Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-1429

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A gray-blue rune shimmered in the air before slowly sinking into the spiritas martial artist’s forehead. The spiritas’ face twitched as he grit his teeth and withstood the pain.

For a moment, the pupils of the spiritas were filled with chaos before suddenly being restored to pure brightness. Now, as he looked towards Lin Ming his eyes were filled with awe and respect.

“Old slave Soulwhite greets Master.”

“Good. Soulwhite, I do not need you to follow me for too long. When I leave the Asura Road I will return your freedom to you. Now, I want to ask you, how can I be considered as having passed the smelting trials of the Asura Road?”

“Reporting to Master, this Asura Road, in the mind of this servant, is like a game created by a supreme god. We are placed in this game and made to play it. For the winners, unimaginable rewards await, but for losers, there is nothing but death.”

“In the Asura Road the Heavenly Dao rules that govern this world are incomparably strange. Many things have already been set in stone. Trial challengers can find god runes through certain lucky chances, and once you collect the required specific sets of god runes then that will trigger a chance to enter the final smelting trial. Through this smelting trial, you will be able to obtain the rewards of the Asura Road’s Heavenly Dao! This is because the person who created the Asura Road is an unimaginable existence. There are even those who speculate that this unknown existence is the master of the 33 Layered Heavens. In short, the rewards of the Asura Road are extremely rich!”

“Collect the sets of god runes?”

Lin Ming’s mind stirred.

“Yes. Only those god runes that can form complete sets are considered the most useful. There are some individual scattered god runes, for instance, the slave seal rune that master used on this servant, that do not have much significance. Currently, there are known to be over a thousand sets of complete god runes. But, these god rune sets are mostly focused within the bronze level and silver level. A small number are in the gold level and even less are in the blue soul level. Beyond that, any complete sets at the zenith black level are simply a legend. In order to qualify for the final smelting trial, there are 36 sets of god runes required.

“A complete set of god runes is ten times, a hundred times, or even a thousand times more valuable than runes of the same grade that aren’t complete. Moreover, runes that can form complete sets will not fuse with the blood and flesh of a martial artist. Once martial artists are killed, these god runes will escape from their bodies where they can be obtained by the killer!”

“So that’s how it is…” Lin Ming said to himself, suddenly aware. When he entered the Asura Road he had killed two robbers, and one of them had dropped a god rune called the Mournful Spirit’s Right Hand. This god rune was part of a set, and now it seemed that this wasn’t a coincidence at all. It seemed that only these god runes were able to be dropped from others.

And as Soulwhite had said, if one wanted to pass the smelting trial, the first condition was to collect enough complete sets of god runes. Only like this would he have the chance to go through the smelting trial. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to enter at all.

Moreover, every time a set of god runes was gathered, it could greatly enhance a martial artist’s strength. From this, one could see that they were much more valuable than ordinary god runes.

Even so, not even a complete set of god runes would bind with the flesh and blood of a martial artist. Once a martial artist was killed, these god runes would fall out. These god runes would inevitably become objects that countless martial artists struggled over, treasures that would start a storm of blood and war!

This was especially true for extremely high level god runes. Let alone a set, if only a single one were to appear in the world, that was still enough for everyone to crazily struggle for it. Who knew just how many rivers of blood would have to flow?

If this Asura Road was really a game created by a supreme god, then the original intention of this game was to make the trial challengers here slaughter each other, and then use this trial of blood and death to select the most outstanding individual from the mountain of corpses!

“Soulwhite, tell me something, through all these years, just how many people have thoroughly completed the Asura Road’s smelting trial?”

Lin Ming could imagine that wanting to complete the smelting trial was more difficult than ascending to heaven. But, according to Divine Dream, the Asura Road had already existed for countless hundreds of millions of years; it was a world that had existed far beyond the last great calamity. In all of these years, more geniuses had emerged than there were grains of sand in an endless desert. In addition, with the increasing number of martial artists that were native to the Asura Road, there should have been someone capable of passing the smelting trial.

Soulwhite said, “Reporting to Master, the Asura Road’s smelting trial is simply far too difficult. In history, there are indeed martial artists who have crossed the smelting trial, but their era is far too remote for our imaginations. These people once left behind endless numbers of legends in the past, but these legends were watered down over the generations, evolving into numerous versions that are impossible to verify.

“To thoroughly pass the smelting trial is a near impossibility. But, if it is only collecting the 36 sets of god runes required to enter the final trial, and then surviving and completing a part of the trial and correspondingly collecting a part of the rewards, then that is a bit more simple.

“Of course, this is simple only in the context of the massive number of martial artists in the Asura Road. With so many people, there will always be those that possess strength that defies the heavens or luck that defies the heavens and are thus able to collect the required god runes. I believe the master is also one of these people.

“However, if Master enters the final trial, Master must be careful, because this final trial has an extremely high mortality rate. Master must not be greedy for more rewards and choose a path that cannot be completed; that will only result in dying in vain. In these last 100 million years, out of all the martial artists that have started the final trial, the one with the highest completion has only reached an 83% completion rate.”

“Oh?” Lin Ming thought out loud, “83%? You know this exact number?”

“Of course. This is because after the Asura Road’s final trial ends, the Asura Road’s Heavenly Dao will inform every existence in this world about the results of those martial artists that have completed above 70%. The Heavenly Dao will also inform the world of their name and cause their name to rise to fame! In the last 100 million years, only two people have managed to surpass 80% in the final trial. One of them is a saint race martial artist and the other is a soul race martial artist, one a man and the other a woman. Coincidentally, both of them appeared 30 years ago. The saint martial artist had an 81% completion rate and the young spiritas girl had an 83% completion rate. Afterwards, both of them earned unimaginable rewards. It is said that the two of them were the top geniuses of their respective races.

As Whitesoul spoke to here, Lin Ming was startled.

Number one top talent? 30 years ago?

Lin Ming didn’t ask about who that spiritas girl was – he certainly wouldn’t know her. But, that saint martial artist…

“What is the name of that saint martial artist?” A light flashed in Lin Ming’s eyes.

“That person’s name was Wumo.”

Whitesoul spoke as if this was something everything knew about.

As Lin Ming heard this name he sucked in a deep breath. Wumo! The Good Fortune Saint Son, Wumo!

“It really was him!”

As he thought, before entering the Asura Road, the Good Fortune Saint Son had yet to obtain his title. At that time, he was only known as Wumo.

But, after leaving the Asura Road and also completing 81% of the final trial, the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign had bestowed a title upon him – the Good Fortune Saint Son, the official title for the next Saint Sovereign!

The next time that he appeared in the world, he naturally was referred to as the Good Fortune Saint Son. Then, that title had become his name.

“So that’s how it is… Wumo also once entered the Asura Road!”

Lin Ming didn’t think this was strange. In the Divine Realm, because of the broken transmission arrays, only those skilled Empyrean descendants would be able to come to this Asura Road smelting trial. As for the other races, this sort of trial was likely much more common. If the Good Fortune Saint Son was such an extraordinary person, how could he miss out on this opportunity?

“He participated in the smelting trial 30 years ago and obtained an 81% completion rate. That makes him one of the top ranked martial artists in the last 100 million years! And, this compares all the geniuses of the 33 Layered Heavens. If Wumo can accomplish this, it’s no wonder he’s so arrogant.”

With such an achievement under his belt, it was no surprise that he didn’t care for Lin Ming.

Not only did the Good Fortune Saint Son believe that Lin Ming’s talent was inferior to his, but to make up the disparity of dozens of years was easier said than done!

“In the turmoil of the world, the soul race is really overflowing with talent! That spiritas genius was actually able to suppress Wumo! It’s unbelievable. In the 33 Layered Heavens, powerhouses are like clouds. There is no limit in this universe; there is always a higher mountain and a stronger person.”

As Lin Ming was thinking this, he felt his heated blood boiling within him. Out of all the upcoming heroes of the 33 Layered Heavens, he was sure to be one of them, and also an important one!

The Good Fortune Saint Son had completed his smelting trial 30 years ago. But, he had likely entered the Asura Road at least 40 years ago. In other words, the disparity between Lin Ming and the Good Fortune Saint Son was around 40 years. In the next 100 years, Lin Ming had to overcome this disparity of 40 years!

If he was chasing after an ordinary genius then this would be simple. But, the one he was chasing after was the second most talented genius in the last 100 million years of the 33 Layered Heavens!

This required that Lin Ming grew over 50% faster than he did!

“Grow 50% faster…” Lin Ming gripped his fists, a smile crowding his face. “I don’t think that’s too bad!”

Now that he had a clear goal in his heart, he felt his fighting spirit roused.

He had to overtake the Good Fortune Saint Son and reveal his skill in the future. Now, his quest to do so would begin at the Asura Road!

No matter what, Lin Ming’s degree of completion had to surpass that of the Good Fortune Saint Son as well as that spiritas girl!

Lin Ming subconsciously gripped his fights. But, as his fighting spirit was seething, he didn’t know that a trillion miles away at one of the countless other entrances to the Asura Road, a team of martial artists had entered.

These people were all saint martial artists; there were several hundred of them in total.

Without a doubt, each and every one of them was a genius. If they were placed in the Divine Realm it was likely that they could reach the top 100 of the First Martial Meeting finals.

The leader of these people was a tall youth. This youth was Imperial Prince Naqi, who had been defeated by Lin Ming.

After several months of recuperation, Naqi’s shattered body had healed from his savage beating by Lin Ming. After all, In terms of recovering, Naqi surpassed even Lin Ming.

“Asura Road! Hehe, we’ve finally arrived to complete this trial! Just wait for me Lin Ming. During our battle at the Chaotic Blood Continent, you used some strange move to summon a stone gate carved from chaos stones and had me smash into it, severely wounding and even defeating me! That loss was due to a tactical mistake on my part and not because I was lacking in strength. I refuse to accept that battle. We still haven’t truly compared just who amongst us is stronger and weaker!

“Now that I have come to this Asura Road, my ultimate goal is to complete over 80% of the final trial and have my name carved down on the divine tablet for the next 100 million years! At that time, I will obtain incredible advantages and then I will fight you again, ruining your body and soul, destroying your confidence until you never dare to fight me again!”