Chapter 2142 – Cultivation Shortcut
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Within the Demon God’s Tomb, the slaughter continued grinding on.
Perhaps it was abyssals slaughtering demonic spirits to absorb their power of demon gods, or perhaps it was abyssals slaughtering abyssals to steal their achievements.
And like this, three years passed.
In a black swamp within the Demon God’s Tomb, Lin Ming was slowly absorbing a wisp of pure power of demon gods. He glanced at the totem marks on his arm; currently he had already condensed his sixth totem.
In these past three years Lin Ming’s cultivation speed was equivalent to the results of training for dozens of years outside.
He had fully stabilized his upper Empyrean boundary and his cultivation was rapidly progressing at 10,000 miles a day as he approached the limits of an Empyrean.
Seeing the sixth totem mark about to be completed, Lin Ming hesitated for a moment. He radiated his sense outwards. Then, his lips slowly curved up.
In an area not too far away, he saw that it was time to harvest some of the previous arrangements he made…
He slowly rose upwards, turning into a beam of light that shot towards the direction his sense told him to go in.
He was extremely fast like a coursing lightning bolt. In a quarter hour of time, he had already flown to his destination.
Here there was a canyon. And deep in the canyon was a concealing array formation.
This was an Empyrean level array formation, but to Lin Ming it simply existed in name only.
Lin Ming raised his right fist and demon power shivered as it stirred in his body.
Kacha!
A fist punched out, smashing into this concealing array formation.
“What? What happened!?”
After the concealing array formation exploded, several abyssals rose up, bewildered.
They had established a momentary resting spot here some time ago. Even for an Empyrean, if they were to participate in endless days of cultivation and slaughter they would still feel mentally worn out and need to rest.
They would normally gather here and there were abyssals that were specifically charged with being on lookout and guardian array formations. But today, all of these precautions had failed.
It was only when someone came knocking at their door and the array formation exploded apart did they respond.
If someone could quietly approach and then easily smash apart their hidden array formation, such an opponent was likely at the True Divinity level!
A True Divinity level opponent wasn’t someone they could deal with!
However, as they rushed out and saw this intruder, their complexions suddenly turned incredibly ugly.
“The Ninth War Demon!”
“Y-you… it’s you again!”
Those that gathered in his canyon were Empyrean level abyssals of the Flood Alliance. In the Demon God’s Tomb they were considered weaklings, and it was always easier for weaklings to survive if they joined forces.
In these past days, they had relied on their teamwork to accumulate a great deal of the power of demon gods. They had always been careful in their actions lest they become prey for True Divinity abyssals of the Deep Alliance.
However, what was incomparably sad was that in these past three years, they had already bumped into this dark star known as Lin Ming twice.
The first time was two and a half years ago. Not too long after they entered the Demon God’s Tomb they fought with the Empyrean level abyssals of the Deep Alliance until they finally encountered Lin Ming.
Because of the massive disparity in strength they were beaten to the ground. But, what was strange was that Lin Ming actually didn’t kill them and instead let them go.
They originally rejoiced in such merciful actions, and at the same time they also laughed at Lin Ming for being stupid.
But after a year and a half passed, they actually encountered Lin Ming in this dangerous mystic realm once more. Lin Ming still didn’t kill them. He didn’t even take the cultivation methods or heavenly materials that they found so far, but only took away all the power of demon gods they had gathered.
This made them so depressed they nearly vomited blood. But, at least they passed through this danger with their lives intact and also had some minor harvests. As long as there was life, there was hope, and they started from the beginning all over again.
Now this was the third time they encountered Lin Ming!
For a time, the faces of these abyssals turned blue.
“You should all not want to die right? Hand over your power of demon gods! Obediently follow my orders and I will not kill you, otherwise, none of you will escape here alive. You should all know that I possess the ability to make sure none of you will be able to escape!”
Lin Ming’s words were overbearingly tyrannical. The lungs of these Flood Alliance abyssals nearly burst open with rage. They had gathered their power of demon gods after so much time and effort and yet Lin Ming wanted to savagely steal it all away.
“You… did you use some secret technique to follow us?”
An abyssal suddenly sucked in a deep breath. To be found once by Lin Ming was normal, to be found twice could be called a coincidence, but to be found a third time… how could this be possible!?
Even if they had bad luck it shouldn’t be this bad!
Upon hearing this abyssal’s question, a cold light flashed in Lin Ming’s eyes. Lin Ming traced his spatial ring and the surrounding temperature suddenly and precipitously dropped.
These abyssals felt as if they had all been caught by the scruffs of their neck and none of them dared to speak.
They were already sure that Lin Ming had some unknown methods to follow them. Moreover, when Lin Ming initially didn’t kill them but let them go, this wasn’t some random act of benevolent mercy, but because he wanted to fatten them up before harvesting them.
Thinking of this, the complexions of these abyssals turned darkly ugly. Those that were able to enter the Demon God’s Tomb were all proud children of heaven, and yet they were being raised as if they were farm animals.
“This demon, he is too evil!”
“How could a tracking mark have been placed on us… before this we gathered with His Highness the Crown Prince but His Highness didn’t tell us we were being tracked!”
The Crown Prince that these Flood Alliance abyssals spoke of was naturally the Great Flood Crown Prince.
The Great Flood Crown Prince was formidable, but the tracking mark that Lin Ming left on these abyssals was formed from his battle spirit.
To an abyssal, a battle spirit was a strange and relatively unknown thing. Perhaps a battle spirit might not be able to play any role in a battle between True Divinity level martial artists, but to use it to track someone was quite easy.
A battle spirit mark would nearly never wear away. Moreover, because abyssals were unfamiliar with battle spirits, they were extremely hard to detect.
With a battle spirit mark Lin Ming knew the locations of these abyssals from start to finish.
At a fixed interval of time he would harvest them. Otherwise, if too long of a time passed these abyssals might die somewhere and his arrangements would all be made useless.
“Hand over your power of demon gods or die.”
Lin Ming icily and decisively said. At the same time his grandmist force field spread out and covered this canyon. With just a hint of killing intent, these eight Empyrean level abyssals would never leave this place alive.
“Let’s attack together. I don’t believe that with so many of us working together we cannot deal with a single one!”
An enraged abyssal said, not believing in this situation. Lin Ming’s methods had touched his bottom line. Abyssals were born with violence and bloodthirst in their bones. In their lives they had only bullied others; just when had they been bullied like this?
Just as this abyssal finished shouting, before his voice fell a blinding spear light flashed through the void and caused a giant explosion to light up the world.
This abyssal cried out miserably and was sent soaring backwards. He smashed into the mountain rocks, his large body causing a sizable area of the divine iron-hard mountain walls to collapse.
Bang!
The rocks burst apart. This abyssal was drenched in blood and a bloody hole the size of a baby’s arm was pierced through his chest.
He hadn’t died, but in the Demon God’s Tomb such a heavy wound would mean that even if he didn’t die now, his future days would be a struggle indeed.
The complexions of the other abyssals changed. To hear rumors was one thing, but seeing was believing. An upper Empyrean abyssal had been easily and instantly felled by Lin Ming, and now they were filled with dread towards Lin Ming’s strength.
Because of what they saw, all these abyssals meekly handed over their power of demon gods.
Lin Ming used the Swallowing Laws to absorb all of this power. In a short incense stick of time, the sixth totem mark completely formed.
Everything was connected. To the current Lin Ming, whether it was the power of divinity, the power of demons or anything else, he could transform it into a part of his strength; he could already feel that he was making great strides towards the limits of an Empyrean.
After absorbing the power of demon gods from all these abyssals, Lin Ming’s thoughts stirred. The strength of the Magic Cube spread out from his inner world, forming a giant vortex that covered the surrounding area.
“You…”
These abyssals were panic-stricken. They thought that Lin Ming had lied to them and was about to kill them, but in the next moment, they lost their minds in the spiritual black hole created by the Magic Cube.
The abyssals all slumped over, one at a time.
Looking at these abyssals that fainted, Lin Ming unhurriedly used the Magic Cube to take away all memories of their power of demon gods being taken away today.
He used the Magic Cube’s illusionary abilities to create entirely new memories for these abyssals to explain why their power of demon gods had vanished.
Like this, although they would fall into extreme despair, they would still diligently continue to collect the power of demon gods to support Lin Ming’s cultivation efforts in the future.
Otherwise, anyone that knew they were being tracked by others and even raised like farm animals would develop thoughts of resistance. At this time, only an idiot would continue to gather the power of demon gods just to give it away to others. Even a normal person wouldn’t do this; they would rather not cultivate than vainly benefit someone else.
But if they forgot all of this then none of it would be a problem.
This also meant that Lin Ming could use this move multiple times.
It could be said that with the battle spirit tracking mark and Magic Cube, Lin Ming had found a cultivation shortcut in the Demon God’s Tomb.