Chapter 645 – Closed Energy Field
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Back when they thought they had left the 1000 mile forbidden zone, Lin Ming had said that something seemed wrong. But as to what it was, he hadn’t known.
At that time, many of the martial artists had scoffed at him, derisively snorting at his thoughts. But now, no one dared to view Lin Ming’s words with contempt anymore.
Those several martial artists that had suggested turning back and looking for lucky chances were already going green with regret. The great terror of the Eternal Demon Abyss had been widely known for thousands of years now. Everyone that entered must die, and not even birds could cross, how could any of this have been wrong?
There had been Titled Asuras and Tower Masters that didn’t believe this rumors and tried to enter the 1000 mile forbidden zone to find their own lucky chances, but they had all died in here, regardless of who they were!
They had thought these rumors might have been exaggerations, but now, it seemed as if they were all true!
Facing such a terrifying Eternal Demon Abyss, they had actually made such a ridiculous and foolhardy decision to return and try to dig up some earth-step Demon God Bones… they must have been too tired of living!
“Young Hero Lin, we were confused, please, you must think of a way…”
The High Lord that suggested to return sounded as if he were crying. He looked helplessly at Lin Ming. Lin Ming had now become his final straw out of here. Although the hope he placed on Lin Ming was tremulous at best, it was still a faint hope.
Blackstone’s voice also shook, his voice bitter as he said, “Brother Lin, you are merciful and generous, please ignore when we were confused and mistaken. Before, you said that we hadn’t yet left the 1000 mile forbidden zone? Is there still hope of leaving here?”
As a descendant of a Holy Land, Blackstone was incomparably arrogant. But now he was so humbly apologizing; this was just a sign of how messed up his state of mind was and how at a loss he was to all the events surrounding him.
Lin Ming glanced over at Blackstone. Naturally, he didn’t have time to care about such a trivial matter. The most important task at the moment was to figure out how to leave the Eternal Demon Abyss. If he could leave, then he would rather he had been wrong. But unfortunately, matters had taken a turn for the worse.
He shook his head and said, “I don’t have any way right now.”
Hearing Lin Ming say this, all of the martial artists present felt their hearts sink with despair. That’s right, Lin Ming was not an immortal. Although he felt that something was wrong, that didn’t mean that he was able to lead them out of this hell. It was true that he was a Titled Asura, but since ancient times, there had even been Titled Asuras that had died in this 1000 mile forbidden zone. In terms of strength, Lin Ming might even be weaker than Duanmu Qun and High Lord Cloud Demon.
“What do we do? What can we do?” The martial artists began to wallow in misery.
At this time, Lan Xin suddenly asked, ”Young Hero Lin, aren’t we lost? Are the stars in the sky some form of illusion, deliberately misleading us towards the center of the Eternal Demon Abyss?”
Lin Ming shook his head, “No… the guidance of the stars is correct. The problem lies underneath our feet. If I had to guess, then I would say that for every 100 miles we walk away from the Eternal Demon Abyss, we approach the Eternal Demon Abyss by 100 miles. If we were to walk towards the Eternal Demon Abyss for 100 miles, then we would be closer by 200 miles!”
“Before, we walked 150 miles towards the Eternal Demon Abyss and walked away from the Eternal Demon Abyss by 150 miles. This is a total of 450 miles towards the Eternal Demon Abyss. Disregarding that minor distance now, we should be somewhere around 550 miles far from the Eternal Demon Abyss.”
As Lin Ming spoke, everyone felt chills crawl up their spine.
550 miles!
But now, looking at the position of the Eternal Demon Abyss, it didn’t seem that far at all. If they just walked a few hundred more miles anywhere, they would eventually fall into the Eternal Demon Abyss! There would be nothing left of them!
Even the breezy and lofty Duanmu Qun paled at this moment. “Brother Lin, do we have any chance of leaving here?”
Lin Ming’s expression was grim. He bowed his head and thought for a moment. Shaking his head, he said, “I don’t know. We might be able to leave, or we might be trapped here forever too.”
Lin Ming’s words were truly demoralizing. But as everyone listened in, it was like they heard the dulcet tones of heaven.
Because Lin Ming had said the words, “We might be able to leave.”
At this time, no matter how minor their hope was, something was better than nothing. To them, Lin Ming had become their final straw.
“Young Hero Lin, let’s not leave yet. We’ll move out once we figure out where we’re going.”
A martial artist hurriedly said.
The other martial artists began to respond, “Yes, ah, no one bother Young Hero Lin as he figures out a solution!”
“Keep guard; don’t let any evil spirits here affect Young Hero Lin!”
At this time, all of these martial artists tried to be as heroic and valiant as possible, attempting to raise their own value in Lin Ming’s eyes. They were all scared that he might abandon them because they had slighted him just a while ago.
The truth was that they had overthought this. Lin Ming had decided to cross this river together on the same boat. With them, there would be less danger. At least, if a formidable evil spirit popped out from somewhere, they could act as a shield. If he went alone, then his chances of escaping from here were much slimmer.
Lin Ming lowered his head again, thinking some more. After a while, he slowly said again, “Even if we are standing still, we are still slowly approaching the Eternal Demon Abyss.”
“What!?” Everyone’s complexions changed. Walking away was the same as walking towards the Eternal Demon Abyss, and there wasn’t even any need to mention walking towards it, but… even standing still, they were slowly approaching the great void? How could they still have any chance of surviving?
They fell into despair. The only thing that still gave them peace of mind at this moment was the calm expression on Lin Ming’s face. “Don’t panic. Let’s return to our original route first.”
“Huh? We can still return back where we came from?”
The martial artists were overjoyed to hear this.
Lin Ming said, “At most we’ll be able to return a little. I put some marks down on the way.”
Mark?
Right! Marks!
Every 500 feet they walked, Lin Ming would drop a symbol mark on the ground. At the time, many of the martial artists had derided Lin Ming, thinking that he was just trying to trick them and appear mysterious. But now, it seemed as if he was extremely far-sighted and had expected all of this to happen.
Thinking of this, Lin Ming’s image in their minds became increasingly unfathomable. Everyone was excited, growing more and more confident in him.
Lin Ming brought the group to head backwards, following the fluctuation of energy left behind by his mark. Strangely, instead of walking in a straight line, they had to walk in a massive arc. Finally, they reached the seal that he had placed 500 feet back.
However, as Lin Ming saw this mark, he was both happy and worried at the same time. What he was happy about was that he could return to where he was by following these marks. What worried him was that this mark was clearly just placed here an incense stick of time ago, and logically, it should be able to maintain itself here for several months before dissipating, and yet, currently, this mark was fading, half of the energy already gone!
What was this?
Lin Ming frowned. As he went to look for the next mark he left, the group also had to walk in a great curving arc. There were even stretches that they thought they had walked past already. But this time, no one dared to speak any nonsense. Wherever Lin Ming walked, they followed.
After a while of effort, Lin Ming found the second to last mark he left. Sure enough, the energy from this mark had almost been completely consumed!
Feeling for the energy fluctuations of the third, he found that it had completely vanished!
Lin Ming’s forehead began to drip with a cold sweat; the situation was worse than he thought!
He had no idea just what had erased the energy within the marks. Like this, he wouldn’t have any idea how to leave this place!
“How is it?”
Duanmu Qun noticed that Lin Ming was beginning to drip sweat, and an uneasy sense of foreboding began to rise in his heart.
Lin Ming lightly sighed. He shook his head and said, “There’s some problem with the marks I left. In this 1000 mile forbidden zone, there is something unknown that has completely erased them.”
“What?”
All of the martial artists felt their hearts sink, a deep sense of despair filling their minds. If these marks failed, did that mean they would be trapped here forever?
The Eternal Demon Abyss only remained open for half a year. After half a year, all the channels to this place would be shut down, only reopening ten years later.
However, of those martial artists that hadn’t made it out in six months, there had never been a single one that had reappeared after 10 years. There were no exceptions!
If they were trapped here, that was the same as a death sentence!
Lin Ming remained silent, but he was actually constantly communicating with Demonshine in his mind.
“Demonshine, what is happening to erase the marks I left? Could it be evil spirits?”
Demonshine said, “It’s not evil spirits… although I haven’t figure out just how to leave this area, I can generally guess just what’s going on in this 1000 mile forbidden zone.”
“Oh?”
“This 1000 mile forbidden zone is known as a land of no return. The reason for this is probably because there is some powerful energy within the Eternal Demon Abyss that has manifested into a specialized force field that affects the surroundings. And, the radius of this force field just happens to be 1000 miles. Once someone enters, it is very difficult for them to leave. The marks you laid down were also erased by this force field’s energy.”
“Mm…” Lin Ming thought for a moment, “As we walked around, I did feel some strange differences in the power of space around here. The space around the Eternal Demon Abyss must be closed in by this force field, but, the closed space has too great a surface area… I didn’t notice it and walked straight in. With my current understanding of the Concept of Space, I wasn’t able to immediately discover it…”
“Space is enclosed by the force field…” After Lin Ming spoke, Demonshine suddenly seemed to remember something. “I remember when I was still roaming the Realm of the Gods, I heard stories about certain stars in distant spaces that would explode, causing all of their weight to collapse together and form a very special type of miniature star. Around this star is a very strong force field that could twist apart space and force a completely encapsulated space. I fear that even a Supreme Elder of the Realm of the Gods that has glanced at the peak of martial arts might find themselves trapped forever in this closed space once they entered.”
“Oh?” Lin Ming’s mind stirred. This was the first time he had heard about such a star before. “Even such a Supreme Elder wouldn’t be able to leave?”
That elusive peak of martial arts was Lin Ming’s life goal. If even an unrivaled powerhouse who had glanced at that peak was powerless before this type of star, then its horrifying power could be imagined.
Demonshine said, “Of course, these are just stories I heard… however, you can rest assured that the force field of the Eternal Demon Abyss is trivial compared to these types of stars. Otherwise, when the Demon Emperor came here, he never would have been able to leave.”
Lin Ming stayed silent. Although his understandings of the Concept of Space could be considered acceptable, facing such a massive energy field here that could warp a vast volume of space into a closed zone, even he felt this extremely difficult to solve. And now, he wasn’t even able to use his marks.
At this moment, he could only take things one step at a time.
Lin Ming stood up and said to the martial artists around him, “Follow me.”
To these martial artists, Lin Ming’s words were infallible commands. How could anyone dare to ignore him? They tried their hardest to keep up with him lest they fall behind.