Martial World

Although the Monster Emperor’s grand longevity feast had ended, the surrounding disciples in the Black Pagoda would still be enjoying a celebration banquet for another month.

When Lin Ming, Divine Dream, and Xiao Moxian entered the Black Pagoda, they didn’t alert anyone at all. As they passed through the Black Pagoda, they entered a transmission array and went straight to the top.

Here, there was a giant hall. This hall had no light and was incomparably dark. But with Lin Ming and the others’ eyesight they naturally weren’t affected by such things. They could clearly see the back of a tall figure standing in the hall, wearing a long black cloak. This person was undoubtedly Empyrean Demondawn.

“Grandfather…”

Xiao Moxian called out softly, her voice shivering. To reunite with her grandfather in such a situation, Xiao Moxian was left in an extremely complex mood.

Empyrean Demondawn turned and wasn’t surprised to see Divine Dream slowly following behind Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian. He only faintly said, “Sit.”

Lin Ming, Xiao Moxian, and Divine Dream took seats around the table with Empyrean Demondawn sitting across from them. After a long period of silence, he took off a ring from his finger and slid it across the table towards Lin Ming.

Lin Ming was startled. He glanced at Empyrean Demondawn and used his sense to probe the contents of the spatial ring. Upon inspection, he was surprised.

The inner space of this spatial ring was as broad as a miniature world; it was impressively an Empyrean spirit treasure level spatial ring.

At Lin Ming’s level, ordinary Empyrean spirit treasures weren’t too precious at all. But Empyrean spirit treasure level spatial rings were still exceedingly rare because refining such an object was extremely difficult.

An Empyrean spirit treasure level spatial ring possessed an extremely stable inner space and could hold extremely large objects.

As Lin Ming continued investigating the inner space of the spatial ring, he discovered a medicine garden filled with all sorts of rare and precious medicinal herbs. The medicine garden exuded a thick spiritual energy and was of an extremely high quality.

In particular, at the center of the medicine garden was a red spirit orchid. This spirit orchid was three feet tall and each leaf was as sharp as a sword that emitted a dense cold air. Lin Ming didn’t doubt that if he could fold a leaf from this spirit orchid, he could use it as a sharp sword.

And at the center of this spirit orchid was a fist-sized fruit. This fruit was in the shape of a phoenix and looked remarkably lifelike. Even the textures of the phoenix feathers were evident, as if it were a mini-phoenix frozen in time.

Even though Lin Ming was far away from the spatial ring he could feel the terrifying fire origin energy contained within this phoenix fruit. If a fire-attribute martial artist were to swallow it, the advantages they would obtain could be imagined.

Moreover, Lin Ming could see that this fruit wasn’t fully mature yet either. Once it matured, it would experience a qualitative leap upwards!

“This fruit…”

Lin Min was startled. He looked towards Empyrean Demondawn.

“This is a nirvana fruit. It has already been growing for several hundred thousands of years. Later when Xian’er was born, I planned to gift this to her. This medicine garden has a great deal of precious and rare medicinal herbs, but these herbs are deliberately chosen to act as the fertilizer for the nirvana fruit. They aren’t meant to be picked, but rather allowed to wither and fall so that they can become compost in the soil beneath the nirvana fruit.

As Empyrean Demondawn spoke, Lin Ming was secretly dumbfounded.

When a poor mortal family planted medicinal crops, they would use fertilizer to nourish them. These fertilizers, besides being made from human and animal excrement, also included the ashes of plants. Some dead plants were even directly buried into the soul so that they could rot and be used as fertilizer.

When Empyrean Demondawn planted this nirvana fruit, he used all sorts of rare and precious medicinal herbs as the fertilizer, allowing them to ripen and then wither, falling into the soil.

These rare and precious spirit herbs had absorbed the spiritual energy of the world and gathered a nearly endless amount of essence. After they fell, this essence would also fuse into the soil where it would be absorbed by the nirvana fruit. Because of this, the quality of the nirvana fruit could be imagined.

Within the Empyrean spirit treasure level spatial ring, besides the nirvana fruit, there was also a pile of violet sun crystals on the other side of the medicine garden as well as a good number of nine sun jades.

Finally, there was something that caught Lin Ming’s attention the most. In a space within this world, there was a slowly burning black flame.

This mass of flames burned peacefully as if it wasn’t hot at all. But from this flame, Lin Ming could feel a terrifying annihilating aura.

Without a doubt, this was the Annihilation Flame Elemental that Empyrean Demondawn had agreed to give to Lin Ming.

If Lin Ming wanted to open the third Dao Palace – the Extreme Polar Dao Palace, what he needed was a pair of Empyrean grade Fire Elementals and Thunder Sources. Now he had obtained the Fire Elemental and was only missing a suitable Thunder Source.

“The things in this ring are for you and Xian’er. I agreed to give you the Fire Elemental already, and as for the nirvana fruit and other objects, those can be considered Xian’er’s dowry. You are someone that has had countless lucky chances in their lifetime and will experience even more, so the things I can offer you are limited.”

Empyrean Demondawn slowly said to Lin Ming. Many of the lucky chances Lin Ming obtained were at the True Divinity level. No matter how deep Empyrean Demondawn’s background was, his treasures were limited to the peak Empyrean level, such as Empyrean spirit treasures and cultivation methods. Even if he took these things out they wouldn’t be of much use to Lin Ming.

“Thank you Empyrean Demondawn.”

Lin Ming took the ring in both hands and respectfully accepted it.

“Senior, you previously requested this junior to come here in order to give me something as well as to tell me something. May I ask what that something is?”

Lin Ming asked. Empyrean Divine Dream also leaned towards Empyrean Demondawn. Empyrean Demondawn was a very serious person, and if he were to solemnly invite Lin Ming to a meeting it was likely that what he wanted to say was no trifling matter, and perhaps even involved the situation of war between humanity and the saints.

“Mm… it involves this upcoming great calamity…” Empyrean Demondawn laid down a soundproofing enchantment that shrouded everyone inside.

After hearing the words ‘great calamity’, Lin Ming’s heart chilled. Indeed, this was something related to the great calamity.

“As you know already, the saints came to my demon race and the monster race in order to form an alliance. You might think that us allying with the saints is to act against our interests, but the truth is that… because the saints wanted to hastily form the alliance, they disclosed some information to me and the Monster Emperor…”

As Empyrean Demondawn said this, Lin Ming straightened up and carefully listened with perked ears.

“The first is that because of some reasons, the True Divinities of the saints are unable to leave for the time being. As for whether or not this is because of their war with the spiritas or because they have some other more pressing matters to attend to, I do not know nor can I guess...

“The second is that the time for the saints to attack humanity is coming soon. It is not too far away at all… perhaps when those saint True Divinities have finished whatever it is that is occupying them, they will launch a full-on onslaught on the Divine Realm. This time might be more than a hundred years away or as short as several dozen years. Thus… you do not have much time remaining…”

Empyrean Demondawn’s voice was slow and heavy. But as these words fell into the ears of Lin Ming, Xiao Moxian, and Divine Dream, it was like all three of them had been struck by a massive weight!

“You said that… the full-on onslaught of the saints could erupt within a hundred years?”

Empyrean Divine Dream eyed Empyrean Demondawn. A rare harried expression was in her eyes.

No wonder the monster and demon races had so quickly and decisively switched sides to the saints. Even if Lin Ming proved his potential and talent, he still wouldn’t have changed Empyrean Demondawn’s original plans.

This was because there was just too little time before the great calamity truly erupted.

A mere hundred years. No matter how talented Lin Ming was, it was impossible for him to become as strong as a True Divinity in that time span.

Rather, it should be said that if Lin Ming had the ability to face a weak Empyrean a hundred years from now, that would already be extraordinary!

But how could a Lin Ming who had the strength of a weak Empyrean have any effect in a great calamity that involved the extinction of a race?

Empyrean Divine Dream couldn’t help but glance at Lin Ming. Lin Ming had bowed his head and was frowning. Empyrean Demondawn’s words had covered his heart in dark clouds.

If what Empyrean Demondawn said was true, then there really was far too little time remaining.

The information he obtained originally was that the spiritas were at war with the saints. According to Lin Ming’s estimations, the spiritas had strength similar to the saints, so it was impossible for them to be defeated within a hundred years.

That left a single possibility remaining, and that was that because of some event occurring to the saints and the spiritas, they had come to an agreement to reach a temporary ceasefire.

If so, then that was truly bad news!

In a mere hundred years, what could Lin Ming do?

“What I said just now came from the mouth of the Good Fortune Saint Son. And, my feeling is that what he said wasn’t a lie. Lin Ming, I hope that you all take care of yourself and put your best into it. I do not wish to see your entire race be exterminated…” Empyrean Demondawn looked at Lin Ming. “And Lin Ming, I will give Xian’er to you. Please, look after her for me.”

As Empyrean Demondawn said this he stood up, clearly signaling the dismissal of the others.

Xiao Moxian looked at Empyrean Demondawn and her heart tumbled with pain and sorrow. But in the end, she didn’t say anything at all, instead following Lin Ming out of the grand hall.

Before she left, she looked back one final time to see that Empyrean Demondawn had already turned around and was departing. His tall back with his long and heavy cloak slowly faded into the endless darkness...

……………

The short meeting with Empyrean Demondawn caused Divine Dream and Lin Ming to both suddenly awaken from the lingering joy after defeating the Good Fortune Saint Son.

If the full-out invasion of the saints really erupted within a hundred years then humanity wouldn’t be prepared at all and they would be utterly defeated.

And if a saint True Divinity were to personally lead the troops, it would be nearly impossible for human Empyreans to stop them!

“Lin Ming… for the next several years, don’t go out. You have just broken into the Holy Lord realm so consolidate your foundation at my Heavenly Palace… I will use everything in my possession to seek all possible lucky chances for you, so that your cultivation can increase as much as possible. I hope that within a hundred years, you will have strength equal to that of the weakest of Empyreans…”

Less than a hundred years left humanity with far too little time. Divine Dream also didn’t know how to help Lin Ming. Just through going into seclusion one’s cultivation wouldn’t grow too quickly. Now that Lin Ming had reached the Holy Lord realm, it would be impossible for him to immediately move up to the next step. He needed time to slowly accumulate energy.

Empyrean Divine Dream had already formed a well-thought out plan. If the saints were to truly begin their large-scale invasion within a hundred years and humanity wasn’t able to stop them, then their only choice was to send Lin Ming away ahead of time. As long as Lin Ming survived and broke into the True Divinity realm in the future, there would always be a hope that humanity would be able to one day reestablish itself.

However, after listening to Empyrean Divine Dream’s suggestion, Lin Ming shook his head. He said, “There is only a hundred years left. This junior still has some plans where we might be able to struggle for some hope…”

“Oh?”

After hearing Lin Ming’s thoughts, Empyrean Divine Dream looked at him with surprise in her eyes. “What do you plan on doing within the next hundred years?”

With Lin Ming’s current boundary, no matter what he tried to do Empyrean Divine Dream feared that there wouldn’t be much meaning to it. Compared to the entire saint race, his strength alone was far too weak.

Lin Ming said, “Junior wishes to go somewhere and see someone. Perhaps then there can be a change…”