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Novel: [Night Without Borders]
Chapter 37: [The Great Revelation]
Author: [Chen Dong]
Translator: [Shadow Knight AK]
Editor: [Shadow Knight AK]
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Qin Ming, familiar with the terrain, immediately found a pile of rubble in the snow.
He picked up a long, rectangular stone that closely resembled the original, snapped it in half, tossed the pieces into the area where the original stone had been, and swiftly vanished into the dense forest.
He figured only curious young Awakeners like himself would bother checking it out.
The old-timers wouldn't give it a second glance; the stone skin of the mysterious substance was useless.
The main reason was the Blue-Robed Woman's discovery had been too dazzling to conceal.
It had instantly illuminated the entire night sky, drawing all High-Tier Aberrants and major organizations to pursue her.
With a peerless treasure within reach, who would want worthless rubble?
Even though the Blue-Robed Woman had promptly absorbed the mysterious substance, her forehead still glowed like a guiding beacon.
Sure enough, after some time, someone came searching for the discarded stone skin.
This was the outer fringes of the Great Mountain, devoid of powerful experts.
The old-timers and strong adults all congregated around the special Nodes.
Moments later, six or seven Awakeners were fighting over the broken stone fragments.
This time, though Qin Ming's expression remained calm, his heart stirred with emotion.
After all, the "scrap" he had picked up came from the most mysterious substance in the entire mountain.
The spectacle of ten-colored light pillars piercing the heavens was unprecedented, unrecorded even in ancient texts.
What made it even more extraordinary was its fusion with the Five-Colored Mist and Haze, merging into a unified whole.
One could imagine the regret gnawing at the organizations and High-Tier Lifeforms that had failed to arrive earlier.
They must be green with envy.
There had been a consensus among various factions two years ago that the Heavenly Light descending upon this region was the faintest, leading them to believe it would be a barren land, destined for resource scarcity.
Now, the Black and White Mountain had erupted in a "grand revelation"!
Moreover, this event was likely connected to another Heavenly Light that had accumulated here for two centuries.
Even the High-Ranking Figures of the capital city would lose sleep over this revelation.
Years ago, they had mobilized a massive force, only to reap meager rewards, leaving them so enraged they considered leveling the entire Great Mountain.
Clearly, within days, the Black and White Mountain's name, long dormant, would once again reverberate through the resplendent cities shrouded in the Night Mist.
Qin Ming, standing in the dense forest, crushed the inert half of the stone fragment.
As expected, it contained nothing.
Clutching the remaining half, he hesitated.
The "main treasure" had unleashed such terrifying power; even a mere fragment, though far weaker, couldn't be ordinary.
Forget about witnessing another miraculous phenomenon — even a single "firefly" igniting here could likely detonate the entire forest.
After all, Shallow Night had ended.
In this ink-black darkness, any anomaly would stand out like a sore thumb.
Soon after, Qin Ming emerged from the dense forest, following his usual practice of leaving the half-stone in the mountains.
He wasn't in a rush.
He calmed himself, deciding to wait for the storm to brew before acting.
The Black and White Mountain's most mysterious treasure was destined to become the talk of the realm, shaking all corners of the world.
Everything else would pale in comparison.
In fact, that very treasure was already igniting the night sky.
Forces from all sides were converging on the Blue-Robed Woman, and High-Tier Aberrants had already shed blood.
"Faster!" urged the woman draped in a black fur cloak, standing atop a massive black bird.
Her slender figure glowed, shielding them from the wind and snow.
"Tang Jin, you're talking nonsense!" the Purple-Eyed Raven retorted. "I'm flying so hard that I'm about to collapse! That's a Golden Peng — few creatures can match its speed! The fact that I'm even closing the distance makes me an anomaly among Ravens!"
"Hiss, that woman's fierce! She just made a High-Tier Lifeform bleed across the night sky!" the Purple-Eyed Raven exclaimed, momentarily slowing its pace.
"Don't be afraid! While she's distracted, we need to catch up immediately!" Tang Jin urged, producing an ordinary-looking pale yellow straw rope.
"You didn't take that rope from the rafters of your teacher's room, did you? Wasn't it tied to a — " the Purple-Eyed Raven exclaimed in alarm.
"Not that one!" Tang Jin insisted, urging it to accelerate again.
The Purple-Eyed Raven flapped its wings, gradually closing the distance.
Ahead, the Crimson Lightning Bird, the fastest of the group, had caught up to the Blue-Robed Woman, only to be critically wounded in an instant.
Beneath the night sky, the goose-feather snowflakes swirling around the Blue-Robed Woman on the Golden Peng had been mysteriously dyed gold.
These golden flakes danced through the air, moving a thousand times faster than normal.
Though she stood motionless on the Peng's back, the radiant golden snowflakes traced inexplicable trajectories, slashing at the Crimson Lightning Bird from all angles.
They tore through its protective aura, instantly leaving it drenched in blood.
The High-Tier Aberrant Crimson Lightning Bird, fiercely defiant, let out a piercing shriek.
Its body blazed like a burning inferno, erupting with crimson light that expanded in all directions. It hung in the night sky like a crimson sun, illuminating the darkness.
All the golden snowflakes melted instantly, but terrifyingly, they didn't evaporate.
Instead, the golden light intensified dramatically, transforming into an endless downpour of golden rain.
Each golden raindrop stretched infinitely, then crisscrossed and intertwined into a dense web.
A piercing bird's cry echoed as the massive Crimson Lightning Bird was sliced into dozens, even hundreds, of pieces by the dense network of golden rain-turned-threads.
Its flesh, blood, and spiritually rich feathers were all severed by the golden threads, leaving no intact part as the fragments plummeted toward the pitch-black earth.
The Purple-Eyed Raven bared its teeth, desperate to flee, but Tang Jin, riding on its back, acted.
The ordinary-looking grass rope blazed with light, extending forward to strike at the Blue-Robed Woman ahead.
"People from Liuguang City?!" The Blue-Robed Woman, perched on the Golden Peng's back, recognized Tang Jin's origins the moment she saw the grass rope.
"Can we do this?" The Purple-Eyed Raven asked, its confidence wavering.
"Charge forward immediately! Hit her head! No matter what, we have to seize half of the Heaven-Bestowed Treasures!" Tang Jin urged, channeling all his energy into the golden light radiating from the grass rope.
...
That night, Qin Ming slept soundly.
Contentment brings happiness, and he felt deeply satisfied with his modest gains.
The most mysterious treasures remained far beyond his reach, so he didn't covet them or even dwell on them.
The next day, as Qin Ming, Mu Qing, Cao Long, and Wei Zhirou ventured into the mountains, they were bombarded with explosive news.
"It's terrifying! The distant night sky was ablaze last night. Powerful figures from major organizations and High-Tier Lifeforms died — more than just a few — and they still couldn't stop that Blue-Robed Woman!"
"The problem is there are too few flying aberrants. If true masters could take to the skies, the situation would be entirely different."
"They say City Lord Ling nearly broke his thigh slapping it in regret for not buying a high-speed flying mount sooner. He was so furious he stormed back to Chi Xia City!"
The rumors swirled, each new piece of information fueling the unease among those entering the mountains.
Everyone feared incurring the wrath of the High-Tier Lifeforms.
After all, someone had witnessed the usually serene Old Weasel — as calm and steady as a Buddhist monk — carrying its Hairy Donkey and rampaging through the mountains, shattering vast swathes of forest in its wake.
"I can understand that," Cao Long said, sitting upright on the back of a giant bull. "Anyone who had their prize snatched like that would probably cough up blood in anger."
"You're right," a voice called from the treetops. "I don't even dare venture deep into the mountains anymore."
Cao Long was startled.
Who was speaking from mid-air?
He jerked his head up and spotted the Talking Sparrow.
Instantly losing his composure, he hurled the great spear in his hand at the tree.
With a resounding crack, the entire canopy above crashed down as the spear severed the trunk.
The Talking Sparrow traced a graceful arc through the night sky, flitting away with remarkable agility.
Old Liu advised, "There's no need to get angry at it. Don't worry, when early spring comes and it starts breeding, this old man will help you vent your anger. If we can't catch the parent, surely we can capture its offspring?"
Cao Long clapped his hands. "Excellent! I want to raise a few Talking Sparrows. It would be best if we could catch that one from earlier too."
For a while, Cao Long and Old Man Liu chatted animatedly, finding themselves quite compatible.
Soon after, Old Liu casually mentioned, "The special Nodes in the mountains are limited — there are only so many, and they're extremely difficult to find. But there are other opportunities in the mountains, though they're incredibly dangerous. For example, some areas are inhabited by High-Tier Lifeforms that have undergone three Mutations. Would you dare to challenge them?"
Cao Long said, "Are there any places left? Some old-timers started scouring the mountain yesterday. I doubt there's much Spiritual material left in the outer regions."
As for the depths of the Great Mountain, he wouldn't dare venture there, not even with Mu Qing and Wei Zhirou.
That was no place for them to risk their lives.
Old Liu thumped his chest and declared, "Of course! I know this mountain like the back of my hand. There are places others can't find, but I know them like the back of my hand."
Cao Long's eyes lit up. "No problem! If we get a good haul, you'll definitely get your share, old man."
Mu Qing and Wei Zhirou nodded in agreement.
Rather than searching for uncertain special Nodes, it made more sense to head straight for a secret place rich in Spiritual material.
Qin Ming immediately realized where Old Liu intended to take them.
The old man had mentioned it during their drinking session the other night.
The Fire Bat Cave lay deep within a subterranean passage leading into the heart of the Great Mountain.
The path was long and dark, requiring a considerable trek.
Inside, a Fire Spring nourished a massive colony of Fire Bats, the strongest of which had undergone three Mutations.
Fire Bats themselves lacked any spiritual essence, but their droppings, when deposited nearby, nourished a vibrant crimson grass imbued with spiritual energy, capable of granting Second Awakening.
Qin Ming had been pondering when to share the Fire Snake, now largely useless to him, with Old Liu and Lu Ze.
But he hadn't anticipated Old Liu possessing his own means of acquiring spiritual objects.
The expedition to Fire Bat Cave, though fraught with challenges and injuries among the younger members of the three teams, proceeded smoothly under the leadership of Cao Long, Wei Zhirou, and Mu Qing.
With the exception of a few grass seeds left behind, all the crimson grass was harvested.
Old Man Liu beamed, clutching a cluster of glowing, scarlet plants in his arms. Though only three inches tall, these grasses pulsed with potent vitality and spiritual energy.
Before Shallow Night fell, Qin Ming hunted down a wild ox and seized the opportunity to shove the half-stone fragment from its mouth into its belly.
He then rejoined Cao Long, Mu Qing, and the others.
Having gone without hunting for so long, bringing back prey seemed perfectly reasonable.
More importantly, his relationship with the group had grown exceptionally strong.
Even if guards were stationed outside the mountain, scrutinizing those emerging, they wouldn't dare question Qin Ming and Old Man Liu walking alongside Mu Qing, Cao Long, and their companions.
All successfully carried their respective spoils out of the mountains.
That night, Qin Ming returned home without even stopping for dinner and immediately began studying the half-stone.
"What's going on?" His heart sank slightly.
He had felt something was off when he retrieved the stone from the mountain earlier that day — he hadn't sensed the faint energy fluctuations he usually detected.
Now, as he focused his mind and held the stone in both hands, he still felt nothing unusual.
Ever since being eroded and adapting within the earth fissure, Qin Ming had developed an extraordinary sensitivity to mystical substances nourished by Heavenly Light.
But now, he couldn't sense anything inside the stone.
He took a deep breath and began carefully peeling away the stone's outer layer.
If he detected any energy fluctuations, he would stop and wait a few more days before cutting it open.
However, even after crushing more than half the stone, there was still no sign of anything unusual — not a single flicker of movement.
Just as his heart was sinking further, his fingers finally brushed against a mystical substance.
Yet, there were no signs of its presence — not even the slightest trace of Heavenly Light that should have lingered.
"This is...?!" Even the usually composed Qin Ming was so startled he nearly jumped.
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END OF CHAPTER
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