Chapter 895 – The Third Thunder Concept
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After breaking through to the third stage of Life Destruction, Lin Ming didn’t plan to immediately set out. Instead, he planned to close up for a further period of time. Once the coming storm finally blew over, he would leave, and with his strength having risen again it would be much safer for him.
Lin Ming had continuously taken pills, heavenly materials, and had even absorbed a top grade spirit essence stone. His cultivation had skyrocketed, and now he needed time to stabilize and fully digest everything that had happened, otherwise there would be negative effects. It was even possible that he could fall into obsession. This was the reason why so many martial artists that fervently cultivated the demonic path would so easily fall to obsession.
Besides Lin Ming’s cultivation rate having been too fast and his spirit body having reached perfection, there was just too much energy contained in his body. He was finding it difficult to control so much true essence in his body with his soul force.
The truth was that Lin Ming’s soul force was actually extremely formidable, and he also had alchemy and the ‘Overbearing Soul Tactic’ to help him temper it. Even so, his cultivation speed was too fast.
After crossing into Life Destruction, he had crossed three small boundaries in just less than a year!
Statically and slowly cultivating in seclusion was a boring and tedious process. If one did this, then their enhancement in strength would eventually slow down. Wanting to eat everything in a single go was simply impossible.
Lin Ming prepared to spend a period of time perceiving the Concepts as well as fusing the Laws into his being.
It was a pity that the Magic Cube had absorbed two-thirds of the Ancient Devil’s soul and still hadn’t opened. It seemed that the Magic Cube needed the blood essence of masters no matter what.
The last time Lin Ming had opened the Magic Cube had been with the blood essence of a Life Destruction realm powerhouse. Naturally, the next step would be to use the blood essence of a Divine Sea realm powerhouse. If he could kill a Divine Sea Supreme Elder and then open the Magic Cube again, he was highly interested in absorbing the soul fragments of the Ancient Devil. Each soul fragment was one-third of the size of the original soul and much larger than most soul fragments in the Magic Cube. Moreover, the Ancient Devil was skilled in the Concept of Darkness and the Concept of Time. If Lin Ming could obtain memories related to these two Concepts, then it would save him a great deal of effort and time in his meditation.
“The easiest Divine Sea powerhouse for me to kill now should be that Elder Sun. I planted a battle spirit mark in his body and can feel his approximate position; he should have left the Temple of Marvels by now. However, although I might have broken through to the third stage of Life Destruction and my strength has risen yet again, while defeating him is easy, killing him will be quite difficult. Moreover, if Yang Yun has already controlled the situation, he’ll have ordered the entire continent to hunt me down. That Elder Sun isn’t an idiot. He should have told Yang Yun about the tracing mark in his body to seek shelter with him. If I go to kill that Elder Sun then it will be the same as walking into a trap.”
Lin Ming shook his head, abandoning that idea. With the same reasoning, Situ Yaoxi and Situ Bonan – who had similar strength to Elder Sun – were also ignored. Although he wanted to take revenge on them for what they had done, it wouldn’t be at this time.
There was still a Divine Sea Supreme Elder that had a grudge with Lin Ming. Or, it was more accurate to say that he was not a Divine Sea powerhouse, but rather a Demon Emperor equal to a Divine Sea powerhouse. That was… the Steppes Master of the Blood Slaughter Steppes!
The Steppes Master was from the Giant Demon race, and his cultivation system was different from humanity’s. When a Giant Demon martial artist was in the Demon General and Demon King realms, their physicality was much better than a human’s. They could hold much more energy within them, so their strength surpassed human martial artists’ at their level.
But before a human reached the Divine Sea they would have to cross five to six stages of Life Destruction, reforming and tempering a spirit body. At this time, the disparity between a human and Giant Demon would level out. And if a human could cross seven stages of Life Destruction before reaching the Divine Sea, then their strength would even surpass the Giant Demon race’s Demon Emperor powerhouses’. There was no need to even mention an eighth stage Life Destruction master. When Lin Ming had looked at the battle array discs left behind of the Eightfall War Emperor, the Eightfall War Emperor had been able to fight against several quasi-Emperor powerhouses before stepping into the Divine Sea, instantly killing all of them as if it were as simple as chopping melons and vegetables. With the Eightfall War Emperor’s strength at the time, he could even have faced a true Demon Emperor in frontal combat.
Thus, Lin Ming wasn’t too worried about the Steppes Master’s strength; he estimated that it was about the same as a sixth stage Life Destruction middle Divine Sea powerhouse’s. The difference couldn’t be that far off.
Of course, it was impossible for the current Lin Ming to kill the Blood Slaughter Steppes’ Steppes Master.
But, he still had the Road of Emperor.
With Lin Ming’s current strength, he was strong enough to cross the Road of Emperor. Once he completed the Road of Emperor and obtained the strongest force field of the Heavenly Demon martial intent, the Prime Emperor Force Field, his strength would dramatically soar. At that time he would have gained the capital to kill the Steppes Master!
If he could slay the Steppes Master and use his blood to open the Magic Cube once more, and obtain the memories of the Ancient Devil, he would be able to learn all of the weaknesses and strengths of the Ancient Devil. At that time, he would know the Ancient Devil as well as the Ancient Devil knew itself. As they said, know your enemy and be undefeated!
Lin Ming had laid down this plan in order to increase his strength at the fastest rate possible!
Lin Ming took a thunder jade slip that Jiang Ziji had left behind and began to meditate on the Thunder Concepts.
The first level Concept of Thunder was the power of death. The second level Concept of Thunder was the power of life.
There was no need to speak of the power of death. Lightning could char a man to cinders, annihilate forests, and exterminate all life.
But the power of life was because thunder could temper the body and temper the divine soul. In the most ancient of times, it was said that the world bred life when lightning struck the endless oceans.
These two Concepts had been comprehended from the Eightfall Thunder Emperor’s legacies. Of course, the Eightfall Thunder Emperor had completely relied on his own talent and genius to comprehend these two Concepts, leading to inevitable flaws in his understandings. Although Lin Ming still had to make up for these missing parts and flaws at some time, he wasn’t too anxious about it.
What he desired most was to comprehend the third level Concept of Thunder – Extreme Speed!
Metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, thunder. Of these seven types of energies, wind-attribute energy was renowned for its speed. Even the infamous Golden Roc Shattering the Void contained Wind Laws.
But wind actually wasn’t the fastest. That honor belonged to thunder!
The power of thunder could pass several hundred thousand miles in the blink of an eye. Even though the Holy Demon Continent and Sky Spill Continent were so far apart, a bolt of lightning would only need an incense stick of time to pass between them. This could be called the ultimate speed of the world!
Of course, it was impossible for a martial artist to achieve this speed. They could only comprehend the Concepts and Laws, fusing them into their movements until they reached speed that resembled a flash of lightning.
After opening the Gate of Wonder, stepping on Golden Roc Shattering the Void, and even fusing the Concept of Thunder into his movements, just how fast would he become? It was hard to imagine!
“Mm? ‘Mystic Lighting Shade’… this is a thunder-attribute movement technique that I can practice without the Electric Violet Kirin bloodline!”
The Mystic Lightning Shade was more accurately not a movement technique, but rather a secret supportive skill. After gathering various types of divine thunder from the world, a martial artist could turn these divine thunders into numerous threads of lightning, condensing them into 12 vital thunder symbols. These thunder symbols could turn into an invisible power of thunder that could fuse into the body, significantly increasing a martial artist’s speed.
“This Mystic Lightning Shade actually suits me best. If it were a movement martial skill then I wouldn’t be able to use it in conjunction with Golden Roc Shattering the Void. With these 12 vital thunder symbols, I will be able to use Golden Roc Shattering the Void and further speed up with the support of these thunder symbols.”
Lin Ming placed the Mystic Lightning Shade jade slip between his eyebrows and began to remember everything within, carefully perceiving the Concepts and Laws within. Wishing to comprehend a new Concept through meditation was extremely difficult, much less that this was the third Concept of Thunder; the difficulty would be far higher than that of the first two Concepts. Even if Lin Ming had the support of the Heretical God Sprout, it would be immeasurably difficult for him.
He immersed himself in the ethereal martial intent, forgetting the passage of time.
One day, two days, three days…
Seven days passed like this. Every time that Lin Ming felt his mind nearing the point of utter exhaustion, he would feel a cool feeling transmit up from the Saint artifact bracer on his wrist, clearing and cleansing his thoughts. He even felt as if his soul was being gently washed and vitalized. Often at that moment, Lin Ming would receive a flash of inspiration and gain new directions for further insights.
Seven days, 10 days, 15 days… Lin Ming remained deep in the ethereal martial intent throughout. Even after perceiving the jade slip for such a long time, not only were his thoughts not chaotic or in confusion, but his perception actually became much clearer and his thoughts much faster.
This was the effect of the Saint artifact bracer. Although this bracer didn’t have any offensive or defensive power, it was truly a divine treasure for enlightenment.
After the 20th day arrived, a faint outline of the Extreme Speed Thunder Concept finally began to slowly form in Lin Ming’s mind.
To touch upon the edge of the Extreme Speed Concept in just 20 days, this sort of speed would be enough to shock and horrify the geniuses of the Divine Realm if they were to learn of it. The reason that Lin Ming was able to accomplish this was partly because of the Saint artifact bracer supporting him, but the most important reason was the Heretical God Sprout within his body.
With the Heretical God Sprout that could control all power of thunder and fire, an in addition to his body that had been 100% tempered by thunder when he crossed Life Destruction, this made it so that it seemed he had divine assistance when comprehending any type of Thunder Laws!
The current Lin Ming was no different from a son of thunder.
On the 21st day, Lin Ming’s eyes suddenly shot open from his deep meditation. A bolt of brilliant lightning seemed to cut across the darkness of his eyes. He raised his index finger, and from the Heretical God Sprout, the Purple Flood Dragon Divine Thunder, Blood Extinguishing Demon Thunder, Disenchanting Dream Light, and Nine Heavens Divine Thunder all rushed outwards. The several types of divine thunder gathered onto his fingertip and slowly began to shape themselves into strands of thunder threads. These thunder threads ranged from purple to red to purple gold to various other colors, even as they shifted into different hues.
Lin Ming’s mind stirred. A small thread of golden red thunder silk rushed out from the Heretical God Sprout. This golden red thunder silk was divine thunder gathered by Lin Ming from the Nine Heavens Thunder Dominion. This power of thunder was a driving force that Lin Ming had depended on to cross Life Destruction. After crossing the third stage of Life Destruction, there was still a tiny bit of this golden red lightning left over, thus it was also called out by Lin Ming.
Five different types of lightning gathered in his hands. Lightning instantly formed several hundred seals. Because his movements were too quick, his hands and fingers blended together in a blur, like overlapping shadows, mysterious and eye-catching.
Several hundred thunder threads violently spun around, condensing into mysterious symbols in the sky. This was a bit similar to inscription. With Lin Ming’s current strength, accomplishing all this was far too easy.
“Thunder escape symbol, form!”
Shua!
Thunder symbols that contained multiple colors began appearing in the air, sparkling and dazzling to the point where it was hard to directly look at them.
After this formless thunder was condensed into thunder symbols, it actually turned into something that resembled colored metal. As Lin Ming took these thunder symbols into his hands, he could feel they were quite weighty. This was a phenomenon that occurred once energy reached a highly condensed state, because energy and mass were originally the same.
“Receive!”
Lin Ming waved his right hand and a thunder escape symbol sank into his right leg, disappearing without a trace. As he looked within his body, he could sense that this thunder symbol had long turned into energy Laws, fusing together with his body.
This was the most primitive form of thunder symbols. In the future, Lin Ming could gather more types of divine thunder to improve it, allowing his speed to become that much faster.
As for his Extreme Speed Concept, he had only just touched the threshold. In order to be skilled at this Concept or even reach perfection, he still had a very long road to travel down.
However, this only made Lin Ming more excited. He wasn’t afraid to take a difficult path, he only feared that his path would be limited. Luckily, this Mystic Lightning Shade had an immense space for improvement. In the future, Lin Ming’s speed would become faster and faster. After he fully comprehended the Extreme Speed Concept and reached perfection, he wouldn’t even need to use a secret skill to reach lightning-like speeds, travelling thousands of miles in a second.