Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-777

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The Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom’s Crown Prince, Yang Yun, was the brightest star of the entire Divine Kingdom and the bastard son birthed by a lowly concubine in the Nine Furnace Divine Emperor’s imperial harem. From the moment he was born, he was ignored by everyone. However, when he was 12 years old, he actually revealed an astonishing talent for martial arts.

He stepped into the Life Destruction realm at only 30 years of age. Now, ten more years had passed and it was unknown just what his cultivation was. His strength was said to be unfathomable.

In the four Divine Kingdoms, pedigree and background were secondary to strength. Thus, Yang Yun, though not too closely connected to the Royal Family, was actually able to stand out and become the Crown Prince by virtue of his own power. He held the military power and trade of the country in his palms, and his power and influence was horrifying. Even the three great Imperial Scholars were unable to disobey Yang Yun’s wishes.

In these past years, Yang Yun had frequently created massive stirs in the country – he was obviously ambitious and had high aspirations. Yan Yun continually strengthened his control over all – not only did he want to completely grasp the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom’s combat strength in his hands, he wanted the economy as well.

Heavencraft Trading Company was also one of Yang Yun’s goals. However, even though Yang Yun had immeasurable power and influence, he still had no choice but to consider the public’s opinion. He naturally couldn’t recklessly plunder the privately owned property of his people. Thus, he supported Heavencraft Xiaoxiao’s two great uncles, Heavencraft Xiao and Heavencraft Yun, and had them go ahead and take control of the Company Head position first.

They didn’t know just what Yang Yun’s final goal was, but what they did know was that following Yang Yun would lead to infinite glory. It was far better than following that little girl Heavencraft Xiaoxiao who was still wet behind the years, as there was simply no future in supporting her.

Heavencraft Xiao and Heavencraft Yun understood that to Yang Yun, the entire Heavencraft Trading Company was nothing but a tiny piece of meat, and wasn’t worth paying too much attention to. They had to accomplish a few tasks first in order to earn Yang Yun’s attention. If they couldn’t even deal with a hairless late Revolving Core boy, then they might even be discarded by Yang Yun.

If Yang Yun really wanted to control the Heavencraft Trading Company, he didn’t necessarily need to go through the two of them.

“Big brother, what do you plan on doing?” In a private chamber, Heavencraft Yun asked Heavencraft Xiao.

Heavencraft Xiao hesitated for a moment before his eyes flashed with a cold light. “I intend on asking the Corpsemancer for help. The Corpsemancer and I have had some dealings in the past, and if I can tempt him with some things that interest him, then he should be willing to help.”

“The Corpsemancer ranked 330 in the Destiny Decree!?” Heavencraft Yun’s head chilled, his complexion not looking too well. Although Heavencraft Xiao and Corpsemancer knew each other, he would prefer not to seek the help of such a strange fellow.

The Corpsemancer was a demonic path martial artist from the Asura Divine Kingdom. He had an extremely cruel disposition, and was known for being a dangerous devil that could kill without batting an eye.

Demonic path martial artists either walked the slaughter path or the sexual path. As for this Corpsemancer, he specifically trained in the ghosts and corpse puppets of the slaughter path. This is where his nickname had come from.

If it was just these few puppets, then it still wouldn’t be enough for Heavencraft Yun to feel so creeped out. It was known that Corpsemancer could kill anyone at any time. Whether they were friend or foe, everyone had to watch their backs behind him.

Moreover, he often used bodies, and even live people in his corpse puppet experiments.

Babies, children, young girls, pregnant women, the elderly, these were all the Corpsemancer’s favorite subjects. He especially liked to flay the skin off beautiful virgins and use them to complete his puppets. After being experimented on, those subjects of his would experience a fate worse than death.

Towards such an abnormally strange freak, Heavencraft Yun didn’t want to cross paths with him at all.

“If I had some other plan, then I wouldn’t look for him at all. However, if I want to deal with that boy, it is much more reliable if I find some master ranked on the Destiny Decree.” Heavencraft Xiao said.

There were only 360 individuals listed on the Destiny Decree, and although this sounded like a great number of people, it first had to be known that there were only 100 or so Divine Sea powerhouses in the entire Sky Spill Continent.

In contrast, there were far more Life Destruction powerhouses than Divine Sea powerhouses. A conservative estimate would be in the range of the several tens of thousands.

To choose 360 individuals from so many Life Destruction powerhouses, one had to have a reputation worthy of being at the very top. If one could be ranked on such a list then, they must be an unrivalled peer of their era, a master of masters.

In the four Divine Kingdoms, each Divine Kingdom only had several dozen Destiny Decree masters to themselves. The majority of them were in closed door cultivation in order to attempt breaking through to the Divine Sea realm. The Heavencraft Trading Company was only a fifth-grade power, and if they couldn’t pay a high enough price, then there was no way they could every think about moving a Destiny Decree master to action.

Corpsemancer was ranked 330 on the Destiny Decree. However, for all those lower than rank 200, every 10 ranks were considered a separate level. So, it was more accurate to say that Corpsemancer’s ranking was around 330-340. Although it sounded not that impressive, it was still a terrifying number.

Ho – !

A flame burned.

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In a remote mountain cave deep in the border of the Asura Divine Kingdom, a skinny, skeletal old man was playing with large, gooey brain matter.

Beside him, a naked young girl was nailed to a wooden rack with most of her skin stripped off as her eyeballs dangled outside of their sockets. She weakly groaned. Under the support of the Corpsemancer’s medicine, she continuously hung onto life, unable to die.

At her side was a child. The child was soaked in an unknown liquid and his entire body was covered with green hair. His small hands had already become a pair of disgusting claws.

“They want to use a ghost spirit crystal as the price for dealing with a late Revolving Core boy? A little brat with such astonishing strength? Hehe, there is also Heavencraft Trading Company’s little mistress? How interesting! Kekeke, if this little devil is as Heavencraft Xiao said, and has such a powerful combat strength at just the late Revolving Core realm, then he is actually excellent puppet material. As for that young, beautiful woman, she is also a good experimental subject. A new puppet wrapped in the skin of a beautiful woman is simply the best! Jejeje!” Corpsemancer darkly smiled. He took out a crow puppet from his spatial ring, jumped on it, and flew straight towards the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom.

The four Divine Kingdoms each covered an incomparably vast territory, and in the middle of them all was the Sea of Miracles. The Sea of Miracles was known for being impossible to traverse, and was known as the absolute life forbidden zone of the four Divine Kingdoms and had to be circled around. Thus, from the Asura Divine Kingdom to the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom, it still took over a dozen days, even with the help of transmission arrays.

…

At this time, Lin Ming was living a very calm and peaceful life. Every day he would train and practice alchemy.

With the support of the Heavencraft Trading Company, Lin Ming was able to easily purchase massive amounts of alchemy materials and wood jade at extremely low prices. All of this was constantly consumed in the Cosmic Melting Furnace, with at least 90% of it becoming nothing more than burnt ash.

Lin Ming’s alchemy technique wasn’t poor at all. It was just that, every time he mastered a new level of alchemy technique, he would instantly proceed to challenge one with an even higher one. Thus, the results of Lin Ming’s alchemy ended in failure, failure, and more failure.

Unconsciously, Lin Ming’s spiritual sea was subtly influenced by his alchemy training. Waves began to appear in his originally calm spiritual sea, and underneath the crest of these waves shone a gloriously pale azure color.

The great waves smashed together, causing water to splash everywhere, and slowly infiltrating the spear shaped battle spirit in the skies of the spiritual sea.

This battle spirit was only as thick as a chopstick, was and less than a foot long. It seemed to be made from a dark greenish blue metal, as if it were forged from raw bronze. This was the symbol of a bronze level battle spirit.

It was only because Lin Ming’s battle spirit had the attribute of endlessness that it continuously emanated a brilliant azure light.

At a certain moment, the battle spirit suddenly rumbled, issuing a clarion cry. Lin Ming’s spiritual sea furiously roiled, forming rocky waves that shot into the sky, swirling and creating a vortex around the little spear.

In such a twisting vortex, the little spear violently shook, making sounds of excitement.

It slowly began to grow longer, thicker, and the brilliant azure light became increasingly dazzling. Its form became more solid, more primal.

Large success bronze level battle spirit!

Lin Ming suddenly opened both of his eyes. When a martial artist’s battle spirit was first born, it would constantly grow with that martial artist’s growth in cultivation.

Lin Ming had repeatedly made breakthroughs in his cultivation and will, and along with a few heavenly materials that were able to nourish battle spirits, it had been enough for his battle spirit to reach the peak of small success, where he had been stranded for a very long time.

Now, borrowing the practice of alchemy as his turning point, he had finally broken through the next threshold!

Practicing alchemy could temper the soul. Although a battle spirit belonged to one’s martial arts will, it was inextricably twined with the soul. After all, will only existed because of the soul, and was why the battle spirit floated above the skies of the spiritual sea.

The soul was like a sea and a battle spirit was like a fish – a small sea could not raise a big fish.

This was the use of one’s soul force. Although it couldn’t immediately influence a martial artist’s strength, it could actually decide a martial artist’s current and future achievements to a large degree.

It was also because of this reason that Demonshine recommended Lin Ming focus on alchemy. At the same time, the closely related inscription technique also couldn’t be ignored.

“Large success bronze level battle spirit. I’ve already surpassed most Divine Sea powerhouses in this aspect, causing my striking force to increase yet again. In addition to my increasing understanding into the Concept of Fire and the Concept of Space, I wonder just how powerful my strongest attack would be. How much stronger has it become?”

“Bury the Heavens, Chain of Stars, Chasing Sun, Chasing Thunder, Penetrating Rainbow, Thunderfire Annihilation. Those are my six self-created moves, of which some are just too singular in their use, and difficult to use too often. It would be good if I could create some newer ones.”

Lin Ming thought out loud. However, what he didn’t know was that, if the other extraordinary young elites of the Sky Spill Continent heard his verbal thoughts, they would probably have vomited blood in envy and frustration. After all, they were still studying the legacies left behind by their ancestors. There were many elites that could create a half a skill, but these abilities were often far too limited in their power, and weren’t practical for fighting at all. Thus, they had no choice but to continue using the legacies left behind by their ancestors.

The moves that Lin Ming had self-created actually contained an extremely terrifying strength behind them, however, and could also be used as a final killing blow.

Of course, this was all related to the top quality cultivation methods and lucky chances that he had experienced so far in his life. If Lin Ming wanted to create more moves he would need to experience more lucky chances. These weren’t something he could simply imagine up out of thin air.

…….

“What? Not only do you want two ghost spirit crystals, but you also want to take away Heavencraft Xiaoxiao?” Heavencraft Yun was furious as he heard Corpsemancer’s conditions. Two ghost spirit crystals was reasonable enough, and he intended to give Corpsemancer some bargaining room. Taking away Heavencraft Xiaoxiao, however…

Everyone knew that the young girls taken away by Corpsemancer all died horrifying and miserable deaths.

Although Heavencraft Yun was not a good man, he still didn’t want to push his niece into the very depths of the eighteen layers of hell, as it would be hard for him to find peace of mind. In the future, this would even form a heart demon that would destroy his heart of martial arts.

“What? You don’t agree?” Corpsemancer’s dark, ghostly green eyes stared into Heavencraft Yun. At that time, Heavencraft Yun felt his breath catch in his throat and a chill crawl up his spine, as if he had just been thrust into an icy lake. He didn’t doubt that Corpsemancer would immediately kill him in the next second if he didn’t comply.

“Third Brother, don’t speak.” Heavencraft Xiao moved Heavencraft Yun behind him.

“But!”

“Don’t speak. There is no longer any path left for us to return!”