In the pitch-black desert, heavy night mist surged and billowed.
Qin Ming fought with all his might, slashing out his most powerful strike. Accompanied by a brilliant radiance like a blazing sun, blood splashed, and translucent, jade-like fingers distinctly tumbled to the ground with it.
"Ah..." The woman let out a shriek of agony. The faint golden light coursing over her body thinned. She retreated rapidly, her veil trembling violently—one could well imagine what she was feeling.
Stepping over the yellow sand like a wisp of clear breeze, Qin Ming pursued her at extreme speed, wielding the jade-white blade as he slashed at her once more.
At this moment, though his features were delicate and handsome, his expression was chillingly stern. His eyes shone bright as stars, and his pitch-black hair streamed back. Pushing the footwork technique Skimming Across Grass to its absolute limit, he seemed to fly across the yellow sand.
The masked woman was gripped by shock, rage, humiliation, and grief. In her eyes, a youth who did not even qualify to become a gold-armored guard had severely wounded her right from the very start.
Of her slender, beautiful hand, four fingers had been severed, leaving only a lone, bloodstained thumb.
What was more, a wound crossed her chest and abdomen, cleaved open moments ago by the snow-white blade's tip. As she fell back, blood splattered across the ground.
This was the most severe injury she had suffered in her entire life.
Even more terrifying, the youth was now as fierce as a spirit tiger. Without uttering a word, he chased her down, his terrifying speed striking dread into her heart.
Her glabella glowed, blooming a brilliant peach blossom before her to block his attack.
Though the crimson spray of peach blossoms carried extraordinary power, it was still cleaved apart and blasted to pieces by the pure white blade. The saber edge grazed past her body, tearing her black garments and shattering part of her inner armor, nearly drawing blood once again.
The black-clothed, masked woman was filled with indignation. He had brought her far too many surprises. How could a youth from a remote corner of the world, running about with a bloodstained sledgehammer, possess a mutton-fat jade iron saber like this?
She could sense that it was not forged from an alloy, but from pure jade iron. The blade was spotless and snow-white, free of the slightest impurity.
Parting her lips, she spat out a shower of brilliant light. Like flying daggers, the rays shot toward the youth pressing in like a breeze and lightning.
Qin Ming pushed his heavenly light force to the absolute limit. Light enveloped his entire body, and the long saber in his hand vibrated continuously. Layer upon layer of snow-white blade light slashed out, like stacked, surging ocean waves crashing violently forward.
Such a rare jade iron saber possessed many wonders. One of them was its ability to channel heavenly light, allowing a Newborn's heavenly light force to spread along the blade.
Now, carrying a chilling aura of slaughter, Qin Ming unleashed his saber intent as if cleaving apart the horizon between sea and sky. Surging white waves rose, crashing against the shore and sweeping through the night sky, scattering the sheets of radiant light rain.
The woman in black was stunned. How could this youth's heavenly light force be so domineering? To shatter the golden light rain she had unleashed, it carried the momentum of roaring flames consuming paper!
Her heart trembled. How could this possibly be a youth who had grown up wild and feral on his own in some remote backwater?
In her memory, along the Newborn path, only a handful of orthodox lineages mastered such unfathomable heavenly light force, and it was utterly impossible for any of them to appear here.
Amid the billowing night mist, Qin Ming advanced with saber in hand. Without speaking a word, he struck with continuous flashes of dazzling blade light, carrying the bearing of a youthful grandmaster and shaking the woman's composure to its core.
With a wet squelch, his saber struck her shoulder again. Though it was only a slight graze, the refined gold inner armor beneath her black clothes was sliced open like paper, completely unable to stop the jade iron saber.
Blood flowed out, and severe pain wracked her arm. In her eyes, the youth was radiant and spirited, his entire being seemingly enveloped in sacred light. His aura had transformed completely; had he not been violently swinging a blade, he would have appeared even more transcendent.
Had she been an onlooker, she would not have been able to help but glance over in admiration. But now, filled with hatred and resentment, she saw that the youth had clearly gained boundless fighting spirit and ever-growing confidence from repeatedly wounding her!
Murderous intent filled the woman's eyes as she struggled to catch a breath. Flames seemed to rise from her glabella, radiating blinding light and fire.
This was the manifestation of her consciousness power. She channeled it recklessly, caring nothing for the consequences even if it severely depleted her vitality. Then, two artifacts floated up from her body.
A small black shield bearing scorched marks blocked in front of her, taking the brunt of Qin Ming's downward slash.
With a dull thud, a terrifying blade mark appeared on the small black shield.
This was a treasure bestowed by the elders of her sect, yet it was damaged the moment it made its appearance!
Her heart ached terribly; this was a spiritual item meant to grow alongside her.
Beside her, a small black spear no longer than a chopstick also seemed to have undergone lightning and fire. Charred black all over, it hovered, emitting a faint golden haze as it aimed at the increasingly radiant youth ahead.
Qin Ming abruptly pulled back his saber and swiftly retreated a dozen meters, then stood there with steady composure. Now, he was the unhurried one.
He could see that the woman was exerting great effort to activate the two artifacts that looked as if they had been dug out of a fire. Most crucially, her wounds were bleeding continuously. Time was on his side.
From the moment he had boldly struck with his most powerful slash to his rapid pursuit and relentless follow-up strikes, barely two breaths of time had elapsed.
The entire clash had unfolded with blistering speed; battles like this often decided life and death in a split second.
After four Newborn transitions, Qin Ming's perception had increased drastically. Now, even in the pitch-black desert, he could see his surroundings clearly within a certain range.
Severely wounded by a Newborn, the masked woman felt utterly humiliated. In her eyes, peers walking this crude, immature path were merely guards prepared to serve people like her. Yet here she was, suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of one.
Not only did her wounds throb with agonizing pain, but her pride felt as though it had taken a heavy blow.
As a woman, she naturally cared about her appearance. She had actually lost four fingers!
"This is the darkest, most humiliating day of my life!" she ground out through clenched teeth. The wound across her chest and belly squirmed and gave off a faint glow, temporarily closing up.
Her shoulder and lower body were already drenched in vivid crimson blood.
Qin Ming understood what she meant. She looked down on those walking the Newborn path. He said flatly, "Full of self-importance. Nothing more than a barnyard fowl."
He rarely insulted others, but when someone showed ill intent, he would show no courtesy in return.
"You..." Twisted with rage, the woman dropped her veil, revealing a face that, though beautiful, was livid with fury.
She was young, only sixteen or seventeen. Goaded by the words "barnyard fowl," she pointed a finger at Qin Ming and hissed, "I'll make you understand right now the difference between immortals and mortals!"
"Are you praising me?" Qin Ming asked, looking at the hand she was pointing with.
The woman followed his gaze. Golden haze had sealed the stumps where her four fingers had been severed, leaving only a lone thumb standing erect.
Her composure shattered completely, because no matter how one looked at it, it looked as though she was giving him a thumbs-up.
As someone beyond the mundane world who considered herself aloof and transcendent, she could not help but let loose a string of curses, or else she would choke on her own fury.
Qin Ming's eyes grew profound. He knew well that someone at her level would not lose all sense of caution so easily. Her emotional breakdown was real, but she was also deliberately stalling for time.
For the golden haze summoned by her consciousness power could heal wounds.
Most crucially, there was still a mysterious gold-armored guard in the distance, likely approaching the desert soon. If that guard tracked them here, the situation would change again.
"Those four fingers of yours haven't been on the ground long. They could probably still be reattached. Don't you want them?" Raising his saber, Qin Ming bounded a dozen meters in a single leap, heading toward the severed fingers.
The woman in black panicked immediately. She had lured the youth away earlier precisely so she could finish him off before returning to reattach her fingers. Who could have foreseen that this delicate-featured youth would start threatening her with them?
She was young and cared immensely about whether her body was mutilated—cared about it almost as much as her own life. With bloodshot eyes, she charged after him.
With a flash of blade light, she saw a severed finger—once jade-like and translucent, now smeared with blood and yellow sand—flicked up onto the youth's saber.
"Put it down!" Her eyes widened in fury as she commanded the charred shield and the chopstick-sized black spear to strike swiftly.
"Fine." Qin Ming readily obliged, tossing the severed finger resting on his blade back onto the sand without damaging it in the least, and swung his saber straight toward her.
He did not need to do anything rash. The woman had already lost her composure. Fighting in this spot was more than enough; the tempo of the entire battle was firmly in his grasp.
Qin Ming channeled power through the mutton-fat jade iron saber, which could cut through her golden haze. Striking the black shield several times, he blasted it apart with a resounding bang.
The woman in black was terrified. A treasure bestowed by her sect had actually been destroyed. It was not just because the jade iron saber was extraordinary, but also because his heavenly light force was too abnormal and posed an enormous threat to her. Even the rudimentary manifestation of her consciousness power had been cleaved through!
Her glabella shone as wisps of golden mist resembling lotus petals drifted forth, wrapping around the small black spear as it attacked the increasingly terrifying youth.
After several clashes, the charred spear dimmed, and the golden threads wrapped around it were scattered!
Clang!
Qin Ming sliced the chopstick-sized spear in two, causing it to fall to the ground, no longer capable of being driven.
"A weapon refined from a spirit root that underwent the baptism of heavenly light... destroyed..." Blood drained from the woman's face as she stumbled backward repeatedly. She knew she had suffered a total defeat.
With a wet thud, she failed to dodge in time, and her left arm was severed, flying off into the sand amid a spray of blood.
She laughed bitterly, knowing she could not escape this calamity today.
"To think that we who feast on rosy clouds and sip morning mist, separated from the likes of you by the gulf between immortals and mortals, should die here."
In the Heart Fasting realm, the woman in black had awakened her spiritual light multiple times and was not far from the second major realm. Not falling at the hands of the esoteric sect, but dying by the hands of a Newborn—she was consumed by bitter unwillingness.
If Heart Fasting was compared to Newborn, the number of times she had awakened far exceeded Qin Ming's mere four transitions.
At this moment, heavenly light force coursed throughout Qin Ming's entire body. The youth's radiant spirit and fiery will were on full display; his brow, his eyes, even every fine hair on his skin shone with light.
"Someone who still eats mortal grain dares speak of a gulf between immortals and mortals?" He swung his saber, refusing to delay for even a single breath.
The woman resisted with everything she had. Her glabella shone, and a lotus bloomed in roaring flames, flying forward.
Yet even such a manifestation of consciousness power could not withstand Qin Ming's strike backed by heavenly light force. The lotus was blasted apart, and the blade's tip sliced open her pale forehead, spraying blood.
Her face deathly pale, the woman collapsed to the ground, her frontal bone cracked. Overwhelmed by terror, she finally whimpered in a trembling voice, "I don't want to die. Could you..."
"Who sent you?" Qin Ming asked.
The woman suddenly fell silent again.
"On your way, then." Qin Ming swept his blade across. Her head tumbled down, blood gushing forth, and her corpse collapsed onto the yellow sand.
"Mountain Lord Qin possesses the talent of a god, capable of slaying immortals. I suddenly feel... I can persevere to the end!" The speech sparrow poked its head out from the night mist and muttered softly, "There's still a gold-armored guard left. He should be easier to deal with, right?"
Chapter 93