Chapter 1734 – Emperor Jade
…
…
…
Pressing his hands over the lid of the ancient bronze coffin, Lin Ming released the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace. Strength erupted within his body, rising to tens of billions of jins. With a loud rumbling sound, the dustless lid that had lain over the ancient bronze coffin for billions of years was pushed open by Lin Ming!
And as Lin Ming pushed open the cover, the entire sixth level began to shake, as if some ancient great beast was awakening here!
Ka ka ka!
The ground shook and everything began to collapse in massive tracts, revealing a pitch black abyss. And from this abyss, a massive black divine stone slowly rose out.
This is…
Lin Ming’s mind shook. Unconsciously, his hands stopped pushing open the ancient coffin’s lid. His eyes looked down and fixed upon that massive black divine stone. This black divine stone was clearly a sculpture, and one that he had seen before! This sculpture was the same as the giant stone sculpture in the Asura level Gate of Laws. It was a sculpture of an Asura war god!
This Asura war god grasped a black dragon spear and wore a suit of battle armor. His body was covered in dragon scales and his hair was wild and free, his momentum awe-inspiring!
Standing in front of this Asura sculpture, Lin Ming could feel a rich slaughter energy rolling off of it, making it difficult to breathe. Even his heart was flooded with tyrannical, archaic, and unbelievably cruel emotions, making one almost lose their sense of self.
In the sixth level, this Asura war god sculpture had reappeared after opening the ancient bronze coffin. Just what was this sculpture made from?
Lin Ming was somewhat startled. If the sixth level contained such a mechanic, there had to be some special significance to it.
Lin Ming’s first guess was that the soul avatar that the Asura Road Master forged might be sealed within this Asura war god sculpture. But, he soon rejected this idea.
This was because after pushing open the ancient bronze coffin, he was able to sense a vast soul aura coming from within it. It was clear that the soul avatar was slumbering within the coffin.
Then this Asura sculpture…
Lin Ming pondered for a moment and walked towards the sculpture. As he carefully probed it, he faintly discovered that there was an extremely potent power of Space Laws contained within it. All of the power of space within the sixth level seemed to be attracted by the sculpture and was slowly converging towards it.
“This is… a space node?”
Lin Ming thought. There was a space node contained within the Asura sculpture!
And in the final trial, this sort of space node undoubtedly represented the entrance to the next level.
The seventh level!?
Lin Ming took a deep breath. If the sixth level was only for rewards, then going by previous experiences his completion percentage wouldn’t increase here. The truly difficult to pass test would be the seventh level!
And this level would inevitably be far more difficult than the fifth level. Even Lin Ming didn’t believe he had the slightest chance of passing the level. He could try to go as far as he could in the seventh level with the mindset of obtaining as much completion percentage as possible.
“The space node to enter the seventh level is actually sealed in the Asura sculpture… I wonder what the meaning behind it is? Is there something special about this sculpture?”
Lin Ming thought it was strange. It would be reasonable for the entrance to the seventh level to directly open, but the entrance was actually sealed within the Asura sculpture. Lin Ming’s first thought was that this Asura sculpture might be related to some test.
In the final trial, from the second to third level he had to pass through the Gate of Laws and from the fourth level to fifth level he had to ascend the Divine Seal Altar. These two passages between levels hadn’t been easy to pass at all.
Thus, if this Asura sculpture was some sort of test then it wouldn’t be surprising at all.
As Lin Ming was thinking this, a strange image suddenly caught his attention.
He discovered that atop the Asura sculpture’s war armor, there were three grooves lying side-by-side, and Lin Ming had seen the shape of these grooves before!
Near these grooves, there were also several lines of characters carved into the stone. These words were in the same language as the Asura Sutra.
What they said was –
“33 Heavens, Asura inheritance, passed down to the unrivalled genius, passed down to the one with great destiny, passed down to the fated one!”
“The word of Fate, to be predestined or not, if you are fated then even through the endless universes you will still find my inheritance, but if you are not fated then even if your talent is unrivalled you shall never enter the gate.”
“I left behind three emperor jades of essence, energy, and divine. The emperor jades have spiritual powers, and if you are fated then they shall fall into your hands. If you lack fate then no matter how much hardship you undergo to find them you shall never succeed. Bring the three emperor jades to this land and open wide the gates to the seventh level.”
Lin Ming was startled after reading these carved words beside the grooves.
The final inheritance of the Asura Road. In order to receive it, one needed to be an unrivalled existence, possess a great destiny, and also be the fated one. A trial challenger required all three of these characteristics in order to obtain the approval of the inheritance.
The first several levels of the final trial, including the entire test that was the Asura Road itself, could be considered repeated verifications of a trial challenger’s talent and destiny. But in order to go from the sixth level to the seventh level, one needed ‘fate’.
The manifestation of the symbol of fate was to possess the three token emperor jades of ‘essence, energy, and divine’!
Only by simultaneously possessing all three emperor jades could one enter the seventh level.
Lin Ming took a deep breath and retrieved two jade pendants from his spatial ring. Rather, it was more accurate to say that there was one complete jade pendant and one fragment.
This complete jade pendant had been obtained by Lin Ming in the Hunter game. Because of this jade pendant, Lin Ming had been able to enter God Burying Ridge, fall into Tragic Death Valley, and escape from there and continually pass through absolute killing zones. Utilizing those killing zones, Lin Ming had brought down three top masters: Mister Zhou, Mister Ash Murder, and Tian Mingzi.
It could be said that Lin Ming’s life was saved because of this emperor jade.
As for the emperor jade fragment, Lin Ming had bought that from Old Xue’s stall at the Divine Runic Masters Guild.
Old Xue didn’t know what this emperor jade fragment was, but his intuition told him it was unusual. Yet no matter how much he studied it over the years, he had never been able to discern its secrets. Finally, he thought it was some Empyrean spirit treasure fragment and sold it to Lin Ming.
Because this emperor jade fragment had too many flaws in the Asura dao patterns within it, it wasn’t too valuable. Even so, Lin Ming kept it in his spatial ring.
Now, taking out these two emperor jades, they just happened to match with the shape of the grooves.
Without a doubt, he would have to collect all three emperor jades and then place them in the grooves to open the portal to the seventh level.
If he couldn’t, then he could only stare helplessly on at the entrance to the seventh level, but without the ability to enter.
“This sort of rule…”
Lin Ming was speechless.
According to any common logic, in the massive Asura Road, to find three tiny emperor jades was as difficult as searching for a needle in the endless ocean. It could even be called an impossible mission.
But, according to that Asura Road Master’s viewpoint, these three emperor jades were extraordinary. They were emperor jades of ‘fate’, and possessed strange and incredible Laws. As long as one’s fate reached a certain point, one wouldn’t even need to look for these emperor jades, but they would take the initiative to seek out the person instead.
If one couldn’t collect all three emperor jades, then one could only say that their fate was lacking.
“My fate is lacking…”
Lin Ming looked at the whole emperor jade and the emperor jade fragment in his hands, bitterly smiling. He thought that his lucky chances were enormous to be able to obtain two emperor jades so far, but after entering the sixth level he realized that his fate was insufficient. In order to enter the seventh level he needed to obtain all three emperor jades.
Moreover… the second emperor jade in his hands was already fragmented. If it was a token left behind by the Asura Road Master, how could it break apart so easily?
This question flashed through Lin Ming’s mind. He felt that this didn’t make sense at all.
He tarried in front of the sculpture for some time. Then, after some hesitation, he tried to place the two emperor jades into their respective grooves.
These three grooves were in different shapes. Lin Ming first put in the complete emperor jade; the shape fit in perfectly.
Then, Lin Ming tried to fit in the emperor jade fragment into another groove.
At this time, something startling occurred.
When the broken emperor jade was placed into the groove, it suddenly began to emit a dim light. Countless motes of light gathered into the emperor jade, and in the next moment the emperor jade melted into liquid light that covered the entire groove.
“Mm? This is…”
Lin Ming’s eyes widened. After several breaths of time the liquid slowly solidified, forming the complete emperor jade that perfectly fit into the groove.
“The emperor jades can repair themselves?”
Lin Ming mumbled, dumbfounded.
If so, then even if the emperor jade was shattered into several fragments it would be fine as long as he could obtain one. To him, this could just reluctantly be called good news.
But… he simply had no clues about the whereabouts of the third emperor jade. Where would he be able to find it?