Warrior's Promise

All color drained from Bai Yin'er's face and she started to shake when she heard what her father had said.

She had been selected to attend the concubine selection process!

This news was like a bolt from the blue.

Although the Divine Martial Emperor was the most powerful being across the land, very few women were willing to be his concubine!

He had far too many concubines and he treated all of them as his playthings. They had no status to speak of.

The Divine Martial Emperor would hold a concubine selection process every year from which he would select a hundred concubines each time.

Every year, all 36 cities would nominate ten beautiful virgins who had a relatively high cultivation to participate in the selection process.

If the Emperor himself caught wind a beautiful woman from a particular city, he could nominate this woman to participate in the selection process.

Since Governor Bai had always been in charge of the nomination process, he would have never nominated his own daughter. However, now that Bai Yin'er had been nominated, it could only mean that the Emperor himself had gotten wind of her beauty.

"I bet my enemies in the capital had requested for the Emperor to nominate you!" Emperor Bai said gravely. Since the Divine Martial Emperor never left his imperial palace, he would not know how beautiful his daughter was unless someone had mentioned it to him!

Governor Bai was livid but was helpless to do anything about it. He did not wish his own daughter to become the Emperor's concubine, for if Bai Yin'er was selected, her future would be bleak!

As the city governor of one of the 36 cities that made up Divine Martial Country, Governor Bai was all too familiar with how the Divine Martial Emperor operated.

All the women selected to be his concubine had either perished or had their cultivation destroyed. A great many of them had also seen their cultivation deteriorate greatly.

Governor Bai was powerless to help his daughter in spite of all this. Alas, he could not openly defy the Emperor.

Bai Yin'er was rooted to the spot in stunned silence. After a while, she grabbed his shoulder and cried out, "Father, I don't want to go! I absolutely refuse to!"

She grew extremely agitated and acted as if she had lost her mind.

Governor Bai's heart ached for his daughter. He did not want her to go either.

However, if they defied their orders from the Emperor, their entire family would be sentenced to death.

"Yin'er, calm down. I'll try to think of a way out!" Governor Bai patted his daughter's shoulder as he tried to comfort her.

"Father, you must come up with something. I don't want to participate in the selection process! I refuse to be his concubine!" Bai Yin'er wailed.

She knew the fate that awaited her if she was selected to be his concubine. Becoming Emperor's concubine meant that she would become the Emperor's plaything and would never be able to leave the imperial palace.

"I'll definitely come up with something!" Governor Bai said, as he smoothed his daughter's hair tenderly.

After a while, he said, "Yin'er, please return to your room and give me some time to think!"

"Very well!" Bai Yin'er nodded obediently.

In the Divine Map—

Su Mo was at the final step of the merging process. His face was pale and his body had turned gaunt.

His body was almost drained of blood and his whole body was covered in wounds. His flesh had been exposed, which made him look extremely terrifying.

His face was also covered in wounds which made his features look extremely savage.

His internal organs had also sustained serious injuries and were close to being ripped apart.

"Merge! Merge! Merge!" Su Mo roared. He did not stop to tend to his wounds and was completely focused on merging his Spiritual Spirals.

He was almost there!

The final Spiritual Spiral was about to completely merge with his Super Spiritual Spiral.

He just had to hang on for another two hours to succeed!

These two hours felt like an infinity to him.

Pfft!

Su Mo spat out another large mouthful of blood. This time, his blood was mixed with some of his raptured organs.

His internal injuries were extremely serious. If an average True Darkness Realm martial artist had sustained injuries of this level, he would have perished a long time ago!

Su Mo's body had stopped trembling because he had gotten used to the pain and was already numb from it.

He remained as still as a rock, and did not budge even as his injuries worsened.

Time slowly ticked by and Su Mo felt as if he had been here for an entire century. He was starting to lose consciousness, but still, he gritted his teeth and stoically bore the pain.

Finally, his super Spiritual Spiral suddenly shook violently then returned to normal. All of the pressure immediately subsided.

He had successfully merged all 49 Spiritual Spirals into one!

He slowly opened his eyes and they were completely bloodshot, like a pair of blood-red colored eyes. Phew!

Su Mo breathed out a mouthful of murky Qi and there was the strong scent of blood in this breath of murky Qi.

"I've finally succeeded!" Su Mo said with a smile. Now that his Spiritual Spirals had fully merged together, he would have to condense them into a Divine Elixir before he could advance to the Martial King Realm.

As his lips stretched into a smile, it tugged against the open wounds on his skin, which was extremely painful.

Su Mo sighed to himself. His injuries this time were much more serious than when he had been injured by Yin Ting.

After a while, he swallowed several healing elixirs and started to tend to his wounds.

As he refined the medication, the countless wounds on his body and his internal injuries slowly started to heal.

Many hours later, his superficial wounds had healed and the scabs had mostly fallen off. His skin had recovered back to its original state.

However, his internal injuries would need a few more days to recover.

Su Mo opened his eyes and stopped tending to his wounds. He did not have much time left, so he would need to head to the Imperial City first in search of the Blood-striped Seed.

He would deal with his remaining wounds slowly.

Su Mo rose to his feet and walked to the river outside the courtyard to wash himself. After he changed into a black robe, he left the Divine Map Space.

When he returned to his room, he immediately headed to find Governor Bai to bid him farewell.

In the great hall of the Mansion of the City Governor--

Governor Bai sat on the main seat, while Su Mo sat beneath him.

"Governor Bai, thank you for your hospitality these few days. I'm here to bid you goodbye!" Su Mo said with a fist-palm salute.

Governor Bai frowned, then he asked, "Su Mo, are you going to leave just like that?"

Su Mo had not left his room during his entire stay, so Governor Bai did not have a chance to befriend him at all.

He had been so troubled by what happened to his daughter that he had no time to think of a way to befriend him.

He did not expect that Su Mo would want to leave so soon!

"Yes!" Su Mo nodded.

"Su Mo, you must be heading to the Imperial City, right?" Governor Bai asked. He knew that Su Mo was searching for the Blood-striped Seed, and since Elder Yu had informed him where he could find it, he guessed that Su Mo was definitely headed that way!