The desert was once again "offended," and the entire sky changed color. Sand flew and stones rolled, the night mist surged like crashing waves, striking against the towering 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 usual path? The smell was too strong, far too stimulating!
At this moment, Meng Xinghai used a secret method to send him a message: "In a few days, you can go to Chixia City to find me and learn the situation. A thousand-year-old family still cares about its reputation. If the Cui family changes their mind and doesn’t pin you down in this remote place, then the problem won’t be too serious."
Qin Ming looked back in 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 here was simply too harsh.
On the distant rugged path, Xu Cheng's face was grim. What trouble had arisen again today? It was even more serious than yesterday!
He really wanted to quit. As a traveling merchant, he felt it was too dangerous. This profession had no future. Not to mention the team he was leading, even he himself was so startled he wanted to shout.
"Everyone, don’t panic. This has nothing to do with us. We have always respected the desert..." Xu Cheng hadn’t finished speaking when he felt a woman hanging on his back, sobbing, her sharp nails constantly scratching at his neck.
On the pitch-black path, nothing could be seen. The woman’s cries were chilling: "Wuwu... I saw many dark shadows. I’m so scared."
Xu Cheng lost his composure. He thought, aren’t you a strange being? What are you afraid of? He was genuinely frightened now. That furry "delicate hand" had long nails like iron hooks; he couldn’t pry them off.
He made up his mind that if he could safely reach Chixia City this time, he would immediately change his profession and no longer be a traveling merchant.
...
"You’re provoking the desert like this; won’t it hold a grudge?" As Qin Ming spoke, his mouth was full of sand. He braved the strong wind and wild sand, quickly taking out a gray robe to cover his head and face.
"It’s fine. I’m a member of a secret sect. I have ritual tools for conducting certain ceremonies in the desert, so I can pass through smoothly." The old mountain pig swayed its little tail and stepped lightly on the yellow sand.
Qin Ming was taken aback. So this was a member of a secret sect?
"We really don’t need to be this intense," he couldn’t help but ask.
The old mountain pig said, "Be wary of that white wolf tracking us secretly. In the desert, whoever has previously held a blood sacrifice ceremony should be afraid. If it dares to come, it won’t scare me to death."
Qin Ming understood the situation. The white wolf was the new mountain lord. It had performed some mysterious ceremony in the great mountains, worshiping the beast god's tomb, ultimately increasing its power.
"The beast god... is dead?" He showed a look of surprise.
The mini mountain pig said, "Just a powerful creature. Who knows if it’s dead or not? That place could also be its fur grave, discovered by the old white wolf. Otherwise, with the white-eyed wolf’s previous skills, it could only follow behind me. Now, it’s my turn to escape. Sigh, truly, fortunes change. My luck hasn’t been good these past two years."
"There’s something around!" Qin Ming said, placing the jade-like iron knife horizontally in front of him.
All around, the yellow sand stirred, thick fog boiled, and dark shadows loomed. More than a dozen teams held dark green torches, illuminating the area nearby with a sickly green light, approaching them.
The mountain pig remained calm: "It’s fine. We’re used to strange sights; the strange will defeat itself. I have the ritual tools for the desert; they won’t harm us."
The green torches danced, and giant beasts, dozens of meters tall, brushed past them, carrying a rotten stench, along with the unpleasant smell of burning corpses.
Qin Ming remained vigilant, slowly adapting. Although those strange phenomena were moving nearby, they did not attack them; he chose not to look.
"You come from a secret sect. Didn’t you say that the members of your sect would greatly respect the desert, believing it to be a realm related to the divine?"
The old mountain pig replied, "There’s not just one type of secret sect. Some organizations revere the divine, worshiping it, visualizing it in their hearts, wanting to borrow its power for themselves. Others have greater ambitions, wanting to subdue those 'phenomena' or 'realms' for their own use, to become gods themselves."
Qin Ming was astonished, gaining new understanding of the secret sect and the desert.
The old mountain pig must have joined a more ambitious secret sect; otherwise, it wouldn’t have this attitude.
"I’m not going any further. My mouth is full of sand. Set up your tent; I’ll take a nap here. By the way, have you really seen that one-armed sword master?"
Qin Ming replied, "I have seen him. He transmitted sword techniques to me through the thick fog, like a spiritual resonance, almost like a dream."
The old mountain pig showed a serious expression and said, "Could it be that he has taken the path of the outsiders?"
"You’ve seen my master?" Qin Ming asked.
"My father has seen him. He once witnessed him slice the then mountain lord in half with a single strike. The sword light tore through the night, cutting off the torrential rain. It was incredibly terrifying!"
Soon after, Qin Ming inquired, "You mentioned repaying kindness, resolving a cause and effect in the mountains. When did I save you?"
The old mountain pig gritted its teeth and said, "That white wolf is truly vicious. After heavily injuring me, it didn’t kill me immediately but shattered my spirit, forcing me, a dignified mountain lord, to revert to a beastly state, wanting me to become prey for other fierce beasts in the mountains, dying a miserable death.
At that time, I was lost; my moments of clarity were short, and most of the time I was in a common beast state. Truly, a pig fallen to the ground is bullied by dogs. I remember you wanted to shoot me with a bow and arrow back then."
Qin Ming confirmed that it was indeed that giant mountain pig, weighing around fifteen to sixteen hundred pounds, which had chased him relentlessly.
"Fortunately, I, the old pig, had a backup plan. As the saying goes, a cunning pig has three dens. I had previously hidden a very rare spiritual substance in that second den, under the blood snake nest. After you cleared out that blood snake nest, I, in my primitive beast state, was nearby and slightly regained my senses. I rushed in, using that to restore most of my vitality and escape the great mountains. Although you didn’t intentionally save me, I still consider it a turning point. Since we met by chance, let’s resolve this cause and effect."
Qin Ming never expected that beneath the blood snake nest, there was indeed a pig den, not the three mutated blood snakes that Old Liu suspected might exist.
Soon, from the tent buried in the yellow sand, a thunderous snoring sound emerged. It looked like a bright pig in the palm of his hand, but the noise it made was too loud, causing the nearby dark shadows to seem unable to bear it and retreat to the distance.
Of course, it was also possible that the terrifying blood energy circulating in the old mountain pig’s body while it slept was too masculine, causing those strange phenomena to blur.
This nap lasted straight until the next day.
Now, the desert was calm, the strange phenomena and thick fog had completely dissipated, leaving only absolute darkness.
"Let’s go!" It led the way ahead.
Qin Ming was reluctant to go out immediately, worried that Cui Hong was waiting for him outside.
"Let’s move along the edge of the desert. I don’t want to go out either," the old mountain pig said, fearing that the white wolf had not given up and would ambush it outside.
It occasionally came to the rugged mountain path, mimicking strange bird calls. Then Qin Ming saw a few messenger birds flying in from the nearby mountains, reporting the situation to it.
Qin Ming was envious and discussed with the old mountain pig, asking if it could help send a messenger bird to Chixia City, to the city lord’s mansion.
Cui Hong had searched the entire route but found no trace of Qin Ming. He then hurried to find Cui Chongyi, feeling truly exhausted.
"Will-o'-the-wisp!" At the edge of the desert, Qin Ming murmured, discovering a hazy area in the desert.
"Wow, what a good place! That’s a fire spring, usually hidden from people, but now it has unexpectedly been exposed. Mainly, we are close; if we were a bit further away, the darkness of the desert would engulf everything, and we wouldn’t see anything."
The old mountain pig was delighted. This desert oasis was its ideal hiding place, and at this stage, it didn’t want to leave the desert.
"Meng Xinghai comes from a thousand-year-old family, definitely more powerful than Ling Xu. Since he destroyed Jinjiling, this stronghold is probably not stable either. We should leave early."
As Qin Ming approached, he heard a group of people talking. This was another temporary resting place occasionally used by the golden thieves, usually only frequented by some ordinary bandits.
"We’re going to Fengye City. That Meng is too hard to deal with. The big bosses of the golden thieves above don’t want to cross paths with him."
"Get ready to move. This place has been howling with ominous winds for the past two days, and ghostly shadows abound. Although we’re used to it, it’s still creepy."
"Count the numbers: one, two, three... ten?!"
The bandit leader immediately panicked. This was really just a resting point, unlike Jinjiling, which had gathered a large number of people. Only nine were left behind, so how did one more appear?
"One, two... ten!" He was not convinced and counted again, instantly feeling his hair stand on end.
The other bandits also panicked, looking at each other, feeling something was off. They had just covered the fire spring with a stone slab, and there was almost no light left.
"Run!" They immediately scattered.
...
Five days later, a messenger bird flew back from Chixia City, bringing a note. The new city lord of Chixia City, Meng Xinghai, informed 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 can I go to Qianxing City. I also cannot use the name Cui Chong. For now, I cannot consider myself a member of the Cui family. Perhaps in a few years, I can return to the Cui family."
Qin Ming looked at the note. The words were not the original words of the Cui family members but a subtle reminder given to him by Meng Xinghai after interpreting them.
"What kind of place is Qianxing City?" he pondered, and soon a hazy figure of a girl appeared in his mind, seemingly very cheerful, related to that Qianxing City.
He rubbed his aching temples, no longer thinking too much. He needed to quickly undergo the fourth rebirth to fully restore his memories, and then everything would be clear.
Qin Ming originally wanted to give up on Chixia City and go to a farther place. After discovering Meng Xinghai’s goodwill, he thought that perhaps it would be safer there.
Qin Ming knew that Meng Xinghai’s help was mostly not out of any fondness for talent, as they had only just met. He had no need to intervene in the internal matters of the Cui family.
"Thank you, Li Qingyue." Qin Ming stood by the fire spring in the desert, gazing at the dark night in the distance.
At the same time, in the city lord’s mansion of Chixia City, Li Qingyue was conversing with Meng Xinghai, discussing Qin Ming.
"Given his current situation, those of us familiar with him should not get too close. Otherwise, his circumstances may worsen. However, after he leaves the Cui family, those familiar faces, some so-called 'friends,' will likely avoid him, completely severing ties, becoming strangers."
...
Qin Ming stayed in this desert oasis for eleven days before preparing to set off for Chixia City.
Cui Hong had indeed been wandering outside the desert with Cui Chongyi for several days, wanting to see Qin Ming again, but in the end, he did not wait.
"Take care. May you one day reclaim the position of mountain lord of Heibai Mountain." Qin Ming bid farewell to the old mountain pig.
"Forget it. I’ve seen through it. Heibai Mountain doesn’t have the earth-shattering power to hold its ground. After all, it once pressed down on all sides, and although it has collapsed, it’s not a place ordinary beings can take over. The mountain lords of past generations have hardly met good ends."
The old mountain pig shook its head, looking enlightened. "This place is also good. I’ll remain hidden in the dark desert, where no one can touch me. A gentleman takes revenge; a hundred years is not too late."
Qin Ming set off. Two days later, he approached Chixia City. From a distance, it was splendid, and he guessed that the fire spring inside the city was of a high grade, ensuring that it shone like daylight during the shallow night.
As he neared the city, Qin Ming’s emotions surged. Although it was his first time here, he felt no sense of strangeness.
Many vague scenes floated in his mind, memories of his past experiences in the great city of Qinghe.
After two years of hiding in the dark and remote places, he returned once again to a city with "daylight."
Qin Ming’s thoughts stirred. In recent days, the fragmented memories in his mind were constantly reassembling, and some people and events were slowly being recalled.
"When I was still Cui Chong, there were many old friends in Qinghe City, and I knew many important members of great families. I even met some outsiders and had connections with several direct descendants of thousand-year-old families. I used to be surrounded by a large group of friends, with acquaintances everywhere."
With a sigh, now he returned to the world of "daylight" as Qin Ming. If he encountered old acquaintances, how many friends would remain? How many would be willing to greet him? Perhaps even if they met, they would no longer recognize each other.