Night Without End
Chapter 241 - 153: Everyone is Happy

Chapter 241: Chapter 153: Everyone is Happy

A blue raptor was in charge of picking up Qin Ming. From afar, it called out loudly: "Brother Qin, don’t shoot your own bird, please don’t shoot arrows!"

On its way there, it was somewhat apprehensive, afraid of being accidentally killed. Recently, the Bird Realm has been abuzz with the news that this young man would shoot any bird on sight, truly ruthless.

Qin Ming smiled, waved at it to calm it down, and assured it that there was no need to be nervous.

The blue raptor heaved a silent sigh of relief, circling down to land on the ground. But when it noticed the trophies, it trembled again.

First off, it saw the sharp claws of the Black Roc King!

Then it spotted the Fire Qilin, Mountain Ape, brocade sparrow, Sword Master Huang Yuan... feathers, pelts, and shining fangs scattered all over the ground.

It was utterly preposterous, leaving it chilled to the bone—those were all long-lived Demons!

"Are you a local Bird Demon?" Qin Ming inquired.

"Brother, no, great king, though I am a local bird, I’ve long since abandoned darkness for light. Lately following the orders of the White Peacock King, I patrol everywhere and definitely have not done anything contrary to heaven or reason!"

The blue raptor was terrified, thinking this almost otherworldly youth might also be after it, and its beak trembled so much it nearly bit its own tongue.

As the wind howled, the raptor carefully carried Qin Ming and his trophies, approaching a city a hundred li away, its body tense and hardly daring to breathe.

Raptors can’t fly directly into the city, otherwise they could be shot down by giant crossbow bolts.

Qin Ming entered the city with a vast array of trophies, drawing many sidelong glances. Experienced adventurers and hunters were all alarmed.

"So young and he’s already slain so many old monsters, who is he? A high chance he’s an Abnormal the Six Imperial wants to cultivate intensively!"

"Young and promising, a bright future ahead, could the declining Six Imperial Ancestor Court be on the verge of a resurgence?!"

At the Six Imperial headquarters, Zhou Tao, the White Peacock, and the Black Crane were back, "checking accounts," discussing matters gravely.

The White Peacock said: "During the assessment, there were twice attempts to remove the young mutant from the Cui Family, could it be someone is trying to provoke discord between the thousand-year-old family and the Six Imperial?"

Zhou Tao startled, saying: "Are you talking about Cui Chongxuan or Qin Ming?"

"Cui Chongxuan was looked after twice." The White Peacock responded, several mutants were under its care.

It then said: "Qin Ming, Zhuo Ya, Cao Wuji were each targeted once."

The Black Crane spoke up: "It was relatively easy on my side, no unexpected events."

It was in charge of monitoring a group of youths who were not mutants.

"There’s no major movement deep within the Shenshang Plain." Zhou Tao said, he was monitoring those seriously off-script Alien Species in the Yewu World.

Then, he sighed deeply, pondering how to apologize to those old folks when he returned.

The White Peacock consoled: "Just be honest when you go back, the Miracle Medicine itself is a reward, getting it within the rules, that’s his ability."

Zhou Tao was agitated: "Having four mutants over and taking one or two plants is normal; even two or three plants can be accepted. However, one of the youngsters was like someone coming to stock up, wielding a scythe in the field harvesting!"

The Black Crane was astonished, saying: "In these declining days of the Xinsheng Road, there is still such a genial and peerless young talent? I must take a careful look later."

The White Peacock grave, saying: "Elder Zhou, you should be pleased. The Six Imperial has decayed and declined, yet you may have the fortune to witness the rise of a progenitor of revival!"

"I understand the importance." Zhou Tao nodded.

The White Peacock said: "The domain you arranged for him this time is almost near the red-line area, the difficulty is too high."

Zhou Tao said: "It’s not yet off-script. The Silver Wolf King, Black Roc, Fire Qilin are not listed in the dossier, he only needed to eliminate one Donkey Demon. I didn’t expect him to be so righteous, to go into battle fueled by passion, nearly sacrificing himself to slay those old monsters one by one?"

The White Peacock nodded, "Yes, the exact circumstances are uninvestigable, but he shot all nine bird demons I had tamed."

Zhou Tao nodded in understanding—if the White Peacock didn’t want to tell, he wouldn’t get further details by asking.

...

Qin Ming discovered that the young disciples at Six Imperial headquarters showed shocked expressions upon seeing him, some of their mouths opened as if they wanted to say something, but then closed again.

These young disciples, some from the Zhou family line, also from other high-positioned and powerful elders, had come to assist with the assessment and incidentally check out the "Miracle Medicine." How could their expressions not change? It felt as if the sky had fallen, the medicine fields leveled!

They were well aware that some of the highly favored junior brothers and sisters had already reserved those precious wild "Miracle Medicines," and now they had been upstaged!

Therefore, Elder Zhou Tao was utterly distraught, understandably so, given the myriad vested interests involved.

A group of youngsters returned one after the other, losing over a dozen members. Despite being cautioned to act within their means, not to forcefully deal with the Demons listed in the dossier if unable, some still took risks and sacrificed themselves.

Zhou Tao sighed, first lamenting the death of those young, then encouraging the vigorous returns, saying they were the future of the Six Imperial.

This time, he greeted each young person conscientiously, inquiring in detail about their demon-slaying experiences.

Aside from him, there were experts at the Six Imperial headquarters who had all come out, deeply concerned for this group of young talents, holding a banquet to welcome and cleanse them from their travels.

The White Peacock and the Black Crane, having shrunk their size, also appeared. They paid exceptional attention to several young mutants, in reality focusing on observing Qin Ming.

Because he was too special, achieving nine rebirths yet slaying long-lived demons consecutively, such records would only seem fitting for those seeds of the ancestral court who had learned the Six Imperial Force.

The two high-level Abnormalities didn’t know that Qin Ming was merely on his seventh rebirth.

"He couldn’t have learned the Six Imperial Heart Sutra with Cui Chongxuan, could he?" Black Crane harbored doubts.

This was a banquet where those who survived were considered to have passed the trial, all wearing smiles, holding up their wine glasses, and getting acquainted with their future fellow disciples.

Clearly, many people were very aware; there were only a limited number of positions for core disciples, so they settled for the next best thing and became elite disciples.

Now quite a few had heard, the youth Qin Ming was heroic and incredibly enthusiastic, who had crossed borders to help others, like Zhou Lei and Huang Cheng who had both received his care, indeed worthy of making connections with.

Especially when people learned of his combat achievements, it felt like a dream, wasn’t it just too horrifying?!

In fact, the combat achievements they knew of were severely under-reported, because Zhou Tao had it concealed, telling Qin Ming that this was a form of protection for him.

Zhou Tao frankly said, to prevent outside forces from knowing and prematurely killing off the Heaven-blessed prodigy of the Six Imperial!

Qin Ming nodded, feeling that Elder Zhou had considered the matter very thoroughly.

Right now, Zhou Tao’s emotions were extraordinarily complex; he did indeed have his personal interests this time because his own uncle, Zhou Shize, had mentioned offhand that the exceptionally talented should be given more challenges to face, to temper them for future greatness. He specifically named Qin Ming but also solemnly reminded him not to cross the line; to act within the rules.

"We’ll talk more later." Zhou Tao turned and left, as he couldn’t show favoritism. He still needed to pay attention to Zhuo Ya, Cao Wuji, and Cui Chongxuan, the three youthful mutants.

"You are all rough jade; as long as you cultivate the Six Imperial Forces, whatever the White Flood Dragon, Golden Rhinoceros, with your foundation, you can break through them all!" Zhou Tao gave them the strongest confidence right from the start.

Cao Wuji’s eyes immediately lit up; what he lacked most was a Cultivation Technique that shook the Yewu World, having a potential of the Abormal Level, but without a matching Heavenly Light Force.

Qin Ming was also listening attentively, and pondering seriously at which level could the Six Imperial Forces be cultivated during the Newborn phase.

Qin Ming had once fought with Cui Chongxuan on Luofu Immortal Mountain and heard him say, becoming a mutant during the Newborn phase and successfully cultivating two Imperial Forces was considered a success.

This "success" presumably meant passing the threshold, but could anyone cultivate three Imperial Power in the Xinsheng Realm?

Thinking of these, Qin Ming’s brows furrowed. If by such speculation, then he couldn’t be complacent and needed to work hard to improve himself.

Because he could suppress Cui Chongxuan, who had cultivated the One Imperial Force, when merging two Miracle Techniques and more than a dozen Heavenly Light Forces.

If someone cultivated the Three Imperial Power, would he need to merge six Miracle Techniques and thirty to forty kinds of Heavenly Light Forces?

"The responsibility is significant, and the road is long; I must work hard!" Qin Ming was thus unassuming, preferring to overestimate the mutants raised in the ancestral court rather than underestimate those potentially formidable rivals.

"Don’t worry, learning the Six Imperial Forces in the Outer Saint Realm isn’t late at all; you will still transform completely. This is the wonder of the Six Imperial Heart Sutra. Our Fourth Ancestor, Young Ancestor, and others began their journey later than you and ended up achieving even greater."

What Zhou Tao referred to as Fourth Ancestor and Young Ancestor were the fourth disciple and closed-door disciple of the Ancestor Master.

This was the truth, it was never too late to learn the Six Imperial Heart Sutra!

"To be safe, during the Xinsheng phase, I at least need to merge six Miracle Techniques!" Qin Ming contemplated.

After discussing heart-to-heart with a group of youths and after an amiable interaction, Zhou Tao came to find the youth he regarded as incredibly formidable again; he took a deep breath, adjusting his own attitude as he thought that this truly could be a great ancestor that can rejuvenate their cause.

"Elder Zhou, when I killed an old monster, I discovered its horn was extraordinary, capable of detoxifying, and could nurture the properties of medicine. I’ve crafted a cup from it, which I’d like to offer you as a gesture of gratitude for your care," Qin Ming said with a smile, passing over a golden, translucent rhinoceros horn cup.

Zhou Tao felt it scorching in hand, almost threw it away, because it was from a "Wild Medicine" plant that his uncle, Zhou Shize, was nurturing, a horn from a Golden Rhinoceros.

If old Zhou saw him using such a cup for brewing tea, he would probably want to slap him.

"Ah, this gift is quite nice. I accept it," he said with a laugh and a nod, putting it away in his pocket, planning to keep it away from old Zhou when he got back.

Afterward, he became serious and said, "For this assessment, I will give you the highest rating. I think your performance is at the Young Sect Leader level, perhaps even the Young Ancestor Level wouldn’t be unjustified. However, I still stand by my point, let’s keep it concealed for now, otherwise, I’m worried the rivals of the Six Imperial might act against you."

"I will follow all of Elder Zhou’s commands," Qin Ming nodded.

Zhou Tao secretly calculated, this young man was in himself more formidable than the top-tier mutants; coupled with consecutively metabolizing various strange blood, his innate talent... probably was already on par with a Young Ancestor!

Moreover, he suspected, could this possibly be a future Grandmaster Level character?!

Zhou Tao said, "I reviewed some of the prey you slaughtered; the Heavenly Light Force is indeed extremely formidable. However, in the world, some Heavenly Light Forces are only extraordinary in the Newborn Domain, Outer Saint Domain, and don’t have sustainably advancing Chapters. Because such a composite of Heavenly Light Force simply cannot last till the end, and will block midway, while the Cultivation Technique of our Six Imperial Ancestor Court can propel you straight to glory, in each major realm, you could be at the forefront, only a few legacies are on par with it."

He had deeply studied the Six Imperial Heart Sutra, and understood the Heavenly Light Force even more than higher mutants like White Peacock and Black Crane, hence realized the first thing, that this young man had not learned the Six Imperial Forces together with Cui Chongxuan.

Qin Ming nodded solemnly. Regardless if he went to the Six Imperial Ancestor Court or not, he now had to show a profoundly expectant demeanor.

After Zhou Tao came to his understanding, his attitude towards him completely changed. If he really was the great ancestor to restore their glory, when else to cozy up if not now?

He thought, this too was a situation where everyone could be happy.

Afterward, White Peacock and Black Crane came over to chat with Qin Ming, treating him with a different level of respect.

However, they didn’t stay long to avoid attracting attention from those who were keen to notice their unusually favorable attitude towards Qin Ming.

The next day, as the Yewu swirled, White Peacock and Black Crane carried a group of people on the journey home.

Zhou Tao had mixed feelings, ultimately it was up to him to shoulder everything.

He was thinking about how to explain the situation with the Miracle Medicines to the elders after getting back.

Qin Ming was filled with anticipation because both Zhou Tao and White Peacock had said that once they returned, the promises would be fulfilled, allowing them to visit the Six Imperial Enlightenment Land to comprehend an extremely formidable Cultivation Technique.

The dark world was vast and boundless, the two flying mounts were incredibly fast, forty thousand li was hardly a challenge for them.

As Six Imperial Ancestor Court came into view, the group returned home.