Chapter 1108 – Confrontation
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With a dozen plus jade slips passed out, Island Master Xiao Skywhite naturally had one in his hands. The combat report didn’t begin with White Mirrorjade’s death. Instead, it mentioned the successes of their mission.
As Xiao Skywhite read the list of successes, he was stunned. He looked up and saw that the other Elders were also completely shocked. Before this, they only knew that the disciples of Carefree Island had fought a hard battle and finally returned in triumph, bringing with them a massive amount of resources. But as to what the result of the battle had been and how many disciples of the Occult Bone Clan and Splintersoul Mountain they had slain, they actually weren’t sure. They assumed that both sides had suffered tremendous losses.
But now, as they read this combat report jade slip, all of them could hardly believe it.
“You say that nearly all of the disciples of the Occult Bone Clan and Splintersoul Mountain were annihilated? Even the four late Divine Sea geniuses, including Gudao Ming, Soul Wanshan, Gongyang Bonesmash, and Soul Thousandmile!?”
“Yes!” Xiao Raingem clearly said, a happy smile showing on her face.
“We managed to wipe out over 200 of our enemies. And moreover…” Ye Rosewater began to add in from the side, pointing at Lin Ming in the process, “The four late Divine Sea geniuses, Gudao Ming, Soul Wanshan, Gongyang Bonesmash, and Soul Thousandmile, all died at the hands of Junior-apprentice Brother Lin!”
“Are you joking with me?” Great Elder Xiao Haogan’s eyes widened and he nearly crushed the jade slip in his hands. In truth, he knew that since Ye Rosewater dared to say such words, they were likely true. Even if Lin Ming had some sort of special trick that he used to kill Gudao Ming, Soul Wanshan, Gongyang Bonesmash, and Soul Thousandmile, that was more than enough evidence to prove that he was a terrifying character. In that case, if White Mirrorjade wanted to kill Lin Ming, the chances were that he would be killed instead!
“There are no jokes in the army. Honorable Great Elder does not need to doubt me. This disciple will certainly not joke about such an important matter. If honorable Great Elder does not believe this disciple then the other disciples can verify my statements.”
Ye Rosewater looked at Xiao Haogan with confidence. Xiao Haogan grit his teeth and sat back down, continuing to read through that combat report jade slip. He wanted to see just what methods Lin Ming used to kill these late Divine Sea martial artists.
However, as he continued reading, Xiao Haogan’s eyes widened yet again. He thought that Lin Ming must have used some tricks, but the truth was that he had directly killed them in frontal combat!
Even if it was said that he had taken advantage of Gongyang Bonesmash and Soul Thousandmile, slaying them while they were in a tragically wounded condition, he had still faced Soul Wanshan and Gudao Ming in frontal battle. With him and Ye Rosewater combining their attacks, they had completely slaughtered those two!
“This…” Xiao Haogan looked over to Lin Ming, “You…”
He was at a loss for words. Lin Ming was only at the eighth stage of Life Destruction!
At this time, White Brook’s eyes also flashed with a grim light. Although this was hard to believe, this sort of matter was impossible to fake because it was simply too easy to expose.
As White Brook thought of this, he continued to look through the combat report jade slip that Xiao Raingem had recorded. In the violet sun stone mine, Xiao Raingem, Ye Rosewater, and the rest of their group had been ambushed by others in a sandstorm. They suspected that there was someone in their ranks who had betrayed them. Finally, they captured Gudao Ming alive and tortured the words out from him. According to Gudao Ming, the one who betrayed them was White Mirrorjade!
Gudao Ming hadn’t been able to confirm with absolute conviction that White Mirrorjade had been the one to betray Ye Rosewater. But, Xiao Raingem purposefully ignored this point and skimmed past it. Thus, the feeling one had was that Gudao Ming had complete belief that White Mirrorjade was the traitor.
Such a method of writing was to help reduce the crimes of Lin Ming taking action first and dealing with the fallout later.
“What a bunch of crap!”
White Brook’s aura suddenly erupted. He clenched his fists together, and with a slight cracking sound, the combat report jade slip in his hand was crushed into fine powder!
“Gudao Ming was simply a demonic wolf with dark ambitions. He knew that Mirrorjade’s talent was the highest and that Mirrorjade also had the greatest chance of becoming the future successor to the Island Master position of my Carefree Island. Because he knew that this would harm his Occult Bone Clan, at the point of his death he decided to lash out one final time and frame Mirrorjade. I have looked after Mirrorjade since he was a child, so how could he possibly do such a thing!?”
White Brook’s voice echoed out into the world, each syllable ringing like titanic bronze bells. Xiao Raingem shook and she paled. She was only average amongst the direct disciples, so when had she ever faced the anger of a Highest Elder? White Brook was also someone who nearly reached the Holy Lord realm. If Carefree Island was a Holy Land, he would have been granted the title of Holy Lord, although he would have ranked at the lowest and weakest among them.
Ye Rosewater firmly wrapped her hands around Xiao Raingem’s and said, “Highest Elder, we are only reporting things as they happened. That is truly what Gudao Ming said.”
“Humph, what ridiculous nonsense. Don’t record such a thing into a jade slip that you can tell is a lie just from hearing it!” White Brook flung out his hand and the jade slip powder shot out, smashing into the dense rock of the mountain and causing countless stones to fall. This movement also caused Xiao Raingem to tremble. She couldn’t help but think of what would have happened to her if that crushed jade slip powder had struck her instead…
“A lie just from hearing it? Why would Elder White say that?” Lin Ming calmly asked from beside Xiao Raingem, completely ignorant to White Brook’s aura.
This rhetorical question caused White Brook’s complexion to turn even gloomier. This was simply publicly doubting him!
Moreover, White Mirrorjade was a descendant of his White Family. If he really did collude with the Occult Bone Clan and Splintersoul Mountain, causing the deaths of so many geniuses of Carefree Island in these past years, that sort of charge was simply too dangerous! His White Family would not be able to withstand it!
How could White Brook possibly acknowledge this?
Lin Ming’s question wasn’t just questioning him, but also questioning White Mirrorjade and their entire White Family!
The White Family and the Xiao Family were the two most respected families of Carefree Island. Although the two were inextricably linked in countless ways, they also competed with each other. If the White Family truly had such a scandal, it would cause their reputation to come under an enormous impact!
“Just what are you? You dare to question me!?” As White Brook spoke, his vision nearly condensed into essence, turning into two sharp swords that thrust towards Lin Ming!
“Elder White, you – !” Xiao Skywhite didn’t think that White Brook would do something so suddenly. He was positioned behind White Brook, so he didn’t even have time to stop him!
As for the several Elders beside Lin Ming, all of them feared angering White Brook, thus they didn’t move to help. Moreover, White Brook didn’t use a truly substantive attack. This would only cause Lin Ming to suffer a bit. At most it would slightly injure his soul, but his life would be safe.
Xiu!
Lin Ming only felt as if two extremely two cold knives were pressed against his forehead. With just a slight move, these knives would penetrate through his mind.
This damned geezer!
Lin Ming fiercely grit his teeth. His mind sank into his spiritual sea. In the skies above his spiritual sea, the elementary gold grandmist battle spirit howled forth. At the same time, a substantialized battle spirit projection covered a 100 foot scope around Lin Ming, wrapping him with layers upon layers of armor.
Peng!
The world of will shattered, but White Brook’s sharp vision knives also melted away. In truth, it was impossible for a martial artist’s vision to become a true blade. White Brook’s vision was only dangerous because he had perfused it with his will. And in a battle of wills, Lin Ming wouldn’t even fear a Divine Lord level powerhouse.
“Mm? Gold battle spirit?”
All of the Elders present were highly knowledgeable and experienced masters; they easily recognized the world of will projection formed by a gold battle spirit.
White Brook’s vision swords were also a substantialized projection of his will, only that it was condensed into the shape of swords. As for Lin Ming, his will projection formed layers of shields around him, resisting the attack of these two vision swords!
Only a gold battle spirit could form a will projection and manifest into a will sword, will shield, will spear, and other such shapes to be used to attack and defend. They could even be formed into will tentacles, will nets, will threads, and other such shapes to affect the movement of an opponent, causing them to slip up in their attacks.
This was something that a bronze or silver battle spirit could not achieve. A bronze or silver battle spirit could only be poured into weapons, arrows, leaves, rocks or air, causing them to be filled with lethal killing power.
What Lin Ming displayed now was undoubtedly a gold battle spirit.
“Elementary gold battle spirit and it also has some strange attribute to it; this attribute is of an extremely high quality.”
“Lin Ming is only at the eighth stage of Life Destruction. I have no idea just how he managed to accomplish this.”
A gold battle spirit was rare, and a gold battle spirit with a special attribute was even rarer. Lin Ming’s battle spirit originally only contained the attribute of endlessness – it wasn’t particularly sharp. But, after being tempered in the grandmist space and soaked and stained with true grandmist energy, this caused his battle spirit to become incomparably dense. A single faint wisp of grandmist energy was heavier than a star. If this was used to concentrate one’s will, the effects could be imagined!
“Mm?” White Brook never thought that the will attack he wanted to use to cause Lin Ming a bit of suffering would actually be directly withstood by him. He didn’t use his complete force just now because he only wanted to punish Lin Ming for his rudeness. But now, his attack had failed. And with his cultivation, he certainly couldn’t raise his strength to attack Lin Ming again, or that would truly be shaming his status. “You’ve got guts!”
White Brook coldly said. Towards a junior like Lin Ming who was destined to be his enemy, the greater his talent was, the sooner he wished to finish him.
Lin Ming took several deep breaths and restored his faintly restless blood back to normal. He chuckled and said, “Elder White, you certainly don’t have to delve into what I am.”
These words were obviously filled with thorns. Ye Rosewater’s heart skipped a beat; she was beyond speechless.
Now that White Brook had crushed the jade slip, he wasn’t able to find out that Lin Ming was the one who attacked White Mirrorjade.
Ye Rosewater prayed, ‘Big brother, please don’t stimulate this old man any more!’
Xiao Raingem was winking at Lin Ming again and again, trying to catch his attention. But, Lin Ming didn’t seem to notice any of this at all. He said of his own volition, “Elder White, the sandstorm covered the skies and yet we were somehow ambushed in the mine. Do you think that this is a natural matter? If you insist that we do not have any evidence and that all we are saying is utter nonsense, is that because you have a guilty conscience and you fear that once these charges are verified, it will cause damage to the reputation of your White Family?”
“Impudent!” White Brook suddenly stepped forwards. The red mountain peak underneath him shook, nearly cracking in half. Lin Ming’s words had immediately aroused killing intent in White Brook’s heart.
But this time, Xiao Skywhite was already prepared. His body flashed and he appeared between Lin Ming and White Brook. “Elder White, please calm your anger. Lin Ming, be careful of your words!” Xiao Skywhite sternly said.