Chapter 1236 – 20th Step

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All the way forwards, Nether Limitless was still in the lead as before, his momentum nearly unstoppable.

Close behind Nether Limitless was Bloodless Sword. Bloodless Sword also easily defeated his opponent on the eighth level, but he had to use his weapon unlike Nether Limitless. For some contestants that didn’t use weapons, they didn’t care much for Bloodless Sword so they didn’t follow him in this.

With a sword cutting down a spirit body, Bloodless Sword continued his climb to the ninth floor.

“Haha, Elder Senior-apprentice Brother is very steady.”

“As a swordsman, there’s no point in not using your sword.”

“Right, there’s no point at all! In truth, Elder Senior-apprentice Brother doesn’t even need to use his sword because he has already reached the sword of the heart boundary. In his hands, there is no difference whether he is wielding a sword or not.”

In the audience, Fairy Feng heard the cheers of everyone around her and the hosts casting the situation on the altar. She shook her head and said, “Lin Ming likely didn’t use his weapon because he simply didn’t think it was necessary. I never imagined that such a little thing like this would cause such comparisons.”

Huo Violentstone said, “It’s not strange. In this semifinal, the geniuses that climb the Divine Seal Altar aren’t competing in just speed but also how calmly they can cut down the spirit bodies. Many people are becoming famous because of this!

“Those martial artists that have a shallow background hope to become famous so that they can be taken in by some great influence.

“As for those martial artists with a great background and who also come from a great influence, they hope to become famous in order to bring glory to their Holy Lands and possibly even garner the attention of an Empyrean!”

When an Empyrean chose a descendant, their pool of candidates was every single genius of every great influence in the Divine Realm. The First Martial Meetings of the past had all been good places for an Empyrean to choose their descendant.

An Empyrean could live for nearly a hundred million years. Even so, most would receive several hundred descendants or even less than a 100.

Of these people, the weakest amongst them were ordinary World Kings.

Rather, it would be more accurate to say that these ordinary World King descendants were Empyrean descendants that had exhausted all of their potential before growing up.

As for those who were able to develop, they were able to become Great World Kings or even half-step Empyreans. There were even those select few that could grow into new Empyreans!

With this, if a disciple of a Great World King Holy Land was chosen by an Emyprean, that would absolutely be the greatest honor of all.

That Great World King Holy Land disciple, if they were to receive such an honor, would invite all the guests they knew and hold a grand feast filled with heroes, a great celebration that would continue for several days.

This sort of feeling was the same as the mortal world where the daughter of a wealthy family would be married into the imperial palace as a royal concubine.

Although the family wouldn’t have many more opportunities to see their daughter again, that daughter would still grow up and live a good life in the palace, and would also be able to bring a great advantage to her family.

The relationship between a Holy Land and an Empyrean Heaven Palace was similar to this.

Now, Nether Limitless and Bloodless Sword wanted to use this First Martial Meeting to their advantage; their ultimate goal was to become an Empyrean descendant.

And the one presiding over these semifinals was also the direct disciple of an Empyrean. If their performance was exceptional, they might be noticed by an Empyrean!

They weren’t afraid of showing off, only that they wouldn’t show off enough!

“I must reach the top, that is my only goal! Xiao Daochild said that the chances of us reaching the summit are slim, but I must do it so that everyone can see me!”

Nether Limitless’s blood boiled over. After another quarter hour he defeated the spirit body of the ninth step.

In defeating his opponent he didn’t use a weapon as before. Facing the spirit bodies of the ninth step or even the spirit bodies of higher steps, there really wasn’t a difference to Nether Limitless in how difficult it was.

And at this time, Lin Ming was now facing his opponent on the seventh step.

His opponent was a white-clothed woman with long hair. Her facial features were blurred.

These simulation spirit bodies all had different appearances, techniques, and cultivation methods. Lin Ming guessed that the different spirit bodies formed by the array formations on the Divine Seal Altar were similar to the Ancient Phoenix Clan’s own Illusionary God Combat Array. That was, they were able to use array formations to record a martial artist’s specific techniques and styles, and use this data to recreate a simulation spirit body.

These simulated spirit bodies were nearly the same as the real person. Whatever weaknesses the real person had, these spirit bodies would also have.

The weapon that this woman used was a soft sword. With just a glance, Lin Ming was able to feel the special characteristics of her true essence fluctuations, her use of weapons, her steps, and with this information he was able to guess that she was a martial artist that excelled in speed.

If he could suppress her in the aspect she excelled in the most, then he could instantly defeat her.

Chasing Thunder!

Lin Ming’s vision sharpened as he immediately opened Mystic Lightning Shade. His feet stepped on Golden Roc Shattering the Void and he attacked with his fastest move – Chasing Thunder!

Xiu!

A brilliant electric purple light shout out, cutting through the air and directly striking the white-clothed woman!

She was fast, but her speed was still far from being able to compare with Lin Ming.

Chi chi chi!

An electric light flashed out. But, at this time, something that left Lin Ming extremely surprised took place. The attack he sent out was one that even an ordinary Divine Transformation realm powerhouse wouldn’t be able to withstand. But, this white-clothed woman was actually completely uninjured. Her protective true essence was totally immune to Lin Ming’s Thunder Laws!

“Mm? She’s becoming stronger instead? She can absorb the power of my Thunder Laws for herself and convert it to her own strength? How is that even possible?”

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Lin Ming was so startled that he was left speechless… this woman’s protective true essence was able to absorb his own thunder attack and transform his strength into her own!

This sort of ability was only possessed by certain ancient vicious beasts and God Beasts. There were some ancient vicious beasts that had achieved a certain degree in their compatibility with the Laws and were completely immune to certain Law-based attacks.

For instance, there was the mythical Thunder Dragon. If one were to use thunder-based attacks against one then that was the same as delivering a nourishing tonic to it. The only method to overcome this was if one’s own power of thunder had reached a boundary where it was able to disregard the Laws of the world. For instance, Empyrean Thunder Punishment was this sort of top powerhouse.

Those beings that had this ability were either God Beasts or existences close to God Beasts. Lin Ming had never heard of a human that possessed this type of ability.

Lin Ming had the Heretical God Force which was itself a transcendent divine might. Even so, it could only absorb the power of thunder and fire that didn’t surpass his own boundary. If a thunder or fire attack that far surpassed Lin Ming’s limits were to strike him, it would still severely wound him.

“How strange! Why would this sort of opponent appear at only the seventh level!”

Lin Ming was puzzled. But, he didn’t pause in his movements. If the power of thunder didn’t work, he would switch to flames!

Chasing Sun shot out, smashing into the white-clothed woman. Then, something even more unbelievable occurred. This white-clothed woman was also immune to fire-based attacks!

“She’s immune to the Fire Laws? Immunity to thunder, immunity to fire, it’s as if this opponent was specifically targeted at me!”

Lin Ming thought something was strange. Starting from the sixth level, something unusual had been occurring. The opponents he faced were clearly far more formidable than the others!

“Did I hit the jackpot? Did I accidentally stumble into some hidden difficulty level? Or are there people purposefully trying to play tricks on me? But that doesn’t make sense… I have no idea what enemy I might have made that would be going against me here.”

Out of all the enemies Lin Ming had provoked, the strongest ones were the three prodigies of Sacred Martial Mansion, Zhong Wenshu, and Wu Finalcloud. However, they were all from World King and Great World King level Holy Lands, so it was impossible for them to affect the Divine Realm First Martial Meeting.

“If thunder and fire don’t work, then I will defeat you with absolute strength!”

Lin Ming couldn’t bother with getting to the bottom of what was happening right now. He directly took out the Phoenix Blood Spear and opened the first four of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates. The power of the Gate of Pain erupted, multiplying Lin Ming’s striking power by several times.

A spear thrust out, the speed reaching the limit. The power of 8-9 million jins of strength blew up. With a loud explosive sound, the white-clothed woman exploded into countless motes of light!

“He really is a dual body and energy cultivator.”

Within the inner world of the Divine Seal Altar, the gray-clothed man’s eyebrows shot up. He was the one deliberately causing trouble for Lin Ming in order to probe his strength by forcing him to use new moves.

“He dual cultivates in body and energy, and his body transformation technique has already opened the fourth gate… the Gate of Pain! Those geniuses that choose to walk the paths of dual body and energy cultivation have nearly disappeared. Among the Empyreans, nearly none of them do this. There are only some geniuses of small sects that are too full of themselves who believe they can walk down the road of dual body and energy cultivation.

“That young kid Vast Universe is resolutely opposed to dual cultivating body and energy. After all, not everyone can be like Empyrean Primordius and experience such heaven-shaking lucky chances! And without those lucky chances and under the current restrictions of the Heavenly Dao Laws, the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace become a demonic curse that can never be broken through. In truth, disregarding the Nine Stars of the Dao Palace, barely anyone in this universe can hope to break past the life and death threshold of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates.”

The old man traced his beard. The road of martial artists was broad and profound. By just walking down one cultivation system to the limit, one could become an Empyrean. But out of a trillion trillion lives, how many people were able to become an Empyrean?

If one couldn’t even bring one cultivation system to the limit and yet tried to split their attention with another, that was simply far too ambitious. Not just that, but the body transformation technique system was currently prohibited by the Heavenly Dao Laws.

The gray-clothed man also didn’t believe in dual cultivating body and energy.

“This boy actually chose to dual cultivate body and energy. Is it because he is overconfident in himself or is it because his master is an idiot? Or, perhaps he has some other cards in hand? His skeletal age is just over 30 years. With his essence gathering system cultivation at this level, his body transformation technique has at most four gates opened… that’s also quite good. If he continues on this road then I suspect it will harm him. In the next step, I must take a good look at how he fares in other aspects…”

The gray-clothed old man thought out loud. He didn’t have much faith in Lin Ming’s body transformation technique.

“Something seems strange with Senior-apprentice Brother Lin.”

“In the last two steps, he won with some difficulty. He even had to bring out his weapon on the seventh step. And in the future, the further he goes up the harder his opponents will be.”

“He’s in a bit of danger…”

From the Ancient Phoenix Clan as well as from the Crimson Light World, there were many people that were worried for Lin Ming. Just how strong was the Divine Seal Altar’s artifact spirit? If it did something, there were very few people that could see through it.

“Humph, what are you worried about? Senior-apprentice Brother Lin clearly hasn’t shown his true abilities. He’s clearly saving his strength for the future. The truly magnificent battles are still coming up! Not just that, but there are 300 people that can pass these semifinals. If Lin Ming can be in the top 300 then he’ll be fine. It’s his win as long as he can attend the finals.”

As this disciple spoke, he seemed to lose confidence in his own words.

Although their words and tone didn’t admit defeat, the truth was that if things continued like this, then even they couldn’t tell just how Lin Ming’s final results would be.

As for the twin girl hosts at the base of the Divine Seal Altar, they no longer spoke about Lin Ming. They only paid attention to the powerhouses at the top, shifting their attention to the several martial artists in the first group. They were currently the most dazzling characters in the semifinals.

The battle between Nether Limitless and Bloodless Sword was the focus of attention for nearly everyone in the audience.

Like this, the over 200,000 participants continued their struggle climbing upwards!

Tenth step, eleventh step, twelfth step, thirteenth step, fourteenth step…

Every step was harder than the last!

More and more participants were eliminated.

Nether Limitless already reached the 20th step. Once he ascended another step then he would no longer be fighting spirit bodies.

He would have to defeat other participants!