Chapter 426 – Auspicious Sign of the Heavens
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The corrosive Fallen Star Flame Flame Essence drilled straight through Ouyang Guang’s stomach, piercing through his dantian and shooting out from behind!
Ouyang Guang grabbed onto the shaft of the Purple Come Spear. He slowly looked down at the hole in his stomach that was pouring out thick, black blood, his face colored with disbelief.
He extended his hand out, waving it in front of him as if he wanted to grab onto something. However, his eyes relaxed and dulled, and the light faded from them.
Ouyang Guang fell to his knees, and then softly plopped onto the floor.
So far, of the seven Elders and Sovereign from the Acacia Faction, some had died, some were severely wounded, and some had escaped; there were none left!
The entire main island was emptied, even Ouyang Ming had returned to a small island. Now, on the main island, the only one left standing was Lin Ming.
With his own strength, not even the seven Great Elders of the Acacia Faction had been able to stop him. Such a frightening strength caused all the surrounding martial artists to hold their breath, afraid that they would attract the attention of this monster in human form.
Lin Ming took the Purple Comet Spear and walked in front of Ouyang Boyan. At this time, Ouyang Boyan only had a single breath of life left. He glanced at Lin Ming, but his eyes had already glazed over.
The Purple Comet Spear flashed with a cold light, and there was a light piercing sound as a gaping hole appeared in Ouyang Boyan’s stomach, followed by a shower of blood.
All of the surrounding martial artists from small sects jumped, feeling faint at heart. Just a moment ago, this had been a lively and grand celebratory banquet. Ouyang Boyan had been filled with happiness and elation due to his breakthrough, but now, that happy man had been slaughtered in a way no different from a farm chicken!
Such a great contrast caused everyone to feel a deep sense of awe and dread.
Lin Ming placed Ouyang Boyan’s corpse into his spatial ring. He wanted to verify something. Was a Xiantian martial artist’s blood essence able to open the Magic Cube once again?
“Lin Ming! You’re alright!” Qin Xingxuan ran over to Lin Min and helped support him, her face filled with worry and concern. Lin Ming’s appearance was just too horrible at the moment. He was bruised all over, and his true essence had been overdrawn.
“I’m alright.” Lin Ming brightly smiled at Qin Xingxuan to reassure her at let her feel more at ease. He said, “Come on, let’s go home…”
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“Senior Master… Ouyang Boyan had died.”
In the back mountains of the Seven Profound Valleys, Shi Zongtian stood outside of a cave mansion, his face solemn.
As the Seven Profound Valleys’ Valley Master, the only one that Shi Zongtian would refer to with such respect would be the Highest Elder of the Seven Profound Valleys, Jiang Huan.
Jiang Huan was now 500 years old. He had been stranded at the early Revolving Core realm, and was reaching the end of his life. In these past many years, he had gone into closed seclusion.
The reason that Jiang Huan was in seclusion was not because he wanted to break past the early Revolving Core realm; he was well aware that his life was nearly exhausted, and breaking through was nothing but a wild dream. Jiang Huan had used this method of seclusion in order to delay the embers of his flickering life from fading. He greatly hoped that he would be able to maintain his feeble existence and linger on in the world until the day that Jiang Baoyun made a breakthrough to the extreme Xiantian realm.
Only such a super powerhouse like that would be able to guarantee the stability of the Seven Profound Valleys.
Therefore in these past years, regardless of any matter, Jiang Huan rarely left his cave mansion, and that why was rumors had been passed along in the smaller sects that Jiang Huan was in life or death closed door seclusion.
“I know…”
As Jiang Huan slowly spoke, his voice had a faint dying energy.
In fact, Jiang Huan had already been made aware of the situation ever since Lin Ming had broken into the Seven Profound Valleys, and was very clear on the entire process of what had happened.
Shi Zongtian hesitated and said, “Should I go and speak with Lin Ming?”
Although the Sword Faction and Acacia Faction had many disagreements, and even many areas in which they were complete and polar opposites, they were still in the same sect. Lin Ming had killed one after another within the Acacia Faction, and this would ruin their Sword Faction’s reputation too. If this spread out, then others would say that the Seven Profound Valleys had been invaded by a 20-something year old baby, and no one dared to even admonish him.
Jiang Huang said, “There’s no point in you going. Since Lin Ming came to the Seven Profound Valleys, he naturally has something to rely on. If it’s as you said and Lin Ming truly does have a reason to take revenge, then Ouyang Boyan wouldn’t have sat idly by. I thought that he would rely on the Acacia Faction and pay off Lin Ming with some high price, but I never thought that he would underestimate Lin Ming’s strength to this degree. In truth, it wasn’t just him who underestimated Lin Ming, but also me. I never would have dreamed that Lin Ming’s strength was already formidable to this degree!”
Shi Zongtian listened silently, not speaking. He had a certain understanding of Lin Ming’s personality. Even if he went, he would just lose face in the end no matter what he did. If that was the case, then he might as well not go. Not just that, but Lin Ming also came here riding a Vermillion Bird. The Vermillion Bird represented Divine Phoenix Island and wouldn’t recklessly attack the Seven Profound Valleys, but it was still a form of deterrence.
Thinking things over, Shi Zongtian sighed. Finally, he decided not to involve himself with this matter. Everything would be settled by Lin Ming and the Acacia Faction.
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On the highest peak of the Acacia Faction, a resonant phoenix cry echoed through the heavens. The Vermillion Bird shot into the sky. Nobody dared to stop Lin Ming. In the view of the surrounding martial artists, Lin Ming had forced his way into the Acacia Faction and killed several of their Great Elders. But, the other six factions of the Seven Profound Valleys hadn’t even appeared, and Lin Ming had cockily sauntered his way out.
The banquet naturally couldn’t continue. The martial artists from the small sects quickly excused themselves and left. After the seven Great Elders had been completely wasted by Lin Ming alone, the one with the highest status left on scene was Ouyang Ming.
The martial artists quickly spoke their farewells to Ouyang Ming. Ouyang Ming ruefully smiled, he never thought that the celebratory banquet the Acacia Faction held today would have such a result.
Ouyang Ming was no longer inclined to think about Lin Ming. He and Lin Ming were destined to follow different paths and tread on different worlds. He wouldn’t take Lin Ming as his goal in life; instead, he would just believe that Lin Ming no longer existed.
The wind howled.
Lin Ming, Qin Xingxuan, and Qin Ziya all stood atop the Vermillion Bird. They had already left the range of the Seven Profound Valleys’ mountains.
Lin Ming said, “Martial House Master Qin, what are you planning to do in the future?”
Qin Ziya thought for a moment and then said, “I will stay in the Seven Profound Valleys in the future. There were already many conflicts between the Zither Faction and the Acacia Faction. Although I have offended the Acacia Faction this time, it won’t affect me much.”
“Martial House Master Qin, how about switching sects? For instance, joining Divine Phoenix Island?”
“Divine Phoenix Island… consider it finished. In my life, I pursue the zither with my heart and soul. I can only do this within the Zither Faction, Divine Phoenix Island does not suit me.”
Lin Ming nodded. What Qin Ziya said was right. He had spent half his life cultivating the zither, it was impossible for him to branch out and practice other cultivation methods again.
“Then, I must separate with Martial House Master Qin. When I was stranded within the Divine Phoenix Mystic Realm, it was all thanks to Martial House Master Qin that Xingxuan remained safe for as long as she did. I, Lin Ming, will engrave this kindness onto my mind.”
Qin Ziya laughed and said, “If it wasn’t for you, I would never have stepped into the Xiantian realm. If we are speaking of kindnesses, then yours is greater than mine. This time in helping Miss Qin, the truth is that I didn’t play much of a role, I could only do as much as I could in order to not frustrate my thoughts.”
To those from the Zither Faction and Sword Faction who were mostly honest and held a greater value towards integrity, they would never feel comfortable if they owed anyone anything. Only when they returned the favor would they feel at peace. So in general, these individuals didn’t often owe favors to others.
“Lin Ming, this is where we part. I bid you farewell, take care of yourself.” Qin Ziya waved his sleeves, and then leapt down from the Vermillion Bird. His white clothing quickly vanished within the strong heavenly winds.
Lin Ming watched as Qin Ziya’s figure disappeared. He cupped his fists across his chest and said, “Martial House Master Qin, please take care…”
“Lin Ming… where will we go to?” Qin Xingxuan asked as she stood beside Lin Ming.
She had already prepared to follow Lin Ming to the edges of heaven and the ends of the earth.
“First we’ll go home, and then we’ll go to Divine Phoenix Island. You can cultivate within Divine Phoenix Island.”
“Mm, then let’s do as you say.” Qin Xingxuan bit her lips, feeling incomparably at peace. With Lin Ming, she no longer worried about anything at all.
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Sky Fortune Kingdom was several hundred thousand miles away from the Seven Profound Valleys. Transferring news was often a very slow and arduous process. In order to activate a sound transmission array once, it required a great amount of true essence stones, and would also wear down the limited integrity of the array formation, shortening its life.
In normal circumstances, the current Seven Profound Martial House Master who was also Ouyang Boyan’s disciple would only make a report to Ouyang Boyan once a month. Now that Ouyang Boyan had died, there was no longer anyone to manage this chess piece he had left within Sky Fortune Kingdom.
In fact, besides Ouyang Boyan, not many people knew that Yang Zhen and this cloaked man were followers of Ouyang Boyan. These people were on a very low level. The Acacia Faction Elders naturally wouldn’t bother with them.
The news of single-handedly killing his way into the Acacia Faction and wrecking them hadn’t yet spread out. Before the second-grade sect disciples had returned to their sect, Lin Ming had already arrived back at Sky Fortune Kingdom. With the Vermillion Bird’s astoundingly extreme speed along with the use of two transmission arrays, Lin Ming had managed to return to Sky Fortune Kingdom in a single day and night.
On this day, all of Qin Xingxuan’s anxieties and fears had been clearly seen by Lin Ming’s eyes. The Qin Family members’ lives were all at stake, so of course Qin Xingxuan was nervous.
It was an ordinary morning in Sky Fortune City. The sun had just risen, and the fresh and bright sunlight had just started spreading throughout the city. The common peasant workers held their hoes across their shoulders as they headed to the fields outside the city to farm. Merchants sold their wares in their shops. At this moment, a bright red light flashed on the horizon. From afar, it was like a massive group of flames was burning the air.
This flame was at first very small, but it began to grow at an alarming speed. Everyone quickly realized that this wasn’t a group of flames, but rather a fiery bird!
Everyone couldn’t help but stop whatever work they were doing and stare at the sky, dazed.
A resounding phoenix cry spread through the horizon. The massive Vermillion Bird with its 100 foot wingspan cut across the limitless blue sky!
All of Sky Fortune City’s residents were shocked!
“Phoenix!”
“Heavens! Is that a phoenix!?”
“Am I dreaming?”
To mortals, a phoenix was an existence that they had only heard about in ancient stories and legends. In the legends, when an emperor had united the dynasty and performed a great deed, a phoenix would appear unto the world; this was the so-called auspicious sign of the heavens.
“The phoenix is flying to the Royal Palace!”
With that, people quickly came to their senses. This must be related to the great deeds of the newly crowned emperor!
Thinking of this, everyone quickly kneeled on the ground, prostrating themselves in worship as they stared at this phoenix in the sky.
At this time, in the vast grand hall of Sky Fortune City’s Royal Palace, Yang Zhen was meeting his court. Within 30 days of ascending the throne, he had summoned the representatives of the difference provinces and was to meet with them.
Under the grand podium, hundreds of leaders and officials from the various provinces were kneeling. Yang Zhen was sitting grandly above them. At this moment, he heard a shrill cry as someone entered…
A court eunuch burst into the grand hall, a great smile on his face as he shouted, “Emperor! This is a great occasion, a great occasion! An auspicious sign of the heavens has come! An auspicious sign of the heavens!”