Chapter 873 – Opening the Gate of Pain
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The dark and putrid Yellow Springs River was 1000 feet wide. On the shores of the other side, the world was submerged in the darkness of night and filled with a suppressive, deathly silence. In the river’s waters, countless skeletons floated on the surface. Of these skeletons, many of them were non-human races. Some of these races had wings, horns, tails, and even looked like hell demons from myths and legends.
Just by glancing at this Yellow Springs River, an inexhaustible sorrow and despair filled the heart. It was like this river was alive and also held the most important thing of their entire life. But, no matter how they thought about it, they could never remember what it was. All they knew was that once they left here, they would lose it forever.
Lin Ming had seen the Yellow Springs River before, but this time he was struck by the greatest summoning power yet. If it weren’t for the fact that Lin Ming’s heart of martial arts was tough and his will was steady like iron and he had also comprehended a silver battle spirit, then his mind would have likely fallen into the illusion and he would have died here!
He fiercely bit down on the tip of his tongue, using that stinging pain to awaken himself. Lin Ming instantly launched his movement technique and flew backwards, running several dozen miles in a single breath. Only then did he slow down to collect his scattered thoughts and calm his fearful shock.
As he looked over to the direction of the Yellow Springs River, he saw that it had already been covered in a foggy darkness, completely vanished without a trace.
“Just what is that Yellow Springs River? Why would it flow in the Eternal Demon Abyss’ 1000 mile forbidden zone and why would I see it here at the 8000 Mile Black Swamp?”
The 8000 Mile Black Swamp was so broad; how could he possibly encounter the Yellow Springs River here? And as for those skeletons floating on top of the river, just looking at the pure number there was likely no less than a billion corpses!
That was a billion lives. Moreover, those were not ordinary existences. Those were all top super powerhouses!
“It seems… that those evil spirits pulling the coffin were also one of the types of monsters in the Yellow Springs River… they have a horn on their head and their height is also similar!
Although they were very far away, Lin Ming had been able to approximate the size of those six black evil spirits. They were around 10-20 feet tall. As for that bronze ghost coffin, it was 30 feet long. That was many times the height of a human.
“Perhaps they really did come from the Sea of Miracles…”
When Lin Ming was at the Holy Demon Continent, he had looked at many jade slips with records of the Eternal Demon Abyss. He was able to confirm that there were existences that lived within the Eternal Demon Abyss. Moreover, Lin Ming had also seen with his own eyes a living beast within the Eternal Demon Abyss, a massive God Beast that was thousands of miles in length.
However, according to the description of the jade slips, these existences would never leave the Eternal Demon Abyss of their own volition. There were only some of the weaker monsters that would be shot out by the occasional eruptions of the Eternal Demon Abyss.
“What is in the Sea of Miracles? Could there be an entrance to another world?”
Lin Ming shook his head, not really believing that explanation. If the Sea of Miracles was truly an entrance to another world, then it was certainly a high level world. Without discussing how extensive it was, just the rank of that world itself should be no less than a world of the Divine Realm. How could such a world be located at the remote and unknown Sky Spill Continent? And how could the martial artists from the Divine Realm just freely ignore it?
The existence of a new world meant new lucky chances. There would certainly be top powerhouses that came to explore the dangers of that new world.
Lin Ming didn’t understand this puzzle. He shook his head, no longer thinking about it. This matter simply far exceeded his current boundary and wasn’t something he could investigate. Even by the time he reached the Divine Sea he might not have the ability to enter the Sea of Miracles. That was a life forbidden zone in the truest meaning of the term.
“I’m too weak. If I can reach Fairy Feng’s level, then I might be able to do some investigating…”
Lin Ming sighed. At this time, a dense fog suddenly filled the dark skies, completely enveloping the world. The fog became increasingly thick, and after a short period of time it became like a thick black soup in the air, nearly solidifying into essence.
As Lin Ming saw this occur, he let out a light breath. This was sea serpent gas! He had finally run into it!
After being in the 8000 Mile Black Swamp for so many days, Lin Ming finally encountered the sea serpent gas once again. He calmly took out the Cosmic Melting Furnace and began drawing a large amount of sea serpent gas into it.
The Burning Star Flame blazed and the black sea serpent gas quickly condensed. Compared to the last time that he entered the 8000 Mile Black Swamp, Lin Ming’s speed at which he refined the sea serpent gas was several times quicker than before. This was because he had increased his cultivation and also because he had made significant progress with his alchemy technique.
Soon, that massive amount of sea serpent gas was refined into a bean-sized Sea Serpent Crystal.
Lin Ming didn’t stop here. He continued to draw in sea serpent gas and refine it, growing the crystal larger and larger until it reached the size of a finger. Because Lin Ming’s strength had risen, his refined Sea Serpent Crystals were even purer. Just this small crystal seemed as if it contained a hidden space within, both strange and mysterious.
Lin Ming only required an incense stick of time to complete the first Sea Serpent Crystal. He kept refining all the way until the black sea serpent gas finally dispersed. By this time, Lin Ming had refined over 50 Sea Serpent Crystals. The last time Lin Ming was here, he had only refined a dozen or so Sea Serpent Crystals.
After leaving the Cosmic Melting Furnace, Lin Ming felt a bit unsatisfied. These Sea Serpent Crystals were top treasures. It was a pity that the sea serpent gas didn’t last longer, otherwise his harvests would have been greater.
And the next time he wanted to find this sea serpent dragon wouldn’t be easy. The 8000 Mile Black Swamp was filled with layers of dangers. Even with Lin Ming’s current cultivation, he still wasn’t safe here.
“I only took less than 0.0001% of this sea serpent gas and yet there is such an effect. I wonder just how powerful this sea serpent dragon is and just where it is hiding. How powerful is it compared to that great beast in the Eternal Demon Abyss?”
Lin Ming didn’t stop. He directly impacted straight into the Nine Heavens Thunder Dominion until he reached the 90 mile zone. He let the Heretical God Sprout absorb the golden red lightning to its limit, and then left the 8000 Mile Black Swamp in the same night.
All through this time, Lin Ming didn’t meet the Purple Lion Thunder Source. Perhaps it was because the Twinlife Thunder Crystal had already been used by Lin Ming, but whatever the reason, the Purple Lion Thunder Source hadn’t sensed Lin Ming arriving. This saved him a great deal of trouble.
Three days later, Lin Ming returned to the Forsaken God Clan through their hidden transmission array, and went directly to the seclusion chamber. He readied himself to open the Gate of Pain as well as simultaneously crossing the second stage of Life Destruction.
With over 50 Sea Serpent Crystals lined up around him, Lin Ming took out the wood spirit jade box containing the sealed Myriad Spirit Pill from his spatial ring.
As soon as he opened the wood spirit jade box, the Myriad Spirit Pill instantly tried to rush out. Lin Ming caught it, feeling like he was holding a powerful divine insect in his hands. The pill wildly dashed around in his hand, hoping to escape.
“This pill really does have intelligence. If I were to let it go here then it would escape into the deep mountains or seas where it would absorb essence energy. Perhaps after hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, it would eventually transform into some ghostly spirit.”
After he grasped the Myriad Spirit Pill, Lin Ming recalled the method of how to use it from the Divine Realm alchemist’s memories.
He took out a heaven-step dagger that he had requested from Shibai earlier, and then cut open his own chest without hesitation!
Puff!
Blood splattered outwards. Lin Ming’s body was extremely tough. Even if he didn’t use any energy to protect himself, just his own physical body was difficult enough to pierce. He had no choice but to pour his silver battle spirit into this dagger.
After cutting open a gap in his chest between two of his ribs, Lin Ming could clearly feel the strong beating of his own heart. The Myriad Spirit Pill contained the condensed plant essence from thousands of medicinal herbs, all of them turned into thin filaments. In order to completely absorb this pill, he would have to directly implant it into his heart and let his blood wash over it, causing those several thousand filaments to fuse into his body where it would be slowly absorbed. This was a long process that would take several days.
To cut up their own heart, that was an action that an ordinary person would never have the will to do.
Lin Ming took a deep breath and steadfastly cut down.
Blood splashed out. Lin Ming shoved the Myriad Spirit Pill into his heart, burying it deep inside a ventricle. Then, Lin Ming revolved the power of the Gate of Healing to slowly regenerate his wounds.
However, the Myriad Spirit Pill did not peacefully lie in Lin Ming’s heart. It dashed left and right, smashing into the walls of Lin Ming’s heart, every single impact like a hammer smashing into him. The heart was an extremely fragile and important organ. Normally, if a martial artist’s heart were to be struck like this then their heart would explode. They would vomit out blood and die on the spot. Even someone that practiced body transformation techniques and had extremely tough heart walls would find this sort of impact leading to arrhythmia and eventually death of the heart muscles.
After Lin Ming swallowed the profound gold divine fruit, his physical body had become incomparably tough. In addition, with having opened the first three of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates, he was just able to withstand this Myriad Spirit Pill. It was only when the Myriad Spirit Pill smashed into the wound that Lin Ming had created with a dagger did Lin Ming feel as if a saber was gouging into him. Every time this happened, he would become deathly pale and his forehead would become wet with sweat.
As the medicinal efficacy flowed into his body, the striking impact of the Myriad Spirit Pill became increasingly weak. Finally, it stopped crashing around and began to be obediently absorbed by Lin Ming.
In implanting the Myriad Spirit Pill, the only danger and pain were at the start. The medicinal efficacy itself was very gentle and easy to absorb. This was because the Myriad Spirit Pill took a long time to dissolve. The several thousands of condensed medicinal herb filaments would have to enter the bloodstream one by one. This process was extremely time consuming.
In the blink of an eye, several more hours passed. The scab on Lin Ming’s chest naturally fell off, leaving nothing behind but a shallow and rapidly fading white mark. At this time, Lin Ming had already entered the ethereal martial intent state. His two fists grasped five Sea Serpent Crystals as he began to impact the Gate of Pain!
The Gate of Pain was located in the palms. It could also be said to be two gates, one in each hand.
At this time, Lin Ming moved his arms, lifting them evenly, palms up. Two whirlpools of energy formed above Lin Ming’s palms and the essence of the Sea Serpent Crystals was rapidly absorbed into them. The translucent black Sea Serpent Crystals began to slowly whiten before becoming a stone-like white lime and then finally cracking with a ‘pa’ and turning into power.
After 10 Sea Serpent Crystals were finished, Lin Ming grabbed another 10 and continued to absorb them.
Under the continuous wearing of this energy, the Gates of Pain in Lin Ming’s palms were continually being impacted, becoming more and more loose.
10 hours…
20 hours…
One day…
Two days…
Three days…
On the fourth day, far too much energy had gathered within Lin Ming’s palms, full to the point where it seemed it would explode. The energy of over 50 Sea Serpent Crystals had been completely sucked clean by Lin Ming. With a loud shout, his fists suddenly exploded and two arrows of blood shot high upwards, even breaking apart a massive hole in the dome of the seclusion chamber. Lin Ming’s two palms seemed as if they had been pierced by arrows and shattered!
The Gate of Pain had finally opened.