Chapter 1347 – The Final Gate

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High above the skies of the Demondawn Great World’s central continent, countless celestial bodies dotted the heavens. These stars were titanic bodies that were millions of miles wide, but in these skies they were nothing more than little specks of sand not worthy of mention at all.

And in one of these countless stars, Lin Ming was sitting in a cave dwelling. In front of him, a spirit artifact furnace was slowly spinning. The fires of heavenly tribulation were brilliantly blazing beneath the furnace and the furnace itself glowed with a vivid red light.

Lin Ming was now refining the Esoteric Mortality Pill.

According to the records within the Celestial Tyrant Manual, the Esoteric Immortality Pill and the Esoteric Mortality Pill were pills required to open the Gate of Life and Gate of Death. However, the truth was that these pills were not some specific pill, but a general classification.

The Esoteric Immortality Pill required life-attribute pill materials, and the Esoteric Mortality Pill required death-attribute pill materials.

The primordial epoch spirit root represented that deathly chaos from the forming of the universe, a world in which no life existed. Thus, it was able to be used to open the Gate of Death’s Esoteric Mortality Pill.

Lin Ming used an entire month to gather all the necessary supplementary reagents for refining the Esoteric Mortality Pill. Luckily, the Demondawn Great World was one of the several first-order great worlds in the Divine Realm. Here, as long as one had enough nine sun jades, they could buy almost any rare or precious materials they desired.

In order to avoid being found out by others, Lin Ming used different identities to buy different materials at different trading venues. The Divine Dream Law’s appearance changing technique was extremely exquisite; not even a fairy would be able to sense anything wrong with Lin Ming.

Like this, Lin Ming collected all the materials he needed. Then, he went to Skybreak Planet.

The reason he chose Skybreak Planet was because there was a special transmission array here that led to the lower realms. As long as one was willing to pay enough violet sun crystals, they could return to the lower realms through it. And, through the guidance of some strange Laws, it would allow one to return to their home world.

Of course, going to other worlds was also possible, but one had to know the specific spatial coordinates for that world. However, in the violent and turbulent space flows, it was hard to find the exact coordinates.

Many precious materials were all placed into the furnace by Lin Ming.

For these materials, Lin Ming had spent 5 nine sun jades.

5 nine sun jades was a price equal to 5 trillion violet sun stones. When Lin Ming had won the auction for the Boundless World Pill in the past, he had spent 7 trillion violet sun stones to do so.

For the Esoteric Mortality Pill, the supplementary materials alone were able to catch up to the price of the Boundless World Pill, let alone the main ingredient that was the primordial epoch spirit root.

In terms of alchemy, Lin Ming wasn’t considered some skilled expert. Although he had absorbed the memory fragments of an alchemist, that alchemist’s alchemical skill wouldn’t be considered too high.

Fortunately, Lin Ming had Mo Eversnow supporting him. In the past, Mo Eversnow had been a heaven-gifted eternally rare genius. At a young age she had managed to reach a half-step World King cultivation. Through her life, she researched into and gained a deep understanding of array formations and alchemy and a very rich breadth of personal experience in refining the Esoteric Immortality Pill and Esoteric Mortality Pill. This was because Mo Eversnow herself was also a dual body and energy cultivator.

With Mo Eversnow’s experience guiding him, and then added onto Lin Ming’s flames of heavenly tribulation which far surpassed all ordinary fires, refining the Esoteric Mortality Pill was over 90% guaranteed to succeed.

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

As time passed, the Esoteric Mortality Pill began to gradually take shape within the furnace. There was none of the fable medicinal fragrance, but instead a deathly silent breath. As one breathed in this type of air, they could feel their own breath catch in their throat as if their heart wanted to stop beating, their soul wanted to fall asleep, and even the circulation of blood in their body slowing down.

If a mortal were to smell this type of breath, their life would be immediately be ended.

“This pill is to push one to the edge of death and force them to survive. If there is such an effect from just smelling it, then if I were to take this pill, the power of that deathly stillness on me could be imagined. If it weren’t for my own life vitality being so formidable, I might die in that situation.”

Mo Eversnow said, “That’s right. That is why the Eight Inner Hidden Gates’ Gate of Death is the final gate. Open the Gate of Life first and then open the Gate of Death. With the life vitality provided by the Gate of Life, push past the barriers of the Gate of Death.”

As Mo Eversnow spoke, the furnace violently shook and the lid came shooting off. A pure black pill flew out.

Lin Ming’s figure flashed as he grabbed it.

This pill was extremely heavy and black without the slightest bit of luster at all. To be more accurate, it wasn’t black at all. Rather, it absorbed all light and didn’t emit any at all, giving it a black appearance just like Lin Ming’s black hole seed.

Looking at this pill, Lin Ming could feel as if he had opened up some mysterious spatial channel to some unknown space-time.

Lin Ming revolved the power of the Gate of Life to the limit. At this time, all of his fires of life began to blaze upwards like an inferno. A massive power of blood vitality surged about. If some ghosts or lost souls were to approach, they would instantly have their souls scattered to nothing.

Lin Ming took a deep breath and swallowed the Esoteric Mortality Pill.

The Esoteric Mortality Pill was able to destroy life vitality. In that moment, it was like a cold bucket of water had been splashed over Lin Ming’s fires of life. With this alternating struggle between life and death, Lin Ming’s body shook and he spat out a mouthful of black blood.

After this black blood left Lin Ming’s body it began to rapidly decay, drying up. This was the horror of the Esoteric Mortality Pill. If someone were to be contaminated with just the tiniest bit of blood, their body might wither away on the spot.

Lin Ming’s body continued to decline. His face and muscles shrank, withering away. But underneath the support of the Gate of Life, his flesh and blood continued to regenerate.

This process continued for several quarter hours of time. Lin Ming endured the jarring pain of his body withering again and again, instead revolving the astral essence within his body according to the Celestial Tyrant Manual in order to begin his final attack on the Gate of Death.

……………..

At this time, deep within the Skydark Holy Lands, in a separate world.

A pale Tian Mingzi sat atop a scarlet stone platform. All around this platform was an endless red sea, the waves tumbling about with howls echoing into the skies. Countless thick water drops splashed up, as viscous as blood.

And in this this endless blood sea, countless bizarre creatures floated up and down, looking just like mythical hell.

Standing in front of Tian Mingzi was a vague black-robed person. His entire body was wrapped in a shroud of black fog. As the black fog roiled about him, it looked just like beating flames, nearly impossible to see.

And in front of this black-robed man was a slowly spinning compass. Countless mystical Dao runes glittered atop this compass.

These Dao patterns were completely different from the Dao patterns of the Divine Realm. Instead, they were much more similar to the bone fragment that Lin Ming had obtained in the past.

And underneath these Dao patterns were a bunch of scattered bones. These bones were already reduced to pieces and had decayed away, as if thousands of years had passed. If Lin Ming were here, he would recognize that these broken skeletons were the corpses of the six Divine Lord masters from Demondawn Jungle.

As the compass spun, the skeletons melted away, turning into a ghastly corpse energy that was completely absorbed by the giant array disc.

Then, above this array disc, many faint images formed. Besides the strange black-robed person, no one was able to understand what these images meant.

“Do you see it?”

Tian Mingzi asked, opening his eyes.

The black-robed person shook his head, saying, “If these corpses had their memories intact then that would be good. I would be able to easily find the murderer. But, the damage to these corpses is far too great, all I can do is use some arcane techniques to faintly restore the past.”

As the black-robed man spoke, another image appeared above the compass. This person grasped a spear but it was impossible to make out his appearance or even his age.

“That’s him?”

Tian Mingzi’s eyes sharpened. It was this person that had killed many disciples of the Skydark Holy Lands and had stolen away the primordial epoch spirit root. “This is everything?”

With just this image alone, it was impossible to find this person.

“Hehe, my saint race’s methods are far beyond just this.”

As the black-robed man spoke, he suddenly opened his mouth, devouring up that image as well as the corpse energy. He slowly chewed it before finally swallowing it.

To the average person, they would find this beyond abhorrent. But this black-robed man seemed to enjoy this flavor very much.

“The killer isn’t past 60 years of age, and there is the flavor of thunder and flame. He should be a martial artist skilled in the Thunder and Fire Laws…”

As the black-robed man spoke, Tian Mingzi’s mind stirred. “Not over 60 years old?”

For someone beneath 60 years of age to defeat a Divine Lord realm powerhouse, that was definitely a top genius.

Of course, there could be great variations within the black-robed man’s estimation. Just saying that this killer’s age didn’t surpass 60 was far too general.

“Hehe, I’ve caught him. I tasted a bit of his aura. These six people were all finally killed underneath his spear. By just doing that alone, his aura was left on these six corpses.”

The black-robed man’s secret technique was extremely strange. These leftover corpses were already destroyed beyond ruin, but this person was actually able to eat them up and find the killer depending on the killer’s aura. This sort of technique was nearly related to the karma of samsara, and could be considered an extremely mysterious and profound part of the Heavenly Dao Laws.

“As long as I have tasted your aura, I will never forget it in my life. I want to see just whether or not I can find you! Jejejeje!”

The black-robed man queerly smiled and began to use the array disc to approximate the position of this aura. Not only could he identify one’s aura, but he could even lock onto a person’s position using this aura and a secret technique. This was something unheard of for a human martial artist.

“Can you find him?”

“There’s a chance. But, if he is too far away then even I can’t do anything.”

The black-robed man continued to search and search, but there was no sign in the array disc.

Slowly, the black-robed man’s appearance became increasingly blurry as if he couldn’t continue for much longer. Using this technique wasn’t easy for him either. After staying in this state for nearly two hours, and just as he was about to give up, his heart suddenly stirred. He turned his head towards a direction and then aimed the array disc there, instantly forming hundreds and thousands of seals.

As these seals flew in the air, the array disc began to emit a deathly still energy. This energy was so faint that one could barely sense it even with the sharpest of senses.

As the black-robed person caught onto this deathly still energy, his eyes began to shine. “I found you! To think that you would be opening the Gate of Death! If you weren’t opening the Gate of Death then it would have been impossible for me to find you, but since you are, you have begun to excite the counterforce of this universe’s rules, exposing your position. My saint race can be considered the ancestor of all body transformation techniques, and even your Divine Realm’s body transformation techniques originate from my saint race. You cannot hide from me!”