Martial World

Chapter 1803 – Bait

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Hu - !

Endless beams of light passed over Lin Ming’s sight. After an unknown period of time, his environment brightened; he had arrived in some unknown world.

Emperor City had vanished. All around them was bleak and desolate earth. The land was marred with gaping scars as if a terrifying war had occurred here.

Mountains and rivers had been sundered in half or leveled off, and massive craters marked the land. There were even dreadfully deep abysses, as if some mighty supernatural being broke open the earth with their weapon.

And in the skies, there were numerous listless planets. These planets lacked even a little bit of life and resembled barren stones.

This was the Akashic Dream Battlefield!

The Akashic Dream Battlefield was but a miniscule portion of the Akashic Dream Universe. After entering this land, one needed to stay for a full three years.

During these three years, no one would be able to probe what was happening within the Akashic Dream Battlefield. Only when all the martial artists completed their journey into the Akashic Dream Battlefield three years from now would the results be known.

The disciples of Zenith Palace were all gathered here. As for the disciples of other influences, they had vanished; they had been transmitted to other locations.

This sort of situation clearly occurred because the Vice Palace Master had crumbled a talisman before he entered the Akashic Dream Battlefield.

Lin Ming had glanced over this talisman. It was an inscription symbol and its use was likely to make the disciples of Zenith Palace be transported to a location far away from the others.

The spiritas were a race skilled in inscription symbols. Many spiritas martial artists even carried inscription symbols on them in battles.

“Everyone, listen to my orders. We are a whole – do not separate from the group, otherwise you will be eaten up without any bones remaining. This is a war of sect against sect, the strength that an individual can display is limited!

“Obey all orders. For those that can obtain merit points, my Zenith Palace will never be stingy with rewards!”

As the Vice Palace Master spoke, everyone began to set off in droves.

The Akashic Dream Battlefield had special rules. Here, Lin Ming could already feel his cultivation being suppressed by the Laws.

His inner world was imprisoned and the true essence he could erupt with was greatly limited. Even the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace had been restricted. Although he could still open three Dao Palaces, he could only gather a twentieth of the previous power of stars he was able to.

“My cultivation has been suppressed to the early Divine Lord realm…”

Lin Ming thought to himself. Looking around, he could see that everyone was in a similar situation.

Only some low level disciples were an exception. For them, not only did they not weaken but they felt a strange power that wasn’t theirs pour into their body, causing their strength to rise. This was a never-before-felt feeling.

“These conditions are even more advantageous to me!”

As Lin Ming thought this, he slowly moved away from the crowd. Slowly, he submerged into the darkness, his figure disappearing from the crowd without a trace.

No one present had been able to discover this. It was only when the disciples of Zenith Palace reached their destination did someone ask…

“Mm? Lin Muk?”

Jaderiver was startled. Lin Ming had disappeared.

Lin Ming was a member of her squad. When they first entered the Akashic Dream Battlefield just now she had also seen Lin Ming, but he had disappeared from sight not long after.

Jaderiver’s words caused the Elders of Zenith Palace to immediately release their divine senses to search for him. After they swept their senses through the crowd, their complexions turned ugly.

Zenith Palace had a large troop of over 9000 people. If they all moved together it was really too difficult to detect if a single person disappeared.

“A foreign human indeed isn’t reliable.”

A Zenith Palace Elder indignantly said.

“He took up one of our spots just to run away as soon as he came to the Akashic Dream Battlefield!”

“Could he have betrayed us?”

Several Elders glanced at each other, their complexions ugly. Although Lin Ming was a human, they all had to admit that his strength was excellent. He would have been a great boon to Zenith Palace in the Akashic Dream Battlefield and would have helped them obtain many merit points, but before any fighting had started he had already disappeared.

“I apologize… I…”

Jaderiver was at a loss for words. She was the one who had introduced Lin Ming to Zenith Palace, and when he had asked to enter the Akashic Dream Battlefield later, she had also supported him with her manner. But now that such a situation had occurred, she clearly wasn’t able to lift her head.

“Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he betrayed us. The token he used to enter the Akashic Dream Battlefield is provided by our Zenith Palace, so his merit points will also contribute to the total merit point score. Even so, we should be a little more careful. He might have been bribed by some other influence to disclose information about us.”

As the Vice Palace Master said this, the other Elders present appeared depressed.

“Let’s go somewhere else then. If that human reveals our position and we are ambushed here then the situation will be bad for us.” Someone proposed.

“Alright, it seems that’s all we can do.”

………….

At this time, a thousand miles away from where the Zenith Palace group was, Lin Ming was flying over a vast wilderness. He released his sense, investigating the surrounding area.

According to the Vice Palace Master’s explanation, Lin Ming was considering how many merit points he needed to obtain.

His skeletal age had yet to reach 130 years.

In order to exchange for the golden page, one needed a billion merit points!

According to the rules of the Akashic Dream Battlefield, at the very end of the three years when merit points were being calculated, the total would be divided by the martial artist’s skeletal age. In other words, Lin Ming needed to obtain almost 130 billion merit points in order to exchange for that golden page.

130 billion!

Lin Ming didn’t know what sort of concept that number was, but what he was sure of was that this was a truly terrifying number.

He would need to endlessly slaughter in order to reach it.

Moreover, listening to the Vice Palace Master’s words, this Akashic Dream Battlefield was not as simple as killing others to obtain merit points. There were also other lucky chances to be found.

Whether it was for the golden page or other lucky chances, Lin Ming was doomed to not be able to follow the mass army of Zenith Palace. They would simply be stones that weighed him down, making his every movement inconvenient.

As Lin Ming was thinking this, he had already flown for an hour. This Akashic Dream Battlefield consisted of an incredibly broad area. Even though he had been flying for such a long time, all he could see was endless wilderness.

And at this time, Lin Ming’s thoughts stirred and he slowed down.

He could see that there was a swamp not too far away, and in this swamp there was some strange flower blooming.

This flower had no roots, branches, or leaves, but instead had a lush flower the size of a basin; it appeared exceptionally bright.

Lin Ming could sense a light divine soul fluctuation originating from it, as if this flower had a soul. And these divine soul fluctuations were subtly influencing Lin Ming’s spiritual sea.

Lin Ming didn’t doubt that this was a medicinal herb that would be greatly beneficial in nourishing one’s divine soul.

“Is this a medicinal herb bred within the Akashic Dream Battlefield?”

This medicinal herb in front of him wasn’t too precious; he believed this was only the beginning.

He began to slowly approach. But at this time he suddenly came to an abrupt stop.

After sweeping his sense over the swamp, Lin Ming revealed a sneer.

He carelessly walked towards the red flower and reached out to pick it. But just as his fingers were about to touch the flower, from a hundred feet in front of Lin Ming, the muddy ground suddenly burst apart. With a loud roar that shook the earth, a giant black lizard that was hundreds of feet long suddenly leapt out from the swamp!

This black lizard had blood red eyes and its body was covered with scintillating black scales. Its jaws opened wide enough to swallow a house and then a tongue as thick as an adult man shot out like a spear, hurtling towards Lin Ming!

It wanted to capture Lin Ming and swallow him whole!

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

Lin Ming was already prepared. Without even a change in expression, he waved his hand and a red spear appeared in his grasp – this was the Phoenix Blood Spear.

Woosh!

The Phoenix Blood Spear shot through the skies, carrying with it a howling power of thunder and fire that pierced into the black lizard’s mouth with unstoppable momentum.

Puff!

Blood shot out. The black lizard was pierced through by the Phoenix Blood Spear, followed right after with a shower of blood.

“Rahh!”

The black lizard roared in pain and anger. After being pierced by Lin Ming’s spear, it shot towards him, wanting to use its massive body to roll over him.

Lin Ming simply flicked his finger and the Phoenix Blood Spear reversed as it came hurting back and pierced through the black lizard’s back as easily as tofu. At this time, the power of thunder and fire contained within the Phoenix Blood Spear also detonated, and with a loud explosion the black lizard’s back was blown to pieces.

The explosive shockwaves were accompanied with endless fragments of flesh and blood. The black lizard’s spine and ribs were completely shattered and its massive body was blown in half.

Facing this endless rain of blood and flesh, an invisible barrier shimmered around Lin Ming, protecting him from any contamination.

After easily killing the black lizard, Lin Ming didn’t even pause. He bent down and picked up that deep blood red flower.

After breathing in the rich soul fragrance of the flower, he quietly said, “Come out. I know that lizard was not some wild creature, but your contract beast…”

Lin Ming indifferently said, a light killing intent in his words.

There were powerful nightmare beasts that inhabited the Akashic Dream Battlefield, but this black lizard hadn’t been one of them. Before landing here, Lin Ming had already felt a group waiting on the sidelines for an ambush.

Some people had decided to use this spirit flower as bait to set up a trap to kill anyone who dared approach it. If one was too impatient to pluck the treasure they were likely to fall for the trap.

At that time, with the black lizard attacking from the front there would also be other martial artists sneak attacking from behind. Unless one was far stronger than those ambushers they would be sure to suffer a loss here.

Unfortunately, Lin Ming had instantly killed the black lizard. This caused the other martial artists lying in ambush to not dare to attack.

Lin Ming slowly turned, looking at a grassy area in the swamp. He coldly said, “It seems you want me to invite you out.”

As he spoke he immediately attacked. He flicked his fingers and spear lights came shooting out!

“No! Ahh!”

Miserable cries ran out. Eight martial artists came rolling down on the ground. Their bodies had bloody holes pierced through them by the spear lights.

They all looked at Lin Ming, panic in their eyes.

As soon as they entered the Akashic Dream Battlefield they had set up a trap here and had laid in wait. But, they never imagined their first prey would be powerful to the point of instantly killing their contract beast.