Qin Ming stayed hidden without any expression, he wasn’t in a hurry to come out as he wanted to observe the battle. He have not had any dealings with mercenaries before, but he knew that they are the ruthless kind that licks blood of their weapon, its a small matter if they didn’t appreciate your help, but what if you were backstabbed? At that time, it would be too late for any regrets.
The battle was getting more and more intense, and it also getting more dangerous, the Sabertooth Beast's body was full of injury, causing it go mad, now the five mercenaries can’t even retreat even if they want.
Qin Ming suddenly turned his attention towards a mountain cave not far from here, there seemed to be some sort of treasure there, as it was emitting dense Life Qi. Because he practices Rebirth Exercise, he was very sensitive towards Life Qi.
The battle seemed to extend from there.
"Ah!" the man in black was slapped away by the Sabertooth Beast's claw, he had three shocking scar on his back making his flesh look very bloody.
"Roar!" the Sabertooth beast roared, its roar shook the forest and deafen people, its whole body was rolling with black Qi, as it sent the four advancing mercenaries flying, and pounced on the man in black, its thick sharp claws hit the ground, causing crushed rocks to fly everywhere and the earth to shake.
"No!" cried the four mercenary.
"Friend! I will be very grateful if you help! Quick!" the man in black struggled to crawl up, without caring about his injury, he forced himself to fight the Sabertooth Beast.
"Roar!" the Sabertooth Beast rushed madly over, its huge body stood up like a human, its body covered in black Qi, as its thick sharp claws smacked at the man in black ruthlessly.
"Dodge, dodge!" the four mercenary screamed, you can’t resist the Sabertooth Beast right now.
"Wah!" the man in black's face was fearsome, and he firmly stood on the ground and spun his body, madly spinning his weapon, splitting the sky apart.
In a nick of time, where life and death hangs on a thread, Qin Ming suddenly jumped out and charged straight at the Sabertooth Beast. The muscles on his whole body tighten up, as boiling hot strength stir restlessly in each of his cells, where the ultimate strength gathered at his right arm.
"Vajra shakes the mountain!"
Qin Ming gave out a low shout, half of his body firmly rammed at the Sabertooth Beast's abdomen, releasing the ultimate strength.
His full strength is at least seven hundred jin, and Vajra shakes the mountain will increase the strength by three times.
Peng! Kacha!
As if a lightning had struck the Sabertooth Beast, its majestic body immediately lost balance, a few rib bones were also broken near the abdomen.
At the same time, the man in black took the chance, to slash down with his sword to chop off its sharp claws.
"Follow me!" Qin Ming swallowed the surging blood and qi, and followed up closely, without waiting for the Sabertooth Beast to land on the ground, the Overflowing ancient sword was already in his hand, and stabbed towards its throat, there is coincidentally a deep wound there. With a piercing sound, the Overflowing ancient sword accurately pierced into the wound, along with Qin Ming's heavy slash, the wound was instantly increased to a half a meter long.
"Good!" the man in black was overjoyed, as he wielded his heavy sword and attacked again, this time it landed heavily on the Sabertooth Beast's head.
"Hong!" the Sabertooth Beast wailed miserably, it once again call out the scary black Qi torrent, the wind blew and the Qi waves surged, trying to to push Qin Ming and the man in black,. But because of its serious injury, the beast suppressed his anger and prepared to escape.
"Where are you going." the man in black and the four mercenaries all went and surround it and went all out to attack with their full strength.
After a while, the Sabertooth Beast wailed one time, and it enormous body laid in the pool of blood without anymore movement.
The five people were covered in wounds, and they were gasping for air. The female mercenary seemed like she couldn’t stand straight, so she lean against a tree with her head down.
"Friend! Thank you!" the man in black, proactively went to thank Qin Ming. Although Qin Ming only attacked twice, his timing was very good, the two attacks managed to turn the situation around.
"Your welcome. What’s inside there?" Qin Ming pointed at the mountain cave.
"En?" the man in black's expression changed a little, he didn’t think that Qin Ming would notice the situation in the mountain cave. He initially wanted to give some money and make Qin Ming leave.
The other four mercenaries slowly raised their heads up, and looked at Qin Ming, vigilance slowly appeared in their tired eyes.
"No need to be nervous, i won’t rob you. No matter what’s inside i want 20%"
"Inside…."
"I’ll have a look myself."
"There is a thousand year pine moss inside!" the man in black wasn’t sure of Qin Ming's strength and status, but the fact that he can force a Sabertooth Beast back shows that he is very strong and also ruthless, the treasure sword in his hands also don't look normal.
They were now heavily injured, if they were to fight now, no one will know who will die or live.
"Can i have an introduction?" Qin Ming had never heard it before.
The man in black pointed at the short mountain in front: "this short mountain is actually the roots of a thousand year old tree, the body of the tree is gone, what’s left is the roots in the short mountain. Inside the roots is a Spiritual treasure, called Pine Moss, it is formed from the thousand year old tree's Life Essence to a moss, it has very strong healing properties, belonging to the top amongst Middle Grade spiritual essence."
They observed for a very long time before confirming the situation inside. The mountain cave had the protection of five Sabertooth Beast, four of them were lured out and killed in the past month or so, their initial thought was that the last one will be easy to kill, but it turns out that the last Sabertooth Beast is much more stronger than the others.
"I only want 20%" Qin Ming walked into the mountain cave.
The five mercenary followed in closely, the air inside was very fresh, just breathing it in made people relaxed. The short mountain was indeed the roots of an ancient tree, all sorts of old tree's roots intersected, in the deepest part of the cave, at the place where the roots of a few old trees coiled, was a palm sized moss, the thick Life Qi came from it.
Qin Ming didn’t take any extra, all he took was 20% of it.
The man in black warned: "you must not eat a lot at once, only a little each time, you must completely refine it before eating another, otherwise it would turn your body into wood, and grow a tree from within. I’m not lying, such things happened before."
"Thanks for the notice. I’ll take my leave."
"Wait a minute friend, dare i ask for your esteemed name?"
"Qin Ming."
"Are you alone? The forest is very dangerous, are you interested in joining us?"
"I appreciate your kindness, but i have other matter to attend to."
"Could you be a disciple of Azure Cloud Sect?" one mercenary suddenly thought, they met a fellow mercenary the other day where they warned them that disciples of Azure Cloud Sect will be coming to this mountain to pick medicine herbs, and asked them to keep away from them to avoid trouble.
Qin Ming nodded and left.
The man in black completely dismissed the thought to snatch the Pine Moss back, he didn’t dare to offend the Azure Cloud Sect. From this person's strength, he should be a high grade disciple, there maybe other disciples nearby picking medicine herbs.
Thinking to this part, they hurriedly left.
They didn’t dare to rob Qin Ming, but what if later Qin Ming called people to come and rob them.
Thousand year Pine Moss, a rare treasure, even a Azure Cloud Sect disciple would greed for it.
The sky slowly turned dark, Qin Ming found a good hiding place, and took out the Thousand year Pine Moss from his sack and look closely at it. There is no difference between a normal moss and this, but he could feel the thick Life Qi emitting out, there is even a cooling scent.
These kind of thousand year Spiritual object should not only have healing properties, maybe it has other miraculous effects.
"Don’t disappoint me." Qin Ming need to stabilize his position in Spirit Martial realm grade four, and this is a good chance.
He carefully cut a small piece, put it in his mouth and slowly chewed, a wave of thick cooling sensation filled his mouth, and it slowly spread all over his body, seeping into his five viscera and six bowels, muscles and bones. [TL Note: five viscera and six bowels means the all the organs in a human body.]
You will transform into wood if you eat too much? I’m not afraid! I have the Rebirth Exercise.
"Ying yang connected, the soul penetrates "
"Respect the South and tread on the North, east is to the right and west to the left, northeast and northwest is ample, surrounding the center. Yang resides in southeast, Ying regresses in southeast, centre surrounds, balanced yin and yang. To answer to the North Dipper, and bow under all directions."
[TL Note: lol i don’t know this is a mnemonic. I can’t translate mnemonics.]
Qin Ming silently muttered the second mnemonics of Rebirth Exercise, refining the thousand year moss, this way, not only can he avoid turning into wood, it should also be a lot more effective than directly absorbing it. Just as expected, these scattered flow of life is gradually being controlled, as it followed Qin Ming's direction to circulate around his body, hastening the refining process, nourishing the organs in his body, like every cell in his body is emitting Life Qi.
The small piece of moss was refined very quickly, so Qin Ming decisively swallowed the rest in one mouthful, and use Rebirth Exercise to diffuse it.
Unconsciously, the skin on Qin Ming's body start to seep out black filth, more and more, not long later, it was covering his whole body, like a black sticky liquid, but it has a shred of faint red.
Qin Ming was not worried by it, instead he was secretly happy.
He still remember that when he first exercise the Rebirth Exercise, his body experienced similar situation, like cleansing ones filth, and undergo reborn. Afterwards, whenever it seeps out, his body will always have a similar situation, his body will improve. The reason why Qin Ming had such a strong strength is because of the Rebirth Exercise, otherwise, with just training would be impossible for his strength so reach six seven hundred jin, and definitely not be able to handle the backlash from using Vajra Spirit's three times increase in explosive strength.
Only the further he go, the lesser the black sticky liquid seeps out, after cultivating according to the first paragraph, it never happened anymore.
He didn’t expect that cultivating according to the second paragraph of Rebirth Exercise, it actually produced a similar result, the faint red in the impurities shows that the cleansing is more effective.
Morning of second day, Qin Ming was refreshed, as he walked out the mountain cave he was hiding in with a smile, his exhaustion an injury was gone, his divine sense is also a lot more sensitive now, his body filled with unspeakable lightness, as he clenched his fist, the perfect muscle contours covers his arm, making it look like he is alot stronger now.
He don’t know whether this was because of the thousand year Pine Moss or it was because of the cooperation with Rebirth Exercise, anyways, the product was beyond what he had thought.
Qin Ming went to the nearby stream clean himself up, changed into a new set of clothes, and once again went into the forest in search of Zhao Ming.
From Zhao Ming's plan of killing Qin Ming when they are outside, it can be seen that this woman was very vicious, at first it wasn’t a very deep rooted hatred, but since she wanted his life. If he doesn't kill her this time, there would be countless troubles when they go back to Azure Cloud Sect