Chapter 1673 – Completion Percent
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At this time, in front of Lin Ming and his group, four dark gold skeletons appeared.
Each skeleton was filled with a tyrannical and horrifying aura. The void of their sockets shined with a dark reddish black light and they held blood-rusted bone knives in their hands.
With a simple slash, even the void was split asunder. A space storm formed, sweeping towards Fanny Fafa.
This sudden change caught Fanny Fafa by surprise. He released countless milky white threads of spiritual strength that condensed in the air like iron, forming layers and layers around his body.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The barrier of spiritual strength collided with these bone knives that had torn apart space. A grating metallic sound filled the air as sparks flew out.
At this time, Lin Ming's figure flushed forwards. With a rumbling sound his fist crashed into the skull of one of the skeletons.
After breaking into the Heavenly Retribution Dao Palace, a single wave of his hand could summon 10 billion jins of strength. Even an ancient vicious beast would have been ripped asunder.
Dong - !
As the fist came crashing down, the air blocking its path was squeezed so hard that it became like iron, solidly forming a column of air.
The incomparably tough bones shattered like tofu. Soon after, a second fist came smashing out, even extinguishing the dark ruby flames in the sockets of the skeleton.
Soon after, the Phoenix Blood Spear came thrusting out. In the blink of an eye, thousands upon thousands of spear strikes pierced out, each spear bringing with it enough strength to crush a planet. The bones they struck were directly blown away.
At this time, Mo Brightmoon also attacked. Her fingers waved and a strange crescent moon-shaped rune appeared atop her fingertips. The rune slashed out into the wind, breaking through the void, the enormous pressure imprisoning a skeleton.
With a loud shout, the crescent moon rune shined with an incandescent brilliance. The sharp blade of the rune tore through the skeleton, the slicing maelstrom of energy turning it into powder.
Thousand Slaughter's figure flashed and he disappeared like gods and ghosts, immediately reappearing behind another skeleton warrior. His golden saber was able to find the weakness of the skeleton warriors in a single stroke – the little wisp of will hidden deep in its body.
The deep black aura of a taotie sparked and an immense swallowing force spread out, swallowing up that wisp of will.
The skeleton warrior's body immediately disintegrated, vanishing into the wind.
The entire process lasted only several breaths of time.
The four skeleton warriors were destroyed and the space in front of the group began to peel apart, breaking down. Jet black runes began to scatter out.
Those distant mountain peaks and the raging black rivers all vanished from sight.
The surroundings also began to dim down.
The boundless death energy and cold yin energy around them suddenly surrounded them from all directions.
Beneath their feet, they were stepping on seals designed in the images of different kinds of vicious beast, some of them still glowing with a strange and fantastic light.
The entire atmosphere became grim and gloomy.
"This sort of place…" Looking at the pitch black darkness in front of them that seemed to have no end, Xiao Moxian immediately lit a little flame.
Light spread out, scattering all the shadows.
Everyone was startled. They could see that in front of them was a vast tunnel extending to forever, one with scattered skeletons lying all around it.
Each skeleton glowed with its own color. Some were dark gold and some were purple gold.
The purer gold-colored the skeletons, the thicker the death energy emanating from them.
"This should be an ancient grave…" Lin Ming slowly said as he looked at the various sacrificial patterns engraved upon the walls.
"Those mountain peaks and rivers, they should have been an illusion…" Fanny Fafa frowned; he had been completely unable to see through the illusion. Luckily, the golden skeletons weren't too strong. If they were comparable to a World King, then the battle just now would have been dangerous.
"There are hidden spatial array formations everywhere – do not act rashly. A moment ago, you touched an array formation that transmitted us here." Lin Ming calmly judged the situation.
Now, he finally knew why he had a restless feeling ever since he arrived.
This was because he discovered that everywhere here vaguely conformed to the Asura Heavenly Dao Laws. Moreover, he didn't understand many of the Laws here.
These Laws were closely related to the array formations arranged all over this place. If they were even slightly touched, there would be tremendous problems.
Everyone felt a chill crawl up their backs as they heard Lin Ming speak. If there were array formation traps everywhere then they had to be especially careful as they walked forwards.
However, the Lin Ming standing in front of them seemed to have some strange ability to sense these array formations, as if he had some safeguard against them…
Fanny Fafa and Thousand Slaughter couldn't help but look towards Lin Ming. Although they didn't want to admit it, they had to. This young divine runic master who invented the 'Lin' divine runic symbols was far different from any other divine runic master they had encountered.
"Follow close behind me and pay careful attention to my steps. This array formation… I've seen it in an ancient text before…"
Lin Ming thoughtlessly came up with a reason. Although the others felt that this so-called 'ancient text' that Lin Ming spoke of was a bit odd, at this time they had no reason to doubt him.
Sensing the strange array formation rules around him and also fusing in the power of the Asura Heavenly Dao and the power of illusions, Lin Ming led the way for the group.
After all, his comprehensions of the Asura Heavenly Dao Laws became increasingly profound with every year. Using these comprehensions he was able to break through some of these array formation traps.
Thousand Slaughter followed close behind Lin Ming, maintaining full vigilance of his surroundings even as he guarded Lin Ming's rear. In this final trial, only perfect cooperation would allow them to go further.
Mo Brightmoon was originally an outstanding killer. A crescent moon-shaped ring appeared on her hand, sparkling with light and emitting traces of spiritual energy that seemed to cut through the void. It was clear that this was a powerful spirit treasure.
As the group followed close behind Lin Ming, they carefully made their way through the tunnel.
As they walked forwards, by relying on Lin Ming's exceptional senses, they were able to discover and avoid several strange space traps.
The pitch black and gloomy road was filled with a pervasive death energy that lingered about.
In the tunnel, the fierce cracks and bloodstains covered the walls. The bloodstains had already dried up and were difficult to discern.
It was clear that they had originated from countless years ago. It was unknown just how many times fierce life or death battles had been fought in this tunnel.
Kacha –
After some time, at a wall in front of them not too far away, an unusual sound echoed out.
There was an extremely strange image on this wall.
The image was painted with a special kind of liquid and was over 30 feet tall. The image showed several demonic beings, all of them with two horns and cruel crimson fangs. This was an image of man-eating fierce ghosts.
Although this was a mere painting, Lin Ming didn't know why but he felt the crimson-eyed fierce ghosts were looking at them, their eyes blazing with green.
"Sir Lin?" Fanny Fafa suddenly asked.
Lin Ming thought for a moment, looking at the fierce ghost drawing in front of him. The Asura Road Master's methods were beyond mortal comprehension. In this final trial, any strange and unusual matter could occur.
Lin Ming and Fanny Fafa could both feel something off with the painting. And as they were looking carefully at it, the panting began to slowly move towards them.
It drew closer and closer.
Everyone raised their guard.
Puff! Puff!
Suddenly, a terrifying black energy burst out from the fierce ghost drawing. Then, the group of demonic fierce ghosts actually leapt out from the drawing.
The air was immediately filled with the thick and pungent scent of blood.
At this time, from the walls around and above them… fierce ghosts popped out from all directions, immediately surrounding Lin Ming, Mo Brightmoon, and everyone else.
Originally they thought there were only several fierce ghosts but there were actually far more than they imagined. Moreover, the way they hid themselves surprised Lin Ming.
Of course, this was only surprise.
The power of the Heretical God Tree began to crazily swell up from within Lin Ming. A bolt of lightning shot out from Lin Ming's palm, rumbling into the fierce ghosts and blowing up a good number of them.
At this time, the crescent moon ring on Mo Brightmoon's hand also emitted a brilliant cyan light.
Each beam of cyan light emitted crackling sounds in the air. As they struck the fierce ghosts, they emitted heaven-shaking explosive sounds.
Fanny Fafa flung his voluminous sleeves forwards. Like a sharp blade, a beam of energy cleaved ahead, sweeping out. As this beam of energy struck the fierce ghosts they were cut in half…
After a moment of chaos, the tunnel was suddenly peaceful. The drawing of fierce ghosts and the blood red lights in their eyes had dimmed down.
"Let's go."
Lin Ming rushed ahead, deeper into the tunnel.
Along the way, the group encountered several more waves of danger. But before each battle, Lin Ming was always able to sense it happening and would promptly warn the group.
All of these traps and hidden attacks that were originally impossible to guard against suddenly became far less dangerous.
And, the power of these sneak attacks was inferior to the squad of five. None of them thought that there were any difficulties in the first level of the trial.
But, what they didn't know was that in other places, there were some weaker squads that were finding it extremely difficult to move forwards. They were given headaches by the illusion array formations here, and some of them had even suffered casualties.
Hu - !
After chopping down a giant-sized bloated corpse, Lin Ming's palms tingled with numbness. Beside him, Thousand Slaughter and Fanny Fafa were also gasping for breath in great heaving gulps.
They moved forward faster and faster, and the things they met became increasingly dangerous.
Just now they finished dealing with a wave of corpses summoned by an array formation. This attack nearly caused some of them to be injured.
However, luckily Lin Ming's body was incredibly tough and Fanny Fafa also had a strange supernatural talent that allowed him to imprison his opponents with spiritual power.
With these two abilities, it became much easier for them to deal with these brainless corpses.
Woong – Woong – Woong –
Suddenly, the sound of crashing tides appeared from not too far away.
Everyone look forwards to see a black vortex of energy appear in front of them, just like when they first entered the final trial.
As everyone saw this they were overjoyed. This must be the entrance leading from the first level to the second level!
Everyone quickly leapt forwards.
Within this vortex of energy, there was also a wild flow of energy. But with the experiences of the past, none of them were affected at all by it.
As the waves of energy flowed over Lin Ming, he felt something strange in his mind.
Final trial, completion rate – 20%
Chapter 1674 – Sinister Tricks
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Completion, 20%?
Lin Ming perked up and looked towards everyone else. At this time, Mo Brightmoon, Fanny Fafa, and the others were also looking at Lin Ming. It was clear that they also received the information on their completion percentage.
"20%, you?" Lin Ming asked.
"The same."
Mo Brightmoon and the others glanced at each other. This completion percentage was better than they had anticipated. After all, when walking all the way here the truth was that they hadn't encountered any true dangers at all.
"The completion percentage should be more difficult the later it is. After 80%, it is likely that every point will be more difficult than the last. Our current completion percentage isn't strange at all."
"Let's go."
Ho - !
The group finally emerged from the endless wild flow of energy and landed on the ground.
Here, dark winds howled, carrying with them a dry and desolate aura as they swept over the scattered gravel on the ground.
The sky in front of them was unusually high, as blue and transparent as sapphires.
In the far off distance, the shapes of the mountains were vague, resembling the outline of some sleeping great beast.
Beneath their feet was a vast rough land of sand and stone. Thick weeds grew up periodically, many patches as high as a person. There were only several ghostly-looking trees scattered around; the plant life here was sparse.
This was a windswept wilderness, bleak and dreary.
"This is the second level, right?" Xiao Moxian flew up into the skies a little, looking around before falling down next to Lin Ming.
Lin Ming thought for a moment. He didn't know just how many levels the final trial had. Now that he came here himself, the first few layers weren't too dangerous at all.
"Don't worry, let's rest up first."
Lin Ming proposed. According to what he knew, the final trial would likely last for several years. Now that everyone had just passed the first level, they had inevitably consumed some of their energy. Since they didn't know what the second floor was going to be like, they might as well stay here and adjust themselves to their peak condition. This was the safest plan of action.
As Lin Ming spoke, Mo Brightmoon and the others sat in meditation. Without noticing it, Lin Ming had already become the core of the team. On the first level of the smelting trial, everyone had been able to witness Lin Ming's performance with their own eyes so they naturally listened to his opinion.
However, before the group had meditated for long, a sudden sad and high-pitched scream echoed out from the south of the wilderness.
"Mm?"
Lin Ming frowned. Someone was here!?
In the first level, they had touched a space trap and were transported somewhere else. After that, they hadn't met any other groups; it was likely they had been cut off from the other groups. But here in the world of the second level, this place was vast and boundless; perhaps there were other squads here.
Should they go and investigate the source of that sad scream?
The other people glanced at each other before looking towards Lin Ming, wanting to solicit his opinion.
If they went to investigate what happened, it was likely they would encounter some dangers.
"Let's go take a look. But be a bit more careful. If there's anything wrong then we'll flee at once." Lin Ming succinctly stated.
Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!
The group of people rushed towards the direction of the scream like bolts of lightning.
The group fell onto a barren rocky hill a few miles away, looking towards the area that the horrible scream came from.
Lin Ming's vision was as sharp as an eagle's. With one glance he could see a gaping cave going into the ground, one that was covered with a giant bloodstain.
The blood was fresh and hadn't yet coagulated. Besides that, there weren't any other clues as to what happened.
It was clear that some macabre death had just occurred here.
At this time, from different directions in the distance, there were the deafening sounds of a sonic boom.
Lin Ming and the others felt their minds chill. They all restrained their auras together.
A milky white spiritual strength emerged from Fanny Fafa's hands, cutting through the air and thoroughly covering the group's auras.
Lin Ming couldn't help but be curious about this milky white spiritual strength. This sort of strange spiritual strength seemed to be Fanny Fafa's supernatural talent. It was an extremely strange and complex ability. He really had no idea just what cultivation method Fanny Fafa practiced.
"Fourth Junior-apprentice Brother's soul lamp has been extinguished and his wisp of soul disappeared here. That bloodstain's aura also belongs to Junior-apprentice Brother. Where is he? Could there be something strange in that cave?"
Both of the two people that flew over were tall and vigorous-looking. One of them was covered with transparent raging flames. These flames exuded a powerful momentum that surrounded the cave with the bloodstain.
The other person held a strange divine runic symbol in their hands.
As the divine runic symbol appeared, it emitted a pitch black fire energy.
"Big Brother Lin, that fellow is using the divine runic symbol you created!" Xiao Moxian whispered to Lin Ming as if she had discovered the funniest thing in the world. Her eyes were locked onto the divine runic symbol in the person's hand.
Lin Ming's vision was keen. He was immediately able to see the 'Lin' character marking the bottom right of the divine runic symbol. Indeed, it was one of the Lin logo divine runic symbols, and also the extremely expensive Heavenly Fire Symbol too. He couldn't help but smile a little upon seeing this.
It seemed that these Lin logo divine runic symbols had spread to the upper levels of the Asura Road. The one who bought the Heavenly Fire Symbols was Empyrean Lionheart, but Empyrean Lionheart's sect wasn't experiencing war anytime soon, so it was possible for them to sell a portion of the divine runic symbols to others.
Then again, Lin Ming had produced just over a thousand of these specialized fifth grade divine runic symbols. If a person was able to possess one then they should have some status in their large influence, otherwise it simply wouldn't be their turn to wield it.
Rumble rumble rumble! The divine runic symbol smashed into the cave tunnels.
There was a continuous blast of explosions echoing from within. Flames soared to the heavens and all of the soil and rock around the cave was instantly melted by the high temperatures.
Sharp shrieks sounded out. A number of figures fled from the burning cave, their bodies blackened. These creatures had thick tails extending from their backs and had bodies similar to a person's, but their appearance was like a beast.
As these strange beast creatures appeared, runes began to shine on their foreheads. They rushed towards the person that used the Heavenly Fire Symbol, a beam of black lightning shooting out from between their eyebrows towards the two people.
"Shit!"
The trial challenger who held the Lin symbol was angered. Just as he was about to use the Heavenly Fire Symbol in his hand yet again, his companion stopped him. "Don't be in a hurry, we must save it."
The fierceness of the Heavenly Fire Symbol lay in the fact that even if a martial artist were at their weakest state, completely exhausted of strength, usi
using the Heavenly Fire Symbol would still result in an all-out attack that remained the same no matter what condition the martial artist was in.
They definitely had to save this divine runic symbol as much as they could to use in critical moments to preserve their lives.
Bang!
With an explosive sound, the black light emitted by the monsters fell onto the ground, causing a dreadful eruption of power.
And as this violent fluctuation of energy shook the mountain, more and more monsters began emerging from all over!
The aura of these monsters was actually at the peak Holy Lord realm! One or two of these monsters wasn't scary, but with dozens of them gathered together, that was truly horrifying!
In particular, the black light these monsters shot out could gather together and produce an effect of locking down space. These black lights were like a giant spider web, making it so that the two martial artists couldn't escape even if they wanted to.
"We must last until Senior-apprentice Brother arrives!"
Even facing such a dangerous situation, the disciple who spoke wasn't afraid at all. Rather, he put forth over 10 array discs and used these array discs to battle these monsters.
As for his companion, he wasn't weak either. He pulled out his sword, displaying fierce and swift sword skills, perfectly coordinating his attacks!
It was clear that those people who had the qualifications to enter the final trial were all extraordinary.
At this time, a keening howl echoed out, as if something was flying towards them and tearing apart the atmosphere as it did. The two martial artists turned and were immediately overjoyed. "Senior-apprentice Brother has arrived!"
Lin Ming and the others turned towards the sound and saw someone rapidly flying towards them. Lin Ming frowned as he did. Really, enemies crossed paths far too often. This person was none other than Duke Fullmoon!
After entering the final trial's first level, because they triggered trap array formations, the disciples of Divine Void Divine Kingdom were transmitted to separate areas. But they were truly incredible individuals. Even though they were split apart they were able to pass the first level of the trial and arrive at the second level.
As soon as they entered the second level they were able to use all sorts of methods to contact their companions. The two disciples who were surrounded by the monsters were subordinates of Divine Void Divine Kingdom's Nine Nether Province; they were fellow disciples of Duke Fullmoon.
"It's that fellow again, he keeps on haunting us like ghosts!" Xiao Moxian gnashed her teeth, thinking over multiple ways she could try to put Duke Fullmoon to death in this final trial mystic realm.
"Senior-apprentice Brother!" As the two disciples were overjoyed, at this time, some of the monsters that surrounded them began rushing towards Duke Fullmoon!
These monsters were all bloodthirsty to the point of craziness. Before Duke Fullmoon attacked they had already taken the initiative!
"Che!"
Duke Fullmoon immediately slowed down before coming to a stop in the air. Face these twenty some monsters, he frowned, hesitating somewhat.
He could see that these monsters were difficult to deal with. Even for him, they would be a great deal of trouble.
He began considering whether or not acting to save these two junior-apprentice brothers would harm himself. If the risk was too great then he would rather turn tail and run.
But at this time, Duke Fullmoon discovered Lin Ming's existence.
Lin Ming and his group were far too obvious. In their haste when they rushed over they had only restrained their auras and hadn't set up a concealment array formation, thus Duke Fullmoon had detected them.
"It's you!?"
After noticing Lin Ming, Duke Fullmoon was stunned. He clearly didn't expect to see Lin Ming here.
In a spark of lightning, the 20 some monsters had already reached less than a thousand feet in front of Duke Fullmoon.
Duke Fullmoon maniacally grinned. "The road to heaven you choose not to walk, but the gates of hell you would rush through!"
Without further ado, Duke Fullmoon took these monsters chasing after him and rushed towards Lin Ming!
His plan was clear; it was to drag Lin Ming down with him and have him share in the pressure of dealing with these monsters.
If possible, he would even look for a chance to use these monsters to kill Lin Ming or at least severely wound him. At that time, although he might not be able to obtain Lin Ming's divine runic arts inheritances, he could still obtain the other secrets on his body.
"This damned bastard!"
Xiao Moxian was enraged. This Duke Fullmoon was cunning enough. The area he was flying in was from their rear; this just happened to trap Lin Ming and the others between the monsters!