Martial World

50 years.

100 years.

200 years…

Looking at the boundless universe above the planets, one could see the changing stars. But, the truth was that they never changed. They simply traveled along trajectories that cycled with the mystical rules of the Heavenly Dao.

In the evolution of a planet, several hundred years was far too short, to the point that there wouldn’t be any changes at all.

However, in this universe, there was a giant red planet that had been experiencing world-shaking changes in the last hundred years.

In the beginning, it was a young and hot planet. Its surface was covered with active volcanoes and it had an atmosphere rich in pure heaven and earth origin energy.

However, as time passed, its heaven and earth origin energy began to thin. The volcanoes that dotted its surface began to erupt one last time or gradually die down.

As if the energy of the star had started to dry up.

In the following 50 years, this planet experienced numerous earthquakes. Massive fissures started ripping through its surface and from these deep valleys that were hundreds and thousands of miles deep, lava slowly flowed out.

After another 50 years, even the lava leaking out from these cracks started to cool. Fewer and fewer volcanoes erupted and the landscape of the planet started to dry up.

This was the sign of an aging planet.

Such a silence was maintained for another 50 years. On this day, the planet began to violently shake!

This trembling surpassed any previous earthquake and any previous volcanic eruption.

Rumble rumble rumble!

The earth tore open and an alarmingly titanic fissure appeared. It was like a divine god was using a pair of hands to break apart the planet!

Beneath this great pressure, burning hot magma and rare liquid minerals and metals gushed out, forming several hundred mile high waves that impacted into the heavens.

Beneath these rough waves, a person’s shadow rushed out.

From the raging sea of fire, his muscles reflected a dim red light and metallic luster. His dark long hair hung to his ankles, wrapping around his body like a silk cocoon.

Besides his hair, his entire body was naked. His figure could be called perfect. His torso, his arms, his legs, his neck, all were formed in beautiful and powerful symmetry.

Each muscle, each line of his body, was perfect, as if it were a work of art sculpted by some master.

This person was Lin Ming.

Over 200 years ago, Lin Ming had entered this planet to quietly cultivate. He breathed in the energy of the planet, nourishing himself.

As Lin Ming calmly cultivated, the evolutionary history of the planet that should have lasted for billions of years was quickly reduced to a mere few hundred years.

From young, it became old.

In exchange for the planet’s decline, Lin Ming’s inner world became more stable and developed further.

As the massive amount of world essence energy gathered into Lin Ming’s body, his inner world grew to over 20 miles in size. He had reached the standard of most World Kings, and if his inner world grew any more, he would grow increasingly strong.

Lin Ming didn’t stop. His figure flashed through the void and he tore open space, rapidly flying away.

After this period of journeying, Lin Ming reentered the Sky Spill Planet and spent 10 more years beside his parents.

After that, in the tearful eyes of his mother, Lin Ming set out once more, flying into the depths of the universe.

On the road of cultivation he didn’t stand still.

He recalled the position of another planet. This planet was smaller but the grade was higher.

And most importantly, there were no living beings on this planet; it was a dead star. Otherwise, if Lin Ming drew out all the essence energy from such a planet then all life living on it would die.

Lin Ming arrived at his destination in another 10 days.

This was a metal planet. It wasn’t too large and was almost entirely made of different metals and minerals.

Because this planet was too close to a sun, it was extremely hot. Even some metals melted away, forming molten streams, rivers, lakes, and even oceans.

Lin Ming’s figure flickered and he rushed into the metal planet.

He began to absorb the essence energy of this world once more.

From a World King to an Empyrean, this was originally a long, long process.

Even a top genius like Emperor Shakya had to use a full 10,000 years to complete this step.

Lin Ming was already over 600 years old.

And his cultivation at the World King realm had just begun. The road of martial artist he chose was countless times harder than any other martial artist’s road of cultivation!

A self-created fusion of the real world and inner world, to cultivate the universe of the world and the universe of the body, to meld together the Heavenly Sutra and the Holy Scripture!

No matter how profound Lin Ming’s comprehensions were, no matter how solid his foundation was, it would require an incomparably long time for him to break into the Empyrean realm.

He would even be slower than most Divine Realm geniuses.

Currently, he had yet to complete his full book of life and death. If he wanted to fuse in the Asura Heavenly Dao, the difficulty of this was unimaginable. From the overlords of the ancient era to now, no one had ever managed to complete such a magnificent feat.

Cultivation passed without sense of time.

The road of martial arts was incredibly lonely. During long periods of seclusion, one had to withstand this loneliness. One had to make their heart and mind as calm as placid water…

Although this sounded simple, people weren’t rocks after all. If a mortal were to be shut into a small black room without light, without sound, without anyone else, then they would feel as if they were going crazy in two or three days. If they were locked in for two or three months, then their mind would shatter and they would thoroughly fall into insanity.

Martial artists weren’t like this. Their minds communed with the heavens and earth, with the universe, taking the Heavenly Dao Laws as a companion.

Lin Ming absorbed the essence energy of the planet for a long time.

He completely let loose his sense, pondering on this life without any distractions, reviewing the roads he had walked down…

Over a hundred years later, the energy of this planet also began to dry up.

This time, Lin Ming didn’t take as long. This was because his inner world had grown larger and he was able to absorb the energy of the world at a faster pace.

Then, Lin Ming roamed the universe. He used the world energy of the universe to nourish his own inner world.

And after he absorbed the essence energy of a planet, Lin Ming would return to the Sky Spill Planet and accompany his parents for some time.

Like this, time passed…

Every time Lin Ming returned, it would be after dozens of years or even a hundred years of absence.

He saw his parents grow older.

Wrinkles slowly appeared and climbed up their faces. The wear and tear of time quietly carved itself upon their appearances.

Each time Lin Ming returned, they wouldn’t have changed too much. But after so many times, Lin Ming’s parents had already turned from the appearance of a young couple in their thirties to a middle aged couple in their fifties.

Lin Ming suddenly felt that even though he returned here for this life, he hadn’t spent much time with his parents.

As if this was the fate of a wanderer.

Even if his parents lived lives much longer than a mortal, at the same time, the gaps of time between Lin Ming’s return were also much longer than the lifespans of a common mortal.

If so, then the truth was that this was essentially the same.

If his parents could live to 1600-1700 years of age and he returned only every 60 years, then in the future the number of times he would return to see them could be counted on his two hands. But, Lin Ming had no other choice. Every time he absorbed the essence energy of a planet he couldn’t stop halfway, and he had far too many things he had to shoulder.

In a brightly lit room, the windows and lattices were painted with red lacquer and the wooden bed and furniture emitted a fragrant scent.

This seemed a bit similar to the arrangement of the Lin Family’s restaurant in the past, but the materials used to form everything were far more precious.

This was his parents’ bedroom.

And to the side of this bedroom, there was an old willow tree. When Lin Ming first established the Vermilion Bird Divine Kingdom and Lin Fu and Lin Mu moved there, they had personally planted this tree.

Now, this old willow tree had grown from a small seedling to a towering tree over a hundred feet in height. Its roots were as thick and tangled as dragon claws and the bark was aged and thick.

In a cool spring breeze, the branches and leaves swayed in the wind. Leaves fluttered down from time to time, falling onto a stone table set beneath the tree.

Here, Lin Ming was playing chess with his father.

Every time Lin Ming returned he would join his father in playing chess and drinking wine. As for Lin Mu, she would make a few simple dishes and the three people would eat a family reunion dinner.

This time was also the same.

In the Divine Realm, Lin Ming had eaten up countless heavenly materials, and many of these materials and medicines possessed the most outstanding tastes in the world.

Even within the lower realms, within the Vermilion Bird Divine Kingdom, there could be food made from all sorts of peak materials. Great chefs of the imperial palace would use true essence as the stove fire and use spiritual spring water to cook, making precious dishes that overflowed with drool-worthy fragrance.

But, there was no food that possessed the special flavor that of the dishes that his mother cooked.

This wasn’t just taste, but a kind of taste, a kind of memory. These were traces left behind from Lin Ming’s past.

Almost a thousand years ago when Lin Ming was a child, he loved eating these dishes at the Lin Family restaurant.

Even now, he was the same.

Even across such a long time, Lin Mu didn’t forget the types of food that her son liked to eat. Similarly, Lin Ming didn’t forget the flavors of these dishes.

“Little An, when do you plan on bringing back a wife? Your mother has no other wishes in life…”

Lin Mu often rambled on. Suddenly, Lin Ming felt sad.

He could feel that his parents’ fires of life had begun to weaken.

His parents were not martial artists and it was impossible for them to cultivate to the Divine Sea realm where they could live for 10,000 years. They had prolonged their lives with all sorts of heavenly materials, and now they would soon reach their limits.

After that, they would grow old and die of old age.

This was a Heavenly Dao rule that no one could change.

……

Time flowed by. Another 400 years passed.

Lin Ming’s parents had grown even older.

If compared to ordinary mortals, they would be around 70 years of age.

Their backs had begun to bend over and more wrinkles appeared on their faces. Their eyes became dirty as they stepped into the twilight of their lives.

Seeing that his parents didn’t have much time remaining, after Lin Ming returned, he didn’t plan to leave anymore.

He wanted to accompany his parents and spend the final years of their lives with them.

This was also to bring this first new life of his to a full completion.

Although the Grand Reincarnation Art could allow a person to live nine new lives, it didn’t have the heaven-defying ability to lengthen a person’s life by nine times.

It could reforge a person and give them the light of a new life. But, it couldn’t extend the total lifespan of a martial artist. Ultimately speaking, it wasn’t the Law of Eternal Life, but only a cultivation method created by the Holy Scripture creator after he comprehended the Concept of Life and the Concept of Death to their limits, created in order to draw out one’s potential to its maximum.

Thus, Lin Ming didn’t think about how long he could live out this life. He needed to complete his reincarnation as soon as possible.