Chapter 945 – Ashes to Ashes

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The light vanished and silence fell over the world. Lin Ming’s face was white and a trickle of blood dripped down from the corners of his mouth. That last strike had consumed nearly all of his strength and even cost him a bit of his life essence. This life essence could be restored later but it would require a great deal of heavenly materials.

With Lin Ming’s current level of strength, simultaneously using the Purple Lion Thunder Source and the blood of the Ancient Phoenix to activate the dual thunder and fire dao diagrams, then fusing them together was simply too much strain on his body. After all, he was still only at the fifth stage of Life Destruction.

The surrounding area within a thousand miles was completely razed to the ground. Below Lin Ming’s feet, there was a massive abyss dozens of miles deep. This was carved into the ground by Lin Ming’s final strike.

The over 50 Divine Sea powerhouses had already retreated a hundred miles away. As they watched the horrifying earth rending battle between the two come to an end, they were left speechless. For the last 100,000 years, several people appeared that qualified to be the highest under the heavens. After Yang Yun cultivated the Great Blood Refining Art, his strength could be considered among those people. But even so, he was still slain by Lin Ming. What was most terrifying was that Lin Ming was only at the fifth stage of Life Destruction. Since ancient times, the highest under the heavens always had at least a middle Divine Sea cultivation. The disparity between the fifth stage of Life Destruction and the middle Divine Sea realm was far too great. If it were an ordinary fifth stage Life Destruction martial artist, they probably wouldn’t even be able to rank on the Destiny Decree. As for a middle Divine Sea master, they could exterminate a hundred regular fifth stage Life Destruction martial artists with a wave of their hand!

Lin Ming’s foundation was already unimaginable; it was impossible to imagine. If this continued then it was likely he would be able to break into the legendary ninth stage of Life Destruction. His strength would then reach heights beyond anyone’s wildest dreams!

Without a doubt, Lin Ming was destined to ascend into the Divine Realm. But the legends and stories he would leave behind on the Sky Spill Continent would have no equal, whether it was now, in the past, or in the future.

“Yang Yun’s not dead yet?”

Lin Ming fixed his eyes, peering deep into the abyss. Yang Yun was no more than several pieces of flesh and blood, but his head still remained intact. His fires of life were weakened to the point of extinguishing and his aura was thin as cobwebs.

Lin Ming moved, landing in front of Yang Yun.

“…Lin… Ming…”

Yang Yun was bleeding from everywhere. His teeth were shattered and his tongue was bitten off cleanly. He managed to use a slight bit of energy to simulate his voice, but it still came out blurry.

“The feeling of all your ambitions being smashed apart, do you find it hard to reconcile with?” Lin Ming indifferently asked. As he looked at Yang Yun, there wasn’t any emotion in his eyes. Yang Yun had used all means possible to reach his goal no matter how nefarious they were. Now that his fate ended up like this, he deserved nothing less.”

“Hehe…” Yang Yun demonically grinned, his eyes filled with loathing and venom. “You stand in front of me as a victor, but one day, others will stand in front of you the same way. You’ll share the same fate as me, hahahahaha!”

He hated Lin Ming! He hated Lin Ming to the depths of his soul!

It was said that when people died their final parting words would be peaceful. But when Yang Yun died, all he did was crazily curse.

The original Yang Yun, whether he was lying or just exceptional at hiding his true thoughts, his outwards appearance was always that of a handsome gentleman. There was no comparison to this dying rabid dog in front of him.

It could only be said that Yang Yun had become completely demented after losing himself. His original character had completely disappeared.

Lin Ming grimly sighed. This was the fate of recklessly fusing your soul with someone else. Thinking about it, he was also extremely lucky. The divine object, the Magic Cube, was able to cleanly erase a soul mark and allow him to absorb only the memories, making it so that he was never influenced by another person’s thoughts.

This Magic Cube had caused the struggle of countless great figures within the Divine Realm. Just what secrets and uses did it truly have? What was it made from and how was it created?

The Magic Cube had a mysterious origin that was impossible to guess. In fact, up until this point, Lin Ming depended on the Magic Cube too many times. He absorbed the memories of some others, but these people had all been characters on the same level of the Demon emperor. They couldn’t compare to the Holy Lords or World Kings of the Divine Realm, much less an Empyrean.

The Magic Cube certainly had other functions. It was just that his boundary was too low to understand or utilize them.

As Lin Ming was thinking about this, he suddenly felt a burning heat emanate from his chest. This feeling came from the Magic Cube!

Ever since the Magic Cube fused into Lin Ming’s body, he never found it again. It was simply as if it had vanished. He couldn’t make contact with it or activate it. Even when he crossed Life Destruction and his body burst apart into a fog of blood, he still wasn’t able to detect a single trace of the Magic Cube.

To the Magic Cube, Lin Ming was only able to passively accept its wishes. But at this time, he was able to feel the slightest bit of will from the Magic Cube. Lin Ming only felt this trace of will when he fed the Magic Cube some blood essence.

“The Magic Cube wants to swallow Yang Yun’s blood essence?” Lin Ming’s thoughts stirred. Yang Yun was only a Divine Sea powerhouse. Before this, Lin Ming already fed the Magic Cube the blood essence of a Divine Sea Supreme Elder; the blood essence of the old Imp form the Blood Slaughter Steppes. He thought that the next rank of blood essence the Magic Cube would want would be from a Divine Transformation master. He never thought that the Magic Cube would actually be interested in Yang Yun’s blood essence.

“Jejejeje, Lin Ming, I know that you want to climb onto the peak of martial arts, but there are countless martial artists just like you, which one of them doesn’t wish to reach the peak!? How many of them will finally fail before they get there!? The road of martial arts is paved with the lives of others! Sooner or later, you’ll be the same as me, the same as me!”

Yang Yun crazily shouted out, cursing with his final breath. Lin Ming glanced at him in pity. He quietly sent out a layer of energy that covered Yang Yun’s ruined body.

“You! What are you doing?” Yang Yan was shocked. He suddenly discovered a powerful attractive force acting on him. The power of his blood vitality rapidly left his body. It was gathering towards Lin Ming!

“You, you want to swallow me!?” Yang Yun’s face gruesomely distorted. He was far too familiar with this feeling. He cultivated the Great Blood Refining Art for several years and had sucked up the life of countless vicious beasts and divine body and variation bloodline Divine Sea powerhouses. How could he not know what Lin Ming was doing?

Hu!

Blood essence rapidly left Yang Yun’s body. He was so angry that his eyes popped out of his head, a monstrous, heaven-shaking hatred within them. However, as his life force left his body, his every thought and motion slowed down and down.

Masses of blood fog formed phantoms in the air. There were flood dragons, strange fishes, white tigers, massive snakes, all sorts of Saint Beasts, all of them were swallowed up by Lin Ming. More accurately, all of it was swallowed up by the Magic Cube.

A faint scarlet vortex appeared on the surface of the Magic Cube. All of these blood phantoms were minced apart by this vortex.

Finally, the scarlet phantom of a hydra was also swallowed up by the Magic Cube. At this point, all of Yang Yun’s blood essence was completely absorbed.

Yang Yun’s face was already white and filled with defeat; his last breath was near. Lin Ming couldn’t help but sigh at just how tenacious Yang Yun’s life was. Normally, if a Divine Sea powerhouse had their head chopped off they would live for less than ten breaths of time. But Yang Yun struggled around and around, still hanging onto that single breath.

This was obviously because of the Great Blood Refining art. Yang Yun had refined countless bloodlines into himself that were filled with an exuberant and stubborn vitality, including even the stalwart hydra bloodline.

“It looks like even Whitedemon was swallowed up by Yang Yun.” Lin Ming recognized the hydra phantom; he sensed the aura of Whitedemon coming from it. Within the Divine Realm, the hydra bloodline was also a considerably powerful clan with countless clansmen spread throughout.

“Lin Ming, there’ll be a day, when you…”

Yang Yun was sending out his final curse, but as he spoke, his head suddenly split apart. A crack appeared from his forehead, extending down to his lower jaw like a knife that passed through a watermelon. His head exploded.

Yang Yun’s voice was stopped short. He had thoroughly died.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

However, at the moment when Yang Yun’s head split apart, a tiny wisp of remnant shot out, its soul force extremely weak. It violently thrashed and twisted about. This soul emitted the aura of the Ancient Devil.

This was a wisp of the Ancient Devil’s remnant soul that Yang Yun hadn’t fused with, instead choosing to suppress it within his spiritual sea. Now that Yang Yuns’ spiritual sea had broken apart, this tiny wisp of soul had no place left to hide.

The Magic Cube didn’t seem to have any interest in swallowing up this soul wisp, instead remaining silent. In the Temple of Marvels, the reason that the Magic Cube swallowed the Ancient Devil’s soul was because it had taken the initiative to deliver itself to the Magic Cube when it tried to seize Lin Ming’s body.

“Yang Yun has already died and you still have a wisp of soul left over? That’s really persistent of you.” Lin Ming’s eyes flashed with a cold light as he pinched that wisp of soul in his fist.

Screech screech!

That soul wisp sent out tiny screams as it was pinched between Lin Ming’s fingers, as if it were a large rat that had been caught around the neck.

A thought entered Lin Ming’s mind. This was the voice of the Ancient Devil. “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! I know many secrets about the Sea of Miracles and the Eternal Demon Abyss! I also know where many powerhouses have left their treasures! You still haven’t truly entered the Sea of Miracles, I can lead you there to seek treasures!”

The Ancient Devil furiously struggled. However, Lin Ming only sneered. He twisted his fingers, and with a lighting cracking sound, the Ancient Devil was completely annihilated.

At this point, Yang Yun, Whitedemon, and the Ancient Devil were all dead!

Lin Ming took a deep breath, tracing his chest. The Magic Cube remained quiet. Although it had absorbed blood essence this time, it didn’t open the Magic Cube space.

This made Lin Ming feel a tinge of regret. It seemed that in order to open up the Magic Cube again, he would need the blood essence of a Divine Transformation realm powerhouse.

Lin Ming hypothesized that it wasn’t the Magic Cube that absorbed blood essence, but rather that powerful soul deeply sleeping within the Magic Cube. That is, the Saintess that used the Magic Cube to devour the souls of 10,000 Divine Realm Supreme Elders.

Each and every one of those Divine Realm Supreme Elders had been super powerhouses. If the Demon Emperor were ranked amongst them, he would only be extremely ordinary. But every single one of them was completely exterminated with a single move from that woman.

That woman likely needed blood essence to repair her own soul.

Before this, every time she had opened the Magic Cube after absorbing blood essence was only to inform him that she needed the blood essence of stronger powerhouses to recover.

And now, the Magic Cube sucked Yang Yun’s blood essence of its own volition. That explained a question, and that was that Yang Yun’s blood essence was finally at a high enough level for the woman to use.

This should also be because Yang Yun cultivated the Great Blood Refining Art, and the blood vitality within his body was far too exuberant and potent. A normal Divine Sea powerhouse would not have the qualifications to have their blood essence be used by that woman, because that Divine Sea boundary was far too low for her.