Chapter 251 – One Willing to Fight, One Willing to Endure

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

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In the endless illusionary dreamland, the Samsara martial intent rolled out like a tide, frantically swelling as it rushed over Bi Tinghua. Because of that split second of fearful hesitation, a glimmer of a flaw was produced within Bi Tinghua’s mind. Lin Ming seized this opportunity and struck back.

Bang!

Countless phantoms and images flowed into Bi Tinghua’s mind, the endless lives of 100 Samsaras drowning him like a chaotic whirlpool.

A showdown between soul forces was constantly evolving. A dangerous move, a wrong move, and everything could be lost. Fortunately, Bi Tinghua was much more proficient than Lin Ming in terms of utilizing his soul force. Although that flaw in his mind had placed him in a passive situation of defending, his soul force defensive skills were able to barely hold off the attacks on his spiritual sea.

The battle between the two became increasingly ruthless and savage. Lin Ming was relying on the Purple Flood Dragon Divine Thunder in his spiritual sea to launch an all-out offensive. With the power of thunder to protect his spiritual sea, he was in a nearly impregnable position.

As for Bi Tinghua, he was surrounded by danger on all sides. While Bi Tinghua had the cultivation methods of the Mirage Faction, towards Lin Ming’s Samsara martial intent that he had comprehended in the Sorcerer Holy Land after experiencing 100 lives of Samsara, they were on completely different levels in comparison.

With Bi Tinghua’s many years of cultivation and foundation within the Mirage Faction accumulated together, he was barely able to endure this attack.

With the dramatic and massive consumption of soul force, Bi Tinghua’s true body that was still standing on stage immediately paled, without a single trace of red in his cheeks.

“This damn boy, his soul force was actually so strong!”

Bi Tinghua was a disciple of the Mirage Faction, so he specialized in extremely precise use of soul force. But compared to Lin Ming, he was still inferior. It had to be known that Bi Tinghua’s cultivation was almost an entire realm above Lin Ming’s.

“Lucky for me this boy has only a single way to attack, and a complete lack of soul force skills. Every time he attacks, he wastes too much!” Bi Tinghua’s thoughts raced. As he was resisting Lin Ming’s attack, he was also thinking of possibilities to win.

“I can only defend and not attack. Although this Lin Ming has an extremely formidable soul force, he doesn’t know any techniques to use with it. Every time he attacks me he wastes a massive amount of soul force. Plus, since I am the one defending, I have to put in less effort to maintain this. His soul force consumption rate has to be at least three times my own! If this continues, he will definitely lose! As long as I can resist this round of continuous onslaught, my victory will be decided once he exhausts his soul force and can no longer maintain that purple lightning that covers his spiritual sea.”

Thinking this, Bi Tinghua’s lips curved up in a devilish grin. In the end, this country bumpkin martial artist who came from a hick village could only rely on brute force and had no skills. He was doomed to lose by his own hands!

Bi Tinghua had no way of knowing that this situation was exactly what Lin Ming was hoping for. Ever since Lin Ming had begun to use his Samsara martial intent, he had been trying to further his comprehension of the Samsara martial intent. It seemed as if his and Bi Tinghua’s soul force strength were comparable, in addition, this Bi Tinghua was quite skilled in soul force techniques. To come across such a good opponent and moreover, in an endurance match, it could only be considered serendipity.

To Lin Ming, Bi Tinghua was an exceptionally good grindstone to hone his abilities.

The dreamland around them began to morph over and over again. From a prairie to black lands. From black lands to a prairie. From black lands to a desert. From a desert to a bloody hell.

Devils and dark spirits and nagas danced around Bi Tinghua, twisting around his body. These monsters were summoned by Bi Tinghua in order to protect his own spiritual sea. But in front of Lin Ming’s never-ending brutal onslaught, everything was eventually torn apart by the swirling black vortex!

As soon as the match began, it lasted for an incense stick, then two incense sticks, then three incense sticks…..to half an hour. During this entire time, the two youths on the martial stage were still standing there, completely motionless!

Bi Tinghua’s face was already paler than bleached paper! With half an hour of intense soul force consumption, it wasn’t something that the average person could endure. If it weren’t for Bi Tinghua’s high soul talent and thick foundation, he would have already fallen flat on the ground.

“How is this possible!? Is this fellow really a human!?”

Bi Tinghua couldn’t imagine that his opponent could still persist until this moment even though his soul force consumption rate was three times his own. If their positions were reversed, he would have already been done in!

“If I hold on for a bit longer, he won’t be able to last much longer! I will be the one to finally win!

Indeed, it was just as Bi Tinghua had said. Lin Ming truly couldn’t persist much longer. Since he was on the offensive, his soul force consumption was tremendous!

Lin Ming had been depending on the ‘Overbearing Soul Tactic’ that was left behind from the Supreme Elder from the Realm of the Gods. He had already accumulated a great deal of experience with this soul law formula by practicing his inscription technique. Although this soul law formula couldn’t be considered the best within the Realm of the Gods, if placed in the Sky Spill Continent, it was actually a top quality technique among all top quality techniques.

However, even though he had this, he still was unable to withstand a soul force consumption that was three times Bi Tinghua’s. His complexion wasn’t much better than Bi Tinghua’s!

Lin Ming had clenched his teeth and persisted in his attacks until now because in this high intensity soul force battle, he had obtained substantial benefits and had also increased his understanding of soul force techniques. Secondly, this was a unsurpassed great chance to further his comprehension of his Samsara martial intent. If he missed this opportunity to fight against someone like Bi Tinghua whose soul force strength was close to his own and was also experienced, then it would be truly been a pity.

In one breath, the two people had been standing on the martial stage for an entire half hour. The eyes of the audience had already glazed over in a dull and dazed look.

The disciples of the Mirage Faction were more fortunate, after all, they were already long used to this type of scene. Not only that, but the outcome of this match concerned the reputation of the Mirage Faction. Naturally, they would be patiently watching.

As for everyone else, they had already lost their patience. Some people had left this stage, and some people had just fallen asleep in their seats.

“Lin Ming probably can’t persist much longer.”

In a duel between soul force and illusion techniques, it was absolutely difficult for outsiders to determine who had the upper hand in the duel. They simply weren’t able to see what sorts of moves and abilities were used. They could only distinguish a general situation of the duel by looking at the external appearance of the participants. At this moment, Bi Tinghua looked a bit better than Lin Ming.

“Mm. It’s just really inconceivable that a martial artist from the 36 countries could reach his point. To compel Senior-apprentice Brother Bi into this appearance, this Lin Ming truly is a worthy talent. But this is as far as he goes. Finally, we barely manage to preserve the face of our Mirage Faction.”

As the two Mirage Faction disciples discussed the match, Lin Ming’s body was shaking a bit. As for Bi Tinghua, although his face was as white as paper, he was barely able to stabilize himself from falling.

“He’s going to win.”

“At last!”

The Mirage Faction disciples present sighed a breath of relief. Although this match had been won with difficulty and they had lost a great deal of face, in the end, for better or worse, they had still won.

This soul force contest was completely a contest of endurance and willpower.

After several dozen breaths of time, Lin Ming’s soul force was reaching a state of near depletion. If he really ran out of soul force, then Lin Ming would lose his ability to control his true essence. At that time, he would surely lose.

‘Looks like I have to stop here.’ Lin Ming thought it was a bit of a pity; he had wanted to persist a bit longer and gain some more insights. However, now it seemed that he could only end this soul force showdown and use his Heavy Profound Soft Spear to finish off Bi Tinghua and conclude this match.

As he was considering withdrawing the leftovers of his depleted soul force, suddenly an incomparably pure and vibrant soul energy welled up from within Lin Ming’s spiritual sea, making his soul shake with excitement!

‘Mm? What is this?’

This pure soul force had suddenly swelled up from the underneath the depths of his spiritual sea; it was just as if it were buried there, and had been waiting for a chance to be unearthed.

‘This is probably…I remember!’

“This is the soul force that I absorbed from Hungry Ghosts in the Sorcerer Pagoda!”

Lin Ming suddenly realized what was happening. Back when he had entered the life and death smelting trial of the Sorcerer Pagoda, he had passed all seven trials in a single go!

The first trial had been a hellish world that was able to enhance his blood vitality. The second trial had comprised Hungry Ghosts that could supplement his soul force. The third trial consisted of beasts that increased his physical body strength. The fourth trial had the Witch Slave which enhanced the defensive power of his body. The fifth trial – mortal martial artists who were able to directly increase his cultivation. The sixth trial held no reward. As for the seventh trial, that was the World of the Sorcerer, in which Lin Ming had comprehended his Samsara martial intent.

During the second Hungry Ghost trial, Lin Ming had used the power of thunder to kill many Hungry Ghosts as well as decapitated a massive beautiful woman who had been the King of Hungry Ghosts. These dead lingering spirits had transformed into a pure spiritual force that nourished Lin Ming’s soul.

But because there was simply too much soul force and Lin Ming’s cultivation was limited, he had, at most, managed to absorb a fraction of it; the rest had been stored within his body.

The excess blood vitality that had been absorbed from the Blood Devils was also temporarily stored within his body.

And today, under this lucky coincidence, that pure soul force had been unexpectedly awakened, constantly injecting itself into his spiritual sea, nourishing his soul.

Of course, it wasn’t possible to instantly take all of it in in one go; it was a very long process. But once this pure soul force was released, it wouldn’t stop. It could be said that for a very long time in the future, Lin Ming’s soul would constantly be strengthening itself even when he’s eating or sleeping!

‘What a pleasant surprise!’

After he accidently connected to that pure soul force that had been buried beneath his spiritual sea, Lin Ming flushed red with excitement. Now that he had Bi Tinghua’s ‘help’ to absorb this, he wasn’t willing to let this opportunity go. Under the support of the pure soul force, the ferocity of Lin Ming’s soul attack became increasingly savage.

“This….how is this possible, he still has the strength to make another round of attacks!???”

Bi Tinghua thought he was going insane. Lin Ming’s soul force consumption rate was three times his own, but he had lasted until now and actually had the strength to launch a new salvo of attacks. But as for him, he was already stretched to his limit, completely overwhelmed!

“Impossible! This is impossible! Even Huan Xiaodie is not such an abnormal freak!”

Huan Xiaodie was the direct disciple of the Mirage Faction. In the Seven Profound Valleys, the disciples of the Mirage Faction and Zither Faction were mostly girls. In terms of strength, Huan Xiaodie was far superior to Bi Tinghua.

“He must have reached his limit; this must be his final effort before he completely collapses!”

Bi Tinghua was confident in his assumption. Lin Ming must have reached the limit of his power. Now, with this new unexpected round of even more violent attacks, this must be the side effect of some secret skill that he used on himself.

Most martial artists that specialized in soul force techniques understood several secret skills that they could use in order to insure their survival in a critical moment.

For instance, there were many secret skills that used a form of self-hypnosis in order to stimulate the full potential of the soul. However, the human soul was very fragile; once it was hurt, it was extremely difficult to heal. Therefore, this sort of secret skill tended to have extreme side effects.

Of course, the Seven Profound Valley’s Mirage Faction had their own sets of secret skills. Relatively speaking, the side effects of these secret skills were much milder.

“Humph! You’re not the only one with a secret skill. You think that just because you use it, I won’t dare to do the same!?”

Bi Tinghua’s eyes were colored red anger; he was raging to the point of almost vomiting blood. This had originally been a simple friendly martial arts match, and yet his opponent had used a secret skill without regards to his own well-being. However, he had already spoken so much trash talk before this match. If he lost now, then he would absolutely become a complete laughingstock within the Seven Profound Valleys!

Sh*t!

Not only that, but there were only three spots in the first tier. Fang Qi was such a freak of nature; Bi Tinghua had to admit that he was definitely not his match. As for Jing Chanyu, he wasn’t completely confident in being able to defeat her. If he lost to Lin Ming now, then he would truly be placed in a precarious position.

If one of the top three disciples of the Mirage Faction couldn’t enter into the first tier, then he wouldn’t have the face to look anyone in the eye ever again.

Thinking this, Bi Tinghua clenched his teeth.

‘This father will fight with you!’

Blood Sacrifice Soul Alacrity Law!