Chapter 869 – The New Destiny Decree

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News of Lin Ming’s victory over Situ Yaoyue spread over the central region like a blazing whirlwind. A peak first stage Life Destruction youth had defeated a seventh stage Life Destruction master with an Extreme Violet Dantian. This news was certainly shocking enough to be described as explosive.

No one had thought that Lin Ming would have been able to survive this ordeal, nor did they think that the Asura Divine Kingdom would be so thoroughly defeated by Lin Ming.

Anyone could see just how bright Lin Ming’s future was. It was possible he would rule the world for 10,000 years.

Three days later, a new version of the Destiny Decree was released.

After opening it, the first name on the first page was written down with flourishing letters of red ink.

Lin Lanjian!

Lin Ming had already been listed three times with the red ink that indicated he was the man of the hour. From over rank 200 of the Destiny Decree to leaping into first place, this sort of progress left chills crawling up everyone’s spines!

And on the back of that sheet, Lin Ming’s evaluation was written down in black.

‘The number one rarest talent that the Sky Spill Continent has witnessed in 100,000 years. His talent far surpasses that of the Demon Emperor and Eightfall Thunder Emperor, and it even faintly rises past that of Emperor Shakya. With his first stage Life Destruction cultivation, he became the highest master below the Divine Sea.’

The new Destiny Decree also reached Lin Ming’s hands. “Destiny Grasp has judged my talent as surpassing the Demon Emperor, Eightfall Thunder Emperor, and Emperor Shakya. From the wording, it seems that Emperor Shakya was a monstrous talent that exceeded the first two. Even Destiny Grasp used ‘faintly rises past’ as a prelude…”

”Emperor Shakya was only at the seventh stage of Life Destruction. With that seventh stage Life Destruction cultivation, he fused together seven different martial intents and broke through the void of martial arts. His talent actually surpasses that of the Eightfall Thunder Emperor. I wonder just what it would be like to fuse martial intents together?” Lin Ming was looking forward to the Prime Emperor Force Field more and more. Only by fusing the Prime Emperor Force Field, Asura Force Field, and Death God Force Field together would he be able to form the complete Heavenly Demon martial intent!

The complete Heavenly Demon martial intent was able to directly kill and suppress the Divine Sea!

“Unfortunately I am not strong enough yet, and going to the Holy Demon Continent isn’t too good. I have a blood feud with the Steppes Master. If I enter the Road of Emperor, that will definitely draw his attention.”

After the new Destiny Decree reached the dimensional realm, it was immediately known. Lin Ming began to receive more and more invitations to banquets all over. But, regardless of which banquet Lin Ming attended, the masked old man would follow behind him like a shadow to ensure his safety.

At the current banquet, those present were Prince level figures or Holy Land descendants. The worst of them were sons and potential successors of Divine Kingdom High Princes.

Every junior had to have a Divine Sea powerhouse backing them, otherwise they simply didn’t have the qualifications to attend such a banquet.

“Brother Lin, congratulations on becoming the top master within Life Destruction. To become the greatest within Life Destruction at only the first stage, you will surely be the highest under the heavens after reaching the Divine Sea!”

“Haha, Brother White underestimates Brother Lin too much. I believe that Brother Lin won’t even need to reach the Divine Sea before having strength nearing that of the highest under the heavens!”

At this banquet, Lin Ming was undoubtedly the main character and all the Divine Kingdom Princes had become his supporting cast. This wasn’t too strange. With a Divine Emperor being able to live for several thousand years, there were just far too many Princes. Perhaps their fathers didn’t even know how many children they had.

“Brother Lin, you have worked so hard to deceive me, hmm!” A white-clothed youth said as he lifted a glass of wine, his true essence sound transmission filled with a wry tone. This youth was Li Yifeng. When Lin Ming was crossing Life Destruction, his wood spirit jade mask had been crushed apart in the explosions of energy, and that was when Li Yifeng had seen Lin Ming’s appearance. At that time, he had been left staring dumbfounded, and the young maid at his side also had a mouth open wide enough to fit an egg. Although they knew that Lin Ming was extraordinarily talented, they never imagined that his talent would reach such a degree.

Afterwards, Lin Ming had gone directly into closed door seclusion and Li Yifeng didn’t have a chance to see Lin Ming again. It was only at today’s banquet that he had the chance to see Lin Ming.

“Brother Li, about my identity, please keep it a secret.” Lin Ming was clear that he couldn’t hide the truth from Li Yifeng. Even if his appearance hadn’t been seen, he only needed to combine his moves with his weapon in order to make an approximation.

When Lin Ming became enemies with the Asura Divine Kingdom, he had Demonshine control the Giant Leviathan and send his family and friends into the deep sea. Even so, he still wasn’t completely relieved.

“Of course! I won’t even say half a word.” Li Yifeng struck his chest in promise. He had no reason to betray Lin Ming anyway; there was just no benefit to doing something so dishonorable.

“I… I also won’t say anything.” As Li Yifeng’s young maid faced Lin Ming, she began to stumble over her words. It was obvious that she was feeling extremely nervous at this time. There was no longer even a hint of the arrogant and haughty attitude she used to have. The reason she had been so rampant before was that she looked down on everywhere that was outside of the central region and her background was also quite illustrious. In the future she would be Li Yifeng’s concubine so her vision was naturally high. But facing someone like Lin Ming, who would become the future highest under the heavens, there was simply no comparison at all.

“Thank you.” Lin Ming faintly smiled, not too worried. The South Sea was vast and endless; it would be extremely difficult for the Asura Divine Kingdom find his family. And even if they did, they wouldn’t necessarily do anything irrational. After all, those that walked down the road of martial arts were doomed to be lonely – they had much fainter concepts of family. As for women and lovers, that was an even fainter concept. The Asura Divine Kingdom would never think that they could force Lin Ming to kill himself after capturing Mu Qianyu.

“Little Brother Lin, Old Man Good Fortune is about to leave the dimensional realm. He would like to see you before that.” Shibai said.

“Oh? Okay.”

Towards Old Man Good Fortune, who had strength beyond imagination, Lin Ming had some suspicious. Of course, even if the entire world knew what secret he had with him, it wouldn’t matter to him at all.

“Little Friend Lin Lanjian, it’s good to see you again.” Old Man Good Fortune had been staying at the Forsaken God Clan as an honored guest. He was still wearing blue clothes, with an appearance that seemed extraordinary and wizened.

“Senior Good Fortune, this junior will forever remember your graciousness. Please accept this junior’s bow.” Just as Lin Ming was about to bow, he was stopped by Old Man Good Fortune.

“Haha, old me might not be able to afford Little Friend Lin’s gift. I’m just far too old for this.”

Old Man Good Fortune was extremely humble, to the point that even Lin Ming couldn’t stand it. With his original status and seniority, accepting a bow from a junior was natural.

“Little Friend Lin, I know that you have some interest in the Laws of Space and Time. I have several jade slips here, you may borrow them to have a look and return them to me sometime in the future.”

Old Man Good Fortune’s words were very casually spoken, but Lin Ming was sent into a daze. The value of this type of inheritance that was basically extinct on the Sky Spill Continent could be imagined, and Old Man Good Fortune was directly lending them to him?

It had to be known that a normal martial artist or family clan was extremely careful of their inheritances, for fear that others would study them and surpass them. Old Man Good Fortune didn’t even have a master and disciple relationship with Lin Ming; they weren’t even friends. There was just no reason for him to lend Lin Ming such incomparably precious Space-Time Laws jade slips.

Old Man Good Fortune didn’t further explain. He waved his sleeves and six jade slips flew into Lin Ming’s hands. “Little Friend Lin, in truth, the Laws of Time aren’t as heaven-defying as you might imagine. They can indeed extend your life a little and have me linger on a bit longer, but the truth was that I used a different method to live longer…”

“Mm?” Old Man Good Fortune’s contradictory words left Lin Ming puzzled.

Old man Good Fortune smiled, “Old me can change the speed at which time flows. For instance, when I enter into seclusion I can slow down time to one-tenth of its normal rate, so that one year of closing up is equal to 10 years outside. If I close up for a few dozen years, then several hundred years would have passed in the world. Thus, while the world believes I am 8000 years old, that is in fact false. As for my weak fires of life, that is an illusion made by an arcane technique. The purpose of that is to prolong my life…”

Old Man Good Fortune laughed at himself as he spoke to here, “To live to such an age, I still cannot look past old age and death! There are still far too many secrets on the road of martial arts. What I have explored and will explore is only the tip of the tiniest iceberg. When I die, I will inevitably be unwilling… so in order to live for longer, I have tried too many methods to extend my life. Even if I don’t count altering the flow of time, I have used far too many life extending techniques. Even so, I can only live to 10,000 years of age. In the Divine Sea realm, that is the lifespan of a top powerhouse.

As Old Man Good Fortune explained, Lin Ming suddenly became aware. To change the flow of time, that couldn’t be regarded as extending his life. He had the same lifespan he always had, it was just that he had pushed it back.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

As for truly defying the will of the heavens, the only true means was to cultivate the martial path. All other methods were simply meandering roads that led to nowhere.

Life had always been reluctant to part with life. Whether it was intelligent creatures or non-intelligent life, this instinct was engraved into the very core of their beings. And for a martial artist, this was doubly so. They hadn’t even reached the end of their martial arts road, so how could they be willing to drop off halfway?

“Little Friend Lin, you have an excellent future and time ahead of you; it really arouses envy in others. Cherish it well. Life is short and no matter how beautiful the springtime of your youth is, white hair will await you in the end. If you waste your years then it will become far more difficult to advance when you reach old age!” Old man Good Fortune deeply sighed as he spoke here, shaking his head.

“Thank you for the guidance, Senior.” Lin Ming respectfully said.

“I am far from being able to guide you; you should also have understood these truths. It is just that you haven’t personally experienced them yet so your understanding towards them isn’t as profound. Well, little old me shall bid farewell first. We’ll meet again.”

Old Man Good Fortune floated away as he spoke. Lin Ming watched him vanish into the distance and deeply bowed in respect.

On the next day, invitations to banquets still reached Lin Ming. However, Lin Ming no longer participated. Although being friends with these influences had its advantages, when compared to absolute strength, they were merely worldly customs.

And the time was just right. On this day, the Asura Divine Kingdom’s payment for losing the life or death struggle arrived. When this was added to all the other gifts that Lin Ming had received, the total value was around 14 million spirit essence stones.

It had to be said that even a Prince like Li Yifeng only had a complete wealth of several tens of thousands of spirit essence stones. As for others like the sons of the High Princes, they wouldn’t even have 10,000 spirit essence stones.

When the Asura Divine Kingdom had put out a bounty reward of 300,000 spirit essence stones for Lin Ming that was already enough to tempt the heart of a Destiny Decree Master. Thus, the value of 14 million spirit essence stones could be imagined. This was an astronomical figure that not even an ordinary Holy Land would be able to suddenly afford.

Lin Ming was preparing to take all of this as his capital to open the fourth of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates – The Gate of Pain!

This was a very important gate in the first four of the Eight Inner Hidden Gates. It was located in the fists and could greatly enhance a martial artist’s striking power and physical strength.

With the increased power from the Gate of Pain, Lin Ming estimated that his strength would rise to one million and several hundred thousand jin of strength. It might even near two million jins! At that time, if he wielded the Great Desolate Blood Halberd with such strength, then he would be able to display its true might!

Lin Ming decided on his plan and executed it. That night, he went to the seclusion chamber of the Forsaken God Clan. There, underneath the protection of multiple array formations, he released the Cosmic Melting Furnace. All of the heavenly treasures and massive amounts of wood spirit jade gathered up into great piles in the chamber. They shined with a glorious light, their brilliance piercing into the skies!

Success or failure would all be decided in one attempt!