, but was soon engulfed in white mist. This metamorphosis was exceptionally violent.
Aside from heaven-bestowed spiritual substance, a large amount of heavenly light had entered his body. It ran rampant, surging through him until he felt ready to catch fire.
At this moment, no secret technique could suppress it. He began using the Newborn method recorded in the silk book to guide and comb through the chaotic beams of light.
It had to be said that otherworldly heavenly light was far too tyrannical, like molten red iron threatening to burn straight through a person. Ordinary people truly could not endure it.
This was not Qin Ming's first time being corroded by heavenly light, but the sheer volume this time was so overwhelming that even he struggled to bear it.
He gulped down large amounts of cold water, yet white mist continued to billow from his entire body.
Wu Zheng remarked, "Brother Qin looks like he's about to become an immortal. It's almost like walking among clouds and mist; the bearing of people beyond the mundane world is no grander than this."
"That's the heavenly light surging, making him feel as though he has returned to the womb, or is being reborn in light. His Newborn transformation is vastly more violent than an ordinary person's!" Xu Sheng marveled.
Soon, the two stepped out of the courtyard Qin Ming had rented specifically for his breakthrough, feeling it was inappropriate to keep watching.
"I don't even know whether I should thank Xu Hai or curse him," Qin Ming muttered. The heavenly light inside him was extraordinarily dense.
Enduring excruciating pain, he combed through the otherworldly heavenly light, fusing it with the light born from his own flesh. The two intertwined seamlessly, becoming a brand-new heavenly light that underwent a gradual qualitative transformation.
Qin Ming gathered all the heavenly light toward his abdomen, compressing it endlessly into something like a sphere of light, forcing it to merge and transform to the utmost as the glow grew increasingly brilliant.
Then, he released that dazzling pellet, letting it detonate outward once more in wild disorder. The heavenly light fractured into tens of thousands of strands, tearing into his flesh, bones, and organs like raging flames.
It was like a grand explosion of heavenly light.
Doing this was perilous in the extreme, liable to cost him his life at any moment.
Yet this was precisely how the Newborn method on the silk book was recorded, and one could foresee that even more hazardous steps lay ahead.
A roar like a tidal wave filled Qin Ming's ears as the heavenly light expanded and erupted ferociously, leaving his consciousness dazed and on the verge of collapse.
What was supposed to be a Newborn breakthrough felt like passing through a mortal tribulation!
Qin Ming began to suspect that the creators of this silk book method had fully intended for successors to walk a razor's edge between life and death; no small number of practitioners must have perished along the way.
Otherwise, this Newborn method would not have been abandoned by later generations and swept into the dust of history.
It went against the founders' original intent: they had sought to shatter their cage and carve out an entirely new path, only for it to prove far less viable than the established road.
Finally, clarity returned to Qin Ming's eyes. He had endured it.
"The method on the silk book is far too dangerous, but as long as one can withstand it and make it through alive, the power gained is indeed formidable. My physical constitution is a massive cut above other Newborns."
Qin Ming fused and compressed the heavenly light nine times in succession, letting it erupt each time.
By the ninth time, the sphere of light inside him had shrunk to a tiny point, unified into a primal whole. The otherworldly heavenly light and his body's own light had completely assimilated, achieving a thorough qualitative shift.
After a brief rest, Qin Ming set about practicing several newly acquired heavenly light force methods.
Gentle force, derived from the ancient book found at Golden Rooster Ridge, was a composite heavenly light force and the very foundation of the Yellow Clay Palm.
He had already comprehended it thoroughly and knew how to cultivate it; he had only lacked sufficient heavenly light.
Today, having heavenly light poured into his crown in the Thunder-Fire Gold-Forging Palace had produced an effect even stronger than consuming a three-colored flower. As he trained his gentle force again, its level climbed continuously.
The sensation of training force like this was sublime. Qin Ming immersed himself completely, pushing the gentle force to utter perfection, vastly multiplying the Yellow Clay Palm's power.
Next, he practiced the hammer force and whip force from the newly acquired hammer manual. There was no longer any friction; as his heavenly light force advanced, both techniques reached perfection as well.
To his surprise, Qin Ming discovered that the mysterious burst force he had acquired from the Thunder-Fire Gold-Forging Palace meshed seamlessly with both hammer force and whip force, as though they had originally been one.
Once all three heavenly light forces were mastered, they fused together automatically. When he practiced the hammer technique again, its power surged dramatically.
"Back at Black-White Mountain, when I swung the long-handled dark-gold hammer, I was actually demonstrating saber technique—it could be called a hammer-saber."
Now, as Qin Ming drew the mutton-fat jade iron saber to perform hammer techniques, it could be called a saber-hammer!
Finally, he integrated all the forces he had mastered into his original heavenly light force, transforming it once again and noticeably boosting its might!
He could still employ gentle force, intercepting force, burst force, and the others separately. But once they all converged into one, he would be revealing his ultimate trump card, unleashing crushing, unstoppable power.
In the inn, Xu Sheng and Wu Zheng were startled by the thunderous booms echoing from Qin Ming's courtyard.
"No wonder Little Qin kept such a low profile, pulling the wool over everyone's eyes so he could enter the Thunder-Fire Gold-Forging Palace a second time. He truly possesses a talent far beyond ordinary reach," Xu Sheng marveled.
A wave of drowsiness washed over him, but Qin Ming did not go to sleep right away. Instead, he sat quietly in his room, knowing that when he woke, his world might be entirely different.
Chapter 73