Chapter 1200 – Rescue
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“This is True Martial City…”
Lin Ming looked at the giant city before him. Compared to the broad and bustling Immemorial Imperial City, True Martial City seemed much smaller. But, the aura that this city emitted was actually far more suppressing than that of Immemorial Imperial City. Just the city walls of True Martial City were completely forged with saint artifact level metal, and with the massive arrays that powered it, it could be called indestructible!
Lin Ming spread out his divine sense. He discovered that there weren’t many masters around him. This was also quite normal. In most situations, the masters would be gathered at hunting grounds near the city with high level nightmare beasts. Or, they would be within the city itself. Currently, Lin Ming was still several hundred miles away from True Martial City, so there weren’t many martial artists nearby.
“At present, I should be ranked around 100-200 in this great world. After the second round of eliminations began, all of the nightmare beasts evolved and the merit points of the participants should also be increasing.”
Lin Ming thought out loud. He set forwards, deciding to enter the city and look for a residence to settle himself in before heading out again to hunt. But then, at this moment, he suddenly heard a violent explosion nearby. This explosion was deafening and rapid; it was clear that there was an intense collision of energy.
Lin Ming cast out his senses, searching for the collision point of energy in the sensory map of his mind. Five groups of lights appeared before him. Two groups of lights were a glossy gray, indicating nightmare beasts, and the other three masses of lights were mixed, indicating martial artists.
However, this situation was not one where martial artists were chasing down nightmare beasts, but where the nightmare beasts were chasing down the martial artists.
Of these three martial artists, there was one man and two women. They all wore similar long robes and held similar-looking top grade saint artifact long swords in their hands. One could see that they originated from the same sect. As for those martial artists who could bring a top grade saint artifact to participate in the First Martial Meeting, those were usually upper geniuses of Holy Land level influences. Their strength was passable.
These three martial artists were being chased down by two vulture-like nightmare beasts. The nightmare beasts were covered in black feathers and each had three heads. Each head had a massive protrusion of flesh on top and long beaks like sabers. Their necks had no feathers, exposing their sickly mottled yellow skin. They were extremely ugly creatures.
“Senior-apprentice Brother, we have to split up and escape!”
A yellow-robed junior-apprentice sister said, her face pale as she looked back towards the hideous nightmare beasts chasing after them. She was well aware in her heart that compared to these giant vulture beasts, the difference in their combined strength was simply too far from them. Those vulture beasts would only need to gently peck her to split apart her waist and cause all of her organs to fall out.
Although she knew she wouldn’t truly die, such a scene was simply the same as a living nightmare, because the feeling of dying was far too real. Moreover, in these past many days, they had gathered a great amount of merit points. If they died here, most of their merit points would be lost. And with their strength, passing through the brutal second round of eliminations was unlikely. If they died just one more time, they basically wouldn’t have any chance of passing anymore.
“Don’t split up. With two nightmare beasts, even if we split up at least two of us will die. And, the area around True Martial City is far too dangerous right now. If we split up then we’ll die even faster! We have to hurry up and fly towards True Martial City as fast as we can. As long as we can reach the city, the spells protecting it will drive away these two abominable nightmare beasts.”
As the yellow-clothed senior-apprentice brother spoke, he flew at an increasingly desperate speed. But at this moment, he discovered that not too far away, a blue-clothed youth was flying in his direction. His movements were light and unhurried and he seemed to be flying towards them.
This blue-clothed youth was Lin Ming.
“Someone’s here!”
The yellow-clothed youth was overjoyed as he saw Lin Ming speeding towards him. He didn’t think that Lin Ming could kill those horrendous nightmare beasts chasing them. This was because if those two nightmare beasts were changed into ranking participants of the True Martial Great World, they would be ranked between 10,000 and 100,000. They were extremely fierce creatures, and this was not a high level hunting field near True Martial City, so the chances of them meeting a master here weren’t high. The chances of them bumping into a top 10,000 ranked master here were simply impossibly slim.
However, if someone new arrived, there was always a chance to turn the tables. Even in a worst case situation, this new person should be able to divert the attention of the nightmare beasts.
“Friend, help! We are disciples of Five Flower Mountain! If you can rescue our lives, we will surely thank you again after this First Martial Meeting is over!”
As Lin Ming heard this man shouting towards him, he thought this was quite funny. In truth, within the Divine Dream World, it was already good enough if a participant didn’t kick another participant while they were down and take advantage of them, let alone going out of their way to save them. Everyone here was competing against each other, so wouldn’t it be foolish to save someone else? Of course, to Lin Ming, this man couldn’t be considered competition at all.
Lin Ming looked calm as he came to a halt. As the man saw Lin Ming’s posture, he was afraid that Lin Ming was underestimating these nightmare beasts and would be immediately killed. He frantically said, “Be careful! These two nightmare beasts came from Demon Sealing Ridge! They are extremely difficult to deal with! If you join forces with us, then we might be able to coordinate… and…”
Before the man could speak another word, a brilliant divine light tore through the horizon, so bright that it nearly blinded him.
That divine light blazed past his body at an incredible speed, nearly touching him. At the moment that this divine light came close to him, the man could feel every hair on his body stand up, making him feel incomparably cold as if he had fallen into the nine nether abyss.
A similar feeling also swelled up within the two yellow-clothed junior-apprentice sisters. The two of them were shocked as their entire bodies became slick with a nervous sweat.
But before they could even respond, two miserable screeches filled the air.
As the three people looked back, they were completely shocked. Behind them, the two vulture beasts had their six heads completely cut off. The wounds were simple and clean, without the least bit of waste in movement.
Peng! Peng!
The two nightmare beasts died. Their bodies fell down, disintegrating in midair and becoming pure dreamland energy that was absorbed by Lin Ming.
After seeing those two fierce and repugnant nightmare beasts instantly slain by Lin Ming, the youth gulped. He turned and looked towards Lin Ming with disbelief in his eyes. The two yellow-clothed girls’ jaws dropped and they were unable to react for some time.
They had actually struck the jackpot. The person they encountered was unexpectedly a top master. He was probably not ranked in the top 100,000 or even 10,000, but ranked in the top 1000. That meant he was someone who had an extremely high chance of passing the preliminaries.
“Thank you for the help, friend!”
The youth quickly cupped his hands together and bowed in respect. He had the happy expression of someone that had just survived a great catastrophe, as well a tint of embarrassment. He suddenly remembered that when he called out his background to this blue-clothed youth, that youth had probably thought he was a joke.
The two yellow-clothed girls also hurried to bow, showing their absolute respect to Lin Ming. This was to thank him for his help and also because they feared that Lin Ming would be displeased and kill them. Within the divine dream space, murder between participants was a common occurrence.
“Just a minor effort. I have some matters I would like to ask you though.” The reason that Lin Ming rescued these people was mainly because he wanted to gain some information on True Martial City. He had just arrived here so he had no understanding of the surrounding situation. For instance, how many masters were at True Martial City as well as where the hunting grounds with high level nightmare beasts were.
“Friend, please ask. I will try to answer as best as I can.”
“Mm. Let me ask you, how come two nightmare beasts of that rank were chasing you down near True Martial City?”
Lin Ming thought that this was strange. He was extremely close to True Martial City and yet such powerful nightmare beasts had appeared here. Out of 10,000 martial artists, 9999 of them might not be their match.
The youth ruefully smiled. He said, “It’s not as you think. We are at the eastern outskirts of True Martial City. Normally, there shouldn’t be any high level nightmare beasts gathered here. Thus, top masters rarely appear here. The nightmare beasts are extremely low level here, but they are more than enough for us three brothers and sisters to deal with. However, a few days ago, there was some change in Demon Sealing Ridge. A red-furred monster suddenly appeared. This red-furred monster is extremely strange but also unbelievably powerful. Not only does it kill participants but it also kills nightmare beasts. I heard that it wrested away a purple crystal from someone and evolved, but I’m not too sure what truly happened. But, in short, that mysterious red-furred monster exudes an aura that causes the high level nightmare beasts to dread it and run away. Because of the chaos over there, some high level nightmare beasts fled. Some of those high level nightmare beasts ran away to the lower level hunting grounds, and because of that, us insignificant martial artists are experiencing true misery.”
“Demon Sealing Ridge?”
“Yes… friend, you seem new to this area so you probably don’t know of Demon Sealing Ridge. Demon Sealing Ridge is 3000 miles southwest of True Martial City. It’s a long mountain range covered with towering trees and canyons and glens everywhere. There is also an extremely high concentration of high level nightmare beasts there. That is the hunting grounds that the top masters of True Martial City like the most. But now, because of that strange red-furred monster, there aren’t as many high level nightmare beasts in Demon Sealing Ridge. In addition to that, because of the threat that the red-furred monster poses, many masters have left Demon Sealing Ridge and have started hunting in the lower level areas.”
“I see…” Lin Ming said. He suddenly had an extremely strong interest in this Demon Sealing Ridge.
The yellow-clothed youth already guessed that Lin Ming would have this response. He warned with good intentions, “Friend, I know that you are extremely strong, but I urge you to reconsider it if you are planning to go to Demon Sealing Ridge. Right now, if you aren’t ranked in the top 100 of True Martial Great World, it will be hard for you to stay at Demon Sealing Ridge. And even if you are in the top 100, you will be instantly killed if you run into that red-furred monster. I estimate that only a top 10 ranked martial artist has the ability to preserve their life in front of that ruthless red-furred monster.”
To the yellow-clothed youth, a top 10 ranked character of a great world was simply a legend. Although Lin Ming had instantly killed those two nightmare beasts, that sort of action was still far from qualifying one as a top 10 ranked master of a great world.
Lin Ming faintly smiled, not explaining anything. He definitely wanted to go to Demon Sealing Ridge more and more.
The yellow-clothed youth saw that Lin Ming had no intention of heeding his advice, but there wasn’t anything else he could say. After all, they had only met by chance here. He cupped his fists together and said, “Friend, are you planning on entering the city? How about we go together?”
“Mm, I plan on finding a residence before heading back out to hunt.” Lin Ming casually said. The two girls were ecstatic upon hearing this. If Lin Ming was with them, this meant that they would be safe on their return trip. They had already changed their plans. Once they returned to the city, they would then trade locations for an even lower level hunting ground. The surrounding areas near here were becoming far too terrifying for them.