Chapter 1814 – Blood Stains the Forest
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Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!
Although they were separated through the dense forest by a thousand feet, Lin Ming was still able to rely upon his sense to clearly see each martial artist that was rushing to his location. Most of them were spiritas but there were also a number of races he had never seen before.
In the next moment, a horrifying fluctuation of energy ravaged through the forest. Massive trees cracked apart and shattered. The surrounding dense forest was nearly flattened and all that was left over were rows of large stumps; the towering trees had all been sent flying away!
The newcomers had blown apart the forest. They were afraid Lin Ming would use the forest as cover to escape.
Shua! Shua! Shua!
Instantly, over 20 divine senses locked onto Lin Ming. Those that were able to reach this area did not possess low cultivations.
After all, the rumors said that Lin Ming had suppressed the Purple Chestnut King and was a genius in his own right.
"29 people…"
Lin Ming observed his situation. He drew out the Phoenix Blood Spear. With a keening cry, spear wind recklessly lashed out.
"Just turn into merit points already!"
Without further speaking, Lin Ming shot forwards!
His actions startled the 29 martial artists who had just arrived. What was happening here? They had so many people encircling him, so shouldn't this human be trying to run?
Yet not only had the human waited for them to arrive, but he even said he wanted to turn them into merit points; this was simply ridiculous.
"Attack! Get rid of this madman!"
"Kill him first. As for his treasures, those will belong to whoever has the ability to seize them!"
No one went easy on Lin Ming. Even though Lin Ming was a junior and most of the newcomers were middle aged men or even old men, none of them had the martial arts spirit of fighting one on one. After all, rumors said that Lin Ming could even suppress the Purple Chestnut King.
Piki paka!
Lin Ming emitted crackling sounds from all his joints. Nine stars appeared high in the skies, and three Dao Palaces shined brightly within him. His feet stepped on the ground and he rushed out.
His first target was a middle-aged man who had pushed his way to the front. Lin Ming could feel that this middle-aged man was the strongest of those present. This meant that before this middle-aged man's cultivation was suppressed by the Laws of the Akashic Dream Battlefield, his boundary might have been that of a World King.
The middle-aged man demonically grinned. He grasped a heavy sword and chopped. A dazzling sword light slashed out, tearing through the skies.
"Pathetic human, I'll chop off your head!"
The middle-aged man shouted out. But in the next moment, thunder and fire wove together into a sea of purple and red in front of him. With a loud rumbling explosion his sword light was swallowed up by the sea of energy and the power of thunder and fire detonated in front of him. He vomited a mouthful of blood and was sent flying away, his body charred completely black.
He had been violently and instantly killed!
"What!?"
The others didn't even have time to respond. At this moment, Lin Ming swept out the Phoenix Blood Spear, killing in a circle around him. Seven or eight people were brutally killed as their heads were sent soaring into the air, blood erupting from their severed necks like water fountains!
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A massive number of merit points flowed into Lin Ming's token. He felt his body heat up, as if he were stimulated by the intense smell of blood. Killing! Killing to his heart's content!
Then, Lin Ming realized that more and more people were catching up!
This was because the spirit race martial artist from before had cast out a signal flare, and this signal flare seemed to utilize a marvelous inscription technique. Before it dissipated it rose higher and higher into the air, turning brighter and brighter, catching the attention of more and more people.
This also meant more and more challengers were arriving.
The ruckus Lin Ming had stirred up in the Soul Cave was too great. In addition to the Purple Chestnut King deliberately spreading news of what happened, many people had learned of Lin Ming.
At this time, several dozen people had gathered. As they arrived, they witnessed with their own eyes as Lin Ming's spear totally annihilated everyone around him, cutting off the necks of seven or eight people and causing their blood to drench the world.
They naturally recognized Lin Ming's appearance; he was completely similar to the fireworks in the sky. This meant he was the human that had obtained the kirin fruit.
For a time, all of them were shocked speechless. They unconsciously slowed down, stopping several miles away and not daring to approach.
These people had only come here to adventure and temper themselves. They weren't too strong to begin with and didn't think they could obtain the kirin fruit anyway; they just wanted to join in on the liveliness. And as they arrived, they saw the scene of Lin Ming slaughtering everyone around him.
"That blue-robed old man who just died… isn't that the Blue Cloud Sect's Elder Bai… I remember he had a half-step World King cultivation…"
A martial artist who had just arrived trembled as he spoke, his voice faltering. He had extremely good eyesight and could clearly see that one of the heads that had been soaring into the air was that of the Blue Cloud Sect's Elder Bai. On the planet that the Blue Cloud Sect was located on, Elder Bai was absolutely an overlord of the land!
When Lin Ming had swept out his spear and killed so many people, they had subconsciously thought that he had only slain cannon fodder and useless minions. But now, it seemed that Lin Ming was actually slaying peerless powerhouses!
To Lin Ming, these peerless powerhouses were no different than chickens or dogs. He killed them by the batch.
This was just far too terrifying!
From what they could see, Lin Ming wasn't old at all, and even seemed to be younger than the Purple Chestnut King, so how could he be so strong?
And what was even more incredible was that he was a human.
In the Soul World, the human race that had been suppressed on all sides was synonymous with 'weak'.
"All of you, die."
Lin Ming attacked again and again, his speed as phantasmal as ghosts and gods. The 20 some martial artists that arrived were systematically killed by Lin Ming. Their heads were blown off or their hearts were pierced. Their blood rained down to the earth and their organs flew out!
Some people were scared silly and tried to run away.
However, Lin Ming simply stepped forwards and space shrank beneath his feet, instantly bringing him behind those that were running away. Without expression, he thrust out his spear!
Puff!
His spear pierced through a martial artist's chest, causing blood to fly out. Out of the 29 people, 22 of them had been killed already!
The remaining seven had ashen complexions. They all used their best techniques to flee this execution ground.
But at this time, a boundless force field covered the surrounding space, sealing all seven people within.
This was the grandmist force field.
The star-heavy grandmist energy immediately locked down their movements.
"Damn it all!"
"No!"
The seven people madly roared out. They attacked the grandmist space with everything they had, but all of their efforts failed.
They watched as Lin Ming's spear light was soon about to swallow them all up.
"Stop!"
At this time, someone shouted out loud as more and more martial artists arrived. Of these people, some shared the same types of robes that some of the seven soon-to-die martial artists wore. It was clear they originated from the same sect.
However, Lin Ming remained indifferent, completely disregarding this shout.
The Phoenix Blood Spear slashed out.
With a loud slicing sound, blood shot out. After Lin Ming swept out his spear, the seven people had all been cut in half at the waist.
"How vile!"
The dozen plus people who just arrived had uncertain and gloomy expressions. They hadn't figured out just what had happened yet, but as they looked at the scene around them they could see that Lin Ming had already killed many people!
Many of the dead had torn up corpses, their blood flowing out in streams.
Lin Ming's head immediately swiveled like a hawk spotting its prey, locking onto those people who had shouted out for him to stop just now.
As his eyes blazed at them, the courage of these people nearly broke apart. Just what kind of eyes were these? The killing intent and hostility gushing out from them was terrifying to behold, as if they were the eyes of a people-eating demon.
"We… should…"
Several of these dozen plus people already formed thoughts of drawing back and escaping. But at this time, Lin Ming was like a death reaper hunting the night. He stepped forwards, rushing towards these newcomers on his own initiative!
"It's too late! Attack!"
The dozen plus people were shocked. They all drew their weapons.
However, what they didn't notice was that just several miles away, those people that were too scared to do anything were looking at them with fear and pity in their eyes.
In the opinion of these distant people, these dozen plus newcomers were dead because they hadn't been here to see just how brutal Lin Ming had been in his actions, or how impossibly fierce he was. If gods stepped in his way he would kill gods, if buddhas blocked his path he would cut down buddhas!
The Blue Cloud Sect's Elder Bai was a half-step World King, and yet he had died no differently than some chicken, instantly killed where he had stood!
This was a horrifying demon. Anyone that dared to look down upon him with disdain just because he was a human would be killed until they couldn't die anymore.
It could be said that the moment those dozen plus people had shouted out 'stop', their destiny had been sealed – they would undoubtedly die!
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"Junior-apprentice Sister, there seem to be some signaling fireworks in the distance…"
On a vast grassland, a troop of several hundred people was crossing over mountains and rivers. After experiencing a war that had lasted for several months already, they were all exhausted.
These people all wore similar icy blue robes – they came from Zenith Palace.
Zenith Palace was only a World King influence and because their World Kings were far too old, it was impossible for them to make another breakthrough in their lifetimes. Thus, they didn't enter the Akashic Dream Battlefield.
The fiercest martial artists Zenith Palace were able to send to the Akashic Dream Battlefield were only several half-step World Kings. Thus, the disciples of Zenith Palace were aware of their own limits and didn't think about trying to wander their way into a danger zone like the Soul Cave.
They knew that with the abilities of Zenith Palace, entering such a place meant they would be eaten up without any bones remaining.
Chapter 1815 – Kill Them All
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Zenith Palace had extremely clear goals. The reason they came to the Akashic Dream Battlefield was to hunt down the trial challengers from some smaller influences and gather merit points so they could exchange them for sect rewards later.
Of course, if Zenith Palace obtained a high number of merit points then that would also be proof of their strength. At that time, Empyrean Heavencore would naturally bestow rewards upon them.
This was their final goal.
Now, after passing through several months of battle, Zenith Palace had already lost 40% of their disciples.
There were still more than two years remaining until this session of the Akashic Dream Battlefield ended and yet they had lost 40% of their disciples. This caused the Zenith Vice Palace Master to have a gloomy complexion for the last several days.
Their luck had been poor. As soon as they entered the Akashic Dream Battlefield they had run into several formidable opponents, and had suffered serious losses in the massive battles that occurred.
Without a choice, the Zenith Vice Palace Master was forced to divide the remaining sub 6000 disciples into groups depending on their strength. The strongest disciples were taken out and put together to form an elite squad. Like this, they wouldn't be burdened and their combat efficiency would also be higher.
Now, this squad of around a hundred people consisted of the outstanding elites from Zenith Palace. This included the Vice Palace Master, Jaderiver, Yi Fan, and many others.
Yi Fan was somber. Zenith Palace had met so many powerful enemies and lost so many disciples. To him, the reason they suffered so much must have been because Lin Ming had betrayed them and given out their information.
His speculations were all baseless, but the truth was that he didn't need proof nor did he need to find out whether or not this was truly Lin Ming's fault.
This was because Lin Ming had once beaten up Yi Fan under the gaze of everyone and this caused Yi Fan to hate Lin Ming to the core. Thus, he didn't mind taking advantage of this moment to make sure Lin Ming's name was pushed into the gutter.
Moreover, Lin Ming had quietly separated from the main group as soon as he had entered the Akashic Dream Battlefield and hadn't been seen since. This caused many people to suspect that Lin Ming was actually the 'spy'.
Lin Ming appearing at Zenith Palace was strange to begin with and he also came from some unknown origin. Above all, he was a human, someone that the spiritas would never consider one of their own!
For these past days, Yi Fan had constantly attacked Lin Ming. Due to this, Jaderiver also appeared ill. She was the one who had brought Lin Ming into Zenith Palace, so all of these accusations were the same as saying she had brought a traitor into their ranks.
Even so, Lin Ming's actions inevitably aroused Jaderiver's suspicions and she didn't have any energy or rationale to explain them.
In this situation, they continued passing through the barren mountains and rivers. The small influence that was Zenith Palace, who didn't know much of what was happening right now, suddenly saw the brilliant fireworks that stained the skies.
By the time they saw the fireworks, the fireworks had already risen up very high into the air and had spread far and wide. Anyone could make out that these fireworks were in the design of a person's face. As for who this face belonged to, they weren't able to immediately distinguish.
"What is happening up there? Should we go take a look?"
A disciple suddenly proposed.
Jaderiver frowned. She didn't want to cause any problems, but as she looked at the face in the far off fireworks, a familiar feeling came to her.
"How come this face looks a little like… Lin Muk?"
Jaderiver muttered to herself with doubts in her heart.
The Vice Palace Master shook his head, "It should only be a coincidence that they look alike. There is no reason that Lin Muk would have someone cast a sig signal flare into the sky because of him. This sort of signal flare is activated with inscription techniques and it is considerably difficult to create as well as prohibitively expensive. The signal can spread to a wide range and the one launching it should be someone from a large influence. As for the person depicted by the signal flare, it should be one of their most wanted criminals…"
The Vice Palace Master explained. In his opinion, if a large influence were to place a bounty on someone and in this manner, that person was likely some extraordinary figure. No one in the ranks of their Zenith Palace was capable of receiving such treatment.
"Bounty? Now that Vice Palace Master says that, I actually recall something. Just several days ago, the spirit race was issuing out news that they had placed a bounty on someone, and this person seemed to have stolen some sort of precious spirit medicine from the Soul Cave and caused an uproar in the Akashic Dream Battlefield."
Although Zenith Palace had been engaging in guerrilla warfare in the wild mountains and plains for these past several months, because they had many people there were always some disciples that managed to obtain news passing through the Akashic Dream Battlefield.
"Oh? Precious spirit medicine…"
The Vice Palace Master's thoughts stirred. He glanced at the other high level figures from Zenith Palace and then finally said, "Let's go take a look from afar and see what the situation is like. If there is any danger then we'll immediately leave."
In the Akashic Dream Battlefield, many people had the same idea as Zenith Palace.
Their total war strength was weak so it was impossible for them to even think of obtaining some top spirit medicine that could tempt an Empyrean or even a True Divinity.
They only wanted to join in on the fun and see just what was happening.
Of course, there were also some people hoping to come and pick up some easy advantages. They didn't think they could obtain these precious spirit medicines, but if they ran into any corpses of powerhouses they would be satisfied with sifting through them.
Thus, underneath the incitement of the great fireworks in the sky, more and more martial artists arrived at the razed forest area.
These people only stood at a distance, not daring to go forwards.
And at this time, in a giant circle that everyone was standing on the side of, the center was filled with countless scattered bodies.
Every corpse was mutilated and torn apart; their deaths had been miserable.
Because there were too many martial artists that had come, the corpses formed a thick layer over the ground!
Their blood had gathered into flowing streams. As for Lin Ming, he grasped his spear and floated in the air above the pile of corpses. Killing intent surged out from his body, making him seem like an unrivalled asura!
His merit points had already reached 10 billion!
Of course, these merit points had to be divided by his age. In truth, he had less than a hundred million. With this amount he couldn't even exchange for a tenth of the golden page.
From this alone it could be seen how difficult it was to obtain a golden page!
Woosh!
At this time, Lin Ming hurtled forwards. He rushed in a direction and swung his spear. Spear light swept out and a divine brilliance radiated into the skies. Several heads immediately rolled to the ground!
"You!!"
The companions of these dead people were enraged. They had originally come to steal the precious spirit medicine, but the Lin Ming in their eyes was far too ferocious; they didn't dare to attack him. They only watched from a far off distance as spectators, but even so they never imagined that they would be sucked into this mess!
"Why do you kill us?!"
Someone angrily shouted, unable to do anything to Lin Ming.
"Those who kill should expect to be killed. You cannot hide your killing intent so don't bother making excuses about your intentions!"
As Lin Ming spoke, the grandmist force field came shrouding down. The entire group fell to the ground, completely trapped in this force field!
For a time, blood red light flashed in the air as howls and screams filled the force field. No one was able to contend with Lin Ming!
This wasn't even a battle but a massacre. The disparity was too great!
The surrounding martial artists saw the bloody lights flashing in the force field and felt a cold chill crawl down their backs. They had all heard Lin Ming speak. Lin Ming had sensed that those people had thoughts of killing him, thus he attacked them.
This was what he meant when he said those who kill should expect to be killed.
In other words, even though Lin Ming was engaged in a titanic battle that had continued for a long time, his sense had already thoroughly locked onto everyone nearby. None of their movements had escaped his eyes!
Just how terrifying was that!?
"Run!"
Some people who held killing intent towards Lin Ming immediately began to run away. Their confidence had utterly collapsed!
But at this time, Lin Ming flicked his fingers. Spear lights shot out and a massive number of martial artists were pierced to death!
This moment had become their lives' most unforgettable scene!
They had encountered a demon, a demon who they had no strength to resist!
A tremendous number of merit points merged into Lin Ming's token. Lin Ming felt the token in his inner world heat up, as if it would start to combust on its own.
This was a situation that rarely appeared in the past, where one's merit points increased so dramatically and rapidly!
It had to be known that the people Lin Ming killed were not weak. Besides the merit points that they had themselves, they also had merit points they plundered after killing others.
Now, all of their points belonged to Lin Ming.
At this time, from outside the completely unrecognizable jungle, the sound of rustling footsteps drew close.
A hundred plus martial artists were rapidly making their way here.
In this area, many influences had gathered.
But, this squad of martial artists wasn't worthy of attention at all. The size of their group was small and there weren't any masters in their ranks. All they had were several half-step World Kings and peak Holy Lords to stand out.
As for the others, a great number of them weren't even at the Holy Lord realm, but just the Soul Lord realm.
A Soul Lord realm martial artist showed their true strength in the Akashic Dream Battlefield, where one's cultivation was restricted to the Soul Lord realm. Because of this, the strength they displayed was similar to what it was in the real world. Without the increase in their strength brought about by their comprehension of Laws and cultivation methods, they simply didn't possess much combat strength here.
As this squad appeared, Lin Ming felt them approach. He looked towards them with surprise.
This was because he had recognized several familiar people. This squad was the 'top' squad of Zenith Palace and had gathered all of their elites. Lin Ming naturally remembered who they were.
As Lin Ming glanced at them, the martial artists from Zenith Palace were all stunned.
Jaderiver, Yi Fan, the Vice Palace Master, as well as the several Zenith Palace Elders, all of them stared back at Lin Ming with eyes as wide as full moons. They froze where they were, completely unable to respond to what they saw.
Wasn't this… Lin Muk!? It was really him!