Martial World (Web Novel)
Chapter 1949: A Single Life 6

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Thinking of this, Lin Ming inwardly sneered. His parents were supported with the prestige he left behind in the past; no one dared to move against them.

But, there were people that would make use of his parents’ lack of understanding when it came to martial skill and cultivation methods as well as their lack of understanding regarding the politics of court. These people secretly and slowly manipulated things from behind the scene, influencing the decisions his parents made.

There were even those that wished to use these devious methods to obtain authority from his parents and place themselves above all others.

After all, his parents were only mortals. Even with many spirit medicines helping them, they would have at most 2000 years to live.

Once his parents died, whose hands would this vast Divine Kingdom fall into?

This was an incredibly serious issue that involved a tremendous amount of benefits. It was natural that everyone would want to eat a portion of this thick soup.

As these thoughts flashed through Lin Ming’s mind, he could sense that the high level vicious beast had approached.

Situ Mingyue had originally taken ten steps out, but then her body shook. She turned around and looked deep into the jungle, her complexion instantly changing!

“Fleeting fire centipede! Why would such a high level vicious beast appear in this forest!?”

Situ Mingyue’s expression turned to horror. This fleeting fire centipede could even kill a Life Destruction powerhouse. As for Situ Mingyue, she was only in her teens and her cultivation was at the Xiantian realm. This difference in strength was so great that she wouldn’t even be enough to fill the gaps between the fleeting fire centipede’s teeth.

“You idiot! Stop standing around and waiting for death to come!”

Situ Mingyue saw Lin Ming standing in a silly daze and was left breathless. She drew out a long whip and lashed it at Lin Ming, pulling him towards her. She grabbed his hand and dragged him into the underbrush.

“If you don’t want to die then don’t move!”

Situ Mingyue covered Lin Ming’s mouth, afraid that this blue-brained idiot would shake around and expose their position. Moreover, she guessed that Lin Ming simply wouldn’t know what was happening, or perhaps Lin Ming might not even know what a fleeting fire centipede was. If this sort of catastrophe fell upon someone like this who possessed no skills or knowledge, they would die before they even knew it.

She quickly spoke to Lin Ming with a true essence sound transmission and then flicked her fingers. A signal flare shot into the skies.

This was a special signal flare issued by Lin Academy to their students to call for rescue. Upon use, the teacher responsible for rescuing students would immediately arrive. If a dangerous situation occurred, students were supposed to use this rescue flair.

Situ Mingyue didn’t believe that she would be able to find any path to survive if the fleeting fire centipede found her, nor did she believe that she could outrun it. All she could do was hide as much as she could and hope that this fleeting fire centipede was only passing by and not aiming for them. Or, she could pray that they were rescued before they both died.

However, Situ Mingyue also felt the situation was strange. Why wouldn’t this fellow Lin Ming have a master secretly following him to protect him? And this master actually let a fleeting fire centipede approach them?

But at this time Situ Mingyue’s heart chilled, as if she had fallen into an icy lake. She stared helplessly on as the signal flare she shot into the skies suddenly broke apart. The bright lights of the signal flare seemed to be swallowed up by darkness, turning to ash that scattered away in the wind, not leaving anything else behind.

“This…”

Situ Mingyue was terrified. This sort of change could only be done by someone skilled in the Concept of Darkness. Only the all-swallowing Concept of Darkness could cleanly swallow away the light of a signal flare.

She suddenly realized a horrifying possibility. This possibility left her suffocating in despair!

Someone wanted to kill her or Lin Ming. This person had secretly infiltrated the squad assigned to protect the students and moved against them. They even brought a fleeting fire centipede here to make it seem as if they had died during the survival course.

This individual might even be some master of Lin Academy.

“We have to run!”

Situ Mingyue rapidly said. By this time, her palms were wet with sweat. She had already guessed that no matter who the goal of this other person was, they would kill all possible witnesses. This meant that both of them would die here!

And the moment Situ Mingyue spoke these words, the terrifying flame-colored centipede suddenly rushed out from deep in the woods!

This horrifying centipede was over 100 feet long and had a carapace that was burning with flames. It let out a dreadful roar, and wherever it went trees would be shorn apart like little twigs.

It was far too fast, fast to the point of leaving one in despair. As soon as it appeared it didn’t pause at all and threw itself at Lin Ming and Situ Mingyue. It stretched out claws that were covered in poison and flames, stabbing towards them like two long spears!

In that moment, Situ Mingyue had never felt death so near like today.

In desperate hopelessness, she grit her teeth and used all of her strength to slash out her sword. She didn’t think that this strike would be able to do anything, but only wanted to leave behind a scar on the fleeting fire centipede, even if it was a shallow mark. This was her angry response to the unwillingness she felt in her heart!

Would she die here like this?

To die so quickly and inexplicably, would she not even get to know who killed her, or what their goal was?

Her mother, would she be sad?

All sorts of thoughts flashed through Situ Mingyue’s mind. She stared blankly on as the centipede’s claws thrust towards her chest like the scythes of a death god. She watched as her soft and weak sword strike fell onto the fleeting fire centipede’s forehead like a string of straw.

And, she almost heard the sound of her heart being pierced and her blood spraying out.

But in that instant, something unbelievable occurred.

The moment her soft and faint sword strike fell onto the fleeting fire centipede’s forehead, a strength beyond imagination instantly erupted, as if a great sun were dawning upon the sword blade, radiating a divine light that blinded all!

This is…

Situ Mingyue’s eyes shot wide open. The fleeting fire centipede had a carapace that was as hard as divine iron, but beneath this sword strike it was cut apart like tofu!

A massive arc of crescent sword energy continued forwards, indomitably tearing through the centipede!

The fleeting fire centipede’s high-speed body seemed to be grabbed in that moment by a giant invisible hand, completely violating the laws of physics as it froze in mid air!

Then, a golden line spread out from the fleeting fire centipede’s forehead and started projecting backwards. In the next moment, the fleeting fire centipede was sliced cleanly in half!

Pa! Pa!

The two halves of the fleeting fire centipede fell to the ground. It was only after the golden light vanished that blood began to gush out and dye the land red.

As the saying went, a centipede could still move even when dead. Even if this fleeting fire centipede were split in half, it should still have a breath of life and should still have been able to violently struggle about, posing a great threat.

But after being cut apart by Situ Mingyue’s sword strike, the fleeting fire centipede had fallen completely still, without the least bit of life remaining within it.

As Situ Mingyue witnessed all of this her eyes turned as large as moons. Even her mouth that seemed to carry devilish intentions had fallen open as she was unable to believe everything that had just occurred.

The scene in front of her was the same as her killing off the fleeting fire centipede, a beast that was equivalent with a high stage Life Destruction powerhouse. Of course… this was totally impossible!

Situ Mingyue had been able to clearly feel that in that brief moment, a divine strength seemed to slash down from the void. This power had melded itself onto her sword strike, thus creating the miracle she had witnessed.

And the origin of this power seemed to have been behind her. She turned around and looked at Lin Ming.

At this time, Lin Ming was standing a mere three feet away from her. There was no panic on his face, but instead only calmness. His complexion was even a little… dark!

His eyes were as profound and fathomless as an ice pond, causing anyone who looked into them to feel a bit of… fear.

This sort of coldness seemed to originate from anger. It could also be because of other reasons, but it absolutely wasn’t because he was scared.

When facing this fleeting fire centipede that could kill a Life Destruction powerhouse, even Situ Mingyue was flustered. However, this youth wasn’t afraid at all.

She didn’t know why, but as Situ Mingyue looked at Lin Ming she felt a fearful restlessness in her heart.

She never would have believed that this fellow who seemed like an idiot and acted like a diabolical young master could have such a terrifyingly steady and calm expression.

She even had a feeling that this Lin An had some heaven-shaking secret!

This ambush was clearly targeted at Lin An and not herself.

But even though they sent out such a powerful vicious beast, their attempt to assassinate Lin An had failed. Just where had that power come from?

It shouldn’t have come from… Lin An, right?

Situ Mingyue looked at Lin Ming and was completely unable to believe that someone like Lin An, who was younger than her, would have the capabilities to kill a fleeting fire centipede. This simply surpassed all common sense.

At this time, faint shuffling sounds echoed from within the forest. If one wasn’t listening carefully then it would have been impossible to detect them.

Who!?

Situ Mingyue’s heart felt gripped. Someone was here, and they were even a master!

However, she felt that this hidden person wasn’t approaching them but was running far away instead.

That’s right… there was that person who had destroyed her signal flare with the Darkness Laws. This person likely came from Lin Academy, and might even be the teacher assigned to protect them!

They took part in the assassination, but after they failed they decided to flee.

Although they didn’t know how the fleeting fire centipede had died or who had killed it, what they knew for sure was that anyone that could kill a fleeting fire centipede with such ease could also easily kill them.

This was because their strength wasn’t greater than that of the fleeting fire centipede.

“They ran away.”

Situ Mingyue didn’t know what to do. She only looked at Lin Ming. She naturally wasn’t able to stop him. She wanted to see what he would choose to do.

Lin Ming furrowed his eyebrows together. He said to Situ Mingyue, “Why aren’t you running? What’s the point of standing there like an idiot? Are you waiting for them to gather reinforcements so they can return to kill you?”

Lin Ming’s words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Situ Mingyue’s head.

Just several breaths of time ago she had angrily shouted out to Lin Ming that he was an idiot who was standing around and waiting for death to take him. Now, these words had been returned to her.

What Lin Ming said was right. The situation was currently unclear so quickly leaving to find rescue was the most sensible choice to make. If they stayed here then there might be more people coming to kill them; it was extremely dangerous.

Just before she was about to run away, she turned to Lin Ming to ask him for some advice on who to find. After all, with the current complex situation, she didn’t know who was here to kill them and who was here to save them. If she accidently stumbled into some dangerous individual and was led into a trap, that sort of death wouldn’t be justified at all.

However, as she turned around she discovered that during the brief moment of distraction just now, Lin Ming had already disappeared…