Chapter 64: Yin Sha Cold Rain

Late December, the bitter winter was drawing near.

Yunze Dahuang was shrouded in a hazy grey mist.

Heavy goose-feather snow began to drift down over the streets of Qingyang Market.

These past days, Qin Ming, with nothing to do, had been studying a pill formula — a mid-grade pill called the 'Spirit-Nurturing Pill', made specifically for feeding spirit insects.

Without the flowering season, these Spirit-Nurturing Pills could still keep his spirit insects fed.

On this day.

Qin Ming once again went to the hill behind the spirit field, glanced left and right to make sure no one was around, then slipped into Lin Zi alone.

He took out a purple demonic-flower spirit seed, held it in his hand, and quietly waited for prey to appear.

Before long.

A massive snow leopard appeared within Qin Ming's line of sight.

Quick of eye and hand, he instantly formed a hand seal and flicked the spirit seed in his hand toward the snow leopard.

Quick as thought.

By a twist of fate, the leopard darted off with a whoosh, seemingly heading elsewhere to look for food.

The Thorn Art landed on the very spot the leopard had just leapt from.

Crash!

A clump of purplish-black withered vines erupted wildly from the ground.

Just as Qin Ming was lamenting that the spell had failed.

On that purple vine, dense, hair-thin poisonous thorns sprouted forth.

Strangely, these thorns were ethereal, without any physical form.

They exuded a wisp of bone-chilling baleful aura, seemingly an attack aimed specifically at the divine soul.

Had he not observed carefully with his powerful spiritual sense, he would barely have noticed them.

Stirred by the snow leopard's leap, the thorns actually detached on their own and shot out with the speed of a sudden thunderclap.

They plunged deep into the snow leopard's mind.

Thud! The snow leopard's body stiffened, going rigid and falling from midair.

Its pupils began to contract, its eyes rolled back to white, and it collapsed to the ground without any warning.

Just as expected!

Yin Sha poison! Able to freeze through the divine soul! "It can actually fire Yin Sha thorns detached from the body — far more agile than the Thorn Art from before."

This excited Qin Ming even more. The Thorn Art he had previously cast with the black spirit seed, though its power was nothing to scoff at.

Had one drawback: unless he set up an ambush along the enemy's must-pass route, every time he cast it, the foe could easily dodge or block it.

Now, with this purple spirit seed, the thorns could fire automatically — a sudden strike that was simply impossible to guard against.

But casting it directly was still too obvious; the foe would have time to react.

If the opponent carried no defensive magic artifact specifically meant to guard against divine-soul attacks.

Mixing it with the previous spirit seed would be enough to confuse the foe and trip them up badly.

The purple withered vines instantly coiled up the snow leopard's corpse, sucked it into a dry husk, and transformed into a blood bead that dropped to the ground.

Qin Ming raised his hand with a beckoning gesture and collected the blood bead — excellent nourishment for feeding that Withered-Blood Poison Vine.

In a flash.

A glint of spirit light flashed through his eyes, and a sudden whim struck his mind.

If this Thorn Art were paired with a high-grade Spirit Rain Art, what kind of chain effect would it produce? One must remember that, with magic power comparable to the seventh layer of Qi Refining, the Spirit Rain Art Qin Ming could unleash at full strength would cover an area of several hundred zhang in every direction.

If he secretly hid the purple spirit seed that had cast the Thorn Art within the clouds and let it fall along with the spirit rain, it would be the perfect killing-without-a-trace!

No sooner said than done — Qin Ming prepared to find a target and give it a try.

Qin Ming then summoned that swarm of Yin Yi Shuangfeng.

He also wanted to see just how strong this swarm of Yin Yi Shuangfeng was now that they had advanced into first-tier spirit insects.

Qin Ming pressed deeper into Lin Zi. After searching for a while, he finally discovered a cave on a cliff face.

He steered the swarm of bees into it.

A few breaths later.

Roar! A tremor-shaking bellow erupted from within.

Qin Ming's face changed! His expression tightened.

"It can't be this unlucky, can it?" "I just came out to test the spell's power — I shouldn't be running into some powerful demonic beast, right?"

He leapt up and landed atop a nearby giant tree.

He narrowed his eyes, his gaze fixed intently on the cave mouth.

Thump! Thump! A burst of heavy footsteps from some massive creature striking the ground rang out.

Suddenly, a black-furred giant bear over two zhang tall charged out from within.

"A mid first-tier demonic beast." Qin Ming's face took on a strange look as he muttered to himself.

He instantly breathed a sigh of relief.

In the past, running into such a fierce beast meant either becoming its meal or turning tail and fleeing.

But not anymore.

Hot on the giant bear demonic beast's heels came Qin Ming's swarm of Yin Yi Shuangfeng.

A vast, dark swarm of Shuangfeng enveloped the giant bear demonic beast. Though the transparent stingers at the spirit bees' tails bored in everywhere, leaving the giant bear demonic beast in a wretched state.

Yet its hide was thick and its flesh tough — no matter how the spirit bees attacked, they simply could not break through the giant bear demonic beast's thick fur.

Seeing the timing was about right, Qin Ming recalled the Yin Yi Shuangfeng and stored them in the spirit-beast pouch.

He formed a hand seal and pointed into empty air! Boom!

High in the sky, black cloud vortexes began to appear.

In the very instant Qin Ming cast his art, he had already scattered the purple withered-vine spirit seeds—those he had once used for the Thorn Art—into the cloud mass, making them virtually impossible to detect.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh! Now Qin Ming cast the advanced Spirit Rain Art. He had already reached the point of instant casting—utterly relaxed and effortless. Almost the instant the technique was used, within a radius of several hundred zhang, a downpour suddenly fell.

The giant bear demon beast below raised its head toward the sky, a look of terror flashing through its eyes.

It could not figure it out—how could it suddenly start thundering and raining in the middle of a snowy day? The giant bear began to run, trying to flee back into its cave.

The raindrops quickly landed on its body. A trace of bewilderment flashed through the giant bear's eyes. It swung its Xiong Zhang, its running body came to a halt, and it shook the rainwater off itself.

It seemed this rain held no danger for it either.

Cool and chilly—instead, there was an indescribable comfort.

But just at this moment.

Several transparent poison thorns, thin as the finest hairs, mingled in with the raindrops and fell together.

Like ice melting away, they easily sank into the giant bear demon beast's body.

It was just enjoying the rain's baptism when a sudden sharp pain shot through its head; its consciousness immediately grew blurred and unclear.

A few breaths later.

The giant bear demon beast's body went rigid and motionless, frozen in its previous posture. Though not a single wound marked its exterior, it was already dead.

Several clusters of thorns fell from the cloud mass, wrapping around the giant bear. After a few breaths they transformed into a single blood bead.

"It really can be used in combination!"

"Mm, from now on let's call this move 'Yin Sha Cold Rain'."

"Who would have thought! A plant spirit art can also be fused into a wide-area, underhanded trick."

Qin Ming withdrew his spell, dispersed the clouds in the sky, his face alight with excitement.

He leaped through the air, landing before the giant bear demon beast, collected that blood bead, and then took its pelt as well—this mid-grade demon beast's spirit material could fetch some spirit stones.

A look of joy crossed Qin Ming's face; now he had one more unexpected trump card in hand.

Just as he was immersed in his joy—

a message suddenly came through the transmission talisman on his person.

Qin Ming opened it and saw it was from Shopkeeper Liao.

"Fellow Daoist Qin, what are you busy with?"

"I just went to Clear Breeze Cottage to look for you, but knocked on the door for ages—seems you're not home?"

"Here's the thing: my family's Gu Gezhu broke through to Foundation Establishment a couple of days ago! After consolidating her cultivation for a bit, she just today ended her closed-door seclusion."

"The Gu Gezhu wishes to invite you to a small Foundation Establishment celebration in a few days, and has specially sent me to deliver an invitation card to you, Fellow Daoist Qin."

A look of shock and envy crossed Qin Ming's face as he murmured:

"What?"

"Gu Qingzhao has broken through to Foundation Establishment?!"

PS: Thank you all, fellow Daoists, for the monthly tickets and recommendations—many thanks! (End of chapter)