Chapter 875 – Second Stage Life Destruction
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With Lin Ming’s current strength, he was far from being able to protect himself if he entered the Temple of Marvels. But, if he could obtain the protection of Old Man Good Fortune, then even a top level character like the Nine Furnace Highest Divine Emperor wouldn’t even be able to touch him.
Lin Ming only casually knew Old Man Good Fortune and had no particular reason to trust him. But as he thought of it, Old Man Good Fortune was like a wild crane that leisurely flew through the world with no influence behind him, and without any conflicts of interest, there was just no reason to harm him. Moreover, for someone at his rank, there was very little in this world that would cause him to scheme. And even Old Man Good Fortune had been planning something, he could have just abducted Lin Ming from the dimensional realm by force and Shibai would have only been able to watch helplessly as that happened. There would have been no need to wait for today.
“Little Brother Lin, what do you plan on doing?” Shibai asked.
“No matter what I do, first I must break through the second stage of Life Destruction.” There was only a month until the time to enter the Temple of Marvels. Increasing his own strength first would be the safest bet. If he crossed the second stage of Life Destruction and also opened the Gate of Pain, then Lin Ming had no idea just how strong he would become at that time.
Although it was impossible for him to contend against the likes of Situ Haotian, he believed he would have enough strength to safely escape Situ Yaoxi or Situ Bonan with his life intact.
“Break through the second stage of Life Destruction? Great!” Shibai was startled, but not too surprised. Lin Ming had stepped into the peak of the first stage of Life Destruction a year ago, and after such a long time passed, it wasn’t strange for him to break into the second stage.
Two days later, Lin Ming closed up once again. After opening the Gate of Pain, Lin Ming’s physical strength and mentality were at their highest peak. Successfully breaking through the second stage of Life Destruction was nearly guaranteed.
When Lin Ming first crossed into Life Destruction from the Revolving Core realm, he had used his dantian as the core to disintegrate his body, so it hadn’t been easy at all. But for breaking through to the second stage Life Destruction, he was able to use all of the true essence within his body and flesh to thoroughly decompose his body. This was a much simpler process, and Lin Ming also had ample amounts of golden red lightning stored in the Heretical God Sprout.
Within the seclusion chamber, layers of array formations covered the central platform. Lin Ming stepped onto the central array platform and then revolved all the energy within his body and divided his 360 acupoints into 72 points.
These 72 points covered his entire body. With Lin Ming’s control, he crazily absorbed true essence. Then, with his dantian as the center, he erupted!
Golden red lighting poured out from the Heretical God Sprout. Combined with the energy throughout his body, it thoroughly broke down his body. All his meridians ruptured as a rain of blood shot into the air. Lin Ming turned into a vague blood fog that was filled with an incomparably pure heaven and earth origin energy.
Normally, if a person’s body exploded like this then they would be deader than dead. However, the miraculous and marvelous Laws prevented this from happening. This could be called the Heavenly Dao, and the road of martial arts was only a single path of exploring the Heavenly Dao. When a martial artist cultivated martial arts, they were conquering the Heavenly Dao to use for themselves, thus the reason why cultivating the martial path was considered to be defying the will of heavens.
On a human’s journey on the road of martial arts, there were unknown Laws that would protect them during these crucial moments. When they were about to break through the boundaries of Life Destruction, their body would completely disintegrate, with energy fusing into their every cell. Then, all of this would be locked into a small area, forming an accommodation for their soul. This primordial life soup was similar to the amniotic fluid that surrounded a baby in their mother’s womb, allowing the martial artist to maintain their fires of life.
Rich heaven and earth origin energy would fuse into this primordial life soup, tempering all the cells with energy and ejecting the impurities. These cells would then begin to reform into a spirit body.
The grade of the spirit body all depended on how thoroughly a martial artist disintegrated their body and how pure the energy was that tempered their cells.
In this primordial life soup, Lin Ming’s consciousness was incomparably clear. It was like he had become a liquid life form. He swam in a sea of energy, able to examine every cell in his body and watch as his flesh and blood were tempered by energy, slowing changing.
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A month soon passed. The results of the investigation of the Temple of Marvels returned. The four Divine Kingdoms had joined forces to jointly send 30 test puppets into the Temple of Marvels. Finally, only two had returned: one from the Sublime Smelting Divine Kingdom and one from the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom. This was because the test puppets those two Divine Kingdoms had sent out had been the strongest. Especially the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom’s. In order to obtain the best and the most information they could on the Temple of Marvels, they had even sent out a Divine Sea level puppet.
Even the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom only had a single such puppet. They had consumed a massive amount of heavenly materials in order to freeze its fires of life and seal it away, and now was the best time to use it.
“All those below the Divine Sea will be in dire peril if they enter. And those at the Divine Sea have a chance of dying, but they can most likely return alive.”
The results of the investigation were extremely satisfying. It had to be said that the Temple of Marvels was a place of ancient ruins that floated over the skies in the Sea of Miracles. It wouldn’t be strange for all who entered to die.
However, with the protection of a Divine Sea powerhouse, then the most extraordinary disciples of the four Divine Kingdoms might be able to go in to experience and adventure. Not to mention the massive lucky chances that likely existed in the Temple of Marvels, but even if these young disciples weren’t able to obtain any great treasures for themselves, just going in and expanding their horizons by experienced such a high level mystic realm would be extremely advantageous for their future growth.
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Forsaken God Clan, Dimensional Realm –
In the seclusion chamber, Lin Ming slowly woke up. He was lying naked on the floor. After his body was broken down and reformed, it gave off a feeling that he had been resurrected from the dead.
The second stage of Life Destruction had been successfully crossed.
From outer appearances, Lin Ming lacked a touch of sharp and dominating aura. All of it was restrained within him, making him see as if he were an elegant young man that loved to read books and recite poetry.
Lin Ming stretched out his hand and countless arcs of purple electricity formed in the air. These electric arcs were thin and long and gathered together like strands of silk, forming substantialized purple cloth. After a moment, this purple silk wrapped around Lin Ming’s body and formed a loose robe.
This loose robe covered all the beautiful hard lines of Lin Ming’s muscles, making him seem like a young student scholar. However, Lin Ming’s eyes flashed as if thunder was contained within them. These shining sparks were actually the power of thunder that had deeply penetrated into every cell of Lin Ming’s body, almost having the same effect of carving the Thunder Laws into his body.
In terms of Lin Ming’s cultivation, although he had just stepped into the second stage of Life Destruction, he had already reached large success of the second stage. Despite the fact that he wasn’t yet at the peak, this couldn’t be considered too far from the third stage of Life Destruction. This was the superiority that came from having an incomparably solid foundation. Once one broke through, they would easily be able to touch upon the next realm.
With every step Lin Ming took, he could feel that every breath he took contained a touch of fragrance. Even his bodily fluids like his saliva and sweat had an aromatic and fresh scent. This was because after he was reborn with a spirit body, not only were there no impurities in his body, but any casual movement he took was able to direct heaven and earth origin energy into his body, flooding every corner of his being with that pure energy.
Mortals loved to describe the bodily fragrance of a fairy maiden as having been untouched by the fires and smoke of men, their bodies not smelling like the wine and meat of the mortal world. The reason for this was because they ate rare spirit flowers and fruits every day, and what they drank was the fresh mountain dew of the early morning. Only through this way could they guarantee that their bodies weren’t tainted by the impurities of common mortals.
But Lin Ming didn’t need to do any of this. He could eat rice and meat just like a common mortal, and because he now possessed a spirit body, he would naturally eliminate all impurities from his body and refine pure energy.
This was also the reason why the Life Destruction stages were called the process when a martial artist was reborn.
“Little Brother Lin, Old Man Good Fortune’s letter has arrived. He will arrive at Port State in three days and wait for you there.” As Shibai saw Lin Ming leave seclusion, his eyes brightened for a moment before he spoke. For someone like Lin Ming, it would only be strange if he failed his breakthrough.
“Okay.” Port State was a city located in the Sublime Smelting Divine Kingdom. It was close to the 8000 Mile Black Swamp and not too far away from where the Temple of Marvels was located.
“Little Brother Lin, I will personally bring you to Port State. But everything after that will depend on your own ability. You must be extra cautious. Although you broke through to the second stage of Life Destruction, it is still far away from making up for the gap between you and a Divine Sea powerhouse.”
Shibai said in his estimation. He didn’t know that Lin Ming had broken through the Gate of Pain, so it was naturally impossible for him to estimate Lin Ming’s combat strength.
“Then I must trouble Patriarch Shibai,” Lin Ming didn’t refuse the offer.
Three days later, at a courtyard deep within Port State, a Godspeed Boat flew in and dropped off a young man and woman. These two appeared as if they were 20-30 years old, but the truth was that they had already practiced martial arts for over sixty years. They only had a youthful appearance because they had crossed Life Destruction at a very young age.
These two people were the hidden Ascetics of the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom and some of the most astounding youths of their generation. The young man was named Yang Mu, and his cultivation was impressively at the seventh stage of Life Destruction. However he didn’t have a dantian variation, so he was slightly inferior to Situ Yaoyue in that aspect. Nonetheless, his comprehension of Laws actually surpassed hers, and he had also comprehended an elementary battle spirit.
The young woman was named Qin Yu. She was not part of the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom’s royal family, but rather a disciple with a different last name. Although her cultivation was only at the sixth stage of Life Destruction, if one looked carefully at her dantian, they could see that all sorts of strange phenomena were occurring within. There seemed to be a faint space developing within her dantian and her true essence also appeared as if it were condensing into liquid. This was the sign that she was beginning to enter the Divine Sea!
After a martial reached the Houtian realm, that was the time they opened their dantian and would begin to train it. During the Houtian realm, one’s true essence would be a mess without any organization to it, so their reserves of true essence would be extremely limited.
Once the true essence within the dantian condensed into a cyclone, there would then be order. The total amount of true essence would increase and it would also become much easier to control.
And after arriving at the Revolving Core realm, true essence would solidify into a Revolving Core crystal nucleus. During this time, their total true essence quantity would rise several times.
During the stages of Life Destruction, there would be no changes in the dantian. Rather, a martial artist’s physical body would transform into a spirit body and they would gain the characteristic of saving true essence in their flesh. This would again cause the total quantity of true essence within them to increase by several times.
After arriving at the Divine Sea realm, a martial artist’s body would be completely soaked in true essence, without any more space to store more. And at this point, countless billions of years ago, the innumerable Supreme Elders that had forged the foundation for the road of martial arts had developed a new path. This was to form a minor dimension within the dantian, and after true essence liquefied, to store that true essence within!
The size of this minor dimension depended on a martial artist’s foundation and strength; it could be small or large. When an eighth stage Life Destruction powerhouse finally reached the late Divine Sea realm, that minor dimension would be extremely vast. The liquid true essence would surge and tumble just like a vast sea. Thus, this boundary was called the Divine Sea!
To a martial artist, the Divine Sea realm was a major leap upwards. The word ‘Divine’ also indicated that martial artists who stepped into this realm gained the power of a god in the eyes of mortals. Their fists could shatter the skies, their feet could crack the earth, and they were capable of upturning the oceans. They were simply omnipotent beings!
And now, this young woman named Qin Yu had given birth to a rudimentary minor dimension within her dantian, with half of her true essence liquefied. This was the sign that she was a half-step into the Divine Sea realm!
Once one reached half-step Divine Sea, then barring any accident, they would be able to become a Divine Sea Supreme Elder within two or three years.
This Qin Yu was already destined to become a Divine Sea powerhouse.