Chapter 1022 – Sevenfall Phenomenon

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As Lin Ming crossed Life Destruction, the entire process was shown in the fire spirit mirror above Totem Tower’s square. It was only because of the world of will projection as well as the dazzling brilliance from the 10,000 Flames Burning Sun that the disciples weren’t able to see what was happening within Lin Ming’s body.

However, top masters like Blackwood, Monarch Sweetyfox, and Duke Golden Sword were able to generally sense what was happening.

Within the world of will projection, with Lin Ming’s gold battle spirit as the center, countless soul fragments continuously disintegrated. They turned from the size of an eggshell to the size of a grain of rice, once more arriving at the size of a dust particle before further reducing in size yet again…

Monarch Sweetyfox sensed everything that was happening and sighed. “In terms of battle spirits, Lin Ming could be said to far surpass the geniuses of the Divine Realm. In this alone, he truly has a massive superiority. He opened the Gate of Opening and the way he is crossing the seventh stage of Life Destruction now is not what an ordinary genius can compare with…”

As a measurement, a battle spirit was an important indicator of a martial artist’s talent. It naturally had a correspondingly great significance!

“I fear that Lin Ming is able to completely reduce his soul to the small fragments possible. Him crossing Life Destruction once is the same as an ordinary genius crossing Life Destruction twice! Once he finishes his last three stages of Life Destruction, I wonder just what degree Lin Ming’s soul force will reach?”

Soul force – it withstood all Laws and was also the basis of martial intents. It was the foundation for the control of true essence. If one’s soul wasn’t strong enough, then a martial artist’s potential would die out. This was the reason why an Eightfall powerhouse found it extremely difficult to reach the Divine Lord realm.

Normally speaking, a martial artist’s martial talent, perception, martial intents, soul force, willpower, and destiny were all considered a comprehensive manifestation of their talent. Within these categories, martial talent was in truth the least important. If one’s martial talent was lacking, it could be made up for! There were all sorts of precious spirit pills and God Beast bloodlines that could make up for a deficiency in martial talent.

However, in the lower realms, these sorts of pills were extremely scarce and God Beast bloodlines had nearly vanished. In addition, when a martial artist first started cultivating, their martial talent would be the most obvious. This was why they placed such excessive emphasis on it.

But for the other aspects, each was incomparably difficult and they were extremely difficult to increase!

If one wanted to truly increase perception, only the Eight Inner Hidden Gates’ Gate of Opening had such an effect. As for heavenly materials that increased perception, they were simply treasures from legends.

If one wanted to increase willpower, they would have to use treasures like the Twinlife Thunder Crystal that had almost vanished from existence.

As for destiny, even a Divine Realm Holy Lord, World King, or those extreme supreme elders weren’t able to clearly understand what it was. As for enhancing their destiny, that was simply a joke. In a sense, destiny was the key aspect of a martial artist’s talent. Even a martial artist’s origins could be considered a kind of destiny!

As Monarch Sweetyfox and the others were talking, within the seventh level, Lin Ming had already reduced his soul fragments into particles 10,000 times smaller than a mote of dust. After the soul force completely lost its last confines, it began to spread out in the most fundamental soul waves.

The soul was a particle but also a wave. As for what the origin of a soul was, Lin Ming hadn’t yet figured that out. Even so, this didn’t prevent him from completely shattering his soul and tempering it!

Countless soul waves reverberated within the world of will projection. As they struck the barrier of the projection, they naturally reflected back inwards and underwent a baptism of Laws!

“This boy, he actually managed to reach such a degree!” Duke Golden Sword exclaimed as he saw this, amazed.

Monarch Sweetyfox sincerely praised Lin Ming from the depths of her heart. “Not only does Lin Ming have a gold battle spirit, but his battle spirit also isn’t normal; it has a special type of attribute to it. If he couldn’t reach this step then there probably aren’t many others who would be able to succeed. His talent really arouses envy in all who see him. Every step Lin Ming takes reaches perfection. If this continues, I can’t imagine just what boundary he will reach in the future!”

Time slowly passed. When a martial artist crossed Life Destruction, they would usually need several days of time. Even if Lin Ming had the help of the Ruby Sovereign, who was pouring the accumulated energy of the 18 Hells of Flame into him, this still wasn’t a process that could be finished in one or two days. But since Monarch Sweetyfox and Duke Golden Sword hadn’t indicated that they would leave, none of the disciples from the three branch palaces were able to leave either. Even so, no one wanted to leave to begin with. To witness such a glorious event was itself an extremely rare experience. There were even those that were able to obtain insight from Lin Ming’s process of crossing the seventh stage of Life Destruction.

20 hours passed. The Ruby Sovereign closed his eyes, continuously standing guard beside Lin Ming. As for Lin Ming’s soul, it had finally completely disintegrated. The last soul fragment had turned into soul waves.

At this moment, the Ruby Sovereign’s eyes shot up. It was time to fuse the power of the phoenix bloodline!

As Lin Ming was crossing the seventh stage of Life Destruction, he had 1200 drops of ordinary Ancient Phoenix blood, 600 drops of phoenix plume blood, 16 drops of phoenix heart blood, three drops of phoenix marrow blood, and one drop of phoenix coronet blood as support!

In addition, with the Ruby Sovereign personally assisting, the artifact spirit had pulled out the power of 9999 different Flame Essences and 36 Fire Elementals. The Ruby Sovereign even added in a tiny amount of his source strength. This was the equivalent of using 10,036 different variations of flames to decompose Lin Ming’s mortal body and temper his soul!

This was a treatment that not even the extreme talents of the three great family clans would have!

These were resources won by talent and by strength! Although the Ancient Phoenix Clan had numerous factions that struggled against each other, they still wouldn’t bury their geniuses. Especially a super genius like Lin Ming who had the potential to become the Ancient Phoenix Clan Patriarch in the future!

If such a genius were to be buried, then the Ancient Phoenix Clan would have long begun their descent into decline and destruction!

“Power of bloodline… fuse!”

The Ruby Sovereign waved his hand and all the phoenix blood passed through and was heated by 10,036 different flames. All of the impurities were scorched away as the phoenix blood turned into a fog that fused into Lin Ming’s body, becoming one with his bloodline.

Bang bang bang!

Origin energy surged. Even the 18 Hells of Flame seemed to faintly tremble. Faintly, within Lin Ming’s will world projection, a golden phoenix could be seen bathing in flames, undergoing rebirth through nirvana!

But, this phoenix was not the usual golden red phoenix or the brilliant gold phoenix, but a rare dark and burnished gold.

This was a dark gold phoenix!

This was because Lin Ming’s bloodline strength already had the elementary form of grandmist energy fused into it. Although the light was blinding, everyone who watched the fire spirit mirror was able to clearly see this dark gold phoenix.

As the young disciples felt the formidable aura coming from the phoenix’s figure, they all had a feeling of awe and reverence emerge from the depths of their souls, making them want to bow down in worship. This was the same awe that ancient primitive tribal humans felt towards their divine tribal totems.

“This bloodline power is… incredible!” The present martial artists were unsure of what was happening. Lin Ming’s current bloodline strength already surpassed that of many of those present. But, it was still countless miles away from being able to compare with Yan Littlemoon’s perfect Ancient Phoenix bloodline. Even so, they had no idea why, but in front of the power of this bloodline, all of them felt a pressure, a pressure that originated from the same bloodline!

In the direction of Charming Phoenix Palace, Yan Littlemoon’s vision was blurry as she looked at the dark gold phoenix reflected in the fire spirit mirror. Her eyes stung and her hands were cold.

Laws and bloodline strength were originally Lin Ming’s weak points. But now, they were no longer his weaknesses!

Yan Littlemoon took a deep shuddering breath, her eyelashes trembling. She bitterly sighed with hardship in her heart.

“In just a single year, what he meditated on was the chaos stones and yet his comprehension of Laws has already surpassed mine. As for bloodline strength, while he currently cannot compare with me, perhaps several days from now he might obtain the drop of phoenix blood essence. After fusing with that, he still won’t have a perfect Ancient Phoenix bloodline, but the power of his bloodline will carry with it a faint aura of a true God Beast. Even I won’t have such an aura. The only way I would is if I too could obtain a drop of phoenix blood essence.”

“At that time… who could still stop Lin Ming? The advantages he has, I might not have. But the advantages I have, he does not lack any of them…”

Yan Littlemoon looked at the dark gold phoenix fluttering its wings in the seventh level of the Hells of Flame, and myriad emotions swelled up in her heart. Everything that happened on this day seemed like a fantastical illusion. Today, she had suffered a tremendous setback, but at the same time she had also learned an important lesson.

Unconsciously, another 20 hours passed.

Fire Spirit Star’s sun fell and rose again. As for Lin Ming, his breakthrough into the seventh stage of Life Destruction was drawing to an end. His particles of flesh and blood had been heated and burned by the power of 10,036 different kinds of flames, and had already completely fused with the Ancient Phoenix bloodline!

The soul waves that bounced within the world of will projection also completed their final round of tempering. As everyone thought that Lin Ming was about to reform his body, in the skies above, there was suddenly a bass rumbling sound.

“Mm? What is that?”

Everyone looked up at the skies and discovered something amazing. The heaven and earth origin energy above Fire Spirit Star was suddenly stirred up, becoming restless as if there was some heavenly treasure being born!

Hu – !

Hu – !

The heaven and earth origin energy formed a massive vortex, all of it surging around and curling up together. And, the center of that vortex was the 18 Hells of Flame!

“What is this!?” The young disciples all widened their eyes in shock.

Even Duke Golden Sword, Monarch Sweetyfox, and the normally emotionless and deadpan Blackwood were stricken! What occurred now was even more startling than Lin Ming breaking through to the seventh level of the Hells of Flame!

“This… could it be…”

“Impossible!”

Duke Golden Sword, Monarch Sweetyfox, and Blackwood simultaneously became aware of a possibility, but none of them dared to believe their own thoughts. This disbelief continued until the heaven and earth origin energy above the 18 Hells of Flame formed a vortex with a layer of clouds above it. The center of this cloud layer slowly fell down like a giant funnel, linking directly to the center of the 18 Hells of Flame’s entrance!

As this happened, all of them realized that their previous thoughts were correct. Even so, with the truth placed right in front of them, they still found it hard to believe!

“Origin energy cloud! It’s an origin energy cloud condensed from the Laws of the world!” Monarch Sweetyfox cried out with a hoarse voice.

“How could this be possible!? Lin Ming is only at the seventh stage of Life Destruction and yet he managed to form an origin energy cloud? This is simply… I can’t even… this is unimaginable!”

Origin energy clouds were a phenomenon that would appear only when a martial artist was crossing the ninth stage of Life Destruction. When a martial artist broke through the Ninefall boundary, their essence, energy, and divine would reach perfection, and this event would cause heaven and earth origin energy to gather and condense, forming origin energy clouds. These origin energy clouds were filled with countless fragments of the world’s Laws, all of them containing endless mysteries!

Origin energy clouds were also divided into ranks. The lowest rank was a three mile wide origin energy cloud; this was called a Single Layered Heavens Ninefall. When Huo Yanguang crossed Ninefall, he had done so with a Four Layered Heavens, 12 mile wide origin energy cloud. This was already enough to alarm and impress the disciples of Phoenix Cry Palace. But now, none of them could ever imagine that when Lin Ming crossed the seventh stage of Life Destruction, there would actually be origin energy clouds gathering in the skies!