Chapter 1183 – Combat At Last

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“What did you say? That little turtle Lin Ming who bought the Boundless World Pill has finally stuck his head out from his shell?” Zhong Wenshu smiled as he heard this news.

“Yes! Young master, the two people I found aren’t too strong, but in terms of surveillance they are absolutely some of the best! That little turtle has started hunting nightmare beasts in the jungle near the city!”

“Good! Well done!” Zhong Wenshu shouted out as his mood improved greatly. “It’s about time. Over two months have passed and that little turtle finally couldn’t hold it any longer and left the city. Hehe, the first round of eliminations is approaching soon. If he continued to hide in the city, he could only resign himself to being kicked out!”

“Since he came out, we might as well go and kill that turtle a few times. Although killing him won’t give any merit points, it’ll feel so good to do it!” Zhong Wenshu grinned. These days, all he did was hunt nightmare beasts. A month ago, he killed a few other trial challengers for fun and also because the merit points they gave were more than from killing nightmare beasts. What felt better than plundering all the hard earned efforts of others?

But as Zhong Wenshu gained more and more merit points, killing other ordinary participants was no longer of use. As for the stronger participants, he somewhat dreaded them or was at least afraid that both parties would leave injured.

He resigned only killing nightmare beasts. When killing them, one would gain the same amount of merit points no matter what.

But this was simply too grueling. After killing them for over two months, even Zhong Wenshu felt weeds growing out of his head.

In order to rank as high as he could in True Martial World, Zhong Wenshu had been diligently working, without slacking off even a bit. He had already rushed his way into the top 19 ranks of this great world! Although he was still a great distance from reaching the top five, the truth was that this result was already very good. This was because the True Martial Holy World had several World King level Holy Lands, and there were also the descendants of many hidden families as well as disciples of peak hidden masters. Beyond all that, there was the giant in the corner – The True Martial Holy lands.

Being able to reach rank 19 of a great world was a result that could grab the attention of the entire Divine Realm. If a wandering martial artist had obtained this result, they would have attracted the attention of countless influences. Even some World King Holy Lands would work their best to win this person over.

In fact, at this time, underneath that massive golden scroll, the Elders of Dual Polarity Palace, especially those that were part of the Zhong Family, and the Zhong Family Head, were all smiles. Zhong Wenshu was the pride of their Zhong Family. If he was able to maintain this result until the end of the preliminaries, he would be in the top 20 rankings. Such a result would allow him to participate in the finals and allow him to blossom in splendor.

“Wenshu’s future is brilliant. There is even a chance he will become a World King in the future, haha!” A middle-aged man in a loose robe said.

“Brother Zhang, you are flattering me too much! Although becoming a World King may be too difficult a task for Wenshu, becoming a peak Holy Lord or even a half-step World King is possible!” Although the Zhong Family Head knew these words were merely flattery, he was still very happy.

At this time, in the jungles near Immemorial City, Lin Ming was rushing through the woods like a lithe cheetah. The layers upon layers of dense shrubs and foliage blurred around him as he moved forwards.

Whoosh!

A light beam of true essence fused with his battle spirit shot out. A tiger-shaped nightmare beast was instantly beheaded by Lin Ming and killed on the spot, neat and clean.

The tiger-shaped nightmare beast immediately turned into pure energy that flowed into Lin Ming. Lin Ming thrust out a hand and tiny light sparkled on his fingers like dark stars in the night. The energy of the tiger-shaped nightmare beast turned into a faint yellow line that was directly absorbed by Lin Ming.

These faint yellow lines entered Lin Ming’s spiritual sea. Underneath the direction of the dreamland Laws, they began to nourish the two divine dream marks in his soul.

“This tiger-shaped nightmare beast has five times the energy of the leopard-shaped nightmare beasts, and also five times the amount of merit points. This tiger-shaped nightmare beast was worth around 100 merit points but those leopard-shaped nightmare beasts were only worth 20 merit points. It seems the essence of these merit points is the amount of divine dream energy that comprise them.”

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Lin Ming quickly understood what was happening. In truth, the nature of the preliminaries was to see who could defeat the most opponents and accumulate the most dreamland energy. The more dreamland energy one accumulated, the more merit points they would gain. All of this happened due to the Laws of this dreamland space. There was no need for Empyrean Divine Dream to do any of the complex calculations here. This was truly a wonderful and exquisite method of saving time and effort.

But those that did not understand the Divine Dream Law could only allow the dreamland energy to gather within their bodies; they simply had no means to make use of it. This could be explained as entering a treasure-filled mountain and still leaving empty-handed; it was truly regrettable.

As Lin Ming thought of this, he was truly thankful for the Magic Cube. If he didn’t have the Magic Cube, wanting to perceive Empyrean Divine Dream’s transcendent divine might would have been nothing but the talk of a moron, let alone having such a great lucky chance thrust into his lap.

“The Magic Cube is truly spectacular. What a pity, I am currently unable to control it. If I want to use the Magic Cube now, I will have to ask Miss Mo to do so, but Miss Mo only has her soul form left…” Lin Ming thought out loud.

Lin Ming sank his consciousness into his spiritual sea. Because he was absorbing the divine dream energy, his own strength was truly rising, and the speed at which it was rising was much faster than in the outside world. This was also a reasonable matter. After all, this was a transcendent divine might.

“Currently, I only have 960 merit points. If I kill another one or two nightmare beasts I should be able to break past 1000…”

As Lin Ming was thinking such thoughts, he suddenly sensed another tiger-shaped nightmare beast not too far away. He rushed through the jungle like an arrow and before the tiger-shaped nightmare beast could respond, his hand came smashing down. With a faint cracking sound, Lin Ming easily twisted apart the neck of this tiger-shaped nightmare beast.

His merit points broke past 1000!

At this time, Lin Ming felt something rush into his spiritual sea. With his current understanding of the dreamland Laws, he could instantly drive it out, but after sensing that it didn’t have any dark intentions, he allowed it to enter his spiritual sea where it turned into a projection.

“Mm, I can check my own ranking?” Lin Ming was a bit surprised. It seemed that after one’s merit points broke past a thousand, one was able to find out what rank they were. Like this, a participant could know if they were on the verge of elimination.

The information shown on that projection was – ‘Ancient Phoenix Clan, Lin Ming, merit points 1060. Rank is beyond 100 million, so cannot be calculated. Current rank has not reached the top 1%, so cannot pass through the first round of eliminations.”

As Lin Ming saw this ranking, he ruefully smiled. “This ranking is a bit sad.”

It seemed that there was no ranking given for those past 100 million. But this was how things were. There were over a trillion participants from the True Martial Great World alone. Only one out of every 10,000 was able enter into the top 100 million; wasn’t that easier said than done?

He never imagined that the Divine Dream World would show a person whether or not they would be eliminated in the first round. To allow a participant to keep such a number in their minds was actually an extremely useful and convenient rule.

At this time, underneath the golden scroll on Crimson Light World, there was a massive floating palace. This palace was a giant spirit artifact. Because the preliminary round of the First Martial Meeting would continue for nine months and because the higher level figures of great influences certainly wouldn’t be caught living outdoors, they had put forth these spirit artifact palaces to rest inside.

There were many older individuals, all of whom were great figures. They were top level characters from peak Holy Lands and even important personages of World King level Holy Lands. Of course, the strongest person here only had a half-step World King cultivation. A true World King wouldn’t come now; only the finals of the First Martial Meeting were enough to attract such a mighty character.

Among these people was one of the Ancient Phoenix Clan’s Highest Elders, Huo Violentstone.

“Elder Huo, Junior-apprentice Brother Lin, Junior-apprentice Brother Lin’s merit points have finally moved!” The Ancient Phoenix Clan purchased two divine dream jade slips. One was in Huo Violentstone’s hands and the other was being watched over 24 hours a day by a disciple of the Ancient Phoenix Clan. This disciple monitored the changes of every single participant from the Ancient Phoenix Clan and their rankings. Lin Ming’s name was naturally included in this surveillance.

At the start, Huo Violentstone was very happy that he was able to lookup Lin Ming in this First Martial Meeting. Seeing the Ancient Phoenix Clan fixed in front of Lin Ming’s name left him especially satisfied. He was looking forward to seeing Lin Ming gain face for the Ancient Phoenix Clan!

But the result was that after the first round of the preliminaries begin, after an hour passed, everyone else gained 2000 to 3000 merit points, but Lin Ming hadn’t shown any movement at all.

Huo Violentstone originally thought that Lin Ming was hunting for something specific and didn’t want to bother with the weaker nightmare beasts. He presumed Lin Ming wanted to slay some powerful nightmare beast and soar into the heavens with a single feat.

Huo Violentstone patiently waited ever since. After Lin Ming leapt onto the heavens and amazed the world, he would then go out drinking with some friends where he could brag about the disciple he took in.

The result was that he had waited all up until this day!

Huo Violentstone had waited so long that his face had nearly turned blue, and yet Lin Ming’s merit points hadn’t moved at all. There was still no display of his merit points!

Just what was that little brat doing!

Huo Violentstone didn’t know that Lin Ming had obtained the supreme dragon bone, didn’t know that Lin Ming had crossed a nine by nine Life Destruction and withstood nine levels of heavenly tribulation. He also didn’t known that Lin Ming purchased the Boundless World Pill and opened the Gate of Life.

Even if he didn’t know all these things, he only needed to recall Lin Ming completing the Thousand Slaughter in the Ancient Phoenix smelting trial to know that passing the preliminaries was already a guaranteed for Lin Ming. His talent far surpassed that of Yan Littlemoon. It was impossible for him not to do anything this entire time!

Huo Violentstone was furious. He would periodically check up on Lin Ming’s results and now after two whole months, Lin Ming was still like a dead man with no response at all.

On this day and this moment, there was finally change.

“You damned dead lazy brat finally did something. Do you want to play this old man to death!?” Huo Violentstone cursed out. He checked the divine dream jade slip and…

1060…

Huo Violentstone’s face nearly turned black.

Good! The absolute bare minimum!

Huo Violentstone finally erupted.

“This little bastard! What tricks is he trying to play with me! I don’t believe he would spend two months and show me this kind of result!” Huo Violentstone found this incomprehensible. If Lin Ming wasn’t leaving the city to slaughter enemies, just what was he doing? That was dreamland space, not the real world! He didn’t even have a true physical body in there. He couldn’t have been doing something so ridiculous as cultivating in the dreamland space, right?

What if he wasn’t cultivating? Did he know he couldn’t pass and was purposefully doing this?

Huo Violentstone couldn’t understand, so he felt that this little brat Lin Ming was increasingly damnable. It had to be known that with Huo Violentstone’s temperament as long as he went outside, he would always mention to outsiders about how awesome and amazing his family was, second to none.

Before this competition had begun, Huo Violentstone boasted on and on about how amazing Lin Ming’s results would be. But the result was that Lin Ming hadn’t done anything at all, and his friends had shamelessly beaten him up with their words.