Chapter 68 Returning to the World of Daylight

The desert was “offended” once again, and the whole world changed color. Sand and stones flew, and the night fog surged like waves crashing against the majestic mountains beside the rugged path.

Qin Ming was dumbfounded. What was this mountain lord doing? With such high skills, why couldn’t he take the conventional path? The smell of that urine was too strong, too irritating!

At this moment, Meng Xinghai transmitted his voice to him using a secret method: “In a few days, you can go to Chixia City to find me and find out what’s going on. Even a thousand-year-old family still has its pride. If the Cui family changes their mind and doesn’t force you to stay in this remote place, then the problem isn’t too serious.”

Qin Ming looked back through the sandstorm and expressed his gratitude to the new city lord.

Meng Xinghai, Li Qingyue, and Cui Hong quickly rushed out of the desert; the environment in this area was simply too harsh.

On the rugged path in the distance, Xu Sheng’s face was grim. What happened again today? And it’s even more serious than yesterday!

He really wanted to quit. As a traveling merchant, he felt it was too dangerous. This industry had no future. Not to mention the team he was leading, even he himself was so shocked that he wanted to shout.

“Don’t panic, everyone. This has nothing to do with us. We have always been in awe of the desert…” Before Xu Sheng could finish speaking, he felt a woman hanging on his back, sobbing, her sharp nails constantly scratching his neck.

On the pitch-black path, nothing could be seen, and the woman’s sobbing was chilling: “Waaah… I see so many dark shadows, I’m so scared.”

Xu Sheng was no longer calm. He thought to himself, “Aren’t you an anomaly? What are you afraid of?” He was genuinely scared now. The long fingernails on those hairy “slender hands” were like iron hooks, and he couldn’t pry them open at all.

He made up his mind that if he could reach Chixia City safely this time, he would immediately change careers and stop being a traveling merchant.

…

“You’re going to keep offending the desert like this, won’t you be held a grudge?” Qin Ming’s mouth was full of sand as he spoke. Braving the strong wind and sandstorm, he quickly took out a gray robe to cover his head and face.

“It’s alright, I’m a member of a secret sect, and I have ritual implements for some kind of ceremony in the desert, so I can pass through smoothly.” The wild boar swished its little tail and nimbly stepped across the yellow sand.

Qin Ming was taken aback. Was this a member of a secret sect?

“We don’t really need to be so intense,” he couldn’t help but ask.

The old wild boar said, “Beware of that white wolf secretly following us as it travels through the desert. Anyone who has performed a blood sacrifice ritual before is afraid of it. If it dares to come, it will scare it to death.”

Qin Ming learned the situation: the white wolf was the new mountain lord. It had performed some kind of mysterious ritual in the mountains, worshipping the tomb of the beast god, and its cultivation level had greatly increased.

“The Beast God… is dead?” He looked surprised.

The miniature wild boar said, “It was just a powerful creature. Who knows if it’s dead or not. That might be its fur grave, which the white-haired old wolf found. Otherwise, with that white-eyed wolf’s previous power, it would have been eating my ass. Now, it’s my turn to run for my life. Sigh, what goes around comes around. I haven’t had much luck these past two years.”

“There’s something around us!” Qin Ming said, holding the mutton-fat jade iron knife horizontally in front of him.

All around, yellow sand churned, thick fog billowed, and dark shadows loomed. More than a dozen teams, carrying dark green torches, illuminated the distance with a bleak, green glow as they approached.

The wild boar remained calm: “It’s alright, nothing to be surprised about. Their strangeness will dissipate on its own. I have ritual artifacts for sacrificing to the desert, they can’t do anything to us.”

Green torches danced in the air as giant beasts, dozens of meters tall, strode past them, bringing with them a stench of decay and the unpleasant smell of burning corpses.

Qin Ming remained on guard, but gradually adjusted. Although the strange signs were moving around nearby, they did not attack them, so he simply ignored them.

“You come from a Tantric sect. Isn’t it said that members of that sect have great reverence for the desert, considering it a place related to the gods?”

The old wild boar said, “There isn’t just one kind of Tantric religion. Some organizations revere the gods, worship them, and visualize them in their hearts, wanting to use their power for their own purposes. Other Tantric religions have bigger ambitions, wanting to subdue those ‘phenomena’ or ‘realms’ and turn them into their own, so that they can become gods themselves.”

Qin Ming was surprised and gained a new understanding of both Tantric Buddhism and the desert.

Old Wild Boar must have joined a cult with ambitious aspirations, otherwise he wouldn’t have this attitude.

“I’m not leaving. My mouth is full of sand from eating. Set up your tent, I’m taking a nap here. By the way, did you really see that one-armed swordsmanship master?”

Qin Ming replied, “I have seen it. He taught me swordsmanship through the thick fog. It was like a spiritual resonance, or like a dream.”

The old wild boar looked grave and said, “Could it be that they’ve changed their ways and taken the path of those who live outside the secular world?”

“You’ve met my master before?” Qin Ming asked.

“My father saw it. He witnessed him cleave the mountain lord in two with a single stroke. The blade flashed, tearing through the night and cutting off the torrential rain. It was terrifying!”

Not long after, Qin Ming asked, “You said you wanted to repay a debt of gratitude and settle a karmic debt in the mountains, but how come I don’t know when I saved you?”

The old wild boar gritted its teeth and said, “That white wolf was truly vicious and ruthless. After severely injuring me, it didn’t kill me immediately. Instead, it shattered my spirituality, turning me, a dignified mountain lord, back into an ordinary mountain beast dominated by animalistic instincts. It wanted me to become food for other ferocious beasts in the mountains and die a miserable death. At that time, I was lost. I was only lucid for a short time each day. Most of the time, I was in the state of an ordinary mountain beast. It was truly a case of a pig falling into the plains being bullied by dogs. I remember you even tried to shoot me with a bow and arrow back then.”

Qin Ming was certain; it really was that 1,500-1,600 jin (750-600 kg) wild boar that had chased him relentlessly.

“Luckily, I had a backup plan. As the saying goes, a cunning pig has three burrows. I left behind some very rare spiritual substance in the second burrow, which is below the blood snake’s den. After you eliminated that den of blood snakes, I was nearby in my primal beast state. When I regained some consciousness, I rushed in and recovered most of my strength, escaping the mountains. Although you didn’t intentionally save me, it was because of this that I had a turning point. Since we met by chance, let’s settle this karmic debt.”

Qin Ming never expected that the Blood Snake Nest didn’t contain the three-mutated Blood Snakes that Old Liu suspected might exist, and there was actually a pigsty down below.

Soon, from the tent buried in yellow sand, came a deafening snoring sound. It looked like a small, delicate pig, but the noise it made was so loud that even the large groups of dark figures nearby couldn’t stand it and retreated to a distance.

Of course, it is also very possible that the terrifying blood energy flowing through the old wild boar’s body while it was sleeping was too masculine, which made those strange omens blurry.

It took a nap and the next day passed without it.

The desert is now calm; the strange omens and fog have all dissipated, leaving only absolute darkness.

“Let’s go!” it led the way.

Qin Ming, on the contrary, was unwilling to go out immediately, worried that Cui Hong would be waiting for him outside.

“I don’t want to go out, even if I keep going along the edge of the desert,” the old wild boar said, worried that the white wolf hadn’t given up and was trying to ambush it from the outside.

It would occasionally come to the rugged mountain road and imitate strange bird calls. Then Qin Ming saw several chattering sparrows flying over from the neighboring mountains to report the situation to it.

Qin Ming was envious and discussed with the old wild boar, asking if it could do him a favor and send a Yuque to Chixia City to visit the city lord’s mansion.

Cui Hong searched the entire road but couldn’t find Qin Ming. He then immediately went to look for Cui Chongyi. He was truly exhausted.

“Will-o’-the-wisp!” Qin Ming murmured on the edge of the desert, discovering what appeared to be a hazy place in the vast desert.

“Wow, this is a really nice place. That’s a fire spring, which is usually hidden, but it’s been accidentally exposed now. It’s mainly because we’re so close by. If we were a little further away, the darkness of the desert would engulf everything, and we wouldn’t be able to see anything.”

The old wild boar was overjoyed; this desert oasis was its ideal hiding place, and it didn’t want to leave the desert at this stage.

“Meng Xinghai comes from a family with a thousand-year history, so he is definitely more powerful than Ling Xu. Now that he has destroyed Jinji Ridge, this stronghold is probably not safe either. Let’s not stay here and retreat as soon as possible.”

As Qin Ming approached, he heard a group of people talking. This was another occasional hideout used by the Gold Thieves, usually frequented only by ordinary bandits.

“We’re going to Maple Leaf City. That guy surnamed Meng is too difficult to deal with. Even the big shots in the Golden Bandit gang don’t want to go up against him.”

“Let’s get ready to go. This place has been haunted by howling winds and ghostly figures for the past two days. Although we’re used to it, it still feels creepy.”

“Count the number of people, one, two, three… ten?!”

The bandit leader panicked. This place was really just a stopover, unlike Jinji Ridge where a large number of people had gathered. Only nine people were left to guard it. How come there was one more person here?

“One, two… ten!” He was not giving up and counted again, and immediately felt a chill run down his spine.

The other bandits panicked too. They looked at each other, sensing that something was wrong. They had just covered the fire spring with stone slabs, so there was almost no light here.

“Run!” they shouted in an uproar.

…

Five days later, a magpie flew back from Crimson Cloud City, bringing a letter. Meng Xinghai, the new city lord of Crimson Cloud City, told Qin Ming that the Cui family’s attitude had softened.

“In the next few years, I cannot go to Qinghe City where the Cui family is located, nor should I go to Qianxing City. I cannot use the name Cui Chonghe, and I cannot identify myself as a member of the Cui family for the time being. I may be able to return to the Cui family in a few years.”

Qin Ming looked at the letter. The words on it were not the original words of the Cui family, but a subtle reminder given to him by Meng Xinghai after interpreting them.

“What kind of place is Thousand Star City?” he pondered, and soon a hazy image of a girl appeared in his mind. She seemed to love to laugh and was related to Thousand Star City.

He rubbed his aching temples, stopping himself from thinking about it any longer. He would focus on his fourth rebirth soon, fully recovering his memories so that everything would become clear.

Qin Ming originally wanted to give up on Chixia City and go to a more distant place, but after discovering Meng Xinghai’s goodwill, he thought that it might be safer there.

Qin Ming knew that Meng Xinghai’s help was probably not out of any appreciation for talent. After all, they had only met once, and he had no need to get involved in the Cui family’s internal affairs.

“Thank you, Li Qingyue.” Qin Ming stood by the fire spring in the desert, gazing at the dark night sky in the distance.

Meanwhile, in the city lord’s mansion of Chixia City, Li Qingyue was talking with Meng Xinghai about Qin Ming.

“Given his current situation, those of us who know him well shouldn’t get too close to him. Otherwise, his situation might get even worse. However, after he leaves the Cui family, those familiar people, some so-called ‘friends,’ will probably avoid him like the plague, severing all ties and becoming complete strangers.”

…

Qin Ming stayed in this desert oasis for eleven days before preparing to set off for Crimson Cloud City.

Cui Hong did indeed take Cui Chongyi on a tour of the desert for several days, hoping to see Qin Ming again, but they ultimately failed to do so.

“Take care, and may you one day regain your position as the master of Black and White Mountain.” Qin Ming bid farewell to the old wild boar.

“Forget it, I’ve seen through it. No one can suppress Black and White Mountain without earth-shattering power. After all, it once suffocated all sides. Although it has collapsed, it is not a place that ordinary beings can take over. Almost all the mountain lords in the past have met with bad ends.”

The old wild boar shook its head, looking enlightened, and said, “This place is not bad either. I will openly surrender here and lie low in the dark desert. No one can do anything to me. A gentleman takes his revenge even after a hundred years.”

Qin Ming set off, and two days later he approached Chixia City. Looking out over the city, he saw a radiant scene, and guessed that the fire springs inside the city were of a high grade, which could ensure that the night was as bright as day.

As Qin Ming approached the city, his emotions surged. Although he was new to the place, he felt no sense of unfamiliarity.

Many blurry images surfaced in his mind, which were his past experiences in the great city of Qinghe.

After two years of hiding in a dark and remote place, he returned to the city with “daylight”.

Qin Ming’s thoughts were in turmoil. In recent days, the fragmented memories in his mind have been constantly being reassembled, and some people and events are slowly being remembered.

“When I was still Cui Chonghe, I had many old friends in Qinghe City, knew many important members of large families, and even met some people from outside the secular world. I also had dealings with the direct descendants of several thousand-year-old families. I used to be surrounded by a large number of friends, and I was surrounded by friends everywhere.”

With a sigh, he returned to the world of “Daylight” as Qin Ming. If he encountered some old acquaintances, how many would still be willing to greet him? He feared that even if they met, they would no longer recognize each other.