Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-1550

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In order to prevent any more problems occurring, after Lin Ming bought his item he took a few more circles around and then bid his farewells to Yue Liuxing and Yue Qifeng. Together with Xiao Moxian, he left the Divine Runic Masters Guild.

“Lin Ming, what is that thing you bought?” Xiao Moxian couldn’t help but ask Lin Ming with a sound transmission as soon as they left. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her.

“If I’m not wrong then this should be something left behind by the Asura Road Master.” Lin Ming honestly replied. Xiao Moxian was startled upon hearing this. The Asura Road Master!

In the Asura Road, the Asura Road Master was the true divine god. Anything related to him, even if it was only a tiny fragment, was astoundingly valuable. No wonder Lin Ming had tried so hard to buy this piece of broken jade.

“What use does this have?”

“I have no idea at present. But no matter what, we’re headed back to Heaven’s Secret for now!”

“You want to return to Heaven’s Secret?” Xiao Moxian asked, surprised. They had just left from there not too long ago. “What do you want to go to Heaven’s Secret for?”

“There’s some information I need. This information is extremely important for me to learn the divine runic arts.”

The divine runic arts were broad and all-encompassing. In order to study them, one needed to invest a massive amount of time and energy while accumulating a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience. What Lin Ming lacked the most now was time. Even if he had the Asura Sutra supporting him, it was impossible to do all of this overnight, and if all of this took too much time then it was meaningless to Lin Ming.

After several hours, Lin Ming arrived at Heaven’s Secret once more. This time, Lin Ming had chosen to change his appearance.

Although Heaven’s Secret sold all sorts of information, what they wouldn’t reveal was what sort of information their guests had inquired about. This was one of the most basic rules of an intelligence network, otherwise there would be no guest that would be able to ask for information in confidence, lest they be looked up by others.

Even so, Lin Ming felt it was safe to change his appearance. After all, the information he was seeking now was highly sensitive.

“Sir, what would you like to inquire about?” The doorman asked Lin Ming at the entrance to Heaven’s Secret.

“Divine runic masters.”

“What rank?”

“Fifth rank and above.”

“Then please go to the fifth floor.” The doorman respectfully said. This was the same floor as last time.

After reaching the fifth floor with Xiao Moxian, Lin Ming took up the wooden sign marked with ‘people’ and then was led to the corresponding room.

In this room, there was a blue-clothed old man waiting for Lin Ming.

The old man sat in the back of the room, separated from guests by a hanging curtain. He spoke to Lin Ming through this curtain.

“What would you like to know?” The old man’s voice was hoarse and gritty, as if he were in the waning years of his life.

“I want information on divine runic masters and alchemists. I do not want any divine runic masters from the Divine Runic Masters Guild. They must live outside of Divine Rune City and should preferably have strange and eccentric personalities. They need to be people who have committed all sorts of sinful and evil deeds. I need their location, their cultivation methods, their cultivation boundaries, an approximation of their strength, what influences support them, and all other related information! Moreover, the divine runic masters should be at the fifth grade or above. At the very least they must be at the fourth grade!”

The blue-clothed old man was surprised as he listened to Lin Ming. “The information you want is extremely detailed so our price will be very high. This is also because if we betray the information of these individuals, our Heaven’s Secret might offend them.”

Heaven’s Secret was an intelligence network and thus they inevitably collected information on great influences and important figures. If they sold this information to others they were likely to offend them, especially if they sold this information to their enemies or other hostile groups. Thus, Heaven’s Secret would be very careful with what sort of information they sold. If they couldn’t offend the individual, then they would never sell the information no matter how high the price. As for those that they could offend, the price would be exorbitantly high.

An intelligence network was involved in all aspects of the world. If their background wasn’t deep enough and they aroused the anger of some people, it was possible that they would be dug up and eliminated!

“Information on divine runic masters is sensitive to begin with. There are often many complex relationships behind these divine runic masters. Luckily, you don’t want any information about divine runic masters that are a part of the Divine Runic Masters Guild, otherwise no matter how many origin energy runes you offered we still wouldn’t sell it to you. If you want information on divine runic masters that have been exiled outside of Divine Rune City, then I can actually provide some information to you. There are a few pieces of information I have which aren’t too involved with the greater influences. Each piece of information will be charged according to the detail as well as the grade of the divine runic master and they will be around 500 million to 700 million origin energy runes each.”

As the blue-clothed old man said these words, even though Lin Ming had already been prepared for this, he still felt his heart drip blood.

This was indeed ridiculously expensive! Although he was wealthy, during all his years in the Asura Road, he had never earned money, only spent it, and he had spent a great deal of it too. Lin Ming didn’t have too many nine sun jades left on him.

Lin Ming took out a piece of white jade and poured his divine sense into it, further detailing his requests. He wanted to know their strength, cultivation, moral behavior, temperament, and so forth. He also only wanted those evil and demonic people. As for divine runic masters that were highly respected and noble characters, he didn’t want them at all.

After the blue-clothed old man looked through the white jade, he said, “There are a total of three individuals that match your request. The total price will be 1.6 billion!”

“Mm…”

Lin Ming took a deep breath and fished out some nine sun jades from his spatial ring. After he lined them up, he said, “Tell me everything.”

“Alright!”

The blue-clothed old man wrote down three sections of information on a jade slip.

Lin Ming took the jade slip and recorded all the information in his mind. Then, he and Xiao Moxian left Heaven’s Secret…

……………….

100,000 miles southeast of Divine Rune City, there was a remote mountain. People rarely visited this mountain, and deep in a valley of it was a lake that stretched for ten miles, named Star Lake.

As night arrived each evening, Star Lake would be filled with the night winds. The reflection of starlight would shine down on the lake, making it seem like a stretch of liquid silver, beautiful to the eyes.

On one side of Star Lake was an ancient castle.

This castle was built with obsidian, and had already stood here for 100,000 years. A part of the castle extended into the lake, leaving a black reflection on the surface. Looking at this black reflection, one felt a sense of peace and quiet.

However, no one imagined that such a beautiful and wondrous place was in truth a den of darkest evils…

Within the castle, there was a completely sealed off space. The floors were made of pale red tiles and the walls were dark gray. Pill furnaces and divine runic tables were scattered all about, making it seem messy and chaotic.

On these stone tables and on the walls, there were black stains. These stains were left by dried up blood.

In the center of this space, there was a row of metal frames, dozens of them altogether. But, what was startling was that on every metal frame, there was a young girl tied up.

These young girls were in rags and some were even naked. The oldest of them were in their twenties, and there were even those that were 16-17. The youngest among them looked to be around 11-12, with a few 13-14 year olds placed throughout.

Every girl was covered with scars. These scars were found on their necks, thighs, chests, stomachs, and wrists. There were knife wounds, scratches, and even bite marks.

Some wounds were intentionally afflicted, and some seemed specifically designed to let out blood.

After suffering for such a long time, all of these girls were in the depths of despair, their eyes without light, like dying embers. If it weren’t for their faint heartbeat and breathing, one might even think that they were dead.

Although they had been tortured into such states, one could still the beauty that hid behind their dirty faces and disheveled hair. It was clear that these were once proud beauties of different races.

There were humans, monsters, demons, and even saints!

In fact, not only were they beauties of different races, but there were those amongst them with relatively high levels of martial talent! Some had special physiques, variation bloodlines, or variation dantians.

Some girls were martial artists. There were those at the Xiantian realm, and even some at the Revolving Core realm.

But now, their cultivations had been sealed away; they were no different from ordinary mortal girls.

If one were to send these girls to large influences, then although they might not have been peak geniuses, they should still have become inner court disciples. If one raised them with enough effort, then there were high chances that they would reach the Divine Lord realm in the future!

But now, all of that was impossible. Their lives would be buried in the horrendous and despairing castle.

Some of these people had been kidnapped, and some had been bought as slaves.

Of them, most were mortals that had never cultivated before. They were simply unable to withstand the inhuman torture. Without a doubt, they would die from suffering in just several months.

But those who cultivated had already been trapped in this castle for several years. After being tortured night and day for several years, the average person would have suffered mental collapse or died. But, the master of this castle was an alchemist, and with all sorts of miracle pills and medicines, wanting to die was nearly impossible. This castle master would even use dangerous pills to heighten the cultivation boundary of these girls, digging out their life potential and then stealing it away.

What awaited them was a lifetime of endless suffering and pain. Only when their essence energy and blood vitality was sucked dry, only when their youth and strength had faded, would they be abandoned and buried in the back gardens of the castle. Seemingly because of the presence of their skeletons, the flowers in the back gardens bloomed especially bright.

At this time, the space barriers of this hidden space suddenly shook violently. A man’s roar echoed out within it!

“Trash! Trash! Damn it all!”

Bang!

With an explosive sound, something seemed to detonate. Stone tables were flipped over and pill furnaces were tossed away, bouncing all over. A pale man with grayish white hair rushed in like a rabid beast.

This man wore tattered robes and he looked to be middle-aged, but, there was not a trace of blood on his face and a faint death aura percolated around his body.

This meant that his life was nearing its end.

“I failed, I failed again! The Life Lifting Undying Pill, just how many times have I failed!?” The man’s eyes were blood red, seeming as if he were about to go crazy! He was a spiritas, but the faint soul glow that symbolized the soul race had already vanished. This was a sign that his fires of life had diminished and his life was nearing its end… he would have at most another hundred years to live.

He dreamed to refine an Endless Life Immortality Pill. For this pill, he had refined for 10,000 years already. He thought that he would never be able to successfully complete the refining of this pill before he died, thus in the last several hundred years, he had been refining the lower quality Life Lifting Undying Pill. He wanted to lengthen his life, even if it were only by several hundred years!