Second New Life

Late at night, heaven and earth were black as ink, and all things had lost their colors. The entire village was reduced to nothing but extremely blurry outlines.

Qin Ming was processing the Blood Snake. The hide of this Spiritual Creature was simply too hard to peel; its scales were tougher than refined iron, and the Firewood Chopping Knife rang with clangs whenever it struck them.

If he was even slightly careless, those crimson scales could slice open his fingers. They looked as though they had been forged from pieces of refined gold. If they were made into armor, their defensive power would surely be astonishing.

Qin Ming tossed the Firewood Chopping Knife aside and prepared to switch to a sharper weapon. Two days ago, besides giving him the Long-handled Black Gold Hammer, Mu Qing had also given him a short sword.

He tried it. Though it was not as sharp as the longsword wielded by that sallow-faced man, if he gripped the short sword tightly and put in more force, it could barely be used to peel the snake's skin.

Qin Ming was exceptionally focused. After using the short sword to peel open the skin at one end of the great snake, he tugged downward with force. It was immediately much easier than cutting directly.

Several Sun Stones gave off a gentle glow, illuminating the Blood Snake's body in glistening scarlet and brilliant red, as though it had been polished from a single piece of jade.

As the crimson snake skin was gradually peeled away, the exposed flesh was snowy white and delicate. The snake gallbladder was not the dull color of an ordinary snake's; it gleamed blue, transparent as a gemstone.

Qin Ming had already noticed that both the snake meat and its gallbladder contained dense, vigorous spirituality. They were even faintly glowing and had to be first-rate tonics.

"No wonder the people from Red Haze City immediately tore off their hypocritical masks when they saw it, willing to kill and rob for it."

He cut the snake meat into sections with the short sword. After carefully washing them clean, he immediately set water to boil. If he could undergo Second New Life sooner, he would never put it off until the next day.

In this environment, he felt a sense of crisis. All manner of demons and monsters had arrived, and the great clans and organizations of Red Haze City were appearing one after another. Who knew what would happen in the mountains next?

These people were all searching for "Nodes" in the mountains. Every special area was accompanied by anomalous phenomena, and the Land of Four Illuminations by Five-Colored Haze was especially something they craved beyond measure. They were willing to offer extremely rare advanced scriptures as rewards for clues.

Ever since the mountain's magnetic field had fallen into disorder, Fire Spring had gone out and then been reborn, while all sorts of strange occurrences had taken place.

"And another group of advanced creatures has migrated here from afar, bringing their whole households with them and seizing the resources of the mountain range." Qin Ming pondered whether this supposed migration was merely a smokescreen. Could those newly arrived Top-Tier Aberrants also be searching for something?

The snake meat was already in the pot. As time passed, a rich fragrance gradually rose up, swiftly pulling Qin Ming back from his thoughts and making his mouth water at once.

The wind and snow raged in the dead of night. Inside the house, the pot of snake meat gave off an intoxicating aroma. Qin Ming's appetite was truly stirred, and he patiently waited for it to cook through completely.

"It really is fragrant, and incredibly fresh." After taking his first bite, his eyes lit up. This Spiritual Creature was far more delicious than ordinary snakes, as if they were two entirely different species.

He had originally felt somewhat repulsed by snakes, but now he did not care in the slightest. In his eyes, this was "dragon meat" on the ground.

After only a few bites, Qin Ming felt warmth rise within his body. The effect was immediate; the Spiritual Matter had begun to work so quickly.

"The gallbladder can be steamed, or soaked in strong old wine and eaten. Sigh, there's no wine at home, so I have no choice."

As he ate the snake meat, he placed the gleaming blue gallbladder into the steamer basket. It contained mysterious spiritual essence, so he needed to keep a close eye on it.

A moment later, the gallbladder, like a huge blue diamond, was thoroughly cooked. Qin Ming no longer cared about the snake meat and began enjoying the true "main course."

"My... Mountain God, heavens above, my heart is suffering so!" Qin Ming had taken only one bite when he felt his tongue go numb from bitterness. Looking at himself in the mirror, he found that even his mouth had turned a gleaming blue.

He knew snake gallbladders were bitter and had been mentally prepared, but the gallbladder, condensed from the essence of the Blood Snake, was far more bitter than he had expected.

In that instant, even the snake meat no longer smelled appetizing. The bitterness had numbed him.

He hurriedly drank a mouthful of fresh, fragrant snake soup, washing that bitterness down into his stomach. Yet it did little; a dense bitterness still spread through his mouth.

In terms of taste alone, even a dog would not eat this thing. It was enough to make even a New Life Evolver who had built a foundation surpassing the Golden Foundation unable to bear it.

Qin Ming had not swallowed it in one gulp, mainly because the gallbladder was rather large. Besides, he felt that chewing it to pieces would make it easier to absorb the spiritual essence and allow him to undergo Second New Life more quickly.

His good mood from enjoying delicacies all evening was nearly bittered away. Looking at the more than half that remained, he gritted his teeth. Since it was already like this, he might as well keep chewing slowly.

After Qin Ming ate the entire gallbladder, he looked in the mirror and found that his lips seemed to have been painted an enchanting blue, giving him an indescribably strange air.

"Good thing I ate this in the dead of night. If it were Shallow Night, I wouldn't be able to face anyone!"

However, the gallbladder's effects were truly ferocious and exceptionally potent. Not long after it entered his stomach, his entire body began heating up as though he had come down with a high fever.

Qin Ming remained calm and continued eating snake meat, not only to suppress that bitter taste but also to add another blaze of spirituality to his body.

By the end, his body had become scorching hot, like a furnace brimming with life. It drove back the bitter cold of winter, and his whole body was glowing.

"Food supplements, medicinal cuisine—the effects are here!" Qin Ming rose to his feet, grabbed the Long-handled Black Gold Hammer, and entered the courtyard to practice the killing moves from that Sword Manual.

For a time, all the snow on the ground surged into the night sky. White mist coiled around his body, faint light flowed across his skin, and life surged through his flesh and blood. Whenever he swung the great hammer, it brought bursts of wind and thunder.

Qin Ming's Essence, Qi, and Spirit kept rising. He knew that Second New Life had begun. It was a process, not something achieved in one stroke.

Yet he could clearly sense the changes. His strength was increasing, his tendons and ligaments seemed to be stretching, his senses were becoming sharper, and his eyesight was growing stronger as well.

"Every New Life process is so intoxicating. As I feel myself growing stronger, even the night, so dense it could not be melted, seems to have lightened a little."

A great amount of vital power surged within Qin Ming. His entire body seemed to be purified and baptized, while his muscles and bones appeared to resonate together with a rumbling roar.

Beneath the night curtain, his body was like a furnace, visibly glowing.

It was as though some secret flame burned within his flesh and blood, cutting away Old Turbidity, fostering New Life, tempering his Essence, Qi, and Spirit, and accelerating the flourishing changes within him.

Qin Ming swung the Long-handled Black Gold Hammer in the courtyard, constantly exhausting himself. Only after his hair was damp and his whole body drenched in sweat did he return to the house.

He sat quietly inside, silently sensing the changes in his body.

Then he pondered whether his body would grow again after Second New Life. According to Old Man Liu, the changes to one's body varied greatly depending on the Willpower Skill and Meditation Technique one chose.

Next, he would verify the quality of the "Wild Style" he practiced and see what sort of changes it would bring about in his body.

Qin Ming had originally been half a head taller than ordinary people, and after his first New Life, he had grown nearly another two inches.

That evening, when he had spoken with Old Man Liu and Xu Yueping about New Life, both of them felt that the change in his height was not particularly obvious, because some people could shoot up by a whole head.

Old Man Liu had rich life experience. In his youth, he had been very close to the older generation of Mountain Patrol members and had heard many anecdotes about New Life.

"After practicing some Willpower Skills, every New Life makes the body swell like a blown bubble, growing taller and larger. But only part of it forms a sturdy Golden Body; more of it is a clay body. So once many New Life Methods reach a certain stage, they have to suppress the body from continuing to grow taller." This was one of the situations Old Man Liu described.

He particularly mentioned that some secretly transmitted Willpower Skills were exceptionally precious. After practicing them, certain extremely mysterious changes would occur, such as growing a third eye. Some sacred legends had arisen for this very reason.

Such secret manuals were far too rare. Even many great clans could not come into contact with them.

While drinking, Old Man Liu sank into memories and recounted all the anecdotes those older Mountain Patrol members had told him in his early years. He went on to describe several special New Life Methods and the various strange changes and effects corresponding to them.

Finally, he also mentioned a New Life Method that required one to maintain the body's Golden Foundation proportions from the earliest stages, rather than allowing the body to shoot up wildly.

As Old Man Liu drank, he looked at Qin Ming and said drunkenly, "I think the changes in your height won't be all that obvious."

Qin Ming was very calm. He only needed to wait quietly for two days to find out which direction the New Life Method he practiced truly leaned toward.

For the first time, he felt that information here was indeed somewhat cut off. He imagined that the New Life Evolvers in Red Haze City understood all this clearly, while he could only gather bits and pieces from what he heard.

What was more, some people did not advance by relying on New Life at all; there were other paths they could take. Those things were simply too distant for him, leaving him with no way to learn about them.

After sitting quietly for a long time, Qin Ming felt hungry. The changes from his Second New Life were extremely obvious, so he immediately began eating snake soup to replenish what his body needed with food rich in spirituality.

Finally, after washing his body with cold water, he entered dreamland in the silent dead of night.

Before falling asleep, he hazily saw the Jade Suit Sewn with Gold Threads appear over his body once more. Silver Light covered him, golden threads interwove, and it looked quite mystical.

Qin Ming went from light sleep into deep slumber, then eventually drifted into a state between dreaming and waking.

He felt himself sleeping deeply, his body and mind completely relaxed and well-rested, yet part of his consciousness remained active.

In that half-awake state, he seemed to see a dust-covered black cloth obscuring his subconscious and blocking his sight, preventing him from seeing what lay behind it.

But during the process of Second New Life, that dust was gradually blown away, and one corner of the black cloth was lifted. Then he saw himself in his ignorant childhood.

Though he was between dreaming and waking, Qin Ming realized that Second New Life had comprehensively enhanced his body, even strengthening his spiritual consciousness. This caused memories that had blurred during his childhood to surface as well.

In a haze, it was as though someone whispered by his ear, "This kind of path... though it has quite an origin, can no longer be practiced to completion."

Then, through that lifted corner of the black cloth, Qin Ming saw a rough, large hand holding a very thin ancient booklet, opening it to the first page before his childhood self...