Chapter 952 – Nine Divine Shifts
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Led by Fairy Feng, Lin Ming flew on the five-colored bird towards Phoenix Cry Palace at lightning speed. A strong heavenly wind blew past Fairy Feng, sending her hair recklessly waving in the air. Lin Ming stood behind her, silent.
“Do you have some questions in your heart that you would like to ask?” Fairy Feng asked.
“I do have some questions, but it seems they are power struggles between the upper level figures of Phoenix Cry Palace so they don’t have much to do with me,” Lin Ming calmly said. His current boundary was simply too low. These high level power struggles of Phoenix Cry Palace didn’t have much of a connection to him.
“Simply because you don’t think you’re related doesn’t mean you aren’t. What is relevant to you will be relevant to you. Lin Ming, you are someone that I hold in high esteem, and as someone that I brought to Phoenix Cry Palace, you can be considered my person. As someone who is on my side, I can naturally provide you resources. But at the same time, you will also have to face many enemies.”
“Phoenix Cry Palace has a total of nine great Vice Palace Masters, the first of them being Vice Palace Master Sage Jiuyang, also known as Xiao Jiuyang. He is from one of the Ancient Phoenix Clan’s three great family clans, the Xiao Family Clan. He has been a disciple longer than I have, and his talent is extraordinary. He has experienced many fortuitous encounters, and is extremely strong. He has a massive amount of personal connections in the sect, and he is also ridiculously rich, to the point where he can toss away resources like they’re nothing. There’s many talented disciples, Palace Elders, and Hall masters that have received benefits from him. Many matters of Phoenix Cry Palace are also handled by him. Every year, the rising stars amongst the new disciples almost all follow him as subordinates. It can be said that within Phoenix Cry Palace, Xiao Jiuyang’s words are as good as law. When the Palace Master goes into seclusion, Xiao Jiuyang often manages many of the important matters.”
“The Palace Master will soon resign from his position, just another few hundred years. At that time, he’ll go to the Ancient Phoenix Clan’s core Heaven Phoenix Palace to enter closed door cultivation, and the struggle for the position of Palace Master will begin in earnest. Out of the nine great Vice Palace Masters, one of us will be chosen, and out of all of us, Xiao Jiuyang has the highest chances of winning.”
As Fairy Feng spoke, Lin Ming immediately became aware of what was happening. This power struggle of authority was for the position of the Palace master. In the mortal world, when a Crown Prince struggled for the throne, they could sacrifice family and friends. The Vice Palace Masters of Phoenix Cry Palace were neither family nor friends. In the Divine Realm where strength was worshipped and respected above all, the power struggles would be even more ruthless.
Lin Ming asked, “Senior Fairy Feng, do you plan on struggling for the position of Phoenix Cry Palace Master?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I struggle? As someone who walks the road of martial arts, the most important goal in my life is cultivation. Without cultivation, everything else is hollow. In order to increase my cultivation, I’ll need massive lucky chances. Becoming the Phoenix Cry Palace Master is such a massive lucky chance. If I become the Phoenix Cry Palace Master, I’ll be able to control this divine palace and freely move resources as I see fit. The treatment and resources enjoyed by the Palace Master cannot be compared to others. Of the Ancient Phoenix Clan’s 72 palaces, each Palace Master commands their own land and receives the help of the Ancient Phoenix Clan. Not just that, but everyone will ride on your coattails. Those that earnestly followed you will be able to enjoy good fortune, and as for those that worked against you, they’ll suffer miserable fates.”
“The man you just saw is called Sun Yanming. Although he is my senior, his strength is limited and he isn’t even a Vice Palace Master. He flatters Xiao Jiuyang because he thinks that he will obtain benefits after Xiao Jiuyang becomes the Palace Master.
Fairy Feng thoroughly explained the situation to Lin Ming. Whether it was emperors of the mortal world, or Palace Masters of the Divine Realm, one had to have the support of others to struggle for status. If the entire Phoenix Cry Palace was willing to support someone, then the other Vice Palace masters couldn’t struggle for the position even if they wanted to.
Fairy Feng started late and the moment when the Palace Master would resign was just several hundred years away. She had to cultivate her own troops to help her resist Xiao Jiuyang; it was natural for her to value Lin Ming so highly.
Lin Ming became clear on what was happening. Regardless of what his own attitude on the matter was, in the hearts of everyone else he had already joined Fairy Feng’s side. But this result wasn’t too bad. In a place where the factions were distinct, it was best to join one of them. Trying to maintain a neutral stance and fish for benefits from both sides was impossible. He would just receive a cold shoulder from both factions and obtain no resources at all.
Moreover, the reason that he could ascend to the Divine Realm with just a fifth stage Life Destruction cultivation was all thanks to Fairy Feng helping him. According to Sun Yanming, she had to consume a massive amount of violet sun stones to help him ascend from the lower realms. Not just that, but she had even helped raise Mu Qianyu and Qin Xingxuan’s cultivation, and had even left behind an emergency life-saving jade slip.
Lin Ming certainly remembered all of these benevolences. If it weren’t for Fairy Feng, Lin Ming would have had to wait until he reached the Divine Sea to ascend and that’d be a great waste of time.
In this world there were no good intentions without reason nor were there bad intentions with no reason. Even if Fairy Feng had a motive behind her actions, Lin Ming would still repay her kindness.
After understanding all this, Lin Ming said, “I thank Senior for the high appraisal. This junior won’t disappoint Senior.”
“Mm, good! If you follow me, I won’t treat you unjustly. Come, I’ll take you to get a status badge as well as give you some violet sun stones and jade slips.”
Fairy Feng brought Lin Ming to the Burning Sun Hall. This was a 1000 feet grand hall at the edge of Phoenix Cry Palace. After stepping into this flame colored grand hall, Lin Ming could feel a rich and savage flame aura blowing towards him.
There were already many disciples here waiting in line. All of them were new disciples to the Phoenix Cry Palace. There were many of them that had ascended from the lower realms like Lin Ming. But unlike Lin Ming, they all had a Divine Sea realm cultivation.
Just that group of people had over 200 individuals, and the overall line was over two miles long. It wasn’t strange when one realized how many people were gathered here. It had to be known that Phoenix Cry Palace was less of a palace and more of a planet. This was a great world with several hundred million people living here. Amongst these several hundred million people, the vast majority of them were at the Revolving Core realm or below. They weren’t disciples of Phoenix Cry Palace, but rather martial artists that diligently trained every year, going through all sorts of harsh inspections in hopes of being promoted to a disciple. There was always a great number of new disciples at Phoenix Cry Palace.
In the Sky Spill Continent, those that reached Life Destruction were extremely powerful, and those that reached the Divine Sea could rule over their own side of the world. But in Phoenix Cry Palace, the Life Destruction and Divine Sea realms were only the lowest basic requirements to apply for being a formal disciple.
When Lin Ming arrived he immediately attracted the attention of many people, especially since he was being escorted by Fairy Feng. Although they didn’t know she was a Vice Palace Master, they could faintly feel just how terrifyingly formidable she was. And yet, such a character was leading a new disciple to obtain his status badge. Compared to all of them that had lined up here, the treatment was clearly different.
“Who is he?”
“I don’t recognize him. He should be someone that ascended from the lower realms though. I wonder which clan he came from.”
“Does he have special connections? Otherwise, how could he possibly trouble such a great person to lead him? He doesn’t even need to wait in line!” A martial artist who also ascended from the lower realms grumpily said. He could only watch as Fairy Feng brought Lin Ming to the front of the line to obtain his status badge, while he himself was already waiting here all day.
“Humph, what connections could he possibly have? If he had connections, why would he go to the lower realms? He would’ve already been enjoying himself in the Divine Realm! I think that he must have offered some great treasure. Every year tens of thousands of new disciples enter Phoenix Cry Palace, I wonder just how many of them think to offer up some sort of treasure.”
It wasn’t known which martial artist said this, but everyone suddenly felt this made sense. They began to regret that they themselves didn’t bring their own treasures. But then again, it wasn’t simple to take out a treasure that could tempt the heart of a Divine Realm powerhouse.
Another martial artist jealously remarked, “I have no idea what good thing that brat picked up, but humph, it’s stupid of him to give it away. Those that cultivate martial arts should focus on themselves, since when can others help you? If he finds a lucky chance, it’s best to keep it for himself to use. I bet that brat won’t last more than a few years.”
Lin Ming ignored the envious stares of those around him. He obtained his status plate. Looking at it, he could see that there was a golden crow spreading its wings engraved into the front, and the words “Lin Ming Command” carved into the back.
Lin Ming came from the Sky Spill Continent’s Nuyan Family Clan, so he should be named Nuyan Ming. However, he felt that this name was a bit awkward so he decided to use his given name instead. In any case, the Ancient Phoenix Clan only looked at one’s bloodline; the surname was just for recording purposes.
Normally, a disciple that just joined would have to perform a variety of chores. For instance, guarding, mining, tending to the medicine garden, and so on. But because of his relationship with Fairy Feng, he was exempt from this mandatory service.
Moreover, this was different from the Fire Crow Command that ordinary disciples received; this was the higher level Golden Crow Command.
According to their rank, Phoenix Cry Palace disciples were divided into four different halls. These were Firebird Hall, Golden Crow Hall, Vermillion Bird Hall, and Phoenix Hall.
Lin Ming should have entered the lowest level Firebird Hall, but because of Fairy Feng, he directly entered Golden Crow Hall. If his future results were extraordinary, he would be able to rise up and enter Vermillion Bird Hall, and finally set his sights on Phoenix Hall.
From bottom to top, every hall had a massive disparity in treatment. Lin Ming certainly wanted to enter Phoenix Hall as soon as possible. He couldn’t help but ask Fairy Feng, “Senior Fairy Feng, how do I enter Phoenix Hall?”
Fairy Feng was already expecting Lin Ming to ask this. She explained, “There are two ways. The first is to reach Divine Transformation. You’ll then obtain the qualifications to enter Phoenix Hall. After you pass the entrance examination, you’ll be able to enter Phoenix Hall. But this examination is extremely strict. There’s many people that cannot pass it even after reaching the Divine Transformation realm.”
“And the second way?” Lin Ming wanted to enter Phoenix Hall earlier, the Divine Transformation realm seemed a bit distant to him at the moment.
Fairy Feng replied, “The second way is a bit more difficult. That is to reach the ninth stage of Life Destruction. If you do, you can directly enter Phoenix Hall without need for any examination.”
“Oh? The ninth stage of Life Destruction!” Lin Ming was stunned. This was quite the shortcut. From the way it sounded, even in the Ancient Phoenix Clan a ninth stage Life Destruction martial artist was quite rare.
The Divine Realm’s top talents were powerful, enjoying top resources and the guidance of World Kings. But these talents were only in the tiny minority. How many World Kings could there be, and how many top resources were there to be divided?
The Divine Realm had many people, and the average person was stronger than the average person from the lower realms, but they were far from being comparably with Lin Ming.
Lin Ming was confident he could reach the ninth stage of Life Destruction.
Fairy Feng saw Lin Ming’s eyes flash and she understood what he was thinking. She laughed and said, “Not bad. Indeed, you must break into the ninth stage of Life Destruction, otherwise you’ll meet a bottleneck at the Divine Lord realm.”
“After Life Destruction are the three great realms of Divine Sea, Divine Transformation, and Divine Lord. Each of these three large boundaries are divided into three small boundaries of early, middle, and late stages. Three small boundaries within three large boundaries, that is a total of nine. Every martial artist that walks the road of martial arts must ‘journey towards Ninefall for the Nine Divine Shifts’.”
“Journey towards Ninefall means to reach the ninth stage of Life Destruction, and completely transform your mortal born body into a spirit body. Without crossing the ninth stage of Life Destruction, it will be extremely difficult to complete the ‘Nine Divine Shifts’.”