Martial World

Piki paka!

Ash Murder’s entire body erupted with astral essence. His upper robes tore apart, revealing a vibrant and thickly muscled body as strong as diamonds. These muscles were completely covered with blue veins that stuck out like worms, continuing to inflate!

As his muscles inflated, Ash Murder also increased in size. His skin split apart and massive bone spikes stretched out from his body, shining with a cold light.

Many saint race martial artists were capable of body metamorphosis and Ash Murder was no exception to this. With an enraged half-step Empyrean burning his blood essence and then metamorphosing his body, it could be imagined just how dangerous he was!

Chi-la!

All of Ash Murder’s clothes split apart. Behind him, a pair of dripping wings stretched out, similar to a bat. Ash Murder’s arms also grew to seven or eight feet long, as long as an adult was high. His arms were covered with blue veins and had claws that were sharp and fierce!

After transforming his body, Ash Murder resembled a savage demon!

As Ash Murder transformed his body, the gray ropes he formed with his sealing technique also burst apart!

With Naqi’s combat array broken, it was no longer realistic for Ash Murder to think of sealing away these 108 iron-armored spectral soldiers, especially in the face of Lin Ming’s assault.

With this being the case, he no longer bothered with sealing away the spectral soldiers. Instead, he chose to fight. He wanted to tear apart Lin Ming and then break through this array formation of iron-armored spectral soldiers!

Although these spectral soldiers were strong, once he ripped apart a corner it would be possible to escape!

“You little beast, give me your life!”

After burning his blood essence, Ash Murder’s face was blood red. He completely ignored the iron-armored spectral soldiers and crazily threw himself towards Lin Ming, wanting to kill this human brat who he hated to the extreme.

Seeing Ash Murder hurtle towards him, Lin Ming remained calm. For Lin Ming to face Ash Murder in this condition would be a hopeless battle.

Then, a table-sized gray palace shot out from Lin Ming’s inner world, rapidly spinning about. Lin Ming sank into this palace, vanishing from sight.

This was Primordius Heavenly Palace, an escape route that Lin Ming had kept in place all this time.

Seeing this, Ash Murder sneered. “You want to hide away in your abode but you will die all the same! I will crush your turtle shell!”

Kacha!

With a terrifying sonic boom, Ash Murder’s claws struck Primordius Heavenly Palace. The grand array formation within the Heavenly Palace violently trembled. However, although the array formation shook, there wasn’t the slightest crack in its defenses. Primordius Heavenly Palace had solidly withstood Ash Murder’s attack!

According to Empyrean Primordius, as long as Primordius Heavenly Palace was given enough energy, no force below that of an Empyrean would be able to break through it. Although Ash Murder had transformed his body and burnt his blood essence, he was still a half-step Empyrean. Moreover, he couldn’t be considered an outstanding existence amongst half-step Empyreans. Between him and a true Empyrean, the difference was immeasurably vast. It was absolutely impossible for him to break through the defenses of Primordius Heavenly Palace!

“What!?”

That strike just now had caused Ash Murder’s arms to go numb. He didn’t think that his all-out strike would actually be blocked by such a common-looking palace.

With his strength, he could crush thousands of miles of mountains and rivers, and yet he couldn’t even break apart this table-sized palace.

“Is this an Empyrean spirit treasure?”

Ash Murder immediately thought. An Empyrean spirit treasure wasn’t too rare; even he possessed them. But, most Empyrean spirit treasures were weapons and armor. In their life, an Empyrean ordinarily refined two or three Empyrean spirit treasures, and with the countless Empyreans that had appeared in the 33 Heavens through the billions of years of history, there were many weapons and armors left behind by them.

As for other categories of Empyrean spirit treasures such as accessories, flexible armors, pill furnaces, or other such treasures, they were mostly ignored. These types of objects had extremely harsh requirements in terms of materials and array formations needed. An Empyrean wouldn’t normally refine such items, thus not many of these types of Empyrean spirit treasures existed.

And, if there was a category of Empyrean spirit treasure that was rarer than those, that would be an immortal abode spirit ship!

A weapon could be refined from a piece of divine iron, but a dwelling was different. It required far too many complex structures and array formations, making it so that it would inevitably be shaky and weak. But now, Lin Ming’s Empyrean spirit treasure was such a rare immortal abode spirit ship.

And, if it could block his attack so easily, then it likely wasn’t just an Empyrean spirit treasure, but the highest peak of Empyrean spirit treasures.

All of these thoughts passed through Ash Murder’s mind like a bolt of lightning. But at this time, his complexion immediately changed. He could feel a massive killing intent lock onto him; he had stepped onto a death zone dao pattern!

“Damn!”

Ash Murder cursed in his heart. This wasn’t a coincidence at all, but a plan Lin Ming had thought of from the start!

Lin Ming had deliberately stood behind this death zone dao pattern. When Ash Murder attacked Lin Ming, he had stepped into this trap!

Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!

Hundreds of black divine lights shot out from all directions, blocking all directions for Ash Murder to dodge in!

In that moment, Ash Murder was so enraged that his hair almost flew straight up and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. His intestines hurt from anger so much that they twisted in his body!

In this encounter with Lin Ming, he had been suppressed and controlled at every turn, suffering loss after loss. How could he not be infuriated.

“You little bastard, you remember me!”

Underneath the net of black lights, dodging was no longer possible. Ash Murder roared out loud and closed his two wings around himself. He stimulated his astral essence to the limit, forcefully resisting this strike!

This was an absolute killing zone that Lin Ming had carefully chosen; it was at least a hundred times more dangerous than normal danger zones. Since Lin Ming wanted to kill Ash Murder he naturally had to choose the riskiest place!

Peng!

Thick beams of black light crashed into Ash Murder’s protective astral essence. They pierced through his wings and smashed into his body.

Ash Murder’s muscles tore and his blood vessels burst apart. However, Ash Murder was indeed worthy of being called a half-step Empyrean powerhouse. In addition to the powerful mortal body of a saint, he had abruptly withstood this barrage of black lights!

Of course, this was also because Bai Qi’s tomb had existed for far too long. Too much of the array formation’s energy had faded away, making it much weaker than it was at the start. Otherwise, if it were at full power, then even a true Empyrean might have perished if they entered here!

After being tricked by Lin Ming, Ash Murder’s entire body was wet with blood. His wings had nearly been torn in half and he looked wretched.

As for Lin Ming, he was calmly hiding in Primordius Heavenly Palace, watching all of this occur.

“Haha, Old Man Ash Murder, your defensive capabilities are quite good. You lived through such an attack but your wings are torn and you seem a bit pathetic. You continue fighting out there. I’m going to take some pills and restore my condition. After I’m better, I’ll come back out to play with you.”

Lin Ming’s words could be called angering someone to death. He purposefully said this to provoke Ash Murder and disrupt his rhythm!

He could see that this Ash Murder was extremely strong and also had a certain understanding of array formations. As for the great array formation of Bai Qi’s tomb, it had undergone far too long a time. In the case that it wasn’t able to kill Ash Murder, the consequences would be disastrous.

However, breaking through these dao patterns required a calm mindset. If Ash Murder wildly stumbled around and stepped onto several more killing zone dao patterns, the results could be imagined.

Disturbing Ash Murder’s mindset was the exact effect that Lin Ming wanted.

Hearing Lin Ming’s words, Ash Murder felt his eye sockets nearly split open. He took a deep breath, glaring at Primordius Heavenly Palace with utter hate. His burning gaze seemed as if it could pierce through the Heavenly Palace and kill Lin Ming. He was well aware that Lin Ming was deliberately angering him, but even though he knew this, it was hard for him to calm down his heart. After all, once he transformed his body, his personality became even more crazy, savage, and hard to control.

Ash Murder knew that the dwelling Lin Ming was hiding in was an Empyrean spirit treasure. As long as he continued to attack, he would slowly exhaust the energy of the palace. Then, he could seize Lin Ming and do whatever he wished with him.

However, he didn’t have this chance because at this time, those 108 iron-armored spectral soldiers had already rushed forwards. The moment that he attacked Lin Ming, the remaining other two people, Manyu and his own follower, had already been hacked to pieces by the spectral soldiers’ weapons!

Thus, except for Naqi who had been received into Ash Murder’s inner world, everyone else had died!

The iron-armored spectral soldiers roared out loud and hurled themselves towards Ash Murder. Ash Murder broke into the midst of the spectral soldiers, slamming his claws atop one of their heads!

Kacha!

That iron-armored spectral soldier was smashed away by Ash Murder’s claws like a flimsy chicken! It crashed into the space barrier, causing cracks to tear through its body.

Ash Murder’s strike had cracked the spectral soldier’s body. This was simply because far too much time had passed and its body had eroded over the years.

If Ash Murder only faced a single iron-armored spectral soldier then he could easily win. But unfortunately, he had to face 108 of them.

Pitch black ghostly sabers chopped down on Ash Murder’s body. All of these iron-armored spectral soldiers were covered in a thick aura of death, as if they were evil ghosts that rushed out from the depths of hell!

“Old Idiot Ash Murder, you’re quite fierce! But, I don’t think you’ll be able to last much longer. This place is quite peaceful; it would be perfect for your tomb. What do you think? Hahahaha!”

Lin Ming began making a ruckus from within Primordius Heavenly Palace once more.

Ash Murder’s eyes blazed red. He forcefully held back the cruel and savage personality he gained after transforming his body. If he could just grab ahold of Lin Ming right now, he would tear him to strips!

Whoosh!

A burning arrow shot towards Ash Murder. Ash Murder punched out, blowing up the arrow. Then, with a wave of his hand, seven or eight nearby spectral soldiers were sent flying back by him.

“Amazing!” Lin Ming clapped. “Splendid, you are truly splendid. This is extremely entertaining! How come it feels like I’m watching a monkey dance around?”

Lin Ming tried to anger Ash Murder some more. In front of Lin Ming, Xiao Moxian traced her chin as she sized up Lin Ming. “You’re too naughty Lin Ming. I think that old man Ash Murder, even if he isn’t killed by the army of those iron-armored spectral soldiers, would still be angered to death by you.”

Lin Ming shook his head, saying, “It would be great if I could anger him to death. This person is extremely fierce. Normally, it is very difficult to control your personality after undergoing body metamorphosis, but even after being mocked by me he is still managing to suppress the negative thoughts in his heart so that he doesn’t step into some danger zone.”

As Lin Ming spoke, he was continuously keeping track of Ash Murder’s steps. The dao patterns in Bai Qi’s tomb were in all directions and at all heights. Whether it was flying in the air or walking on the ground, one could touch them. As for Ash Murder, it was impossible for him to remain still while fighting these iron-armored spectral soldiers.

And if he were to be forced all over then he would inevitably fall into a danger zone. After all, he wasn’t like Lin Ming who had a true understanding of the Asura Heavenly Dao. Ash Murder only relied on his intuition and the experience he gained through numerous life or death dangers to feel his way between the life zones and death zones.

“These iron-armored spectral soldiers are being destroyed by him, but once he steps into another death zone, I want to see just how he’ll hide!”

As Lin Ming looked at Ash Murder, his eyes blazed with a brilliant light.