Qin Ming moved as swiftly as lightning, his speed fierce and violent. His feet blasted into the woodland floor as he swept in with a gale, swinging the heavy black gold hammer in his hands and unleashing a terrifying sonic boom.
The woods seemed to detonate, every branch swept by the shockwave exploding into splinters in an instant.
Ge Qianxun's pupils contracted. Unable to dodge, he gripped a pair of immensely heavy iron whips and met the youth head-on with all his might.
In an instant, sparks flew across the mountain woods, and numerous large trees came crashing down.
Their very first clash littered the ground with snapped boughs—a pure contest of brute strength.
Ge Qianxun stumbled back, both hands clutching the iron whips trembling faintly. The blow from the opponent's massive hammer sent his blood and qi churning, leaving him breathless.
Although he had seized the Sun family's hammer manual and studied it, he did not wield hammer-type weapons himself.
Astonishment crept across his face. Just how old was this boy? It was utterly absurd.
After all, he was a veteran expert of seven Newborn transformations, and his secret identity was a Golden Bandit.
Ge Qianxun noticed that his opponent remained calm and composed. Qin Ming had unleashed such a high-speed, terrifying hammer strike as if it were an effortless flick of the wrist, and was already launching another assault.
Qin Ming was indeed very calm. Possessing nearly five thousand jin of strength, the black gold hammer that seemed so heavy to others felt remarkably light to him.
With a resounding boom like thunder ripping through the woods, Qin Ming swung the black gold hammer. Wherever it passed, white blast waves carved through the air, shattering the surrounding trees.
Though Ge Qianxun crossed both whips to block this time, he was hurled backward through the air, snapping tree after tree in an unending chorus of loud cracks.
His entire face flushed red from the violent roiling of his blood. While the black gold hammer had not struck his body directly, the concussive force rattled him intensely.
Numbness gripped both his arms, forcing him to shake them gently to restore circulation.
Dai Shifeng and his confidants were struck with terror. Just how immense was that boy's strength? With only two strikes of his hammer, he had sent their former hall master flying!
"I knew this 'job' would be troublesome, but never imagined the trouble wouldn't come from your unknown identity, but your raw strength." Ge Qianxun's face darkened as he said, "Most hateful of all, my employer only paid a tiny sum of day gold in advance!"
"Seven Newborn transformations, and you amount to only this? Ge Qianxun, pay your blood debt to the Sun family!" Qin Ming stepped forward.
Behind them, Dai Shifeng, who had undergone six Newborn transformations, let out a sigh, while his confidants experienced a swirl of mixed emotions.
A ferocious nature was provoked in Ge Qianxun. He snapped, "This old man has cultivated patience for years. It seems that unless I unleash all my power, you will all take Old Ge for an easy target!"
His body swelled, expanding a full size as his muscles bulged. Clearly possessing mastery in some body-hardening art, he grew immensely robust and powerful in an instant.
Even the wrinkles on his face were smoothed out by the bulging flesh, making him look ten years younger.
"Back in the day, when I underwent my first Newborn transformation, I was also a genius who could lift a bronze cauldron of over six hundred jin! If someone hadn't broken my body-protecting hardening art and damaged my foundation, this old man would have projected heavenly light outward long ago and ascended to the next major realm!"
A deep resentment burned within him. After his foundation was ruined, he had consumed spiritual substances more than twenty times and even taken forbidden drugs to reach his current level of achievement, yet he was completely severed from the next major realm.
Ge Qianxun said with a chilling tone, "So-called geniuses like you shouldn't act so arrogant before this old man, or you might just get killed!"
He pounced forward, his dual whips streaking like rainbow light to tear through the gloom of the dense woods with thunderous booms.
Yet the more strength he exerted, the more severe the backlash became the moment his strike met the hammer. It felt as if his fingers were about to snap.
One of his iron whips flew from his grip, while the other was bent completely out of shape.
"Only this much strength? After seven transformations, you barely scrape past four thousand jin. With all that boasting, I thought you'd at least have four thousand five hundred."
Qin Ming spoke nonchalantly, swinging the sledgehammer once more. "Let me show you the true essence of the hammer art from the Sun family's secret manual!"
A hammer art also incorporated whip force; Qin Ming's arms whipped out, unleashing maximum power. As for the hammer force, it went without saying—it felt like shaking a mountain!
Qin Ming moved like a phantom. The long-handled black gold hammer in his hands produced true wind-and-thunder roars, and any nearby branch close to its path burst apart.
With a deafening crash, Ge Qianxun was knocked flying. The bent iron whip tore from his grasp as heavenly light swirled around his right hand.
He was certain that without heavenly light protecting his body, purely relying on physical flesh, his entire arm would have been ruined. Just how many Newborn transformations had this boy undergone? Based on raw strength alone, he completely crushed him.
"At my level, weapons no longer matter—they only get in the way! Let me show you the heavenly light force of a Golden Bandit and tear you apart!" Ge Qianxun roared.
With a whoosh, he plunged into the forest, seemingly trying to flee.
"Trying the same trick twice is useless!" Qin Ming said coldly, darting across his path in a flash.
Though he had only undergone four Newborn transformations, his physical attributes—strength, speed, and beyond—had improved far more violently than the old man's.
This time, Ge Qianxun was not truly attempting to flee; he was searching for terrain advantageous to him.
With a dark, cold expression, he circulated the heavenly light force he had honed over decades and chopped forward with immense, majestic power.
Wherever his palms and fingers swept, the tangled branches blocking his path instantly turned to powder.
Qin Ming blocked them in succession with his hammer. Glancing down, he saw two faint palm prints had actually appeared on the metal.
"Not bad. Let me show you the might of the heavenly light force from the Sun family's hammer art!" Qin Ming stopped swinging the hammer and pressed forward with one hand, swift as lightning.
He channeled the Sun family's whip force and hammer force, along with the mysterious compound "burst force" he had acquired in the Thunder-Fire Gold-Forging Palace—the precursor to thunder force. Fusing all three forces together, he struck outward!
Ge Qianxun sneered. After five Newborn transformations, his physical body had become exceedingly tough, and his sixth transformation had granted him a special ability that could briefly elevate his heavenly light force by a wide margin.
Unfortunately, his seventh Newborn transformation had been driven by forbidden drugs, leaving it hollow.
For a moment, the heavenly light radiating from Ge Qianxun's hands became blinding.
Qin Ming's single hand collided with both of the old man's hands one after the other. Two thunderous cracks echoed through the woods as dazzling heavenly light burst open.
Fierce gales tore across the clearing, whipping up withered branches from the ground before blasting them to pieces in midair.
Ge Qianxun could hardly believe his eyes. His hands were a bloody pulp, bleeding profusely—he could not withstand the opponent's heavenly light force at all.
He remained silent, his demeanor turning even more dangerous.
Ge Qianxun prepared to stake his life, knowing that if he could not block another strike, his life would truly end here.
The bones throughout his body crackled incessantly. This time, instead of swelling, his frame shrank, while only his right hand seemed to enlarge. Once the bleeding stopped, it began to emit a brilliant radiance.
Gathering all his essence, energy, and spirit, he fused several kinds of heavenly light force and concentrated them entirely into his right hand, unleashing his strongest blow at Qin Ming.
Having fused all his heavenly light forces into one, Qin Ming had not yet tested the effect on a living person.
Now he wanted to test his technique. Keeping the heavy hammer loosely held in his right hand, he raised his left hand, shining with resplendent light, and gave a light forward pat.
With a squelch, not only did Ge Qianxun's palm shatter, his entire right arm detonated, and the shoulder connected to it was torn apart.
Had he not been ruthless enough at the crucial moment to chop down with his other hand at his own shoulder, half of his torso might have been ripped open.
Ge Qianxun was horrified. What kind of heavenly light force combination had this youth merged? Could it be a force combination from one of those mysterious great sects? It was terrifying beyond belief!
Qin Ming stepped forward with a calm face and delivered a swift hammer blow that shattered Ge Qianxun's left arm. "Now they're symmetrical."
"You..." Ge Qianxun staggered, his face pale as paper and his whole body drenched in blood, having suffered devastating injuries.
Leaving an afterimage behind, Qin Ming brushed a Yellow Clay Palm lightly across Ge Qianxun's chest. The impact caused Ge Qianxun to cough up a mouthful of blood and fly sideways, slamming into a large tree before crashing to the ground.
Gentle force could also be hard. Qin Ming did not take his life because this man was a Golden Bandit; he wanted to leave him for Meng Xinghai.
Qin Ming crouched down, rummaged through Ge Qianxun's robes, and retrieved the bundle he carried.
He weighed it in his hand; the day gold inside was likely a considerable amount.
Most importantly, there was a secret manual inside the bundle!
"It seems to carry very strong emotional fluctuations!" Qin Ming was overjoyed. To him, this was far more valuable than day gold.
He left the woods and walked toward the riverbank.
Dai Shifeng and his trusted men stood frozen on the spot. Only after a long while did they let out a breath of relief, finding the youth utterly terrifying. Had Old Ge really been smashed to pieces by him so easily?
"Qin Ming!" The mud-stained youth was climbing out of the mire, brimming with rage, unable to maintain any of his previous nonchalance and arrogance.
Qin Ming looked at him coldly and said, "You said we have no friendship left. It was entirely out of respect for your cousin Wang Caiwei that I didn't shoot you dead in the sky. If you continue to court death, you won't have a future."
The mud-stained youth's entire face was plastered with mud. Hearing those words, his body trembled as he clenched his fists tightly.
Qin Ming sighed. He had never expected Ning Siqi to appear. Once one of his closest friends, they had actually come to this.
It was impossible for him not to feel shaken inside.
Back then, they had been bosom friends, yet just moments ago the boy had spoken such heartless, bridge-burning words.
Had it been anyone else, Qin Ming could have accepted it easily, but it had been Ning Siqi who showed up to belittle and mock him.
"Do you have feelings for your cousin? Is that why, even back when we called each other brothers, you secretly couldn't stand me?" Qin Ming asked.
These words shattered Ning Siqi's composure. In bitter indignation, he cried, "Today, you shot me into the mud and humiliated me like this! I'm destined to become a laughingstock in our circle! Come on, let's fight to the death!"
"You're too dirty. Go wash in the river," Qin Ming said flatly.
Only old friends knew each other so well. These words struck right at Ning Siqi—who prided himself on having the romantic, refined bearing of the Wei and Jin dynasties, handsome and aloof from worldly dust—completely shattering his defense. Shivering all over, he let out a loud shout and really jumped into the river.
Ning Siqi loved wearing white, but now he was covered in filth and disgusted with himself.
With disheveled hair and gnashing teeth, he climbed out of the water and said, "Qin Ming, you're something else. You really showed no mercy!"
Qin Ming looked at him. "I'm a bit puzzled. As the employer, why would you show your face directly and come watch the scene in person? That doesn't fit your style."
Ning Siqi ground his teeth. "Yes, I was stupid! I regret coming here only to be thoroughly humiliated by you! Once word gets out, I'll definitely become a laughingstock!"
"Make your move! Let me see how far you've walked down your Newborn path," Ning Siqi said, before immediately asking, "Meng Xinghai hasn't appeared yet?"
Qin Ming looked at him, remaining silent.
"Was Ge Qianxun taken down by Meng Xinghai's people?" Ning Siqi had heard the massive sonic booms in the dense woods earlier.
"Scared? So you knew Old Meng and I were close after all," Qin Ming said.
"I saw Zhao Jingshuo get taken away by you with my own eyes. How could I not know?" Ning Siqi struck first.
As he closed in, he spoke: "I bought a book, fuck yo—"
He was slapped flying by Qin Ming, tumbling back into the mud pit.
"You're actually this strong?" Ning Siqi was shocked. The intelligence he had received said Qin Ming had vanished for two years, and after reappearing, had only embarked on the Newborn path in the past two or three months.
"I smashed Ge Qianxun to pieces with just three hammer strikes and two palm strikes," Qin Ming said.
"Looks like you're going to make me use my real strength!" Ning Siqi's bones crackled all over as he went to rinse his body in the river once more.
Approaching again, he spoke while attacking, "I prepared a secret manual for you, many times superior to the Newborn method you've been practicing in this remote backwater."
Qin Ming had already felt something was off earlier. Hearing this, his expression shifted slightly, though he still struck out.
"Those taunts and insults I threw at you earlier were the exact words spoken by some of your old friends. If I hadn't come today, someone who despised you in the past would have come down to deal with you personally," Ning Siqi said rapidly.
Qin Ming said nothing, knocking him into the mud pit twice more in succession, sending Ning Siqi's temper flaring.
"And here I thought you had feelings for your cousin and deliberately came to target me."
"Piss off!" Ning Siqi spat out a single word.
"I came in person, willingly soiling my own reputation to detonate this matter ahead of them, only to be humiliated by you like this!" By now, Ning Siqi's rage was blazing furiously.
"How does this count as detonating it? Does that accomplish anything?" Qin Ming countered as he fought, watching him.
Ning Siqi said, "As long as the matter blows up, it's enough! I already found someone reliable to head to the Otherworld and deliver an anonymous letter to Cui Qi. I only hope he receives it safely. If he exits seclusion and reads it, learning that people from the great families are humiliating or even trying to kill you, his bond with you as uncle and nephew will surely make him furious! Regardless of the Cui clan's elders trying to stop him, he will storm out to warn all sides and might even slaughter some of those noble scions! When you see him, you better clear my name immediately and explain that I soiled my own reputation for your sake, so he doesn't actually kill me!"
"Siqi!" Qin Ming uttered just those two words.
"Practicing blindly in a remote backwater won't do. The combination of heavenly light forces is extremely intricate. If you carelessly fuse low-level techniques, you'll run into trouble later." Ning Siqi told him that he had prepared an exceptionally formidable cultivation manual with a complete system, sufficient for him to cultivate to an extremely profound realm.
"An advanced Yiqi Art?" Qin Ming asked.
"Far more precious than that! It's quite a rare secret manual. It contains a unique combination of heavenly light force, so you won't have to cultivate individual ones separately—it's an extraordinary art that comes pre-fused." He quickly revealed the hidden location of the book.
Ning Siqi added, "I didn't prepare any spiritual substances for you. Hunt for them yourself; it's a good way to temper your body anyway. Fine, I admit I'm a bit strapped for cash and couldn't afford higher-end spiritual substances. After paying someone to secretly bid on that rare manual for you, I didn't have much day gold left."
"Siqi, I don't know how to thank you," Qin Ming said, warmth welling up in his chest. After enduring such drastic ups and downs, he had few friends left. Having an old friend like this filled him with mixed emotions, making his eyes sting faintly.
Ning Siqi said, "Don't get tricked by other old acquaintances. There aren't more than two or three old friends like me left. Many of them are deeply scheming and vile."
When he learned that Qin Ming possessed such strength after only four Newborn transformations, he was utterly shocked. "Even though you're no longer Cui Chonghe with that near-immortal talent, your current natural gifts still hold tremendous promise!"
He said with some emotion, "At first, I thought you'd be living a miserable life out here, without even a proper Newborn method to practice."
Chapter 83