Chapter 842 – Peak of the First Stage of Life Destruction
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The audience of tens of thousands of martial artists was left silent. Lin Ming fluttered high in the sky, the infinite magnificence of the setting sun illuminating his white clothing from behind, leaving a tapestry of light upon it.
At this time he was like an immortal lord descended from the heavens.
“Hahaha! Very good!”
A hearty laugh sounded out. Shibai flew over.
Today was a day that would be recorded in the annals of history. Lin Lanjian had a high chance of becoming a future powerhouse that would be the highest under the heavens. And the location he had crossed his first stage of Life Destruction at was the Forsaken God Clan. As long as Lin Ming didn’t perish in the future then the Forsaken God Clan would have endless benefits.
Lin Ming waved his hand and placed the Sky Lock Array tools in a special spatial ring. He respectfully bowed towards the approaching Shibai and clearly said, “I, Lin Ming, will carve Patriarch Shibai’s graciousness in my heart.”
The Forsaken God Clan had played a pivotal role in Lin Ming’s successful crossing of Life Destruction. This could even be considered a life debt. Otherwise, Lin Ming might have died under the Asura Divine Kingdom’s hands.
Although this was only a simple pledge, to a martial artist like Lin Ming with an extraordinary will, this pledge was far more than enough.
Shibai slapped Lin Ming’s shoulder, all smiles. The reason he had paid such a great price to help Lin Ming wasn’t just to repay a favor, but also because he was optimistic about Lin Ming’s future prospects. He would definitely be a peerless powerhouse that could reach the late Divine Sea and live for 10,000 years. To the Forsaken God Clan, that meant that they would be protected for another 10,000 years.
“Congratulations Brother Lin.” Yang Yun rode over on his divine carriage. He stood up and cupped a hand across his chest. He was also an unrivalled genius of his era. It was just that compared to Lin Ming, he was short a bit of his ethereal temperament, but with an extra point of the noble and free energy of a king.
“Thank you Brother Yang for the God Transforming Pills.”
Lin Ming nodded in return. Although he hadn’t accepted Yang Yun’s invitation to join the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom, Lin Ming still had a very good impression of Yang Yun.
As Lin Ming glanced at Yang Yun’s dantian, he discovered that even though he broke through Life Destruction, he still wasn’t able to clearly see Yang Yun’s cultivation. Yang Yun and the Nine Furnace Guard practiced a secret technique to conceal their cultivation, making it difficult to see their dantian.
‘That is a very strange and useful cultivation method. If I could learn it then it would be extremely useful to me.’
As Lin Ming thought this, he checked inwards at his own body. As he carefully searched through it he found that the Death Reaper Curse that the second Demon Envoy left within him had completely vanished.
The Death Reaper Curse was a cruel and ruthless curse that was cast at the end of one’s life. In exchange for completely burning their own life, soul, and blood essence, they could give a sacrifice to the Death Reaper. This curse would kill the bearer in 100 days. The only method to undo this curse was if the bearer of curse became stronger than the caster, unraveling it with their own strength.
Lin Ming finally obtained this strength after successfully crossing Life Destruction. Thus, the Death Reaper Curse was naturally eliminated.
As he looked at his dantian again, he was impressed to discover that a layer of azure origin energy fog covered his dantian. Also, this fog connected his dantian to his flesh, faintly combining as one. This was the symbol of a true Life Destruction martial artist. The faint dantian was directly connected to the body, unlike a Revolving Core martial artist where their dantian was connected to the body through meridians.
And Lin Ming found that the energy in his dantian was far too rich.
“Mm? I’m already at the peak of the first stage of Life Destruction!”
As soon as he crossed the first stage of Life Destruction he reached the peak! However, this was also reasonable. Lin Ming’s cultivation was originally far more than enough. It was just that his physical body was far too tenacious because he practiced body transformation and opened the Eight Inner Hidden Gates. It had made it extremely difficult to decompose his body, forcing Lin Ming’s cultivation to be compressed to the extreme. Then, with a great number of heavenly treasures combined together, he had finally made his breakthrough. His strength had soared in return.
“What? This is…”
As he looked through that azure fog, Lin Ming was startled to find that within his dantian, there was actually a two inch high sprout growing on top of the Black Hole Revolving Core! Two young and luscious leaves stretched out. One of these leaves was red and one of these leaves was gold. These were the young leaves that symbolized fire and thunder. The fire leaf was in the shape of a heart, intertwined with the golden totem symbol that represented the Fire Laws. As for the thunder leaf, that was in the shape of a sword, with the Nine Heavens Thunder Soul twisted around it.
“The Heretical God Sprout moved to my dantian?”
When Lin Ming had first obtained the Heretical God Force, the memories of the Realm of the Gods Supreme Elder had stated that the Heretical God Seed would move to a martial artist’s dantian once it was opened. This was because a martial artist’s central focus point would at that time shift from their heart to their dantian.
However, for Lin Ming, the Heretical God Sprout had only shifted to his dantian after he crossed Life Destruction and formed his spirit body. Lin Ming guessed that this was related to the body transformation technique he cultivated. In the body transformation path, the heart was the most important part of the body, and that was likely to be why the Heretical God Sprout had stayed there until now.
“The Heretical God Sprout is actually growing on top of my Revolving Core crystal nucleus… I have no idea what sort of change that will bring about…”
Lin Ming looked at the Heretical God Sprout, feeling a bit gripped and apprehensive. It had actually chosen to grow on top of the Revolving Core crystal nucleus… he had no idea just how it would influence his future cultivation.
As Lin Ming was examining himself, Shibai also discovered that Lin Ming had reached the peak of the first stage. That meant that Lin Ming was only a step away from reaching the second stage of Life Destruction!
This caused him to be ecstatic. He had never heard of this type of situation before!
“Little Brother Lin, you broke through straight to the peak of the first stage of Life Destruction?”
Lin Ming nodded. “It’s likely because I used too many precious materials and reached this boundary by luck. I’ll have to consolidate my foundation before continuing.”
Shibai laughed, “Very good! Solidify your foundation! Good preparation is the key to success. Once you break through your shackles you will soar into the skies like a dragon, unstoppable! And what is rare is that your character is good and your will is tough. You are most suited for practicing martial arts!”
If Lin Ming had to say what he excelled in, it wasn’t his martial talent or perception, but rather his heart of martial arts and solid will. The martial intents that Lin Ming had obtained were all closely related to these two.
Before Lin Ming could speak further, a golden brother and sister duo came walking over. They were the Sublime Smelting Divine Kingdom’s Ouye Qingfeng and Ouye Qingyun.
“Congratulations Brother Lin for successfully crossing Life Destruction! Your future potential is limitless!” Ouye Qingfeng crossed an arm across his chest. “Brother Lin is truly an unrivalled grace of heaven. I’m really feeling the pressure here!”
“Sir Lin, congratulations.” Ouye Qingyun lightly whispered.
Lin Ming had long ago known the background of these two. He respectfully greeted them in return. Since he still had to stay on the Sky Spill Continent for a long period of time, it would be beneficial for him if he formed good relations with these important characters of the four Divine Kingdoms.
“These past few days I’ve heard that Brother Lin has been collecting medicines, spirit plants, and wood spirit jade. I just happened to have prepared some. It’s just a minor gift. Brother Lin, please accept this.”
Ouye Qingfeng pulled out a wood spirit jade box as he spoke. There was a specially carved slit in the box so that Lin Ming could investigate the inside with his perception.
There was a piece of million year wood spirit jade as well as a massive number of precious medicinal plants. A conservative estimate of this wood spirit jade box was 300,000 spirit essence stones in total. To the current Lin Ming, these things were naturally useful to him. He needed this and more in order to complete his study of alchemy. Regardless of whether it was crossing Life Destruction or opening the Eight Inner Hidden Gates, all of that needed precious medicines.
Just as Lin Ming was about to speak, Ouye Qingfeng suddenly said, ”Brother Lin absolutely must not refuse. I only wish to make a good friend, nothing more.”
Since Lin Ming had gone into seclusion, there had been a good number of people seeking to meet him. They all wished to become friends with Lin Ming, and Ouye Qingfeng was no exception. If Lin Ming really could defeat all the Life Destruction martial artists of the Asura Divine Kingdom, then his future achievements would be limitless.
Ouye Qingfeng had originally prepared to send out this gift only if Lin Ming defeated the Asura Divine Kingdom. But now that he saw all the phenomena that occurred as Lin Ming crossed Life Destruction he had changed his mind. Giving Lin Ming a gift and befriending him now would be much better than to be one of the endless others that would follow if he won.
“Then I’ll have to thank you, Brother Ouye.” Lin Ming accepted the wood spirit jade and medicinal materials. He really did need these things, and he had also accepted Yang Yun’s God Transforming Pills before this. If he refused to accept Ouye Qingfeng’s gifts then he would certainly grow suspicious in his heart. This wasn’t a result that he wanted.
“Haha, Brother Lin is too polite. Brother Lin has the life of a Peerless Emperor. In the future, you might even become the highest under the heavens. At that time, you’ll just need to take care of this little brother a little.” Ouye Qingfeng jokingly said.
As everyone was in a congratulatory mood, a harsh voice suddenly cut through it –
“How pompous. Don’t you know that you only crossed Life Destruction? It’s like you think you broke through the Divine Sea or something and not the first stage of Life Destruction. In the Sky Spill Continent, there are at least 50,000, if not 80,000 martial artists at the first stage of Life Destruction or above. Even this dimensional realm has a bunch of them. This place is literally covered in them. So what’s the big deal with you?”
This caustic voice caught everyone’s attention. Everyone looked over to see that the one speaking was a black-clothed youth. His hands were crossed over his chest, a look of disapproval on his face.
This person was Situ Chuan, who had been badly beaten by Lin Ming.
After he had been humiliated by Lin Ming, he had seen Lin Ming as his competitor. But now, he could only watch on as the gap between them grew more and more wide; there was simply no chance at all that he would ever catch up. This possibility caused Situ Chuan to both hate and be jealous of Lin Ming, making him openly taunt him.
“Humph! Who cares what sort of worldly phenomenon occurs during your breakthrough, the first stage of Life Destruction is still the first stage of Life Destruction! Do you think you can really defeat the Life Destruction powerhouses of my Asura Divine Kingdom?”
As Situ Chuan spoke, seven or eight martial artists began appearing from the dark behind him, each one of them a high stage Life Destruction powerhouse. Their foundations were also incomparably solid. Without a doubt, all of these individuals were Destiny Decree masters.
Lin Ming saw the red-clothed little boy and the Great Demon Envoy among them. They both had a sixth stage Life Destruction cultivation and were in the top 100 ranks of the Destiny Decree. But among these people, they were obviously not the strongest. The one who gave off the most unfathomable feeling was a handsome young man that stood in front of everyone. He wore a large black robe and his feet were bare. His two eyes were bright and clear like a spring sky, and he gave off a light and vibrant feeling from head to toe. Just looking at him made one’s heart twist.
Lin Ming completely disregarded Situ Chuan and looked straight at this black-robed man. Towards someone like Situ Chan, Lin Ming was simply disinclined to waste breath on him. It wasn’t that Situ Chuan was waste, but he was just far too young. For those geniuses of the younger generation to challenge Lin Ming, they would need to be at least 40 years old.
‘He is Situ Luosha…’ Lin Ming thought. Because Situ Luosha hadn’t been hidden, he had heard this man’s name.
Situ Luosha was silent. Facing Lin Ming, he felt pressured but was also filled with fighting spirit. Although the process of Lin Ming crossing Life Destruction had been grand and massive, it was still unknown just what his combat strength was like now; he could only find out through true battle. He would not be threatened or intimidated by this young man’s aura.
“Lin Lanjian, it doesn’t matter how talented you are, there is no meaning to it if you aren’t allowed to grow any further! I want to see just how you’ll manage to win this battle!” Situ Chuan angrily said as he saw that Lin Ming was obviously ignoring him.