Chapter 341 – With Effort, Everything Is Possible
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“You… you want to absorb the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal under the protection of the enchantment world!?!?” Zhou Xinyu was stunned; this was simply madness.
Let alone an extraordinary medicine like the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal, even a top-level medicine like the Heaven Opening Pill usually required a martial artist to take multiple steps beforehand. They would bathe in incense, seal themselves off in a room, lay down layers of defensive array formations, enter into an absolute quiet where no one would dare to disturb them, and then finally revolve their power to swallow the pill.
But Lin Ming was surrounded by wolves on all sides, each waiting for an opportunity to rip his throat out. The attacks from the outside were endless, and the enchantment wouldn’t stop shaking; even the ground trembled. It was unknown just when the energy of the enchantment would run out. In this situation, Lin Ming, a boy with a mere Pulse Condensation cultivation actually wanted to absorb the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal which only a Xiantian master could swallow?
Insanity! Madness!
“Sir Lin, how could you do this, this is suicide!” Zhou Xinyu was extremely anxious.
“There’s no other way.” Lin Ming flicked his fingers, and under the attraction of his soul force, the red liquid in the crystal bottle shot out, turning into a red sphere.
How could Lin Ming not know that this decision was crazy?
The Shattered Demon Heart Crystal was a completely unknown and unfamiliar medicine; he had no idea what total effects it would have if he swallowed it.
Perhaps he might not be able to withstand the baptism of energy, and then blow up.
Even if he could persist through that, the dreamland enchantment would only last for a few hours. If he couldn’t completely absorb the medicinal efficacy in a few hours, and then fully restore his combat strength, he would still die!
Bang!!
With a loud crash, a terrifying explosion sounded from outside the enchantment, the ground suddenly shaking. Huang Zixuan had finally moved. Within the enchantment, Lin Ming could clearly see each and every action that Huang Zixuan took. This sort of oppressive feeling was just like a common mortal facing off against a tiger with only a soon-to-be broken pane of glass between them.
Normally, a martial artist would never be able to calm their hearts and circulate their energy. If anything went wrong, they could be instantly overcome by their inner demons.
But Lin Ming actually wanted to absorb the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal in this situation, and also needed to recover his combat strength within a few hours.
Lin Ming stared at the red ball of liquid that exuded a faint and boundless energy. His mind moved, and the liquid ball split in half, one half drifting towards Lin Ming.
As the red liquid closed in, Lin Ming could feel the blood through his entire body began to boil, as if it were being forcefully summoned upwards.
This demonic blood had an amazingly evil aura!
“No matter how difficult the road ahead of me is, I believe – with effort, anything is possible!”
Xiu!
That melted half of the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal mixed with Lin Ming’s blood shot into his mouth.
As the red liquid entered, a sweet and metallic taste spread through his mouth; this was the taste of blood.
Lin Ming closed his eyes, shut off his six senses, and immediately entered into the ethereal martial intent. Now, the explosions that rocked the earth below him no longer affected him at all.
However, this ethereal state was only maintained for a mere 10 breaths of time, when he was interrupted by a severe pain pouring forth from his dantian, as if it were breaking in half.
Roar!
In Lin Ming’s ears, he could hear a demonic cry sound like a thunderclap, as if it could split stone and dispel clouds. The roar shook Lin Ming’s ears, and blood began to flow from his nose.
This… what is this?
Lin Ming was shocked. He clearly felt that the drop of the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal contained an enormous and terrifyingly overwhelming will! It blotted out the sky, obscuring the mountains and the seas!
Were these the ruined thoughts left behind by the Netherworld Great Emperor?
As this idea popped up, Lin Ming suddenly felt his mind shake.
Bang!
Lin Ming’s consciousness was suddenly pulled back to his spiritual sea. There, in his mind, countless fragmented scenes appeared, each one of these extremely lifelike and real.
Innumerable demons shot up into the sky from his spiritual sea. Their upper bodies were naked, and their skin had a grayish-blue metallic luster. Their bodies were corded with thick muscles, entangled in chains, and they held death scythes in their hands.
Hou hou hou!
As the roars of these demons resounded, all of them suddenly rushed towards Lin Ming. But at this time, Lin Ming had been reborn into an ancient demon god. He held a large mountain axe in his hand, and he stood high in the sky!
That axe was 10 feet long, and thicker than an arm. The axehead was over three feet wide, and the blade itself was a deep, blood red. It emitted a savage and violent energy, causing one’s heart to race.
“Kill kill kill!”
The ancient demon god brandished that large axe, and chopped apart all those rushing demons with a single axe stroke!
In that moment, limbs flew everywhere, blood shot out to all corners of the land.
Every time the ancient evil god killed a demon, he would drink its blood until its eyes went dark and lifeless. But in their wake, countless demons rushed up behind them.
Demonic blood dyed the skies red.
Was this ancient evil god the Netherworld Great Emperor?
Lin Ming was startled. He had a strong feeling that what he was seeing wasn’t just illusions, but true events that had occurred in the past. These were the memories of the Netherworld Great Emperor!
Then what were these demons? Where did they come from? Why had this brutal war erupted? Just who was good, and who was evil?
“Hahahahaha!”
Between the heavens and the earth, the Netherworld Great Emperor suddenly burst into wild laughter. His voice was magnificent and boundless, resounding through the universe!
The skies broke apart, and a will that defied the heavens surged forth like a tsunami!
The great axe pointed to the heavens, his foot stepped upon the earth. Within the universe, he alone ruled all!
Bang!
The demonic battlefield suddenly exploded. For a moment, Lin Ming thought that his spiritual sea had disintegrated. He suddenly opened both of his eyes to see that his clothes had all broken, and his entire body was dyed red with blood!
At this moment, Zhou Xinyu’s beautiful face had already drained of blood. She didn’t know what to do, but when she saw Lin Ming open his eyes, she was worried but also excited. Her voice shook as she said, “Sir Lin, Sir Lin…”
Lin Ming wanted to reply, but as he opened his mouth, all that came out was a mouthful of blood. Lin Ming finally understood the mystery behind the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal. At the same time that it contained a pure and terrifying energy, it also contained the remnants of the Netherworld Great Emperor’s consciousness.
Swallowing the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal meant that one had to withstand destruction of both the mind and the body!
Outside the enchantment, Huang Zixuan and his entire group were attacking. The dreamland enchantment began to tremble more and more, and the land which the enchantment was over was already turned to slag.
However, Lin Ming simply wasn’t in the mood to care about this. He felt as if his entire body was pinned down with 1000 needles, and 10,000 sabers were twisted into his body. Even with Lin Ming’s formidable will, this kind of pain was difficult to resist.
It was enough to cause someone to want to kill themselves.
He was like a sun dried shrimp on the ground. Even his teeth had cracked a bit from him biting down too hard.
Bang!
Lin Ming’s consciousness was once again thrown into chaos. The remnant thoughts of the Netherworld Great Emperor were like a tide that broke into Lin Ming’s spiritual sea, wanting to wash away all!
Normally, once a martial artist’s body had been tortured to the extreme, and they wished to die, their spiritual protection would be incomparably fragile. When the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal’s remnant consciousness rushed in at this moment, it was likely they would turn into an idiot.
A peak Houtian master would absolutely not be able to withstand this dual attack. Thus, the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal was only barely able to be absorbed by someone who had a Xiantian cultivation.
Lin Ming’s cultivation was only at the Pulse Condensation period. Under the attack of the Netherworld Great Emperor’s remnant consciousness against his spiritual sea, even though he was extremely strong-willed, he still had a mind-splitting headache, and his ears bled profusely.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
In a few breaths of times, it was unknown how many times Lin Ming had been bombarded by this remnant consciousness. Towering waves appeared in Lin Ming’s spiritual sea, but he was still able to withstand it!
The attack of the Netherworld Great Emperor’s remnant conscious was the most dangerous phase for any martial artist that swallowed the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal. But for Lin Ming, it was more scary than truly dangerous.
Before now, Lin Ming had already swallowed the memory fragments of two Supreme Elders from the Realm of the Gods. No matter how strong the Netherworld Great Emperor was, he simply wasn’t comparable to the beings from the Realm of the Gods.
Lin Minch clenched his teeth, and began to wear down the Netherworld Great Emperor’s remnant consciousness with his own mind and soul. He was aware that if he wanted to absorb the energy from the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal, he first had to eliminate the Netherworld Great Emperor’s remnant consciousness.
The pain of soul force and consciousness wearing down on each other was unimaginable. It was worse than polishing a gaping bloody wound with sandpaper.
This was true soul-rending pain. When Lin Ming had absorbed the memories of the two elders from the Realm of the Gods, he still hadn’t experienced this great a pain. The Supreme Elders from the Realm of the Gods had, after all, only left behind a fragmented soul, without any self-consciousness, only a soul’s instinct. As for the Netherworld Great Emperor, he had left behind a true remnant consciousness. To erase this cruel and heaven-defying ill was no easy matter.
Time passed a second and a minute at a time. Lin Ming bled profusely from his head. As he fell over, even the rock underneath him was stained red with blood. If it wasn’t for Lin Ming’s blood vitality having been enhanced several times by entering the Sorcerer Pagoda, he would have already died from excessive blood loss.
After an endless period of agony, Lin Ming finally stamped out the remnant consciousness left behind by the Netherworld Great Emperor.
Thus, although the energy of the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal was still violent and unruly, without direction from the will of the Netherworld Great Emperor’s thoughts, it could finally be moved around by Lin Ming.
“Tempering Marrow!”
Lin Ming’s mind echoed with this one thought as he did his best to revolve the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’ technique to direct Tempering Marrow. He controlled the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal’s energy and directed it into his skeleton; there wasn’t much time left!
At first, when Lin Ming had used the energy from the Heaven Opening Pill for Tempering Marrow, because his Bone Forging was too thorough and his bones were perfectly compact, it had been extremely difficult because it was as if they were made from stone. Like this, Tempering Marrow was not easy at all.
Lin Ming had thought that it would also be extremely difficult to force the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal’s energy into his bones, but he was wrong. The energy of the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal was like heavy mercury, seizing all opportunities to spread, invading at any chance.
It was like a pointed cone that drilled into Lin Ming’s dense skeleton, flowing towards the marrow.
As the energy entered the marrow, Lin Ming felt as if his own marrow had been poured into a vat of boiling oil. What followed was an extremely harrowing marrow pain.
Chi chi chi!
The marrow impurities were burned away by the energy. This feeling was just like his marrow being tossed into a frying pan, all of the impurities being burned away!
Lin Ming was soaked in sweat. This was the last step to absorb the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal.
In the throes of this excruciating pain, Lin Ming maintained his calm and collected thoughts. He realized that the energy from half of the Shattered Demon Heart Crystal wasn’t nearly enough to help him complete Tempering Marrow. He had to make a choice. He could first temper a part of his body…