Martial World (Web Novel)
Chapter 1244: 15 People

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“Wu Finalcloud, I’ll remember this!” The green-haired swordsman cast one last indignant look at Wu Finalcloud before he leapt off the 26th step.

As for Wu Finalcloud, he remained calm. He didn’t fear this Zhou Hong; his background was even slightly superior to Zhou Hong’s. After all, although the True Martial Holy Lands came from a second-order world, they were still an extremely wealthy Holy Land. He even thought that Lin Ming had been too light-handed.

As for those that had been cheering for the green-haired swordsman, all of them looked as if they had collapsed. The entire area of his supporters, the several thousands of disciples, had all fallen into a deep and gloomy silence.

On the other hand, the Ancient Phoenix Clan erupted with cheers like a rushing tide, serving as a sharp contrast to them.

In these semifinals, the Ancient Phoenix Clan was nearly one of the loudest cheerers. In addition to them, the disciples of the Skydark Holy Lands shouted loudly enough that their voices quaked the heavens.

“Senior-apprentice Brother Lin is too strong!”

“He’s invincible!”

In the midst of these thronging cheers, Lin Ming began to climb up to the 27th step!

He was part of the first group to climb up to the 27th step. In front of him was only a small group of people, with Nether Limitless and Bloodless Sword included.

The 27th step was close to the summit of the Divine Seal Altar. Lin Ming also wanted to know just what step he would be able to reach.

It was said that to step onto the summit of the Divine Seal Altar was to step onto the road to divinity. If this was true then the Divine Seal Altar certainly had its own peculiarities.

Although Lin Ming was only climbing onto a replica of the true ancient Divine Seal Altar, he would still be able to take a little sneak glance through some of its mysteries.

At the 27th step, the pressure rose once more.

The further one ascended the Divine Seal Altar, the greater the pressure was.

When Lin Ming had climbed 50,000 feet high, the martial artists still remaining behind also began climbing up the 27th step. Among these people were some that Lin Ming was familiar with.

The one in the front was the red-clothed bamboo hat woman. She was the woman with the hoarse voice that he had seen several times in the True Martial Great World.

Her master was a World King and her own talent was amazing. She had defeated her opponents all the way here, but upon climbing to the 27th step, it also seemed as if she couldn’t continue going further.

“Even she can’t continue upwards. It will already be quite good if 200 people can reach the 27th step.”

Lin Ming immediately thought. This meant that as long as one could climb up to the 27th step, they would be able to pass the semifinals.

If one couldn’t climb to the top of the 27th step, that meant they would have to compete with the martial artists remaining on the 26th step, and those still climbing up from the 25th step, for the remaining quota of around a hundred people.

There would be several hundred people competing for these spots. Their battles would truly be cold and ruthless.

The pressure increased, becoming stronger and stronger at an ever-growing rate. To climb up 100,000 feet in a single go was easier said than done.

More and more participants continued to drop!

On the 26th step, there were nearly 250 people that had defeated their opponents and earned the qualifications to climb up the 27th step. But, halfway up, there were only 210 participants left. At the end, there were only 202 people that managed to reach the summit of the 27th step.

Just climbing up to the 27th step had eliminated nearly a fifth of the victors from the last step!

“Damn, I’ve finally made it up!”

Wu Finalcloud let out a long breath. This Divine Seal Altar was just too freakish! Even with his strength, he found it difficult to climb up.

Wu Finalcloud took several great heaving breaths. Then, his face suddenly twisted and his throat spasmed.

He looked up to see a pale black-clothed youth with blood red pupils slowly walking towards him.

This black-clothed youth was Nether Limitless.

Wu Finalcloud savagely gulped. Wasn’t this luck just too horrible!?

He hoped that Nether Limitless would pass by him, but he saw that his eyes were clearly locked onto him.

“I-if… can you, can you give… give me some face, I… it took a lot for me to climb up here…”

Wu Finalcloud stammered out, his voice lacking energy.

Nether Limitless’s complexion was cold as he lightly said, “Are you going down, or shall I deliver you down myself?”

“I…” Wu Finalcloud’s face twisted like a withered pear. He had climbed up with such painstaking effort and now he was being informed that he would have to climb up once more. Was there anything more depressing than this?

“I… I’ll go down immediately.”

At this time, Wu Finalcloud looked at the 100,000 foot cliff behind him and nearly wanted to die. This was the first time he realized just how weak he was, so weak that he didn’t even have the courage to resist after being pushed down like this.

This was the pity of the poor.

It wasn’t just Wu Finalcloud, but the opponent that Lin Ming chose also admitted defeat. Even these top ranked geniuses of great worlds didn’t have the ability to contend with Lin Ming.

As Nether Limitless saw this, his lips curved up, his smile a bit fiendish. “Lin Ming, was it?”

Lin Ming turned to look at Nether Limitless.

“You’ve caught my interest. One Fang, one Bloodless Sword, and you, you three are able to have me be a bit serious. There’s also that Purple Blade who’s quite good! On the 31st or 32nd step, I’m looking forwards to fighting you. That is, if you can climb up that high.”

Lin Ming grinned. “Even if you didn’t say anything I would still fight you sooner or later.”

In these semifinals, defeating Nether Limitless was one of his goals. Defeating Nether Limitless was his start to defeating Tian Mingzi in the future.

“Amusing. I hope that you won’t disappoint me then.” Nether Limitless turned to climb up the 28th step!

Lin Ming also began his climb upwards.

Against this terrifying Empyrean pressure, the two people still remained as calm as before.

Only 202 people had managed to ascend to the summit of the 27th step. It was destined that less than 100 people would make it up the 28th step. On average, there wouldn’t even be one martial artist from each great world. There were many great worlds that were completely out of contention already.

“Those two monstrous geniuses have begun to climb up the 28th step!”

“Dragon Fang and Bloodless Sword have begun their climb up. There’s also that Purple Blade.”

“I wonder who is the strongest amongst them. According to the Divine Seal Decree rankings, the strongest should be Nether Limitless!”

“The Divine Seal Decree rankings do not represent one’s true strength. For instance, just look at that Lin Ming. He was ranked around 10,000 on the Divine Seal Decree, but his performance here clearly doesn’t reflect that. There are also many people that haven’t displayed their true strength. But, that Nether Limitless is indeed fierce. I’ve heard some rumors that he has an extremely high chance of becoming a World King in the future, and he even has aspirations of becoming a Great World King!”

A Great World King – the overlord of a great world. Because of the existence of Empyrean descendants, their fame was slightly lower, but not by much.

It was also because of this reason that even geniuses bred from Great World King Holy Lands of first-order worlds found it far too difficult to become Great World Kings. There were only some peak geniuses like Nether Limitless from the Skydark Holy Lands or Yuwen Bo of the Wide Universe Holy Lands that had some chances of becoming a Great World King if they encountered a massive lucky chance during the Divine Transformation or Divine Lord realm.

28th step!

Finally, only 80 people managed to make it here!

After a violent round of combat, over half of them were eliminated on the sojourn to the 29th step!

At the 29th step, there were only 30 people left!

Out of 100 great words, only 30 people were able to make it this far. This was a truly exaggerated and ridiculous elimination rate!

At this time, Lin Ming finally saw Dragon Fang. Dragon Fang had started climbing on another side of the Divine Seal Altar, thus the two of them hadn’t seen each other yet.

But on the 29th step, with only 30 people left, there were far too few participants here. Moreover, after climbing up this high, the surface area of the Divine Seal Altar had narrowed down a great deal. The martial artists that were on the south and east sides naturally gathered together.

“You’ve really made it up here.” Dragon Fang said as he looked towards Lin Ming. He had already anticipated that Lin Ming would arrive here.

“And you too.”

“It is impossible to climb to the top of the Divine Seal Altar. My goal is to stand on the 32nd step. I will wait for you there. And if you can reach where I will stand…”

Dragon Fang calmly said as he faced the strong astral winds that blew 2.9 million feet high in the skies. His clothes flapped around him. His figure was slender, his appearance delicate, and he seemed to encompass the brash spirit of a 17-18 year old youth. Even so, his aura and his manner of speaking were extremely restrained, making one feel very comfortable just speaking to him.

“Impossible to climb?” Lin Ming was startled. Dragon Fang’s goal was only the 32nd step? “It seems you know much about the Divine Seal Altar.”

“I’ve heard some stories. This is Empyrean Vast Universe’s proudest creation. Ever since he created this replica of the true Divine Seal Altar, deep within Vast Universe Heavenly Palace, over 100 descendants of Empyrean Vast Universe have climbed up it. This is one of the ways that they are tempered there. However, there has never been a Divine Sea realm descendant, even a late Divine Sea realm descendant, that has managed to mount the summit!”

“Is that so?”

Lin Ming sucked in a deep breath. So that’s how it was. No wonder Xiao Daochild had been so confident in his assertions that out of 300,000 geniuses, no one would be able to reach the top. It seemed that this was an extremely logical viewpoint.

However, Dragon Fang actually knew about the internal matters of Vast Universe Heavenly Palace; it seemed that his own background wasn’t ordinary at all. Lin Ming didn’t think this was strange. For a wandering cultivator, if they wanted to grow to this degree, they would need the support of a powerful master no matter what, otherwise it was impossible!

Lin Ming could be considered as having many lucky chances, but he also had many teachers and masters. From the start, it had been the soul fragments in the Magic Cube, followed by others, included Demonshine, who had given him many pointers, Mo Eversnow, and even Empyrean Primordius could be considered as Lin Ming’s half-master. If just Lin Ming was like this, there was no need to mention others.

On the 29th step, there were only 30 people left. No one here would admit defeat of their own volition any longer.

At this height, even if they lost they would pass. Moreover, all of the people here were extremely proud and haughty geniuses of their generation, all of them brimming with confidence in their own abilities. None of them believed they were any worse. Even if they encountered Lin Ming, they would still fight with all their strength!

And facing these people, Lin Ming wouldn’t be able to easily defeat them like he did Crimson Wishjade or Zhou Hong. He would have to use a considerable portion of his strength to battle them for some time before winning.

The opponent Lin Ming chose was a red-clothed saber wielder. This person’s saber emanated a field of electricity, and there was also a saber domain that formed around him.

“In this part of the semifinals, domains and force fields aren’t anything at all. They seem far too cheap; nearly everyone has one!”

Lin Ming deeply sighed. There were even people that had two domains.

Moreover, it seemed that a low-level domain like his Blue Lotus Domain was useless here.

The red-clothed saber martial artist’s fighting spirit soared to the skies. He fiercely battled Lin Ming for a few dozen rounds. Finally, Lin Ming simultaneously opened the Heretical God Force, burnt the Ancient Phoenix blood, and used the power of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates to defeat him!

At the end, only 15 people earned the qualifications to climb up the 30th step!

It was here that one could finally make out a vague outline of the Divine Seal Altar’s summit.

“There are only 15 people that have the qualifications to climb up. I wonder how many of them will make it?”

In the audience, Huo Violentstone mumbled to himself. These 15 people, no matter how bad they were, would at least become a half-step World King in the future! Such a white-hot competition between them would truly be blood stirring!