Chapter 1214 – The Last Round
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Time passed a day at a time. Five and a half months after the First Martial Meeting began, a new change occurred with the Divine Seal Decree.
As the ranking list that all the great influences of the Divine Realm were closely paying attention to, whenever there was the slightest disturbance in the Divine Seal Decree, this change would be instantly reported to the high level figures of all these influences. During this time, any unknown geniuses were slowly blooming into glory, entering the sights of these Divine Realm influences.
And the name that appeared this time was… ‘Fang’.
As a martial artist that also entered through the True Martial Great World, Fang had no known background. He was known as the king of all wandering martial artists.
Either way, he was either truly a wandering martial artist, or he came from a family that wanted to keep its status a secret, or he was one of the hidden disciples of a top supreme elder.
Fang was someone similar to Lin Ming, who had just risen into the spotlight. He was a dark horse that had surpassed everyone’s expectations.
Moreover, this dark horse was even darker than Lin Ming. In a single breath he had broken into the top 1000 ranks of the Divine Seal Decree and ended up at rank 997. He was undoubtedly the number one master of the True Martial Great World!
Fang’s appearance had completely overshadowed Lin Ming’s limelight.
At this time, Lin Ming’s highest rank was only around 3000. Compared to Fang’s top 1000 ranking, it was far worse. After all, the higher one went, the more difficult it was to rise in rank.
The top 1000 ranks of the Divine Seal Decree was a completely new boundary. After stepping into the top 1000 ranks, every character there was an incredible existence. Each of them was a peerless genius of their generation. If they went to a Holy Land, even the Holy Lord of that Holy Land would have to bow.
“This damned brat, he just came out of nowhere!”
As Huo Violentstone saw Fang overshadow Lin Ming on the True Martial Great World, he felt extremely unwell. Not only had Lin Ming’s ranking not increased lately, it was actually falling straight down, and had now fallen to lower than rank 8000 on the Divine Seal Decree.
This caused Huo Violentstone to feel even more ill. “That damned brat Lin Ming, is he spending his time taking a piss or something? Just what has he been doing all this time!?”
After Lin Ming killed Wu Finalcloud he didn’t go out to hunt for more dreamland energy, instead peacefully closing up in True Martial City. The dreamland energy that Wu Finalcloud had given him was far too rich. After Lin Ming brought the third divine dream mark to perfection, he refined the fourth divine dream mark until it was just a step away from perfection also.
“Recently… more and more people have died.”
Lin Ming looked up, seeing the souls constantly flying over his head and returning to True Martial City where they would be revived. More and more strong people began to die, many of them able to rank in the top 1000 martial artists of a great world. Of course, even after these people were killed several times they would still be able to easily pass through the elimination round and not be kicked out.
“There seem to be some changes in the outside world these days… I wonder just what is happening.”
Lin Ming thought out loud. He didn’t know that while he trained, the nightmare beasts outside the city had become increasingly brutal and monstrous. There were even mutated nightmare beasts that began appearing. After killing these nightmare beasts, one could obtain several million merit points. The martial artists whose merit points rapidly rose were mostly from killing these mutated nightmare beasts.
Of course, the strength of these mutated nightmare beasts had reached an unbelievable level. Even the top 20 ranked martial artists of a great world would die to these mutated nightmare beasts’ claws if they weren’t careful.
Although there were no permanent deaths in the dreamland space, the feeling of having their bodies shredded apart still left a lingering fear in the hearts of these participants!
Besides the mutated nightmare beasts, the red-furred monster that appeared at Demon Sealing Ridge and fought with Dragon Fang also appeared once more.
This monster had nearly infinite strength and its body was as hard as divine metal. Although it had vanished for over a dozen days, it had now reappeared. It killed multiple peak disciples of the True Martial Holy Lands, including the ranked seventh master, Wu Zhanfeng.
As this red-furred monster killed more and more participants, it grew increasingly strong. Just speaking of it caused one to pale in fear that they would go out and encounter it.
If one ran into a formidable participant, that person might not kill you. This was because participants with low merit points simply weren’t worth bothering. But, the red-furred monster was different. Anyone that ran into it would die. Even the rank seven master of a great world couldn’t escape from its claws after expending the entire arsenal of his martial arts, let alone anyone else.
The slaughter all over became increasingly fierce. And at this time, the six month deadline was drawing to an end. The third and final round of preliminary eliminations was finally approaching…
Elimination proportion: 999 out of every 1000 participants!
This number didn’t include the 99% elimination ratio of the first round of eliminations.
In the first two rounds of eliminations, there was only a single martial artist remaining from every 100,000.
To be able to stand out from 100,000 martial artists, the person able to do so was undoubtedly a genius amongst geniuses.
“My ranking had become fourth?”
After the six month deadline arrived, Lin Ming looked at his own ranking. He had already fallen to fourth place. However, he didn’t care too much about this. No matter what, he could still pass this screening round even if he sat here and closed his eyes.
“That Wu Finalcloud has likely caught back up already. Out of the two people that passed me, one should be Wu Finalcloud. With his strength, surpassing my merit points again shouldn’t be a problem. As for that other person… I wonder who he is? Perhaps it might be that Dragon Fang…”
In the Divine Dream World, one’s strength basically corresponded to one’s ranking. After one reached an appropriate ranking for their strength, it was extremely difficult to improve it any further.
At this time, in the skies of the Divine Dream World, a blinding light and a limitless energy fell down from the heavens, bringing with it a breathtaking pressure.
Many martial artists, once covered by this pressure, felt their bodies suddenly explode. They turned into countless spots of starlight before vanishing.
More and more martial artists blew up. All of the surrounding space was flooded with endless starlight. As for True Martial City, where most martial artists were gathered, the starlight filled the streets, making it seem as if a river of stars had fallen down unto the world.
After this second round of eliminations, out of the over 2 trillion plus participants of the First Martial Meeting that signed up in the True Martial Great World, only 20 million remained.
In the first and second rounds of eliminations, there would be many martial artists with low merit points that other martial artists wouldn’t even bother to kill. But when the third round of eliminations started, all those with low merit points would have been eliminated, and those remaining would have a considerable number of merit points. This would cause the ferocity and brutal nature of this tournament to rise to another level, because those remaining would have millions of merit points. Killing another participant would give quite a large number of merit points.
Carnage, blood, cruelty, the entire True Martial Great World was destined to become an Asura battlefield with endless slaughter.
After two hours’ time, the second round of eliminations finally ended. All participants that lacked merit points turned into starlight that faded away to nothing. These people were all returned to the real world, ejected to a place 10,000 miles away from the Divine Dream Light.
And at this time, a voice like billowing thunder spread through all 3000 great worlds of the Divine Dream World. This was the voice of Empyrean Vast Universe; only an Empyrean was able to project a sound transmission to the entire Divine Realm.
“The third round, and the final round of the preliminaries, will now begin. As long as you can pass through this third round of eliminations, you shall pass the preliminaries! From this point on, the rules have changed. Slaughter is no longer forbidden within the city limits. Now, all of you… enjoy this grand slaughterfest to your heart’s content!”
Empyrean Vast Universe’s words were brief and succinct. However, they left an enormous mental impact upon the countless remaining participants.
During this third round of eliminations, the cities would no longer be safe!
For the last three months, everyone knew that the slaughter between participants and the slaughter between participants and nightmare beasts would rise to a horrendous level. But now, everyone also learned that not even the boundaries of the cities would be safe. There would be no place for the weak to take shelter! In every great world, the entire great world would be completely turned into a battlefield!
“If the city isn’t safe then where can we go to rest?”
“In the open wild? But the wild has nightmare beasts, and one doesn’t need to be a genius to know that after the third round begins, these nightmare beasts will be several times more formidable than before. I fear that we will die and die again until we can’t even become ghosts…”
As the martial artists who barely squeezed into the third round of eliminations heard this new change, they felt the mood become extremely heavy and their hearts thick with tension.
Even if this wasn’t true death, having to die every day for three months wasn’t something to be happy about.
However, those martial artists that were confident in their own strength were left hopping with excitement.
“How interesting!”
“Hahaha! I want to see how all those people that offended me and ran to hide in the city will continue to hide!”
“Kill! Kill! Kill until pleasure overtakes us!”
During this third round of eliminations, the incredibly brutal competition caused the blood of many powerhouses to bubble over with elation.
As soon as Empyrean Vast Universe’s voice faded away, countless violent fluctuations of energy erupted from all over True Martial City. These loud rumbling sounds were mixed in with the screams and cries of martial artists. It was clear that there was a number of people that had already begun fighting!
At the same time, there were martial artists that began fleeing from True Martial City. While there were nightmare beasts in the wild, looking for a discrete valley to hide in was much safer than staying in True Martial City.
Lin Ming stood up from his stone bed and walked out of his seclusion chambers. He could feel the air sweet with the scent of blood and thick with killing intent. As he looked into the skies, he could see that the endless starlight had disappeared. Stacks of dark clouds filled the skies and a strong desolate wind howled through the city.
After Lin Ming appeared, many participants noticed him. Upon recognizing him they all began to run in droves, in fear of being casually killed off by him.
Lin Ming had no interest in these small fries. He released his sense and used his understanding of the Divine Dream Law to search for all nearby powerful dreamland energy. After practicing the Divine Dream Law for some more time, Lin Ming’s sense could already cover a 500 mile radius.
But as soon as Lin Ming investigated the nearby situation, his complexion changed. Within the sensory field of his mind, besides those rainbow-hued groups of energy scattered throughout True Martial City that symbolized other participants, he could also sense that several hundred miles outwards, all around him, there was an inexhaustible amount of dreamland energy gathering together.
This dreamland energy was like a vast tsunami that was rushing forwards with an incredible speed, hurtling towards True Martial City. This tsunami of dreamland energy covered the skies, masking the world, endless and infinite; it was unknown just how much there was!
Were these nightmare beasts!?!?
Lin Ming was suddenly shocked. From their color, the massive amount of dreamland energy had to represent nightmare beasts, but how could there be so many?
Lin Ming flew into the skies, looking out as far as he could see. As he saw the sight around him he sucked in a breath of cold air. On the distant horizon, he could make out a black sea that was surging towards him: an endless black sea of nightmare beasts. This black sea spread out for thousands upon thousands of miles; there were hundreds of millions of nightmare beasts!
These nightmare beasts were all rushing towards True Martial City!