Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-902

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Facing the Demon Emperor’s question, Demonshine didn’t even speak a single word. Although he was the Demon Emperor’s contract beast, the truth was that his status wasn’t high. When the Demon Emperor was at his peak strength, Demonshine basically never appeared in battles. At most, he was a loud supporter that tagged along from behind.

Lin Ming hesitated for a moment and said, “Senior, this junior cannot reply to that question.”

The reason why Lin Ming couldn’t answer was not because he feared the Demon Emperor. In truth, the current Demon Emperor phantom was no more than a wisp of the Demon Emperor’s will form combined with a wisp of his remnant soul. He had already lost over 90% of his spirit mark and no longer posed any threat to Lin Ming.

Although Lin Ming’s will wasn’t a match for the Demon Emperor’s will form, he could still leave this world in order to protect himself.

He didn’t reply to the Demon Emperor’s question because of the Magic Cube. Such a divine object had already caused two great superpowers within the Divine Realm to annihilate each other. If others were to learn he had obtained it then that would definitely not be a good matter.

“I see… well, I can already make a guess even if you don’t answer. Demonshine’s divine soul should have been torn apart with me and sucked into the Divine Crystal Magic Cube. Since he’s with you, then that object must have something to do with all of this, humph!”

The Demon Emperor coldly snorted. This cold snort actually contained a deep and abiding unwillingness. In the past, he had followed Tian Mingzi’s army and entered the Verdant Feather Holy Lands together with him. In the end, not only did he not obtain anything, but he even paid with his life. Even so, the Demon Emperor didn’t know just what the Divine Crystal Magic Cube was or what uses it had. The existence of this Divine Crystal Magic Cube was itself a mystery. Tian Mingzi had paid a great price in order to attract many masters to struggle for it. This secret had been kept hidden from all of the World Kings and Empyreans.

But now, this lucky chance was obtained by this junior in front of him. The Demon Emperor would be lying if he said he wasn’t envious.

“Your destiny really leaves me jealous. You have a silver battle spirit at only the third stage of Life Destruction, and your foundation is as solid as it could be. You dual cultivate body and essence, and you’ve even already opened the Eight Inner Hidden Gates. Compared to when I was your age, you are at least a hundred times better than me! When I walked down this Road of Emperor, I only managed to extinguish 113 will lights. Compared to you, the difference between us is like clouds and mud!” The Demon Emperor sighed as he spoke here. The word genius couldn’t even describe how Lin Ming had managed to grow to such a degree in this situation. Of course, there had to be massive lucky chances, but just lucky chances wasn’t enough. He would need to have an iron will and immense talent in order to do so. Without those, there would be no number of lucky chances that could boost a person to the peak of martial arts.

“The martial artists of the lower realms start at a much lower point than the martial artists of the Divine Realm. Because of the catastrophe from 100,000 years ago, the planet of the Sky Spill Continent and the Holy Demon Continent devolved into one of the inferior worlds in the three thousand boundless universe. If I had half your talent in the past then I wouldn’t have been reduced to this situation! If I didn’t diverge in my cultivation path and cultivate Life Destruction once again, causing me to delay a massive amount of time, then even if I couldn’t become a Holy Lord, I could still have become a quasi-Holy Lord!”

The Demon Emperor’s voice was filled with great unwillingness. Lin Ming was startled as he heard this, “Diverge cultivation paths and cultivate Life Destruction once again?”

“Not wrong. I reached the Divine Sea after seven stages of Life Destruction. In the Sky Spill Continent that is already an extraordinary character, but in the Divine Realm that is nothing at all. A seventh stage Life Destruction means you will be destined to a limited potential. Thus, the only choice I had was to diverge from my cultivation and redo Life Destruction!”

The Demon Emperor’s words left Lin Ming bewildered. The path to the Divine Sea was filled with dangers, but even after reaching that boundary, the Demon Emperor had still diverged from his cultivation, taking a long and arduous path to cultivate Life Destruction once again. Not only had the Demon Emperor done this, but he had even made wonderful achievements afterwards; he was indeed amazing. When he was at the Sky Spill Continent, he must have obtained several heaven-defying lucky chances.

If this were so, then perhaps not only the Demon Emperor did this, but even Emperor Shakya! This was the suffering of martial artists from the lower realms that ascended upwards.

Lin Ming rejoiced that his foundation was extremely solid so he wouldn’t have to follow such a long-winded detour.

“Forget it, forget it, you are after all a martial artist that comes from the Holy Demon Continent, so you also share a similar origin with me. I have already died and the memories of this tiny bit of remnant soul will not be able to last forever. Since my legacies have all been inherited by you, you can be considered a half-descendent of mine. For you to cultivate to such a boundary with only a 24 year skeletal age, it is already certain that you will be an unrivalled hero in the future. That shouldn’t be hard at all. Even if you only rely on the great lucky chance of the Magic Cube, you will still be able to become a Holy Lord or even an Empyrean!

“When that time comes, if you could inherit the will and hopes of Empyrean Primordius and establish your own Samsara Road, that would be the testament and glory of all martial artists in this universe! Since you have come here to whet your battle spirit, let me pass the energy of my will light to you!”

The Demon Emperor’s form exploded, turning into a rain of golden light that showered downwards. This light completed gathered onto Lin Ming’s will form, invigorating his battle spirit.

Lin Ming felt the fog around the battle spirit in his spiritual sea slowly thicken. The battle spirit’s energy rapidly increased. Once this thick fog increased and condensed once again, Lin Ming would then step into large success of his silver battle spirit.

The energy from this rain of light came from the Road of Emperor, not the Demon Emperor’s soul form. This Road of Emperor was originally meant to become a divine artifact; it wasn’t strange that it could temper a battle spirit.

The rain of light slowly faded away and Lin Ming left the Demon Emperor’s world of will. “Under such adversity, the Demon Emperor even managed to diverge his cultivation and practice Life Destruction again. Even then, he still reached such a boundary. He truly was a hero of his era. It’s just a pity that he actually died on his road of martial arts. That is regretful!”

Lin Ming spoke out loud. But as for Demonshine, he remained silent. To be able to see his master one last time, he was filled with emotion.

Lin Ming had passed the Demon Emperor’s will light without the need for battle, and he had even obtained information pertaining to the Eternal Demon Abyss and the Sea of Miracles.

He continued forwards and discovered that after the Demon Emperor’s will light, there were only three will lights left.

But these three will lights – especially the last two – were much larger than the will lights before them. They were like raging torches with flames that reached the skies, illuminating the entire space around them.

And on the side of the road in front of Lin Ming, there was actually a tall stone tablet rising hundreds of feet into the air. Large characters written in the ancient common language of the Divine Realm were written with flourishing brush strokes. Each character was extremely large and they occupied most of the stone tablet.

“The masterless rivers of star in the endless cosmos, I shall rewrite the infinite history!”

Each of these words exuded an endless and potent energy, making all those who read them feel as if they had lost their minds. Even though Lin Ming had a silver battle spirit, he still found it hard to look directly at them.

Such assertive words and such dauntless brush strokes, could these words have been left behind by the Empyrean Primordius that the Demon Emperor had mentioned?

Lin Ming took a deep breath. As he watched those conflagrating will lights at the end of the Road of Emperor, he felt a stirring emotion in his heart. Could that final will light be a battle spirit left behind by Empyrean Primordius? If so, then just what degree of formidability could it have reached?

If Empyrean Primordius wanted to create his own Samsara Road, he should have also left a turning point for his own samsara!

Before the last and most vibrant will light, there were also two will lights in front of that one. Just who had left those behind?

…………….

Outside the Road of Emperor, at the entrance to the Heavenly Cloud Skysplit Tower, four old men were milling around. They had black array flags in their hands as they were in the process of laying down a great array.

Every array flag surface was as dark as ink, filled with ghostly energy as if they contained countless sinister spirits and were refined with suffering souls from hell!

There was a total of 360 array flags in this set. As they were laid down, a terrifying and dreadful ghostly energy filled the skies. The entire nearby space was filled with the resentment of a million spirits and demonic flames lit up everywhere, making it so that no one alive could approach.

“Humph, this 10,000 Ghost Soul Devouring Array is laid down with 360 array flags. Each array flag is equivalent to a peak low-grade heaven-step treasure, and the array disc I used to back up this entire array is a high-grade heaven-step treasure! I have spent an immeasurable amount of energy to lay down this array and even took abyssal flames to constantly refine it. Once this array formation is laid down, and with myself managing it, even a human late Divine Sea powerhouse would be lost within! For me to use all of this to deal with you, you can be proud of yourself even in hell!”

The Steppes Master maliciously grinned. The 10,000 Ghost Soul Devouring Array was in truth a great defensive array. This was because it took far too much time to arrange. Because it required at least half a month of effort to form, it simply wasn’t able to be used for attack.

Usually, the 10,000 Ghost Soul Devouring Array Formation was laid around the Blood Slaughter Divine Temple as protection. Even if the Eightfall War Emperor were to arrive, although it wouldn’t be able to last forever, it would still be able to persist long enough for the Steppes Master to run away.

This was the Steppes Master’s ultimate life preserving means. But now he had moved it over here, all for that one in a million chance that Lin Ming might manage to stumble through to the end of the Road of Emperor and become an unrivalled Emperor level powerhouse.

Now, with the 10,000 Ghost Soul Devouring Array here, even if Lin Ming managed to become an Emperor level powerhouse he would still die. A newly crowned Emperor level powerhouse simply had too great a disparity with a late Divine Sea martial artist. Against this 10,000 Ghost Soul Devouring Array, Lin Ming would have no ability to resist.

“Humph, you have at most a first stage Life Destruction cultivation and you actually dream that you can pass through the Road of Emperor? Even if you do complete it, your true combat strength will still only compare to the weakest of Peerless Emperor powerhouses. You are truly an eternally rare heaven-gifted talent. If you had hidden yourself and patiently waited 20 years before coming to find me, then perhaps I really would have been ruined by you. But you were blinded by your own vain arrogance and greed, thinking that you could enter the Road of Emperor to increase your strength, but the truth is that you have only brought about your own destruction! Since you want to die so much, then let me fulfill your wish!”

In a total of 16 days, the four old men finally finished arranging the 10,000 Ghost Soul Devouring Array. Then they guarded the four directions of the array formation, each of them spitting out their source blood essence to activate it. At this moment, the entire 10,000 Ghost Soul Devouring Array began to howl with sharp whistling sounds!

The four old men that had spat out their blood essence appeared a bit pale. This was their life’s blood essence, just how precious was that? Doing so would reduce their lifespan. All of this was done so that they could guarantee that Lin Ming would die. The Steppes Master had stopped at nothing, stooping to the most extreme measures to ensure absolute safety.

This was indeed his last chance to kill Lin Ming. He did not worry that Lin Ming had the ability to contend with him. He only feared that Lin Ming would be crafty and use some tricky methods to escape. If the Steppes Master allowed Lin Ming to escape this time then it would be impossible to ever catch him again.

After the great array formation was laid down, the Steppes Master personally guarded it, without leaving the area at all.

Like this, half a year passed, without the least bit of movement from the Road of Emperor.

However, the Blood Slaughter Steppes Master didn’t lose any patience at all. The first time Lin Ming entered the Road of Emperor, he had stayed in it for seven months. This time in the Road of Emperor, he should stay for an even longer period. The Steppes Master personally guarded the area, waiting for that sudden moment when lightning struck and Lin Ming emerged.

To a Demon Emperor level powerhouse, a single round of closed door seclusion could last for several years or even dozens of years.

For the Steppes Master, waiting a few years was no problem at all.