Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-2006

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Ruby was focused. With her two small hands together, she held the Magic Cube floating in the void. Lin Ming’s hands covered hers as he poured his soul force into the Magic Cube.

Before having Ruby’s help, he had never felt his own spiritual sea so closely connected to the Magic Cube. This sort of feeling was like the Magic Cube was a part of his body and he could control it as he wished.

Woosh!

A ray of black light thrust into Famine, drilling through its forehead and hitting its spiritual sea!

“Ahh!”

Famine cried out in pain and sorrow. The sound was like a person screaming with a throat full of glass, harsh to the extreme.

Its body started to rattle and pop, as if something were cracking apart!

Lin Ming was cold and resolute. In the final moments he absolutely could not allow Famine any chance to self-implode, otherwise he would lose everything.

With a thought, the array lines that wrapped around Famine like burning magma suddenly drilled into its soul form, burning it away, eroding its will.

Famine wildly struggled. But, all of its strength was in utter chaos and it was unable to gather any. At the same time, its spirit mark was being grinded away and its consciousness became increasingly blurry.

It was a being that had existed for billions upon billions of years. It never imagined that it would experience such a scene one day!

Even when Empyrean Divine Seal locked away its soul, it had never been so afraid.

This was surely the most terrifying way to die!

It was no longer able to move its body nor could it speak any words with its mouth. Even its ability to think was frozen. These short several breaths of time seemed as long as a hundred million years, and the pain it experienced during this time seemed far greater than the sum total of pain it had gone through in the last 3.6 billion years!

“It’s over.”

Lin Ming’s tone held no emotion. The Magic Cube emitted another black ray of light that penetrated into Famine’s spiritual sea like an earth-breaking drill.

Peng!

Famine’s spirit mark blew apart at this moment, dissipating to nothingness…

In the next moment, the Magic Cube whipped up a black soul vortex that swallowed Famine’s now masterless soul.

“Done!”

Lin Ming let out a long breath of air. He had used up a considerable amount of energy in this battle, and it wasn’t just from using his source soul force or burning the Asura blood essence, but because the pressure he shouldered from starting this battle.

At this time behind Lin Ming, the Ancient Elysium Seal artifact spirit that had watched the battle unfold was already left at a loss for words. The artifact spirit had basically played little to no role in the battle. Lin Ming, along with the Magic Cube and the mysterious little girl, the three of them had joined together to subdue Famine’s soul.

Moreover, Lin Ming’s crazy plan had left the artifact spirit gasping in awe and shock. This junior actually planned on erasing Famine’s spirit mark and then absorbing its soul.

“Junior, you want to absorb Famine’s soul? You should know that even if Famine’s spirit mark is erased, it will still be immeasurably dangerous for you to swallow it. This is because even if that soul no longer has a master, it still retains its instinct to resist and swallow.”

What the artifact spirit said was correct. When Lin Ming obtained the Magic Cube in the past, just absorbing a soul fragment the size of a grain of rice had nearly caused his spiritual sea to fall to illusion. The dangers of swallowing a masterless soul was similarly high.

What lay before Lin Ming was the soul of an existence that had once been an extreme True Divinity. Although it was severely weakened, it was still the complete soul of Famine. Wanting to swallow it wouldn’t be easy at all.

Lin Ming said, “Junior has no plan to do so for now. Famine has likely lived for around 5 billion years, or even longer… the memories within its soul are too great, and for someone like me with only several thousand years of life to absorb it is the same as an ant wanting to swallow an elephant. For an ant to swallow an elephant, that isn’t realistic at all. With the capacity of my spiritual sea, it is impossible for me to absorb so many memories. I only need to imprison Famine’s soul and use it as I need.”

With a masterless soul that had its spirit mark erased, and in addition to the suppression of the Magic Cube, there shouldn’t be any problems with doing this.

“That… is also good!” The Ancient Elysium Seal artifact spirit let out a sigh of relief. There was a bit more insurance with this.

At this time, Lin Ming had already sat down in meditation. He ate some soul recovery pills and used two hours to adjust himself back to his peak state. Then, he took out the Magic Cube and drew out Famine’s soul.

At this time, Famine’s soul had already condensed into a pitch black sphere of light.

Without thinking, Lin Ming plunged this sphere of light between his eyebrows, submerging it in his spiritual sea.

Bang!

Within Lin Ming’s spiritual sea, roiling waves immediately rose up!

Famine’s soul was too strong. It was far more formidable than Lin Ming’s soul.

At this time, the scene of Lin Ming’s spiritual sea trying to accommodate Famine’s soul was like a small sea suddenly having a giant planet fall into it!

Tsunamis rose up, the entire sea began to tumble.

Lin Ming paled. He grabbed the Magic Cube and also pressed it in between his eyebrows.

Ka ka ka ka!

In that instant, the massive Magic Cube came pressing down in the skies above Lin Ming’s spiritual sea. Black energy shot out, and as this black energy shrouded down, the raging soul suddenly became a mouse that saw a cat; it immediately calmed down.

Famine’s soul was just far too formidable. Wanting to refine it would be an arduously difficult process.

Lin Ming used his will to form spiritual ropes.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

These spiritual ropes shot out from Lin Ming’s spiritual sea like water snakes. They flowed across the sea, wrapping the massive sphere of light in numerous layers.

The spiritual ropes crawled over Famine. Sharp steel needles dug into Famine’s soul like knives, penetrating deeper into it.

Rope after rope of spiritual strength appeared. More and more chains rose up in Lin Ming’s spiritual sea, imprisoning Famine’s soul in innumerable layers. As these iron chains tightened and pulled down, Famine’s soul finally sank into Lin Ming’s spiritual sea until it was fully submerged.

For a time, an indescribably powerful soul force surged up along the spiritual ropes and into Lin Ming’s spiritual sea. This feeling numbed Lin Ming’s entire body, paralyzing him like he had been struck by lightning.

Lin Ming’s spiritual sea was absorbing Famine’s soul force through these ropes. From afar, they looked like leeches sucking blood.

If this continued, then slowly, Famine’s soul would be completely absorbed into Lin Ming’s spiritual sea. The capacity and intensity of Lin Ming’s spiritual sea would also be enhanced by a terrifying degree.

This was just like a sea that suddenly had a planet-sized amount of water thrust into it. The depth and width of this sea would be incomparable to the past!

Moreover, doing things this way had another benefit; this was that Lin Ming could preserve Famine’s soul to the highest degree. With this, he would have an even greater advantage when he fought with Famine’s mortal body later.

After completely imprisoning Famine’s soul, Lin Ming’s eyes opened.

At this time, Ruby was also standing behind Lin Ming. Her two hands were placed along Lin Ming’s temples, helping him control the Magic Cube in his spiritual sea.

The reason Lin Ming was able to smoothly absorb Famine’s soul was all thanks to the suppression of the Magic Cube. And Ruby had played a great role in accomplishing this.

Lin Ming saw that Ruby’s forehead was already wet with sweat, and her bangs had also pasted themselves onto her face. A warm feeling surged in his heart.

“Thank you, Ruby.”

Lin Ming patted Ruby’s head. Ruby shyly smiled. She was happy that she could help Lin Ming in some manner.

When Lin Ming just absorbed Famine’s soul, not too much time had passed in his spiritual sea. But in reality, two days and two nights had passed. During this time, the Ancient Elysium Seal artifact spirit had been closely watching over Lin Ming.

As the old artifact spirit looked at Lin Ming, it finally understood what others meant when they said ‘the young will surpass the old’.

Famine’s soul had truly been subdued. Who would have imagined that when this youth returned to visit, not only would he help solve a great problem that had been weighing down on the artifact spirit’s mind for all this time, but he would also imprison and refine the soul of Famine to use for himself?

Lin Ming had used 6000 some years to grow to such a degree. If he were given another 6000 years, what would he be like then?

The artifact spirit sighed with emotion. Then, it seemed to recall something. Its eyes passed over Lin Ming and looked at Ruby.

Feeling the gaze of the Ancient Elysium Seal artifact spirit, the somewhat shy and timid Ruby couldn’t help but grab onto the hem of Lin Ming’s robe.

Such a timid Ruby, it made it hard for others to imagine that she had calmly and coldly controlled the Magic Cube to severely wound Famine.

“Is she… the Stone of Eternal Life’s artifact spirit?”

The Ancient Elysium Seal asked with incredulity. Existences on the level of the three divine tools already surpassed the universe, and it was difficult for them to form artifact spirits. If they did produce an artifact spirit then those artifact spirits would be destined to be incredibly powerful existences capable of destroying the heavens and earth. But, this little girl was clearly not such an example.

Lin Ming held onto Ruby’s cold and small hand, hinting for her not to be nervous. He smiled and said, “Senior might believe that, but to be more accurate, Ruby is a special life form condensed from the Laws of the Magic Cube and combined with the will, energy, and blood vitality of a peerless powerhouse, as well as mixed in with all sorts of other information. When junior first came here, I brought a little girl called Fishy with me, and she was also a similar existence. She could have been a life form condensed from the Purple Card and related to the Asura Road Master.”

“Fishy… Purple Card… Asura Road Master…”

The Ancient Elysium Seal artifact spirit lost itself in thought. “So it was that little girl… I remember her… when Empyrean Divine Seal laid down the Divine Seal Array, he seemed to have collected a set of something. So, he left the Divine Realm to go to the Asura Road in order to find his own unrivalled lucky chance… and when he returned, he truly did bring a little girl back with him. But by that time, I was already guarding the Divine Seal Array.

“Unfortunately, Empyrean Divine Seal didn’t have a chance to develop the inheritance he obtained. When he sealed away Famine’s soul he had to burn away his life. As for me, that was when my mission began. I have been suppressing this seal for 3.6 billion years since then…”

Hearing the Ancient Elysium Seal artifact spirit’s words, Lin Ming felt a deep awe and respect towards it. To guard this land alone for 3.6 billion years, just how much loneliness did it have to endure? How many tribulations did it have to cross?

It had likely fought with Famine’s soul countless times, using up its life as it marched forwards with its mission.

It was like a torch that had been lit in ages past, set in an unknown corner where it continued to illuminate the future of the human race.

Realizing this, Lin Ming respectfully bowed towards the artifact spirit.

The old artifact spirit smiled. “The one bowing should be me. If it weren’t for you, I would have been destined to waste away until Famine killed me. Now, I have been freed. Although my life is ruined, being able to live for another hundred million years or so shouldn’t be a problem. Of course, that’s on the premise that I don’t die somehow.”

The life of an artifact spirit was much longer than the life of a human. They were comparable to the temple spirit race.

Lin Ming cupped his fists together. “Senior… junior plans to return to the gathering place of humanity after a little more time – the wild universe. I want to ask… does Senior have any plans?”

“Wild universe?” The artifact spirit repeated, surprised.

Lin Ming retold the story of humanity’s evacuation from the Divine Realm. The more the artifact spirit heard, the more shocked it was. The last time Lin Ming was here, it had guessed that Lin Ming might be able to save the world because he was in possession of the Magic Cube. But, it had never imagined that over 6000 years ago when Lin Ming had only been at the Holy Lord realm, he had been able to have such a terrifying influence on the great war between humanity and the saints.

Escaping to the wild universe could be said to only have been possible because of Lin Ming. Lin Ming could truly be called the child of fate!

“I’m just an old bag of bones. If I still have any use left, then it’s time to show the world I can still burn!” As the artifact spirit spoke, Lin Ming smiled with understanding. He knew that the Ancient Elysium Seal had already decided to go to the wild universe with him and challenge the saints!

His journey would begin from here on out!