Unprecedented

Meng Xinghai knew Li Qingxiao's elders, so it was awkward to scold him directly. He merely waved a hand to shoo him away, but the youth wore a cheeky grin and showed no intention of getting up. Using a secret transmission method, Meng Xinghai asked Qin Ming, *How has your cultivation of the Golden Silkworm Art been going?* *Mastered,* Qin Ming informed him. Had Li Qingxiao not been present, Old Meng would have leaped to his feet. He was truly stunned. It had only been five days—how could the youth have mastered it? Time was pressing, and Meng Xinghai had planned to use secret arts to help him cross the threshold, never expecting Qin Ming to achieve it entirely on his own in just a few days. Meng Xinghai's gaze shifted. This youth continually surprised him, exceeding his expectations and outstripping his hopes at every turn. "Brother Qin Ming..." Li Qingxiao began. "Stay to the side!" Meng Xinghai grew even more annoyed with him. Couldn't the boy see the harmony between uncle and nephew? They were preparing to talk about serious matters, yet here was an unwanted third party stirring up trouble. Li Qingxiao froze in disbelief, his face flushing crimson. Accustomed to praise since childhood and naturally arrogant, he felt humiliated on the spot. In truth, Meng Xinghai was simply tired of him. "Uncle Meng, if you put it that way, I'm not happy. Right here and now, I want to challenge Qin Ming, this so-called number one of our city!" Li Qingxiao stood up, heavenly light force flowing over his entire body. "What kind of fit are you throwing?" Meng Xinghai refused to indulge him in the slightest. Not daring to erupt, Li Qingxiao said, "Uncle Meng, I am acting according to the rules. Anyone has the right to question, and during the Grand Examination, anyone may challenge the candidate handpicked by the city lord as number one of a city." The moment the words left his mouth, regret set in. He had only been passing through and meant to probe for information on the side; he had no real desire to offend Meng Xinghai. "Uncle Meng, my apologies. I'm young and foolish—please don't lower yourself to my level." Realizing his blunder, Li Qingxiao apologized immediately, shifting back into the smiling, sunny youth he had presented earlier. Meng Xinghai replied calmly, "You've already challenged him. If I don't permit it and word spreads, wouldn't people say I'm playing favorites? Chixia City's 'number one' would be viewed by many as an undeserving fraud. I must arrange this for you." Li Qingxiao was trapped in an awkward predicament. If he provoked Meng Xinghai, not even his family would let him off easily. "Xiao Qin, accept his doubts and challenge," Meng Xinghai declared. He immediately ordered a venue prepared and summoned people to watch. Qin Ming naturally nodded in agreement. With Old Meng visibly angered, how could he just sit idly by? Initially, he had had no interest in paying heed to the youth, but since the boy kept clamoring, he didn't mind warming up a bit. Besides, he was a youth himself. Why act so excessively seasoned? A young man had to show some youthful spirit, lest Old Meng look at him with strange eyes. Whatever Li Qingxiao wanted to say, it was already too late. At the city lord's command, his subordinates sprang into action. Not only the guards of the city lord's manor, but people from outside were also brought in to spectate at the martial grounds. Everything was swiftly arranged. "Please!" Li Qingxiao was in no mood to address him as "Brother" now; his belly was already burning with fury. The manor's martial grounds were vast, more than large enough for Newborn-stage cultivators to clash. Dressed in fine brocade and adorned with jade, Li Qingxiao looked the part of a graceful young master, yet he drew a snow-bright broadsword that was wider and longer than an ordinary blade. "Where is your weapon?" he inquired. "I'm older than you, so I won't use a weapon." Qin Ming wore simple green robes. His clean-featured face, lucid eyes, billowing sleeves, and dustless footsteps lent him an extraordinarily ethereal grace, like a banished immortal. "You're truly overconfident. When did you even embark on the Newborn path, to hold such contempt for someone who has renewed seven times?" Li Qingxiao remarked coolly. The onlookers were all astounded. A fourteen-year-old youth had already renewed seven times?! Qin Ming was not surprised. His "younger brother by blood," Cui Chongxuan, was not yet thirteen, yet he was already consuming three-colored flowers and fusing four kinds of heavenly light force. The foundations of millenary clans were unfathomable. They did not need to wait for the golden window to renew; so long as their talent was decent, the only thing that restricted them in the Newborn stage was the special "buffer period" that prevented their bodies from mutating too frequently within a single year. "Come!" Qin Ming signaled that he could make his move. With a frosty expression, Li Qingxiao left behind numerous afterimages across the grounds, moving like a phantom and causing the expressions of many spectators to shift. He swung his saber forward using an exertion method from a renowned manual; the entire broadsword erupted with the sound of thunder. That was his heavenly light force vibrating through the blade, carrying an all-destroying momentum. Qin Ming dodged the edge, his fist smashing against the side of the blade. Using hammer force, he shattered the saber's momentum. In his eyes, Li Qingxiao's saber skills were merely decent. Jarred by the colossal force, Li Qingxiao nearly lost his grip on the long saber. His body stiffened, and his ghostlike footwork was instantly interrupted. Swift as lightning, with his green robes snapping in the wind, Qin Ming appeared behind Li Qingxiao and planted a kick square on the youth's rear, sending him flying. "I..." Li Qingxiao was so enraged he nearly exploded on the spot. This was the very person he had questioned and belittled, whom he had subtly mocked using his cousin Li Qingxu's words. Yet when he took the field himself, the result was this humiliating. The moment he landed, his figure shifted like a wraith, and he slashed again. The blow erupted with a sound like a tsunami—a killing strike from another saber manual. Qin Ming struck the blade with burst force. Even a broadsword tempered a thousand times shattered into fragments in an instant, the shards crashing to the ground with a piercing clatter. Li Qingxiao turned completely to stone. The other had shattered his weapon with bare hands?! Immediately after, he was kicked in the rear once more, tumbling into the distance. Meng Xinghai was acquainted with the Li family's elders, so Qin Ming held back from drawing blood; these two kicks were plenty. Li Qingxiao would likely have preferred taking a saber cut over being kicked in the rear. If word of this reached home, how would the acquaintances from the other prominent clans look upon him? His face went pale, struck by a massive blow. He had grown up bathed in praise, only to prove so utterly fragile today. Objectively, Qin Ming judged his strength to be quite solid. But since the boy was so eager to grandstand and insistently provoked him, Qin Ming showed no mercy, seeking to suppress this calculating youth in the shortest time possible with simple, crude, and thunderous force. Otherwise, Li Qingxiao would not have fallen so quickly. "Child, are you alright? No one goes undefeated. Just strive to improve yourself; do not be disheartened," Meng Xinghai consoled him in due time. Utterly dejected, Li Qingxiao returned to the parlor without a word. Meng Xinghai remarked, "I am a man of principle. I would never recklessly name Xiao Qin the city's number one just because he is close to me." Li Qingxiao nodded numbly. Only after a long while did he recover himself. "Qin Ming, on the Newborn path, you truly are strong. I am only fourteen, just the right age to meet the outer realm's requirements, and from here on I will tread the immortal path." "Congratulations," Qin Ming said calmly. Li Qingxiao said, "Originally, I intended to walk both paths at once. Now, you have allowed me to focus." "Don't tell me you plan to say next that we'll meet in the outer realm after climbing the peaks?" Qin Ming looked at him and said, "If I set foot in the outer realm, it might not be what you expect, and certainly not what you desire." Li Qingxiao departed into the distance aboard an exotic bird alongside an elderly man. He never wanted to set foot in Chixia City again! Meng Xinghai sipped his tea, smiling as he looked at Qin Ming. "I've prepared a five-colored spirit branch for you. Its effects are far more violent than those of the three-colored flower; it can help you fuse your heavenly light forces and raise your total reserve." "This... must be exceedingly rare and precious, right?" Qin Ming asked. Meng Xinghai nodded. "Indeed. It comes from the outer realm, from a precious tree rooted in the Heavenly Light Pool. The old branches cannot be disturbed lightly, but the new growth can be harvested every year. A single branch bears leaves of five distinct colors; it looks fresh and delicate on the outside, but holds a concentrated essence of heavenly light within." "An ancient tree, the Heavenly Light Pool..." Qin Ming listened, his thoughts wandering in yearning. What sort of wondrous place was that? A short piece of new growth harvested in early spring possessed such astonishing medicinal efficacy; the outer realm was truly unfathomable. "Is the yield large?" Qin Ming knew very little about such matters. Meng Xinghai said, "Every year in early spring, after the outer realm divides the harvest, the millenary clans receive a modest quota. My branch didn't produce any promising youngsters this year, so the one sent to me goes to your benefit." Qin Ming sighed inwardly. What was true foundation and heritage? This was it! Because the outer realm was sufficiently powerful, it naturally occupied the finest resources. The slightest trickle that slipped through its fingers—a small cutting of new branch—was a rare spiritual object in the world outside. Seeming to read his thoughts, Meng Xinghai said, "Feeling the pressure? The gap is enormous. If I hadn't been discovered in my youth to be capable of treading other paths, granting me a chance to alter my destiny, then had I walked only the Newborn path, a lifetime of training and reaching the highest summit would have made me, at best, a protector outside the mountain gates in an esoteric sect." Evidently, the path Meng Xinghai walked was connected to the esoteric sects and brushed against the divine. Qin Ming nodded. He had previously assumed he knew quite a bit about the various paths, but now it was clear his knowledge remained limited. Immediately, fire danced in his eyes, his conviction unshakable. For now, it was enough to concentrate on strengthening himself. He had endured such bitter cultivation not to end up as some follower to an outer realm disciple! Qin Ming opened the long jade box on the table. Inside lay a tender branch as thick as a thumb and over two feet long, swirling with five-colored mist and dense with restrained heavenly light essence. It bore only five leaves, each a different color, all crystalline and translucent, coursing with rich vitality. Meng Xinghai said, "The contention among outer realm disciples is about to begin. Stay at the city lord's manor over the next two days, consume the five-colored spirit branch, and once you have elevated your heavenly light force, it will be time to set out." Qin Ming felt it wouldn't take that long. Last time, when he consumed the three-colored flower, he had achieved perfect harmony among his various forces in a single day. Meng Xinghai asked, "What kind of weapon do you use? I'll have someone forge it for you, blending in rare metals to give it remarkable properties." "Uncle Meng, I have a blade here. Could you find someone to reforge it for me?" Qin Ming drew the mutton-fat jade iron saber. Back then, he and Old Man Liu had forged the blade using exceedingly crude methods, and it remained unsharpened to this day. "This..." Meng Xinghai's eyes gleamed. This was far better than any material he had prepared; a pure jade iron blade completely devoid of impurities. He marveled, "You rascal, you have quite the treasure. This is extraordinary jade iron, but the forging technique... I won't even evaluate it. An utter waste." "I also have a small piece that I'd like forged into an arrowhead." Qin Ming produced a piece of blue jade iron the size of half a walnut. "Too extravagant! Even the arrows I use aren't made of such material. When you loose this arrow, you'd better be deliberate—don't shoot it carelessly," Meng Xinghai cautioned. That same day, Qin Ming consumed the five-colored spirit branch in a quiet courtyard of the manor. Immediately, he felt his whole body scorched by heavenly light, as if he were being torn apart. The heavenly light essence within the five-colored spirit branch was far more violent than that of the three-colored flower, but Qin Ming's constitution was also vastly stronger than before. That night, he pushed his departing fire force to a peak and refined his golden silkworm force to the absolute limit permitted by five renewals. Across the surface of his body, the divine glow of departing fire flickered one moment, while strands of golden silk emerged the next; the heavenly light forces of both extraordinary arts possessed marvelous protective efficacy. In addition, the Vajra force, wind force, and golden light force he had recently cultivated were all rapidly elevated. That night, he drew all his heavenly light forces together, unifying them until they were completely fused by the Newborn method recorded on the silk book. Testing it slightly, Qin Ming knew at once that the power of his heavenly light force had leaped by a wide margin. This was largely because the fused golden light force, departing fire force, and golden silkworm force all had illustrious origins, especially the latter two, which belonged to the category of extraordinary arts. Out in the wider world, the impending contention among outer realm disciples was known to all. From the blessed lands to the millenary clans, and onward to the cities shrouded in the night mist, countless people were discussing it. His strength massively enhanced, more powerful than ever before, Qin Ming found his state of mind increasingly tranquil. He was fully prepared to venture into the outer realm.