Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-429

…

…

..

Lin Ming took a deep breath. He had washed his hands, his face, burned incense, and had adjusted his own mindset so that there wasn’t even the slightest trace of turbulent emotions.

Then he poured the blood essence onto his chest.

The crimson blood essence dripped down. At first there wasn’t a reaction, but after a breath of time, there was a ‘chi chi chi’ sound. The blood essence seemed to be corroding, and was emitting a faint trace of blue smoke.

As a burning pain emitted from his chest area, Lin Ming furrowed his eyebrows. He felt his heart, and then released his sense to investigate the Magic Cube under his chest area that was releasing strange fluctuations of energy, hoping to find some clues.

After it went to sleep near Lin Ming’s heart, the Magic Cube seemed to have disappeared. If it didn’t reveal itself of its own initiative, Lin Ming would never have been able to sense it.

But now, as the Magic Cube absorbed the blood essence, Lin Ming was finally able to detect its existence.

However, right after, Lin Ming felt his spiritual sea tremble. The perception he released seemed as if it were being sucked into the Magic Cube. Against this powerful suction power, Lin Ming couldn’t react in time; he simply wasn’t able to offer any resistance.

In the next instant, Lin Ming’s consciousness had arrived into a dark, jet black space that stretched infinitely outwards. It was as if he were floating in the starry sky.

He was extremely familiar with this space – this was the space within the Magic Cube.

Beside Lin Ming, dense mist floated all around him. Within this mist there were many shining lights. They slowly revolved around a giant foot-wide light sphere in the center, as if they were stars in heaven.

“I’m finally here.”

The second time it had been a Houtian martial artist’s blood essence that had opened the Magic Cube. The third time it had been a Xiantian master’s blood essence. The fourth time would probably require that of a Revolving Core master…

Lin Ming was sure that even if it was a Revolving Core master’s blood essence, it wouldn’t have much of an effect on the Magic Cube. In fact, this was most likely the Magic Cube finding a way to tell him that it needed the blood essence of powerhouses.

The giant soul shard light sphere in the center shined with a milky, soft light. The countless soul fragments around it were like sparkling crystal.

Although Lin Ming had arrived within the Magic Cube space, he still felt a bit of disappointment; even now, he didn’t understand anything more about the Magic Cube.

As Lin Ming released his sense to touch upon all the soul fragments, he discovered to his surprise that not only was his soul force growing stronger with time, but also that he could feel the vague aura that the soul fragments released.

Some soul fragments were gentle, and others were overbearing. There were even those that had a faint hint of blood and devil arts.

This should be because of the cultivation methods that they had cultivated while they were alive.

The energy was extremely faint, Lin Ming could only roughly approximate. As he looked at the soul fragments, he did so very carefully. He couldn’t guarantee beyond a doubt that all of these soul fragments were ownerless. There was a possibility that there were some soul fragments on which the spirit mark wasn’t destroyed yet. If he selected one like that, he would be in a worst case situation. All of these Supreme Elders of the Realm of the Gods were earthshaking characters that dominated worlds before they died. Even if there was just the tiniest amount of leftover will within a soul fragment, there was no way that Lin Ming would be able to resist it.

Lin Ming had been in the Magic Cube space for a long time. He didn’t dare to rashly release his sense everywhere, he passively sensed his surroundings. After some time, Lin Ming’s eyes suddenly popped open. He turned around with an incredulous expression as he watched a light red colored soul fragment slowly floating past him.

This soul fragment was only the size of a small nail and sparkled like a ruby crystal. As it slowly spun around through space, it left sprinkles of red light wherever it went.

Lin Ming paused, this feeling was…

Back when Lin Ming and Lei Mubai had fought, he had also felt a similar aura!

Netherworld Great Emperor?

Ancient Devil Tome?

Lin Ming hesitated. Then he stepped forwards, and a wisp of his true essence locked onto that soul fragment.

As he looked at the soul fragment that was bound by true essence, Lin Ming could clearly feel that it contained a bloody energy.

When Lin Ming had swallowed the Shattered Demon Heart Crystals, he had witnessed the great figure of the Netherworld Great Emperor’s giant axe pointed at the sky, his feet firmly upon the ground. There had also been countless numbers of demons that surrounded him. Lin Ming’s heart suddenly surged with an inexplicable desire to swallow this soul fragment. Just what would happen if he did?

Lin Ming grit his teeth, and then reached out a hand to grab the red soul fragment.

Xiu!

As Lin Ming touched the soul fragment, it melted into a stream of light that submerged into his body.

Lin Ming’s strength was far more formidable than it had been in the past. But, this soul fragment was also more formidable than any one he had absorbed before. As a countless amount of information emerged within Lin Ming’s mind, his spiritual sea suddenly shook, and fuzzy scenes and sounds appeared in front of him.

Of these various demons he saw, there were also those that were etched upon the walls of the Ancient Phoenix Main Hall.

War… blood… battlefields…

Powerhouses waved their earth-shattering weapons in the air. Countless corpses flew back, burned into nothing but countless specks of ash. The yellow sandy ground was dyed completely red…

Faintly, Lin Ming could see a massive city hewn from rock. The buildings within this city were rough and looked wild, but it was filled with an uninhibited sense of power and beauty. And the residents within this city were all the demons that Lin Ming had seen before. They were all over 10 feet tall, and some were even 20 feet tall.

“Giant Demon?”

Lin Ming’s mind echoed with these two words. After the chaos of fragmented memories was finally organized by Lin Ming, he finally understood that these demons were really just a human-like race!

Their bodies were wrapped in chains, and long horns and tusks came from their faces. They had fiery crimson hair that recklessly hung down. This was not unique to the Netherworld Great Emperor. In truth, they were a separate race – the Giant Demon race.

“So that’s how it was. The Netherworld Great Emperor was not a human to begin with. When I swallowed the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal and saw him slaughter countless demons with his great axe, it’s likely that the location was a gathering place of the Giant Demon race.

“And the red demon that I encountered during the last smelting trial of the Divine Phoenix Mystic Realm was also a kind of Giant Demon…”

The puzzles that had plagued Lin Ming’s mind suddenly became much clearer.

“No wonder I was able to feel the same bloodline legacy of the Netherworld Great Emperor from Lei Mubai. I’m even able to sense the difference in this small red soul fragment. The reason is that it simply doesn’t originate from the bloodline of humanity, so it’s a bit more special.”

………………….

As Lin Ming opened his eyes, he left the Magic Cube space. He opened the doors and walked out. The moon was bright in the sky, it was already late at night.

The night air was a bit humid. As a cold breeze wafted on his face, Lin Ming sobered up by a great deal. He rubbed his forehead and felt a deep, aching pain in his brain, as if it had slept for too long and his mind wasn’t cleared yet.

As Lin Ming suppressed this aching feeling, he carefully examined the memories he had acquired. Suddenly, Lin Ming was fiercely startled, “This is…”

Great Desolate Blood Halberd!

Lin Ming was shocked. In the image in his mind, this weapon was 10 feet long, and the halberd shaft was as thick as an arm. This great and ominous halberd was a deep blood red all over!

This… this Supreme Elder of the Realm of the Gods was actually the first master of the Great Desolate Blood Halberd!

Lin Ming’s was mind-boggled.

The Great Desolate Blood Halberd had left behind endless legends. It was said that it was at least a medium-grade heaven-step treasure, or possibly even higher. This halberd had existed for 70-80 thousand years already. Because of the vast expanse of time, it was no longer possible to find out just who the first master of the weapon was. All of the masters that followed – including even the Peerless Emperor powerhouses – had an insufficient destiny and would be cursed to death by this ominous halberd!

This even included the Netherworld Great Emperor!

Lin Ming subconsciously took out the ancient Devil Tome from the spatial ring. This ancient Devil Tome was taken from Lei Mubai. After he read it, Lin Ming began to laugh and cry at the same time. It turned out that this ancient Devil Tome was actually a cultivation method that the Supreme Elder who had first owned the Great Desolate Blood Halberd had created himself, just before he left for the Realm of the Gods!

Such a coincidence could only be said to be the will of the heavens. It was probably because of all these vague connections that Lin Ming was able to sense that familiar energy coming from the blood red soul fragment.

“To think that one of the 10,000 powerhouses from the Realm of the Gods that had laid waste to the Verdant Feather Holy Lands was someone who had flown up from the Sky Spill Continent.”

“The first master of the Great Desolate Blood Halberd… 80,000 years ago, he was an Emperor powerhouse of Sky Spill Continent, titled the Demon Emperor! He had founded his own sixth-grade sect that lasted for over 16,000 years!”

Demon Emperor!

Anyone who dared to call themselves this was probably the top figure of the demonic path!

Because the memories were incomplete, it took a long time for Lin Ming to reorganize them. There were many bits and pieces of information; he simply was at a complete loss at many of these confusing scenes.

As Lin Ming slowly digested these memories, he looked through them. Within the memories of this Demon Emperor’s soul fragment, most of them were memories of scenes that involved his participation in wars. There were countless scenes of slaughter and blood!

“This Demon Emperor is really bloodthirsty!

Lin Ming sighed. Although this soul fragment was larger than the last two, there were very few memories of cultivation methods. There were a few, but even those were mostly incomplete. As Lin Ming continued to organize the memories of the soul fragment, he was suddenly startled.

“Mm? This is…”

A halberd art?

Lin Ming’s heart moved. In truth, the essence behind a spear and halberd was nearly the same. Spear skills could be used with a halberd, and halberd arts could be used with a spear!

What Lin Ming lacked the most now was spear skills. When he had fought a master of Golden Bell Mountain in a match, it had fully reflected a weakness of his, and that was that he lacked finesse and technique in his spear skills. If it wasn’t for the blood of the True Dragon that had augmented his spear powers, Lin Ming would have undoubtedly lost to Xiao Chi in a battle of spear skills.

“This Giant Demon race mostly uses long weapons! Humans mostly used swords and sabers, but the Giant Demon race – maybe because of their height – are more familiar with long pole-type weapons. For instance, the Netherworld Great Emperor used a long handled great axe and the blood halberd. Lei Mubai also used a halberd. As for this Demon Emperor, he also used a halberd.”

And what was impressive was that this ‘Great Desolate Halberd Art’ was one of the Demon Emperor’s ultimate law formulas. Not only did it contain halberd skills, but it also contained a cultivation method. Its power was simply enormous.

The ancient Devil Tome that Lei Mubai had cultivated was only a tiny fraction of the full ‘Great Desolate Halberd Art’.

What Lin Ming was apprehensive about was that cultivating the ‘Great Desolate Halberd Art’ was not easy. It required one to constantly kill, sucking up the enemy’s blood essence and accumulating one’s own murderous intent!

“Killing…” Lin Ming frowned. During these years that he had practiced martial arts, he hadn’t killed many. As for all those that he killed, they each had reasons to die and had simply walked the road of death.

When the Demon Emperor had practiced the ‘Great Desolate Halberd Art’, he had killed countless others in an absolute bloodthirsty frenzy, all in order to improve his own cultivation method. But Lin Ming could not do the same. He could not, and would not kill innocent people.

“This demon way martial arts seemed to have two different paths. There is the killing path along with the lustful path. The Netherworld Great Emperor had stepped upon both of these, but as for the Demon Emperor of 80,000 years ago, he had only walked the killing path!

“And the killing path is the only way left to me…”

…