Martial World

Chapter 1796 – Zenith Palace

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After understanding what the Akashic Dream Universe was, there was no need to ask about the Akashic Dream Battlefield. Lin Ming had originally thought that the Akashic Dream Battlefield was a place where the saints and spiritas fought each other, but now it seemed that it was clearly a specified area within the Akashic Dream Universe where sects fought against other sects in massive wars.

In the Akashic Dream Battlefield, one could freely slaughter at will.

Like the Divine Dream World, even if a martial artist were killed on the Akashic Dream Battlefield they wouldn’t die in reality. At most they would suffer some damage to their soul force that might take days or weeks to recover from.

However, the significance behind all of this was beyond the ordinary.

To a martial artist, the fastest method of growth was to fight endlessly.

In an intense battle their cultivation would be tempered and their foundation would become more solid than before.

And to a sect, holding a war that involved nearly all of its disciples would have the disciples of their sect be even more united with each other, as well as enhancing their collective combat strength and teamwork abilities.

It was impossible for such a chance to train the members of an entire sect to appear within the Divine Realm. Once a sect war broke out in the Divine Realm, that was a true life or death slaughterfest where oftentimes entire lineages were exterminated.

As for depending on the Divine Dream World, that wasn’t a realistic option. This was because every time Empyrean Divine Dream opened the Divine Dream World she had to pay a heavy price to do so. The Divine Realm First Martial Meeting had the support of a nearly infinite audience as well as profits from ticket sales and other such item sales. And other than that, Empyrean Divine Dream herself was ridiculously rich. Even so, it was impossible for her to frequently open the Divine Dream World.

But with the support of the Akashic Dream Universe, the various great influences of the spiritas could often engage in mass war exercises. Their combined combat strength could be imagined!

And from what the veiled woman had said before when she was speaking to Elder White, it seemed that this Akashic Dream Battlefield also had some sort of battle merit point system. The more merit points one accumulated, the richer the rewards they could obtain. Even a sect’s resources were dependent on the distribution of merit points. Because of this, the disciples of the sects were even more enthused to go to the Akashic Dream Universe.

No wonder the spiritas were so aggressive and imperious and had managed to gradually become a peak race over the billions of years. The Akashic Dream Universe must have played a large role in this!

Lin Ming felt that as humanity slowly declined, it wouldn’t be strange for them to eventually lose to the spiritas.

“How was the Akashic Dream Universe formed?”

Lin Ming asked again. It was impossible for such a mystical universe to have been formed by a spiritas Empyrean or True Divinity, or even groups of them. They simply didn’t possess the required amount of energy to do so.

The veiled woman said, “I fear the Akashic Dream Universe has already existed for 10 billion years by now. As for how it was formed, there are several different theories. A common one is that 10 billion years ago, the first ancestor of all spiritas was a being that surpassed the realm of True Divinity. He established the Akashic Dream Universe and evolved it into a spiritual world with its own set of independent Laws, allowing it to be passed down through the generations of his people.”

The veiled woman’s words caused Lin Ming’s heart to skip a beat.

An existence that surpassed a True Divinity!

Lin Ming would never forget that in the Asura Road’s final trial, on the third level at the planet-sized immortal palace, he had borne witness to the Asura Road Master fighting against a mysterious opponent.

Could the Akashic Dream Universe have been founded by this person?

Lin Ming felt that the chances of this were considerably high.

To form a separate spiritual universe that lasted for at least 10 billion years, for it possess its own Heavenly Dao rules and to operate independently without any need for external energy, such skilled methods were truly mind-boggling.

Even the Divine Dream World that Empyrean Divine Dream established much later had likely taken inspiration from the Soul World’s Akashic Dream Universe.

Assuming that Empyrean Divine Dream would one day surpass the realm of True Divinity, her Divine Dream World had a chance of evolving into a miracle just like the Akashic Dream Universe.

“Miss Jaderiver, I also have one more question I would like to ask.” Lin Ming had already learned the veiled woman’s name from the maid who brought him here.

“Please ask.” Jaderiver indifferently said.

“Since I left the wild mountains, I heard that the saints and spiritas were engaged in a great war. Is there a truce at the moment?”

Lin Ming never imagined that this question would have Jaderiver shaking her head, “I don’t know the specifics of this. That would be a game between the high level figures of the spiritas and saints. For characters like me, that is something that goes far beyond what we would ever know about.”

Jaderiver’s words left Lin Ming faintly frowning.

The high level figures of the saints and spiritas… if so, then the saints not widening the flames of war was probably something limited to Empyrean influences and True Divinity influences. This also meant that there was no truly irreconcilable difference between the saints and spiritas. As a result, it would be even more difficult for the spiritas to make an alliance with humanity.

“Even if I cannot persuade Sheng Mei to help form an alliance, since I’ve come to the Soul World I must see her anyways. And most importantly of all, I have to gain experience here… only with strength will I be able to play a greater role in the great calamity. At the very least I should be able to survive…”

A great portion of the reason that Lin Ming came to the universe of the spiritas was to adventure. In the Divine Realm it was already almost impossible to find an opponent.

“I’ve answered your questions. Now, it’s time for you to answer mine.”

Jaderiver faintly smiled as she looked at Lin Ming.

Lin Ming nodded.

Jaderiver’s questions mostly involved Lin Ming’s inheritance, cultivation methods, master, and so forth. He simply didn’t understand why she asked such questions.

“What is she getting at?”

Lin Ming couldn’t help but ask himself. He used the standard of the Ancient Phoenix Clan’s Phoenix Cry Palace to answer Jaderiver. He concocted a background where he used the inheritances of the Ancient Phoenix Clan and where his master was Fairy Feng.

Lin Ming answered in accordance to what a Life Destruction or Divine Sea martial artist should know of. Not just that, but he naturally downplayed his talent, making his story seem seamless.

Then, Jaderiver asked about the hornless ice dragon. Lin Ming stuck to his original story. He stated that he had never seen the hornless ice dragon and that he had landed in his current predicament because of the terrifying space storm that appeared out of nowhere.

Lin Ming’s answers left Jaderiver frowning a little. She originally believed that if Lin Ming was able to survive the space storm, there was likely something special about him. And even after trying to ask some trick questions she still hadn’t been able to dig anything out of him. It appeared that Lin Ming was just an ordinary human youth with talent.

She looked at Lin Ming after some time and asked, “Do you have any interest in staying at Zenith Palace?”

Lin Ming was surprised. “Zenith Palace recruits human disciples?”

“Occasionally.”

Lin Ming thought for some time. Thinking about the words of the young human maid, it was true that Zenith Palace had some human disciples. This left Lin Ming puzzled. Didn’t the core inheritances of Zenith Palace only suit spiritas? What was the reason for bringing in humans? After all, it was impossible for humans to study the inheritances of Zenith Palace.

Jaderiver smiled, “If you join Zenith Palace then Zenith Palace will provide you with resources. I believe that it will be far better than you cultivating by yourself. I’m positive these resources will tempt you.”

Hearing Jaderiver’s words, Lin Ming felt even more doubtful. Humans shouldn’t be welcomed anywhere in the Soul World. As they were considered an inferior race here it was normal for them to be discriminated against.

Humans that were janitors and servants likely made up a great deal of the population.

So why would Zenith Palace actually help bring in humans instead?

Jaderiver could see Lin Ming’s thoughts. She chuckled, “I know you think this is strange. Good, then let me be honest with you. The Zenith Palace Master has created a dual soul and energy cultivation method. By implanting a virtual dantian into the body of a spiritas martial artist, they can use this virtual dantian to cultivate the essence gathering system. I’ve also practiced this sort of cultivation method.

“Now, what we need are some human geniuses so that we can reference the way energy revolves in your dantian to perfect our virtual dantian.”

Jaderiver’s explanation caused Lin Ming to frown. So this was actually dual soul and energy cultivation!

Although humanity’s ancient inheritances had been severed by the spiritas, they should have kept the most outstanding of the inheritances. The large spiritas influences didn’t completely destroy these inheritances but rather retained them for future use. If certain heaven-shocking rare geniuses were to appear amongst the spiritas that could dual cultivate soul and energy, then they could use these inheritances to their advantage.

Lin Ming himself was the greatest beneficiary of the dual cultivating system.

After taking the best inheritances of humanity, the spiritas then caged in the geniuses of humanity to observe their dantians. This was treating them no differently than animals to be experimented upon. After being inspired to create their virtual dantian method, they were then able to cultivate the essence gathering system.

This was a well thought out plan!

Even so, this sort of situation was something that many human martial artists wished for in their dreams. Jaderiver had already stated that the resources of Zenith Palace were precious beyond compare.

“Okay, then I will join you.”

Lin Ming agreed. His original idea was to enter a small human sect, recovering from his wounds while looking for a chance to enter the Akashic Dream Battlefield.

The Akashic Dream Battlefield was the only place where Lin Ming thought he could find Sheng Mei.

As long as he caused a great enough commotion in the Akashic Dream Battlefield, this would bring the attention of the high level spiritas figures upon him.

Now Zenith Palace was trying to win him over. With this, Lin Ming could skip a step and use his status as a disciple of Zenith Palace to enter the Akashic Dream Battlefield. This was likely the easiest route.

As for observing Lin Ming’s dantian, if they wanted to discover anything useful about it then they could continue dreaming on.

“Great!”

Seeing Lin Ming agree, Jaderiver was in a good mood. The more talented a human disciple was, the more value there was in referencing their dantian. As for the humans of the Soul World, their cultivations and strengths were each worse than the last.

Amongst the humans with their weak foundations and low levels of talent, wanting to find good seedlings was far too difficult.

Although Lin Ming’s talent wasn’t too extreme, it was still much better than that of the previous human disciples they had found.

Then, on the same day, the disciples of Zenith Palace started their journey of returning to base.

Lin Ming also calmly trained in his own chamber, rapidly restoring his body.

As Lin Ming was quietly cultivating, he noticed that a divine sense had locked onto him and was continuously monitoring him.

“Soul Lord realm martial artist…”

Lin Ming could look at the intensity of this divine sense to judge that the person spying on him was no more than a tiny minion, someone no stronger than a human Divine Lord.

Lin Ming lightly laughed, not caring much at all. He was a stranger that had suddenly joined in on this spirit ship. It was normal for someone to monitor him in this situation. Rather, he would feel disturbed if that didn’t happen.

Then, Lin Ming sent out his divine sense. He observed the changes all around him as if he were avoiding someone trying to take advantage of him.

In the end he was on the spirit ship of an alien race. He couldn’t help but remain guarded.

At this time, Lin Ming’s eyes suddenly shot open and he frowned.

Just now, the divine sense that Lin Ming had cast out had witnessed an extremely uncomfortable scene.

Lin Ming hesitated for a moment before standing up and walking through the door.

The divine sense monitoring Lin Ming also continued following him…