Chapter 1464 – Insurmountable
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“These two characters…”
Imperial Prince Naqi rubbed his chin, intently staring at the Lin and Xian characters. Most of the marks on the Emperor Stone exuded the atmosphere of countless years, but these two characters seemed quite new, as if they were just carved in.
“How interesting.”
Imperial Prince Naqi grinned. The ‘Lin’ character reminded him of a certain someone.
Of course, he couldn’t confirm this at all.
“Wasn’t it said that leaving behind a name on the highest point of the Emperor Stone was extremely difficult? That to do so perfectly was something that couldn’t even occur in a hundred million years? These types of rumors were passed down about the Emperor Stone, but those two characters up there are clearly recently carved in. It seems this Emperor Stone is also mediocre.”
Naqi chuckled. He was considered knowledgeable about the geniuses of humanity. He suspected that the Lin character was left behind by Lin Ming, and that the Xian character might be from Xiao Moxian. During the great battle at the Chaotic Blood Continent, Naqi hadn’t seen Xiao Moxian; he had only heard that she had excellent talent.
Thinking about it, Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian’s current cultivation was suitable for adventuring through the Asura Road. If Lin Ming were to have entered the Asura Road directly after their battle at Chaotic Blood Continent, then he wouldn’t find that strange at all.
Since Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian were both able to leave behind their name at the highest point at the Emperor Stone, and also do so perfectly, Naqi was fully confident he could easily accomplish the same.
After all, although he had lost to Lin Ming during their showdown at the Chaotic Blood Continent, Naqi still wasn’t fully convinced of his loss. The truth was that from beginning to end, Lin Ming had not been able to suppress him. In fact, at the very final stages of their battle, he had faintly suppressed Lin Ming.
It was only that at the most critical moment, Lin Ming had summoned forth that strange stone gate during his attack, causing him to directly impact into it. Not only did crashing into that stone gate heavily wound Naqi to the point of vomiting blood but it also caused the tide of the battle to reverse. If that hadn’t happened, Imperial Prince Naqi had full confidence he could have obtained victory at the end.
After all, in terms of endurance, Naqi had absolute confidence in himself as a body transformation martial artist.
In this sort of situation, he believed that whether it was talent, potential, or strength, he far surpassed Lin Ming. If Lin Ming were able to perfectly leave his name upon the Emperor Stone then there was no need to mention himself.
Moreover, even that woman Xiao Moxian had done it. This proved that the Emperor Stone mission wasn’t too difficult. Although Imperial Prince Naqi had never seen Xiao Moxian before, just the rumors he had heard weren’t enough to prove to him that her talent surpassed Lin Ming’s.
“Haha, what Your Highness says is right. I think that this Emperor Stone seems as if it’s especially prepared for you. Your Highness has the title of Imperial Prince, and this is the Emperor Stone. If Your Highness isn’t able to perfectly leave your name atop it then the words Emperor Stone are really useless after all!”
“Once Your Highness decides to go I’m sure there will be immediate success!” Some of Naqi’s subordinates started to flatter him.
As for those people that were watching from far away, they felt contempt in their heart as they heard this. After being rudely driven out by this new group of people, all they had were criticisms in their hearts.
“Really, it’s as if he isn’t scared his tongue will be cut by the wind. It’s as if he thinks leaving a name upon the Emperor Stone is some sort of fun little game.”
“They might have seen the perfect marks that that man and woman left on the Emperor Stone, thus they think it’s simple to do the same. In fact, I am willing to bet that the couple from yesterday were monstrous geniuses amongst all monstrous geniuses. Hehe, I can’t wait for these people to fail.”
Several martial artists were secretly discussing amongst themselves with true essence sound transmissions. They definitely didn’t dare to say these words out loud. In the Asura Road where there were countless masters all around, a few unwise words could easily cost someone their life.
However, just as they were speaking, that white-clothed martial artist amongst the group of newcomers looked over at them. He smiled as he pointed a finger at them and hooked it in a ‘come here’ gesture, almost making them faint from fear.
“Damn! Did he hear our sound transmission!?”
“No way! Calm down! When has it been easy to hear true essence sound transmission?”
Several martial artists paled. They began to walk towards Imperial Prince Naqi with some trepidation.
“The lot of you, I want to ask you something. The two that left behind their names on the Emperor Stone, was it a man and a woman?” Naqi asked.
The martial artists that were questioned immediately nodded. They told Imperial Prince Naqi what they knew about the couple’s appearance.
“The young man had a yellow complexion and his looks were ordinary…”
Imperial Prince Naqi traced his chin. This description clearly didn’t match with Lin Ming, but there was always the possibility that he had used an appearance changing technique. For someone like Lin Ming who had such a sensitive status, doing so would allow him to travel through the Asura Road in a much safer manner.
“Mm, very good, now all of you can screw off!” Imperial Prince Naqi demonically grinned. With a sudden punch of his fists, a crazy surge of astral essence erupted, recklessly impacting outwards. As this astral essence crashed into the martial artists they shook and cried out in pain as they were sent flying away.
Rumble rumble rumble!
Three people landed against giant boulders and broke them into pieces upon impact. They were wounded all over, continuously throwing up blood.
Uhyak!
The martial artists crawled up to their feet, continuing to vomit blood with bits of their organs mixed within it. Imperial Prince Naqi only sneered as he saw this.
“What were you all talking about just now? Don’t you understand that loose tongues lead to trouble?”
Imperial Prince Naqi’s words caused all the surrounding martial artists to fall silent! In fact, the people who were speaking amongst themselves were more than those three still crawling up on their bellies. Most of the people here still thought it was nothing more than a dream for Imperial Prince Naqi to perfectly leave his name upon the Emperor Stone.
Now that they saw what a tragic state those three martial artists had ended up in, all of them were secretly rejoicing that they hadn’t had the bad luck to be chosen.
In truth, Imperial Prince Naqi hadn’t heard what these people were speaking about in true essence sound transmissions; he simply didn’t have the ability to do so. But just by looking at the mocking and disdainful glances everyone was sending his way he could approximate what they were speaking about. In particular, the astonished looks on their faces as he called them out confirmed this.
“Lo-Lord, please forgive this lowly one… this lowly one had eyes but couldn’t see Mount Tai. Please treat us like a fart and ignore us.”
Although several martial artists hated Naqi to the extreme, they had no choice but to beg for mercy. As people who survived in the Asura Road, they knew when they had to lower their heads, otherwise they would have died a long time ago.
“Rejoice that I don’t want to waste my time killing you all. I will forgive your dog lives because I want you all to look and personally see just how shallow your experience is!”
As Naqi spoke, he turned his gaze to Precipice Cliff. As he looked upwards, he could see the Emperor stone. Then, a smile appeared on his lips. He had just thought of an excellent idea.
“Mister Zhou, I heard leaving a name upon the Emperor Stone is equal to obtaining the approval of all the outstanding heroic young elites of the past and even obtaining the support of their destiny. Is that true?”
The old World King near Naqi respectfully replied, “That is what it is reported to be like.”
“Mm, very good. Then if that’s the case, before I leave behind my name I will destroy the two characters they left and leave my own name in their positions!”
As Naqi spoke, a fiendish smile lit up his face. If one could leave marks on the Emperor Stone then one could naturally also ruin the marks left behind by others. Of course, doing this was several times more difficult!
“My road of becoming a great emperor will start here!”
As Naqi spoke, his body soared upwards. His movements were smooth and elegant, like a piece of cloud being blown upwards by the wind.
The pressure that surrounded Precipice Cliff wasn’t able to affect Imperial Prince Naqi at all.
“Awesome!”
“His Highness is so fierce!”
Many martial artists cheered from the base of Precipice Cliff, obsequiousness thick in their voices. It had to be known that Imperial Prince Naqi was someone who would become at least an extreme Empyrean in the future and he even had a chance of becoming a True Divinity. In the Good Fortune Holy Land, even the statuses of Great World Kings were far lower than his own.
Imperial Prince Naqi shot upwards like an ascending meteor. He had already flown 30 miles high.
The pressure here still wasn’t able to hinder his movements. With a smile on his face he easily broke through 33 miles.
It was only at this time that Naqi felt a considerable amount of pressure.
“Now it’s getting interesting.”
Naqi smiled.
34 miles, 35 miles, he soon rushed to the height where the Emperor Stone was. But here, the pressure suddenly rose astronomically!
“Mm!?”
Naqi frowned. The pressure of the Emperor Stone had suddenly increased by several times.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!
Naqi’s joints emitted explosive popping sounds. He was using the saint race’s body metamorphosis.
However, the higher he went the more terrifyingly fast the pressure increased. This was a nearly exponential growth!
As he flew to the center of the Emperor Stone, Naqi had no choice but to use his second body metamorphosis!
Curved horns jutted out from his head and a pair of demon wings unfurled from his back. The pressure here had already exceeded his expectations. This pressure was left behind by numerous unrivalled geniuses of the last several hundred millions of years that had carved their name onto the Emperor Stone. This included the auras of Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian. The aura that they left within the Emperor Stone also became a part of the pressure!
“What is this!?”
Naqi’s complexion immediately changed!
Pressure fell like a torrential storm all over his body. He could even feel that he was nearing his limit!
This was especially true for Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian’s auras. Because they had just left behind their names, the pressure from their auras was extremely strong. Naqi could even faintly feel the power that belonged to Lin Ming.
“Is it really him!?”
Naqi grit his teeth and forcefully impacted upwards. He never thought that after such a short period of time, he would be using this sort of method to compete with Lin Ming!
The flavor of Lin Ming’s aura was as heavy as grandmist energy. As it covered his body it felt like a 100,000 foot high mountain was pressing down on him, crushing him. This was an extremely horrifying weight!
As for Xiao Moxian’s aura, it was slightly lighter, but lighter didn’t mean it was easier to withstand. As her aura covered him, it was like 10,000 flames ignited throughout his body, causing him to be wracked with agony.
At this time, Naqi was only 200-300 feet from the highest point of the Emperor Stone. But, this 200-300 feet had become a nearly insurmountable moat!
If he wanted to leave behind his name at this height, it would still be easy for Naqi to do so. However, he had bravely boasted in front of everyone and wasn’t willing to take back his words in embarrassment and shame. He summoned up more astral essence, forcefully pushing himself up another 100 feet!
Imperial Prince stepped on the Emperor Stone for leverage. But every time he did, all the flesh and blood in his body seemed as if it would rupture. His blood wildly tumbled in his body, making him feel like he was going to explode into a puddle of goo at any moment.
Naqi grit his teeth and shot up another 100 feet.
Pa pa pa!
Blood vessels burst open on Naqi’s arms and wings. His body shook and blood started leaking from the corners of his mouth.
“How could this be!?”
Naqi wasn’t convinced. It was fine if Lin Ming did it alone, but even that woman Xiao Moxian had left behind her name on the crown of the Emperor Stone. Now, he couldn’t do the same!
Looking upwards at the top of the Emperor Stone, the Lin and Xian characters hung high above him, aloof and distant, their strokes smooth and forceful. When he looked up at these characters from the base of Precipice Cliff, Naqi had never felt such a distance between them. But now, he wasn’t able to overtake these last 100 feet.