Chapter 119 – Flowers in the Storm
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Lin Ming placed the armor on the inscription platform, and then stepped ten feet back. He gripped the spear in his hand and held it out. Everyone present watched Lin Ming, wanting to see exactly what it was he would do next.
To destroy the inner structure of an inscription symbol by brute force, it was best to use an engraving knife. This was because the structure of the inscription symbol was like a spider web. Lin Ming had taken out such a large spear, how would that possibly be convenient?
At that moment, Lin Ming pointed his spear, flicked his wrist, aimed at the inscription symbol and fiercely thrusted out. The piercing, howling sound of the spearhead was heard throughout the room. Not only that, but the spear thrust also contained an indomitable momentum. It continued forth like a galloping horse, followed by a surge of unrelenting, Buddha-murdering rage and a violent killing anger.
This spear could easily pierce through a steel plate!
The middle-aged man’s eyes jumped. He subconsciously wanted to say stop, but at this moment, Lin Ming instantly withdrew the spear. That terrifying momentum was also restrained at that moment. The spear point was just above the armor, but it hadn’t actually pierced it.
The middle-aged man wanted to stay something but the words caught in his throat. He stared with wide eyes at Lin Ming’s spear point, startled. What kind of abnormal control of strength was this?
To thrust a spear forward with momentum like a herd of horses, and yet still be able to instantly restrain it so that the momentum did not overflow, yet the spear point still stopped at the exact right location. It had to be said that this was a heavy long spear made from dark purple elastic iron; its weight should be no less than 800 jins. Just who was the young boy?
With such strength at this age, this definitely wasn’t a nobody!
But though this youth had astonishing spear skills, just what was he planning on doing? A spear thrust, and the spear point suddenly stopping, but this spear didn’t actually damage the inscription symbol in the armor. How was this related to inscription technique? Did this young boy actually just want to show off his impressive spear skills?
Let alone the middle-aged man, even Wang Xuanji did not understand the meaning behind Lin Ming’s spear. He could only marvel at Lin Ming’s spear skills, but because he also knew Lin Ming’s identity, he didn’t find this too surprising.
At this moment, Lin Ming thrust out his spear a second time. It was the exact same as a moment ago. The spear would stab out with nigh unstoppable momentum, and then just as it was about to contact the armor, it would suddenly stop!
Next, Lin Ming began to repeatedly and quickly thrust out his spear. The spear thrusts were becoming increasingly fast and the momentum grew with each stab. Gradually, this momentum rolled into a strong heavenly wind, but Lin Ming’s spear point was still like a delicate falling raindrop. This was another spear skill of the ‘Foundation Spear Technique’ – ‘Flowers in the Storm’.
The middle-aged man was becoming increasingly alarmed with each growing second. This young man only looked to be around fifteen or sixteen years old, and yet he already had such strength at such a young age. The only one he could think of with such strength who also used a spear, would be that dazzling youth of the Seven Profound Martial House that had recently become the rising star of Sky Fortune City…
It shouldn’t be.
Lin Ming already had such abnormal, heaven-defying strength. If he also had such insights into inscription technique, then it would be too preposterous; he would simply be the reincarnation of some demon king.
What was this young man doing?
Lin Ming had already continuously thrust out his spear for several dozen breaths of time. The number of times his spear thrusted out should have been several hundred by now. With such high-speed spear moves, and the over 800 jin Penetrating Rainbow, it was quite a heavy load on the muscles! If not for his solid foundation and freakish strength, as well as the fact that true essence had already thoroughly tempered his body, then he would have already damaged his muscles.
Slowly, Wang Xuanji discovered the profound and mysterious principles that were implicit within Lin Ming’s every thrust. He used his soul force to probe the armor, and to his disbelieving amazement, discovered that true essence infiltrated into the armor with each stab!
And what made Wang Xuanji most surprised, was that when he had used his soul force to track that infiltrating true essence, he found that the foreign true essence flowed along the structure of the inscription symbol, and with a strange and unfathomable power, began to actually disintegrate these structures!
How was he doing this!?
Wang Xuanji drew a deep breath; he was too shocked to speak a single word!
With each attack, the true essence turned into fine silk threads that flowed within the structure. To him, this was already unimaginable, but then those fine silk threads actually disintegrated the inscription symbol structures with an inscrutable and enigmatic power. How could such slender streams of true essence have such a mystifying might?
Lin Ming was, of course, using the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ ‘Flow like Silk’ technique. Not only did ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ focus on overwhelming strength, but it focused even more on controlling strength.
Strength Training’s ‘Flow like Silk’ was a method of controlling strength. The so called ‘strength’ referred to the strength of the human body; this also included the force of true essence. After reaching the Small Success of ‘Flow like Silk’, this silk-like true essence would be at one’s command.
But this silk-like true essence didn’t really have much of an effect. Because the tiny true essence threads didn’t have much offensive power, in order to give it striking power, there was only one way. That was – vibration.
Wang Xuanji discovered that this strange strength which was disintegrating the inscription symbol structures was exactly this true essence vibration!
This vibration was able to ignore defense, and be transmitted internally into any object. The true essence would turn into countless filaments, and each filament would vibrate as it passed through an object. As this vibration acted on every little structure, these tiny threads would create a truly terrifying amount of destruction.
This was why when Lin Ming had thrusted out his spear at a stone column on the martial stage, that column had been instantly pulverized into an immeasurable number of small stones. This was because Lin Ming’s cultivation of ‘Flow like Silk’ was not thorough; the true essence silk threads were too few, and the frequency at which they vibrated was too low.
If he managed to achieve the Perfect stage of ‘Flow like Silk’, then the filaments of true essence threads would number in the trillions, and once these countless threads entered into the particles and molecules of an object, the frequency of vibrations would rise to a new, alarming level. In that situation, if the spear thrust touched the stone column, then that stone column would simply turn into fine dust that would scatter into the wind.
Of course, Lin Ming was still very far from such a distant realm. If he actually managed to ever reach such a dream-like boundary, then he would be able to eliminate every trace of the inscription symbol within the treasure without damaging the treasure at all.
Rather than as it was now. With so many spear thrusts, the treasure must have sustained some damage.
Wang Yuhan also realized that Wang Xuanji’s face was colored in shock. She could not help but use a true essence sound transmission to ask, “Grandfather, what is Lin Ming doing?”
Wang Xuanji sighed a lonely breath, and said, “Use your soul force to feel the inscription symbol structure of that armor, and then you’ll know what he is doing.”
Wang Yuhan wondered what sort of discovery she would make by probing the armor with her soul force. She sent out her soul force and penetrated into the armor. Although Wang Yuhan’s soul force was relatively weak, she had a vague feeling of what was occurring inside the armor.
Surprised, she covered her mouth. “Grandfather, this is… how is this possible?”
Wang Xuanji shook his head and could only said with a rueful smile, “This is also the first time that I am seeing this technique. I could only guess that this effect is from a special kind of true essence manipulation method. This manipulation method is able to turn true essence into countless tiny threads, and each thread in turns is controlled to vibrate against the inscription symbol structure and disintegrate it. This is extremely demanding of one’s control of true essence. I cannot begin to imagine how this is done.”
Wang Yuhan no longer inquired further. She only diligently closed her eyes and felt the energy changes within that treasure. This time when she looked, those filaments of true essence were like the intelligent gossamer threads of spider silk that broke apart the inscription symbol structures. She could only feel a convoluted, esoteric feeling. It was like a large door had been placed in front of her that contained all the myriad of infinite mysteries of the world. However, no matter how hard she tried to look, she could not see clearly.
To have the feeling of all the mysteries between Heaven and Earth at her fingertips, but still be unable to touch them, this caused Wang Yuhan to be excited but also unbearably anxious.
After a little less than half an incense stick of time had passed, Lin Ming had already let out 6 or 7 hundred spear thrusts in a single breath. Although he had amazing physical strength, and he also had the ‘True Primal Chaos Formula’ supplementing his true essence, there was still a light sheen of perspiration on his forehead.
At this time, Lin Ming finally stopped. His withdrew his spear, turned his right hand, and the Penetrating Rainbow disappeared back into the spatial ring.
As for the treasure armor, besides some superficial white marks on the surface, there weren’t any other damages.
He had finally finished. Although ‘Flow like Silk’ was incomparably exquisite, the structure of the inscription symbol and the armor had already blended together as one. Lin Ming had inevitably damaged part of the internal structure of the armor. This part was the true essence array that the refining master had placed within the treasure at its creation.
This kind of damage would not lessen the defensive capabilities of the armor, however, in the future, if a martial artist concentrated their true essence in the armor, there would be some hindrance.
But even so, it was enough for Wang Xuanji to be surprised. If it were an alchemy master who was familiar with controlling fire that had done this, it would still be impossible for them to achieve such an effect.
After eliminating the old inscription symbol, Lin Ming didn’t immediately start on drawing a new one. Instead, he sat in meditation and revolved the ‘True Primal Chaos Formula’, restoring his true essence to its optimum condition.
The ‘True Primal Chaos Formula’ had a very formidable effect in supplementing true essence. As soon as an incense stick of time had burned, Lin Ming had already made a complete recovery. He took out a piece of paper and began to write a list of materials that were readily available. Recently, Lin Ming had been in constant contact with Sky Fortune Kingdom’s inscription technique network, and as such, was already very familiar with the names of various materials. It was a different situation from when he had confused the materials from the Sky Spill Continent and those from the Realm of the Gods.
After he was done writing up the list, he handed it to the young reception lady of the Inscription Association and said, “If I could trouble you to prepare the materials from this list.”
“Oh, of course.” The young reception lady responded as she received the list.
At this moment, Wang Yuhan hurriedly said, “I’ll go together with you.”
She was now Lin Ming’s assistant; getting materials ready was one of an assistant’s key jobs.
The Inscription Association was home to the largest and richest reserve of materials in the entire Sky Fortune Kingdom. Even if Lin Ming had listed a few difficult to find materials, they would still be very easy to prepare.
The inscription symbol that Lin Ming planned to create today was a simplified version of the ‘Icefrost Guard’.
This type of inscription symbol was used specifically for armor. Not only could it increase the true essence gathering speed of martial artists, but it could also provide a slight boost in strengthening the defense. If this was the original version of the “Icefrost Guard’, then one could also use the inscription technique ‘Ring of Frozen Ice’. This technique would activate during an attack, and would send out a freezing circular wave of true essence, which would affect an opponent’s movement speed by drastically reducing it.
However, the original ‘Icefrost Guard’ required a number of materials that were very rare and precious. There were several materials that not even the Inscription Association would necessarily be able to find. Not only that, but today was Lin Ming’s first attempt at drawing the ‘Icefrost Guard’. If he tried to draw up the far more complex original version, then he would have a greater risk of failure.
Hence, he decided to draw up a simplified version.
With Lin Ming’s current cultivation and level of technique, the simplified version of the ‘Icefrost Guard’ was relatively easy.
“15 grams of star rock ground into powder, and mix that into half a cup of third-level vicious beast blood. Mix well. Take juice extract from crushed black bone grass and add that into three times the amount of cold spring water…” Lin Ming sent Wang Yuhan a true essence sound transmission and rapidly listed out the materials he needed and how he needed them processed. Many of these material preparation instructions were exceedingly complex and detailed.