Chapter 608 – Becoming A High Lord
The chapter title is a spoiler, hover over it to read it now or see it at the bottom.
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On the ruined martial arena stage, Lin Ming’s entire body was stained crimson with blood. His clavicle was broken, and he was supporting himself with the Purple Comet Spear. He looked like a god of death that had crawled up from an Asura battlefield.
At this time, just looking at Lin Ming made one feel as if their heart was being squeezed tight. No one dared to look Lin Ming in the eyes.
To allow himself to suffer a grievous injury in exchange for High Lord Heian’s life, Lin Ming’s decisive and ruthless actions had frightened all of the martial artists present, sending chills up their spines.
They had originally thought this would be an even match, and even if victory and defeat were decided, killing the opponent wasn’t possible. Normally, one side would admit defeat and the other side would settle for their hard earned victory.
No one ever dreamed that High Lord Heian would be killed underneath Lin Ming’s spear.
Within Skysplit Tower, the High Lords were synonymous with kings. They were haughty, inviolable, and their will was absolute.
Such a strong High Lord Heian had actually died by Lin Ming’s hands. The impact that this had on everyone was earthshaking.
“Lin Ming had always been hiding his ability. If he erupted with his complete strength from the start then he might have forced High Lord Heian into defeat, but he patiently waited, waited, and waited more, all until that final moment when he was able to kill High Lord Heian with a single spear. From the very beginning, he had been planning on killing High Lord Heian. This is too scary!”
“We can understand this tactic, but who could actually carry it out? Even if we are as strong as Lin Ming, we don’t have his endurance! Lin Ming had only been a tad stronger than High Lord Heian at the start, but as time passed, High Lord Heian’s condition slowly changed and his combat strength began to decline. But Lin Ming was actually able to maintain 80 to 90% of his full strength until that final moment when he exploded with everything he had! This is simply inhuman. Before this he had even fought in three fierce battles!
From the beginning, no one thought that Lin Ming would be able to win the revolving battle against Kai Yang, Maha, and Yan Chi, but, what had happened was that Lin Ming had easily killed all three of them. And the madman didn’t even finish there. In a single go, he continued onwards and killed High Lord Heian!
“He came up with this tactic from the start. In order to kill High Lord Heian, he didn’t even hesitate to seriously wound himself. Formidable strength, terrifying talent, inhuman stamina, a calm, decisive, and ruthless mind and tactics, he killed without hesitation all in order to rid himself of future problems. Such a terrifying person and yet he’s only 20 some years old. Who knows what his achievements will be in the future!”
To the audience, Lin Ming becoming a Peerless Emperor was as good as settled. But, the question was whether or not Lin Ming could maintain this momentum, how many stages of Life Destruction he would pass, and whether or not he would become the number one powerhouse of the Holy Demon Continent!
Being able to look down on all rivals in his youth didn’t mean that he would be able to dominate the continent in the future. After all, the chances that a genius would fall in the future were difficult to speculate.
“To kill High Lord Heian, Lin Ming’s actions were too flashy this time. Although this was a battle in the martial arena, and killing the opponent is in line with Skysplit Tower’s rules, the other High Lords won’t give up here. This is a challenge to their authority!”
“Not necessarily. The 12 High Lords have never been on the best of terms with each other. One less High Lord Heian means that the other 11 High Lords will be able to divide more resources for themselves and obtain even more wealth and authority.” As the martial artists were discussing, they suddenly saw a black mass of infernal energy fly up from High Lord Heian’s corpse. This mass of infernal energy turned into a grim demon in the air. This demon had five pairs of wings; it was a ten-winged Heavenly Demon!
In this instant, the martial artists present finally realized that they had forgotten something. Lin Ming was already a peak eight-winged Heavenly Demon. If he killed High Lord Heian then…
Woosh!
The ten-winged Heavenly Demon rushed towards Lin Ming. At this time, Lin Ming was seriously injured, and he didn’t even have 30% of his strength left. Even so, he wouldn’t be defeated by something like a mass of infernal energy!
The Heavenly Demon force field opened, a tide of pressure swept out!
Peng!
The ten-winged Heavenly Demon fiercely trembled and half of its body dispersed. Lin Ming’s right shoulder was nearly split apart so he used his left hand to lift the spear. With a thrust, thunder burst out!
Chi-la!
The ten-winged Heavenly Demon’s body was pierced through by Lin Ming’s spear. It turned into pure infernal energy that merged into Lin Ming’s body.
With it, the eight-winged Heavenly Demon on Lin Ming’s arm began to slowly grow a fifth pair of wings, becoming increasingly clear. This pair was larger than the first four, and the feathers looked as sharp as swords.
Ten-winged Heavenly Demon! This was a High Lord!
“Lin Ming became a High Lord?”
The martial artists present didn’t know how to respond, this was truly difficult reality to accept! In Polar Skysplit Tower, it had been ages since a human High Lord had appeared. Moreover, Lin Ming was younger than everyone present.
Just six months ago, Lin Ming had been a newcomer to Skysplit Tower’s third floor.
“High Lord… holy…”
“What will the other 11 High Lords do?”
According to the usual practices of Skysplit Tower, before a martial artist became a High Lord they would either be won over, suppressed, threatened, bribed, or even forced to leave. None of these were unusual or surprising situations. Once one became a ten-winged Heavenly Demon, they were a High Lord. This was the rule of Skysplit Tower.
In fact, in a sense, of those geniuses that were suppressed or forced away, most of them were far too weak.
For instance, Da Gu. As the fourth ranked amongst Heavenly Demon Seven Stars, if he hadn’t heeded the warning of Skysplit Tower’s High Lords and continued to his next match, then it was possible that they would have arranged for Yan Chi to be his opponent. When that time came, the results could be imagined.
However, towards this monstrous genius Lin Ming whose strength already surpassed High Lord Heian, the High Lords of Skysplit Tower were no longer capable of threatening him. Even that revolving battle of Kai Yang, Maha, and Yan Chi was easily won by Lin Ming. Who else could do anything to him?
In order to kill Lin Ming, that was only possible if four or five High Lords acted together, causing a heaven-shaking and earth-shattering battle!
At that time when the entirety of Skysplit Tower knew of this, it would become impossible to explain why they killed another High Lord without any reason.
Now, it could be said that Polar Skysplit Tower didn’t have any way to manage Lin Ming.
“Is this real… there is going to be another High Lord? A human High Lord?”
All of the martial artists present thought they were in a dream. In the last several thousands of years, Lin Ming would be the fastest High Lord born within the entire Blood Slaughter Steppes, as well as the youngest High Lord.
Moreover, he was a human!
Lin Ming swallowed a healing pill. Underneath the dual function of the pill and his own formidable resilience, the wound on his arm was already regenerating. He could even feel the muscles rapidly growing underneath, causing an itching feeling to spread there. The healing of his clavicle would be slower, but it wouldn’t take any longer than a few hours.
Lin Ming put out his hand and High Lord Heian’s spatial ring dropped into his palm. This black and plain spatial ring was heavy and a size larger than a normal spatial ring.
This was impressively a high-grade earth-step spatial ring!
A spatial ring was rarer than other treasures of the same level. The value of this high-grade earth-step spatial ring was probably no less than Lin Ming’s own Purple Comet Spear!
‘A High Lord of Skysplit Tower, who knows how much wealth he’s gathered over the years!’ Lin Ming sighed in his heart. High Lord Heian’s cultivation was only equal to a human Revolving Core powerhouse; in terms of combat strength, he was far inferior to a Life Destruction powerhouse. Even in this case, he still had a suspected heaven-step treasure black sword and a high-grade earth-step spatial ring.
It had to be known that Mu Fengxian was only a single stage Life Destruction master as well as the Highest Elder of Divine Phoenix Island. Still, the weapon she used was only a normal high-grade earth-step treasure.
‘If this ring is so valuable, then what would be in it?’ Lin Ming was filled with anticipation.
As for the suspected heaven-step Crimson Ruby Snake Sword, Lin Ming naturally couldn’t forget it, he also received it. If he didn’t count the Cosmic Melting Furnace, then this was the highest quality treasure that Lin Ming had seen up until now. Although he couldn’t use it himself, he could still exchange it for massive amounts of resources.
Seeing Lin Ming take all of High Lord Heian’s wealth, the martial artists’ eyes turned red with envy. This was the total wealth that a Blood Slaughter Steppes High Lord had accumulated for over ten years. Its total value would absolutely surpass that of an ordinary fifth-grade sect Sovereign!
Such a great amount of wealth would be of enormous help to walking down one’s future road of martial arts. Even someone like Feng Shen couldn’t ignore it.
After Lin Ming received everything, he didn’t leave the martial arena but instead sat there and meditated. He was currently in a very poor state and his combat strength had drastically dropped. If someone on the same level as High Lord Heian came now, then they would be able to kill him without a doubt.
Although this possibility was very low, Lin Ming didn’t want to be taken by surprise. Restoring his strength to 70 to 80% in the martial arena and then returning to his practice area was the safest bet.
As long as he could restore his strength, then who could do anything to Lin Ming? Not to mention that he also had the ephemeral Golden Roc Shattering the Void. If he truly tried to run away with his full ability, then not even four or five High Lord Heians would be able to stop him.
Even if their speed could keep up with Lin Ming, their endurance would be inferior to his. Lin Ming could maintain his peak speed the entire time. As for others, even if they popped pills constantly while flying, their speed would become slower and slower.
In this case, Lin Ming no longer had any fear of Polar Skysplit Tower!
Seeing that Lin Ming didn’t intend to leave yet, the other martial artists invariably also decided not to go, sitting in their seats and discussing what just happened.
And at this time, on Skysplit Tower’s first floor and second floor, there were many martial artists gathered in pubs, restaurants, teahouses, and other places discussing Lin Ming’s three continuous fights with Yan Chi, Maha, and Kai Yang. The second floor martial artists didn’t feel as great a pressure as those martial artists on the third floor did. They were free to choose the time of their match, and if they didn’t want to compete they could just ignore it. They had a relatively great amount of time to chat and relax.
Lin Ming’s revolving fight with Yan Chi, Maha, and Kai Yang had already spread through the entire Skysplit Tower 10 days ago like a raging storm. Everyone was a martial artist, so who didn’t want to see such a peak battle? But those that could truly go to the third floor and watch the match were the extraordinary individuals or absurdly wealthy of the second floor.
As for the weaker rung of martial artists, let alone having the qualifications, but even if they did have the qualifications to go up they still wouldn’t be able to afford a ticket.
In a restaurant on the second floor, a mixed race old storyteller was carrying a walking stick in one hand as he made rapid hand gestures in the air with the other.
He was making up completely fantastical fabrications of Lin Ming’s three man revolving fight with Yan Chi, Maha, and Kai Yang.
The martial artists of the first and second floor that didn’t have the qualifications to enter the third floor and watch this battle could only use their imaginations to fill it in. The storytelling old man had found business in this opportunity, and was casting Lin Ming’s three man revolving battle with great gusto.
For a mortal, if they could receive a single Blood Demon Crystal as a reward, this would be enough for them to live in Skysplit Tower for an entire year.
“Pah!” The old man pounded his walking stick against the ground. “…In that very moment, Kai Yang cut down with his saber, using his ultimate technique. But at this time, Lin Ming stood his ground, unmoving. He flourished his long spear, thrusting it out, and at that moment the heavens shook and the earth shattered, gods cried and ghosts wept… Kai Yang spat out a mouthful of blood and Lin Ming chased him down…”
“Hold on! F*ck you, what the f*ck are you making up all this shit for!” An Imp martial artist pounded the table. The storytelling old man had said that Kai Yang had been beaten up by Lin Ming. As both he and Kai Yang were Imps, he naturally didn’t want to listen to this nonsense.