Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-1434

Chapter 1434 – Hunters and the Hunted

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Shua!

After the Silver Snow Guard announced the rules, a bright silver door emerged high above the platform. This was the portal to the dimensional realm.

“Begin!”

“Haha, we’ll have results soon. The game lasts for 14-16 hours at most, but the truth is that several days will pass inside.” This was not the first time that the martial artists present had watched the Hunter Game. Time flowed differently within the dimensional realm. To martial artists that lived such long lives, 14-16 hours was only a brief period of meditation.

“The Silver Snow Guard said just now that the difficulty of the Hunter Game is based upon the strongest trial challenger that joined. If so, won’t everyone else who has lower cultivations suffer a great loss? That human boy has the lowest cultivation amongst everyone that entered; he’s only at the Divine Transformation realm. As for the other martial artists in the Hunter Game, they are all at the middle Divine Lord realm or above. There are even peak late Divine Lord masters and those that have touched upon the threshold of the Holy Lord realm.”

“That’s right. This is why the Hunter Game normally has participants who have similar cultivations. Those with weaker cultivations will suffer a loss.”

As everyone was speaking, many people present looked towards Lin Ming.

This Hunter Game was extremely difficult to begin with. Even if a peak genius were to go in, they would still need to be cautious. If the difficulty was even higher, then it would be almost impossible to complete.

“Master, your cultivation will have you suffer a loss in the game.” Soulwhite said.

“It doesn’t matter.” Lin Ming waved his hand. “Didn’t you tell me before this that at the start, the prey within the world of the game are extremely weak, but will slowly strengthen? And the rate at which they grow stronger is decided by the cultivations of the trial challengers within?”

“Yes.”

“Then I don’t need to worry. Soulwhite, do you know of the martial artists that are participating?” Lin Ming asked as he moved towards the transmission portal.

“Out of all the participants, there is only a single Asura and he is a one-star. It is unlikely for him to pass this trial, and as for the others, their chances are even lower. In order to pass this trial and earn the chance to draw a blue soul mission badge, one usually needs to be a two-star Asura. Sometimes, even two-star Asuras are defeated. As for one-star Asuras, only outstanding ones like Lord Dugu Li can succeed with a great deal of luck.”

“I see.”

As Lin Ming said these last words he stepped into the dimensional realm.

Light spun around him. In the next moment, he had arrived at a completely different space.

The other trial challengers all stepped through the portal and were transmitted to different places in the dimensional realm.

The horizon was blurry at first but everything began to gradually clear up. In front of Lin Ming were vast, nearly endless grasslands. And scattered over these grasslands were all sorts of black rocks as well as the bones of beasts.

“What a large world…” Lin Ming concluded as he swept his sense all around him.

He recalled the Silver Snow Guard’s instructions. He would need to gather a total of 50 skull badges in order to be considered as having passed the blue soul level checkpoint.

Every trial challenger only had a single skull badge. All the trial challengers together only had a dozen some skull badges. In order to gather more, they had to be obtained from the prey here. However, these beasts wouldn’t be easy to deal with.

According to the Silver Snow Guard, how powerful the prey were was decided by the trial challenger with the highest cultivation.

Although Lin Ming was confident in his own strength, the trial in front of him was intentionally aimed at geniuses to begin with. If the difficulty of the trial suddenly rose to the Divine Lord realm, this would be disadvantageous for Lin Ming.

Even if he had the ability to gather 50 badges, anything more than that would be impossible. Lin Ming wasn’t satisfied with this result.

Thus, Lin Ming made a decision. That was, before he killed any prey in this game world, to eliminate every other trial challenger participating. If so, then this Hunter Game’s difficulty would be lowered to the level of a Divine Transformation cultivation.

If everyone knew that Lin Ming had made such a decision before the Hunter Game even began, they would all think he was crazy.

As Lin Ming thought like this he flew into the skies.

These grasslands were extremely vast and the grass was also very deep. In some places it was as high as his waist and in some place it was over his head.

If a martial artist was hidden in these grasslands and was also extremely far away and restraining their aura, then finding them would be difficult. Even though Lin Ming could eventually find them with his powerful divine sense, he would have to spend a considerable amount of time and effort. Thus, Lin Ming chose the easier and most direct method – to fly through the skies…

……….

At this time, dozens of miles away from Lin Ming in an open land, three saint race martial artists were gathered. These three were the Black Iron Ghost Triad.

“This is the world of the Hunter Game. I’ve heard about it countless times before but this is my first time seeing it for myself.”

The admission fee for the Hunter Game was simply far too high. Because the Black Iron Ghost Triad knew that it was almost impossible for them to clear it, they hadn’t ever attempted it.

“Mm, even if we aren’t successful this time, we at least explored this area. In the future we will definitely become Asuras and we will have to pass this checkpoint sooner or later. The 300,000 runes can’t be considered wasted.”

“Hehe, of course it’s not a waste. Since we’re here, let’s have our fill of the hunt! Big Brother, do you think we should go look for that boy now, or should we wait one or two days and have that boy gather some skull badges for us before we look for him again?”

The third brother of the Black Iron Ghosts licked his lips, his tone a bit impatient.

“Of course we look for him now! That boy can’t necessarily last for a long time. The prey here are extremely strong and they only become stronger over time. One or two days from now, that boy will probably be eliminated. If so, that is far too merciful for him. Even if he wasn’t eliminated, he should only be able to obtain a few skull badges anyways.”

“Good idea, I also think we should look for him as soon as possible. I can’t wait! Unfortunately, we cannot kill him here, but crippling him isn’t a problem.”

In this dimensional realm, the Silver Snow Guard only discouraged killing others; he didn’t outright forbid it. If someone killed someone else, they would have two skull badges deducted.

“Mm, it’s not worth it to kill him. Two skull badges is far more valuable than his life. But, the problem here is where do we find him. If that boy decided to find somewhere to hide and also restrains his aura, then it won’t be easy to find him.”

“That really is a problem.”

This was something that the Black Iron Ghost Triad’s boss was also troubled about.

None of them knew just how they should begin searching for Lin Ming. But then, the Black Iron Ghost third brother was suddenly startled as he shouted out, “Big Brother, look over there…”

The third brother pointed in a direction. In the far off horizon, there was a small spot flying against the sun, just several dozen miles away.

Martial artists had extremely good eyesight. Even at such a far distance they could still clearly see what that spot in the skies was.

“That is a trial challenger… a human?”

The Black Iron Ghost Triad boss poured astral essence into his eyes. He immediately saw the person’s facial features.

“It’s actually Lin Ming! That boy is just looking to die!”

“Is it really him? Why would he be flying so high? Is he deliberately exposing his position? Just what is wrong with this world? There is someone that isn’t scared of dying and wants to fly up to hasten their end instead?”

“This boy is a foolish idiot. No matter what he’s thinking, since he wants to die so badly then let’s help him! Let’s go.”

The Black Iron Ghost Triad didn’t fly into the skies. Rather, they stayed close to the ground, rapidly rushing towards Lin Ming.

Currently, as many martial artists in this trial were hiding their whereabouts, anyone that flew into the skies stood out like a firefly in the dark night.