Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-1167

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Mo Eversnow used her mind to control the small bone slip, bringing it floating out into the air.

This bone slip fragment didn’t appear to be special at all. If it had been placed in a street stall and not auctioned off at a trade fair then it would have been difficult for Lin Ming to discover anything strange about it.

Mo Eversnow said, “This bone slip has a cultivation method recorded within it. It includes the six early stages of body transformation, the Eight Inner Hidden Gates, and the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace. The details about the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace are called the Nine Star Art. According to this bone slip, after one practices the Nine Star Art and truly opens of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, a martial artist can commune with the world around them, just like an essence gathering martial artist can. They can galvanize a type of energy using the world Laws. This energy is called astral essence!”

“Astral essence?” Lin Ming asked, startled. This was the first time he had ever heard of this sort of energy.

“Astral essence and true essence are two sides of energy, similar to how grandmist energy divided into yin and yang energies. I have a faint premonition that the secrets of astral essence are related to how to open the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace.”

“The secrets to opening the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace…” Lin Ming thought for a moment. It was a pity that this bone slip was far too incomplete. If he wanted to understand all of these secrets then he would have to rely on his own efforts to do so.

The Nine Stars of the Dao Palace was an extremely distant matter. Currently, Lin Ming hadn’t even fully opened the Eight Inner Hidden Gates. And the final two of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates were extraordinary; they were equal to half a large boundary in body transformation.

The first six gates of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates could enhance various attributes of the human body. But in terms of increasing one’s comprehensive combat strength, they were inferior to the Gate of Life and the Gate of Death.

The Gate of Life was located at the heart and controlled the power of life.

After opening the Gate of Life, a martial artist’s fires of life would be incomparably vibrant and vivid. Their flesh, blood, organs, all of it would be able to regenerate at incredible rates. Even one’s blood vitality and fires of life, as long as they didn’t suffer some injury past 50%, could still be slowly restored.

This sounded like a gate that could increase a martial artist’s defensive and recovery abilities, but it wasn’t so. The most vital role of the Gate of Life lay in its attack potential!

To be able to regenerate one’s blood vitality and fires of life was an absolutely monstrous ability!

For a martial artist, their life source was extremely fragile. Once their fires of life weakened or they lost their blood essence, that often meant that their life force would diminish, their bodies would wither, and they would become increasingly feeble until they even dropped realms. To think of advancing further in the future in such a state was an absolute impossibility.

There were many wounds that could do this. For instance, the master of that red bamboo hat woman that Lin Ming had seen at the Imperial City Auction was one such case. She had likely reached the World King realm, but because of some grievous injury she suffered, she had dropped boundaries.

But after Lin Ming opened the Gate of Life, as long as he didn’t lose over half of his blood vitality or fires of life then he could slowly restore himself. This allowed him to use a singular move in future battles, an overwhelming one that others rarely used.

That was…

To combust one’s blood essence!

Once a martial artist combusted their blood essence, they could use their life force as a source of strength and instantly increase their combat strength to another level. In a time of crisis, if a martial artist burnt 30-40% of their blood essence, they could completely turn the tide of battle.

Lin Ming sat down on a nameless mountain peak. The pigeon egg-sized Esoteric Immortality Pill was grasped in his hands and the Phoenix Blood Spear was stabbed into a deep red rock in front of him. On top of the Phoenix Blood Spear there was a baby-shaped spirit crystal; this was the Nine Aperture Spirit Crystal.

After Mo Eversnow used the nine aperture spirit crystal, it had shrunk to an eighth of its original size. Now the rest would be used to nourish the Phoenix Blood Spear’s artifact spirit.

Woosh!

Lin Ming suddenly extracted the Phoenix Blood Spear and without flinching, violently thrust it at his chest!

The sharp Phoenix Blood Spear pierced through his body, cutting through his ribs and finally tearing into his heart. Blood splashed out into the air!

Without a moment’s hesitation, Lin Ming drew out the Phoenix Blood Spear. With his other hand, he thrust the Esoteric Immortality Pill into the gaping wound, directly into the opening he had cut in his heart. He submerged the pill into his heart and allowed it to fuse with him!

According to the records contained within the Celestial Tyrant Manual, the Esoteric Immortality Pill had to be sealed within the heart.

The Gate of Life was located in the heart. Once the Esoteric Immortality Pill was sealed into the heart, the medicinal potency within would be washed out using the flow of blood. The energy within it would be activated, allowing him to flush through the Gate of Life in a single go!

The pain of a pierced heart wasn’t much to Lin Ming in comparison to all he had experienced so far. But as the power of the Esoteric Immortality Pill erupted, Lin Ming felt his body shake. It was like a heavy hammer smashed into his heart, nearly causing his heart to stop beating.

A massive amount of energy had exploded in Lin Ming’s heart. This sort of impact force could be imagined.

However, up until now, Lin Ming had experienced the impact of many brutal and tyrannical pills. In addition, after swallowing the dragon marrow, absorbing the supreme dragon bone, and opening the sixth of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates, his body had nearly reached an imperishable diamond state. If a normal essence gathering system martial artist were to allow the power within the Esoteric Immortality Pill to erupt in their heart, their heart would have exploded into pieces.

And at this time, in front of Lin Ming, Mo Eversnow used her battle spirit to activate the nine aperture spirit crystal. She drew out fire from the spirit artifact furnace to ignite the spirit crystal.

The nine aperture spirit crystal began to slowly soften.

Mo Eversnow flicked her fingers and three dragon bone relics flew into the nine aperture spirit crystal. Everything was being heated up together.

These dragon bone relics were the remainders left over after she had finished refining the Esoteric Immortality Pill. In order to refine the Esoteric Immortality Pill, 27 dragon bone relics was enough. Mo Eversnow didn’t waste any extra. With these three leftover dragon bone relics, she began to refine their essence within the flames to fuse them into the Phoenix Blood Spear!

The artifact spirit within the Phoenix Blood Spear had been personally formed by Lin Ming. Moreover, this artifact spirit had gone through the baptism of heavenly tribulation together with Lin Ming. The quality of it was extremely high. Once it grew in the future, it would definitely be capable of being Lin Ming’s life spirit treasure.

The three dragon bone relics had already been slowly melted for two months in the fires of the furnace. Now they were quickly fused into the Phoenix Blood Spear without the least bit of resistance.

Sword like jade, saber like tiger, spear like dragon.

Once a spear gained its own mind and wisdom it would be like an Azure Dragon soaring out of the ocean, roaming into the highest heavens, unstoppable!

The characteristics of the dragon bone relics just happened to perfectly suit a spear. To fuse them into a spear spirit was the best use of them.

In addition, the Phoenix Blood Spear also contained phoenix blood. This fused well with dragon bone. Dragon and phoenix soaring together, complementing each other’s strength!

Thus this fusion had gone smoothly, beyond any expectations.

Roar – !

A resounding dragon’s cry savagely impacted into the horizon. The Phoenix Blood Spear violently trembled and then the entire spear shot into the sky, diving into the dark clouds. For a time, countless purple arcs of thunder smashed into the Phoenix Blood Spear, dancing around it like a flurry of purple snakes.

Roar – !

The resonant dragon’s cry emerged once more, echoing between the heavens and the earth. Within the world, the faint image of an azure dragon phantom appeared. One could see flashing blue dragon scales, dragon horn, and dragon claws, all of it overflowing with a lifelike chill!

After fusing with the three dragon bone relics and the nine aperture spirit crystal, the Phoenix Blood Spear had undergone another evolution.

Woosh!

The Phoenix Blood Spear shot down from the highest heavens, crashing towards the earth like a raging meteor. The extreme speed caused friction with the air and a tail of blazing flames followed the descent of the spear. With a rumbling sound, the Phoenix Blood Spear broke through a mountain peak, thrusting deep underground and causing lava and flames to spew forth.

“What a wonderful spear!”

Even the hard-to-impress Mo Eversnow couldn’t help but cry out in praise.

The truth was that all in all, the rank of the Phoenix Blood Spear could only be considered a medium-grade spirit artifact. This was because the materials used to forge the body of the Phoenix Blood Spear weren’t too good and the spear spirit hadn’t fully grown.

But, with the Phoenix Blood Spear having undergone tempering through heavenly tribulation, a great deal of the power of heavenly tribulation had been retained within the spear shaft. Also, the source spear spirit was not what other spirit artifacts’ artifact spirits could compare with. As Lin Ming grew, the Phoenix Blood Spear would also grow. It was hard to estimate just how much it could continue growing.

Mo Eversnow no longer paid attention to the Phoenix Blood Spear. She turned to look at Lin Ming. At this time, Lin Ming’s entire body was covered in hazy golden light. He seemed like a golden Buddha, making it hard for one to look straight towards him.

Opening the Gate of Life wasn’t easy. There were enormous risks associated with taking the Esoteric Immortality Pill.

In the past, Mo Eversnow herself had taken this pill, so she was well aware of just what its effects were like. Or course, the foundation of Lin Ming’s mortal body was better than hers in the past. Thus, Mo Eversnow never worried that Lin Ming would experience some accident in opening the Gate of Life. And looking at him now, the situation was much better than she expected.

Mo Eversnow’s vision pierced through Lin Ming. She could see the inner workings of his body, his flesh and his blood. She could see the fires of life burning within him like a raging conflagration, a flaming mountain so great and high it seemed that it would scorch the skies.

As Mo Eversnow saw this, a rare smile crossed her face. Lin Ming’s talent was much better than she had estimated.

“Perhaps… he really might be able to open the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, achieving the peak in both the essence gathering and body transformation systems! I have no idea just what state he will be able to reach in the future…” Mo Eversnow whispered to herself. Her eyes grew increasingly bright. Her goal was to have Lin Ming become an Empyrean in the future!

This ambition was incredibly enormous, even impossible. If others were to learn of it, they would certainly scoff at her hubris.

Without mentioning anything else, even someone who became the champion of the Divine Realm First Martial Meeting would only have a suffocatingly slim hope of becoming an Empyrean in the future. And in Mo Eversnow’s opinion, it was hard to tell what result Lin Ming would obtain, whether that was top 10, top five, or even higher.

Of course, this was also because Lin Ming was far too young. Compared to the average age of the young elites entering the First Martial Meeting, he would be around 10 years younger.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Lin Ming’s heartbeat reverberated through the world. The sound became increasingly loud and increasingly strong. At the start it was like a heavy drum, but then it slowly transformed into a rolling thunderclap. Finally, every beat of Lin Ming’s heart caused the earth to shake and lava to gush forth.

The mountain peak that Lin Ming sat on began to crack. Countless bits of rock tumbled down the mountain as a cloud of dust rose.

Every time blood passed through his heart, it would wash out a massive amount of energy. This energy nourished the entirety of Lin Ming’s body. This state continued for several hours. Slowly, the energy within Lin Ming reached the limit. The pigeon egg-sized Esoteric Immortality Pill had shrunk to the size of a fingernail.

At this time, the rest of the Esoteric Immortality Pill cracked apart. With an explosive ringing sound, energy erupted from all over. The mountain peak that Lin Ming sat on collapsed!

Lin Ming let out a loud and happy cry, his howls reaching through the skies and washing away all the clouds.

At this moment, he had opened the seventh of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates, the Gate of Life!