Martial World

The reason why Zhang Shaoshan was so madly envious of Lin Ming wasn’t just the additional resources that were available to him, but because of the attitude that Mu Qianyu had towards Lin Ming. Even Zhang Shaoshan clearly knew that whether now or in the future, Mu Qianyu would have absolutely no relation to him. This caused his antipathy to rise to the skies!

Those who went against their true nature would damage their heart of martial arts. Every person’s true nature was decided by their conscience. For instance, those righteous individuals like Jiang Baoyun and Qin Wuxin followed the noble and virtuous path. If they did something evil, such as plotting against others, treachery, betrayal, or other malicious actions, this would go against their nature, inevitably ruining their heart of martial arts.

But as for those like the Acacia Faction and the South Sea Demon Region, these kinds of martial artists followed the immoral, wicked path. They placed emphasis on indulging in their most basic desires and fulfilling all of their dark ideas. If they were to behave and be goodly like some holy monk, then that also would go against their nature.

Zhang Shaoshan was an individual who had a very heavy and proud heart, and was also narrow-minded with a low tolerance level. He loved to step on others, but if someday he were to be disgraced and stepped on by someone else, this would frustrate his spirit and thoughts, blocking his cultivation.

As of now, Zhang Shaoshan was in this situation. In front of everyone, he had been repeatedly stepped on. Although the person who had done this was Mugu Buyu, Zhang Shaoshan had also counted Lin Ming as one of his heart’s thorns. He had even linked in Jiang Baoyun, bearing a deep grudge against all three of them.

‘Just you wait, I will have you pay the price for shaming me!’

Zhang Shaoshan clenched his teeth, and was finally carried away.

………….

“Lin Ming, this is for you.” Mu Qianyu turned her hands, and a sparkling, translucent pill bottle and a ring appeared in her hands. The pill bottle was made from exquisite jade, and was beautiful just like the whitest crystal. As for the ring, it was very plain, looking no different to a copper or steel ring.

But Lin Ming was able to recognize that this ring was actually a high-grade human-step spatial ring.

It wasn’t an easy task to forge a spatial ring. Because of this, a spatial ring was often much more expensive than a treasure of the same grade. This spatial ring might not be as valuable as a weak earth-step treasure, but it wasn’t too different.

Mu Qianyu smiled and said, “The true essence stones inside the ring are yours. There are 240 of them, I’m giving you these resources ahead of time so you can cultivate.”

Hearing the number 240, Lin Ming was overjoyed. These true essence stones that Mu Qianyu had passed to him were naturally medium-grade true essence stones. A single medium-grade true essence stone was worth 100 normal true essence stones, meaning that these 240 medium-grade true essence stones were worth 24,000 ordinary pure true essence stones! Also, it wasn’t easy to trade for medium-grade true essence stones; the true value of them was probably much higher than he thought.

To use medium-grade true essence stones to cultivate was a luxury that not even the core disciples of the Seven Profound Valleys could enjoy.

“I’ll use these 240 medium-grade true essence stones to cultivate. As for those other true essence stones that I won through the gambling house, I’ll use those as currency to buy items.”

Lin Ming planned to use the true essence stones with this intention. But,the true essence stones seemed to have become a bit heavier. If he only used medium-grade true essence stones to cultivate, 240 wouldn’t be enough. As for the ordinary true essence stones, those would quickly be spent if he wished to purchase some top quality materials.

“Thank you, Saintess Your Highness.”

Because Shi Zongtian was also present, Lin Ming didn’t show any surprise or knowledge of what he knew was in Mu Qianyu’s hands, and respectfully received the pill bottle and spatial ring.

“This spatial ring is also for you. I see that your spatial ring is some low-grade treasure, it’s best to change it.” Mu Qianyu casually said. Lin Ming hesitated for a moment but didn’t decline. After all, this was part of the ceremony.

Previously, he had taken three medium-grade human-step spatial rings from the bodies of Huo Gong, Ouyang Dihua, and the Allied Trade Association’s President Zhang Fengxian. But he never showed these rings to the light of day or wore them on his hand.

With this high-grade human-step spatial ring, he would be able to destroy those three spatial rings he got from killing others.

A high-grade human-step spatial ring had an inner dimensional capacity that was larger than all of Lin Ming’s total rings combined. Not only that, but it was much more stable and could last for thousands of years without collapsing.

After Mu Qianyu handed over the Heaven Opening Pill, Shi Zongtian also took out a vivid red pill box. After opening it, there was a crystal clear emerald pill inside, the size of a longan. It shined with an incomparably pure origin energy – this was also a Heaven Opening Pill.

This was the reward for being the champion of this year’s Total Faction Martial Meeting. Shi Zongtian had already promised to deliver the prize to Lin Ming ahead of time; this was the most convenient time to settle this matter.

Lin Ming took a deep breath. Out of nowhere, he had suddenly obtained two Heaven Opening Pills. This was simply an unthinkable dream to most martial artists. For instance, Qin Ziya had paid such a great price and so much time for a Heaven Opening Pill. With this alone, one could imagine how precious they were.

Lin Ming’s heart stirred and he asked, “Valley Master Shi, if I take a Heaven Opening Pill whilst at the Pulse Condensation period, will there be any side effects?”

Shi Zongtian’s mouth twitched. Was this boy actually thinking of eating a Heaven Opening Pill during the Pulse Condensation period? This was just a waste of such a precious treasure!

As far as most martial artists were concerned, taking a Heaven Opening Pill was their life’s grandest and most solemn event. There were even those who prepared for decades for this! They would cultivate until their cultivation couldn’t rise even a tiny bit more, and they would wait until their Zither Heart or Sword Heart or whatever else had reached its own bottleneck. Finally, they would go into seclusion and swallow the Heaven Opening Pill. Earlier, if Qin Ziya hadn’t been worried about failing to break through to the Xiantian realm due to his 50 years of age and low chance of ever receiving another Heaven Opening Pill, causing a problem with his Zither Heart, then he would most likely have broken through.

Most martial artists would hold a series of rituals before they took the Heaven Opening Pill. They would choose an auspicious date and bathe in incense. Afterwards, they might even stay in seclusion for over a year to refine all of the medicine and not let a single bit go to waste.

But Lin Ming, he was actually thinking of taking a Heaven Opening Pill with his Pulse Condensation period cultivation, treating these treasures like candy.

If those peak Houtian realm masters who could never step into the Xiantian realm because they lacked a Heaven Opening Pill heard this, they would probably go mad with rage and spit out several liters of blood.

Shi Zongtian coughed and said, “Lin Ming, although there aren’t any side effects from taking the Heaven Opening Pill during the Pulse Condensation period, you won’t be able to avoid wasting much of the efficacy due to your cultivation. You should consider reaching the Houtian realm before taking it, its effects will be better then.”

“I understand.” Lin Ming only heard Shi Zongtian say that there wouldn’t be side effects. As for wasting efficacy of the medicine, that simply wasn’t even in his consideration. What he wanted to attack first wasn’t the Houtian realm or even the Xiantian realm, but the Tempering Marrow boundary!

If he could open the Eight Inner Hidden Gates and the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, he would be far superior to anyone else in the Xiantian realm or Revolving Core realm!

‘Of these two Heaven Opening Pills, it should be fine for me to take one now. Then I can see if the Heaven Opening Pill is enough to satisfy the lowest requirements of the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ to help reach the Pulse Condensation Tempering Marrow boundary!

‘If eating one doesn’t work so well, then I will spend a massive amount of energy to draw up a medicinal inscription symbol so that I can inscribe onto the Heaven Opening Pill! If I add a medicinal inscription symbol to the Heaven Opening Pill and take it again, it should be good!’

As Lin Ming’s cultivation and power increased by bounds and leaps, his own inscription technique had fallen behind too much.

Practicing inscription technique required a great deal of time and energy. When Lin Ming had been poor and had no resources, he had no choice but to invest a massive amount of time in practicing inscription techniques, and use those inscription symbols he drew up to trade for cultivation resources. But as his status grew higher and higher, he no longer had to waste his time to trade for resources, but was able to invest all of his time into cultivating.

The most recent time that Lin Ming had used inscription techniques was when he was exchanging the symbols he drew for materials for his body inscription symbol. At that time, Lin Ming had drawn up inscription symbols for Sky Fortune Kingdom’s Pulse Condensation and Houtian masters for their medium-grade human-step weapons.

Since he was only able to draw up inscription symbols for medium-grade human-step treasures, Lin Ming could only be considered a medium-grade human-step inscription master.

But the Heaven Opening Pill rank was about equal to an earth-step pill; it was a sudden rise of two grades in difficulty. If Lin Ming wanted to draw up a medicinal inscription symbol that could pair up with the Heaven Opening Pill, he would need to at least achieve a low-grade earth-step ability in inscription technique. This would again take a massive amount of time and energy.

But, if this method could really help him enter into the Tempering Marrow boundary, then it was all worth it.

At this time, Shi Zongtian asked, “Lin Ming, have you chosen what earth-step treasure you would like?”

Lin Ming shook his head, “Not yet.”

“Mm? Liu Xuan hasn’t brought you to the Treasure Pavilion?”

“He did, it’s just that the spears within the Treasure Pavilion do not suit me.” Lin Ming tactfully said, carefully considering the words and expressions to use so as not to be rude.

“Ha!” Shi Zongtian laughed. If nothing was suitable, that just meant Lin Ming didn’t take a fancy to any of his Seven Profound Valleys’ earth-step treasure spears.

Shi Zongtian glanced at Liu Xuan who was responsible for the Treasure Pavilion. After Liu Xuan had brought Lin Ming here, he had gone to stand at a corner in the square. Shi Zongtian smiled and used a true essence sound transmission to beckon him over.

“Liu Xuan, what’s wrong, your Refiner Faction’s Treasure Pavilion doesn’t even have a single decent spear?”

Liu Xuan forced a smiled. He was still a Xiantian master and had a very acute sense of hearing. Shi Zongtian hadn’t bothered to conceal the conversation he had with Lin Ming, Liu Xuan had heard every bit of it. It was just that the Seven Profound Valleys didn’t have any masters who forged spears, so where would a high quality earth-step treasure spear come from?

Liu Xuan honestly said, “Apprentice Nephew Lin wishes for a flexible spear. However, our Treasure Pavilion only has three earth-step spears, all of which are hard spears. Not only that, but they are of quite ordinary quality. However, Apprentice Nephew Lin has said that he can provide spear crafting materials if we can forge it for him.”

As Liu Xuan said this, he cast a somewhat doubtful look towards Lin Ming. In Liu Xuan’s opinion, with Lin Ming’s common mortal background and young age, it was unlikely for him to understand how difficult it was to refine treasures, especially earth-step treasures. He probably had some low-quality common materials that he thought could be used to refine an earth-step treasure.

However, this wasn’t related to him. Since Shi Zongtian had asked, he had truthfully spoken.

The fact was, Liu Xuan was a tiny bit annoyed by Lin Ming. After all, the Treasure Pavilion could be said to be equivalent to his Refining Faction. There were many disciples who vainly dreamed and hoped to one day enter and choose a treasure. But Lin Ming hadn’t taken a liking to any of the treasures inside. It had to be known that there were many martial artists, that from the very first time they cultivated martial artists to the point when they reached the Xiantian realm, would never have had a chance to touch an earth-step treasure!

“Oh?” Shi Zongtian’s eyes picked up. Lin Ming actually had materials to make a flexible spear? But the materials that were qualified to craft an earth-step flexible spear were rare and exceedingly difficult to find. “What sort of materials do you have?”

“It’s only the spear shaft material. As for the spearhead material, I do not have any.”

“The spear shaft is enough. When making a flexible spear, the spear shaft is the most important part. Also, the materials to craft an earth-step flexible spear’s shaft are very rare. Lin Ming, do you really have any something?” Shi Zongtian actually did believe Lin Ming to an extent. After all, he was certain that Lin Ming had experienced some great fortuitous opportunity.

“It’s a piece of bamboo…” Lin Ming said, and then pulled the Violet Electricity Spirit Bamboo from his spatial ring. The nine foot nine inch Violet Electricity Spirit Bamboo was a deep vivid color, and it sparkled with electric flashes.

Liu Xuan was directly befuddled, just what was this?