Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-1996

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In the Divine Realm, in a small world adjacent to the Crimson Light World, there was a planet called the East Blue Planet.

This planet was a quarter billion miles in diameter, several times larger than the Sky Spill Planet.

However, this planet was simply too far away from the Crimson Light World’s main continent. It was a part of a small world near the Crimson Light World and also had no masters, thus no one paid attention to East Blue Planet.

6500 years ago when the Divine Realm fell to its enemies, the many Holy Lands of the Crimson Light World were destroyed by the saints and a massive number of human masters perished in battle. As for the extremely distant East Blue Planet, it was also looted in the calamity. At that time, the number one sect of the East Blue Planet, the East Blue Sect, was targeted by a squad of saints.

This squad ordered the Blue East Sect to hand over all their spirit medicines, resources, and cultivation methods. Otherwise, they would completely annihilate the entire East Blue Planet and all their families.

The leader of this saint squad was only a Saint Lord realm powerhouse, but the East Blue Sect was a mere seventh grade sect and the sect’s strongest Highest Elder was also at the Divine Lord realm. The other Sovereigns and Elders were at the Divine Transformation realm, and when they heard these demands they were incensed and wished to fight them.

But, they also knew that facing the invasion of the saints, they were nothing but a bunch of ants; simply unworthy of mentioning. They had no choice but to accept their fate.

However, they didn’t think that after they had meekly handed over all their resources, the saint race squad would also demand to take away a hundred young girls from the East Blue Sect to use as living furnaces, and amongst these girls was the daughter of the East Blue Sect’s Sovereign.

This enraged the disciples of the East Blue Sect. They fought with the saint race squad and killed off many of their martial artists, but there were even more saint martial artists that managed to flee.

What came after that was the brutal retaliation of the saints. A peak Saint Lord powerhouse arrived and slew the Highest Ancestor of the East Blue Sect before killing all the masters within the sect. Some of the young girls within the sect dreaded the horrible fates they would have to suffer and committed suicide.

These actions touched upon the nerves of the saints. They began a massacre on the East Blue Planet, killing billions and billions of humans.

At that time, everyone ran away in panic. Some descendants of the East Blue Sect were lucky enough to escape the destruction.

With their sect near collapse, the remnants of some other sects that were slaughtered by the saints arrived at the small world where the East Blue Planet was.

They joined together with the East Blue Sect.

Within these remnants, there were some disciples that were once part of the Ancient Phoenix Clan and Ancient Dragon Clan.

If one were to trace the Ancient Phoenix Clan and Ancient Dragon Clan to their origins, it would be that some powerhouses had ventured into the God Beast Mystic Realm where they found the corpses of four God Beasts. Afterwards, the four God Beast Clans were established and they slowly developed into Holy Lord and World King level influences.

In the calamity of the Divine Realm, an influence like the four God Beast Clans naturally weren’t able to escape the cleansing.

The Ancient Phoenix Clan was in a much luckier position. Because of their relationship with Lin Ming, they were especially looked after during the evacuation. Some masters of their clan and some people who were related to Lin Ming went to the wild universe.

But the Ancient Phoenix Clan had 72 palaces, and a massive number of their disciples were either killed in the great calamity or sent scattering in all directions.

Some of these exiled disciples gathered at the East Blue Planet where they formed a new joint organization with the survivors of the other great influences, called the Heaven and Earth Alliance.

The Heaven and Earth Alliance had gathered the inheritances of many sects; the cultivations methods were disorderly and confusingly diverse.

After the Divine Realm was captured by the saints, they simply didn’t allow humans to possess inheritances at the Holy Lord level or above. As soon as they discovered any hints of this, it would be completely eliminated! In addition to the previous looting, the inheritances of the Heaven and Earth Alliance now looked like a complete mess to any high level martial artist.

Thus, a strange scene occurred on the East Blue Planet. Formed on this planet was a large influence with over a billion disciples and extremely complex internal relationships – the Heaven and Earth Alliance. At the same time, the Heaven and Earth Alliance had no singular master. Its structure was loose and it possessed all sorts of inheritances…

Even so, within East Blue Planet and even the small world that the East Blue Planet was located in, the Heaven and Earth Alliance was the martial arts holy land that all young human martial artists yearned to join.

The Heaven and Earth Alliance recruited disciples every ten years, and the scene of these disciples being tested was extremely glorious.

These young martial artists came from planets far and wide. They exhausted all of their strength and cunning to pass the inspection and enter the Heaven and Earth Alliance. This was because besides the Heaven and Earth Alliance, there was no other place they could find such a level of inheritances.

In this age, this was just how pitiful human martial artists had become.

Even if someone was gifted, even if someone was talented, if they couldn’t find a cultivation method jade slip, if they couldn’t find a master, if they didn’t have resources, than any talent they had was wasted.

If Lin Ming were to live during this time, even he wouldn’t be able to grow. When Lin Ming was in the lower realms he had managed to make do with the scarce resources there. But once he ascended to the Divine Realm, he entered the Ancient Phoenix Clan and was even cared for by Empyrean Divine Dream and Empyrean Vast Universe afterwards. All of this was outside help.

Not to mention anything else, without Empyrean Divine Dream’s help, Lin Ming wouldn’t even have been able to enter the Asura Road and it would have been impossible for him to study the Asura Heavenly Dao.

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The inheritance location of the Heaven and Earth Alliance was called the Heavenly Sutra Pavilion.

Every time a new disciple was recruited into the Heaven and Earth Alliance, they would be allowed to enter Heavenly Sutra Pavilion to choose cultivation method jade slips dependent on the results of their trial.

This was the most exciting time for the new disciples. They would never have imagined that such a huge amount of inheritances would be at their hands.

However, there were far too many scattered inheritances in Heavenly Sutra Pavilion. When disciples entered, they had a limited amount of time. Oftentimes they weren’t able to maximize their harvests.

As a group of young disciples rushed into Heavenly Sutra Pavilion in high spirits, what greeted them was a middle-aged man in tattered robes, reclining in a chair.

This middle-aged man seemed to be around 30-40 years of age. He had a long beard and a face that was weathered from the winds and cold. There was a pot of wine in his hands and he was sloppily dressed. But, what was strange was that his eyes didn’t seem listless and blurry as expected, but were bright and lively, just like the eyes of a youth.

“You may enter. Each of you has six hours to choose a cultivation method.”

The middle-aged man indifferently said as he drank some wine. His indifference seemed to give off a feeling that he was someone who had seen through life and death.

Seeing this middle-aged man, the young disciples were inexplicably shocked.

“Who is this uncle?”

Someone secretly asked with a sound transmission.

“He is the caretaker of Heavenly Sutra Pavilion. Don’t look down on him. It is said that he knows of every cultivation method within Heavenly Sutra Pavilion. If he is willing, he can help any disciple who enters Heavenly Sutra Pavilion find the most suitable cultivation method for them in a short period of time…”

A senior-apprentice brother of the Heaven and Earth Alliance explained with a sound transmission.

“Oh? Then should we ask him and see if he can help us look for a cultivation method?”

“Don’t expect anything from him. Normally, he won’t respond to any questions at all, but sometimes he will give some pointers even if you don’t speak to him. This senior has an eccentric personality.”

As the disciples were rapidly speaking to each other, the middle-aged man had leaned back in his chair and had started to sleep.

This middle-aged man was the sixth reincarnation of Lin Ming.

At this time, 3500 years had passed since Lin Ming’s last trip into the final trial.

Lin Ming had re-entered the Asura Road during his fourth reincarnation and cultivated in the final trial’s seventh level for 500 years, consolidating his Great World King realm cultivation in a single period. He also fully opened the Natal Life Dao Palace there and underwent his fifth reincarnation.

Then, he left the Asura Road and swam through the Divine Realm.

Lin Ming’s fifth reincarnation was spent wandering the Divine Realm’s starry skies. He absorbed the vast world power of the Divine Realm, using it to nourish his world seed.

This tempering continued for 2000 years!

During these 2000 years, Lin Ming cultivated to the peak of the Great World King realm, just a step away from the half-step Empyrean realm. This was only a step away, and the current Lin Ming could break through at any moment if he wanted to.

But Lin Ming didn’t choose to make this breakthrough. When there was nothing but a fragile layer as thin as a soap bubble separating him from the half-step Empyrean realm, he chose this time to undergo his sixth reincarnation.

His cultivation fell once more. Then, he arrived at the East Blue Planet, manifesting himself as a young disciple where he entered the Heaven and Earth Alliance.

The reason he chose this place was because the Heaven and Earth Alliance had a complex relationship with the Ancient Phoenix Clan.

Lin Ming was someone who remembered his old friendships and relations. He came here because it was his nature, and also to finish this circle of karma.

200 years after Lin Ming entered the Heaven and Earth Alliance, he became a caretaker of Heavenly Sutra Pavilion.

He quietly perceived this tranquility. As opposed to the fighting and slaughtering of his fourth reincarnation, as opposed to the lonely cultivation of his fifth reincarnation, Lin Ming spent his sixth reincarnation here, living a free-willed and easy life, as if he were a crane in the skies.

But in these tranquil days, Lin Ming saw the cruel reality that many youths had to face.

They lived at the twilight of the human race. From birth, they faced the fate of becoming slaves.

They were forgotten slaves. After some of these people were born to the day they died, they never encountered the oppression of the saints. Sometimes they never even saw a single member of the saints. But this wasn’t because the saints showed them mercy, but because they didn’t have any value that the saints could squeeze out from them.

Once they showed value, the saints would wildly plunder from them.

Humanity was like crops planted by the saints. Every now and then they would come to harvest them and take away all their valuables.

However, many human youths were resigned to live such fates. They dreamed of being able to grasp hold of their own destiny. They dreamed of the day when humanity would slaughter their way back into the Divine Realm and retake their homeland. Then, they could also help with the revival of humanity.

Even if they were to die a heroic death in battle, it would be far better than living out their lives in this hopeless world.

However, in this world, those that could control their own destinies were a minority. There were slightly more of these people in the saints, and nearly none amongst the human race.

And even with nearly zero chance of success, many human martial artists still desperately struggled forwards.

Perhaps this was the bravery of martial artists or perhaps this was because of the hot-blooded spirit of the young.

But in short, no matter the reason, they did.

Entering the Heaven and Earth Alliance was their first step. But even after passing through layers upon layers of eliminations, grasping that less than ten thousandth chance to enter this place of learning, they came to discover that they had only touched upon the beginning of their road. They stood at the base of a mountain peak, having not even taken a single step upwards. And, that mountain peak was actually as large as a planet…