Chapter 657 – Leaving the Forbidden Zone

…

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

…

…

Ho -- !

Lin Ming retreated from the world of will, a cold sweat already streaming down his back. He had been completely suppressed by the aura of that heart. Fortunately, that heart did not care one bit about him, otherwise he would have already been crushed into nothing.

“Brother Lin… are you okay?” Duanmu Qun noticed Lin Ming’s strange behavior and asked him, “Is something wrong?”

Although Duanmu Qun had only known Lin Ming for a short time, he had still been able to get a relatively good grasp on what sort of character he had. Lin Ming wasn’t the type to play evil tricks or do something dirty; he must have discovered something just now.

Lin Ming hesitated for a moment before recounting what just happened to Duanmu Qun with a true essence sound transmission. With another person, there would be another viewpoint on matters and another opinion; perhaps they would be able to understand some more things.

“You said that there is the heart of a great Emperor sealed within this goddess that has been beating for the last several tens of thousands of years!?”

After hearing this, Duanmu Qun was inexplicably shocked! He too wanted to feel the heartbeat of this goddess, but after a moment of hesitation, he didn’t dare to put out his hand. According to Lin Ming’s account of events, he had been sucked into that world of will. Luckily, Lin Ming’s battle spirit had already formed. Even so, he had been suppressed to the point of sweating all over. If Duanmu Qun himself were to be drawn into that world of will, then he feared he would be ground into a pile of meat.

Lin Ming said, “The Great Emperor that I mentioned now isn’t a Great Emperor of the Holy Demon Continent, but one from the Realm of the Gods. Compared to such an existence, even the Eightfall War Emperor is nothing more than a little baby. I really have no idea… just who killed this person, and why would their heart appear within the Eternal Demon Abyss?”

Lin Ming couldn’t imagine just how strong a true Great Emperor from the Realm of the Gods would be. Not to mention other aspects, but in terms of lifespan, if a Great Emperor of the mortal world didn’t make a miraculous breakthrough, they could live at most for 10,000 years. But, a Great Emperor of the Realm of the Gods, even after death, their heart would still be able to beat on for tens of thousands of years. These were two completely different levels!

Duanmu Qun came from a super Holy Land, so he certainly knew the rumors about the Realm of the Gods. After a moment of thought he suddenly said, “Are you sure that this Great Emperor was killed?”

“Mm?” Lin Ming paused, “His heart is here, so can he still be alive?”

“I can’t say!” Duanmu Qun shook his head, “In the ancient books of my Holy Land, I’ve also read some records about the Supreme Elders within the Realm of the Gods. I’ve read that there are some martial artists who have reached an extremely high boundary and can regrow their limbs even after they are cut off. And above that, there are those that can be reborn from a single drop of blood. Even if they lost their entire body, as long as there is still a single piece left over, they could slowly regenerate into a complete body. To a Great Emperor of the Realm of the Gods, perhaps even losing a heart doesn’t mean they would die!”

As Duanmu Qun spoke, Lin Ming did recall some memories about this. There were some powerhouses within the Realm of the Gods, who, after reaching a very high level, could reform themselves even after being cut apart.

As for being reborn through a single drop of blood, Duanmu Qun’s words weren’t too far off from the truth. By relying on just a little piece of their body, one really could be reborn with a complete form. However, the cost of that was that the new body would only have that tiny sliver of the original body. Basically, this meant that their entire life’s martial arts would be wasted!

For a top martial artist to lose that much of their body, it meant they would lose that much of their energy.

“You’re right, this Great Emperor might not have died.” Lin Ming nodded. Before, he had fallen into a different way of thinking.

Duanmu Qun also said, “This goddess died several tens of thousands of years ago and yet her body hasn’t decayed. She still lies here, sleeping in beauty. This completely defies common sense. No matter how powerful this goddess was before death, after she died, her energies should have faded away a bit after such a long time. At least, her skin should have lost some of its gorgeous luster. But, since that isn’t the case, I think there might be a different possibility… and that is that this Great Emperor from the Realm of the Gods gouged out his own heart to place within her body, in order to preserve the life force of her body for 100,000 years!”

Duanmu Qun even seemed amazed by his own words. As Lin Ming listened to him, he was shocked. Although this reasoning sounded strange, it might have been true!

A divine Emperor had gouged out his own heart in order to preserve the vitality of this goddess!

To a martial artist, their heart, dantian, and spiritual sea were there three most important points, and these were also the areas that contained the most energy. If one cut out their own heart, they would lose at least 10% of their strength. If that Great Emperor felt this was worth it, then undoubtedly this goddess was extremely important to him!

If this were the case then this Realm of the Gods Great Emperor should have entombed her in a crystal sarcophagus to ensure she was well protected; why would he abandon her within the Eternal Demon Abyss?

Such a simple tomb… it was hard to imagine that there would be such a powerful being from the Realm of the Gods buried here!

There were too many things that Lin Ming was confused about, so he simply didn’t think about it. He leaned forwards and continued to search around the goddess’ neck. Before, when he felt the goddess’s heartbeat, he had drawn back his hand so he failed to take the keepsake out.

Gingerly reaching into her dress, Lin Ming pulled out a necklace.

This necklace was very strange, it was absolutely not something that a woman would normally use. The necklace itself was as thick as a little finger. Rather than a necklace, it seemed more like a chain. On the end of this necklace was a palm-sized metal plate, a full inch thick. In the center of this metal plate was a hole that seemed as if it had held some gem, but now that gem was lost.

“What a strange keepsake.”

Lin Ming shook his head. He put the jade pendant and necklace in his spatial ring. As for the riddle of the Eternal Demon Abyss, he would have to wait until his was stronger before he could begin to unravel it.

And for now, Lin Ming was far from reaching this realm. In the future, when he was strong enough, he would personally enter the Eternal Demon Abyss to see just what was inside.

Peering deep into the woman’s sarcophagus, he branded her image in his mind and then slowly pushed the cover back over.

Lifting his hand, he formed some array symbols and sealed away the sarcophagus. Lin Ming only casually sealed it. With that heart from a divine Emperor protecting her, there were no evil spirits that would ever be able to do anything to the goddess. Luckily, he didn’t have any malicious or dark intentions from the start, otherwise when he was sucked into that world of will, just the slightest bit of killing intent from that divine Emperor’s heart would have killed him countless times over!

The reason that those corpse devils didn’t dare to touch the sarcophagus of this goddess was most likely because they feared the heart of that divine Emperor.

“Senior, junior must bid you farewell.”

Lin Ming cupped his fists together. As he left the tomb, he had a faint feeling that in the future, his fate would one day cross with this woman again, and perhaps even the divine Emperor who had left that heart…

“Let’s go! We’re getting out of here!”

Lin Ming suppressed all the questions in his heart and brought Duanmu Qun and the rest to leave the tomb…

………………………………

Eternal Demon Abyss, 1100 mile zone.

The land was completely silent. Under a sky that had remained gray for tens of thousands of years, a dark fog rolled through. In this crimson land, one could occasionally see several broken stone tablets on the earth, engraved with ancient and mysterious symbols.

On this day, there were several blood crows circling up above, creepily screeching. These blood crows lived by eating corpses. It was said that they had a very special ability to sense and smell the energy of a dying person. Thus, when there were people dying, they would always be gathered at that spot in advance.

“You bunch of beasts also came to join in on the fun, eh!”

From the fog, a Giant Demon martial artist suddenly leapt out. As he saw this group of blood crows flying in the air, he began to simmer with a burning rage. “You want to wait for this father to die? Then this father will kill you first! Go die!”

Spear light flashed and several blood crows were pierced through. The others gave several screeches before flying away. In truth, these blood crows had no striking power. Within the Eternal Demon Abyss, they were the weakest and most ordinary of species. They lived on by burying their eggs deep underground to avoid the eruptions of the Eternal Demon Abyss and would breed once every 10 years.

“Third Brother, this can’t go on. We’ve already been trapped here for an entire month! Damn this unholy place!” The one who spoke was an Imp martial artist. As he saw the Giant Demon martial artist attack a blood crow, he could only shake his head and sigh.

The Giant Demon martial artist put away his spear and cursed, “F*ck it all, this year’s Eternal Demon Abyss is too strange. In the past, it was never so dangerous after an eruption. I fear that over half of those that came to the Eternal Demon Abyss have already died!”

“No kidding! Che, I thought that I would be able to obtain some lucky chances here, but if I can’t even get out, then any lucky chance is useless.” The last one to speak up was a young Fey girl. She was the only woman in the group of three.

Their squad originally has six people. Now, there were only three left over and they were also stuck in this danger zone with no way to leave, often having to face the attacks of evil spirits.

As the three were speaking, they heard a mournful scream, the fog around them suddenly stirring up like a pot of boiling porridge.

“This is bad!”

The three of them paled and immediately drew out their weapons. At this time, with the fog in front of them blown away, they could see that five 10 foot tall humanoid monsters had appeared in front of them.

These five monsters were incomparably disgusting, absolutely nauseating to look at. Their faces were covered with pus-filled sores and the top of their heads looked like crowns of oozing meat. Their fangs looked like steel needles, and as they walked upright, their claws looked like sharp and cruel blades.

“Just when will these damned monsters stop chasing us!?”

An Imp martial artist felt his heart sink into despair. The reason they had mistakenly entered into this space maze was because they had been chased down by this group of demonic beasts. Afterwards, they had been stuck here in this danger zone for an entire month without any way to leave. Now, he never thought that this group of disgusting monsters would use some unknown method to find them, and had actually chased them all the way here.

As they saw these large monsters in front of them, the martial artists realized that none of them would be leaving here alive.

“F*ck! If I’m going to die trapped here, then I would rather die fighting with these monsters! If you want to kill this father then this father won’t let you off either!”

A Giant Demon martial artist gave a loud shout and thrust his spear forwards, a sharp spear light slicing through the void. This Giant Demon martial artist certainly wasn’t an average martial artist, otherwise there was no way he would have lived until this point.

However, he returned even faster than he went. That repulsive humanoid monster only slapped out its hand and sent the Giant Demon martial artist flying. Three bloody wounds appeared in the Giant Demon martial artist’s chest, blood gushing out!

The difference was too great!

In their first encounter, they hadn’t been able to resist either. These humanoid monsters were not only ridiculously strong, but nearly invulnerable to weapons. None in their group had been able to fight back, thus the reason they fled into the wild and stumbled into a danger zone by mistake.

As the Imp and Fey martial artists saw this, their eyes filled with anguish. At this moment, all of them would die!

The five large monsters gave two loud roars and stretched out their cruel claws to grasp at the three martial artists. The imp martial artist’s eyes flashed with a decisive color, and he was prepared to fight 'til his death with these monsters. But, at this moment, twin beams of radiant light appeared out of thin air, piercing through the eyes of two monsters as if they were made of paper. Those two monsters weren’t even able to cry out before their bodies shook and they tumbled to the ground, blood bubbling out of them.

The Imp martial artist was completely stunned.