Martial World (Web Novel)

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“This is the 21st stone tablet. I’ve stayed here for a full month and 10 days and only just managed to break past it…”

Recalling the experience of these last 40 days, Duanmu Qun felt a lingering fear. These stone tablets were not as simple as they seemed. Once anyone touched upon them with their perception, they would have to withstand the terrifying impact force from the stone tablets. Let alone comprehending the mysteries within these stone tablets, touching their perception on these stone tablets could grievously injure them!

Walking all the way down, of the 20 stone tablets he had passed through earlier, the pressure would increase with every one. The first 10 stone tablets weren’t anything, he had easily passed those. For the 10 after that, the difficult had risen by a great margin, but Duanmu Qun had still been able to just barely cope with that.

After the 20th, the 21st stone tablet was the true terror. Duanmu Qun had spent a total of 40 days on this single stone tablet alone.

Persisting until he had broken this last stone tablet, it was already the limit that Duanmu Qun could withstand.

As he looked at all the Emperor stone tablets that lay in front of him, Duanmu Qun could only sigh in frustration. The disparity was just too great!

Just the 21st stone tablet had caused him to exhaust every last ounce of his potential. The difficulty of those stone tablets ahead could be imagined.

Actually, Duanmu Qun didn’t even know how many stone tablets were in front of him.

The Road of Emperor. After completing this road, one would become a Peerless Emperor.

This was certainly not a lie!

Moreover, those Emperor level powerhouses that were born from the Road of Emperor were surely not the ordinary kind, but those existences that peered down from the very pinnacle of strength!

“There’s no limit in this world; no matter how strong you are, there is always someone higher. I thought that my talent far surpassed every other heroic young elite of the Blood Slaughter Steppes, but I never that I would be pressured by a mere Lin Ming. If I was compared to those talents from ancient times, I would be even more pathetic!” Duanmu Qun shook his head in self-deprecation. This Road of Emperor was most likely constructed for those young talents of ancient times to gain experience. What he had seen was only the tip of the iceberg, and yet he had reached his limits. Just how strong could those young heroic elites of ancient times have been?

“I should leave now. After being in the Road of Emperor for 160 days, the increase of my strength has been immense. I wonder how I did compared to Lin Ming?”

Besides Lin Ming, Duanmu Qun was recognized as the number one talent of the Blood Slaughter Steppes. His background was that of the quasi sixth-grade sect, the Divine Wood Holy Land. He himself was a Fey, and his understandings of Laws had reached an extremely high degree. His perception was incomparably monstrous, and with his young age, he had already thoroughly studied his Divine Wood Holy Land’s core cultivation methods.

The Fey had a naturally superior compatibility with Laws than humans, and in addition to being personally directed and taught by the three-star Fey Emperor, the Highest Elder of the Divine Wood Holy Land, Duanmu Qun’s attainments in the Concepts of Space and Time were very high. In terms of the Concepts of Water and Wood, he was also satisfactory. In the comprehension of Concepts, he was confident that he wouldn’t lose to anyone.

Duanmu Qun thought that even if his overall talents were inferior to Lin Ming’s, that didn’t mean he was weaker. After all, he was a bit older.

Moreover, ignoring other aspects of talent, just in terms of the comprehension of Laws, Duanmu Qun felt he was above Lin Ming.

And in this Road of Emperor, it specifically tested one’s perception and comprehension of Laws. The stronger one was in these aspects, the more truths and mysteries they would be able to grasp from these Emperor stone tablets.

Towards the 21st stone tablet, even with Duanmu Qun’s understanding of Laws and Concepts, he had already exhausted everything he had. He very much wanted to know just how far Lin Ming had gone.

“Lin Ming, I wonder which stone tablet you’ve managed to reach? If you haven’t reached 20, then I will truly be disappointed… after leaving Skysplit Tower, I will be looking forwards to a match with you!” Duanmu Qun thought aloud, his eyes flashing with a vivid fighting spirit.

The average person would have thought that it was sad to be born in the same era as a monstrous genius, but Duanmu Qun didn’t think so. If he sat alone on the highest peak with nothing but his own desolate solitude, then that would only be an immeasurably chilly position, and he would be doing nothing more than wasting his own potential. On the other hand, if he had a rival, then both of them could try to surpass the other and they could both make great strides of progress beside each other.

This was the self-confidence that belonged to a true top talent.

After being in the Road of Emperor for 161 days, Duanmu Qun finally left!

Duanmu Qun’s exit caused a great stir within Heavenly Cloud Tower. Even the nearby Skysplit Towers were made aware of this news.

A rumor was passed on that after Duanmu Qun left the Road of Emperor, his every action would cause the power of space around him to be restlessly aroused.

This was an extremely high boundary that would only occur when one’s understandings of Laws reached a terrifying level. Like an order being followed once given, this was a similar truth. Duanmu Qun was far away from reaching this sort of boundary, but it was still enough to scare everyone.

The current Duanmu Qun gave off an unfathomably deep feeling.

At this point, of all the geniuses that had entered the Road of Emperor, the only one that hadn’t yet come out was Lin Ming. This made everyone especially want to know just what sorts of improvements Lin Ming had made within the Road of Emperor.

……………………

In the world of will, a dazzling flame flashed past. Lin Ming had become one with his spear, and he was like a meteor as he passed through the will body of an Emperor level powerhouse.

Bang!

The will body shattered into pieces, becoming countless streams of light that slowly flowed into Lin Ming;’s body. A feeling like a spring breeze spread to every corner of Lin Ming’s body.

“I’ve been in the Road of Emperor for five months and finally managed to adapt to the suppression of the Prime Emperor martial intent!”

Lin Ming withdrew from the world of will and swallowed a soul recovery pill.

At this time, all of the top-grade soul recovery pills had been eaten by him. Now whenever he withdrew from the world of will he could only take medium-grade and high-grade soul recovery pills to revitalize his soul. Luckily, every time that he destroyed the will body of an Emperor level powerhouse, a wisp of their will would remain and flow into him, a pure power of soul that was able to repair the damage done to his will body. Otherwise, there would probably have been hidden wounds left behind in Lin Ming’s spiritual sea already.

Looking at the endless will lights that extended to the far distance in front of him, Lin Ming took out a top-grade Blood Demon Crystal and began to meditate again.

For five months, he had spent this entire time fighting.

He had to regularly suffer the soul-tearing pain of having his will body ruined. This sort of excruciating pain was even more insufferable than physical bodily pain, much less that he had endured it for five months so far.

“These past days, I still haven’t been able to form my own battle spirit, but because I’ve been using so many top-grade Blood Demon Crystals, my cultivation has risen to a half-step Revolving Core.”

Because Lin Ming’s foundation was completely solid, he almost wouldn’t have a bottleneck from the Xiantian realm to Revolving Core realm. Moreover, top-grade Blood Demon Crystals were originally excellent for making breakthroughs through bottlenecks, so his cultivation had constantly been rising throughout this time.

As for his battle spirit, he still hadn’t formed one, but Lin Ming could feel a dim and hazy mist gathering above his spiritual sea. This was pure willpower. Every time his willpower increased through battle, this mist would become richer and thicker.

After another 40 some days passed, Lin Ming had already been in the Road of Emperor for an entire 200 days.

During these 200 days, the pressure of the Prime Emperor force field constantly grew heavier, but the growth of Lin Ming’s willpower was even quicker. This allowed him to adapt to the massive pressure within the world of will.

The mist within his spiritual sea became increasingly thick, to the point that it nearly turned into droplets.

Cha!

A beaming bolt of lightning cut through the world of will, completely crushing an Emperor Will and turning it into the pure power of soul.

“Finally, I’ve defeated the will body of a three-star Emperor level powerhouse…”

Lin Ming fell to his knees, using the Purple Comet Spear to prop himself up. From his head to his toes, there wasn’t a single place that wasn’t a mess. His left shoulder was nearly completely ruined, his chest was stained red, blood gushing out of it, and his organs were in chaos.

If this was the real world, in this situation he would have long ago lost any and all combat strength.

Lin Ming had been fighting this three-star Emperor level powerhouse’s will body for a full 10 days, and today, he had finally defeated it.

A pure energy flowed into Lin Ming’s body, quickly repairing his broken body. This sort of restoration brought along a wonderful feeling with it. The pure power of soul was like a quiet drizzle of rain falling down on him, making him feel happy and comfortable.

Lin Ming immersed himself in this comfortable and wonderful feeling for an unknown time. Suddenly, there was a pain between his eyebrows, as if all the strength of his body was rushing to that single point, able to erupt at any moment!

“Mm… this is…”

Lin Ming’s eyes flashed open. He was surprised to find that the thick mist that hovered over his spiritual sea had suddenly contracted in upon itself!

“Could this be…” Lin Ming suddenly thought of a possibility, a faint sense of incredulity filling his heart.

“Hahaha! Boy, congratulations! You’ve succeeded!” Demonshine’s jazzy voice sounded out in Lin Ming’s mind.

“Battle spirit? Is this really a battle spirit?” Lin Ming was ecstatic with happiness. He stared with wide eye as amazing changes began happening to the thick fog within his spiritual sea. Among these changes, a faint pain of will spread through Lin Ming’s mind. However, this sort of pain only made him feel inexplicably excited.

Nothing was impossible to those that were willing to try hard enough. Lin Ming had spent almost an entire seven months, suffering massive pain to his soul to constantly temper his will and mold his battle spirit. And today, he was finally successful!

To do this, he had sacrificed his cultivation speed and didn’t hesitate to give up perceiving the Emperor stone tablets. Now, at this moment when his battle spirit formed before his eyes, Lin Ming felt that all of this sacrifice and pain was well worth it!

Part of the reason why Lin Ming could form his own battle spirit was his effort, but the majority of it was all because of his incomparably firm will and mindset.

Lin Ming’s heart of martial arts was originally extremely tough and impervious. In addition to repeatedly swallowing soul fragments from the Magic Cube and also cultivating the ‘Overbearing Soul Tactic’, not only had his willpower strengthened, but after obtaining the Samsara martial intent, this had caused a qualitative increase in Lin Ming’s willpower.

In terms of the force of his will, there was no martial artist at Lin Ming’s realm that could compare with him. Similarly, soul attacks were nothing more than a joke in front of him.

If it wasn’t for Lin Ming originally having such talent of will, then tempering his will would have been useless to begin with. In fact, constantly overdrawing the power of his will would have done nothing but damage his mind.

“This is… a battle spirit?”

As Lin Ming looked at the skies over his spiritual sea, he could see that the mist there seemed much more pale, and in the center of that swirling mist seemed to be a vague, tiny azure spear; it seemed unreal, obscure, and illusory.

This spear was as thin as a chopstick and only half a foot long. The spearhead was the size of a knuckle, and the entire shaft was azure, shining with a cold light.

“This is my battle spirit?”

This was the first time that Lin Ming had seen a battle spirit. The memories he had absorbed were very vague concerning battle spirits. As for what they looked like, he didn’t know.

Demonshine chuckled, “Hehe, that’s right. Every battle spirit has a different shape. Some people have battle spirits that are shaped like weapons they often use, for instance, spears, sabers, and swords. There are also some people who have battle spirits that are like the elements they specialize in, such as flames, ice crystals, thunder bolts, and others. There are even some specialized battle spirits, ones that look like beasts, plants, furnaces, and so on. Take good care of your battle spirit and raise it well! Your battle spirit is just like a baby right now, but even so, it is still extremely terrifying!

“You are truly an abnormal freak! You formed your own battle spirit and you haven’t even reached the Revolving Core realm yet. I have no idea just how terrifying you will be when this battle spirit grows up!”