Martial World (Web Novel)
Chapter 1380: Trail of the Demon Bead

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Lin Ming stayed within Primordius Palace for three years. This was something that the Dragon Sovereign had never imagined to be possible. In fact, when Empyrean Primordius left behind this test, the original intention of it was to have a martial artist withstand the heavy pressure of grandmist energy, allowing them to train in the Primordius martial intent as they perceived the Grandmist Heavenly Dao and opened the Primordius Gate.

But as for training speed, that all depended on a martial artist’s perception.

Originally, Black Dragon and the two old men both believed that if one could continue to withstand Empyrean Primordius’ test, then as long as they lasted for two years within it, they could nearly fully open the Primordius Gate. But now, Lin Ming had stayed within for three years.

The reason for this long period of time was that Lin Ming was refining grandmist energy.

He used one year and three months to absorb 30 wisps of grandmist energy.

Now, placed within the Primordius Bell, Lin Ming no longer felt that the heavy pressure of the grandmist energy upon his body was painful. Rather, because he kept pouring grandmist energy into his body, he felt himself filling up with a potent strength instead.

Finally, Lin Ming had reached the limit of his body’s ability to absorb grandmist energy. Lin Ming controlled his breath and collected those 30 wisps of grandmist into a surging current, using them once more to attack the threshold of life and death in his spiritual sea!

The already opened threshold of life and death opened even further as this mighty impact smashed upon it.

Lin Ming shook. His entire body released explosive crackling sounds as a strength beyond description erupted from within his body, as if a True Dragon were awakening inside him.

This strength recklessly flushed outwards, crashing into the Primordius Bell. With a loud echoing sound, the Primordius Bell was rung!

The melodious ringing sound echoed within Primordius Palace. The separate world that Primordius Palace was located in simply couldn’t contain this ringing sound. It echoed out, passing through the Eternal Demon Abyss, like the long beat of the Great Dao transmitted through ancient times, passing through from nothingness, cutting through the empty void and echoing throughout the skies.

At this moment, even outside of the Eternal Demon Abyss, many martial artists of the Holy Demon Continent could hear this ringing echoing between the heavens and the earth.

The 12 Skysplit Towers of the Blood Slaughter Steppes, the Tower Masters and High Lords, and all of the geniuses that came to adventure, heard this great sound.

This resounding bell sound deafened the senses, making the soul tremble as if it were the divine will of the heavens!

“Is it the Steppes Master?” Because of the Polaris Tower Master, the other 11 Tower Masters had already learned the news that Lin Ming, the true Steppes Master, had returned.

“What is the Steppes Master doing?”

“That ringing is coming from underground. It’s probably from the Eternal Demon Abyss!”

To the martial artists of the Holy Demon Continent, the Eternal Demon Abyss was the ultimate absolute life forbidden zone. Even when the number one master of the Holy Demon Continent entered the Eternal Demon Abyss in the past, they had still died.

Moreover, the Eternal Demon Abyss was now in its erupting state!

As the Tower Masters of the Blood Slaughter Steppes realized this, they were shocked, their minds immediately filled with awe.

And outside of the Blood Slaughter Steppes, the people also heard the harmonic ringing coming from the Blood Slaughter Steppes. It was completely unknown just what it was. This sound resonated several hundreds of thousands and even millions of miles outwards. Throughout the entire area, this sound echoed. This was surely something that couldn’t be accomplished by the hands of man!

“What sort of sound is this?”

“Could this be a sound coming down from the legendary Divine Realm?”

Underneath the baptism of this sound, everyone’s souls fell into awe and submission, a feeling of reverence filling their hearts. Some mortals even thought that a god had arrived so they fell to the ground in worship.

Only Swiftcloud Divine Kingdom’s General Wei was able to form some faint associations. Years ago, he had brought a mysterious youth to the Blood Slaughter Steppes. That youth, with his strength alone, had instantly defeated a battle array formed by a dozen late Divine Sea masters. And, these late Divine Sea masters each had the ability to easily defeat the Divine Sovereign of Swiftcloud Divine Kingdom.

This loud ringing definitely concerned that youth!

This concordant ringing continued echoing for a full quarter hour before it gradually subsided.

Lin Ming stood within Primordius Palace. In front of him, the Primordius Gate began to violently shake.

Rumble rumble rumble –

The shaking of the Primordius Gate became increasingly intense. A massive amount of dust was shaken to the floor. The gate had finally completely opened!

The moment that the Primordius Gate opened, an indescribable aura of the Grandmist Great Dao surged outwards, baptizing Lin Ming’s entire body.

As this aura of the Great Dao baptized him, Lin Ming felt himself fill with clarity. All of the strength within his body gathered together, wildly expanding his inner world.

In that instant, Lin Ming felt as if he had experienced an incredible change, like a butterfly that had broken free from its cocoon.

He knew that if he could thoroughly complete this change, he would have evolved from the Divine Sea realm to the Divine Transformation realm.

The key to Divine Transformation was the word ‘transformation’. Whether it was one’s spirit body or inner world, all would undergo a great transformation as they entered this boundary.

But now, Lin Ming’s accumulations were still slightly lacking. He had taken a half-step into the Divine Transformation realm, just a tad far from taking that final half-step.

He focused his mind, looking towards the Primordius Gate.

Sealed within the Primordius Gate was an independent space a hundred feet in radius. This was an ancient stone temple completely paved with timeless god stones.

In the center of this temple was a throne.

And on this throne, there was a person’s skeleton!

This skeleton was large and wide. It was inevitable that this person must have been a tall and stately person before they died. Their skeleton shined like crystal, countless dao patterns carved onto the surface.

This skeleton exuded a vast and profound aura. When Lin Ming had opened the Primordius Gate and the grandmist aura had surged out to baptize him, that aura had originated from this skeleton.

As Lin Ming stood in front of this skeleton, he could feel all the blood vitality within his body faintly resonating with it. His organs began to tremble and his blood boiled over as if it wanted to gush out from his body.

“Is this Empyrean Primordius’ skeleton?”

If just these bones had such an extraordinary aura that was even able to affect Lin Ming’s blood vitality, then perhaps only Empyrean Primordius could accomplish this.

However, he immediately changed his mind, thinking this was unbelievable.

Where was Empyrean Primordius’ flesh and blood body?

How come there was only the skeleton, but no flesh and blood body?

After an essence gathering system supreme elder died, their body would slowly decay until all that was left was a skeleton. Lin Ming didn’t think this was strange, but Empyrean Primordius was someone that had managed to open the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace and had tempered his mortal body to inconceivable heights!

Back then, when Empyrean Primordius had ripped out his emperor heart, it had continued beating for 100,000 years.

In these 100,000 years, that heart didn’t even show a hint of rotting away at all. Rather, it maintained its vast sea-like blood vitality, beating onwards for 100,000 years. Just what kind of terrifying body was that!

In Lin Ming’s opinion, even if Empyrean Primordius had perished in battle, his corpse should be everlasting!

Only when several hundred million years passed and all of the power contained within Empyrean Primordius’ flesh and blood was completely dissipated would his body finally begin to decay and his bones slowly become brittle and shatter.

“Are these really Empyrean Primordius’ remains?”

As Lin Ming stood before this throne, he could feel the pressure transmitting from the skeleton and see the dao patterns upon it.

Only an Empyrean could have so many numerous and profound dao patterns on their skeleton.

But this vast aura that simultaneously contained the power of the Grandmist Heavenly Dao made Lin Ming feel that besides Empyrean Primordius, there was no other candidate that this skeleton could belong to.

Layers upon layers of questions rushed into Lin Ming’s heart.

Could it be that Empyrean Primordius hadn’t died? Was there another mystery?

Or, perhaps Empyrean Primordius’ enemies were too strong in the past. If Empyrean Primordius was struck by that God Curse Art, then perhaps his body had rotted away because of this curse?

All sorts of thoughts flashed through Lin Ming’s mind, but he still couldn’t find a reasonable explanation for any of this.

He continued to gaze at the skeleton upon the throne. What he was sure of was that no matter who this skeleton was before they died, they were definitely an extreme character.

Lin Ming deeply bowed towards this skeleton.

After bowing, Lin Ming began to look around the stone chamber. In this stone chamber, besides this throne and skeleton, there was only a stone table. There was a single jade platform a square foot in size. And atop this jade platform was a simple brocaded box.

What left Lin Ming flabbergasted was that the material used to make this jade platform was actually nine sun jade!

Although it was only a square foot in size, the value of such a large piece of nine sun jade could be imagined.

But now, such wealth was only used to make the base for this brocaded box.

Just what was in that box?

Could it be…?

A thought flashed through Lin Ming’s mind and his breathing quickened. Within this box, he could feel something with a blood vitality that soared to the heavens, even faintly affecting Lin Ming’s bloodline.

He took a deep breath and then tentatively opened the box.

Within this box, there were two items.

One was a round black bead and the other was a simple ring.

This black bead was the size of a baby’s fist. It seemed like it was made from jade and not made from jade, and seemed made from stone and not made from stone. Countless mystical lines were carved onto its surface.

Within this round bead, Lin Ming could clearly feel an overwhelmingly vast blood vitality, as if it were a living creature.

“Is this the Demon Bead!?”

Lin Ming immediately thought.

However, he couldn’t confirm this either. And at this time, a regal voice sounded out, echoing throughout the entire temple.

“This bead is refined from a hundred million years of gathered blood vitality from the Grandmist Spirit Bead; it is a miracle medicine that surpasses a transcendent divine pill! However, the true Grandmist Spirit Bead has already been wrested away by the saint race.”

This sudden voice caused Lin Ming’s mind to turn cold. Was this the voice of Empyrean Primordius?

He swept out with his senses, wanting to see if there was some mysterious existence here such as a fragmented soul of Empyrean Primordius. However, he wasn’t able to find anything at all.

Lin Ming suddenly realized that this voice was only a message recorded by Empyrean Primordius using an array formation. Empyrean Primordius’ soul was not here.

It was a pity that Lin Ming still hadn’t been able to experience Empyrean Primordius’ dashing and heroic demeanor. After Lin Ming entered the Eternal Demon Abyss, he didn’t find a wisp of soul left behind by Empyrean Primordius or even his body.

He had only seen a part of Empyrean Primordius that he had left behind in the past: his heart.

“So the Demon Bead’s name was originally the Grandmist Spirit Bead… perhaps even the Magic Cube and all three ultimate divine treasures had different names given to them by different people over time.

“I never imagined that the Demon Bead would be taken by the saint race!

“Moreover, I have no idea just what price the saint race paid in order to start this war. Not just that, but for this reason alone, they likely had more than one Empyrean level master perish here. If they couldn’t obtain the Demon Bead after paying such a steep price, how could they ever give up?”

Lin Ming thought that no matter how powerful the enchantment was that Empyrean Primordius laid over the Sky Spill Planet, he still wouldn’t be able to stop the invasion of the saint race.

They were a race that was far more powerful than humanity. They had endless powerhouses pouring forth and a history of billions or even tens of billions of years.

If such a race decided to do something no matter what the cost was, it would be extremely difficult to stop them.