Chapter 1016 – Another Breakthrough
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On normal days, one would stay at certain depths of the 18 Hells of Flame if they planned on deliberately using the fire origin energy within to temper their understanding of Laws.
But in this circumstance with everyone watching, a martial artist rushing through was the same as a farmer picking up a massive sack of grain and rushing to drop it off. They wouldn’t be able to hold the sack for long and would have to take advantage of their momentum to go as far as they could. Who had ever heard of a farmer who held onto the sack and sat down in meditation? Wasn’t this just a waste of strength?
None of the present disciples were aware that Lin Ming was peacefully perceiving the Concepts of Annihilation and Creation. With the Chaos Laws as a foundation, he was able to deeply grasp the truths of these two Concepts.
Creation and Annihilation were two sides of the same coin. Even though they were opposites, they actually complemented each other, each unable to exist without the other.
If there was creation, then sooner or later there would be annihilation. In order for there to be annihilation, there first had to be creation.
From the small ants that crawled over the ground, to the beasts that wandered the woods, to the nations of the world, to the great Holy Land sects, to the giant celestial bodies in the heavens, to the boundless universe itself, nothing was able to escape from the logic of these Laws!
Even the scene that Lin Ming saw in the chaos stones, that of the universe being born, was simply an interpretation of these two Laws.
The universe was created from nothing, and from creation it would flow towards the end of annihilation, turning into nothingness once more. Then, the universe would be created again, annihilated again, repeating endlessly and infinitely…
As Lin Ming was meditating, thousands of inspirations flashed through his mind. He slowly contrasted them to the Law fragments of the chaos stones, perceiving them one at a time. He suddenly felt as if something in his mind snapped, and in that instant he obtained mastery of those two Concepts.
From Creation to Annihilation, when all was added together, that was samsara!
After perceiving the dual Concepts of Creation and Annihilation, Lin Ming’s eyes flashed open. All around him fire origin energy was annihilated and created, similar to limitless flowers blooming and wilting, growing and dying…
Every small flame was a single point of creation and annihilation. Every small flame was its own samsara!
Fifth level of the Hells of Flame, break through!
In that instant, Lin Ming’s speed suddenly shot up. In just several breaths of time, his velocity rapidly increased to over a dozen times the speed of sound. He was even faster than when he first entered the 18 Hells of Flame!
“What!?!?”
No one imagined that Lin Ming’s speed would shoot up like a rising hurricane. It had to be known that in the Hells of Flame, although one had to take advantage of their momentum to rush as deep as they could, the faster they went, the fiercer the fiery astral winds would become, and the greater the pressure on one’s protective true essence would be.
Dozens of times the speed of sound meant that Lin Ming could pass over a hundred miles in a breath of time. Such a speed was similar to a falling meteor! When a meteor fell, its excessive speed would cause it to burn in the air due to friction. Although it didn’t take long to crash into the ground, the high temperature that scorched the meteor would often completely destroy it!
And, what Lin Ming burst through was not ordinary air, but fierce astral winds of Fire Spirit Star that were over a hundred times hotter than magma. Just what would the result of that be?
The pressure that temperature put on his protective true essence could be imagined!
If one didn’t understand the Concept of Fire and depended on just their own strength to resist this, then not even a middle or late Divine Transformation realm powerhouse would be able to withstand it!
A hundred miles per breath of time – that was a thousand miles per 10 breaths of time!
8000 miles!
9000 miles!
9900 miles!
Fifth level, shatter the barrier!
Bang!
With unstoppable momentum, Lin Ming directly broke into the fifth level of the Flames of Hells, shooting straight for the sixth!
“He… he broke through to the fifth level?” Chu Redcloud gulped. Her eyes were wide open as she stared at the fire spirit mirror in the sky with abject horror. She had only been a bit shocked when Lin Ming had reached 9000 miles into the third level, and even after Lin Ming broke through to the fourth level she had only been stunned.
But now, she was beginning to feel fear creeping into her heart.
Yan Littlemoon could break through to the fifth level, but she absolutely could not do it at over a dozen times the speed of sound! If this meant that Lin Ming had already surpassed Yan Littlemoon, that was something that Chu Redcloud could absolutely not accept. “He has obviously been meditating on the chaos stones in Totem Tower for the last year. The chaos stones are only a general outline of the Laws, and moreover they are extremely mysterious and difficult to perceive. And, what Littlemoon meditated on was the 100 Foot Royal Skyseal, the absolute best totem stone in Fire Spirit Star. Not just that, but Littlemoon’s understanding of the Fire Laws surpassed Lin Ming’s to begin with, so how could the likes of him actually surpass her!? I cannot, I will not believe this!”
“How can this be happening? Lin Ming had obviously slowed to a crawl, so how could his speed suddenly rise by so much!” Many disciples of Charming Phoenix Palace were also confused. They had thought that Lin Ming had already reached his limits.
As for the disciples of Phoenix Cry Palace, Xiao Whitesnow, or even Sun Cyprestar, all of them were bewildered. Lin Ming’s process of breaking through was too strange. He had been extremely fast at the beginning but then he had quickly slowed down, even stopping motionless for a brief moment. Then, his speed had crazily shot up and he had rushed through in a single go. Just what was going on here?
Let alone Sun Cyprestar being confused, even Duke Golden Sword was floored by Lin Ming’s performance. It was said that Lin Ming excelled in actual combat, so when did his comprehension of Laws become so kick ass? When Duke Golden Sword rushed through the 18 Hells of Flame himself, he had only managed to reach the fifth level and that was at the very end of the Ancient Phoenix smelting trial. Now, Lin Ming had accomplished the same with still an entire year to go.
Duke Golden Sword’s eyes were wide as he looked at the fire spirit mirror in the sky. Then, he turned to Monarch Sweetyfox and asked, “Sweetyfox, um… what is going on here… I’m a bit confused. Why did that boy’s speed suddenly shoot up so much and so suddenly? If he had this ability to begin with then why was his speed slow like a snail just then?”
Sweetyfox had an extremely complex look on her face. She looked up at the fire spirit mirror in the sky and took a deep breath. It seemed that her earlier feelings had been correct. Underneath the gaze of everyone, this brat Lin Ming was taking this attempt through the 18 Hells of Flame as his personal smelting trial. Not only did he consider this a test, but he was also training himself within it!
If this were just a test, then all that mattered was how far he could go. But in order to perceive and train in the Laws, one needed to consume strength. The results would be worse than if one solely rushed down as far as possible.
“This brat Lin Ming, the reason his speed was slower at the beginning was that he was enlightening himself on the Laws, and slowly confirming his own comprehension of the Fire Laws one at a time within the Hells of Flame. He should have used the pressure of the astral winds within the Hells of Flame to complete the final process of sublimation and integration…”
Monarch Sweetyfox had an extremely deep understanding of Laws and Concepts. When she rushed through the Ancient Phoenix smelting trial as a rookie disciple, she was a character that had managed to reach the sixth level. By combining her previous knowledge with what she saw now, she quickly came to understand what Lin Ming was doing and for what reason he was doing it.
“What? We are testing him and yet he’s taking this chance to train? This brat is too crazy! He clearly doesn’t place our test in his eyes!” Duke Golden Sword shouted out, looking a bit angry. But, this was only to maintain appearances. Deep down in his heart, he actually very much appreciated the daring and crazy nature of this Lin Ming.
Monarch Sweetyfox said, “It’s better to say that Lin Ming just came out from Totem Tower and he wasn’t able to convert those comprehensions of Laws he gained into something applicable in true combat. He is grasping this opportunity, finding a turning point to completely master his understandings. It was inconceivable that he was meditating on the chaos stones for an entire year!”
What Monarch Sweetyfox said was right. The reason that Lin Ming had suddenly accelerated was to draw support from the violent fiery astral winds of the 18 Hells of Flame to fuse the Fire Laws within himself, further increasing his strength.
In the first three level Concepts of Fire, Burning Heat, Annihilation, and Creation, in just these three low level Fire Concepts, Lin Ming’s comprehension of them surpassed that of all other young disciples present. His comprehension of them even surpassed that of Divine Transformation realm powerhouses like White Daohong and Lu Xiaoyun. This was the difference from the heights at which they understood the Concepts. One understood the origin of the Concepts, while the other only understood how to apply them. Of course, the disparity would be great.
And having comprehended these Concepts to this degree, Lin Ming actually had a deeper idea in mind: that was to fuse the three levels of Concepts together!
When one’s Concepts reached an extremely high level, they could be fused together. Lin Ming had long ago understood this point. Let alone fusing the various level Concepts within the Fire Laws, even completely different Laws could be fused together!
For instance, fire and thunder, or time and space.
However, when Lin Ming had fused a thunder-attribute cultivation method and a fire-attribute cultivation method together to create an explosive attack move, that was actually not the fusion of the Laws themselves. That could at best be called combining the Laws.
But even a simple combination was actually able to multiply their total might. If one could truly fuse them together then the power could be imagined.
Lin Ming didn’t have any hopes of fully fusing the Fire Concepts together. What he wanted was to find a small chance today to slightly fuse them. Everything was difficult at the start. Just finding the tiniest starting point would be enough.
Fifth level, 2000 miles.
Fifth level, 3000 miles.
Fifth level, 4000 miles!
Every 10 breaths of time, Lin Ming would pass a thousand miles deeper. At this point, even Lin Ming felt a tremendous pressure on him. This was nearly the same as flying through the surface of the sun at high speeds. Even he found it difficult to continue.
But under such tremendous pressure, Lin Ming felt a massive advantage.
All of the Concept and Law fragments within his body seemed to melt away, fusing deeper into him, becoming one with his organs, flesh, blood, and bones!
Faint traces of inscriptions began to carve themselves into Lin Ming’s bone, forming mysterious runes. In a sense, Lin Ming’s body itself was becoming a totem stone, it was only that his understanding of Concepts was too shallow. If he died now and his bones were pulled out, then others would be able to meditate on them.
At 5000 miles into the fifth level, Lin Ming began to slow down. Even so, his velocity was still at least a dozen times the speed of sound.
And, 6000 miles into the fifth level had been Yan Littlemoon’s limit!
If Lin Ming could break past that depth, then that meant he had surpassed Yan Littlemoon.
And with Lin Ming’s current speed, it was likely he would shatter that record without stopping!
In that moment, every martial artist watched Lin Ming with breath abated.
Yan Littlemoon gripped her fists together, her large eyes shining as she stared at the fire spirit mirror in the sky.
“Lin Ming will actually eclipse me? How could that be? My Concepts and Laws were far ahead of his by a large margin at the start, and I also have the perfect Ancient Phoenix bloodline. I even meditated on the 100 Foot Royal Skyseal, the best totem stone in Totem Tower. He meditated on the chaos stones and he should have learnt nothing from those obscure and mystical objects. A year later, I should have flung him even farther away, but now, he will actually transcend me? How could this be…?”
Yan Littlemoon couldn’t accept this, and Chu Redcloud couldn’t either. Everyone’s eyes remained wide and unblinking. Lin Ming’s speed had dropped to 10 times the speed of sound, but 10 times the speed of sound was still amazing. That was 20 miles every breath of time!
No matter what Yan Littlemoon or Chu Redcloud were thinking at this moment, neither of them could affect Lin Ming. In a single final breath he rushed past the 6000 mile mark of the fifth level, breaking through without a single hitch!