Chapter 1188 – Declaration of War
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Hu –
Lin Ming fell from the sky, officially stepping into Nightmare Canyon.
In this canyon, besides massive mushrooms that rose up like giant umbrellas into the sky, there was no vegetation. These mushrooms were vividly colored and emitted a touch of faint light. They seemed to be extremely toxic.
Walking through this mushroom jungle, one could see hard black rocks all around. Many of these rocks were cracked apart and stained red with blood.
After the nightmare beasts died, their corpses would vanish. Only a fraction of their blood would be left over. These blood stains were actually condensed from dreamland energy and didn’t have enough time to dissipate yet.
As Lin Ming travelled deeper into the canyon, there began to appear signs of slaughter. The signs became increasingly bloody and intense.
Massive fissures, crushed rocks, shattered mountains, and all sorts of broken saint artifacts were stabled into hard stone, shocking and alarming.
The rocks of Nightmare Canyon were over a hundred times harder than steel. Only like this could the terrain barely hold its shape in the intense explosions of true essence. Otherwise, Nightmare Canyon likely wouldn’t even exist anymore.
The howling wind in the canyon was as sharp as knives. It became increasingly violent, rushing over Lin Ming’s flapping clothing.
The light was dim and monochromatic. Only a faint star light trickling down from above illuminated the canyon floor. But for a martial artist, the amount of light didn’t matter!
Roar! Roar! Roar!
In the darkness, the cries of nightmare beasts came surging out, shaking the earth like rolling thunder claps. Just from listening to these roars, one could sense that these nightmare beasts were extraordinary.
“Mm?”
Lin Ming’s thoughts stirred. He suddenly felt several deep killing intents locking onto him. He maintained his composure as he traced his spatial ring, spreading his senses throughout the darkness. He could see that 100 feet away, hidden within a outcrop of black rocks, four people were hiding. They were only waiting for someone to cross their path to start their ambush.
At this time, these four people were talking to each other. “A fresh face! I have no idea who it is!”
“It should be a newbie. Dinner has finally arrived, boys!”
These people rapidly spoke with true essence sound transmissions. After staying in Nightmare Canyon for long enough, they knew who they could provoke and who they had to evade. In Nightmare Canyon, disputes weren’t randomly created. As for World King Holy Land peak geniuses like Sacred Martial Mansion’s three prodigies, they inevitably stood at the peak of the food chain here. No one dared to have any ideas of messing with them.
At the same time, the World King Holy Land geniuses wouldn’t go and kill other participants. This was because their merit points were far higher than everyone else here, and with the rules in place, killing other people wasn’t too meaningful. For most situations, the many participants in Nightmare Canyon could maintain a tenuous balance.
The area one had for hunting was divided by strength. The stronger one was, the greater their hunting grounds were and the higher its quality.
But once a newbie arrived, this tenuous balance would shatter momentarily. There would always be people that took these newcomers as delicious delicacies.
“Hide your aura. Once he approaches us, we’ll ambush him!”
“Okay. There’s four of us against one of him; we should be able to instantly kill him. I wonder how many merit points he has. If it’s less than 100,000, that’d be boring. After being reduced by the rules, the four of us won’t gain much at all.”
“For someone to dare come to Nightmare Canyon, they should have some skill. I just hope they aren’t some random idiot that stumbled into here.”
As the four martial artists were waiting to ambush Lin Ming, their complexions suddenly changed. A horrifying killing intent overwhelmed the world and came crashing down on them. A deep red spear cut through the darkness like a hidden snake, aiming straight at their throats!
“Be careful!”
The four martial artists fell into a perilous situation. They realized they had made a grave mistake!
Their opponent had discovered their ambush ahead of time and even instantly launched such a savage and crazy attack.
“Attack!” the leader of the four martial artists shouted out at once. However, their joined efforts were useless. They felt the energy within their bodies rapidly fade away, leaving them unable to summon any strength. A brilliant red light flashed past their vision as an icy cold feeling cut across their necks, leaving blood splashing onto the ground.
They suddenly felt their consciousnesses being pulled away.
They had already felt this sensation of death more than once before.
In fact, in the life or death slaughter field of Nightmare Canyon, most people had already died several times.
Lin Ming pulled back the Phoenix Blood Spear. He had only used a single spear strike just now, clean and neat!
There was still a martial artist that hadn’t yet died. He groaned in pain, never thinking that this newbie would actually be so fierce. They all had a faint understanding of the ridiculously terrifying people near Immemorial Imperial City, but they had never heard of this young man! Did he come from another city? Their luck was truly shitty!
But with their merit points, even if they were killed several times over they could still make it through the first round of eliminations. There was always hope for more chances in the future.
“Killing these people doesn’t even give much merit points. The suppression of the rules is truly ruthless,” Lin Ming thought out loud. He didn’t even bother using the dreamland energy of these martial artists.
“Oh, one hasn’t died yet.” Lin Ming walked up and squatted down, asking this person who was choking on his own blood, “Tell me, are the three prodigies of Sacred Martial Mansion deeper inside?”
“You… idiot… looking for… Sacred Martial Mansion’s three prodigies… is looking for death, hehe…” As the martial artist spoke, blood constantly bubbled out from between his lips. He hadn’t attended Immemorial Imperial City’s auction, so he didn’t recognize Lin Ming. He only thought that Lin Ming was a participant from another city that had come to challenge Sacred Martial Mansion’s three prodigies.
“You don’t have to worry about me. If you aren’t going to speak, make sure you never leave the city. If I see you, I’ll kill you.” Lin Ming put a foot down on the martial artist’s chest and pushed down. The martial artist hasped, his entire body twitching as more blood gushed out from his mouth.
“They… are… inside…”
“Good… oh, and I have one more question. Why did you try and ambush me? Do you think you can just ambush every participant that enters Nightmare Canyon?” Although Lin Ming didn’t hear the true essence sound transmissions the four martial artists exchanged, his soul perception was extremely sharp, becoming even more and more profound as his understandings into the Divine Dream Law deepened. There was no way he would mistake the killing intent those four had.
“It’s because… you’re a fresh face…”
“I see.”
Lin Ming loosened his foot.
A fresh face meant a fat sheep? Well, that was understandable. It seemed that if he wanted to travel deeper into Nightmare Canyon, he would have to spend a really long time doing so. Not only would he need to fight nightmare beasts, but he also had to face the ambush of all the participants along the way. Although Lin Ming didn’t fear these people, fighting all of them would take up his time.
His time was extremely precious!
Currently, Lin Ming’s merit point ranking was only secondary to him. The main reason he wanted to kill people was to wrest away their dreamland energy, allowing him to continue perceiving the Divine Dream Law.
With a transcendent divine might placed right in front of him, he had to grasp this chance no matter what the situation was like. In order to maximize the amount of time he could perceive it, he would need to make full use of every breath of time in the Divine Dream World.
Lin Ming kicked the half dead trial challenger out of the way. He peered deep into the dark depths of Nightmare Canyon and summoned a burst of true essence.
He shouted out as loud as he could, “Sacred Martial Mansion’s three prodigies! Come out!”
After he poured his energy into his voice, it produced a riotous shockwave that crashed deep into the canyon. Wherever this sonic blast passed, rocks would shatter.
“Come out!”
“Come out!”
“Come out!”
The titanic voice echoed through Nightmare Canyon. It was especially resounding as it reflected against the rocky walls.
In that moment, nearly every participant in Nightmare Canyon heard this shout.
They were all left in a startled daze. Who was this person that dared to be so arrogant!?
“Someone is challenging Sacred Martial Mansion’s three prodigies!”
“Is it Zhong Wenshu? Is it that bamboo hat woman?”
“Are you an idiot? That is clearly a man’s voice, and how could it possibly be Zhong Wenshu? If he faced off against any of Sacred Martial Mansion’s three prodigies in a one versus one, he might have the advantage. But if he were to face off against all three, his only choice would be too escape. Don’t forget that those three all come from a World King Holy Land. You don’t have to be a genius to know that they can definitely form an array on the battlefield!”
“That’s right, a battle array!”
Once those three formed a battle array, their strength wouldn’t be as simple as adding them up together. Instead, their strength would multiply!
Perhaps even a master from the True Martial Holy Lands would dread them!
If someone knew this but still dared to challenge them, they had to be either a retard or a truly ferocious individual.
“Perhaps it isn’t just one person challenging Sacred Martial Mansion’s three prodigies, but a group?”
“Maybe. Let’s go and have a look. It might be someone from another city. After all, True Martial Great World has more than just Immemorial Imperial City!”
Many participants were interested in watching this battle. They all began to make their way toward the direction of the voice. Among these people, there was a red-clothed woman.
Her figure was slender and shapely, and she wore a wide bamboo hat on her head. Her appearance was completely covered up, but her voice was harsh and gravelly. “How interesting. If I’m not wrong, it’s that man’s voice. Ten days from now I planned on challenging all of you one at a time to prove I’m the strongest one here, but I never thought you would be the first to issue this challenge. This is also fine. I want to take a good look and see just what qualifications you have to be so confident and dare to face Sacred Martial Mansion’s three prodigies.”
The red-clothed bamboo hat woman was extremely fast. She hurtled toward the opening of Nightmare Canyon like a straight white beam of light.
“Big Brother, did you hear that? Someone came here to challenge us!”
As the flame-haired Sacred Yueping heard Lin Ming’s voice, he chuckled, “How amusing. We’ve been in the Divine Dream World for so long and yet this is the first time someone has challenged us!”
“Listening to that voice, he sounds like that little fellow who bought the Boundless World Pill. How humorous. After he entered the Divine Dream World, he holed himself up in Immemorial Imperial City for over two months and when he finally decided to come out of his shell, the first thing he does is look for us. What confidence!” Sacred Yanran softly said from the side. Her beautiful face was filled with all sorts of devilish expressions.
“Come, let’s go and meet him! He came at just the right time. But we shouldn’t underestimate him. This boy likely stumbled on some great lucky chance,” Sacred Tianhao said, rubbing his chin.
“Humph, for those that have entered the First Martial Meeting, just who hasn’t encountered their own lucky chance? To have a lucky chance or two isn’t strange at all. The key point is one’s own talent. Come, let’s go and meet that crazy brat. If he didn’t look for me, I would’ve looked for him. I’m still waiting to get back at him for that insult at the Imperial City Auction,” Sacred Yueping said with loathing in his voice. He was still simmering over that disastrous defeat he suffered at the Imperial City Auction.
The three martial artists put away their weapons and flew straight toward the entrance of Nightmare Canyon.