Martial World

“Do we have the qualifications to enter the city?”

“Yes, of course you do!” The city guard respectfully handed over the city tokens. In the 33 Heavens, because humanity had devolved in the past, their status wasn’t too high in the Asura Road. If they went to some places it was likely they would be looked down upon and excluded by others. But in the Asura Road, strength stood above all. If one’s talent reached a certain boundary then regardless of whether they were human or some other race they would be respected all the same.

The city guard suspected that Lin Ming was the successor of some great influence; he naturally couldn’t offend such a person.

When Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian obtained the qualifications to enter the city, Yue Liuxing looked at them curiously. She had seen the amazed expressions of the city guard from the side of her eyes. Without a doubt, Lin Ming’s strength and talent were far more terrifying than she had originally anticipated.

“We will be going to the Divine Runic Master Guild for the examination now, would you like to come and have a look?”

Originally, after entering Divine Rune City, the relationship between the two groups should have ended here. However, Yue Liuxing and Yue Qifeng were far too young and although they were proud of their talents in the divine runic arts, their actual combat strengths were somewhat lacking. If they could become friends with two powerhouses like Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian then that would give them many advantages.

“Mm, we’ll come too.” Lin Ming readily agreed. This startled Xiao Moxian. She said with a true essence sound transmission, “Since when did you enjoy joining in on the fun? Did you want to see how great the difference is between the inscription masters of the Divine Realm and the divine runic masters of the Asura Road?”

Lin Ming shook his head, “It’s just convenient. The reason I want to go to the Divine Runic Master Guild is also the true reason why I came to Divine Rune City. I want to find the path of how to cultivate the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace!”

To cultivate the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace required two essential factors. One was inheritances; in other words, cultivation method manuals! And second was resources, in other words pills and other materials!

In terms of cultivation methods, the Celestial Tyrant Manual that Lin Ming trained in mostly focused on the Eight Inner Hidden Gates, in particular the Gates of Life and Death. The Esoteric Immortality Pill for the Gate of Life and the Esoteric Mortality Pill for the Gate of Death were both found in the Celestial Tyrant Manual.

But in terms of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, the Celestial Tyrant Manual didn’t have many records on it. Or, it was more accurate to say that these records had already been lost. When Mo Eversnow’s grandfather obtained the Celestial Tyrant Manual in the ancient ruins where he also found the Magic Cube, it had been incomplete.

Thus, now that Lin Ming had broken through to the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, he was at a loss as to how he should further continue.

The Asura Sutra First Volume also had body transformation cultivation methods. But, these methods were mostly focused on raising the Essence Spirit Embryo Stone, and in terms of type, they were far closer to the saint race. There was a great difference between the Asura Sutra First Volume and the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace that humanity cultivated.

Missing cultivation methods was one part, and pills and resources were another.

In the essence gathering system aspect, Lin Ming didn’t have too high a need for pills. But in the body transformation system, it was impossible to continue without pills.

When Lin Ming first tried to complete Tempering Marrow, he had used up several thousand Heaven Opening Pills without accomplishing it! And to the relatively minor person that Lin Ming was back then, every Heaven Opening Pill was extremely precious. In the past, the Martial House Master of the Seven Profound Martial House, Qin Ziya, had been stranded at the peak Houtian realm for over 20 years, unable to break into the Xiantian realm because he didn’t have a Heaven Opening Pill. That was how precious they were!

Tempering Marrow was divided into percentages, and the closer one reached to 100%, the more difficult it would become to continue. Lin Ming finally had to rely on the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal and only then was he able to forcefully lift his Tempering Marrow boundary to 60-70%. Finally, he had relied on the Nirvana Dragon Root he obtained in the Demon Emperor Palace to bring his Tempering Marrow to perfection.

Following that, when he opened the Eight Inner Hidden Gates, each gate was more difficult than the last. In cultivating the body transformation technique, Lin Ming had spent a massive amount of heavenly materials. Each heavenly material that Lin Ming used for his breakthroughs possessed a shocking value for that relative cultivation level, enough that martial artists several boundaries higher would be willing to engage in life or death battles for them!

Finally, when Lin Ming broke through the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, that was also because he had accumulated resources to the peak. Not only did he have the support of the Grandmist Spirit Bead essence and the sealed energy from the Essence Spirit Embryo Stone, he also needed Xiao Moxian’s primordial yin blood.

With these three incomparably precious treasures together, only then did he accomplish a miracle and complete his breakthrough of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace. From this alone, one could see that walking down the road of body transformation was truly a heaven-defying path.

Lin Ming had only opened a single star, and there were still eight stars behind that. Thinking about it, he felt a bit powerless and frustrated. Even though Lin Ming had a firm heart of martial arts, it was still hard to not be bitter about it.

The following eight stars would inevitably require an astronomical amount of resources. Not just that, but looking for materials, looking for pill recipes, finding a master alchemist, all of these problems were enough to cause a grand headache!

“It would be great if I could become a divine runic master and alchemist…”

This thought flashed through Lin Ming’s mind. However, whether it was the divine runic arts or alchemy, it wasn’t something that could be learnt in one day. One had to study from the very start in order to be successful. Even though Lin Ming’s perception was high, it would still be difficult for him.

Lin Ming could only take a step back and consider befriending some high rank divine runic masters and alchemists of Divine Rune City. If they had something they were interested in then he might be able to ask them to help him refine some pills or draw up some inscriptions.

However, any divine runic master or alchemist who could refine the pills for the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace would inevitably be a grandmaster. One didn’t need to be a genius to know that all grandmaster level characters had long since joined great influences where they were worshipped and treated as living buddhas. Wanting to ask them for any sort of help without enough rewards was an impossible matter. And for the current Lin Ming, besides the Magic Cube, Primordius Gate, Primordius Heavenly Palace, and Black Dragon Egg, there was nothing he possessed which would be able to tempt these grandmasters. And Lin Ming would never barter with those items to begin with.

“Ah, this is really troublesome.”

Lin Ming rubbed his temples. “Nine Stars of the Dao Palace pills, alchemists, as well as methods to train in the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, I wonder if we’ll be able to find any of these things in Divine Rune City.

Divine Rune City had a history of several hundred million years, and for this entire time they had gathered countless extraordinary individuals. This city was known as a place that could solve any matter in the aspect of pills or inscriptions. No matter how one thought about it, this was the easiest place to find ways to cultivate the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace or ancient pill recipes.

…………

In Divine Rune City, there was no need to ask where the Divine Runic Master Guild was. It was the most eye-catching as well as the highest construction in the entire city.

“That is the Divine Runic Master Guild.”

Yue Liuxing pointed at a divine pagoda in the center of the city that was several thousand feet high. From any corner of Divine Rune City, one could see this massive pagoda.

As they walked towards the tall pagoda, one could see Divine Lord and Holy Lord realm masters everywhere. Really, in this place where Holy Lords walked everywhere, it made one feel as if Divine Lords were as common as dogs. One would occasionally see those with lower cultivations, but these were all outstanding individuals of their level, all of them young elites. Just like the city guard had said, Divine Rune City only allowed the best to enter.

The descendants of elites, the apprentices of elites, they too tended to be elites. Gradually, Divine Rune City became a place where talented people gathered, like a growing den of dragons.

Thus, in the inner Asura Road, Divine Rune City was a particularly special existence. Although they weren’t a sect, they were a city that was united together. There was no other influence who wished to look to Divine Rune City for trouble.

The streets of Divine Rune City were lined with numerous shops. There were pill stores, weapon stores, inscription stores, and countless others.

Half of the shops here were part of the business complex of the Divine Runic Master Guild. Just the income from these shops alone reached an incalculable number, more than enough to continue supplying the great array formation of Divine Rune City.

Within Divine Rune City, fighting was banned and flying was prohibited. Those who violated the city rules would be severely punished. At the same time, there was an extremely strict hierarchical system in Divine Rune City. Here, high ranked divine runic masters could enjoy all sorts of privileges, and those that offended them would be captured and imprisoned. It was even possible that these divine runic masters would kill those who offended them and no one would stop them or mourn the deaths of those they killed.

Before arriving at Divine Rune Pagoda, Lin Ming could feel strange changes in the heaven and earth origin energy around him.

Lin Ming had already seen many places with rich heaven and earth origin energy. For instance, the heaven and earth origin energy of Divine Dream Heavenly Palace was so rich that it turned to strands of fog; this wasn’t strange at all. However, the heaven and earth origin energy around Divine Rune Pagoda wasn’t just rich, but the origin energy was faintly restrained by some sorts of Laws, forming an indescribably coordinated beauty. Lin Ming even discovered that as he approached closer to Divine Rune Pagoda, the heaven and earth origin energy around him began to spontaneously form runes, just like inscription runes. This scene shocked Lin Ming. The heaven and earth origin energy here was clearly condensing into inscription runes. From this, one could infer just what degree of magnificence the inscription technique of this Divine Rune Pagoda held!