Chapter 174 – Sorcerer Pagoda’s Secret
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When each person entered into the pagoda, would they also undergo a similar evaluation? Did they have to meet the so-called ‘admission requirement’?
A series of questions popped up in Lin Ming’s mind. At this moment, the scenery around him began to suddenly twist. Immediately after, Lin Ming felt dizzy. It was as if his body was a piece of cotton that was sent blowing into the wind.
His body felt weightless, and his organs seemed as if they had been twisted several times in space. This sort of uncomfortable feeling really made one want to puke.
After an unknown period of time, Lin Ming felt as if he were dropping, and finally fell upon the hard ground. He reached out his hands to feel the floor; the ground was actually hot to the touch with a sort of scalding heat.
“Is this… the inner tower within the Sorcerer Pagoda?”
Lin Ming rubbed his aching head as he looked up. He was somewhat surprised to see that in this land within the Sorcerer Pagoda, the surroundings were like a blood drenched world.
In the vast expanse of this world, every rock was red, the ground was barren and desolate, and not too far away there were large bloody lakes. In the lakes there were giant bubbles of hot gas forming, and a smell of blood was thick in the air.
Blood lake?
Lin Ming gulped. If that was true, then just how much blood was needed to form that lake?
Was this an illusionary dream land? Or was this the real world?
Lin Ming recalled that extremely uncomfortable sense of distortion a moment ago, and he vaguely understood that he had just passed through a long-distance transmission array.
When Lin Ming had gone through the transmission array to the Lava Cave, he also had experienced a similar feeling. In the Lava Cave’s transmission array, the distance he traveled was only several hundred miles.
But this time, the feeling of distortion was simply sharp and acute. Just how far had he been transmitted?
At this moment, in front of Lin Ming, a red light appeared out of nowhere and gradually began to condense into a solid object; it formed into a giant red eye.
As Lin Ming saw this eye, his heart tightened and he subconsciously took half a step back. This eye gave him an extremely horrifying feeling, just what was it?
“Hello, human.”
A cold voice sounded in Lin Ming’s mind, it used the language of the Realm of the Gods.
“Who are you?”
Lin Ming recalled that when the group had traveled here, they had seen this eye design countless times. From when they had entered the Sorcerer Holy Land, to the gate of the Sorcerer Pagoda, to the Sorcerer Pagoda’s sculpture, to the Sorcerer’s key; all of these contained this kind of eye design. Initially, Lin Ming had thought that the people of the Southern Wilderness worshipped the eye, thus they had used the eye as a totem. However, he hadn’t thought that within the Sorcerer Pagoda, there would actually be such a giant red eye.
“There is no need to fear. My name is Yan Mo. I live within the space between life and feed upon dreams. 29,000 years ago, I was subdued by Master, and become Master’s contract beast.”
“Master? Contract beast? Is your master…the Sorcerer?”
“Yes. That is the name with which the people of the Southern Wilderness call my master. 50,000 years ago, Master established a vast Divine Kingdom within the Southern Wilderness. After two millennia, master soared into the Realm of the Gods, and the Divine Kingdom was inherited by Master’s descendants. The Divine Kingdom continued to exist for 10,000 years, but after time, the world began to change, and the Divine Kingdom gradually declined.
“From massive wars caused by evil men, to the outbreak of beast floods, to natural disasters such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, the once vast Divine Kingdom disintegrated until it was no more. After 10,000 more years, it became the current Southern Wilderness. The swamps spread, and the vicious beasts and poisonous insects bred to countless numbers. The original citizens, because of war or disasters, either died or scattered to all reaches of the land, and slowly evolved to the present people of the Southern Wilderness.
“20,000 years ago, the end of Master’s destiny was approaching. Before he entered closed-door seclusion, he returned to the Southern Wilderness. He saw that his once endless Divine Kingdom had turned into rubble, and these descendants had devolved into the uncivilized people of the Southern Wilderness. In his heart, he felt a deep melancholy. Thus, he established 72 smelting trial pagodas, with me as the eternal guard. The master hoped that through the 72 trials of these pagodas, he would be able to give his descendents a light of hope.”
Lin Ming listened with shock. He had thought that this Sorcerer, although he may have been fierce in the Sky Spill Continent, would only have been considered an ordinary powerhouse within the Realm of the Gods. However, listening to Yan Mo’s description, he was afraid that the Sorcerer was actually an overlord!
As the saying went; 100 years dynasty, 1000 years sect, 10,000 years Holy Land. Hearing from Yan Mo, since the Divine Kingdom had existed for 10,000 years, it must have been a Holy Land. And the founder of the Holy Land had lived at least 30,000 years. It was difficult to imagine just how formidable his power truly was!
“I see. So these 72 Sorcerer Pagodas were left behind by the mighty elder of the Realm of the Gods before he entered closed-door seclusion.” Lin Ming finally understood why there were so many Sorcerer Pagodas within the Southern Wilderness. As a martial artist’s cultivation increased, their life would also extend. When they reached the end of their life and still hadn’t broken through the bottleneck, they would often choose life or death closed-door seclusion. If they failed to break through, then they would simply perish within.
Closed-door seclusion was an imperative matter. Before entering into seclusion, one had to make sufficient preparations. One had their karma left over from their fates, otherwise a demon would be left inside their heart.
The Sorcerer’s Divine Kingdom and the descendants that he had left behind were one such bond that he had to resolve. Therefore, the reason that he had returned to the Southern Wilderness was to reap the karma that he had sown. Since the Divine Kingdom was no longer, the established 72 Sorcerer Pagoda’s in order to give his descendants a glimmer of hope. Like this, he had paid all the debts of his fate and no longer worried.
Afterwards, these 72 Sorcerer Pagodas were discovered one after another by the people of the Southern Wilderness. They were recognized as a miracle, and thus the faith of the Sorcerer had been founded. As for the eye totem, that was because there were some witches that had seen Yan Mo.
After all these thoughts were put in order, Lin Ming had never thought that the 72 Sorcerer Pagodas had hidden such a secret.
Yan Mo said, “You are the first one in the last 800 years to appear in the Southern Wilderness with a Heaven-step talent. You thus have the qualifications to proceed into the life and death smelting trial. Through completing the trial by fire, you will obtain a treasure of formidable power that master left behind. This smelting trial is not an illusion; it is a true killing array. In the smelting trial, if you lose, you may forfeit. Otherwise, you can also die. Would you like to enter into the life and death smelting trial?”
A treasure handed down by a mighty elder of the Realm of the Gods? What sort of miraculous thing would that be? And he could even obtain the power of this life and death smelting trial; this truly stirred Lin Ming’s heart.
He nodded and said, “I do.”
“Good. The life and death smelting trial also has seven trials, each of which is more difficult than the Sorcerer Pagoda. For these last several hundreds of years, you are the only person to enter into the life and death smelting trial. I wish you good luck!”
As Yan Mo said this, his body was like a rippling wave that slowly faded away.
The surrounding scenery returned to a blood-red world. This blood-red world was a true killing array; it was not an illusion!
Lin Ming extracted the Heavy Profound Soft Spear from his spatial ring. Since this was a killing array, he could use a real weapon, and didn’t need to summon one.
“First trial, Hell!”
Lin Ming’s mind resounded with a calm and monotonous voice. As it spoke, numerous bubbles began to form in the blood lake, and groups of blood red humanoid creatures began climbing out from the blood lake.
“Blood demons!”
“It was said that in places rich with blood, a blood demon would be born. These blood demons could absorb a person’s blood and true essence in order to grow. There were even some blood demons that existed in far off lands that were able to completely assume human form; their strength could be equivalent to a Xiantian realm master!
Originally when Lin Ming had entered the Sorcerer Pagoda, every level he entered had only had some defenseless little cats. Now, there were actually so many blood demons. Lin Ming’s warrior spirit began to burn with the urge to battle.
“Kill!”
Lin Ming suddenly moved, and his body disappeared like a ghost. The Heavy Profound Soft Spear was simply like a bolt of white light as it cut across. There were only two popping sounds as two of two of the blood demons were nearly sliced in half!
However, although the two blood demons had been cut, they didn’t die. They began to fuse back together.
“Undying? Their vitality is truly strong. But since they managed to run into me, they can only chalk it up to bad luck!”
Lin Ming flicked his spear and vibrating true essence began to flood out like an overwhelming tide.
Flow like Silk!
Peng! Peng!
There were two sounds of explosions, and the pair of blood demons burst into a bloody red fog.
With this, they had completely died. After the two blood demons perished, they melted into invisible energies that floated into Lin Ming’s body, nourishing the blood in his body.
“Mm? This is…”
Feeling the force of these two energies, Lin Ming was surprised. He thought that killing these two blood demons would be like before, and they would supplement the true essence within his body. However, he didn’t expect that the blood demons would actually supplement the strength of vitality within his blood.
Lin Ming was pleasantly surprised. This life and death smelting trial was beyond extraordinary. Although it was uncommonly difficult, its effects were not something that the Sorcerer Pagoda could hope to match.
The Sorcerer Pagoda was able to increase a martial artist’s cultivation. However, the life and death smelting trial was able to enhance every aspect of a martial artist’s strength.
For instance, this blood demon augmented one’s blood vitality.
With powerful vitality, one would be able to contain more true essence, and one’s endurance would also increase. It would even be easier to recover from a serious injury. When one’s vitality reached the limit, even dismembered limbs could be reborn from nothing, the body would simply be immutable.
A few days ago, Lin Ming had swallowed the 500 year old Blood Lingzhi, which had boosted his blood vitality. Now, after killing just two blood demons, Lin Ming obtained the effects of one-third of the Blood Lingzhi. If he continued to kill more, then he couldn’t imagine how terrifying the power of vitality was that he would be able to accumulate.
Seeing the numerous blood demons emerge from the blood lake, Lin Ming buzzed in trepidation. His fighting spirit began to soar into the sky, and the 5000 vibrating true essence filaments of his Heavy Profound Soft Spear began to shudder in excitement, as if they were irascible tin flood dragons. The silver spear point shivered, and began to let out a keening sound.
“Let’s fight to the end!”
Lin Ming was like a meteor that crashed forwards in the group of blood demons. The Heavy Profound Soft Spear in his hand was like an epic silver dragon that dove into a sea of blood. Where the silver dragon visited, blood would flow!
In such a bloody battle, Lin Ming attached a strong vibrating true essence force to each spear strike. A circular wave of visible true essence fluctuated in the air like a tsunami with the spear as the epicenter. The blood demons burst in an endless cloud of bloody fog. Because the blood fog was too dense, it condensed in the air, and formed a rain of blood!
As Lin Ming fought in such a blood mist, the rain of blood continuously fell down upon him, running down his skin and streaming into his body. Lin Ming was the first person in the last 800 years to enter into this life and death smelting trial, therefore this cloud of bloody rain was the 800 years of vitality that had been saved from the Sorcerer Holy Land; it was incomparably strong and incomparably pure!
“Fun!”
“Come again!”
By now, Lin Ming’s entire body was bathed in blood. The more he fought, the stronger his body was becoming. He felt these vital energies constantly converging with his body, so not only was he not exhausted, but he felt as if he had a limitless well of strength.
Nine feet nine inch Heavy Profound Soft Spear, its aura was like a bright rainbow sweeping past 10,000 enemies!