Martial World

Empyrean Divine Mist seemed to fall into a long period of recollection. He closed his eyes, deep in thought. After a long time he finally began to slowly say, “I cannot be sure, but if I’m not wrong, this should be the Stone of Eternal Life recorded within the Spiritas Holy Scripture. With this stone, your soul will become eternal and your life everlasting…”

“Spiritas Holy Scripture…” Lin Ming mumbled. He thought back to what he knew and faintly remembered that there was such a book.

Lin Ming had swallowed the memories of dark and perverse divine runic masters like Torchriver. And, these divine runic masters were almost nearly all spiritas. Some of them had even read duplicate copies of the Spiritas Holy Scripture and knew some of the records within. But because these memories weren’t too important to Lin Ming’s training of the divine runic arts, he hadn’t studied them, but he hadn’t tossed them away either.

Now that Empyrean Divine Mist spoke of this term, Lin Ming carefully went back through the memories he had of the Spiritas Holy Scripture.

The Spiritas Holy Scripture could be called the most mysterious and enigmatic sacred text of the spiritas. It was impossible to know just which supreme elder had written the Spiritas Holy Scripture, but there were many things recorded within it. Some things were secrets of the universe, some were notes on the Laws, and some were even prophecies of the future. All of this text had been slowly verified over time!

It was no longer known where the original Spiritas Holy Scripture was. According to some rumors, it was within the hands of a spiritas True Divinity level great emperor. As for the Spiritas Holy Scripture that spread out to the entire spiritas race, that was nothing but a duplicate.

Even though it was a duplicate, this text wasn’t something that everyone could read, simply because there were far too many secrets within that were related to the spiritas. It was a strange and mystical existence, and ordinary spiritas martial artists didn’t even know of its existence.

Those on the level of Torchriver were only able to come into faint contact with it.

The duplicate copies of the Spiritas Holy Scripture could only reproduce the text of the universe’s secrets as well as some archaic prophecies. As for the recordings of the Laws and other such things, those were impossible to copy.

Thus, there was simply no comparing the value of the duplicate of the Spiritas Holy Scripture to the original.

In Torchriver’s mind, if someone was able to obtain the original copy of the Spiritas Holy Scripture and also had extraordinary talent, they could cultivate the Laws within the text. They could rely on the information within the Spiritas Holy Scripture to avoid disasters and take control of the world, inevitably becoming someone that ruled the era!

At this time, Empyrean Divine Mist was still staring at the Magic Cube.

Whether it was the dark gray cube shape, the patterns on it, or even the aura that aroused the awe and reverence from the innermost soul of any spiritas martial artist, it was completely similar to the Stone of Eternal Life recorded within the Spiritas Holy Scripture.

This oppression of the soul ignored all boundaries and all cultivations. As long as one stood before this mysterious black cube, one would feel as if this cube was the master of all souls and be unable to resist it!

All of this proved that Empyrean Divine Mist’s guess must be correct!

“I never thought… that before I died… I would have the chance to see a divine tool like this. In my prime I could shake the earth and change the winds, but now in my old age I’m in such a sad state. Even so, in the depths of my despair, as my life approaches its end, I was able to catch a glimpse of the Stone of Eternal Life…” Empyrean Divine Mist sighed as he spoke to here. As he looked at Lin Ming, his eyes were shining with a brilliant light.

“Junior… it seems you have already had the Stone of Eternal Life for some time. Perhaps even your current achievements are greatly related to it. You should be well aware of how precious the Stone of Eternal Life is and yet you still took it out in front of me. Aren’t you afraid that I’m not actually as weak as I appear to be, and that I might try to wrest the stone from your hands?”

Empyrean Divine Mist suddenly said with a deep meaning in his tone. Even Xiao Moxian felt her heart shrink upon hearing this.

After all, an Empyrean level powerhouse placed far too much pressure on someone. Even an Empyrean on the edge of death was able to release a terrifying pressure, just like an injured tiger facing a mortal.

Lin Ming quietly said, “Senior Divine Mist truly likes to jest. Junior can feel that you really are near the end of your rope, and you simply have no reason to disguise yourself from us and pretend to be so weakened. If you don’t possess the power to kill me, then there is no meaning in disguising yourself. On the other hand, if you had the ability to kill me, you simply wouldn’t need to disguise yourself anyways. You would have simply just killed me. In fact, there is no need for you to have waited until now. When I first entered Tragic Death Valley and broke through the secrets of the God Beast Tomb array formation you could have finished me then. At that time I was even weaker and you were even stronger…”

As Lin Ming explained his analysis his voice was calm and placid, but he still retained full vigilance.

The truth was that even Empyrean Divine Mist found it hard to correctly judge Lin Ming’s strength. Although Lin Ming still wasn’t a match for a Great World King, he could use the special environment in Tragic Death Valley, his understandings of the array formations here, his divine runic symbols, and even his comprehension of the Asura Heavenly Dao to struggle with a Great World King and seek a path of survival.

An Empyrean sounded like a terrifying existence. But when compared to a Great World King, they were in fact only a large boundary higher.

How could a completely exhausted Empyrean Divine Mist on the verge of death be superior to a Great World King?

And most importantly, Lin Ming had a trump card in the Magic Cube. Against Empyrean Divine Mist whose mortal body was thoroughly ruined and had nothing left but his soul form, the Magic Cube was his ultimate nemesis.

It was with this guarantee that Lin Ming was willing to take out the Magic Cube. Otherwise, Lin Ming would have protected the Magic Cube until the end. The Magic Cube was his greatest secret. Besides Xiao Moxian and Mo Eversnow, no one else knew about it.

Empyrean Divine Mist gazed deeply at Lin Ming. Then he said, “You’re quite brave… in order to save me, you were actually willing to take such a risk. I will remember this favor…”

Empyrean Divine Mist slowly said. He was originally a top extreme figure and he rarely made such solemn promises. “I never imagined you would possess the Stone of Eternal Life. Perhaps… perhaps there really is a chance for me to find a turning point in my life… if I can recover, then I will help you with all my heart and soul!”

As Empyrean Divine Mist finished speaking these words he seemed to have used up all of his strength. His soul fluctuations became chaotic once more. He was simply far too weak. Even with the help of the Soul Recovery Pill, he couldn’t speak so many words.

“Senior, what does the Spiritas Holy Scripture have recorded about the Stone of Eternal Life?” Lin Ming asked. Torchriver’s memories about the contents of the Spiritas Holy Scripture were simply far too lacking.

Empyrean Divine Mist was deep in thought for some time, as if he were gathering his energy to speak. Then, in a slow and aged tone, he said, “The Spiritas Holy Scripture records that if one obtains the Magic Cube and then cultivates the Spiritas Heavenly Dao within the Spiritas Holy Scripture to the highest boundary, and then satisfies a few more conditions, there is a chance that they can control the strongest force in the world and live on in perpetuity. That is, an unaging immortality...”

“Unaging immortality…” Lin Ming whispered. Immortality was the dream of all living beings in the universe, the ultimate goal that martial artists pursued.

In a sense, the reason martial artists risked all sorts of life-threatening dangers and unendingly chased after higher realms of cultivation was because of the satisfactions brought from increased strength, but also because they earnestly desired life!

The higher one’s cultivation, the longer they lived. To martial artists, this was a fatal temptation.

Even Lin Ming desired immortality.

To be earth-shaking, to rule over the heavens and earth, to dominate all living beings, to live infinitely brilliantly, to feast upon all the pleasures of existence, just who was willing to then be finally defeated by the tides of time, falling to entropy, slowly weakening and decaying until they turned to dust?

The end of a hero’s road, the withering of beauty – when one imagined the eternal deep sleep and loneliness that came after death, every person would inevitably feel an indescribable fear.

In this world, the strongest person Lin Ming knew of was the Asura Road Master. Lin Ming wondered whether or not the Asura Road Master had broken through the barrier of immortality. Was he now dead, or was he existing in some hidden corner of the world?

Whether or not the Asura Road Master managed to achieve immortality, trying to break through the boundary of everlasting life was as difficult as ascending to heaven. But now, Empyrean Divine Mist actually stated that the Spiritas Holy Scripture recorded a cultivation method pertaining to immortality; how could Lin Ming not be startled!

He once again asked Empyrean Divine Mist about information related to the contents of the Spiritas Holy Scripture. However, the Spiritas Holy Scripture that Empyrean Divine Mist saw was only a copy; the original had been long lost.

Thus, even Empyrean Divine Mist didn’t know what one needed to achieve the realm of immortality. Besides possessing the Magic Cube and cultivating the Spiritas Heavenly Dao within the Spiritas Holy Scripture, just what other conditions were required?

……….

After his conversation with Empyrean Divine Mist ended, Lin Ming used three days to allow Empyrean Divine Mist to absorb all the essence energy within the Soul Recovery Pill. Then, Lin Ming shattered the decaying soul crystal and pulled Empyrean Divine Mist’s soul from his ruined body, receiving him into the Magic Cube and sealing him away!

With this, Empyrean Divine Mist’s soul fell into a completely dormant state, frozen within the Magic Cube.

After finishing all of this, Lin Ming didn’t yet leave Tragic Death Valley. Instead, he stayed there for some time.

He had many matters he needed to attend to.

One couldn’t instantly reach the late Divine Lord realm; time and patience were required. Lin Ming needed time to consolidate his cultivation and lay the foundation for his next breakthrough.

At the same time, Lin Ming needed to hone his skills in divine runic arts and alchemy in order to prepare for refining the Ravenous Wolf Heaven Pill. Before the final trial began, he had to break through into the second Dao Palace!

All of this required time.

As for Tragic Death Valley, it was the only place Lin Ming had ever seen which twisted the flow of time but didn’t distort the Laws. Cultivating here was the best place to do so.

Then, Lin Ming took out Primordius Heavenly Palace and flew in with Xiao Moxian, entering a long period of seclusion.

One month outside, one spring and fall in the valley. Training passed without sense of time. Year by year quietly passed.

Before coming here, Lin Ming had spent his contribution points on purchasing a seemingly endless pile of materials from the Divine Runic Masters Guild. And, these materials were all used by Lin Ming on the divine runic arts and alchemy.

If Lin Ming was going to enter the final trial, he needed to draw up some strong divine runic symbols to prepare for emergencies.