Chapter 180 – The Unlucky Ancient Emperor
With great concentration, Wang Lin walked the path in the mountain. It had been 7 years. Every time he broke a restriction, he would change it a little and add on a few more. If the path he took was like hell and full of danger at every step, he would make it feel like the grass had turned to ice, with the hopelessness of heaven and earth swallowing you.
If there was anyone unlucky enough to run into them, they would still lose a layer of skin if they didn’t die.
In these 7 years, Wang Lin changed a lot in regards to his restriction technique. He has gained a lot of enlightenment. Now all the restrictions broken by him he could easily wield as his own, and more effectively than they originally were.
This surprised Wang Lin and increased his interest even more. After all, the only way to exit this mountain is through restriction technique.
In the past 7 years of his restriction research, Wang Lin never just made simple observations. He was able to produce his own method of deducing how to get past the restrictions. This method was the result of countless trials and errors. He always worked slowly from the starting point, never missing a single detail. While he slowly he progressed, each of his steps forward were firm.
When it came to rare and difficult restrictions he always started from the basics, and slowly progressed through. Without any impatience in his heart, he slowly developed the mindset to practice restriction techniques.
There are many who can use restriction techniques, however those that have a deep understanding of them are very few. Aside from a few old experts, no one else can match Wang Lin in restriction techniques.
Even Wang Lin himself was very confused, it seemed like his mediocre talent didn’t matter at all when practicing restriction techniques. Just like when he first encountered Formation Method all those years ago, it was much easier to use than Fashu.
At this moment Wang Lin sat cross legged on a large rock, staring straight ahead at the cloud in the distance. The cloud was motionless.
As of two days ago Wang Lin stared at the cloud in deep meditation. He took out a jade strip and carved a few words on it, then he drew on the ground.
This cloud appeared to be very subtle to Wang Lin. His restrictions were all around the mountain. If anyone wanted to get passed it, they would have to fly through, relying on their luck.
If it was 7 years ago, Wang Lin would need to use small animals to experience a breakthrough in the restriction technique. However, with his now developed understanding of restrictions, especially with his soul piercing eyes, he only needed to stare at the cloud for a bit. While not fully comprehending the restriction, he was able to tell what restriction was in place. One of the restrictions prevented flying.
In this way the cloud restriction became even more ingenious. If there were no clouds, while the restriction would still be difficult to break, one would not be completely lost. However, the cloud covered the center of the restriction.
This increased the unknown variable within this restriction.
Even in this situation, Wang Lin’s heart didn’t become flustered. His eyes gleamed as he stared at the cloud. Suddenly, his hand started moving in a blur in front of him.
Afterimages of his hand started appearing until it looked like he had thousands of hands. These afterimages started to tremble, and began to spread rapidly.
The afterimages created by Wang Lin’s hand formed a illusionary circle. He suddenly paused and shot his right hand forward. The illusionary circle formed by the afterimages flew toward the cloud.
After the illusionary circle entered the cloud, it started to dissipate. The illusionary caused waves to surge through the cloud. Wang Lin sat cross legged, not even glancing at the clouds. With his eyes closed, he slowly started to frown.
This illusionary circle was a technique developed by Wang Lin to break restrictions. After 7 years of research and improvement, he had mastered this technique.
He didn’t even need to look with his eyes. By relying on the wave produced by the illusionary circle, he was able to understand the structure and rules of the restrictions. After a while, he opened his eyes. His right hand waved in front of him again. This time with a serious face he moved his hand, until the amount of time it takes for one incense stick to burn passed by. Layers of the illusionary circle quickly appeared before him.
When the ten illusionary circles appeared, Wang Lin started to breath hard. He was losing control of his right hand. With the last of his strength, he shot out his hand ten times.
The ten illusionary circles fell on the cloud one by one.
While forming the illusionary circles looked easy, it required Wang Ling to circle his hand tens of thousands of time for one circle to form.
This technique is the result of 7 years of studying restriction techniques. One can say the illusionary circle is itself a restriction technique.
The ten illusionary circles penetrated the cloud and faded away. This created endless amounts of ripples within the cloud, causing it to fluctuate rapidly.
Wang Lin locked down his soul. His left hand repeatedly drew a picture on the ground. After a long time, he opened his eyes and let out a smile. He waved his left hand and wiped away all the pictures on the rock. His eyes were shining as he stood up, wiping away the pictures with his left hand, then rubbing his right hand. He looked down and calculated the time. He then suddenly moved his right hand and shot out a beam of light.
The light shot toward the cloud, causing it to tremble, then slowly dissipate. As the cloud disappeared, what was hidden by the clouds was revealed.
Wang Lin took a deep breath. He took out a jade strip and carefully recorded its characteristics as he analysed the restriction. In the last 7 years, whenever Wang Lin opened a restriction he would record it, so that he may use them again in the future.
After the time it takes for a full incense stick to burn passed, he put away the jade strip. He stared at where the cloud was and saw a broken bridge only 10 feet away from him.
This was the true face of the restriction. As Wang Lin was about to step forward, he carefully scanned the bridge. His eyes landed on a small tree growing next to the broken bridge.
With Wang Lin’s experience from breaking restriction for the past 7 years, he noticed there was something wrong with the small tree. In all the restrictions in this mountain range that Wang Lin had met, although not many, two restrictions stacked on top of each other. But this restriction was very different from the restrictions previously used in the mountain.
This one must’ve been added by someone else. He himself had done the same thing many times in the past 7 years. This little tree must have been placed here by someone else.
Wang Lin laughed coldly. He looked at the restriction on the little tree once, and immediately recognized the same level of foul play he had encountered several times before. They were all casted by the same person.
About 4 years ago someone started to try to obstruct him with restrictions. After breaking them one by one, he had a good understanding of their restrictions.
The restrictions in the mountain normally don’t activate unless you actively touch them. However, the restrictions set by this person were very different. The moment you enter it’s range, it will immediately attack you. If its attacks end up being in vain, it will self destruct and active all the restrictions near by, trapping the person in a prison of restrictions.
Wang Lin narrowed his eyes as he stared at the little tree. He sent out three illusionary circles. They landed on top of the little tree.
The little tree shook a little and the leaves started to fall off. The trunk quickly turned dark. It finally started to bend.
Wang Lin’s illusionary circle contained numerous restrictions. Its main role was to break restrictions. Thus, the restriction on the little tree broke, layer by layer.
A cold light flashed in Wang Lin’s eye. He quickly took the poisonous black sword out of his back and sent it towards the tree. At the same, time the bent tree trunk flew at Wang Lin.
The black sword suddenly flashed by, brushing past the tree trunk and slicing it in two. When the tree trunk fell to the ground, it curled up and gradually revealed itself to be a brown centipede.
The centipede twisted a few times and turned into a cloud of black smoke. This black smoke gave off the feeling of death that would cause people to panic, however it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
Wang Lin thought with a dignified look in his eyes. This was the first time he seen a restriction that used a spirit beast with the spirit beast’s body creating a black smoke that would cause panic. He felt very familiar with this method.
He was able to tell that this restriction and a few others before this were set up by the same person. It was really obvious that that person rarely used this kind of restriction. It wasn’t much stronger than the rest, but it was much more ingenious. If someone carelessly walked by, it would be hard to avoid death.
“The Six Desire Lord!” Wang Lin flattered a bit as he whispered. He knew why this felt so familiar to him. Back then, in the tunnels, the Six Desire Lord used many youths to test various outlandish methods.
Wang Lin remembered this in his heart. The first time Six Desire Lord targeted him, he decided to spare Wang Lin after a quick interaction. He went after the youths around Wang Lin instead.
He used the bodies of youths as special materials to cast spells. This time it was exactly the same, only the victim was a centipede.
At that very moment, on a rock 500 feet from the mountain top, Six Desire Lord suddenly turned around and stared at the mountain. The eyes of the youth standing at his side were no longer vacant, but filled with a deep dull color.
“Who the hell is it that kept breaking my restriction in the last 5 years, and even broke the restriction I set to kill in the clouds? Could it be Duanmu? No, must be the Ancient Emperor, that old bag of bones must have been studying restrictions for the past thousand years. This person will be my greatest enemy in the 3rd realm!.” Six Desire Lord whispered to himself.
A hint of fanaticism showed in his eyes. At the mountain top 500 feet away, there was a giant whirlpool. That is the location of the entrance to the 3rd realm.
In the past 7 years, Six Desire Lord’s travel started out smoothly, but as he got closer to the top, the power and complexity of the restrictions grew. Including some truly stunning restrictions. It was one of those restrictions that trapped the Six Desire Lord for 5 years before he could break free.
He turned away and quickly moved forward.
At that same moment a person stepped out of the whirlpool restriction at the foot of the mountain. The person was holding a whisk and wearing a veil covering his face with a fairy like, gentle aura. He walked out firmly.
It was the Ancient Emperor.
Although he looked calm, he wrinkled his brow. At the first realm he met a fire restriction that took him 7 years to get out of, step by step.
There were many monsters within the fire restriction. He killed countless numbers of them. While it would’ve been possible to break out sooner if he had used all his power, the Ancient Emperor was a very patient man. He would rather waste time fighting than take a risk.
The amount of patience he has is what greatly differs him from Hunchback Meng.
The Ancient Emperor was well prepared for breaking past the barrier this time. Even though he ran into a fire restriction, his natural weakness, he remained strong and made it out step by step,
Although this took him a lot of time, his treasures were not used up, so when he tries to break past future barriers, they would be very beneficial to him.
However on the road ahead, nothing could stop him. While there were many illusion restrictions, none of them were able to affect him.
After entering the second realm, the Ancient Emperor let out a deep sigh. His eyes fixed on the mountain top. He revealed a cold smile. For the past 1000 years he’d been preparing for today.
If you wish to enter the third realm, you must learn restriction techniques. This is something he learned by heart. If it wasn’t for his amazing speed all those years ago, that allowed him to reach the portal 3 seconds after it was opened, even if he had killed all the people that were there that day, he would have still died.
He wasn’t like Six Desire Lord, Duanmu, or Hunchback Meng. Over 100 years ago he was already an expert of the middle Hua Zhen realm and was leader of the last expedition.
Back then, the likes of Six Desire Lord were merely juniors in his eyes. If it wasn’t for his grave injury after escaping, how could those three still be alive today.
For the past 1000 years he had been recovering at the Sea of Devils and started developing his restriction technique so that he could attempt to enter the realm again. In those 1000 years he was able to recover all his cultivation, but he was unable to advance. After careful analysis he believed that the injuries from all those years ago had damaged his foundation. Unless he used some heavenly treasure, his cultivation would be forever stuck.
As a result, he became even more excited at the thought of re-entering the Land of the Ancient Gods. Only here would he find the treasure that could not only let him recover, but also help him advance to form a Ying Bian Dan, allowing him to become an Ying Bian expert. This would make all the hardships he suffered more than worth it.
To this end he gave up cultivating and focused only on restriction technique research. He even went to many sects that were famous for their restriction techniques to study.
After 1000 years of study, he felt very confident in his ability. He even brought few amazing surprises with him. He touched his storage bag and widened his smile.
Without saying a word, he arrived at the first restriction at the foot of the mountain.
This was the first restriction he broke by force all those years ago. After glancing at it once, he stepped forward. He saw there was no reason to waste time solving this restriction, It was much better to just smash it by force.
After all, this was exactly how he had passed it all those years ago.
He recalled that the moment he had entered, the weeds turned into blades. Things turned out as he expected. The weeds around him flew up, as he expected, and it flew through the red mist that suddenly appeared. It then came back around and became a rain of swords.
The Ancient Emperor acted like nothing happened and pressed forward. As the swords approached his body, they become covered in ice and instantly exploded.
The continuous popping sounds didn’t slow the Ancient Emperor one bit. He easily reached the edge of the formation. He remembered that this was where a red light should appear.
Sure enough just as he was thinking it, pillars of red light appeared around him. The Ancient Emperor let out a short cry, his right hand made a fist and smashed into one of the red lights. The light immediately scattered and disappeared.
One after another, he punched the red lights. In less than two hours all the red lights were scattered. He easily broke through this restriction.
The Ancient Empower stepped forward. He was eyeing the second restriction a few dozen feet away from him. After moving a hundred feet, his face suddenly changed. The moment he walked out of the restriction, black fog appeared all around him. This was clearly very different from the red light and sounds of beasts that could be heard from within.
Shortly after, countless black swords and red lights appeared. They all flew towards him. Their speed was simply too fast, by the time he heard them they were already on him.
The Ancient Emperor’s face suddenly darkened. He let out a cry of Ling Qi and the Ling Qi immediately turn into thick wall of ice surrounding him. Most of the attacks hit the ice wall.
He then immediately retreated a few steps. He made a fist with this right hand and punched toward the ice wall. The ice immediately shattered into millions of pieces.
His left hand continued to shoot out spirit power that attached to the ice shards one by one. The ice rapidly melted and became clones of the Ancient Emperor, each with a single hand print. They all sent out numerous techniques.
The restriction roared after receiving such a strong attack. It completely collapsed.
As the black fog disappeared, the Ancient Emperor walked out with a gloomy face. His complexion darkened as he released a strong killing intent. “Six Desire Lord, this restriction must have been laid by you!”
The surprise restriction that suddenly appeared made him not know what to do for a moment. If it was not someone as strong as him, even if they didn’t die, they would have been left in a sorry state.
The reason he was so sure it was the Six Desire Lord was because Duanmu didn’t have the temperament to learn restriction techniques. However, this doesn’t exclude that brat Wang Lin.
But he firmly believed that it was the Six Desire Lord because he had completely forgotten about Wang Lin.
Now that he considered how evil the restriction was, he could not help but curse in his heart. He had secretly decided in his heart that no matter how simple a restriction may look, he would tread ever so carefully.
As Wang Lin slowly walked toward the mountain peak, he suddenly paused and looked at the foot of the mountain. At that moment he noticed that the first restriction he set had been broken.
However Wang Lin felt no panic in his heart. As he was proceeding up the mountain in the past 7 years he had laid down countless restrictions to stop anyone behind him. Even if they managed to break through all the restrictions without dying, they would at least lose a layer of skin.
If their luck was bad, they might even cause the nearby restrictions to trigger. Even if it’s someone in the Spirit Forming Stage, the only road is death.
There weren’t many super powerful restrictions behind Wang Lin, only 3 or 4, on top of the restrictions that were already there. The Six Desire Lord had added a few layers on to them. After Wang Lin had painstakingly gotten through them, he added even more layers on top. And finally, for good measure, Wang Lin spent 4 weeks going back and chaining all the restrictions together so that if one gets triggered, the result would be disastrous.
Wang Lin let out a cold laugh. The people behind him didn’t matter. He continued moving forward.
The closer to the top Wang Lin got, the more he slowed down. He had to spend a lot of mental energy to understand how the restrictions function, and even learning every detail of the restriction before he would attempt to break them.
With the restriction technique he created, he could only create up to 10 illusionary circles. Even if it was just 1 more, not to mention his body, even someone in the Spirit Forming stage couldn’t do more.
With this technique, if it was anyone else, the most they can make would be about 3 to 5 circles. The only reason Wang Lin is able to make is 10 is because of the Calm Soul Territory[1].
It was because of the support from this technique being drawn to the limit that Wang Lin was able to advance one time after another to the point where he could draw 10 illusionary circles.
The jade strips used to record restrictions now numbered over a hundred. They were his treasure, proof of his growth.
Wang Lin’s will was definitely very strong. Many restrictions took him many days and nights to study and analyse, until he finally had a breakthrough.
Time quickly passed by and in the blink of an eye, 3 years had passed. Wang Lin’s hair had already turned white. His eyes even sharper, as if they could pierce your soul.
Wang Lin had never thought he would ever spend 10 years on a mountain top, but for him, these 10 year passed by quickly. Every moment was spent studying restriction techniques.
From his position he was 600 feet from the top of the mountain. However, starting at 300 feet from the mountaintop floated a thick white fog that made it impossible to reach the top.
After three years Wang Lin didn’t have much Liquid Ling left. He had to be very careful with how he expended his spiritual power, making sure to conserve as much of it as possible.
Researching restrictions required a lot of mental energy, and as one expended mental energy, their spiritual power would also be used up along with it.
Right now, his white hair was tied up. He sat cross legged on the cliff surrounded by restrictions. These restrictions were all destroyed by the illusionary circles created by this right hand.
As Wang Lin approached the top, he became more nervous, wondering if the person in front of him had already passed the second barrier. If the person didn’t pass, then he must be waiting for him up there. The restrictions up where Wang Lin was were so strong, that if you randomly pick one, even someone in the Spirit Formation Stage would be struggling to survive.
As a result, Wang Lin couldn’t get distracted at all. His full focus must be dedicated to analysing the restrictions.
Regarding the person behind Wang Lin, he clearly felt his progress in the past three years. From the start, he would feel a restriction being broken every few weeks. Now, it would be months before he felt one being broken. The reason why it’s getting slower and slower is not only because of the increase in strength of the natural restriction, but also due to Wang Lin’s own growth. The restrictions he lay now were like heaven and earth compared to himself 10 years ago.
Wang Lin slowly exhaled. His gaze shifted forward. Just like how he could detect the speed of the person behind him, the person in front also know the speed in which Wang Lin was progressing. Maybe there would be some hidden danger that awaits further up.
Wang Lin let out a cold smile. He waved his hand and placed several restrictions. He had been sitting here for almost a year. He has to pay attention not only to what is above him to what was below him. He laid countless restrictions all around this spot.
Wang Lin was in no rush. He had no intention to run head long into the enemy’s trap. There must not be a single mistake at this point.
Wang Lin is waiting for the person behind him to catch up to let him pass first.
The person behind him must be at least Spirit Formation Stage. That is the reason Wang Lin stopped for a year. He had been laying down countless restriction not to attack, but to hide his presence.
After a year of laying down restrictions Wang Lin felt confident that as long as he doesn’t move, the other one will have a very hard time noticing his presence.
A few days later, Wang Lin felt a nearby restriction had just been broken.
His lip curled into a cold sneer as he stared back, eyes shining.
The Ancient Emperor’s anger has not subsided in these 3 years and instead of subsiding he felt more and more angry. In these past 3 years he not only have to spend a lot of time breaking each restriction, he also had to be extra careful of the restrictions left behind by another person.
The thing that pissed him off the most was when he finally broke through a restriction it sets off many other restrictions that he must fix. He almost died dozens of times.
All along the way, he felt gloomy and couldn’t help but curs in his heart. Sometimes he couldn’t hold it in and would curse out loud. From his point of view the person who added the restrictions was simply too vicious.
Sometime a restriction would look like it was nothing , but when you crack it, that crack would turn out to be the activation for that restriction.
There were also restrictions that if you didn’t try to crack, you can just walk by. But if you did try to crack them, they would create an endless loop of restrictions. Step by step, even knowing the dangers ahead he had to keep moving forward to finally escape from this hell.
Unless he decided to give up halfway, he can only continue to climb up.
Every time he thought about it, his anger would boil. He wished he could tear apart the person that did this.
Sometimes, he would feel very strong spirit power and spend a long time observing, but couldn’t detect any restriction. After expending a great deal of spirit power, he would send out his treasures to test for any restriction, only to find there was no restriction, that the spirit power was left on on purpose to trick him.
What made him the most angry were places that look completely normal, but if you watch carefully, a trace amount of spirit power could be sensed. These would be impossible to detect unless you give it your undivided attention.
But then you spend even more spirit energy to check the area only to suddenly realize this is also a fake restriction.
In the past 3 years the Ancient Emperor had to deal with real and fake restrictions constantly. He would sometimes accidentally trigger a real restriction, causing a chain reaction.
At the first barrier he had spent more time to save his magic treasures, but now more than half of them had been used up, all used to defend himself when the restrictions were triggered.
His heart ached and he was full of regret. If only he had used those treasures to pass through the first barrier sooner. If only if he was walking in front of that man, his path would be lot smoother.
Two years ago when he saw three different types of restrictions, he realized that the Six Desire Lord is only one of the people responsible for this.
He realized that there were two restriction masters in front of him. At first he was most weary of Six Desire Lord, but now that crown goes to the mystery man.
Cracking this person’s restrictions would leave one’s heart in dread. At first, while this person’s restrictions were very clever and detailed, they didn’t require much power. However, as he progressed, the mystery man’s skill improve leaps and bounds. The restrictions were not only smart but mind boggling complex.
At first, the Ancient Emperor would easily crack the restrictions but as time passed, it took more and more out of him to work his way through the restrictions.
The presence of the mystery person became more important in his heart. He felt that at least in terms of restriction techniques, that person was his rival. He felt that even though that person couldn’t match up to his thousand years of experience, the cleverness of the restriction left him wordless.
What shocked him the most was that the mystery person looked like he just started learning restriction techniques. It was very difficult to believe, but he was sure of this.
The most important part was that the layout of the restrictions were messy and large, but now it’s very hard to find and had been refined to two special characteristics.
The very fast attack speed, method of attack, condition of the trigger, and timing made it difficult to respond in time.
In his heart he already placed the person very high in his heart, and now even higher. He finally managed to break a restriction that took a great deal of effort. He walked out with a gloomy face.
He gazed upwards. He was still 700 feet from the top. If it was like before, he could easily get there in the blink of an eye. Forget running there, even if he could fly he would still be forced to move with great care.
He clearly remembered 1000 years ago there was a Spirit Formation Stage person that was displaying his unique magic treasure with the ability to teleport him from mountain to mountain. When he suddenly disappeared, a purple lightning bolt came crashing down and interrupted his technique.
The magic treasure was like a toy and was suddenly shuttered by the lightning along with the entire body of the user, until there was no trace remaining.
This scene left everyone in silence. To fly in the air meant attracting the purple lightning so afterward, everyone rather trek the ground than attempting to fly.
The Ancient Emperor continued for a month. The distance between him and Wang Ling had gotten smaller and smaller. This was the first time Wang Lin got to see a Spirit Forming Expert break through a restriction.
Today, the Ancient Emperor stood only 10 feet away from Wang Lin. His gaze suddenly shifted to where Wang Lin sat. His eyes gave off an odd light.
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[1]I’m sure this was something he learned before but as I haven’t read through them all yet have no idea what it is so if anyone knows please post and I’ll fix it. Something like the calmness of the soul territory.