Chapter 646 – The Yellow Springs River
…
…
…
If Lin Ming wanted to research and understand the situation about the enclosed space force field, he would have to walk around and slowly find out what the governing rules were.
But, there was a prerequisite. This was that he needed to be able to leave marks along the way!
When Lin Ming had placed down marks before this, they had only lasted for two incense sticks of time before being cleanly erased. That definitely wouldn’t work. After thinking for a while, Lin Ming thought of placing a trace of his battle spirit in the marks.
A martial artist’s battle spirit was a substantialized manifestation of their will. For martial artists that had strong wills, their will might last tens or even hundreds of thousands of years in perpetuity. When Lin Ming had encountered the will lights in the Road of Emperor, this was the reason they had existed until then. Even within the Eternal Demon Abyss, there might be heavenly treasures or demon bones that contained an Emperor will lasting for tens or hundreds of thousands of years.
“The first array symbol…” Lin Ming walked over to a flat area of ground and flicked his finger, shooting out a golden array symbol and condensing it into a small mark. As the mark formed, Lin Ming left a faint trace of azure energy within; this was a wisp of battle spirit.
After leaving down the mark with the battle spirit, Lin Ming didn’t leave. Instead, he say down near the array symbol and waited to see just how fast the energy would pass from it.
The other martial artists were unclear as to what was happening. Thus, a martial artist couldn’t help but ask, “Young Hero Lin, what are you doing?”
“You worthless idiot! What use is there in you asking? You wouldn’t even understand Young Hero Lin’s explanation.” Blackstone suddenly said. The truth was that he also wanted to know what Lin Ming was doing, but he feared that he would disturb Lin Ming’s thought process at this time.
Lin Ming kept total silence and quietly watched the energy leave the array symbol.
Time slowly passed, soon, it had been a quarter of an hour. The closed force field had wearing away the energy within the array symbol, but as for that azure wisp that Lin Ming had left within, it dissipated very slowly.
Lin Ming’s azure will originally had an endlessly growing quality to it. Added to the fact that his will was firm to begin with, it held together well. After a quarter of an hour passed, the energy hadn’t even been reduced by 5%.
Calculating the total time, that mark with a wisp of battle spirit should be able to support itself for around six hours.
Six hours was more than enough time.
“Boy, you’re quite smart! You strengthened that mark with your battle spirit, nice!” Demonshine’s voice echoed in Lin Ming’s mind.
“Alright, let’s continue!”
Lin Ming stood up and the other martial artists began preparing to set out. At this time, Lin Ming was in the lead.
As the group advanced forwards, he would leave behind a mark every 500 feet. The path he took was very strange. Sometimes he would go forwards, sometimes he would go to the side, and sometimes he would even go backwards.
However, no matter where he walked, he never seemed to be able to leave the Eternal Demon Abyss. In front of everyone, the Eternal Demon Abyss became increasingly close, and that monstrous flame became more and more clear. It was as if they could already feel the terrible heat waves rolling off of it.
The pitch black Eternal Demon Abyss crossed through the end of the world, endless, limitless, like the maw of an ancient beast, swallowing all!
“Young… Young Hero Lin, is there really no problem?”
A martial artist couldn’t help but ask. He actually wasn’t feeling reassured at all. As he followed Lin Ming, he noticed that they were actually closing in on the Eternal Demon Abyss!
“If you have the ability then you can lead the way.” Duanmu Qun coldly said, causing the martial artist to shut up.
After walking for another several dozen miles, the Eternal Demon Abyss seemed as if it wasn’t even 200 miles away. The group could already clearly see the horrifying fog rising up from the endless gaping maw. What rose was not flames, but a flow of surging black energy. This energy was like a silent fountain, directly impacting hundreds of thousands of feet into the sky.
Lin Ming was silent for a moment, then he said, “Let’s return to our old route.”
He hadn’t been able to discover just what the strange Space Laws were yet, but he was far too close to the Eternal Demon Abyss for comfort. He didn’t dare to continue forwards anymore.
Returning to the original route wasn’t easy either. On the way here, they only needed to walk one mile forwards to go two miles towards the Eternal Demon Abyss. But, in returning, they actually had to curve left and right, taking all sorts of crazy paths just to go back a single mile.
Fortunately, Lin Ming’s battle spirit didn’t fail him. As they returned several miles back, there were still remnants of his battle spirit – they didn’t completely vanish.
As they reached the last several battle spirit marks, the will energy of the battle spirit had nearly depleted itself. This caused Lin Ming to sigh in emotion. Even with his own understandings of the power of space, in addition to Demonshine, and even his battle spirit, all three of these factors together weren’t enough to allow him to figure out just how to leave the 1000 mile forbidden zone. If he could not even find a single clue, then the difficulty that other martial artists would have could be imagined. Not to mention a Titled Asura or Tower Master, but even a high level Life Destruction powerhouse that didn’t have a good grasp of the Concept of Space might perish here!
“We’re back!”
“We really came back! Young Hero Lin truly knows the way!”
The martial artists could see the Eternal Demon Abyss blur as they walked backwards. Finally, in a single go, Lin Ming proved his skills and led them to return all the way to the 550 mile zone from the Eternal Demon Abyss where they had started.
But at this time, everyone’s hearts suddenly chilled. They didn’t know when, but the air had filled with an enchanting aroma.
If this was a nice spring day in the forests, then this fragrance would have been refreshing. But, here in the darkness of the Eternal Demon Abyss, this fragrance caused everyone’s hairs to stand on end!
As everyone abruptly looked up, they saw that the sky was raining down flower petals.
These beautiful and vivid flower petals were like angels flying in the heavens. They were completely out of place in this dreary, dark gray world.
As Lin Ming saw this, he felt a chill crawl up his back. “Demonshine, what is this?”
The jade slip that the Polaris Tower Master had given Lin Ming had very few records about what was inside the 1000 mile forbidden zone. Lin Ming had no idea just what was occurring around him.
Demonshine’s complexion suddenly changed, “This is bad! Those are brain-devouring tapirs, hurry up and run away!”
A sharp light flashed in Lin Ming’s eye. He didn’t bother asking what a brain-devouring tapir was, instead instantly launching his movement technique and drawing backwards, “Retreat! Don’t be touched by those petals!”
As Lin Ming spoke, a flower petal silently fell onto the head of a martial artist. The martial artist’s body shook, and with a cracking noise, blood shot out from his head!
Those weren’t flower petals! Those were thumb-sized blood-red fleshly insects! They had sharp teeth like steel thorns. With a single bite, they directly pierced through the skull!
Woosh!
The red fleshy insect drilled into the martial artist’s head like a bolt of lightning!
“Ahhhhh!!!!”
The martial artist clutched his head as he fell to his knees. Blood poured out from his head and eyes. The agonizing pain caused him to smash his head constantly into the ground. Every time he did so, thick liquid blood would gush out of the hole in his skull!
Everyone could even clearly hear the sounds of his brain being chewed upon in his skull.
Seeing this ghoulish scene, the other martial artists didn’t hesitate at all. They instantly launched their movement techniques and rushed out with Lin Ming!
At this time, the martial artists discovered that the fragrance they smelled just now had the effect of debilitating their true essence flow. With their true essence circulation hindered, their movements naturally became slower.
“Ahh!”
Another martial artist gave a miserable cry as a brain-devouring tapir started eating away at him.
The miserable cries that filled the air caused the martial artists to panic with fear. They fiercely bit down on their tongues, using the pain to wake themselves up and desperately flee this area!
Lin Ming no longer had time to lay down marks. In a single breath, he brought everyone out several dozen miles. But, at this time, he suddenly stopped in his steps. Right in front of him was a great river. This river was a dirty yellow-brown color and was over 1000 feet wide.
This wide and smoky river seemed as if it originated from the nothingness of ancient times, flowing towards unknown lands.
In the waters of the river, one could see bones floating. Of these bones, the majority of them weren’t human, but rather different races. Some had wings, some had long horns, and others had even more peculiar features.
Just by looking at this river, one could feel an inexplicable sense of bereavement and anguish fill their hearts, causing all of them to be comparably desolate.
“Yellow… the Yellow Springs River!”
At that moment, Lin Ming’s heart stopped in his chest. All of his hairs rose, and without any further words, he immediately swiveled around and ran away!
There was no need for Demonshine to tell him what the Yellow Springs River was. When he inherited the memories of the Demon Emperor’s soul fragment, it had contained a memory of this Yellow Springs River.
It was probably because the Yellow Springs River was too terrifying, thus it left a deep impression on the Demon Emperor, which was then inherited by Lin Ming.
When the Demon Emperor had come to the bank of the Yellow Springs River, he had almost died, becoming more of the countless bones of the river!
Duanmu Qun, Blackstone, High Lord Cloud Demon and the rest were all following behind Lin Ming. As they saw Lin Ming’s sudden frightened expression and hasty retreat, they followed him without a word.
However, because they were slower, the last two martial artists that caught up didn’t notice Lin Ming’s expression suddenly change. In that instant, a trace of confusion and hesitation filled their faces.
And after this slight confusion, they seemed to lose their souls. Their eyes glazed over, their limbs stiffened, and their steps became heavy.
Like zombies, they took several dazed steps forwards and then changed direction, walking towards the Yellow Springs River…
At this time, Lin Ming had already brought the remaining people several dozen miles away. As for those two martial artists that had started shambling towards the Yellow Springs Rover, they had walked into the river, going deeper and deeper within. The river water flowed over their legs, waist, belly, chest, and finally their heads.
A faint trace of blood leaked out from their bodies, mixing with the river for a moment before immediately being swallowed up. The river remained that same dirty yellow color without the least bit of red.
Under the surface of the water, the two martial artists’ bodies had already completely disappeared. There was nothing left of them but bones, as if their bodies had rotted away for endless eons.
After the two martial artists sank into the river, there wasn’t even a stir from where they were. Several breaths later, two skeletons floated upwards, adding onto the endless bones of the river and gradually drifting away…
As everyone saw this, they shivered in fear, a cold sweat streaming down their backs. Of these martial artists, which one of them wasn’t a brave and peerless heroic youth of their generation? Otherwise, there was no way they would have dared to enter Skysplit Tower. Although they didn’t fear death, that didn’t mean they couldn’t withstand such a creepy way of dying. This truly cracked the courage of even the most daring heroes!
“Brother Lin, just what is that river?” Even Duanmu Qun’s voice was shaking at this moment.
“That was the Yellow Springs River…” Lin Ming sighed. The situation was deteriorating more and more. Now, he didn’t even have full faith he could find out how to leave this 1000 mile forbidden zone…
The Yellow Springs River?
The martial artists present were petrified. This river that was depicted in the ancient legends of the Holy Demon Continent… it actually existed?