Chapter 893 – Narrow Escape
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Lin Ming rapidly fled past the dimensional realms. Because his speed was too fast, a strong heavenly wind violently blew into him, causing sparks to fly off his bodily protective true essence.
Burning the Ancient Phoenix blood greatly exhausted Lin Ming’s true essence, leaving him with no choice but to use pills to supplement it. He had already collected many types of pills and medicines that could restore his strength. These were all high grade goods. High grade true essence restoring pills were relatively pure. But eating too many of them could lead to the energy mixing up and becoming impure, which would lead to a drop in his combat strength.
He flew past many worlds in a single breath, his mind constantly constructing and deducing a map of space in his mind. By relying on his understandings of the Concept of Space, Lin Ming was finally able to find the exit from the Temple of Marvels!
“It’s here! I’ve finally escaped!”
Lin Ming summoned his true essence and rushed out from the Temple of Marvels. As he saw the dark and gloomy 8000 Mile Black Swamp before him, he was overjoyed like someone that had just survived the apocalypse. This adventure into the Temple of Marvels had been filled with dangers!
“I have to leave here immediately. That sharp-eared strange demon youth isn’t that much different from the Ancient Devil that possessed Yang Yun; both of them have strength near the highest under the heavens. If they join forces they can turn any Divine Kingdom upside down. In addition, not only did I offend the Asura Divine Kingdom but now I’ve even formed a grudge with the Sublime Smelting Divine Kingdom. To make matters worse, I don’t even know what sort of plot that Ancient Devil and Yang Yun have in mind. If they really plan on controlling this world then by the time they come looking for me that will make the entire world my enemy!”
Lin Ming didn’t know what the result of the strange demon youth’s fight with Old Man Good Fortune was like. He also didn’t know that Old Man Good Fortune had unexpectedly managed to severely wound the strange demon youth. Not knowing what happened caused Lin Ming to be even more anxious. After entering the 8000 Mile Black Swamp, he immediately flew into the Nine Heavens Thunder Dominion, wildly flying through the fields of lightning.
This was the third time that Lin Ming had come to the 8000 Mile Black Swamp. At this point, he was already familiar with the terrain. In addition, he ate less than half of a thunder Dao fruit, causing his compatibility with thunder to increase even more. With his free and unimpeded movements in the thunder dominion, it took him only one hour to fly out of the 8000 Mile Black Swamp.
Not just that, but when he passed through the Nine Heavens Thunder Dominion he also had the Heretical God Sprout absorb the golden red lightning to its limits. This was his final preparation for breaking through to the third stage of Life Destruction. Using this method would save him a great deal of top grade spirit essence stones.
The 8000 Mile Black Swamp was surrounded by the four Divine Kingdoms. Lin Ming chose the direction of the weakest of them, the Seven Star Divine Kingdom, and shot towards it.
In terms of speed, Lin Ming was just a bit slower than top characters like the strange demon youth, Yang Yun, and Old Man Good Fortune. At this time, not even Situ Haotian would be able to chase after him, and with his outstanding endurance, he could maintain this extreme speed for most of a day. The civilians of the Seven Star Divine Kingdom only saw a faint blue ray of light streak through the skies, but they were unable to see just what it was.
Lin Ming shot through the Seven Stars Divine Kingdom in a single go. As he left their borders, he put on a wood spirit jade mask and changed directions several times before finally choosing a distant and desolate hill. The Sky Spill Continent was an incomparably vast land. No matter how monstrous or exquisite Yang Yun’s methods were, it would still be extremely difficult for him to find Lin Ming. Not even a needle in a haystack was a good enough analogy.
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At this time, in the Temple of Marvels, the strange demon youth finally awoke from his deep sleep; he had been restoring his wounds in his bronze ghost coffin. As for Yang Yun, the Ancient Devil had finally restored his consciousness after surviving the unbearable pain of having his soul torn apart.
“Damn it all! Kill! Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!”
“Lin Lanjian, I will annihilate your body and soul!! Ahhhh!”
Bang!
The Ancient Devil thrust out a claw and a distant mountain burst apart. A terrifying energy exploded outwards, causing this part of the world to shake, as if it couldn’t withstand the Ancient Devil’s rage and was about to rupture at any moment!
Yang Yun was in his own spiritual sea, coldly and closely watching as the Ancient Devil rampaged like a madman. In fact, his relation with the Ancient Devil wasn’t harmonious at all. Yang Yun was a man filled with his own ambitions who needed to control his destiny, just the like Ancient Devil. The two of them had joined forces due to mutual benefit, but the truth was that they always kept their guard up against against the other.
“My soul! Two-thirds of my soul! That damned little beast, just what kind of treasure does he have on him!? Is it a spirit artifact? How is this possible!?”
A Saint artifact was not the peak of all magic treasures. A Saint artifact could be divided into three different grades, and above a high-grade Saint artifact were even higher ranks of mystical treasures. It was obvious that a high-grade Saint artifact was nowhere near enough to describe the terrifying black vortex in Lin Ming’s body.
“Spirit artifact?” Yang Yun’s heart stirred, but he remained silent. He only secretly paid attention, his mind on full alert. It was apparent that the Ancient Devil had encountered some mysterious force when it tried to seize Lin Ming’s body and had ended up suffering for it.
“No, that’s not right! I couldn’t even feel the existence of that thing. That black vortex seemed like the power of pure Laws, Laws that were fused with endless divine power. I was simply unable to resist it at all. Just what can that possibly be!?”
Fear flashed in the Ancient Devil’s eyes. When it was being swallowed up by that energy, it felt more miniscule and helpless than a little ant facing the entire universe. This was a feeling it would never forget in its life.
After this fear had reached its peak, the Ancient Devil’s eyes began to fill with greed. This mysterious item seemed to be some sort of soul treasure. Not just that, but it was able to instantly erase a spirit mark. This was an ability that it had never heard of before. Normally speaking, a spirit mark was an extremely profound concept. A spirit mark was deeply branded into the very foundation of a soul.
Erasing a spirit mark was simple. One could simply use a battle spirit to destroy a person’s will and also wipe off their spirit mark. Of course, this would also destroy their soul in the process.
If the soul were compared to the brain, then a spirit mark was like every single nerve and vessel in the brain. No matter how skilled a doctor was, it was impossible for them to pull out all of these nerves and vessels without damaging the brain. When erasing a spirit mark, the soul would crumble before the spirit mark did, ultimately causing the soul to shatter and turn into nothingness.
The Ancient Devil had never heard of any divine treasure in the universe that could easily erase a spirit mark but keep the complete and intact soul form. If it could obtain this item, then it could restore the injuries to its soul and return to its peak strength. After its strength returned, it would be able to reform its physical body and wouldn’t need to do something so dangerous as seizing the body of others.
No matter how good a body it possessed would be, it still wouldn’t be the Ancient Devil’s body. After seizing this body, because of incompatibilities between the soul and body, that body’s life would also be affected, lowering the natural lifespan of it.
The only advantage of possessing a body was that after slowly adapting to that body, the Ancient Devil would be able to slowly cultivate. Although it wouldn’t be its own body and cultivation would be difficult, with its powerful soul and deep breadth of experience, it was still possible to cultivate back to its peak form.
“Yang Yun! Although that boy Lin Lanjian managed to run away, our original plan must continue. We’ll use those two old geezers, Ouye Hua and Yang Laotian’s, blood essence as a sacrifice to restore my strength!” The Ancient Devil licked its lips as it spoke. As a soul form, the best nourishment it could have was blood essence. This was also the reason why Demonshine and the soul residing in the Magic Cube would swallow blood essence.
“Of course,” Yang Yun said without the slightest change in expression. His eyebrows didn’t even furrow in the least.
“Hahaha!” As the Ancient Devil saw Yang Yun’s response it suddenly chuckled. “Ouye Hua doesn’t matter too much. After all, their Sublime Smelting Divine Kingdom is always struggling with your Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom, so if such an old man dies then so be it. But Yang Laotian is your Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom’s Highest Divine Emperor, as well as your great grandfather! Although you suffered humiliation and sorrow as a child, to not even bat an eye and offer your own great grandfather as a blood sacrifice, you are truly heartless!”
Yang Yun was the son of the Nine Furnace Divine Emperor, and the Nine Furnace Divine Emperor was Yang Laotian’s grandson. Not only did the children of the royal family include the first generation like the Divine Emperor and High Princess, but it even included the second generation, third generation, fourth generation, and so on.
A Divine Emperor had a life of 6000-7000 thousand years, sometimes even 10,000 years. In their long lives, they would have countless children. It wasn’t strange if their grandchildren or great grandchildren were thousands of years older than their own children. This was the reason why the number of juniors in the royal family would increase at such exponential rates. It also caused the various ranks and relations between all of them to be an utter mess.
Yang Yun calmly replied, “My father, grandfather, and great grandfather have an inestimable number of descendants. The strong among them become Princes and the weak among them live lives worse than slaves. If I didn’t have enough strength I would have died like a stray dog or chicken with my body wrapped up in sheets and randomly buried in some random hill that belongs to the royal family; nobody would know or care. In order for the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom to grow just a bit stronger, they’re willing to sacrifice hundreds if not thousands of their descendants without the slightest hesitation.”
“To them, compared to the national destiny of the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom, all sacrifices of family and fellowship is worth it. If I can lead the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom to rule the world as well as restore the golden age of the Sky Spill Continent of 100,000 years ago, then even if my great grandfather has to sacrifice the remaining last bits of his life, he would happily agree.”
As Yang Yun spoke to here, his voice suddenly turned icy. Even the Ancient Devil paused for a moment before cackling, “Since ancient times, ruthlessness has always been the mark of a truly great man. All important matters should be conducted like so! Very well, then let us continue with our plans! When Whitedemon’s injuries are healed, we shall immediately commence. At that time, when we join forces, Yang Laotian and Ouye Hua will be nothing more than prey!”
Whitedemon was that strange demon youth. In terms of strength, Yang Laotian and Ouye Hua were both weaker than Old Man Good Fortune, and their final life preserving cards were also worse than Old Man Good Fortune’s. If they came face to face with Whitedemon and Yang Yun, it was unlikely any of them would be able to escape!
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Lin Ming had already flew beyond the borders of the Seven Star Divine Kingdom. He changed his appearance and continuously used several long distance transmission arrays to travel a million miles away. He then changed direction, flew another 200,000 miles, passed through a jungle quietly for a period of time, and then found a barren hill where he began to cut open his own cave dwelling.
In the forest surrounding this hill, the strongest vicious beasts were only equal to a human early Revolving Core martial artist. They weren’t even the least bit of a threat to Lin Ming.
Of course, correspondingly the spirit energy here was extremely thin; it was even worse than the Sky Fortune Kingdom’s Seven Profound Martial House. But this didn’t matter much to Lin Ming. He already had over 20 top grade spirit essence stones. What he needed here was absolute safety. A lack of spirit energy could be tolerated in return.
A spear thrust formed a 1000 foot deep cave, finally connecting to the center of the hill. He left four exits and began to arrange a variety of array formations all around. There were concealing arrays, defensive arrays, alarm arrays, and many more. After finishing these preparations, Lin Ming opened up his own martial arts training chamber in the center of the hill and casually carved a stone bed there. He sat on the bed and began to take inventory of everything he obtained from the Temple of Marvels.
This was all in preparation to break through to the third stage of Life Destruction!