Chapter 1491 – To Shake A Tree With A Gust Of Wind
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Although Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian were exhausted, they could clearly feel that their soul force had increased. This sort of savage method of tempering the soul caused nearly unimaginable pain, but the effects were wondrous. There was no soul medicine that could compare to these advantages.
Moreover, the key was that soul medicines could only be taken once and would be greatly weakened every time after. But as for this type of soul grinding cultivation, it could be repeated however many times it was needed.
“Thank you, Senior.”
Lin Ming held his fists together, giving thanks from his heart. As he looked at Empyrean Divine Mist in that purple crystal, Lin Ming was actually startled. He didn’t know whether it was an illusion or not, but he could feel that after Empyrean Divine Mist used that arcane technique just now, he had become even weaker than before.
“This sort of arcane technique, could it have consumed Empyrean Divine Mist’s soul force…”
Lin Ming immediately thought to himself. “Senior, you…”
“I’m fine.” Empyrean Divine Mist closed his eyes. After a moment of silence he reopened them, saying, “Since I have decided to guide you, there is no need for you to express any sense of gratitude towards me, nor do I need you to worry for me. The reason I’ve done what I did is because I didn’t wish for the secret legacy techniques of my soul race to be lost under my hand…
“Although I do not believe you have any chance of escaping from Tragic Death Valley, at the very least, with your outstanding talent you will be able to survive the demonic tides. Without a doubt, you will die after I die, and when I die, the legacy of my inheritance will not be broken. I can rest peacefully with that knowledge…”
Empyrean Divine Mist deeply sighed. Even if Lin Ming could survive the demonic tides, he didn’t believe at all that Lin Ming could escape Tragic Death Valley because his cultivation was simply far too low.
“You may leave now. I must rest… ten days later, seek me out once more. I shall guide your soul forging technique!”
Empyrean Divine Mist said, before falling into silence.
For the next ten days, Lin Ming went back to the cliff above the God Beast Tomb once more. He sat in meditation, perceiving the array formation and dao patterns that the Asura Road Master had left behind in the emperor jade again.
As he constantly meditated on these dao patterns, Lin Ming discovered that after undergoing that tribulation of soul tempering, not only had his soul force increased, but the speed at which he would able to perceive the array formation had become even faster. He could deduce more and more in his mind.
In these ten days, Lin Ming perceived what would have taken him 15-16 days in the past!
This was an astonishing increase! It had to be known that Lin Ming would also cultivate his soul in the future and also study soul forging arts. In the future, the speed at which he perceived the array formation would be much faster than it was now.
Lin Ming didn’t think that whetting his soul would give him such pleasant surprises. Otherwise, who knew how long it would have taken him to see through this God Beast Tomb. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if he had to spend 20 some years here. To Lin Ming, that was far too long a time.
Ten days later, Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian returned to Empyrean Divine Mist’s cave dwelling as promised. This time, they didn’t grind their souls. Rather, under Empyrean Divine Mist’s direction, they began to study the soul forging Laws.
Empyrean Divine Mist had extremely high attainments in the aspect of soul force; in this, he even surpassed Divine Dream. If Lin Ming had a question, Empyrean Divine Mist would answer it with the complete breadth of his knowledge, fully sharing everything he knew.
Empyrean Divine Mist’s words could be described as utter truths with profound meanings behind them, always directed to the essence of the matter. In the past, Lin Ming had never experienced such guidance before.
Let alone Lin Ming, not even Xiao Moxian had been accompanied by an Empyrean level character and tutored for every hour of the day with all questions answered. After all, whether it was the Monster Emperor or Empyrean Demondawn, they both had their own matters to attend to, such as creating pills, cultivating, refining tools, or perfecting their individual inheritances; it was naturally impossible for them to follow Xiao Moxian in particular.
Before, Lin Ming had once studied the Divine Dream Law in Divine Dream Heavenly Palace for a year. But in this year, although Lin Ming had perceived things on his own, he hadn’t even seen Empyrean Divine Dream at all. It wasn’t because Empyrean Divine Dream was purposefully ignoring Lin Ming, but because she simply had far too many matters to attend to. With the great calamity of humanity arriving, Empyrean Divine Dream had to fully invest herself in breaking through to the True Divinity realm, so how could she continuously worry about Lin Ming?
Learning on his own was completely different from having the guidance of a top master. This was especially true for Lin Ming, who was profoundly inexperienced about the soul forging system; he needed a good teacher to guide his road.
Like this, Lin Ming continued to study and cultivate. Empyrean Divine Mist did nothing but spend all his time wholeheartedly directing Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian. As for Empyrean Divine Mist himself, he indeed had nothing beyond this that he could do.
Thus, two months of time passed.
Besides cultivating, Lin Ming spent the rest of his time perceiving the array formation. As time passed, he gained an increasingly deep understanding of the God Beast Tomb that the Asura Road Master had arranged. As his soul force continued to rise, Lin Ming would gain new insights each time.
On this day, Empyrean Divine Mist had finally saved up enough energy in preparation to help Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian whet their souls once more.
This time, before the grinding process even began, Xiao Moxian simply held onto Lin Ming’s hand.
Lin Ming felt a bit embarrassed. He looked at Xiao Moxian, not sure what to say.
As Xiao Moxian caught Lin Ming’s glance she blushed slightly, feeling a bit awkward. But soon enough she gave a snort and deliberately used an indifferent tone to haughtily say, “What are you looking at anyways? It’s just holding hands a few times, there’s no need to be so affected by how strange you think it is.”
Lin Ming nodded and embarrassedly traced his nose before turning back. In truth, when he held hands with Xiao Moxian, he was the one who obtained more benefits.
Then, the soul whetting training began.
With the previous time’s experience, Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian found it a bit easier to withstand the agonizing pain. Even so, Empyrean Divine Mist seemed to purposefully increase the intensity of this grinding. After the process was finished, the two were still completely exhausted and near the point of fainting!
Lin Ming rested for a full hour before he was able to catch his breath. As he looked at Empyrean Divine Mist, he discovered that his complexion was even paler than before and his soul aura had greatly weakened.
“Senior, your body…” Lin Ming was able to confirm that every time this arcane technique was used, it would place a massive burden on Empyrean Divine Mist’s soul force!
“You leave now. Seek me out again ten days later. There is no need for you to worry about me… to me, living an extra year or dying a year early doesn’t mean anything at all.”
Lin Ming fell into silence as he heard Empyrean Divine Mist’s words. He simply had no idea what to say. He quietly returned to the nearby cliff and began to perceive the God Beast Tomb once more.
Days passed like this, one after another.
Cultivating, whetting, perceiving…
Although these days seemed boring and dull, Lin Ming was actually completely investing his heart and mind into it.
There was no separation of night or day in Tragic Death Valley. If Lin Ming carefully kept a record then he could remember the time and date, but if he invested himself thoroughly in training then it was easy to lose track of time.
Lin Ming was in a trance. Without feeling the passing of years, his hair grew increasingly long, nearly reaching his waist. As for Xiao Moxian’s hair, it flowed down like a luxurious and incomparably beautiful black waterfall, nearly touching the ground.
As he and Xiao Moxian trained, their cultivations nearly reached the peak of the late Divine Transformation realm. They were only a single step away from breaking through to the Divine Lord realm!
Divine Transformation to Divine Lord was a large step. Many martial artists of the Divine Realm had to use hundreds of years or even thousands of years to break through it. Even Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian were unable to accomplish this overnight, but needed a massive amount of accumulations.
Pah!
Shimmering silver white blood spewed forth from Empyrean Divine Mist’s mouth, spraying onto the purple crystal and dyeing it in shards of broken silver.
Many spiritas had silver blood that shined like liquid mercury.
“Senior!”
Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian cried out in alarm. After finishing the soul grinding just now, Empyrean Divine Mist had spat out a mouthful of blood. He had clearly consumed far too much energy and had even damaged his life source.
With a series of sharp sounds, cracks began to spread all over the purple crystal that held Empyrean Divine Mist. These cracks had been there already, but now they had widened, making it seem as if the purple crystal would shatter at any moment.
“I’m fine. I understand… my own body… well enough…”
Empyrean Divine Mist’s voice was weak and faint. The purple crystal he sealed himself in was in truth a top grade soul crystal, similar to humanity’s nine sun jades.
This soul crystal was used to maintain Empyrean Divine Mist’s vitality. Once it completely shattered, it would be difficult for Empyrean Divine Mist to continue going on. Even if he barely managed to survive, he wouldn’t be able to withstand another eruption of the demonic tide.
In terms of strength, the current Empyrean Divine Mist wasn’t necessarily a match for even an ordinary World King!
“Senior, you have reached your limit. You cannot help us with the soul whetting training any longer.” Upon seeing such an extreme character of his generation end up in this situation, Lin Ming didn’t feel any better.
“You do not need to manage me. All you need to do is practice the inheritance I have passed down to you with best of your ability. In I, Divine Mist’s life, I do not wish to leave behind any regrets before I die.”
Empyrean Divine Mist’s voice was insisting. “Seek me out again ten days from now…”
Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian looked at each other, able to see the helplessness in the other’s eyes. Empyrean Divine Mist simply wouldn’t listen to them.
Lin Ming turned and silently left, and at this time Empyrean Divine Mist called out to him once more.
“Junior, are you going to perceive the God Beast Tomb once more?”
“Yes.” Lin Ming nodded.
“You… are quite persevering…” Empyrean Divine Mist chuckled. Since the purple crystal began to crack apart once more, the expression on his face became much livelier.
“Junior, do you know… how long you have been in Tragic Death Valley for already?”
Lin Ming shook his head. “I don’t know the exact time, but it should have been several years…”
“It is seven years!”
Lin Ming was startled. To those ancient characters that lived for millions of years, this was only a fleeting moment. But to the 50 some year old Lin Ming, this was an extremely long period of time.
“Seven years… and during this time you never ceased to meditate upon the God Beast Tomb. That is truly praiseworthy persistence…”
Empyrean Divine Mist praised. But as Lin Ming heard this he responded, “Senior says that junior has praiseworthy persistence, but I feel that this might not be a compliment at all, but a word of caution that this junior is wasting his time in trying to shake the leaves from a tree with a gust of wind and simply overreaching his bounds.”
Lin Ming was able to discern the meaning hidden behind Empyrean Divine Mist’s words. In fact, no matter who saw this situation, they would never think that a Divine Transformation realm martial artist would be able to see through the massive array formation that the Asura Road Master had laid down with innumerable God Beast skeletons. No matter how one phrased it, this was simply a fantastical tale. Even if Lin Ming were to trade positions and hear about this he still wouldn’t believe that he could accomplish it.
“Climbing the road of martial arts is originally trying to shake the leaves from a tree with a simple gust of wind… at the least… you have the courage to try…” Empyrean Divine Mist’s tone suddenly filled with deep emotions, as if Lin Ming’s words had made him recall a distant memory. In the end, he too had once been someone who had tried to shake that tree with nothing but a little bit of wind, and as he was climbing to the peak of that martial arts mountain, he stumbled into Tragic Death Valley midway.
Thus, Empyrean Divine Mist didn’t approve or disapprove of Lin Ming’s thoughts. Even if he believed that Lin Ming wouldn’t perceive anything useful from the God Beast Tomb, he still appreciated Lin Ming’s heart and will to do so.
“Senior’s words are reasonable, but I believe that in as long as one year or as little as three months, I will be able to completely understand the God Beast Tomb and break through…”
As Lin Ming said these words, Empyrean Divine Mist was suddenly startled. His eyes popped open, looking at Lin Ming, the beating soul fires within the depths of his eyes dancing without end…