Every contact leaves a trace

"I am—your father!"

Qin Ming's body glowed, and he shook his head violently, rejecting the overwhelming torrent of breathtaking images—an endless stream of information.

Who can replace him?

However, he did feel a strong sense of unease, and his most primal intuition told him that there was indeed something wrong deep within his soul.

"Insolence!" the golden Xin Yuan snapped.

Then he sighed and said, "What are you rejecting? Are you just deceiving yourself?"

He looked down, his enormous face looming down a considerable distance, causing the boundless world of the mind to collapse, Thunderfire roared, and the earth shattered into pieces.

His booming voice caused the void to tremble and vibrate as he said, "Without my accumulation, how could you have reached such heights so quickly, becoming one of the most extraordinary Anomalies of our time?"

His eyes became incredibly deep, and he said, "Our rise to power is all due to our continuous arduous cultivation."

Qin Ming said, "I am Heavenly Prodigy. If I had to endure the hardships of life like you, how could I possibly rise to power? I might as well just kill myself!"

The golden ape said, "You're running away. You should already know that I am the Lord of Jade Capital, and you are my Xin Yuan."

"Roll."

Qin Ming swung his sword, slashing towards the enormous face in the sky!

With a deafening roar, the sky collapsed, the entire firmament crumbled, and the enormous, boundless face revealed a cold expression, its golden fur dancing and tearing through the void.

Then, a giant golden hand pressed down, creating a violent surge of air, like crashing waves, shattering even space and time.

Such power is astonishing and awe-inspiring; even Heavenly Immortal would tremble upon seeing it.

The ground beneath Qin Ming's feet collapsed, and he sank downwards, but he continued to swing his blade, slashing upwards.

"Is this truly the Lord of Jade Capital? Let me see whether you'll slap me to death or crumble on your own."

The next instant, Qin Ming felt a chill run down his spine. Could he have been wrong? He felt an omnipresent pressure, as if the Light of the Mind was about to be extinguished.

However, he did not yield and still chose to wield his knife.

At the crucial moment, in the mysterious area of his Subconscious, a Golden Palace appeared, its tiles covered with gilded gold, its jade walls shimmering with a clear light, and auspicious light emanating from within the gate, solemn and sacred.

At the same time, a voice rang out. "A wanderer returns from afar; your name shall be added to the family genealogy."

Qin Ming was no stranger to this; he had experienced it in the Land of Fate years ago, and this was the second time he had heard this phrase.

Today, the Secret Metal reappeared, shining brightly with auspicious clouds stretching for billions of feet. Even the giant hand that blotted out the sky was blurred by its light, and then it began to burn.

Qin Ming's pupils contracted. What's going on?

He was somewhat lost in thought, and then he really wanted to say: Good heavens!

All the strange things within him erupted today.

A grand voice resounded throughout this spiritual world from the Golden Palace, saying, "You dare claim that my clan's Kirin Child is a mere manifestation of your Xin Yuan Parasitism Method? Even if you have an immense background, get out of my way!"

"Hehe----" The golden ape sneered repeatedly as he reappeared.

Boom!

A giant hand emerged from the Golden Palace, clashing with the monstrous ape's hand in the sky, causing the entire world to collapse inch by inch, threatening to turn into a chaotic land.

In an instant, the Inverted Jade Capital appeared, magnificent and boundless.

Golden Palace, not to be outdone, instantly expanded its size to confront it.

At the same time, Golden Palace reached out another hand towards Qin Ming, saying, "Come, child, I'll take you home."

In an instant, Qin Ming teleported, retreating an infinite distance.

A gentle voice came from within the Golden Palace, saying, "Child, do you have grievances against us?"

With a thunderous roar, a man clad in Nine-Colored Armor descended from the Inverted Jade Capital. No longer in his golden Xin Yuan form, he exuded great majesty and charged straight toward the Golden Palace.

This was no less than the end of the world. Qin Ming's mental world continued to collapse, and he staggered backward, his Light of Consciousness almost extinguished.

He stepped onto the golden arched bridge, reaching the horizon, far from the battlefield.

"All dharmas resonate, ultimately returning to the Fundamental Scripture!"

He roared, disregarding the cost, forcibly incorporating even the Supreme True Scripture that he couldn't integrate at the moment, all in order to blend various wondrous methods and obtain the strongest protective means.

For example, there's the complete version of the Yin-Yang Scripture, the true meaning of the "Myriad Aperture Illumination Art" personally demonstrated by the chairman not long ago, and the complete Longevity Force presented by the jade armor on the Two Figurines.

Qin Ming's physical body and Mental Field were both glowing, resonating with all laws.

Rumble!

His mental world collapsed, the thick fog receded like a tide, and Qin Ming broke free from the terrifying Spirit Domain. His body and spirit resonated, and his consciousness became clearer than ever before.

In the distance, both Inner Demon Dao Venerable, their mouths and noses bleeding, suddenly opened their eyes.

In addition, countless petals fell from the sky, stained with traces of blood. The female Dao Venerable sat cross-legged in the distant void, a touch of crimson at the corner of her mouth.

"Did I just get hit?" Qin Ming realized that his physical body was in a state of extreme tension, his Chaos Force had been pushed to its strongest level, his Primordial One Qi was surging, and the Heavenly Light was burning fiercely.

Outside its body, the opponent's various magical attacks were fading.

Of course, the most difficult hurdle is the battle of wits, which even Qin Ming, who was just caught up in, found difficult to break free of for a while.

"What I just experienced wasn't entirely fake; it was amplified by my own anxieties, and at the same time, some traces left by those people were activated!" Qin Ming exclaimed in shock.

He looked inward and traced back to where he found that Wu Yao had left some marks in his body. These marks were very subtle and not threatening, and had been mostly washed away by his own vigorous Blood Qi.

"External Demons —I once stripped Li Wanfa of his essence and refined it, so there are some hidden dangers."

Qin Ming's expression was more solemn than ever before. The great crisis he had encountered in his mental world earlier could actually correspond to reality.

It did not appear out of thin air.

"The Lord of Jade Capital, I—I truly had contact with him."

Back then, before engaging in the Supreme Blood Battle with the Sky Race, Ancestral Abyss, and Totem Civilization, geniuses like Qin Ming and Tang Yushang were gathered together for special training.

At that time, when choosing the fragments of treasures that could be melted into liquid, Qin Ming and the others entered a Great Abyss, where many weapons that had gone mad were imprisoned. The abyss was also known as the Madman Abyss, and one of the nine-colored weapons was suspected to have been left behind by the Lord of Jade Capital.

"Hiss, so there was some hidden danger back then?"

Qin Ming carefully examined himself, trying to eliminate all potential threats.

"Well, the remnant spirits of Wu Yao, the Lord of Jade Capital, and others only left a mark on me. They were already powerless to cause trouble back then, and their influence was far less than I imagined."

Having seen through the essence, Qin Ming took out the Chaotic Fire he had obtained from Jing Zhi, the Great Sage Jing Zhi of the Sacred Fire Palace, and carefully activated it to burn away all the inexplicable traces.

He pondered that if left unchecked, there might be a brief period of Qi Deviation in the future, but he would never be Body Seizure.

"Eliminate the threat of External Demons as well."

Qin Ming reforged the External Demons, and although its inner essence was full of vitality, his true body did not absorb even a trace of it.

Earlier, he had some ideas that once his true body and the External Demons reached the Eighth Realm, he should completely assimilate the External Demons, or perhaps consider accepting it.

Today, a battle in the realm of the mind made him see the crisis, and he made up his mind that he must not taint his own pure origin.

Both the Inner Demon Dao Venerable and the Female Dao Venerable had risen to their feet, their expressions complex.

The former is known as the Inner Demon, while every spell of the latter has a hallucinogenic effect. Their research in the Spirit Domain, if not unparalleled, is certainly one of the two most famous and terrifying peaks in history.

Despite their combined efforts and various forms of guidance, they ultimately failed to prevent Qin Ming from losing his way in the realm of the mind, and he managed to kill his way out.

On the contrary, the Light of the Mind reflected their opponent like a mirror, and in turn helped each other achieve their goals, allowing Qin Ming to explore various problems within his own body.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to discover the traces left by Wu Yao, Li Wanfa, Xin Yuan, Lord of Jade Capital.

"The crisis of the mind is not fabricated out of thin air. I almost couldn't tell the difference. I just don't know if the true master of the Xin Yuan and the Lord of Jade Capital are the same person. Most likely not. Illusions cannot be taken seriously."

Qin Ming coughed up blood. During the battle in the spiritual world, his physical body was also attacked. If it weren't for the Chaos Force boiling over to protect him, his injuries would have been far more severe.

He could only sigh, "As expected of Dao Venerable level opponent, they are very difficult to deal with, and they have caused me great losses."

His inner world was also wounded, with cracks everywhere, but as he broke free from his predicament and circulated his Primordial One Qi, he quickly recovered, and both his body and spirit were perfected.

The Inner Demon Dao Venerable spoke up, "Can you offer some advice? Where does our biggest weakness lie?"

Qin Ming said, "It's all fake. The biggest problem is that when Wu Yao is about to unleash his power, the Xin Yuan appears; when the Xin Yuan is about to kill me with a single palm strike, the Golden Palace appears—the great power can never be brought down."

The opponent could use illusions to mimic the terrifying might of heaven, creating a sense of oppression that left Qin Ming stunned and feeling his own insignificance and powerlessness.

But he did not yield, and continued to raise his sword towards the sky.

This is where the big problem arises. The two young Dao Venerable do not possess the power of a great being. If they were to truly annihilate Qin Ming with a single palm strike, they would naturally feel powerless. Therefore, they can only use another, more terrifying scene as a substitute to intimidate their opponent and hope that he will lose his way in it.

With a loud bang, Qin Ming and the External Demons vanished from their original spots, causing a massive explosion in the void. He then pounced towards the female Dao Venerable and the Inner Demon Dao Venerable.

He had confirmed that the female Dao Venerable who was blown up with three punches was not his true form, and what he saw before him was the real one.

"You've got a knack for it, using illusions time and again, making it impossible to defend against. However, after being entangled by the Light of the Mind, your false image is useless; I've already locked onto your true form."

In the blink of an eye, Qin Ming clashed with the female Dao Venerable and the Inner Demon Dao Venerable over a hundred times, each time using his trump cards.

Qin Ming's arm was broken and twisted abnormally, while the female Dao Venerable's chest was pierced by his punch.

On the other side, the External Demons exploded once. The body of the Inner Demon Dao Venerable was torn off with its right arm and a right leg, almost ripping off half of its body.

Moreover, Qin Ming's true form charged forward.

With a soft thud, he used the guild master's Extreme Dao Severance to fight the intact Inner Demon Dao Venerable, severing the opponent's shoulder diagonally, while his own right forearm was also severed at one point.

It must be said that in that brief moment, several figures engaged in a fierce and bloody battle.

The Dao Venerable level figures exchanged injuries for injuries and blood for blood, and their injuries were quite severe, which was rather astonishing.

In the era in which they each rose to prominence, they rarely encountered such opponents.

Rumble!

The moment Qin Ming and the External Demons recovered, they charged out again, unleashing a barrage of dazzling fist light at the female Dao Venerable. This time, she was truly struck several times, leaving clear fist holes in her body. Of course, his own brow was also split open, bleeding profusely from the Nine Severances of the Mind she had suffered.

The External Demons and the Inner Demon Dao Venerable clashed in a bloody battle. Qin Ming, controlling the External Demons, self-destructed once, pulling his opponent to disintegrate. The result was a bloodbath between the two sides.

The flesh was mixed with the opponent's blood.

"Come, come, come!" The External Demons transformed into a self-destructing berserker, pulling the female Dao Venerable along with him into disintegration. This resulted in a horrific scene where flesh and blood intertwined, creating a chaotic and brutal mess.

In contrast, Qin Ming's true form consistently avoided fatal injuries, at most suffering the loss of an arm and minor fractures to his forehead.

"Dao Venerable —is he really that hard to kill?" Qin Ming sighed, looking up at the sky.

Although he held a certain advantage, it would be extremely difficult for him to immediately annihilate the two Dao Venerable.

Outside the barrier, it was originally quiet, with everyone watching the battle intently. But when they heard Qin Ming's complaints, they couldn't hold back any longer.

Niu Wuwei said, "Old Six, you're acting like a monster again!"

Among the local cultivators, even Dao Child couldn't bear it any longer and couldn't help but ask, "Is This Human Speech??"

Within the barrier, a dramatic change occurred on the battlefield.

A heavy halberd crushed the void, pierced Qin Ming's chest, and almost lifted him up.

The one who made the move was none other than the golden-haired young Dao Venerable riding Kunpeng, who suddenly appeared on the field.

At the same time, the young Dao Venerable of the Primordial God-Demon Clan unleashed a punch. His physical body was terrifying, and the light from his fist tore through the Sky Curtain, clashing with Qin Ming's earlier attack.

Their fractured right palms collided.

The boy holding the paintbrush suddenly swung his left sleeve and drew it away, while his right hand aimed the paintbrush at Qin Ming's brow!

The Innate Sacred Being carrying a birdcage in its left hand officially entered the fray, its right hand transforming into a giant golden Great Hand Seal that shattered the void and crashed down with a deafening roar.

The female Dao Venerable, whose body was torn apart and had multiple fist holes, and the Inner Demon Dao Venerable, whose mind had been Will Horse, naturally both went all out to attack the arrogant upstart in the arena.

"Puff!"

Qin Ming's body exploded. Despite being surrounded and attacked by six Dao Venerable who used their strongest trump cards, he was reduced to a cloud of blood mist and shattered bones.

In a flash, all the blood mist and bone fragments were teleported away. A mysterious Adhesion Force instantly reassembled his body, reappearing almost simultaneously with the moment of destruction.

At the same time, his External Demons also encountered a combined attack from the six Dao Venerable, and it exploded once.

Qin Ming sighed, "In the Sixth Realm, I am fighting six Dao Venerable alone. It's simply unrealistic to kill them all. How about we call it a day?"

"I can tell you're still not convinced," said the blond-haired Dao Venerable wielding a halberd.

Qin Ming said, "I find it hard to Qi Ingestion being ganged up on by you all. But if it were a one-on-one duel, I certainly wouldn't be afraid, just like not long ago..."

Having personally suppressed you so thoroughly, how about we make a deal? I'll return here to learn from you once I reach the Seventh Realm.

The young Dao Venerable, holding the pen, spoke, "You think your system is special, that with each New Life, the higher the realm you reach, the more outstanding your strength becomes, giving you dominance? Actually, aren't other Dao Venerable the same? You and I are both Anomalies. Don't be too arrogant."

The Devil Venerable spoke, "You still have the power to fight to the death. If you weren't in good condition, you would have been teleported away long ago. So today, let's have a good fight!"

Qin Ming and the External Demons stood back to back, scanning the six Dao Venerable, and said, "Do you yourselves think this kind of competition is reasonable? It's meaningless."

Outside the barrier, many people's eyes gleamed.

Whether they were acquaintances or locals, they were all surprised to see him speak so reasonably, and thought that this was the way to hunt him down and attack him en masse.

Some outsiders even confided, "I don't know why, but seeing him forced to keep a low profile and his eyes gradually clearing up, I actually found it quite satisfying!"

The female Dao Venerable spoke up, "We won't make things difficult for you. We'll all join the fray, but each of us can only make three moves at most. If you can withstand them, you'll pass today's test."

Qin Ming said, "The ultimate move is equivalent to a hundred moves in a bloody battle. If each of you makes three moves, wouldn't that mean I would have to fight each of you for three hundred moves? It would still be a predetermined outcome."

The young Dao Venerable was holding the pen, spoke up, "We are merely informing you, not discussing it with you."

They stepped forward together, ready to end the battle and not wanting to delay any longer.

In contrast, the Devil Venerable was more straightforward, saying, "How about this: during the battle, if you severely injure anyone, you can make them leave the battlefield immediately."

"Okay!" Qin Ming nodded solemnly.

A Dao Venerable declared, "End the battle within one breath!"

"Good!"

"That's only right. We've delayed him too long; it's time to send him on his way."

"You're sure now? I'm afraid you'll lose on your own!" Qin Ming's eyes gradually brightened, and he became arrogant again. His true form and the External Demons erupted simultaneously, and Immortal Seal covered his entire body, directly launching a bloody battle.

With a deafening crash, bloody severed legs, cracked shoulder blades, and shattered hands flew in all directions, creating a scene of utter carnage.