Martial World

The stars manifested within the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace were in fact not true stars.

True light-emitting stars were massive fireballs like the sun in the sky; their volume was unimaginable. Even an Empyrean or True Divinity would find it impossible to refine such a large object. When a martial artist said they had the ability to move a celestial star, they usually meant that they could move a planet that wasn’t too big. To move something as large as a blaze star was simply impossible.

The stars in the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace were formed by the Nine Stars Heavenly Dao of the 33 Heavenly Dao Laws. Each human that cultivated the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace had nine stars that corresponded to them in space. But after the events of the great calamity 3.6 billion years ago, up until now, only Empyrean Primordius had been able to fully step into the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace. Now, Lin Ming was the second!

As Lin Ming approached the Army Breaker Star, he discovered that this blazing white sphere of light was only a foot in diameter, and in the center of this sphere was a fist-sized core; this was the essence of the Army Breaker Star.

The star in front of him was pure strength condensed from the rules of the heavens and earth. What Lin Ming had to do now was to refine this star into his own flesh and blood.

In that moment, Lin Ming opened the Eight Inner Hidden Gates to the limit. Astral essence surged out from his body and with his 4 billion jins of strength he reached out his arm, directly grasping onto the Army Breaker Star!

Chi-la!

As Lin Ming’s hand entered the blazing white sphere of light, he felt a terrifying pressure and burning heat, as if this sphere of light wanted to tear apart his hand. The closer he reached to the core of this white sphere, the more intense the heat and pressure became. Lin Ming could even feel that his body was about to explode to pieces.

“With starlight as my sail and a dao diagram as my ship, I shall sail the vast universe, my strength rising to another heaven!”

Lin Ming roared out loud and grabbed onto the core of this star!

In that moment, Lin Ming felt as if his hand was immersed in a pool of strong acid, his flesh and blood being melted away. If it were a martial artist with a weaker body then their hand would have been instantly melted away to bones.

Lin Ming revolved the Celestial Tyrant Manual and sucked out the strength of the star core. The Celestial Tyrant Manual was a cultivation method jade slip that the old Holy Lord of the Verdant Feather Holy Lands had found together with the Magic Cube when he explored an ancient ruin. The only problem was that it was incomplete, so it was hard to say just what grade of cultivation method it had been. But in the current Divine Realm, the Celestial Tyrant Manual was undoubtedly a peak body transformation cultivation method, because all body transformation techniques related to humanity’s Nine Stars of the Dao Palace had long been lost to time.

After being held by Lin Ming, this star core flushed right and left as if it wanted to struggle free from his grip. Lin Ming was startled. It was like this star core formed from the Heavenly Dao rules had a mind of its own; it was incomparably mysterious.

“What a wondrous road of martial arts. The Eight Inner Hidden Gates and Nine Stars of the Dao Palace are both body transformation Laws of the human race and also one of the Laws of the 33 Heavens; just why would they change?”

Lin Ming was puzzled. To change the rules like this was to take one of the 33 Heavenly Dao Laws and reverse it.

Such a splendid road of martial arts had been severed just like that; it was truly regretful!

Then, Lin Ming placed that star core in his mouth and swallowed it down!

For a time, Lin Ming felt an indescribable heat flow down his body and sink into his inner world.

Infinite starlight burst out within Lin Ming’s body and a massive amount of starlight surged out from him, making his entire body shine with a beautiful crystalline transparency. In this baptism of starlight, Lin Ming could feel the astral energy within him being fired up and tempered, purified repeatedly as it was refined again and again.

The starlight of the highest heavens became increasingly dazzling, shining like flowing mercury as it spread throughout Lin Ming’s limbs and bones and then converged into his inner world. This sort of scene represented the majesty and wonders of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace!

It was unknown how long this process continued. Sometimes Lin Ming would feel severe pain wrack his body and sometimes he would feel extreme pleasure. Although the process of refining this star wasn’t easy, he didn’t experience any life or death dangers. This was mainly due to Lin Ming’s bodily foundation being far too solid. If his mortal bodily intensity were to be placed amongst martial artists that had just entered the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace 3.6 billion years ago then he would be far, far stronger!

To use such a body to refine a star, even if that star was far more formidable due to the change in the Heavenly Dao rules, this sort of matter still wouldn’t be anything to the current Lin Ming.

In the sky, the eight other stars had already vanished. All of Lin Ming’s pores opened as they overflowed with starlight.

When Lin Ming trained in body transformation before, he took all sorts of divine pills and medicines to aid in his breakthrough and often had to experience the process of having his body transformed and reborn, reforming his marrow, expelling the impurities and even draining out his old blood until the new mercury-thick blood filled his veins.

But now, long before Lin Ming had broken into the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, he had trained to the point that there wasn’t the tiniest amount of impurities left in his body. His blood and his recently combined Azure Dragon blood and phoenix blood essence couldn’t be changed again.

Without reaching this degree, it was impossible to break into the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace.

When a martial artist broke through the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace in this state, it was no longer possible for them to replace their blood and bone marrow.

The true Nine Stars of the Dao Palace was to use the starlight of the highest heavens to baptize the spirit body, inscribing the power of the Laws into the flawless mortal body!

Strength training, flesh training, viscera training, altering muscle, bone forging, tempering marrow; these six stages of early body transformation could be called laying down and strengthening the foundation of a martial artist’s body.

The Gate of Healing, Gate of Life, Gate of Pain, Gate of Limit, Gate of View, Gate of Wonder, Gate of Death, Gate of Opening; these Eight Inner Hidden Gates could be called digging out the very depths of a martial artist’s life potential.

Then, the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace were inscribing the very Laws themselves into a martial artist’s body, allowing a human body transformation martial artist to utilize the strength of the 33 Heavenly Dao Laws!

The 3000 roads of the Great Dao, no matter where they started, all headed towards the same destination. If one walked down the road of martial arts it was impossible to bypass the Laws of the 33 Layered Heaves, because they were the foundation upon which the universes of the 33 Heavens were formed!

As time passed, the crystal nucleus of the Army Breaker Star completely decomposed in Lin Ming’s inner world, turning into shimmering starlight that formed a revolving dao diagram.

Then, starlight began to gather upon this dao diagram, using it as the foundation to build a palace!

This palace was square, with sharp corners, giving off a solemn and dignified atmosphere. At the same time, it glittered crystal clear, as if it were carved from the most luxurious jade.

This was Lin Ming’s Dao Palace. The moment that this Dao Palace finished building, it meant Lin Ming had truly broken into the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace!

Lin Ming’s consciousness took human shape. He entered his own inner world and stepped into the palace.

In the next moment, his surroundings suddenly changed. He arrived in a new world, a vast and boundless land. But no matter where he looked he could see a heavy fog, as if everything here was waiting for Lin Ming to develop.

Although the Dao Palace had formed, it was still empty inside. The array diagram was not yet complete. This also meant that Lin Ming was only at the very beginning stages of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace.

“A Dao Palace in my inner word, this is the Purple Temple Dao Palace!”

Lin Ming’s eyes sparkled. The Purple Temple Dao Palace was one of the nine great Dao Palaces of the human body!

The function of this Dao Palace was to condense the power of the stars from the highest heavens. In a short period of time, it would allow the intensity of Lin Ming’s astral essence to rise by a dramatic degree! This sort of increase could be by three to four times, or even eight to nine times!

The exact number was determined by the foundation of the martial artist as well as the completeness of their Dao Palace.

This was because the origin of the Purple Temple Dao Palace’s strength didn’t come from a martial artist’s body but from starlight in the highest heavens. Thus, even if it increased strength by several times it still wouldn’t overdraw a martial artist’s potential; this was the advantage of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace!

In comparison, the Gate of Life’s blood essence was to burn a martial artist’s blood vitality. If one burned too much it would damage a martial artist’s life source and would reach unrecoverable levels. From this alone, the difference between the two could be seen.

As the Purple Temple Dao Palace completely opened, Lin Ming’s clothes began to flutter about him. A massive amount of starlight formed a vortex within his body. As the Dao Palace became established, it began to crazily grow!

From several billion jins, it grew without end. With irresistible momentum, it broke through the strength of a dragon and continued growing!

The opening of the Purple Temple Dao Palace not only meant Lin Ming gaining another ability, but in terms of his body alone, he experienced a massive leap forwards!

Lin Ming floated high in the nine star heavens, his eyes closed as he silently felt the transformations occurring in his body.

“Nine Stars of the Dao Palace… this is Nine Stars of the Dao Palace!”

As Lin Ming raised his hand, he could feel the astral essence within his body surging all about him, his supernatural powers billowing like a tide. As the starlight fully entered his body, his bodily strength had already reached more than 15 billion jins!

Without relying on the Celestial Tyrant Manual to superimpose his strength, just his base strength alone had surpassed the strength of a dragon! And if he were to use the Celestial Tyrant Manual again after this and gather the strength of the nine heaven stars into his body, then Lin Ming’s explosive force would reach an incomprehensible degree!

“The Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, I’ve finally broken through… Tian Mingzi… I’ve made you wait for a long time…”

In that instant, Lin Ming’s eyes flashed open. In his vision, a deep killing intent flashed!