“What are you still standing there for? Go quickly!” Ling Shicheng urged.
“Understood!”
The man in black vanished in a flash.
Ling Shicheng looked at the night sky, a slight smirk playing on his lips.
“Oh, Qin Changsheng, Qin Changsheng, your Qin family has three geniuses. Qin Shan studies at Heavenly God Academy, but he’ll be trampled underfoot by my son and die a miserable death.”
“Qin Hai is a good-for-nothing, and this Qin Ning… he’s about to die too!”
“As for you, Qin Changsheng… the same goes for you!”
…
Late at night, a figure streaked across the sky.
This person traveled without stopping, only halting past midnight in the Lingyun mountain range. This person was Qin Ning.
He followed the map his father had given him. Although the terrain of Lingyun Mountain had changed, it wasn’t unrecognizable.
Qin Ning relied on his old memories to venture deeper into the mountain.
Night was when some wild beasts were most active. Within Lingyun Mountain, there were not only wild beasts but also ordinary beasts.
Even powerful spirit beasts resided in the deep mountains.
Currently, he was at the Jingmen realm, not yet qualified to enter that area, and thus couldn’t move about freely.
He cautiously slowed his pace and continued forward.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of flowing water. Qin Ning drastically reduced his speed and looked to his left.
Under the cover of night, in the dense forest, all visibility was limited.
This was a dense forest; there shouldn’t be any streams here. Why was there the sound of flowing water?
“Who’s there!”
But at this very moment, a delicate voice rang out, accompanied by a dagger slashing towards Qin Ning.
Qin Ning swiftly dodged. With a ‘thwack,’ the dagger plunged straight into the tree trunk next to Qin Ning.
A figure slowly emerged.
In the dim light, Qin Ning saw the person.
A short red dress, long, straight legs in pale silver long boots, long hair tied up, with a few stray strands scattered across her chest.
The girl appeared to be about 16 or 17 years old, but was already very well-developed.
“You lecherous, despicable pervert! How dare you peek at this young lady… You, you, you… must die!”
The young woman said no more and immediately attacked.
Despicable man? Peeping?
Qin Ning was at a loss for words. He was just passing through this area, surrounded by trees, which was why he had slowed down. With visibility probably not even five meters, how could he have been peeping?
But thinking of the sound of flowing water from earlier, Qin Ning suddenly understood.
“Young lady, you’ve misunderstood!”
Qin Ning said, extending his hand, “I was just passing through here, I didn’t see anything, I only heard…”
“You’re still talking?! Shut up!”
The young woman was at the sixth gate, on par with Qin Ning, but her actual strength was far inferior to his.
Qin Ning knew that whatever he said, she wouldn’t believe him, so he could only respond with force, but without harming the young woman.
As the two exchanged blows, the shimmering moonlight gradually emerged.
“It’s you!”
Under the moonlight, upon seeing the person, the young woman was stunned.
“Qin Ning of the Qin family, well, well. I heard you humiliated Ling Feifei, had your Star Gate destroyed, and lost all your cultivation. I never expected you to truly be such a lecher!”
“Today, I’ll get justice for Feifei!”
At this moment, Qin Ning also recognized the young woman as Lin Qiao'er, the young lady of the Lin family, one of the four great clans!
“Don’t make assumptions about things you haven’t witnessed firsthand!” Qin Ning said coldly.
“Enough talk, today I will kill you, you beast deserve to be killed a thousand times over!”
Lin Qiao'er wasted no more words, drew her sword and thrust it towards Qin Ning.
“Dragon Form!”
Qin Ning punched out, unleashing Tiger Roar Dragon Chant, each punch precise. Lin Qiao'er, using a longsword, was still pressed back and repelled by Qin Ning.
“The truth will prove everything, and then everyone under heaven will know. You’ve been blinded, I don’t want to kill you!”
Qin Ning’s powerful fist made Lin Qiao’er spit out blood, her face turning pale, as she fell to the ground.
Qin Ning was no murderous demon lord. He coldly glanced at Lin Qiao’er before turning and disappearing into the darkness.
“Doesn’t want to kill me…” Lin Qiao’er’s expression turned vicious.
In Qin Ning’s eyes, she was merely someone who, if she sought to kill, would be killed.
“Qiao’er, Qiao’er!”
Not long after, shouts rang out.
“Second Brother, I’m here!”
Lin Qiao’er had already stood up by then.
A group of over a dozen people appeared before her.
Leading them was a fair-skinned, red-lipped youth, holding a longsword. Upon seeing Lin Qiao’er, he let out a sigh of relief.
“Huh, what happened to you?” Seeing his sister’s pale face, Lin Yongsheng was startled and cautiously looked around.
At this point, Lin Qiao’er recounted her encounter with Qin Ning to him.
“What did you say?”
Lin Yongsheng was astonished: “That guy has reached the sixth gate already?”
“Excellent, excellent!”
Lin Yongsheng snorted. “I thought the rumors of him humiliating Ling Feifei were false, but it seems a leopard truly can’t change its spots. The Ling family has allied with the Lin family and the Shen family, preparing to annihilate the Qin family. His death is not far off. But to think I’d meet him here, and he dared to bully my sister, I must cut him down!”
Lin Yongsheng looked ahead, his gaze cold.
“Young Master!”
Two old men behind him, radiating powerful auras, stood silently. One old man in green robes whispered, “This time we came for the Azure Kui Niu, we cannot let Qin Ning ruin our important mission!”
“I know!”
Lin Yongsheng waved his hand dismissively. “The Azure Kui Niu is just a spirit beast in its infancy. With two elders at the eighth gate cultivation level, how hard can it be to capture it?”
“As for that beast Qin Ning, he’s come at just the right time. We’ll just kill him while we’re at it!”
Upon hearing this, Lin Qiao’er’s eyes flashed with killing intent.
Achoo…
Qin Ning sneezed and looked around.
“Who’s cursing me?”
After muttering to himself, Qin Ning looked ahead again.
Logically speaking, if he remembered correctly, this should be the place, but why was it missing?
Qin Ning felt a strange sensation in his heart.
But after walking back and forth, he found nothing.
According to the map, it should be here!
At this moment, he was standing before a mountain crevice.
This crevice was filled only with sharp, jagged rocks, where no plants could grow, looking utterly desolate.
Upon closer inspection, the crevice resembled the head of a sheep, with small exits on both its left and right sides, but these were covered by rubble.
“Let’s go in and see!”
As he entered the crevice, a chilling yin energy gradually emanated.
Qin Ning had reached the sixth gate of the Jingmen realm, condensing spiritual energy around his body. The surge of yin energy enveloped him, but could not penetrate his body.
“This is the place!”
Qin Ning said happily as he went deeper into the crevice.
“But… where’s Xiao Qing?”
Qin Ning looked at the scene, feeling surprised.
“Xiao Qing!”
At this moment, Qin Ning disregarded whether his voice would attract ordinary beasts and simply called out “Xiao Qing”.
But there was no reply, no movement whatsoever.
Qin Ning called for a long time without a response, his heart sinking, then he looked ahead.
“Never mind, for now, I’ll just gather the Heavenly Fire Spirit Crystals for Second Brother first, and then figure things out later!”
Qin Ning went straight into the deepest part of the crevice. When he arrived, he only saw layers of rocks piled upon each other, nothing particularly special.
Tens of thousands of years had passed, and this place had become so desolate it was truly unbearable to behold.
It seemed to be utterly without structure. But suddenly, a deep rumble vibrated, emanating from within the gorge.