Chapter 1710 – Swallowing the Memories

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“Oh? I won’t be able to obtain the Black Dragon Spear if I kill you?” Lin Ming looked towards the Black Dragon phantom and clasped his hands behind his back as if he simply didn’t care about its threat.

The Black Dragon phantom diabolically grinned. Since it was imprisoned by Lin Ming, it knew that escape was futile so it gave up its struggles. “That’s right, if you don’t believe me then you can try yourself. I used a full billion years to take the Black Dragon Spear as a foundation to lay down the Myriad Demon Grand Array. Within this array formation, there is an amount of demonic energy as vast as the sea. For these past several billion years I have been constantly killing off trial challengers to accumulate their energy, otherwise why do you think I would bother!”

“Oh? So that’s how it is…”

Before this, Lin Ming had already discovered that the Black Dragon phantom itself wasn’t too strong. But, using the demonic energy it gathered it was able to instantly kill a top master like Juku. However there was a condition in order to accomplish this, and that was that it had to be within a certain range of the Black Dragon Spear. In other words, it had to take advantage of the array formation present in order to display its greatest combat strength.

As for this Black Dragon Spear’s array formation, it had been strengthened over billions of years and was exceedingly firm. Wanting to forcefully break through it was a near impossibility.

Lin Ming pondered for a moment and then his fingers glided through the air. Tiny faint runes spread out. At the corners of Lin Ming’s eyes, tiny Asura curse seals began to appear. He wanted to use the Asura Heavenly Dao to see through the flaws of this array formation.

The Black Dragon maniacally laughed. “Don’t waste your time. The grand array I laid down has nothing to do with the Asura Heavenly Dao. It's only that afterwards I managed to obtain an incomplete cultivation method for the Myriad Demon Karmic Wheel. Because I could sense the profundity within this cultivation method, I then decided to integrate it into the array. Do you think that just because you understand the Asura Heavenly Dao you can break through my array formation? You are far too na?ve! I spent billions of years on this array, constantly reinforcing it with sacrifices of flesh and blood. No matter how high your cultivation or your understanding of array diagrams is, you will never be able to break past it!”

The Black Dragon phantom chuckled, completely confident in its array formation.

“I see.” The curse seals around Lin Ming’s eyes began to fade away. If what the Black Dragon phantom said was true, it would take a considerable amount of time to break through this array formation. At best, Lin Ming would need to spend dozens of days here before he could take the Black Dragon Spear. But, that was far too long a time. He still needed to go to the fifth level.

“Thus, you had best release me. The truth is that you and I have conflicts of interest. I admit that I had wanted to swallow you up, but in this world there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. If you release me then I promise you I will help open the array formation and you can take the Black Dragon Spear. After that, you and I will both mind our own business. The river water will not interfere with the well water. How about it?”

The Black Dragon phantom temptingly said as it saw Lin Ming remain silent.

“Of course, I will need you to take a heart demon oath and also place a curse on yourself. In addition, you will also need to sign a blood contract before I am willing to help you break the array. Otherwise, there is no way I can believe you.”

Seeing Lin Ming still deep in thought, as if he had no other plan, the Black Dragon phantom’s expression became increasingly confident.

It secretly thought, “This brat, he definitely desires the Black Dragon Spear. If he cannot obtain it, he will never give up. In a situation where he has no other method he will definitely choose to cooperate with me. As for my ancient blood contract, as long as he signs it he will receive a curse, hehe… at that time, once I am released and can return to the array formation I can look for a chance to turn defeat into victory and swallow him whole!

“This little beast, if I do not imprison and torture his soul for 10,000 years I will never be able to rid the hatred within my heart!”

As the Black Dragon phantom was deep in thought, a fierce light lit up in its eyes!

But at the same time, it also felt uneasy. Lin Ming was not easy to deal with. It had personally experienced Lin Ming’s cunning with its body, and it wasn’t sure if its plan could be implemented too smoothly.

Lin Ming rubbed his chin, staring at the Black Dragon phantom. As if realizing something, a brilliance began to shine in his eyes, making the Black Dragon phantom feel a little weak of heart.

It was as if all its thoughts just now had been seen through by Lin Ming. It put away its thoughts of betraying Lin Ming, afraid that Lin Ming was reading its mind.

“What… what are you looking at, have you finished making your decision?”

The Black Dragon phantom ominously said. Even so, it lacked energy in its heart.

At this time, Lin Ming smiled, “I have.”

“Heh! A wise man can adapt to the current trends. If you kill me there is no advantage for you. Rather, the Black Dragon Spear is the most important to you. Hurry up and undo my seal and then sign the blood contract with me. You are a crafty and sinister little boy. It’s impossible for me to believe your words alone. Only a contract and a heart demon oath are things I will believe in.”

The Black Dragon phantom looked at Lin Ming, its thoughts wildly racing. This was the most crucial period. It had to lure Lin Ming into agreeing to its conditions. However, it always felt that Lin Ming’s thoughts were too deep and it had never been able to grasp his true thoughts.

“Alright, then I will undo your seal.”

Lin Ming smiled and waved his hand, bringing the grandmist space shrouding down over him and the Black Dragon phantom, completely isolating them from the outside. Under the cover of the grandmist space, no senses were able to search within. Whether someone wanted to leave or someone wanted to enter, they would have to break through the grandmist space’s enchantment first in order to do so.

Seeing this, the Black Dragon phantom laughed. “You even laid down your force field. Are you afraid that I’ll run away? Hah! You really worry too much.”

As the Black Dragon said this, it sinisterly smiled in its mind. “Run? Why would I run? How can I give up this array formation that I spent billions of years forming? If I ran away my losses would be far too great. I must swallow you and restore my lost blood energy. Since you plundered my demonic energy, I will make sure you pay it back twofold!”

Although the Black Dragon phantom was crazily shouting out in its heart, it remained calm on the surface.

At this time, Lin Ming raised his right palm upwards. Atop his palm, space distorted and a black vortex appeared.

He shook his head, “The reason I laid down this force field is not because I am afraid you’ll run away, but because I needed to conceal something. Something that I cannot allow anyone else to discover.”

As Lin Ming spoke, a black cube began to appear above his palm.

This black cube was mysterious and simple. Its surface was covered with all sorts of strange lines. This was the Magic Cube!

Seeing this black cube, the Black Dragon phantom’s pupils shrank. It didn’t recognize the Magic Cube but it felt a deep fear swelling forth from the depths of its being.

“What is that?”

The Black Dragon phantom calmly asked, trying to put up a brave front. Although it didn’t know what this object was, it fell chills zapping its heart.

Lin Ming said, “I call this the Magic Cube. It is an ancient divine tool. Of my current achievements, over half of them are thanks to this object…”

Lin Ming seemed to be casually speaking, but as the Black Dragon phantom heard these words, its mind began to shake. “What is the meaning of this?”

If what Lin Ming said was true then this Magic Cube was undoubtedly his greatest secret. Yet, he was revealing his secret to it…

Before the Black Dragon phantom could respond, the Magic Cube shot out a dark light like the end of times. In a brief instant, this light covered the Black Dragon phantom. The Black Dragon phantom felt as if its soul was covered in corrosive acid. It began to emit painful shrieks!

“Ahhhh!”

The Black Dragon phantom wildly struggled. However, its entire body was sucked into the Magic Cube and torn apart by the terrifying black vortex!

“You… what are you doing!?”

A pained howl spread into Lin Ming’s mind. Lin Ming’s complexion was cold and indifferent. He lightly said, “I wasn’t interested in you to begin with, but since you said that I cannot take away the Black Dragon Spear without your help, I’ve decided to wipe away your soul mark and read your memories. I will find out the method to break through the array formation myself.”

“Wha… what did you say!?!?”

The Black Dragon phantom was shocked. Before it could respond to Lin Ming’s words, its consciousness was rapidly submerged in the horrifying vortex of energy as its very sense of self was being slowly wiped away, leaving it in endless pain!

This feeling of having one’s soul mark written off was beyond description. The Black Dragon phantom felt like its soul was being shredded to bits by 10,000 blades, gnawed upon by countless insects!

Before long, the Black Dragon phantom’s soul mark had completely vanished, turning into nothing but pure memories. As its soul mark vanished, this also signaled its true death.

Lin Ming thrust out his hand and swallowed all of these memories!

Swallowing ownerless memories wasn’t easy for Lin Ming. He needed a long time to process them all.

And, this Black Dragon phantom had lived for billions of years and experienced far too many complicated things. Lin Ming directly discarded all unnecessary memories, otherwise he would never be able to read through all of them even given hundreds of years.

A massive amount of memory fragments was tossed away by Lin Ming. Through the countless streams of information, Lin Ming searched for things that were useful to him.

This process continued for a long time. Slowly, Lin Ming came to understand many things.

This Black Dragon phantom wasn’t a true dragon to begin with. It was originally an evil spirit and after it found the Black Dragon Spear, it slowly fused with it, using the Black Dragon Spear as its foundation to cultivate.

The reason that it appeared in the shape of a dragon was because there was a fragment of remnant dragon will left within the Black Dragon Spear. This was because the artifact spirit of the Black Dragon Spear had been a true dragon spirit, but this dragon spirit had already vanished long before the evil spirit had found it.

Otherwise, the Black Dragon Spear would never have allowed an evil spirit to enter.

After this evil spirit entered the Black Dragon Spear, it fused with the black dragon aura in the spear shaft and gained the characteristics of a dragon. But, its true nature always remained cruel and sinister.

For so many years, this evil spirit had used the changing terrain of the fourth level to avoid characters like Sheng Mei that could truly pose a threat to it. Only when people like the Divine Void Crown Prince appeared would it reveal itself in order to tempt them close and steal away their flesh and blood essence.

As Lin Ming discovered this he was secretly dumbfounded. This evil spirit was truly crafty! A great reason he was able to subdue it was also because of luck.

As he was thinking this, his thoughts perked up. In the memories of the evil spirit, Lin Ming had finally found the method to open up the array formation!

The demonic energy gathering array formation around the Black Dragon Spear wasn’t too profound, but after being refined for billions of years, this simple array formation was nearly impossible to unravel. Now that Lin Ming found the related memories, it finally became incomparably easy to undo.