Chapter 183 – Samsara of 100 Lives
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TL/N: In the measurement system of this series, 10 inches = 1 foot (because of Chinese measurements being different).
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In the neverending Samsara, the concept of time no longer existed. Lin Ming passed, looking through, and ingrained deep within his heart every fleeting moment.
Every time in Lin Ming’s life when he had come to a fork in the road, he would see a completely different existence.
Lin Ming saw his meteoric rise to the heavens, and also saw his abject fall to perdition.
He saw his future with different wives and different children.
He stayed in the Sky Fortune Kingdom and became the Seven Profound Martial House Master. He had married the Seven Profound Envoy, Qin Xingxuan, and had a flourishing family with many children and grandchildren. The legacy he left would become the number one family within the nation…
He stayed in the vast Southern Wilderness. There, he married the sisters, Na Yi and Na Shui. Together they would rebuild the Na Tribe, and he would rule the South as king…
Of course, there were endless gray lives where he would experience the most miserable of fates. Once, Lin Ming did not find the Magic Cube. He was hunted and persecuted by Zhu Yan, the muscles and tendon of his body were severed and his parents died from illness. He would live the remainder of his life as a pitiful beggar…
Looking through each life, Lin Ming maintained his mentality as a traveling passerby, without holding any pathos towards these sights.
“So what is called the ‘present’ is actually fragile like a butterfly’s wings. Even if there was a slight change in the ‘past’, the ‘present’ becomes an entirely different result…
“The past is the ‘cause’, and the future is the ‘effect’. Causality becomes karma, and the circle of Samsara continues again and again.”
As Lin Ming began to realize more and more things, his heart of martial arts became nothing like it was before. It used to be a simple and firm will, but now it became increasingly complex, containing thousands of profound truths within.
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Outside of the Sorcerer Pagoda, Na Yi and Na Shui and already waited for 5 days and 5 nights.
Starting from the second day, Na Yi had no longer held onto to any hope; she presumed that Lin Ming had died within the Divine Kingdom. Otherwise, there was no way that he would be in there for such a long time.
Prior to that, Na Yi had never imaged that Lin Ming could possibly die.
Such a stunning and glorious genius of the Southern Wilderness had fallen from the sky…
After the last of her waning hope dissipated, Na Yi could not say what she felt. There was regret, lament, and even sadness.
These two sisters could only count upon themselves to go on, and could only count upon themselves to avenge their parents.
Although she recognized that Lin Ming had died, Na Yi still hadn’t left the Sorcerer Holy Land.
This was because, in order to leave the Sorcerer Holy Land and travel to the nearest tribe, she had to pass through the wild jungle. With the strength of those two, there was less than a 70% chance that they would survive.
With a 70% chance, Na Yi still might take this risk. However, what had let her feel despair and stay within the secret chamber of the Sorcerer Holy Land, was that when Na Yi had ventured out, she had found the corpses of the horses.
The reins of the four dwarf horses that had been tied to the ground had been abruptly ripped apart. There were large tracts of blood that covered the floor. One horse was half-eaten, while the other three were already savagely bitten to death.
Na Yi knew that if she had no horses, then the chances of them making it out with their lives intact was less than 20%.
It was impossible for Na Yi to place her little sister within such a dangerous gamble.
Na Yi was pilfering through the packs of the horses for some useful items, when at this moment, she suddenly saw two pairs of glittering green eyes from within the jungle.
These were two Corrupt Wolves!
A Corrupt Wolf was a second-level vicious beast that was equal to a peak Altering Muscle martial artist in strength. They were usually scavengers. Of course, they also did not mind eating living creatures.
Luckily, the transmission array was still open. Before the Corrupt Wolves could pounce on her, she had already fled back into the Sorcerer Holy Land, and had closed the transmission array from inside.
Like this, Na Yi and Na Shui were stranded within the Sorcerer Holy Land.
When it rains, it pours. At this moment, they had been quickly eating their food. This food had been brought by the monkey-faced man and the bald man. However, they didn’t take much because there was food and water that could be found in the jungles of the Southern Wilderness. With their strength and experience, they were also able to distinguish what was poisonous.
Foraging for food was not difficult, but Na Yi could not face off with the two Corrupt Wolves guarding the exit.
A horse was 7 or 8 hundred jins. The three horses together were more than 2000 jins. If the two Corrupt Wolves ate 50 jins each every day, it was still enough to last them 40 days!
For these 40 days, Na Yi simply didn’t know what to do.
If they were trapped in the Sorcerer Holy Land, then they would eventually die of thirst or starvation.
“Big Sister, what are we going to do…” Na Shui whispered as she rubbed her belly. She was hungry.
A martial artist cultivator could survive for much longer than a mortal without food or water. They did not need as much food or water, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t feel hunger. Now, the two sisters only had enough food for three days. In order to ration, they would have to eat very little every day.
Seeing the pale face of her little sister, Na Yi’s heart ached. She turned to look at the Sorcerer Pagoda, her eyes filled with determination.
Her last hope was to rush up the Sorcerer Pagoda!
Of course, this was not the best age for her to climb the Sorcerer Pagoda. And the direst question was, even if she were to enter the Sorcerer Pagoda, the most her strength would be enhanced by was a stage, to Altering Muscle.
In order to deal with the two Corrupt Wolves outside which had peak Altering Muscle strength, could she do this with only her Altering Muscle ability?
Even if she managed to defeat the two Corrupt Wolves; without horses, was there still any hope in leading her little sister past the several hundred miles of jungle wilderness?
Na Yi found herself in an unprecedented life or death crisis.
…………………….
The moonlit night was filled with the scent of blood. A young man holding onto a crimson dagger was sitting in a large tree, wiping off the blood from his dagger. The dim and cold moonlight shone down from above, illuminating the world. The young man’s dagger was like liquid mercury, suffused with a deep murderous aura.
At this point, the young man suddenly looked up, his dark eyes staring into the empty void. His eyes were filled with a dignified vigilance.
“Who?” The young man coldly asked.
This young man was also Lin Ming. Lin Ming had become a killer. He was the top assassin within Sky Fortune Kingdom, feared by all. Even hearing his name uttered made others quake in their boots!!
Lin Ming, who had been standing in the void, was taken aback; this was the first time that someone had become cognizant of him.
“He’s aware of me. Is this stemming from the intuition of an assassin? Whether or not he’s aware of me, at least this proves that I am not completely separate from this illusory world, but have partly integrated into the fabric of its existence. This was why he was able to discover me…
“Fantasy and reality are polar existences of each other, and yet dependent on the other. Without fantasy, there is no point in reality. Without reality, fantasy has no meaning. Reality is fantasy, fantasy is reality, this is already the 99th world that I’ve come to…”
Lin Ming didn’t speak nor did he move, he only stood still as he always had.
That young assassin frowned, ultimately realizing that this was just an illusion…
Lin Ming turned around and stepped into the void. It was time to leave the 99th world.
Was there still anything after 99 worlds?
Lin Ming took out the Heavy Profound Soft Spear from his spatial ring. Nine feet nine inches was the limit of the spear.
Why was it only nine feet nine inches? Why not just a bit longer?
In reverie, Lin Ming arrived at a brilliantly bright white world. There was nothing in this world; only countless shining lights all around. Gradually, these lights converged into the image of a young man, standing opposite to Lin Ming.
This young man’s clothing, appearance, age, manners, were all the same as Lin Ming. It was a complete replica of him.
“This is the 100th world? In this empty world, there is only my conscience here. In the last 99 worlds I’ve been in, each me was not the same as me. But in this 100th world, this young man is exactly the same as I am now.”
“Who are you?” The youth asked in surprise.
“You are who you are. You are who I am.”
The youth furrowed his brows. “I am Lin Ming. There is only one Lin Ming.”
Lin Ming nodded. “Yes, there is only one.”
“Then you are an illusion?”
“I am not an illusion.”
“Then I am an illusion?
“You are not an illusion.”
“Then in the end, who is the true Lin Ming?” The youth asked, puzzled.
Lin Ming was silent for a long time. He finally murmured, “What is left behind is not necessarily true…”
‘I understand.’
After 99, all returns to 1.
The nine foot nine inch Heavy Profound Soft Spear… one more inch, and it is 10 feet again.
After 99 worlds, this is the 100th world, and it is also my world.
Once 9 revolves, it naturally returns to 1. This is the cycle of life. This is Samsara. This is fate.
However, this ‘1’, is different from the ‘1’ at the beginning.
Samsara is not a simple return to the origin. It is Nirvana and it is rebirth.
Realizing this point, Lin Ming finally said, “You and I are different. This is because I have experienced a cycle of 99 Samsaras…”
As his voice faded, the youth in front of Lin Ming turned into a myriad of light and shadows.
The light and shadows floating in the air for a moment as if they were dancing together. Finally, they flew into Lin Ming’s body, submerging inside of him and disappearing.
Peng!
The white world completely shattered.
Lin Ming was like a giant whirlpool. All the fragments of the worlds and the lives of his Samsaras were inverted into Lin Ming and fused within the world of his consciousness.
A mosaic of sights, an entanglement of thoughts; all were like a tide that emerged within Lin Ming’s spiritual sea.
All these myriad of experiences and split personalities coalesced within him. If one’s mind wasn’t firm, then they would be lost within the influx of these countless memories. In a decent scenario they would only be turned mad, but in the worse-case scenario they would turn into a blubbering idiot with no rational thought.
However, Lin Ming had already experienced the space within the Magic Cube and had swallowed two soul fragments. With this, he had gained the experience to resist such a flood of memories. What he didn’t understand was why the 100 worlds of the Samsara would shatter and merge into his consciousness.
He had already understood the 100 cycles of Samsara; the trial should have come to an end.
So why was this happening?
The memories kept accelerating towards him, becoming more and more complex. Even Lin Ming was reaching his limit.
A vast storm swirled within Lin Ming’s spiritual sea. If not for Lin Ming’s tremendous soul force, then this mammoth tempest would have already twisted his spiritual sea and shattered it into pieces.
The fierce storm grew increasingly wild. Lin Ming clenched his teeth and let the entirety of his soul force dash into that storm in order to suppress it.
Within the roaring sound, Lin Ming’s soul force was like a flood dragon that surfaced from his spiritual sea. It plunged into the black storm that churned within him.
Bang!
Lin Ming felt as if his head was about to explode. He was incapacitated, unable to even kneel on the floor.
The raging storm within his spiritual sea finally began to die down. However, it did not vanish. That black storm only curled up within the sky above the spiritual sea. It was as if it was tearing a black hole in space that led to a profoundly mysterious world.
“Could this be…” Li Ming wiped the sweat from his forehead, and probed the black swirl with his soul force, a surge of wild emotions mixing within him.
With both eyes closed, countless chaotic scenes flashed within Lin Ming’s mind, the infinite fragments and experiences of life.
“The 100 Samsara have… integrated into the world of my consciousness?”
As he opened his eyes, Lin Ming’s pupils reflected a pair of deep black swirls, as if the infinite universe existed within them.
“Martial intent… this is a new kind of martial intent!
“After I experienced the Samsara of 100 lives, I actually comprehended a new martial intent!”