Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-891

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An endlessly stretching demon claw fired towards Lin Ming like a twister. A terrifying aura completely locked down the surrounding space, making it so that Lin Ming couldn’t dodge even if he wanted to.

At this critical moment, Lin Ming’s pupils contracted and he suddenly thrust out the Great Desolate Blood Halberd in his hands.

Ohh!

The flaming phoenix cried out, the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder impacted straight into the dark skies.

The intense collision caused all of the space around Lin Ming to explode. The intertwining power of thunder and fire was actually unable to resist the power of that demon claw.

This was the disparity of absolute strength. When coupled with the creeping influence of that demonic charm, even if Lin Ming’s attributes repelled Yang Yun, he still wasn’t his match.

Bang!

Thunder and fire were forcefully torn apart. Although part of that demon claw was melted away, it still grasped down on Lin Ming’s body!

His protective true essence ripped apart along with his clothes, revealing the Demon Emperor Armor beneath.

Although the quasi-Saint artifact level Demon Emperor Armor was tough, it still had a fatal flaw in the hole at the chest. The Ancient Devil was treacherous and cunning; all of the attack’s energy slipped past that flaw.

Puff!

Lin Ming spat out a mouthful of blood, his entire chest covered in red! The Thunder Battleform nearly completely vanished. The disparity was just too great!

Yang Yun chased forwards, sending out another claw. Lin Ming wasn’t able to gather himself; he simply wasn’t able to resist.

“Hehe, be a good little boy and obediently let me seize your body!”

This claw easily enveloped Lin Ming. Lin Ming was caught in this hand as if he would be crushed at any moment.

“Essence! Energy! Soul! Devour all!”

That massive devil phantom appeared behind Yang Yun once again. The devil opened its great maw and a black vortex appeared, beginning to attract everything towards it. Lin Ming felt his spiritual sea become restless. The blood vitality within him raged and his true essence trembled as if it would be pulled out from him at any moment.

Essence, energy, and soul were the three treasures that comprised a human being, the life vigor of an individual. Essence was vitality, power of the bloodline, the very basis of the mortal body. Energy was origin energy and the dantian’s true essence. The soul was the primordial spirit, the marriage of spirit and will.

The Ancient Devil wanted to swallow up Lin Ming’s essence, energy, and soul. Once he lost those three things, he would lose everything that he was!

At this life or death moment, Lin Ming’s mind was still unbelievably calm. That Ancient Devil didn’t dare to directly seize his body because it wasn’t willing to engage in a showdown of will and soul. First, he would suck away his vital essence and weaken him to increase its strength. At that time it would have a much higher assurance of possessing Lin Ming.

In other words, even if the Ancient Devil knew that Lin Ming’s final trump card was his silver battle spirit, it still didn’t have anything it could do. This was because in order to possess Lin Ming’s body, it had no choice but to engage in a showdown of will.

In that instant, the silver battle spirit within Lin Ming’s spiritual sea howled forth. His originally restless soul force was immediately suppressed and his will stabilized!

But the power of blood and all of the energy within his body seemed as if it would break out at any moment.

“Silver battle spirit, sword of will!”

Lin Ming shouted out loud, and a silver white sword of will shot out from between his eyebrows. This sword of will had the power of thunder poured into it. This projection of will mixed with the power of thunder thrust straight towards the Ancient Devil behind Yang Yun!

The sword of will could only be used to extinguish bodies of will, spiritual beings that had no physical existence. For instance, when Lin Ming had crossed Life Destruction and the Purple Lion Thunder Source had attacked him, it had been injured by the battle spirit manifestation of his will. And this current Ancient Devil soul in front of him was also a kind of will body!

“Hehe, how naïve! Although I am not afraid of your silver battle spirit, that doesn’t mean that I’ll freely engage you in a battle of wills. Return!”

In that moment, the giant devil phantom behind Yang Yun was sucked back into his body without the least bit outside. When the Ancient Devil still had a mortal form, its cultivation had been extremely high and its battle spirit accomplishments were no worse than Lin Ming’s. It was only because its soul was incomplete so its will was slightly weakened, thus it didn’t want to give Lin Ming even the slightest chance.

Lin Ming could feel the Ancient Devil stop absorbing his life vigor. And at the same time, Lin Ming’s sword of will chopped through the void!

Once a soul entered a body, that soul would only enter the world of will for a will showdown if they so decided on their own initiative, otherwise, it was impossible to use a battle spirit to directly kill the life of another. This was the reason that a battle spirit had to be attached to a material object.

With his true essence moving restlessly and his blood vitality also suppressed, Yang Yun suddenly stretched out his demon claw and grasped out at Lin Ming. “Jejejeje, I do not need to swallow your essence, energy, and soul in order to kill you all the same! In front of me you are nothing more than a little baby: useless and weak!

“Netherworld Demon Claw!”

Monstrous ghosts filled the skies and space itself was torn apart like paper. Lin Ming tightly guarded his mind and the power of thunder within the Heretical God Sprout burst out without hesitation.

“Power of death! Sword of Judgment!”

Purple lightning condensed into the phantom of a divine sword, slashing through the infinite skies! This was also one of the Eightfall Thunder Emperor’s famed unique techniques. The power of thunder was most effective at suppressing ghosts and demons; the Sword of Judgment was Lin Ming’s most effective attack method!

“Humph, the Eightfall Thunder Emperor’s Sword of Judgment? Even if the Eightfall Thunder Emperor were to personally arrive here, he still might not be able to harm me. Your cultivation is simply far too low to the point that it doesn’t even matter at all! Break for me!” The Ancient Devil could sift through Yang Yun’s memories. It was well aware of the Eightfall Thunder Emperor and his Sword of Judgment, and simply didn’t place it in his eyes at all.

The Netherworld Demon Claw smashed into the Sword of Judgment. A tiny bit of that demon claw was melted away by the power of thunder, but the Sword of Judgment was directly grasped by that Netherworld Demon Claw and shattered to bits!

The Sword of Judgment was connected to Lin Ming’s will. As it shattered, his face turned paper white. At this time, the power from burning the Ancient Phoenix blood had nearly all faded away. Burning the Ancient Phoenix blood simply required too much true essence. Even if his true essence reserves were extremely deep right now, he still couldn’t sustain this continued combustion of the Ancient Phoenix blood. When he fought Situ Yaoyue, he had only burnt this blood for a very short time.

Once Lin Ming lost the support of the Ancient Phoenix blood, it would no longer be possible for him to resist the Ancient Devil.

“Is your strength almost gone? What a pity. If you had the Electric Violet Kirin Saint Body and could reach the same degree as your Ancient Phoenix Saint Body, as well as reach a third stage Life Destruction cultivation, your power of thunder might pose a little bit of a threat to me. But now, everything you’re doing is merely the useless struggles of the dying!”

Yang Yun attacked once again. The only reason that the fight had dragged on to this point was that the Ancient Devil wanted to possess Lin Ming’s body. Otherwise, if it wanted to kill Lin Ming, he would have been long dead by now.

As Lin Ming saw Yang Yun rushing at him, his eyes flashed with a crazed light. He bit down on the tip of his tongue, burning the blood of the Ancient Phoenix even as he spat forth his blood essence!

Instead of having his body seized by others, he might as well burn his soul, combust his life source, and desperately fight with every last ounce he had!

“You want to combust your life source? Your body is already mine, how can I let you ruin it? Time Laws, Concept of Stagnation!”

In that moment when Lin Ming was about to burn his soul, he suddenly felt the flow of time slow down around him. The fluttering of his fires of life, his heartbeat, his nerves, his will, his divine soul, everything slowed down, nearly coming to a screeching halt. It was like he was an old wooden puppet that was thickened with age and dirt.

Time Laws!

Lin Ming’s consciousness sobered in that moment. He wanted to use his own understanding of the Concept of Time to break through this time cage, but compared to the Ancient Devil, his strength was like a little gust of wind blowing against a titanic tree; the disparity was too great!

The Ancient Devil before him had a boundary that was far too high. It was an existence that Lin Ming could hardly even look up to!

“It’s over!”

Yang Yun waved his hands and an infinite darkness came falling down. Lin Ming felt like the space around him had condensed into reality and he was mired in this thick darkness. He was unable to breathe, unable to even hear his own heartbeat!

Concept of Darkness!

This Ancient Devil was a fierce elite from 100,000 years ago. It was both skilled in the Concept of Time and the Concept of Darkness. It was exactly because it could change the flow of time with its Concept of Time that it could survive for 100,000 years in the Sea or Miracles. In terms of just its understandings towards the Concept of Time, the Ancient Devil surpassed even Old Man Good Fortune.

Lin Ming gradually lost control of his body. His limbs turned cold, his heart paused, and he found it hard to even have a single thought.

He poured the entirety of his will into his spiritual sea, tenaciously clinging onto that last bit of clarity in his mind. He waited for the Ancient Devil to enter and attempt to seize his body so that he could carry on the final battle of wills.

This would be Lin Ming’s last chance to make a comeback!

If he lost this battle then he would turn to nothing, leaving nothing behind but a zombie corpse. In this world, this body of his would no longer have anything to do with him.

“You want to cling to your body and attempt a final battle with me in a struggle for your body? I do not fear you! Let me tell you, when I still had a body, my cultivation had reached a boundary that you cannot possibly imagine! My true form’s battle spirit has already reached silver perfection, just a single step from becoming a gold battle spirit! That is far higher than your elementary silver level! Do you actually think you can win? How stupid of you! Hahahaha!”

The Ancient Devil’s voice clearly resounded in Lin Ming’s ear. But Lin Ming tightly maintained his spiritual sea, no longer allowing his will and belief to be shaken by these words. He had already suffered a loss to this demonic charm and he wouldn’t fall for it a second time. He was well aware that the reason the Ancient Devil was wasting so much strength to weaken him was because this being didn’t have a complete assurance it could steal his body. Otherwise, there was no reason it would spout so much crap, all in order to tear down his own confidence and will. Even this current blabbering was the same!

Perhaps it might have really achieved a perfect silver battle spirit, but after 100,000 years of being sealed in the Sea of Miracles, its soul must have been severely wounded. The soul was the vessel of will. Once the soul was damaged, one’s will would inevitably weaken. Although those ancient Supreme Elders’ wills could endure for over 100,000 years without extinguishing, that will was incomparable to how it was in their peak form.

“Fight! I must win this fight!” Lin Ming’s mind was incomparably firm and filled with determination. In that moment, his silver battle spirit howled, faintly seeming as if it would evolve to the silver small success level!

“This brat actually isn’t fooled by me, but that doesn’t matter. All that means is that I will have to consume some of my vital primordial essence. Victory is already guaranteed.”

The Ancient Devil had already spent an immense amount of effort creating his plans. It had been preparing for this for thousands of years already in the Sea of Miracles. It started with Yang Yun, and then came to the Sky Spill Continent and continued the next steps in its grand plan. Finally, it had chosen Lin Ming to be its mortal vessel. How could it possibly fail at the final step?

“Give me your mortal body!”

The Ancient Devil roared and split its soul in two. The more formidable part thrust through the chaotic darkness, penetrating into Lin Ming’s body!

The Ancient Devil left behind a third of its soul as support. In these last 100,000 years, the Ancient Devil had developed a character that could not be more cautious. It left behind a third of its soul in Yang Yun to control him. The Ancient Devil did not trust anyone. If Yang Yun decided to do something to him while it was seizing Lin Ming’s body and it finally became the victim in all this then it truly would be an idiot.

Another reason was to guard against any helper of Lin Ming’s. It would be able to call upon this leftover soul to support it at any time.