Martial World

Chapter 1498 – Breaking Through the Array Formation

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“I never thought that before I entered the center of the array formation, I would coincidently experience such a lucky chance in this Nine Star array diagram and obtain such benefits.”

After inexplicably refining so much dragon energy here, the advantage Lin Ming obtained was far superior to even the Azure Dragon bone he absorbed in the past.

“Lin Ming, you aren’t from the dragon race, are you?” Xiao Moxian asked, her eyes wide. As she looked at Lin Ming, her expression was like she was seeing some ridiculous monster in front of her. She didn’t understand just how Lin Ming absorbed the dragon energy in the array diagram. She originally thought that Lin Ming had accomplished this due to his understandings of the array formation, but thinking about it more carefully, even if Lin Ming’s comprehension of the God Beast Tomb array diagram was extremely high, this dragon energy was simply too lawless and tyrannical. Unless one had energy that came from a similar origin, how could this dragon energy resign itself to fuse with a mere human like Lin Ming?

“Dragon race?” Lin Ming froze for a moment, quietly rubbing his nose.

“That’s right. I’ve always felt a faint dragon aura from your body. Although it usually isn’t too intense, I clearly felt it just now. You likely have a dragon bloodline within your body, moreover it is a royal dragon bloodline. Perhaps it might even be some ancient variation dragon species!”

Xiao Moxian felt more and more that what she was saying made sense. The dragon aura she felt was in truth the aura of the Eternal Demon Abyss’ dragon egg.

Lin Ming smiled. “I’m not related much to the dragon race. I’m merely an ordinary human.”

“Perhaps you’re unaware… there are some ancient variation bloodlines that have gone deep into a hidden slumber after spreading down and being diluted for so long. If there isn’t some particular circumstance, they won’t awaken.” Xiao Moxian tilted her head, trying her best to figure out the situation.

Lin Ming didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Xiao Moxian’s imagination was far too rich.

“You’re thinking about it too much. Let’s cross through this Nine Star array first!”

At the start, Lin Ming didn’t have full confidence he could pass through the Nine Star dao diagram. But after absorbing the dragon energy just now, the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace became increasingly clear to him. At this time, crossing this Nine Star dao diagram shouldn’t be a problem at all.

Together with Xiao Moxian, he stepped deeper into the array diagram. In the skies above the dao diagram here, nine stars floated in the air!

The beautiful starlight fell down like a waterfall of mercury threads, forming nine Dao Palaces atop the array diagram.

“Nine Stars of the Dao Palace!”

Lin Ming took a deep breath. Ever since he started training in the body transformation technique, the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace had been his goal. This was an extremely mysterious boundary, but today, atop this dao diagram, he was able to see the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace in their glory. This left him feeling ecstatic, like the clouds parting before the morning sun.

The nine Dao Palaces were suspended in the air like divine watchtowers, incomparably mystical.

Lin Ming revolved all the astral essence within his body and grabbed onto Xiao Moxian’s hand. Xiao Moxian was already expecting this would happen. She silently grasped Lin Ming’s hand in return and followed behind him.

Like this, the two of them stepped into the first Dao Palace – the Purple Temple Dao Palace!

The Purple Temple was in truth a part of a person’s dantian. When a martial artist entered the Divine Sea realm, their dantian would be replaced by an inner world, and thus the Purple Temple would also be located within the inner world.

The first level of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace was to form a Dao Palace in one’s inner world to correspond with a star in the sky.

The moment that Lin Ming stepped into the Purple Temple Dao Palace, he once more began to form array diagrams around himself.

The previous array diagrams Lin Ming formed had belonged to the essence gathering system. But this time, they were of the body transformation system. The patterns atop these array diagrams flowed around like blood vessels, emitting a strong blood vitality.

Within this Dao Palace, starlight flooded every nook and cranny. This starlight seemed beautiful and majestic, but it was also thick with killing intent. If one took a single wrong step they would actually suffer a gruesome death.

Lin Ming closed his eyes and used his own blood vitality to feel the patterns all around him. “Follow me, and don’t take a single step out. Follow my exact footsteps.”

Lin Ming whispered. Xiao Moxian firmly nodded.

The air was thick with killing intent. Every step Lin Ming took followed the Nine Star Laws. Every time he stepped forwards, a star seemed to glisten beneath his foot before dying out.

Faintly, as Lin Ming walked through the corridors of the Dao Palace, he could feel his own inner world heating up to a blazing degree. This was the exact position that corresponded to the Purple Temple Dao Palace.

In that moment, starlight gathered in Lin Ming’s inner world. This silver light flowed around, seeming as if it would condense into a divine palace.

Lin Ming glanced over at Xiao Moxian. She had an expression that was completely focused on following his steps, and clearly wasn’t experiencing a similar reaction.

“The nine Dao Palaces correspond to places on my body and are stirring up a reaction. This should be because an elementary form of the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace has appeared within my body…”

Lin Ming thought to himself. This wasn’t surprising at all. He had already seen the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace several times, so his body forming its own elementary version of it should be a normal matter.

Lin Ming used four hours to smoothly pass through the Purple Temple Dao Palace. Then, he stepped into the second Dao Palace – Heaven’s Eye Dao Palace.

Heaven’s Eye Dao Palace was located between a person’s eyebrows and was considered the eye of their mind, able to see through all illusions and deceit. When Lin Ming stepped into this Dao Palace, he felt a similar burning heat between his eyebrows.

Lin Ming couldn’t help but slow down his pace and focus on perceiving how this Dao Palace corresponded to his own body.

After spending four hours in this Dao Palace, he finally remembered the feeling of the Heaven’s Eye Dao Palace and continued out of it.

Like this, Lin Ming spent around four hours in each Dao Palace, for a total of 36 hours. In other words, he used up a day and a half of time to pass through the Nine Star dao diagram.

This dao diagram that Lin Ming just crossed was not as much of a test as it was a lucky chance. Disregarding the God Beast energy he absorbed, just being able to faintly experience the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace had given him significant benefits.

“Now, onto the last dao diagram…”

At this time, of the 33 dao diagrams, Lin Ming had passed through the outer circle and the middle circle. Once he passed through the last level of dao diagrams, he would reach the eye of the God Beast Tomb array formation.

“Let’s rest up before continuing.”

Since they started rushing through the God Beast Tomb, six or seven days had passed. Xiao Moxian was more or less fine, but Lin Ming had greatly exhausted his mental fortitude.

“Alright.” Xiao Moxian intelligently nodded. She had been following Lin Ming through this death zone so she was already used to following his orders here.

Six hours later, Lin Ming opened his eyes from meditation. The third dao diagram he chose was… Soul Forging – Dreamland.

Stepping into this array diagram, Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian felt as if they stepped into a blood red world.

Here, the skies were deep red and covered with dark red clouds, seeming as if they would bleed at any moment. The ground flowed with flaming lava and the smell of sulfur overwhelmed the senses.

“It’s quite hot here…”

After entering this world, Xiao Moxian felt as if she were being roasted alive by the flames around her. Her clothes were hot to the point that they could spontaneously combust and the air she breathed in and out was like fire.

This was extremely strange, because as a descendant of a phoenix, she shouldn’t fear any sort of burning heat.

“Mm!?” Xiao Moxian’s heart chilled. Not too far away she could see a red scorpion covered with flames. This scorpion emitted an extremely terrifying aura, even surpassing that of a half-step Empyrean!

The moment that Xiao Moxian saw this scorpion, the scorpion also saw Xiao Moxian and Lin Ming. The scorpion cried out loud and then hurtled towards them.

“Lin Ming!” Xiao Moxian’s pupils shrank. This fire scorpion was formed from the demonic power all around them. It absolutely wasn’t something they could contend with at their current cultivation level!

As Lin Ming saw this fire scorpion that possessed strength near an Empyrean come rushing towards them, he remained calm. He only moved to take hold of Xiao Moxian’s arm and move her behind him. “Don’t move. Hold your breath. In this array diagram, everything we see is a dream. That fire scorpion in front of us is nothing more than a lie, an illusion!”

Lin Ming’s sound transmission echoed in Xiao Moxian’s mind, leaving her stunned. “Illusion!?”

In her sense, this scorpion couldn’t be any more real. It was exactly similar to the Asura phantoms she encountered before which had been formed from demonic power, and yet this fire scorpion was only an illusion?

Although she felt this to be unbelievable in her heart, she couldn’t help but trust Lin Ming’s words. She held her breath as she saw that suppressive fire scorpion hurtling towards her.

Ho - !

With a gust of wind, that half-step Empyrean fire scorpion suddenly vanished, as if it never existed at all.

“This is the dream world. Within this dream, everything you believe to be true will be true, and everything you believe to be false will be false. After you awake from this dream, everything will become nothing, but if you cannot awaken then you will be trapped in this dream forever.”

Lin Ming said with a sound transmission. In this Dreamland dao diagram, if one were to fall into the dreamland they would never be able to leave.

“Follow me and don’t take a single wrong step. No matter what you see around you, don’t believe in it.”

Lin Ming said without glancing back. All around him, array diagrams began to form once more. These array diagrams were formed from spirit essence and there were also 33 of them. In these last seven years, these array diagrams were the most important things that Lin Ming had perceived from the emperor jade. Only with the ability to form these did he dare to rush into the God Beast Tomb.

The two of them marched forwards in sync with each other. The route that Lin Ming took was extremely strange. Sometimes he went right, sometimes he went left, sometimes he stepped backwards and Xiao Moxian would blindly follow him no matter what.

During this time, all sorts of strange and fantastical scenes constantly appeared, as if they were stuck in a hell of flames.

Soon, they arrived at an eternal paradise.

Streams trickled and dappled sunlight shimmered across endless fields. Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian stepped over soft and lush grass, their senses filled with the scent of flowers.

As they walked through, they would occasionally see fish leaping out from lakes and cranes holding lingzhi in their beaks – a perfect utopia.

But Xiao Moxian had done as Lin Ming said and had emptied her mind of all needless thoughts.  She was a proud daughter of heaven, and for the last seven years she had trained in the soul forging arts with Empyrean Divine Mist. In terms of soul force and sense, she wasn’t much different from Lin Ming.

Although she didn’t know anything about the God Beast Tomb’s great array formation, as long as Lin Ming told her to take notice and do something necessary she would perform the task perfectly.

It had to be known that this was a dao diagram laid down by the Asura Road Master. To guard one’s mind here wasn’t easy at all. Even if one clearly knew that what they were seeing was an illusion, they still couldn’t help but unconsciously be caught within it.

Lin Ming and Xiao Moxian experienced countless illusions and mirages within this Dreamland array diagram. Even so, they remained unmoved, their minds and hearts maintaining their pure brightness.

Under Lin Ming’s lead, the two of them avoided all the killing intents within the array diagram. It was unknown just how long had passed. Several months, several years, or perhaps only an instant, but at this time Lin Ming suddenly let out a long breath and a small smile bloomed on his tense face.

“We’ve arrived. This is the eye of the God Beast Tomb array formation.”