Chapter 778 – First Battle of the Destiny Decree
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Although Heavencraft Xiao couldn’t bear to thrust Xiaoxiao into the fiery pit of doom, he was well aware of just what it meant to stand in the Crown Prince’s good grace.
The Crown Prince was very ambitious. It was even possible that he would become the most powerful Divine Emperor in the history of the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom. If he could follow the Crown Prince then he would be able to step onto a larger stage and achieve a greater ideal.
“I’m sorry Xiaoxiao, but a great man must be ruthless. For my descendants, for the future glory of the Heavencraft Trading Company, I can only make you the small sacrifice to achieve the greater good.”
When Corpsemancer saw Heavencraft Xiao nod in agreement, he strangely cackled and said, “A wise man can recognize the situation!”
As he said these words he jumped onto his crow puppet and flew away in a cloud of dust.
Heavencraft Yun was left behind. His face was pallid and his lips trembled. In the end, he merely sighed, not saying anything at all.
………
“Little Jade, bring me a basin of water so I can wash my face.” Heavencraft Xiaoxiao ordered a maid.
“Yes, young lady.” A young girl in an aquamarine dress ran to fetch a basin of water and a white towel.
“Little Jade, my eyelids have been jumping all day. I fear that something bad will occur today.”
“Young lady, everything is fine. Don’t you have Sir Lin?” Little Jade chuckled, giving Xiaoxiao a humorous side eye. Xiaoxiao was at the age where she understood matters of love and also knew of the relations between men and women. She was at a similar age with Lin Ming who was strong, talented, handsome, and brave. It would be easy for any girl to fall for him and imagine a life with him.
However, Xiaoxiao simply didn’t have the energy or time to consider these things. All she felt was that she was tired. Very, very tired…
“Little Jade… go and deliver more spirit essence stones to Sir Lin. Also, make sure that Sir Lin’s three meals are all prepared with the best spirit food materials. Don’t –”
As Xiaoxiao spoke to here she suddenly heard a massive explosive sound originating from the front hall as if a thunderbolt had struck the earth. Her complexion immediately changed as she shot up.
“Young lady! Bad news! There’s a battle happening outside!”
A maid ran over in panic. Xiaoxiao rushed into the front hall and her apricot eyes suddenly shot wide open. In the front hall, a servant was stabbed through the throat with a bone lance. He lay face up on the ground, his eyes staring wide like a dead fish; he hadn’t died in peace.
Beside the dead servant was a skinny, skeletal old man who wore a cruel and sadistic expression. His face was full of pins as if he had been stitched from pieces of human skin. His dark ghostly green eyes were like a rabid wolf, and his entire body emitted a hostile, terrifying energy. Just by approaching him one would feel the fire of one’s life rapidly fading away, as if they would extinguish at any given moment.
“Who are you!?”
Xiaoxiao felt a chill crawl down her spine. Her cultivation was only at the Xiantian realm and she wasn’t able to see through this skeletal man’s cultivation in the slightest. But she had a premonition that this man was a terrifying existence; he was absolutely not some unknown nobody.
“Jejeje, this old man’s nickname is Corpsemancer. And you are that little girl Heavencraft Xiaoxiao… not bad, not bad.” Corpsemancer stretched out a scarlet tongue while his ghostly green eyes were observing Xiaoxiao. Then, he said words that made Xiaoxiao’s heart nearly freeze in her chest, “Using your skin to make a corpse puppet, that will certainly be beautiful indeed.”
“Corpsemancer!” Xiaoxiao’s face whitened to the point where there wasn’t even a touch of red left. Corpsemancer was a character on the Destiny Decree. He was a notorious and infamous individual who had murdered countless innocents. Moreover, his methods of killing were inhumane and grotesque. She didn’t doubt that Corpsemancer would do exactly as he said. If she fell into his hands then that would be a fate a hundred times worse than death. He was simply the devil incarnate.
Sky Spill Continent’s Destiny Decree had a total of 360 individuals ranked upon it. Among there, as long as one was at the sixth stage of Life Destruction then they would be ranked no matter how poor their foundation was. Even if their foundation was bad and they didn’t have too many years remaining they would still rank in the top 200.
As for those at the fifth stage of Life Destruction, most of them were arranged below the top 200.
It was extremely difficult for a fourth stage Life Destruction martial artist to be ranked. The exceptions were if there was something special about their cultivation method or if their talent was unbelievable.
And for Corpsemancer, his cultivation method was exceedingly special. What he cultivated were the corpse puppet techniques and Yin Corpse Laws of the demonic path; he was an incomparably abnormal existence that gave everyone headaches.
Xiaoxiao was the successor of the Heavencraft Trading Company so she naturally knew every single master on the Destiny Decree as well as a great deal of information about them. This was because those individuals were possible customers of the Heavencraft Trading Company.
As she recalled the information of Corpsemancer, she felt as if she had fallen into icy despair. She never imagined that her two uncles would invite a Destiny Decree martial artist.
“There is also someone called Lin Lanjian. Boy, be a good little child and come out to quietly become my experiment subject.” Corpsemancer poured true essence into his voice. His words penetrated through every inch of the Heavencraft Pavilion.
“Corpsemancer, are you looking for me?” Without knowing when, Lin Ming had appeared in a corner of the hall as if he had been standing there all this time. Only Corpsemancer realized that Lin Ming had used some incomparably exquisite movement ability to instantly arrive.
“Hehe, good movement technique, there’s a little bit of meaning to you. You’re so young and yet so strong. You’ll become absolutely great puppet material. This old man really does appreciate you. Thus, I´ll give you a chance to commit suicide so I can take your body. Otherwise, if you fall into my hands, then you won’t even have a chance to beg for death.”
When Corpsemancer chased down martial artists, many of them chose to commit suicide when they lost all hope of escaping any further. Otherwise, if they fell into his hands then they would have to linger at the border of life for several months, staring helplessly as their own skin, eyes, hands, feet, and everything else was slowly cut and stripped off.
This sort of pain and despair could be imagined.
Lin Ming quietly took out his red long spear. Although this guy in front of him was arrogant, that was because he had the qualifications to be arrogant. He was far more powerful than Xuan Wuji!
Lin Ming had no choice but to go all out in this battle. Moreover, he didn’t have complete confidence he could win. This was because he simply didn’t know the true depths of Corpsemancer’s strength.
As Corpsemancer saw Lin Ming pull out his spear, his grotesque smile widened. “It seems you want to refuse my generous charity? Very well, let me see just how tough your life is.”
He then unfolded both his hands. Atop of them were a pair of ghost claws that shined with a cold brilliance. A dim green light flashed intermittently on the edge of the ghost claws; this was corpse poison.
“Sir Lin.” Xiaoxiao bit her lips and said to Lin Ming with a true essence sound transmission, “Sir Lin, I sincerely thank you for everything you have done for me so far. Before, we have already agreed that if you were to run into someone that you couldn’t deal with, then the arrangement between us could be terminated at any time. Corpsemancer is ranked somewhere around 330-340 on the Destiny Decree. I am so sorry for having dragged Sir Lin into this mess. If there is a chance, Sir Lin, please escape.”
With every word she said, her face paled ever further. If it were possible she certainly hoped that Lin Ming would stay. However, if Lin Ming couldn’t deal with Corpsemancer then there was no meaning in him staying here to die.
As she imagined her fate once she was captured by Corpsemancer, she was terror-stricken.
Lin Ming glanced at Xiaoxiao for a brief moment and responded, “To show mercy to your enemies is to be cruel to yourself. If you don’t take advantage of the time when you have absolute superiority to eliminate your enemies then you will inevitably incur the bitter consequences of your own weakness. Remember this and take care!”
After saying this, Lin Ming grasped his red long spear and rushed out of the Heavencraft Pavilion.
Peng!
The great doors that stood several dozen feet high were instantly broken apart by Lin Ming’s spear. He then soared out without glancing back.
Xiaoxiao felt as if she had lost her soul at this moment.
To show mercy to your enemies was to be cruel to yourself…
This was the most simple truth that everyone understood. But to truly implement this required great courage and determination.
She closed her trembled eyes. She knew exactly what Lin Ming was referring to. In a situation where she had absolute advantage, she had allowed Heavencraft Yun to freely leave as he willed.
She didn’t dare to kill Heavencraft Yun because she feared she couldn’t withstand the pressure from the family. She was afraid that Heavencraft Xiao would use this opportunity to punish her, possibly even expel her from the family.
But now, Heavencraft Xiao had taken the advantage to strike the first blow. The only one to suffer would be herself.
“Sir Lin should be escaping… can he escape…?”
As she looked at the broken door and the shattered wood that swayed in the wind, all she felt was incomparable sadness and grief.
Now that Lin Ming had left, she was nothing but a fish on a chopping block; she had no strength to resist.
“Young lady, Corpsemancer is chasing Lin Lanjian. We should take this chance to escape as fast as we can.” The black-clothed old woman nervously said. She then reached out her hand to grab Xiaoxiao.
Xiaoxiao mournfully laughed. She whispered as if she had just lost her very soul, “It’s useless, everything is useless. Corpsemancer has left a mark on my body. I can no longer escape his palm…”
“That Lin Lanjian, he actually runs when we need him the most! Damnit!” The black-clothed old woman angrily said.
“Grandma White, there is no one in this world that should be born to die for us…” Xiaoxiao shook her head. But as her voice fell she suddenly heard a loud thunderous explosion from outside that caused the entire Heavencraft Pavilion to tremble.
Hmm?
Xiaoxiao ran several steps out of the broken door. From here, she could see that several miles away, Lin Ming and Corpsemancer were flying high in the sky, their clothes flapping wildly in the wind.
Beneath them, the bustling and lively Witch Creek City sprawled out to the endless horizon.
The air still reverberated with intense true essence shockwaves. It was obvious that a great battle was brewing.
“Lin Lanjian intends to battle Corpsemancer? The reason he ran out of Heavencraft Pavilion was because he feared their battle affecting the others inside?”
For some time, Xiaoxiao was lost in thought. And beside her, Grandma White was also stunned. Although she had complained about Lin Ming just now, those were only words said under a veil of angry and helpless desperation. She was well aware that what Lin Ming had done was completely reasonable. After all, their agreement had been that their contract would become invalid once Lin Ming met a powerhouse that he couldn’t contend with.
And even if there was no such agreement, Lin Ming escaping was also completely understandable.
If it had been her in Lin Ming’s position, she would also escape at this time. Only a complete fool would die for a stranger.
However, she never imagined that Lin Ming would actually decide to fight Corpsemancer.
At this time within Witch Creek City, whether it was martial artists or common mortals, every single person had raised their heads to see the scene unfolding up in the sky.
Witch Creek City was a medium to large scale city of the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom. In this city there were naturally a vast number of considerably experienced masters. They were all able to instantly distinguish that these two people up in the air were top class powerhouses.
In particular that skinny skeletal fellow who was wrapped in white cloth; he was definitely a master amongst masters!
Who were they? They dared to fight in Witch Creek City?
The powerhouses of Witch Creek City were bewildered.
Of course, most of these martial artists were below Revolving Core; they couldn’t see through Lin Ming and Corpsemancer’s cultivation.
“Those two actually dare to fight in the skies of Witch Creek City! This is far too brazen!”
“That’s right! Fighting is prohibited within Witch Creek City. This is the general rule of every large city. If these two people dare to blatantly ignore the rules in front of everyone then their punishment will be death!”