Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-1013

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Concerning the value of phoenix blood essence, Lin Ming had a clear understanding of it from perusing the texts of the Ancient Phoenix Clan. A phoenix’s blood essence was the fundamental basis for its rebirthing through nirvana. Generally speaking, an Ancient Phoenix would be fine no matter how much ordinary blood was drawn out from it. But, every drop of phoenix blood essence taken away would damage the life source of the phoenix!

It was more accurate to say that blood essence was no longer blood, but the condensed form of a phoenix’s life force!

How many phoenixes were there in the Divine Realm? No one could say for sure, but it was absolutely a small number. There were even types of God Beasts that had only one member. Between the heavens and earth, they were singular. Within the vast universe, they were unique!

Only when this type of unique God Beast died would the next reincarnation of that God Beast appear. This could be said to be a rule of the Heavenly Dao!

Rather than a living being, a God Beast could be called a divine god evolved from the Heavenly Dao itself. For instance, the phoenix was a divine god that represented the manifestation of the Fire Laws, wielding the power of flame!

Even though the Ancient Phoenix Clan called themselves the descendants of a phoenix and also had the phoenix bloodline within their bodies, the truth was that the Ancient Phoenix Clan was merely a group of people within the Divine Realm that had slowly evolved with the Ancient Phoenix bloodline over time, multiplying over generations. From the very start, they never had a True Phoenix in their clan. This was because even the Ancient Phoenix Clan Patriarch would never have the ability to control a phoenix. They were on completely different levels!

Lin Ming was well aware of what a drop of phoenix blood essence meant. To someone like him who had such a light phoenix bloodline, this was an amazingly great lucky chance!

It had to be known that when Lin Ming first started walking down the road of martial arts, his talent was ordinary. But, after being transformed with the blood of the Ancient Phoenix and the blood of the Azure Dragon, his talent was slowly enhanced. Even so, he was far from being comparable with the peak talents of the Divine Realm. If his talent was worse than theirs, his cultivation speed would be slower. Even if Lin Ming had the ethereal martial intent supporting him and had come across all sorts of lucky chances, his cultivation speed was still far from reaching the peak!

He only needed to be compared to Yan Littlemoon to understand this point. Yan Littlemoon was younger than Lin Ming by two years, but her cultivation was actually higher than his by a full stage of Life Destruction.

If he were compared with peak talents of other Divine Realm Holy Lands, the difference would be even greater. There was always someone stronger.

Thus, Lin Ming earnestly wished for this drop of Ancient Phoenix blood essence.

He asked, “What standards did headquarters request?”

“Well, the standards are that before this Ancient Phoenix smelting trial ends, Yan Littlemoon must enter the Hells of Flame’s seventh level and she must also complete the Thousand Slaughter within the Illusionary God Combat Array. Hmm, in my opinion this standard is simply making fun of others. Just who could possibly accomplish it?”

So that was the request…

Lin Ming took a deep breath. He hadn’t attempted the Illusionary God Combat Array, but he had gone into the Hells of Flame one time. He was completely unaware of what it was like in the deeper parts.

Lin Ming began to feel some excitement in the face of such a challenge. He had closed up for over a year in Totem Tower and his comprehension of Laws had soared. During the entire year of monotonous and humdrum meditation, let alone fighting, he hadn’t even moved. Lin Ming was a hot-blooded fighter who loved battle from the marrow of his bones. After being suppressed for such a long time, he eagerly looked forwards to a good challenge so that he could verify his own strength!

At this time, an explosive sound echoed out from far away. In the center of the giant square in front of Totem Tower, the ground began to sink in and a giant portal construction slowly emerged from the ground. This portal was hundreds of feet high and the entire gateway shimmered with brilliant light, as if it were leading to another time and space.

This was the Illusionary God Combat Array, the trial within Fire Spirit Star that was used to test combat ability!

After entering the Illusionary God Combat Array, geniuses of varying levels would appear, all of them with an age similar to the trial challenger.

For instance, if a 30 year old martial artist were to enter the Illusionary God Combat Array, he would encounter all sorts of 30 year old geniuses. They would have numerous different attack styles, cultivation methods, Concepts, and all sorts of other combat aspects. If one could overcome all of them and complete the Thousand Slaughter, then they would absolutely be a mythical combat genius!

To complete the Thousand Slaughter of the Illusionary God Combat Array was even more difficult than entering the seventh level of the 18 Hells of Flame!

Yan Littlemoon looked at the vibrating stone portal in front of her and clenched her teeth before rushing inside. Her body disappeared into the Illusionary God Combat Array.

Everyone outside held their breath, waiting to see Yan Littlemoon’s performance.

On an arch on top of the Illusionary God Combat Array portal, there was a row of nine stars. Every time the trial challenger passed a certain goal, a star would light up.

These stars each respectively represented – slaying the first enemy, slaughtering 10 enemies, slaughtering 50 enemies, slaughtering 100 enemies, slaughtering 200 enemies, slaughtering 500 enemies, slaughtering 700 enemies, slaughtering 900 enemies, and finally the Thousand Slaughter.

Yan Littlemoon had just been in the Illusionary God Combat Array for several breaths of time when the first star lit up with a dazzling light. This meant that Yan Littlemoon had already struck down the first enemy.

In the crowd, White Daohong and Lu Xiaoyun sighed with emotion. As they said, the new would always replace the old. People were constantly evolving. Back when they were rookie disciples, they were far from reaching Yan Littlemoon’s strength.

The Illusionary God Combat Array factored in the disparity of age and would match trial challengers with opponents of a corresponding age. Thus, whenever one went inside, the situation would be the same no matter what. Currently, White Daohong estimated that he could kill just over 400 people.

Lu Xiaoyun was a bit better, but even she could only kill around 500 people.

Then, at 30 breaths of time, the second star lit up. This meant that Yan Littlemoon had succeeded in slaughtering 10 people.

An incense stick of time passed. 50 people slaughtered!

Then, a hundred people slaughtered!

Monarch Sweetyfox nodded, but Duke Golden Sword seemed to be in disagreement. “Slow, she’s way too slow.”

Monarch Sweetyfox sweetly smiled. “Golden Sword, I hope you aren’t using the results of your past to compare with this little girl. You originally walked straight down the path of destruction, and your aura and moves were both irresistibly strong, so you naturally rushed through the trial quickly. But Yan Littlemoon is different from you. She is focused more on comprehending the Concepts and Laws. Moreover, Yan Littlemoon’s true combat potential still hasn’t fully developed. She is currently focused on perceiving the Laws, but in the future when she gains more combat experience she will be able to go even further in the Illusionary God Combat Array.”

“Hehe, such a gentle combat style and focus on Laws is nothing more than all show and no go in my opinion. Truly what they call fancy but impractical. That Lin Ming is much more to my taste. I bet that when he enters the Illusionary God Combat Array, he will far surpass Yan Littlemoon!”

“Haha, that might not be true. Lin Ming indeed excels in combat, but Yan Littlemoon is ahead of him by far too much in the aspect of bloodline and comprehension of Laws. I’m not sure if you heard it just now, but Lin Ming has been meditating on the chaos stones for the last year. I don’t know what he was planning, but even at my boundary or your boundary, it is difficult for us to perceive anything from them. Moreover, those things that can be perceived are the highest truths of the Great Dao. In other words, they are just a general outline; it might not necessarily help in increasing his combat strength.

Monarch Sweetyfox’s words were reasonable, but Duke Golden Sword chuckled and said, “I still believe in what I said. That is the intuition that I developed from living through countless battlefields! I believe in Lin Ming’s strength! Perhaps his performance in the 18 Hells of Flame might be ordinary, and it might even be poor, but he will absolutely surpass Yan Littlemoon in the Illusionary God Combat Array. He might even break through that critical point of slaughtering 600 people, or even close in on 700 people, surpassing the me of the past!”

“Your evaluation of him is too high, I’m not too optimistic of his chances.” Monarch Sweetyfox shook her head in contradiction. And at this time, on the top of the Illusionary God Combat Array, the star that symbolized 200 people having been slaughtered lit up.

Yan Littlemoon had killed 200 people within the Illusionary God Combat Array!

However, the further it went, the more difficult it would become. Even as Yan Littlemoon slowly exhausted her strength, her enemies would only become increasingly powerful and increasingly greater in numbers. Later, Yan Littlemoon would even need to face 10 or 20 opponents at once. And all of these people were geniuses in their own right. Moreover, their attack style, their cultivation methods, every aspect of their combat ability would vary. They would come out one after another, endlessly until she was overwhelmed!

Yan Littlemoon soon found it difficult to continue. Her strongest aspect was her comprehension in Fire Laws – she didn’t understand other Laws all too much. In the face of some specialized enemies, for instance ice-attribute martial artists or water-attribute martial artists, her Fire Laws were actually faintly restrained.

After slaughtering 400 people, Yan Littlemoon’s enemies joined together in great formations. The several different combat styles joined together, complementing each other and multiplying their combat strength!

Yan Littlemoon suddenly felt the pressure rapidly increase. As the battle continued, her consumption of energy became enormous. Even so, she withstood it all and slaughtered her five hundredth opponent!

The sixth star lit up!

Following that, killing every person became increasingly different. Amongst Yan Littlemoon’s opponents, a large number of fifth stage and sixth stage Life Destruction martial artists began to emerge. In terms of cultivation talent, they were not much worse than Lin Ming!

Of course, in terms of overall combat prowess they were far inferior to Lin Ming. Even so, they far exceeded other ordinary geniuses. If these sixth stage Life Destruction martial artists were true people then they would likely reach the ninth stage Life Destruction. In other words, they were Ninefall geniuses. If they were placed in the world of mortals, they would be able to sweep away all Divine Sea powerhouses that existed there!

To face a siege from these sorts of people, the pressure on Yan Littlemoon could be imagined!

570 people…

580 people…

590 people…

As soon as Yan Littlemoon slaughtered 596 people, she finally reached her limit. Her body shook and her protective true essence shattered. A phantom sword pierced through her chest.

In that brief moment, 10 saint artifacts thrust towards her, immediately killing Yan Littlemoon!

Hu – !

Yan Littlemoon was ejected from the Illusionary God Combat Array, her face as pale as paper!

She had finished. The total number of people she slaughtered was… 596!

This number surpassed White Daohong and Lu Xiaoyun. It even surpassed the greatest geniuses that had come to Fire Spirit Star for the last 1000 years.

This was because Yan Littlemoon hadn’t fought many times in her life and thus her combat experience was lacking. She wasn’t like the martial artists of the lower realms that had slain their way to the top. Most of her time was spent closed up in seclusion, cultivating. From Xiantian to Revolving Core, from Revolving Core to Life Destruction, to a mortal, these could be bottlenecks that they never passed in their life. But, these bottlenecks were simply nothing to Yan Littlemoon. She was able to break through them with a single period of seclusion. Thus, her actual experience was very little.

To slaughter 596 people, this result simply left all of the martial artists present dumbfounded. They had thought that Yan Littlemoon was weak in terms of true combat, but now it seemed that her so-called ‘bad at combat’ was only in comparison to her comprehension of Laws. When she was compared to other people, she had already cast them far off!

Xiao Whitesnow and White Daohong felt inferior at their own abilities. As for Sun Cyprestar, he looked at Yan Littlemoon with some envy. This wasn’t envy of Yan Littlemoon, but envy towards the Yan Family that was able to produce such a talented disciple. The Yan Family wasn’t a powerful family to begin with, but because of Yan Littlemoon they were destined to rise in the future.

At worst, Yan Littlemoon would become a Palace Master. If she was just a little bit lucky then she could become a Merit Elder, Internal Affairs Envoy, or even a Vice Patriarch!