Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-820

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When Lin Ming rescued the young girl from the Forsaken God Clan, Jue, he had heard her recount the curse that her clan had shouldered since time immemorial.

As a cursed family clan, they had no surname nor did they have an origin. The legends said that the ancestors of their clan had angered the gods, and the punishment meted out to them was that their clansmen would have to withstand a bloodline curse for all their future generations.

The tattoo seal on their faces was a symbol of that bloodline curse.

Once the descendants of the Forsaken God Clan were born, after a certain period of time they would have to endure an excruciatingly agonizing pain, an ache that burrowed into their very marrow. As they grew up, the gap between these outbreaks of pain would become shorter and the duration of them would become longer. This would continue until the cursed person died from the pain or they committed suicide to escape it.

Only by cultivating martial arts would they develop the strength and will to momentarily suppress and delay this pain. However, what was sad was that even if the juniors of the Forsaken God Clan had talent that far exceeded a normal martial artist’s, it was still impossible for them to disobey their destiny. No matter how far they reached on their road of martial arts, they would inevitably succumb to the bloodline curse.

The master of this cave mansion had left behind these words, clearly expressing his will and determination as he struggled with the fate of his curse. These words contained an unyielding will between them, but also exuded a solemn and tragic feeling. Looking at this stone tablet only made one feel that the heavens were unfair.

Towards this sort of extraordinary heir who came from such a tragic and mysterious family, Lin Ming harbored nothing but deep respect.

He left the stone tablet and continued moving forwards. The cave wasn’t too deep. Lin Ming only needed to walk a thousand feet to reach the end, where there was a small stone room.

As Lin Ming entered this stone room he immediately felt a vast pressure push down on him. It was like a pure and dominant thunder storm swept over him, nearly flinging him back outside.

Lin Ming was startled. He revolved the Heretical God Force and pushed his way through this thunder storm to enter the chamber.

The chamber was only a few dozen feet wide. There was a stone bed in the center as well as a stone table and several stone chairs.

The stone table and chairs were all carved from magnetic core stone. This magnetic core stone had existed in the Thunder Dominion for countless years. After being baptized in this thunder energy for such a long time, the magnetic core stone had already become as valuable as heavenly treasures.

On top of the magnetic core stone table was a purple crystal. It seemed as if that ephemeral thunder storm was emitted by this purple crystal just now.

Lying on the stone bed was a peaceful skeleton. This skeleton glistened, as if it had been carved from translucent crystal. This skeleton had lain down here for countless years already.

Lin Ming wasn’t surprised to see this skeleton here. The master of this cave must have died a natural death, otherwise they wouldn’t have allowed the sword to fly out to meet enemies.

As he glanced beside the skeleton, that Argent White Sword had already returned to its sheath, without the least bit of edge to its aura. It was hard to imagine that this sword had just faced off against a Thunder Source, an existence ten times more terrifying than even the strongest Thunder Soul.

“These are the remains of an ancient Emperor powerhouse…”

Lin Ming released a long sigh. It was obvious this was no ordinary Emperor powerhouse. No ordinary Emperor powerhouse would ever be able to construct their own cave mansion here. This person might even be a character of the same rank as the Demon Emperor.

But what a pity, no matter how glorious or peerless this person was, they could not withstand the wearing down of the years, nor could they escape the suffering of their samsara.

Lin Ming respectfully and quietly bowed. It was only then did he discover that there was a spatial ring on this Emperor powerhouse’s finger.

Lin Ming hesitated. Since the Argent White Sword had brought him to this cave mansion, didn’t that mean that it had consented to him searching the spatial ring?

And at this moment, Demonshine suddenly cried out in alarm!

Lin Ming was frightened for a moment. He quickly searched in his spiritual sea, thinking that something had happened to Demonshine. He saw that the dog fellow was in perfectly fine condition as if nothing had happened at all.

“What are you doing? You surprised me for a moment there.” Lin Ming said, a bit disgruntled.

“Boy, look at what’s on that stone table!”

Lin Ming followed the direction of Demonshine’s voice. On the stone table was the fist-sized purple crystal, and beside the purple crystal were smaller finger-sized pieces of broken purple crystal. It was apparent that smaller amethyst-colored pieces had been broken off from the larger one.

Lin Ming had seen these purple crystals as soon as he entered this room. They contained an extremely pure thunder energy; it was clear they were some sort of thunder-attribute heavenly treasure. But, what Lin Ming had first investigated was the skeleton of the Emperor powerhouse, thus he had put aside those purple crystals for the time being.

He released his perception and examined it, yet couldn’t find any related memory in his mind. After all, the memories he inherited from the Realm of the Gods Supreme Elders had only been ruined fragments.

“What is that?” Lin Ming asked.

Demonshine sounded as if he was hyperventilating with excitement. If this wasn’t the Thunder Dominion and he didn’t dare to appear in the open with his soul form then he would have already rushed out of Lin Ming’s spiritual sea.

“If this Saint isn’t wrong, then that is the Twinlife Thunder Crystal that the Thunder Source is born from! This is a heavenly treasure that can temper a battle spirit! Even in the Realm of the Gods, this sort of divine treasure can only be stumbled upon through pure luck, it simply can’t be found!

“Temper a battle spirit?” Lin Ming’s heart moved. There was a phrase in the Realm of the Gods’ martial arts world – ‘The mortal body is easy to train, but the battle spirit is difficult to complete.’

Although there were very few body transformation martial artist in the Realm of the Gods, the pure total number of martial artists in the Realm of the Gods was simply too terrifying – it could only be tallied in trillions. For a body transformation martial artist, the resources they had to consume were at least a hundred times that of an essence gathering system martial artist. Still, it was always a good idea to temper the mortal body.

As long as one was willing to sacrifice an unbelievable amount of resources, they could always open the Eight Inner Gates. But… a battle spirit was different.

It was far harder to cultivate than the mortal body!

Before a battle spirit was officially formed, it could only be tempered with the leftover will of other powerhouses. For instance, the Blood Demon Bone that Lin Ming had found before was this sort of treasure.

But after forming a battle spirit, especially after reaching bronze small success or bronze large success, there were far, far too few heavenly materials that could temper a battle spirit. This was because a battle spirit was formed from a martial artist’s will. A martial artist’s will depended on their heart and conscience; it had minimal influence from outside forces.

Thus, this was why it was said that the mortal body was easy to train, but a battle spirit was difficult to complete!

After a martial artist’s battle spirit was formed, it could nearly only rely on itself to grow. Thus, the earlier one comprehended their own battle spirit, the more space there would be for growth. To a martial artist, whether or not they comprehended a battle spirit early or late in their cultivation would become greatly significant to their strength.

Lin Ming never imagined that these purple crystals in front of him were a top heavenly treasure capable of tempering a battle spirit.

“What is a Twinlife Thunder Crystal?”

Demonshine said, “A Thunder Source is bred after thunder origin energy passes through a near-endless amount of time. When it is first born, it is wrapped in a wondrous stone. Later, the Thunder Source slowly breaks open this wondrous stone and its power will also seep into it. After accumulating for a long time, the very composition of this stone will change, finally forming the Twinlife Thunder Crystal.

“After most Thunder Sources are born they will have a Twinlife Thunder Crystal. But, a Thunder Source is born through periods of hundreds of millions or even billions of years. Once a Thunder Source is born it basically cannot be destroyed. After a trillion years in the Realm of the Gods, there are a vast number of Thunder Sources that have accumulated.

“But, Twinlife Thunder Crystals are different. Once one is used, it disappears forever. In 10,000 years of the Realm of the Gods, how many Thunder Sources will be born? This is why there are far too few Twinlife Thunder Crystals! Thus… they are beyond precious! I am also guessing that the Thunder Source we saw before only confronted the Argent White Sword because it wished to retake its Twinlife Thunder Crystal!”

Demonshine’s explanation caused an epiphany in Lin Ming’s heart. Such a lucky chance could only be encountered through serendipity!

He glanced at the Argent White Sword. The sword was still in its scabbard and had no reaction, as if it were allowing Lin Ming to freely take the Twinlife Thunder Crystal.

Lin Ming first faced the crystalline skeleton and then deeply bowed in respect. Then, he carefully placed the Twinlife Thunder Crystal in his spatial ring.

At this time, the Argent White Sword faintly trembled. A wisp of sword light issued out from the hilt, wrapping around the crystal skeleton’s spatial ring and slowly lifting it up before floating it towards Lin Ming.

This left Lin Ming nonplussed. The sword wished to give him this spatial ring?

He already felt a bit guilty for taking the Twinlife Thunder Crystal, and now the Argent White Sword wished to give him its master’s spatial ring?

Although it could be said that anything in that spatial ring would have been useless to a sword, they had only met by chance; the sword shouldn’t be giving him such a generous gift. Was it because it had sensed the goddess’ jade pendant and had regarded him as a descendent of the Forsaken God Clan?

As Lin Ming was imagining all sorts of scenarios, a jade slip appeared from the spatial ring, wrapped in energy, and slowly floated into Lin Ming’s hand.

Lin Ming’s mind stirred as he sensed what this was. He caught the jade slip in his hand and swept his divine sense through it. This was not a rare cultivation method manual but rather a letter that recorded the cave master’s life experiences.

And now Lin Ming knew the name of this cave master – Emperor Argent. His name was ‘Argent’, and Emperor represented his realm. He had no surname, the same as Jue.

Besides Emperor Argent, he also had a title…

The Eightfall Thunder Emperor.

“Eightfall, so it’s also Eightfall… any martial artist who can enjoy such a title must be a powerhouse who has crossed Life Destruction eight times. Since ancient times, the Sky Spill Continent can count the number of Eightfall Emperor powerhouses on a single hand. Even the Demon Emperor was only at the seventh stage of Life Destruction.”

Lin Ming continued to read through the jade slip letter. The more he read, the more admiration and reverence he had for the Eightfall Thunder Emperor.

When the Eightfall Thunder Emperor was a child, his martial talent wasn’t considered too outstanding, especially in the Forsaken God Clan that was bursting with geniuses. There, his talent was only ordinary.

However, his will was tough and he trained extremely diligently, to the very limits possible. In order to sharpen himself he took on any battle. In order to seek out his own lucky chances he travelled the world, repeatedly running into all sorts of life or death situations. He stepped into Revolving Core and later broke through Life Destruction.

Because his willpower was incomparably tough, he comprehended a battle spirit at the middle Revolving Core realm and even three kinds of martial intents.

One of the martial intents he comprehended was an extremely rare force field martial intent – the Thunder Force Field.

This was also the fundamental reason that Emperor Argent had such amazing achievements in the future. He could form a force field of thunder energy around his body. If a normal martial artist were to step into his range, then in the best case they would experience numbness all over their body and in the worst case they would be burnt to coke.

This was where Emperor Argent’s title of Thunder Emperor had come from.

Because of this Thunder Force Field, he had been able to enter into the Thunder Dominion of the 8000 Mile Black Swamp. Here, he tempered his body and rid it of impurities, laying down an incomparably firm foundation that allowed him to cross Life Destruction eight times and be titled the Eightfall Thunder Emperor.

After successfully crossing eight stages of Life Destruction and then breaking through to the Divine Sea, Emperor Argent was able to instantly kill Divine Sea powerhouses at the same level. In the next thousand years, his strength was unrivalled within the world. Here, he stood alone at the peak of the Sky Spill Continent.

Unfortunately, the Forsaken God Clan’s cursed blood was a demonic curse that could not be broken. No matter how astonishing the Eightfall Thunder Emperor’s talent was, he still didn’t have the strength to rid himself of his curse. Finally, he had come to the Thunder Dominion, entering into closed door seclusion and finally perishing here…

“This hero was truly too unfortunate.” Lin Ming sighed with deep emotion. To actually close up within the Thunder Dominion in the skies of the 8000 Mile Black Swamp, just what sort of courage was that? And even after his death, his martial arts will had fused with his sword, enabling it to contend with the Thunder Source.

Luckily, the Eightfall Thunder Emperor’s martial arts will was itself of the thunder attribute. Even his divine soul had no need to fear the Thunder Source. In this aspect it was something that Demonshine’s own divine soul simply couldn’t compare with.