Chapter 1132 – Mystery of the Black Bead
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Pa!
Lin Ming's right hand reached out and grasped the Phoenix Blood Spear.
In Lin Ming's hand, the Phoenix Blood Spear emitted an excited cry. He could clearly sense a connected feeling coming from the Phoenix Blood Spear as if they shared the same flesh and blood. At this moment, the Phoenix Blood Spear seemed to be an extension of his own body.
Wisps of light began to spin above the shaft of the Phoenix Blood Spear.
Everything in this world had its own extreme habitat. Birds flew in the skies, tigers stalked through the forests, dragons ruled over the seas, and the extreme of the Phoenix Blood Spear happened to be Lin Ming's hand, the place where it could display its greatest combat strength!
"Good! Very good! I never thought that even you would obtain the tempering of heavenly tribulation and rise into a spirit artifact. From now on, you will be my comrade as we wander through and surmount the world!"
As Lin Ming grasped the Phoenix Blood Spear, in that instant his valor and heroic spirit seemed to rise 100,000 feet into the heavens!
In comparison to martial artists who had lived for such a long time, Lin Ming was far too young. Even if he were several thousand years old, if he was converted to mortal years he would still only have been in his teens. Lin Ming had plenty of time to attack the next boundary and ascend to the peak of martial arts. Even so, he was so young when he had crossed a 33 Layered Heavens, nine by nine Life Destruction. He had crossed heavenly tribulation and also successfully dual cultivated body and energy. His future was limitless!
The Elders of Carefree Island naturally realized this point and the way they looked at Lin Ming changed. Before, if they were dissatisfied and a bit critical of him, now all of that had turned into utter awe. Lin Ming was someone who would be able to affect their future fates, allowing them to rise to never before seen heights!
"Amazing, I never imagined that my Carefree Island would someday be able to befriend a World King level powerhouse."
"Horrifying, that is a true Great World King… an existence born from a trillion trillion lives. Only one appears every thousand years or so, and this is not something that can be achieved through just talent. For our True Martial World's Great World King, let alone seeing him, even his disciples have a higher status than our Island Master. This sort of character is impossible to imagine…"
To the Elders of Carefree Island, a Great World King was similar to an emperor in the mortal world, and they were nothing but commoners. The difference was simply too great.
Once the dust had settled, Lin Ming had perfectly crossed his Ninefall!
At this time, Lin Ming grasped the Phoenix Blood Spear and floated in the ruins above Carefree Island, handsome and elegant like a divine being.
At this level, Lin Ming could be called the extreme of all geniuses. He was the true favored of heaven, someone with a thousand destinies gathered on his body.
Mo Riverbliss floated into the sky and said with a true essence sound transmission, "All Elders, follow me to Carefree Palace for a meeting!"
As Mo Riverbliss spoke, the Elders of Carefree Island understood that she was going to give them orders. But, after Lin Ming's Ninefall had reached such a terrifying and awe-inspiring degree, no one continued to object to her previous decision of giving Lin Ming the Ten Severing Dao Fruit Tree.
As Mo Riverbliss finished speaking, she flew towards Carefree Palace. In that instant when she moved, she glanced at Xiao Haogan. That brief glance left Xiao Haogan panic-stricken. He said to White Brook with a true essence sound transmission, "This Lin Ming… our future days won't be much better…"
Stop panicking and let's go. She cannot directly move against us."
Xiao Haogan and White Brook also flew towards Carefree Place. Since ancient times, regardless of whether it was the world of mortals or the world of martial artists, struggles over power and authority had always been cruel and brutal. To sympathize with the enemy was a completely stupid idea.
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"Lin Ming, come with me." Mo Eversnow's voice resounded in Lin Ming's ears. Lin Ming nodded and followed Mo Eversnow to Carefree Palace.
"Lin Ming, do you know what that black bead you swallowed is?" Mo Eversnow cut straight to the point.
"I don't. I obtained it from the Blood Slaughter Steppes and was only able to approximately ascertain its origin."
Lin Ming detailed all of his thoughts of the black bead to Mo Eversnow, from beginning to end.
The truth was that at that time Mo Eversnow had been deeply sleeping within the Magic Cube. She had been watching Lin Ming's journeys and experiences from the side of her vision, but as for something like digging out the treasure chambers of the Steppes Master, she naturally wouldn't care about such a minor matter. It simply wasn't worth her paying attention to, so she didn't.
"So it's like that…" Mo Eversnow mumbled to herself, lost in her thoughts. If that bead was something from the Eternal Demon Abyss, then that was much easier to understand. It was likely related to Empyrean Primordius, and anything related to Empyrean Primordius was no trivial matter!
In fact, she had a guess in mind. Now that she learned of the black bead's origins, she was much more certain of her own speculations. "Lin Ming, when you crossed Life Destruction your body turned into pure blood energy and submerged into that origin energy cloud. You may have noticed that above the origin energy cloud, three types of phenomena appeared. The first two belonged to two different types of transcendent divine mights – the Prime Emperor Lotus Flower and the Heretical God Sprout. The third phenomenon included the Magic Cube but also two other objects. One of them was a round bead, similar to the one you swallowed down. Do you think that these two beads are the same?"
Mo Eversnow's thoughts were what anyone would think. Mo Riverbliss also had this sort of suspicion. As for other people of Carefree Island, they didn't know of the Magic Cube, much less what those three objects represented. Thus, they would never have thought of this. Then again, the black bead was mixed in with all the dragon bone relics, and many of them didn't even know of the dragon bone relics, so how could they notice the strange black bead?
"If that black bead is something that can exist side-by-side with the Magic Cube and also originates from the same place, then there are many things that can be explained! From this we can make some speculations. 100,000 years ago, when that black bead first appeared, Empyrean Primordius, Empyrean Thunder Punishment, and also several other unknown Empyreans must have brutally fought each other in a life or death war for this black bead! They must have discovered that this black bead had some sort of special function that was equal to the Magic Cube, or perhaps they even understood its true origin. But as for why they chose to fight at the Sky Spill Continent's world, I do not know. But at the end of that war, Empyrean Primordius died in battle and the other Empyreans died for some unknown reasons. Or, they might have even been severely wounded and fallen into a deep recuperating coma. There is no way we can confirm any of this, but what we can extrapolate is that they didn't succeed and they weren't able to break through the force field that Empyrean Primordius left behind after his death. This is also the reason why the Eternal Demon Abyss contains so many deep and profound secrets.
"And that black bead had been kept in the Eternal Demon Abyss!
"Then, 50,000 years ago… I brought away the Magic Cube and fled from the destruction of the Verdant Fea
Feather Holy Lands, but I was eventually unable to escape from Tian Mingzi's clutches. I burnt my own soul to activate the power of the Magic Cube, annihilating 10,000 powerhouses of the Divine Realm, including a massive number of Holy Lords. After that, the Magic Cube broke through space and left the Divine Realm. With the summoning of some mysterious strength, it flew through the vast and endless turbulence of space for an incomparably long time before landing on the planet of the Sky Spill Continent. The reason it landed there was that it was seeking a similar existence – the black bead!
"If this is true, then many things can be explained. As it happens, my grandfather obtained the Magic Cube over 100,000 years ago, the same time that the black bead appeared. It could even be that the two of them were born together! However, the calamitous waves raised by the Magic Cube were much smaller than those of the black bead. Luckily no higher level beings knew of its existence, otherwise it simply wouldn't be something that my Verdant Feather Holy Lands would have been able to control.
"But the black bead was just the opposite of the Magic Cube. The black bead stirred up far too much interest and even set off a great war between Empyreans! Empyrean Primordius died because of this black bead and his plans of forming his own Samsara Heavenly Dao also failed, coming to nothing. The Magic Cube arrived at the Sky Spill Continent's world because of the black bead, and afterwards it was accidentally obtained by you. Even though us supporting each other in this journey might seem to be a coincidence, the truth is that this is all a part of karma!
"This is because the karma and samsara between you and me was already settled 100,000 years ago when my grandfather obtained the Magic Cube!"
Mo Eversnow slowly spoke her own speculations, causing Lin Ming to be surprised. When he was wholeheartedly crossing heavenly tribulation there had been no time for him to think of these matters. But now it seemed that everything Mo Eversnow said had a high chance of being true. Otherwise, why would the Magic Cube break through the space barrier that divided the Divine Realm and lower realms, finally arriving at Lin Ming's world? This space barrier wasn't easy to break at all, moreover there were over a billion boundless worlds just like the Sky Spill Continent's world, so why would it choose that one specifically?
In fact, it was reasonable to say that with a billion boundless worlds, the chances of the Magic Cube choosing any one of them was one in a billion. But, this was not a coincidence. This was because the world that the Magic Cube chose possessed the Eternal Demon Abyss, Empyrean Primordius, and the corpse of the goddess. These were things that should not be found at a world of the lower realms.
There must have been some unknown relations between all of this. But, most of what Mo Eversnow said should have been right.
The current question was what were these three objects? How did they appear? And why did they appear?
As Lin Ming was thinking this, Mo Eversnow said, "Lin Ming, I also have another speculation. Think about it. Although the Magic Cube has a strange origin and we do not know its exact functions, we can confirm that it is a treasure related to the soul. As for that black bead, according to what you said, it was a flesh and blood existence that seemed to have its own life. It should be a flesh and blood related treasure.
"We can also see this point from Empyrean Primordius. Although I can't say for certain whether or not Empyrean Primordius dual cultivated in body and energy, if he only cultivated the essence gathering system then the strength of his mortal body would be limited even if he was an extreme Empyrean. But, the mortal body of Empyrean Primordius was strong to an incredible degree. His body was so powerful that he could rip out his heart and place it in the body of the goddess where it would continue beating on for 100, 100,000 years without end, perfectly maintaining her youthful vitality. Just this is strong evidence that the black bead is a flesh and blood treasure!
"There is also you! At the final heavenly tribulation when you were about to be crushed to death, you relied on this black bead to instantly regenerate your flesh and blood. This sort of miraculous effect is something that not even a transcendent divine pill could accomplish!
"Then, the Magic Cube is the soul, which is the 'divine' of essence, energy, and divine. As for that black bead, that is the flesh and blood, which is also the 'essence' of essence, energy, and divine. Then, that third card-like object should be 'energy' of essence, energy, and divine. It should be a treasure that controls energy!"
Lin Ming couldn't help but admire Mo Eversnow's sharp mind. She had extrapolated all of these guesses from the little bits of information available to her. Moreover, 80-90% of these guesses were likely true.
Lin Ming calmed his mind and thought for a moment. He swept his mind through his body, trying to investigate the existence of that black bead. But after sweeping through his body, he was a bit dazed. He said, "Miss Mo, what you said indeed sounds real. But, you might be a bit mistaken about that black bead."
Lin Ming shook his head. Although that black bead was incomparably precious, it still wasn't something similar to the Magic Cube. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to suck away a third of its power.
Chapter 1133 – Divide
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At this time, the Magic Cube had shifted to Lin Ming's dantian. After crossing Ninefall, there was clearly some tremendous change that occurred in his dantian.
His dantian had become larger and the revolving core crystal nucleus became smaller. All around the revolving core crystal nucleus there was slight spatial warping, and a light fog floated around it. This fog was a bit similar to elementary grandmist energy.
Strictly speaking, his was no longer a revolving core crystal nucleus but a world seed.
At the formation of the universe, what happened was that all of the grandmist energy gathered into a singularity. This singularity constantly absorbed energy, compressing it over and over again, and when that energy reached the limit it would erupt!
After erupting, the energy would cool down, forming space, time, yin and yang, the five elements, and finally evolving into all of life.
This was the so-called great eruption of the universe. The Divine Realm's 3000 great worlds and the lower realm's billion boundless worlds, all of these were formed after this explosion. And before this explosion, neither time nor space existed.
And a martial artist's cultivation process was similar to this great eruption.
The human body was a small universe!
The evolution of the human body could be reflected in the great universe.
From the start, a martial artist constantly accumulated energy in their dantian. From the Pulse Condensation realm, that process symbolized the true beginning of the essence gathering system. At that time, a martial artist's true essence would flow through their meridians and into their dantian. Afterwards, true essence would gather in their dantian and form streams there; this was the Houtian realm.
Then, true essence would condense into a cyclone, bringing with it the rules of revolution; this was the Xiantian realm. At the Revolving Core realm, true essence would finally compress into a revolving core crystal nucleus. This crystal nucleus would continually grow, compress, and then grow… again and again, energy would converge, just like the energy that gathered before the eruption of the universe.
A martial artist with a deep foundation could even form a black hole revolving core that was similar to the singularity that erupted into the universe.
Afterwards, the revolving core crystal nucleus would have to undergo nine baptisms of Life Destruction, preparing the martial artist's body for the final Nine Divine Shifts.
After Ninefall, the revolving core crystal nucleus would evolve into a world seed. In the future, this world seed would explode and form the inner world.
Lin Ming's current dantian was a bit dissimilar from other martial artists'. Not only was there the world seed but there was also the Heretical God Seedling as well as a square black crystal that floated there; this was the Magic Cube.
This was the first time that the Magic Cube had condensed into a physical form. Before now, Lin Ming had only been able to sense the Magic Cube with Mo Eversnow's help. He only knew that it had become a seal that fell onto his heart. But now, it had shifted to his dantian and condensed a physical form, even pushing aside the Heretical God Seedling.
That black bead that had been swallowed up by him was now located within the Magic Cube space.
When Lin Ming investigated the black bead, he discovered that there were some significant changes to it.
"Miss Mo, this black bead is definitely not a treasure similar to the Magic Cube. This is because… I found it within the Magic Cube space and a third of its strength has been absorbed by me already. Whether it is its weight or aura, it's weakened a great deal…"
Lin Ming felt some regret. He certainly hoped that he could acquire another treasure on the same level as the Magic Cube. After all, that was a divine object that even an Empyrean would risk their life for.
But only like this was such a treasure rare!
For him to obtain the Mag Magic Cube could already be considered a favor from heaven. If he obtained a similar treasure without going through many more twists and turns, suffering great difficulties along the way, then the chances were somewhat slim.
"Mm?" Mo Eversnow frowned. Were her speculations wrong?
Lin Ming continued to speak. "But, I don't think that Miss Mo's guesses were wrong, otherwise there are far too many things that could not be explained. For instance, why the Magic Cube would choose to land at the Sky Spill Continent and also why Empyrean Primordius would choose to go to the Sky Spill Continent, a world of the lower realms. Also, just why were so many peak existences of the Divine Realm attracted there?
"If all of these are coincidences then that is too forced. It might be that the reason Empyrean Primordius perished was that black bead, and his body was also so formidable because of that black bead. But as for that black bead I swallowed…"
As Lin Ming spoke he turned his hand, directly taking out the black bead into his palm. It really was as Lin Ming said; the black bead had reduced by a third in volume and weight.
"If we call that black bead the Demon Bead, then this black bead in my hand can be considered a replica of the Demon Bead. It might even be something made from the Demon Bead… but, the true Demon Bead might still be within the Sky Spill Continent's Eternal Demon Abyss! It's likely located at the bottom of Empyrean Primordius's force field protections!"
As Lin Ming spoke, Mo Eversnow's heart was stirred. She even thought of immediately returning to the Eternal Demon Abyss and investigating what was inside. However, she tamped down that thought just as quickly. The Eternal Demon Abyss was an ancient ruin left behind by an Empyrean. Even if Lin Ming was powerful, entering the Eternal Demon Abyss was a true disaster. It had to be known that it was an absolute life forbidden zone that contained a force field left behind by an Empyrean.
After Empyrean Primordius fell in the past, he certainly wouldn't hope that his inheritances would fall into the hands of his enemies. The arrangements he laid down in the past were likely no trifling matter. If she still had her mortal body then she might have gone, but now she likely wouldn't be able to do anything at all.
"It looks like… it won't be too long until we return to the Sky Spill Continent once more." Mo Eversnow thoughtfully said.
"Mm…" Lin Ming nodded. Even if the Demon Bead wasn't there, he would still want to go back. That was where his wives and parents were.
"Lin Ming, come with me to say goodbye to Aunty. Then we'll go to the True Martial Great World to pick up a few things…"
"What things?"
"The jade slip for the Celestial Tyrant Manual as well as some wealth left behind by the Verdant Feather Hold Lands. But unfortunately, when the Verdant Feather Holy Lands was destroyed, the incomplete ruined half of the transcendent divine might possessed by the Verdant Feather Holy Lands was stolen by Tian Mingzi! Although I also cultivated it, now that my body is destroyed I can no longer reproduce its mysteries. In truth, even if I still had my body I still wouldn't be able to engrave that transcendent divine might. A transcendent divine might is something that surpasses the Heavenly Dao; no one ordinary can produce a copy."
In the past the Verdant Feather Holy Lands was a World King Level Holy Land. And, the old Holy Lord was also a Great World King. It was reasonable that they would possess an incomplete transcendent divine might.
A full and complete transcendent divine might was extremely rare. This was because a transcendent divine might jade slip was basically only able to be produced by an Empyrean. If their descendants didn't reach a boundary nearing an Empyrean then they would not be able to make a duplicate of that jade slip. This was why transcendent divine mights were so rare; they were basically unique treasures. After one was born, it would exist onwards for
hundreds of millions or even billions of years. During this time, these jade slips could fan the endless flames of war, causing endless struggles, spilled blood, and slaughter all in their name.
To obtain a complete transcendent divine might was beyond difficult. For a World King level Holy Land like the Verdant Feather Holy Lands to possess half a transcendent divine might was already very rare!
Transcendent divine might…
Lin Ming took a light breath. In all these years of fighting and growth, and also in crossing that heavenly tribulation, he was able to deeply feel just how great a role a transcendent divine might played!
The Heretical God Force and Heavenly Demon force field were two sets of transcendent divine mights. They had brought far too many advantages to Lin Ming. There was no need to mention the Heretical God Force; Lin Ming's main strength came from the fire and thunder that was originally gifted to him by the Heretical God Force. As for the Heavenly Demon force field, that was Lin Ming's greatest master ability in combat.
At Lin Ming's current boundary, ordinary cultivation methods no longer held an attraction to him. He had already perused through the memories of normal Divine Realm powerhouses from the Magic Cube, and had too many things he didn't need. What he needed now were transcendent divine mights!
The longer this type of cultivation method was practiced for, the greater the advantages were! The more one could control the power of the Heavenly Dao, the stronger they would become!
Unconsciously, after crossing Ninefall and surviving heavenly tribulation, Lin Ming no longer simply referenced and borrowed the power of the Heavenly Dao. What he did now was to manipulate it and control it!
"If I want to obtain this incomplete transcendent divine might then I can only do so by defeating Tian Mingzi!" Lin Ming clenched his fists. Tian Mingzi was the first truly powerful opponent he would encounter since entering the Divine Realm. Tian Mingzi was so powerful that it was almost impossible to look up to him, as if he were some kind of unreachable peak. But, Lin Ming's road of martial arts involved conquering peak after peak after peak!
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As Lin Ming and Mo Eversnow were talking, a special Council of Elders was being held in Carefree Palace.
The reason this Council of Elders was so unique was because the way it was held surpassed everyone's expectations.
At this time, outside of a minor dimension's space barrier, six or seven Elders were gathered. White Brook and Xiao Haogan were among them, and their faces were particularly ugly!
They had already guessed that Mo Riverbliss was planning to aim at them during this Council of Elders, but they weren't afraid. The only problems they had with Mo Riverbliss were normal conflicts of authority and struggles over power. Although everyone knew what they were thinking, they had never violated sect rules nor had they randomly killed or caused chaos. If Mo Riverbliss wanted to deal with them then she would find it difficult to convince others.
But, they never imagined that Mo Riverbliss would take on such a way to hold a council.
They were all divided into groups and then summoned in one at a time!
If this was a normal meeting, then everyone would be together in the same place, and everyone would also be cautious about their words. But now, no matter what one said, the only other person who would know would be Mo Riverbliss!
In this way, everyone would worry about what others said about them. If one said something weird, wouldn't that leave a bad impression of them on Mo Riverbliss?
It had to be known that at the very start, Mo Riverbliss was only an outsider in the hearts of these Elders. Even if she controlled Carefree Palace and had overwhelming strength, everybody was dissatisfied with her in their hearts. If Mo Riverbliss called them in one at a time and asked them for their secrets, no one would speak of them.
But now was different.
Lin Ming had cros 33 Layered Heavens and a nine by nine Life Destruction. There was an extremely high possibility that he would become a Great World King in the future. It could even be said that Carefree Island's very destiny and existence were now closely tied to Lin Ming's future achievements. If he succeeded, they could even become a World King level Holy Land! If they were able to catch a ride on this invincible juggernaut, then even eating just a little bit of the soup would bring infinite benefits.
And someone like Lin Ming was clearly obsessed with cultivation and training and didn't care too much about political wrangling. Thus, the truth was that the real control of Carefree Island was held by Mo Riverbliss!
If they could curry favor with Mo Riverbliss then their future would know no limit. But if they offended Mo Riverbliss, their future would be sad indeed.
Without noticing it, Mo Riverbliss had used a little method to split up all those Elders that had been in step with each other. How could White Brook still feel at ease with all this?