Chapter 900 – Tempering the Battle Spirit
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After five years, Lin Ming had once again stepped onto the Road of Emperor. Every 100 feet on this road there would be a light, a quiet and ghostly blue flame that slowly burned. These will lights had burnt for 100,000 years without diminishing, like they would continue to burn for forever.
Under every light, there was a carving of a person, each carving corresponding to an unrivalled genius of their generation. These people were either Emperor level powerhouses or chosen prides of heaven that could easily become an Emperor level powerhouse, except that they had perished as they were growing.
Every heroic elite that stepped onto the Road of Emperor would be recorded here for all of eternity, as if their souls had been left behind.
This was the mysterious Road of Emperor. It was unknown who had been the one to build it.
Hu –
Hu –
Hu –
Every time that Lin Ming passed a light, it would naturally extinguish. And every single one of these early lights were the young geniuses that had died early with relatively weak wills. As Lin Ming slowly advanced forwards, he began to feel the pressure of the Emperor wills.
Hua –
A purple light emitted out from a will light, covering Lin Ming. Afterwards, Lin Ming felt as if his soul and body had been separated and in the next moment his consciousness had entered a world of will. This was the world of will of an ancient Supreme Elder, and Lin Ming was facing the pressure from their battle spirit.
“Kill! Kill! Kill!”
A 10 foot tall demon grasped a halberd as he barreled towards Lin Ming with overflowing killing intent.
Lin Ming remained motionless. His eyes flashed with a sharp light.
Woosh!
A silver white divine sword shot out from between his eyebrows, directly splitting apart that demon and the world behind it in half!
Ka ka ka!
The world of will collapsed, completely destroyed. Lin Ming hadn’t even taken a single step; the disparity was simply too great. Let alone these battle spirits that had been weakened through the passage of 100,00 years, even if these war Emperors came back to life they still wouldn’t be Lin Ming’s match.
Ho – !
The will light extinguished. Lin Ming continued to face the next will light.
This time, a Goliath Supreme Elder appeared. This will was a bit stronger than the last demon’s, but to Lin Ming it was only the difference between an ant and a cockroach – he instantly killed them all the same!
Ca!
A silver white battle spirit continued to cut forwards, splitting apart all. Every time it slashed forwards a world of will would break! These battle spirits weren’t even able to contend with Lin Ming, not even a single round.
A silver level battle spirit was extremely rare for a Divine Sea powerhouse; it had completely vanished from the Sky Spill Continent!
Lin Ming’s advance was unstoppable. Even Gu Xiao’s will that had stopped Lin Ming for seven days and caused him to struggle and exert an enormous amount of energy was still cut apart by his sword of will, without the slightest difference from the others.
As Lin Ming continued forwards, light after light was extinguished, all the way until 100 had been snuffed out. At this time, Lin Ming finally arrived at a split in the road. Here, the Road of Emperor that continued into the endless darkness divided into two paths, each leading to a different place.
Right in front of him was the same Road of Emperor, with will lights that lit up the sides. But on a diverging path was another Road of Emperor, this one surrounded by stone tablets.
These were respectively the road of will lights and the road of emperor stone tablets.
If a trial challenger found it difficult to continue, this choice of diverging paths would appear in advance so that a trial challenger could choose, making it so that their trip here wasn’t wasted.
Five years ago, Lin Ming had chosen the road of will lights. But talents like Feng Shen, Duanmu Qun, Lan Xin, and the others had unwisely chosen the road of emperor stone tablets.
However, Lin Ming hadn’t been able to persist for long on the road of will lights. Although he had ultimately managed to comprehend his own battle spirit, he had still been defeated early. The pressure from the road of will lights had rapidly risen; he had no idea just how terrifying it would become the further he went.
This time, facing the same choice, Lin Ming still decisively chose to step on the road of will lights. He wanted to take a good look at just how far he could go with his current silver battle spirit.
As Lin Ming stepped down the road of will lights once again, he immediately felt a great pressure fall down over him, even suppressing the world of will. Lin Ming guessed that this was a manifestation of a single facet from the Prime Emperor martial intent. As for what the complete Prime Emperor martial intent was like, he had no idea.
The Asura martial intent and Death God martial intent aimed to suppress a martial artist in the physical real world, but the Prime Emperor martial intent was aimed at the world of will. If one’s soul was too weak, then their spiritual sea would directly collapse, turning them into a mindless zombie.
Now, the first world that Lin Ming encountered on this new road of will lights was the battle spirit of a two-star Demon Emperor. This battle spirit even contained a wisp of that Demon Emperor’s remnant soul. It was simply incomparable to the previous wills.
Five years ago, Lin Ming had also faced such a battle spirit and had been instantly killed where he stood. He simply didn’t even have a single chance of resisting, and ultimately had no choice but to leave the Road of Emperor.
Shua!
The silver white sword of will slashed out, directly chopping the enemy to pieces. However, not only did they not die, but it even seemed as if they were reforming.
“Mm? This will form seems to have been enhanced by the Prime Emperor martial intent, otherwise it shouldn’t have been able to withstand my sword.”
Lin Ming maintained his calm and slashed out with the sword of will once more. With a ‘peng’ sound, the will form completely collapsed, turning into pure energy that vitalized Lin Ming’s battle spirit.
“This Road of Emperor is truly mysterious. After slaying the battle spirit that I couldn’t exterminate last time, I feel that my will has become a little bit stronger. It feels like I’ll break through to the silver small success level soon.”
Lin Ming had broken through to the third stage of Life Destruction and his battle spirit also grew along with his cultivation. He was very near to developing a small success silver level battle spirit. This breakthrough had originally only been a matter of time, but now his battle spirit was stimulated by the Road of Emperor, digging out the hidden potential within so that the breakthrough approached much faster.
One lamp one world. All of the will lights were cut apart by Lin Ming’s sword of will and extinguished. Nothing was able to stop his forwards advance. In just a mere four hours, Lin Ming had stamped out 200 will lights. As he continued, the will lights became more and more vivid and vibrant as if they could burn down everything. Not just that, but the lights in front of him began to change color. From the light blue, it looked like melted metal and finally began to exude a blazing silver light.
Silver battle spirit?
As Lin Ming looked at the glittering silver light that lit up a world of will, the phantom of a great Emperor appeared, startling him. Had he already reached the will lights on the level of silver battle spirits?
This Road of Emperor remembered all peerless elites that had ever entered. And among these unrivalled heroes, there were even some whose achievements didn’t stop at the Divine Sea realm!
Especially those powerhouses that had lived 100,000 years ago. Their battle spirits were also contained in the Road of Emperor. It wasn’t strange if they reached a silver level battle spirit.
“Kill!”
A great Emperor that shined all over with a silver light grasped a silver heavy sword as he rushed towards Lin Ming. Lin Ming’s mind stirred; the sword of will cut forwards!
Kacha!
The sword of will collided with the dazzling silver heavy sword. Lin Ming felt his spiritual sea shake; he actually hadn’t been able to cut apart his opponent’s sword.
“What a tough will. Even after 100,000 years have passed, his will is still so formidable. He should be an unrivalled powerhouse that surpassed the Divine Sea.”
Chain of Stars!
Lin Ming’s thoughts changed and his battle spirit turned into countless star fragments that shot towards that silver will form.
In the world of will, one could use any attack they could imagine.
Ping ping ping ping ping ping!
Silver light flooded outwards. A series of clanging metal strikes filled the air like a storm, deafening.
Lin Ming exchanged over a dozen moves with this silver white Emperor battle spirit. He managed to split apart his opponent’s body several times, but that will form was able to mend itself every time. After 30 moves, Lin Ming finally wore down his opponent’s will and completely extinguished it.
The silver light battle spirit melted into a pure will energy that flowed into Lin Ming. In that moment, Lin Ming felt as if some faint barrier that covered his spiritual sea finally shattered. The mist that surrounded his battle spirit suddenly converged onto it, became more solid. Now, it seemed no different from a true silver spear. The cold spear light became even more keen and fierce.
Silver battle spirit small success!
“Haha, congratulations Lin Ming! Third stage Life Destruction and a small success silver battle spirit! You should be able to easily form a gold battle spirit when you step into the Divine Sea. And perhaps you might be able to form a gold battle spirit before you even reach the Divine Sea! This Road of Emperor is truly wonderful to develop the potential of your battle spirit. Before now, your cultivation increase had been too fast, so the growth of your battle spirit wasn’t able to follow. Although you had the potential, you still hadn’t been able to achieve a small success silver battle spirit. If it weren’t for this Road of Emperor, you would have had to constantly temper your will for several years before you could release all of that hidden potential.” Demonshine’s wisp of soul exclaimed from within Lin Ming’s spiritual sea.
The potential of a battle spirit was 80-90% inherent to a martial artist. Of course, there were a minor number of heavenly materials that were able to directly enhance a battle spirit’s potential, such as the Twinlife Thunder Crystal. However, this sort of heavenly material could only be found through a stroke of divine luck. They were simply invaluable treasures that couldn’t be purchased.
Although a martial artist’s battle spirit was set, that didn’t mean they could unleash all of this potential. In order to enhance a battle spirit one needed to constantly gain experience and temper their will.
The higher level a battle spirit was, the more difficult it would be for it to grow. If one’s experience was insufficient then a martial artist might not be able to release their full potential even after tens of thousands of years.
When a martial artist reached old age, their strength, body, blood vitality, and fires of life would all start weakening – only their battle spirit would not decline. For instance, someone like Situ Bonan was already on the verge of death, but his achievements in the aspect of battle spirits actually surpassed many other talents.
Lin Ming’s battle spirit had immense potential, but it actually lacked experience and tempering. This Road of Emperor just happened to be the best place to hone a battle spirit.
Lin Ming understood all of this and was greatly anticipating walking down this road of will lights. The more formidable the will forms he faced, the more his battle spirit would grow.
Time passed. In just the blink of an eye, two months passed. During these two months, Lin Ming had completely immersed himself in combat within the world of will.
At the very beginning, all battle spirits were instantly killed by Lin Ming. Following that, it gradually became a struggle between two opponents on the same level. And now, Lin Ming was even finding himself being suppressed by the battle spirits of the will lights once again.
The 215th will light had cost Lin Ming 20 days to pass. After suffering grievous wounds countless times, he only then managed to reluctantly exterminate it.
“Next one.”
Lin Ming let out a heavy breath. Because he had overexerted his will, his complexion was slightly pale. As his slightly tired eyes gazed at the carved image of the next will light, his eyes immediately widened.
The 216th will light – the Demon Emperor!
“Demon Emperor… it’s actually the Demon Emperor?” Not only was Lin Ming bewildered, but even Demonshine was completely stunned.