The young noble Huang Jingjun wore a faint smile. Whatever time this was, the boy's eyes still shone as he stared at the three-colored flower — truly a hunter from some backwater, with no grasp yet of his own situation.
His elder brother, Huang Jingde, was thoroughly at ease. Whether the youth was naively simple-minded or merely feigning it to stall for time, it mattered little.
"So there are such mysterious products beneath the earth," Qin Ming said. "Eat one and one can master Heaven Light Force?"
He was genuinely seeking to learn, his eyes holding that clear, untarnished purity particular to youth, utterly earnest, wanting to understand knowledge he had never once encountered.
"First you choose a Heaven Light Force to your liking and practice it to the threshold of mastery; that way, eating the three-colored flower gives the best result. Hmm, when I return I mean to pick another; I need to think it over carefully."
Huang Jingde chuckled, answering every question. Time remained plentiful, and idleness was idleness. A hunter who had but once undergone New Life — what waves could he stir? As a Third New Lifer, Huang Jingde could flip a palm and crush him flat.
"There are many kinds of Heaven Light Force. Is choosing one also a matter of some discernment?" Qin Ming, diligent and eager, asked outright, heedless of the occasion.
Huang Jingde nodded. "Of course. In the Third New Life one can barely manage to train a single kind of Heaven Light Force. Only as your realm rises can you train more, and a canny pairing of them can unleash all the more terrible power."
Qin Ming knit his brow. "How does one choose, how does one pair them well? These must be the truths that none of the advanced qi circulation manuals would readily part with, surely?"
Huang Jingde smiled. "Exactly. True teaching is a single sheet; false teaching is ten thousand scrolls. This is the core essence of that one sheet."
Qin Ming sighed. Who would easily share such core, essential truths?
Huang Jingde, being himself deep in the study of Heaven Light Force, had his own reflections on the matter. "Do you think those rare Heaven Light Forces come from nowhere? They are all the fruit of predecessors' tireless trial and error, fusing sundry techniques into new arrangements. Take the legendary Heaven-Supporting Force and Tathagata Force — those are even more precious, fusing who knows how many kinds of Heaven Light Force. Leak but a stray phrase of them and it would be worth a fortune."
As he spoke, Huang Jingde's face filled with longing. Such things were far beyond his reach, to be admired from a distance but never attained.
He gave a sigh. "Forget those legends; back to reality. Any Heaven Light Force of even modest fame has been 'tempered a thousand-fold,' fusing quite a few techniques. So the road of our generation is hard. Even with a single sheet of true teaching set before you, you must train every one of those densely written Heaven Light Forces upon it before you can gain mastery."
Qin Ming felt numb. Did the silk tome hold nothing on this subject? Or was it hidden on the third page? He was utterly confounded now — what was he to do?
"So there is no path for an ordinary man to rise?" he asked. "Without a single sheet of true teaching, one cannot train a mighty Heaven Light Force?"
Huang Jingde said, "There is. Those rare Heaven Light Forces, and the legendary doctrines of founding lineages, were all fused by predecessors. You, too, can go learn the more common Heaven Light Forces that circulate on the streets, train more of them, and fuse them yourself."
Seeing Qin Ming actually sink into thought, the young noble Huang Jingjun curled the corner of his mouth, unable to hold back. "You think Heaven Light Force is some shallow study? It is hard to practice; each kind is quite intricate. How many kinds do you think you'll master in a lifetime?"
Qin Ming seemed to come back to himself. "If you're leaving now to choose a new Heaven Light Force instead of eating the three-colored flower here," he said, "aren't you afraid the potency will seep away?"
Huang Jingde said, "No matter. It's so cold that once ripe it will keep two months or more; kept in a jade box, longer still."
He studied Qin Ming with a weighing gaze. "You've asked me so many questions — are you playing the fool, or do you truly have backbone to stand on?"
Qin Ming answered, unconcerned, "Zhou Wubing is my junior in the art, and Master Xu Kong is my senior, and they are near at hand. What do you think?"
Huang Jingde stared a moment, then chuckled. "You may not know that Master Xu Kong took Zhou Wubing and left this backwater yesterday."
Qin Ming was taken aback. Er Bingzi had already set out on his travels — it seemed he would not get to trounce the fellow for a while.
"Here, catch. Later you'll go pluck the three-colored flower." Huang Jingde tossed Qin Ming a jade box — untroubled by the thought of damage, for he carried more than one on his person.
Qin Ming caught it and walked aside, burying the box beneath a pile of rubble with an air of great care, as though fearful of harming it.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I was afraid it would shatter during the fight," Qin Ming answered plainly.
He had long since seen that, for all Huang Jingde's cheerful demeanor, he gave no opening. Any hope of a surprise strike was out of the question. This, too, would be a hard battle.
"Your feigned madness won't change a thing." The younger Huang Jingjun stepped forward. "Let me teach you a lesson first."
"You're not up to it," Qin Ming stated plainly. "Nie Rui and Shen Jiayun were no match for me. You're far beneath them."
Huang Jingjun wore a cold smile. "You wouldn't have let a bit of flattery from the young men of Redcloud City persuade you that you're truly something special, would you?"
He sneered. "A man of but your first New Life, and you dare put on airs before me? Until you've reached the Second New Life, you're nothing in my eyes!"
With a clang he drew a long blade that gleamed coldly. "You excel at spear-play, and yet you don't even have a decent weapon to show for it."
"I can use any weapon at all," Qin Ming said. From his back he drew a gleaming long blade, of even higher quality than Huang Jingjun's.
After all, it had belonged to that Third New Lifer of Golden Ridge.
Huang Jingjun's face went cold and set. He said no more — he simply lunged, the long blade sweeping a blinding arc of light as it cleaved straight down.
In his own reckoning, his Second New Life gave him a might close to twelve hundred jin, more than enough to run down this hunter boy; a single stroke would lay him out.
Qin Ming made but two moves. First, he struck crosswise with the flat of his blade against the other's — with no holding back — and the force at once sent a tremor up Huang Jingjun's arm. He could not keep his grip; his hand fell open of its own accord.
Moreover, his palm ran with blood, the immense force tearing the soft flesh between his fingers. He was thunderstruck, then seized by terror, and fell back at speed.
Qin Ming's second move was to cut forward. Swift as Huang Jingjun's reaction was in leaping back, he did not fully evade.
Amid a shower of sparks, his fine armor burst apart, and shards of broken plate, stained with blood, spun through the air and scattered everywhere.
From shoulder to belly, Huang Jingjun took a wound so ghastly he was nearly cleaved in two on the slant. With a shriek he toppled, and through the great torn gash in his chest and belly, part of his organs was already visible.
"Weak," Qin Ming judged. Then, ignoring him, he turned his gaze to Huang Jingde across the way.
"Brother..." Huang Jingjun cried in a trembling voice. Though he had not yet expired, he knew that unless he were treated at once he could not live.
Huang Jingde came charging in, a silver spear in hand, all trace of his earlier peace and ease gone.
He had previously looked down on Qin Ming, so he had taken him lightly, and in the good-humored conversation there had been more than a trace of mockery. Now that he saw the danger Qin Ming posed, he erupted at once.
Qin Ming was unafraid. He had fought Third New Lifers before and had the experience now; this time he faced the foe with the long blade of that Golden Ridge elder.
With a clang he cut out, knocking the fierce thrusting spear aside from its course, then drove forward with the blade. The gleaming knife-light trembled and churned like a white, dizzying surf at the meeting of sea and sky, seeking to drown his opponent.
Huang Jingde's gaze was cold. He held the spear in one hand and, with the other, sent forth a pristine white Heaven Light to slap the flat of the blade — he, too, meant to knock it aside.
He did strike the blade's side with precision, but he could not fully deflect it. The force of that cut was too enormous. Faintly he had the illusion that the blade-light truly surged within the meeting point of sea and sky, with rumbling white breakers crashing forth.
Huang Jingde dodged with all speed, yet even so part of the armor upon his chest shattered. That one grazing cut had held such devastating power, far beyond what he had expected — even above his own, a Third New Lifer's!
A faint streak of blood appeared on his chest.
"Impossible?" Lying on the ground in agony, Huang Jingjun could not believe his eyes. His own brother, a great expert of the Third New Life realm, had been put at a disadvantage even in the very first exchange?
Yet he clearly saw no Heaven Light flowing about the youth as he fought — which meant he had not yet undergone a Third New Life. How, then, could he already have such chilling strength?
"I was careless. I never imagined a man who has not yet mastered Heaven Light Force could be this mighty — able to match a Third New Lifer." Huang Jingde's expression grew grave. He gripped the silver spear with both hands, his spirit at full focus, taking up the stance of a death struggle, prepared to give everything.
Hearing his brother's assessment, Huang Jingjun clutched his wound and coughed, blood flowing all the more. He truly could not accept that the hunter boy could be this preposterously strong.
Qin Ming, too, turned solemn. Though Huang Jingde was far younger than the Golden Ridge elder, in skill he might prove even tougher.
Sure enough, on their second clash Huang Jingde grew far more savage than before. The silver spear in his hand seemed to become a dragon roaming the mist, baring claws and fangs as if it had come alive, stabbing ceaselessly at every vital point on Qin Ming's body.
At the same time, his other hand would occasionally flash into a blade-hand, and when it drew near, he would whip it forward without warning.
Yet he never once broke through Qin Ming's defense; each time the layered knife-light turned him back.
Most vexing of all, the youth still carried a great hammer in his left hand, and more than once it came down with precision upon his blade-hand, bringing pain enough to stun.
The two clashed for a long, fierce while. Against a Heaven Light-shielded Third New Lifer, Qin Ming had no better device than to keep attacking, relying on his overwhelming strength and exquisite blade-work to force the man time and again to spend Heaven Light in defense, and so exhaust him quickly.
In the distance, the three-colored flower gleamed and shimmered; some of its petals were opening, and the luminous mist around that region rolled ever thicker — plainly the spirit-flower was near ripe.
Even at a distance the fragrance could be smelled, and the three-colored petals grew ever more crystalline, slowly turning brilliant, spilling out great sheets of luminous rain — mysterious and extraordinary in the extreme.
"Just how many kinds of Heaven Light Force can this spirit-flower help a man master? Truly something to look forward to!" Qin Ming's eyes burned hot.
His fighting spirit rose higher still. He wanted to end the battle soon, so he could go pluck the three-colored flower that was about to ripen — and so he burst into full eruption.
In that instant Qin Ming let fly his strongest cut. It seemed to him that he stood in a rainy night, lightning carving, thunder rolling, rain sheeting down; in that black darkness his blade-intent seethed, the power of his spirit soared, and the long blade swept as if to sever the whole black sky and cut apart the torrent of lightning overhead.
Dread rose on Huang Jingde's face, for the youth's cut was too terrible — it came borne on endless thunder-light, wrapped in mist and rain, seeming to split this underground cavern and cleave away all that stood in its path.
He dodged with desperate speed, but the long blade drew ever nearer, and there was no avoiding it. He raised his silver spear to parry, but a great force hurled it aside.
In the pallor of his face, the cut arrived.
Huang Jingde roared. Both hands on the spear, he thrust it crosswise beneath the blade — how could he permit himself to be split clean in two? With a clang it was as though a mountain pressed down upon him. His silver spear was flung away, and at the same moment agony exploded in his shoulder; his right arm fell to the ground, blood spraying.
He had kept his life for the moment, but he had utterly lost the strength to fight. He staggered backward, half his body drenched in blood.
"You... are not only skilled with the spear?" From the ground where he lay dying, Huang Jingjun voiced his desperate question.
"I use the blade rather well too," Qin Ming answered.