Chapter 39: The Entire World Is Different

You could hear a pin drop in the room, but in this absolute silence, Qin Ming inexplicably heard whispers right next to his ear.

He grabbed his Long-handled Darkgold Hammer, his body tensing like a cheetah. It wasn't an illusion; he had even seen a blurry shadow just a moment ago.

Outside, the night was deep and dark. The Sun Stones in the room gradually dimmed, suddenly flickered once, and went completely out, plunging the room into pitch-black, dead silence.

Fortunately, the murmuring next to Qin Ming's ear also stopped.

After a moment, he reached out again to touch the leather-bound saber manual, which had curled and heavily worn pages. It was quiet; nothing happened.

He picked up the saber manual. The room was too dark to see the words on the page, and since nothing unusual happened this time, he wondered if it had just been his imagination.

Qin Ming immediately went out to the Fire Spring at the village entrance, fished out several glowing stones, and quickly returned home.

Holding the heavy hammer in one hand and flipping through the old saber manual with the other, everything remained peaceful. No murmurs appeared.

"Was I just hallucinating earlier?"

Soon, Qin Ming stopped letting his mind wander and focused his attention once more on the ancient-looking leather pages, carefully studying this crystallization of his predecessor's life's work.

"Sigh..."

At that exact moment, the hairs on Qin Ming's neck stood on end. In the absolute silence, he not only heard a whisper but also a distinct sigh echoing right next to his ear.

Furthermore, a white-haired old man appeared in the dimly lit room. Wearing tattered, blood-stained clothes, he swayed right in front of Qin Ming's eyes.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees, and even the newly brought-back Sun Stones seemed to dim.

Qin Ming reacted with lightning speed, instantly unleashing a hammer-saber strike.

The sighing vanished, and the bloody elder in tattered clothes disappeared along with it.

What was going on? The world looked different to Qin Ming now. His expression grew solemn; to think that merely studying a saber manual would lead to something so bizarre.

Clutching the Long-handled Darkgold Hammer, he carefully scanned the room. The Sun Stones were still bright, and the temperature didn't seem to have dropped at all. Everything had returned to normal.

"Is this some kind of demonic book?" Qin Ming stared at the saber manual. It was bound in beast hide and clearly had some years on it, with every page heavily worn.

"Or is it because I absorbed that liquid, causing my mental energy to be too overstimulated, making everything I see and hear abnormal?" He pondered carefully.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and decided to risk it for now. He would counter movement with stillness, choosing not to strike preemptively so he could see exactly what kind of demon or ghost this was.

Holding the hammer in one hand and flipping through the saber manual with the other, there was no sound in the room except for the rustling of leather pages. Once he became completely immersed, focusing entirely on the various combat techniques, the whispering returned. A bloody elder with disheveled hair was standing not far ahead.

"Time is running out... I'll leave behind a saber manual. Sigh. What a pity, my Saber Dao is difficult to fully describe; it is destined to have some parts lost to time. What a pity for my half-lifetime of painstaking effort." The elder sighed.

Then, Qin Ming saw him leaning over a desk, writing. Soon, streak after streak of saber light burst forth, as if trying to tear through the night sky.

Every time the elder completed a saber form with his brush, scenes of him practicing his saber in his youth would manifest ahead, along with his various emotions, insights, and understanding of each form.

Qin Ming immediately realized how massive and important this influence was. After absorbing the liquid in the "leftover scraps," the world he saw had completely changed.

When his mind was highly focused, he could experience the author's emotions through this ancient book, resonating emotionally and gaining an understanding of the saber techniques that surpassed what was written on the pages.

Qin Ming considered his comprehension skills to be very high, and he learned everything quickly. When he had first flipped through the saber manual in the mountains, he hadn't found it difficult and quickly grasped its core concepts.

But the current situation was no longer a matter of comprehension. Rather, he was witnessing how the saber manual was born, resonating with the elder's spirit as he practiced. This involved experience, realization, and the most fundamental understanding of these saber techniques.

"This saber manual carries the life's work of an old man's half-lifetime. By resonating with it, I am recreating the various real scenes of the past..."

Qin Ming's focus slipped for a brief moment, and he exited that realistic vision.

Then, he put down his Darkgold Hammer and sat before the copper basin holding the Sun Stones. He began studying the saber manual carefully from the very beginning, pouring his entire mind into it.

Sure enough, the more focused and concentrated he became, the clearer the voices, the images, and the resonance of emotion and mind became.

For a moment, he saw the elder looking up at the night sky, deep in thought about his saber techniques, before piercing the darkness with a brilliant saber glow.

Then the scene shifted. Lightning flashed and thunder roared as rain poured down. The elder had gained a new insight. Holding a wooden saber, he stood in the pouring rain and executed a breathtaking strike, as if carrying an intent to sever the heavens. The brilliance bursting from the wooden saber seemed to overpower the lightning in the night sky, cutting through the darkness.

Qin Ming was so excited his soul trembled. This form was not recorded in the saber manual at all. This kind of wondrous form, which could only be felt but not expressed in words, was a strike that could only be displayed when one's soul ascended to a higher state.

This mysterious and profound feeling was extremely difficult to put down on paper, which was why the elder had sighed that some of the essence of his saber techniques was destined to be lost.

But now, Qin Ming had witnessed it. Through the emotional and mental resonance, he completely grasped the essence of that strike.

In the subsequent saber techniques, the elder cultivated bitterly in the deep mountains, slaying giant beasts.

Next, he walked alone through the wind and snow, fighting intense battles against several powerful enemies. He lost an arm, was severely wounded, and fled far away. In his twilight years, he buried a broken saber.

After that, he lived alone to nurse his wounds, rarely going out. After sitting in silent meditation for five years, he dug up that broken saber. When he unleashed his saber again, the brilliant saber light—which had seemed capable of severing the heavens on that rainy night—was even more overbearing, as if it could cleave any mountain that blocked it and level any sea that stood in its way.

The older he got, the more fierce and aggressive he became. The Saber Intent he pursued was not about returning to simplicity or aligning with nature, but rather a relentless upward surge, until the terrifying saber light threatened to burn away his withered body, to the point where he could no longer withstand it.

After embarking on another long journey, the elder swept through all his opponents with the broken saber. Finally, he returned to the place where he had meditated for five years. He buried his saber, left behind his writing, and reached the final moments of his life.

"What a pity. Trapped in this remote region, I have no efficient secret methods to elevate my essence of life. Although my understanding of the Saber Dao is profound and I am confident my comprehension is second to none, I am held back by my physical body, and I cannot access higher-level manuals. My entire life can only stop here."

The elder's time was running out, so he wrote rapidly, each stroke of his pen flashing with saber light. However, when it came to Sky Light, the scenes became blurry, and the pages beyond that were completely illegible.

Qin Ming knew this was likely because he had not yet nurtured Sky Light, leaving him unable to resonate emotionally and mentally with those parts, which was why they were temporarily hidden from him.

He closed the saber manual and shut his eyes. Everything he had seen and heard, all the scenes, surfaced in his heart. The experiences, insights, and brand-new understandings of the saber techniques felt as if they were his own memories.

He grabbed his Long-handled Darkgold Hammer and went out to the yard, practicing the saber techniques that weren't even recorded in the manual. For a moment, lightning seemed to crackle beneath the night sky.

The heavy hammer in Qin Ming's hand repeatedly sliced through the night. The hammerhead, gleaming with a darkgold luster, moved faster and faster, leaving behind all sorts of terrifying trajectories that interwove in the yard. They gradually became entangled, looking as though they were unleashing a dense barrage of terrifying saber light.

He pulled back his hammer and stood still, quite shocked in his heart because he had successfully recreated those saber techniques.

Qin Ming was confident that if given the complete saber techniques, he could definitely master them with enough time.

But now, through this mental resonance, he had mastered these saber techniques—which surpassed the manual itself—in a single night, as if he had practiced them for decades.

Soon, Qin Ming calmed down. This was limited to skill, experience, and the understanding of the techniques; as for elevating his own essence of life, he still needed to cultivate.

Still, this was shocking enough to startle the world!

He pondered what the liquid inside that stone scrap actually was, to allow his spirit to resonate so deeply with the mysterious emotions carried by this book.

Qin Ming realized that the mysterious substance in the "leftover scraps" was not necessarily inferior to what was birthed from the fusion of the ten pillars of light and the five-colored haze. If news of this got out, it would probably trigger an immeasurable storm.

In fact, he had a sneaking suspicion that these "leftover scraps" might have an even greater origin.

Qin Ming's mind raced, thinking of many things.

On the night the fire swallowed his entire village, the young man in feather garments had appeared ethereal and otherworldly. Holding a glowing purple bamboo staff, he seemed detached from the mortal world, clearly possessing a massive background. His strength was surely unfathomable, and the sect behind him was likely even more terrifying.

Now, Qin Ming felt more composed and had gained a layer of confidence. In the future, he would be able to head to Luoyue City and face that bloody past head-on.

Meanwhile, the two women who had appeared at the village entrance were clearly on a different path from his, seemingly looking down on those who practiced the Rebirth Technique.

Now, Qin Ming believed that his own path was not necessarily weaker than any other. As long as he advanced quickly enough, he could break through any path.

After calming his mind, he began to assess his own strength.

He now possessed over two thousand jin of strength in his arms, perhaps even reaching two thousand two hundred jin. Coupled with his mastery of the essence of the saber techniques not even recorded in the manual, his actual combat capability had become somewhat terrifying.

"Can I measure up against those old fellows who have developed Sky Light Force?" Qin Ming mused.

He did a quick mental calculation. Even if those old fellows had a tripod-lifting strength of six hundred jin during their First Rebirth, using that as a baseline, their strength after their Third Rebirth would only be around one thousand eight hundred jin, which still didn't match his.

This was the fundamental reason why everyone placed such immense value on the First Rebirth and wanted to build a Golden Foundation—because all subsequent Rebirths would stack on top of this baseline.

Qin Ming believed that the most terrifying aspect of those at the Third Rebirth was their mastery of the Sky Light Force. If he were to let them close the distance and tangle with him, he would undoubtedly die.

This was because this special force could penetrate and tear through even the scales of giant beasts, possessing extremely terrifying lethality. This was the fundamental reason why humans could fight Heteromorphs despite their physical size disadvantage.

However, in the Rebirth realm, Sky Light Force could only cover the body's surface, extending slightly beyond the fists and feet, and could not yet extend to weapons.

Qin Ming muttered to himself, "In that case, as long as I don't let those old fellows at the Third Rebirth get close and keep a proper distance, I can still fight them."

The prerequisite was that he had a suitable weapon. Normal sabers and swords definitely wouldn't work, as they would likely be torn apart or shattered by Sky Light Force. However, his Long-handled Darkgold Hammer was a different story; with his pure strength, he refused to believe he couldn't smash them to death.

"As expected, another sleepless night."

Qin Ming felt quite helpless. His mental energy was still extremely abundant. He only managed a brief nap during the latter half of the night, and he estimated he wouldn't need to sleep for the next few days.

During the latter half of the night, he studied the saber techniques, completely dissecting the elder's experiences, insights, and understandings. He executed them in his own way, adding his own sudden flashes of inspiration and realizations.

The next day, Cao Long, Mu Qing, and Wei Zhirou informed Qin Ming and the others that if they didn't make any special discoveries or gains in the next few days, they would be heading back.

That day, they took out a copy of a mid-level Yiqi Art and gave it to Qin Ming, Old Man Liu, and the others as compensation, permitting them to pass it on to those around them.

The people of Twin Tree Village were naturally incredibly grateful. This was the first time they had ever laid eyes on a Rebirth Technique of this level.

Mostly, it was because they had indeed been of great help to the three teams; for instance, the Fire Bat Cave had yielded massive gains for Mu Qing, Cao Long, and the others.

That night, Qin Ming studied this mid-level Yiqi Art and felt it was inferior to the technique written on his Silk Book. Furthermore, this copy was a temporary transcription, carrying absolutely none of the original creator's intense emotions, making it impossible to produce any mental resonance.

"It seems it has to be the actual physical crystallization of a predecessor's life's work," he realized.

In the evening, when Qin Ming delivered the mid-level Yiqi Art to Old Man Liu, he asked, "Old man, surely you wouldn't tell the three teams from Crimson Cloud City about all the places with Spiritual Matter just to repay their favor, right?"

"Don't worry, this old man knows what he's doing," Old Man Liu said, patting his chest. "Once my injuries heal and you achieve your Second Rebirth, and after the mountains completely quiet down, the two of us will head into the mountains together to find the Spiritual Matter that can grant us our Third Rebirth. I've kept all the best places a secret!"

Then, Qin Ming asked, "Old man, are there any lineages in our area with a rich history but have completely declined?"

"Why are you asking that? What are you planning to do?" Old Man Liu asked suspiciously.

Qin Ming replied, "I want to borrow some of their books to read. Don't worry, I will definitely offer them an amount of Night Silver they can't refuse!"