Chapter 610 – You Either Leave Or Fight
When Lin Ming first swallowed a Demon God Bone, the Demon God Bone had fused together with the Heavenly Demon force field. This had been countered with the Nameless Divine Pill that had been refined from a Nirvana Dragon Root. With the energies together, it was a complete coincidence that their combined powers were able to completely open the Gate of Healing.
From this alone, one could see that a single Demon God Bone was somewhat inferior to the Nameless Divine Pill refined from a Nirvana Dragon Root.
However, it had to be said that regardless of whether it was Xing Tian or High Lord Heian’s Demon God Bones, they had all come from the surrounding area of the Eternal Demon Abyss and were also the most common and ordinary level of Demon God Bones.
But within the Eternal Demon Abyss, there were actually higher grade Demon God Bones. There were completely legendary objects; it was almost impossible for anyone to get their hands on them.
Lin Ming browsed through the jade slips that High Lord Heian had left behind. Besides some top cultivation methods, there was a single jade slip that caught his attention.
The contents within were actually a record of the Eternal Demon Abyss!
“Eternal Demon Abyss…”
Lin Ming muttered. Mysterious lands always attracted eager people that desired to explore, especially a place like the Eternal Demon Abyss which contained seemingly infinite resources as well as countless dangerous and fatal traps. There were even some Emperor powerhouses that, when their time was about to come to an end, would choose enter the Eternal Demon Abyss. They not only wanted to find their own lucky chance but also longed to decipher that mystical land. They wanted to see with their own eyes just what was within the Eternal Demon Abyss.
Sinking his mind into the jade slip, the first thing that appeared within Lin Ming’s mind was a map. This was a map of the Eternal Demon Abyss.
On this map, the 12 Skysplit Towers were marked with red dots, and underneath these 12 Skysplit Towers was the tens of thousands of miles wide Eternal Demon Abyss.
This part of the Eternal Demon Abyss map was completely blank.
But several thousand miles around the Eternal Demon Abyss periphery, there were detailed signs, careful descriptions of dangerous zones, locations, spots, all meticulously portrayed and annotated.
In addition, there was even a mark on the map that indicated where it was easy to find Demon God Bones.
If one wanted to explore the Eternal Demon Abyss, the value of this map as a reference point was unimaginable.
Below all of this was all sorts of varied lore about the Eternal Demon Abyss. Its contents were similar to what Lin Ming already knew. For tens of thousands of years, every single character that entered the Eternal Demon Abyss, regardless of whether they were peerless geniuses or Emperor powerhouses, everyone would die there with no exception.
Let alone the inside of the Eternal Demon Abyss, even a thousand miles around the edges was a restricted death zone. Anyone that entered would die!
All martial artists that wanted to explore the Eternal Demon Abyss, including even High Lords, had to be at least 1000 miles from the edge of the Eternal Demon Abyss, or sometimes even 2000 miles away.
The closer one approached to the Eternal Demon Abyss, the higher grade of Demon God Bones there would be, but, the dangers would also be correspondingly greater and the chances of dying there that much higher!
“According to the records within this jade slip, in just this last millennium, over 170 High Lords have died within the Eternal Demon Abyss. Every time the Eternal Demon Abyss opens there would be one or two High Lords that die!”
Lin Ming was shocked as he saw the data within High Lord Heian’s jade slip. Every time that the Eternal Demon Abyss opened, High Lords would personally go, and the reason for this was those high grade Demon God Bones.
For a character on the level of a normal Heavenly Demon Seven Star, their strength was far worse compared to a High Lord. They could only stay in the extreme periphery. Finding one or two ordinary Demon God Bones was already considered very good for them.
To find anything of a higher grade was simply impossible.
With 12 Skysplit Towers, that would mean there were around 150 High Lords. Every time the Eternal Demon Abyss opened, one or two would die. That would also mean that the fatality rate of these High Lords was around 1%; this wasn’t a too exaggerated fatality rate.
On the road of martial arts, if one was too afraid to take risks then they might as well not practice martial arts and peacefully pass away from old age while enjoying themselves.
“Eternal Demon Abyss… if there’s a chance, I want to go too.” Lin Ming was very much interested in exploring this land where so many risks and chances coexisted together. Of course, he absolutely didn’t dare to enter into the 1000 mile death zone surrounding the edge of the Eternal Demon Abyss. He didn’t think that his life was much sturdier than those of ancient Emperor level powerhouses.
As Lin Ming continued to read through the jade slip it also described how the Eternal Demon Abyss erupted. It seemed that every several dozens of years, the Eternal Demon Abyss would also erupt once like a volcano, spitting out a massive amount of infernal energy as well as some hidden caches of Demon God Bones from within the Eternal Demon Abyss.
For the last several tens of thousands of years, people had searched the extreme outer edges of the Eternal Demon Abyss for these scattered Demon God Bones, all of them having come from the eruption of the Eternal Demon Abyss.
After every one of these special eruptions, the martial artists that entered the Eternal Demon Abyss would have much greater harvests. Of course, the risks would be higher too.
Because after the Eternal Demon Abyss erupted, that restless and vibrant energy and some strange life forms would form various danger spots, areas where one’s bones wouldn’t even be left over.
And in these cases of eruptions, the map would have massive changes to it. The old map would no longer be useful and one could only form a new map. This also meant that it was easier for people to randomly stumble into these danger zones.
It could be said that in the last 1000 years, of the over 170 High Lords that had died, over half of these deaths were because of the eruption of the Eternal Demon Abyss.
As Lin Ming finished reading through the jade slip, at this moment, a bright light flashed in his room, a sound then floating into Lin Ming’s mind. “I am High Lord Bloodfire. Young Hero Lin, please follow the servants to the fourth floor.”
“Fourth floor?”
Lin Ming’s mind stirred. The fourth floor was the exclusive residency of Skysplit Tower’s High Lords.
All remaining 11 High Lords were situated there!
Lin Ming thought for a moment and then left his practice area.
Just outside of Lin Ming’s practice area, a pair of beautiful Fey maids were already waiting. These two beautiful girls were the same height and both their stature and appearance could not be any more perfect. Their cultivation was also at the Houtian realm.
In Sky Fortune Kingdom, if there was ever a girl that could be so young and have a Houtian realm cultivation while having such a perfect appearance, then they would be the most proud amongst all proud women. However, within Skysplit Tower, they were actually nothing more than maids.
“Sir High Lord, we are here to lead you to the fourth floor and fulfill any desire you have.” A young Fey girl said in a soft lilting voice.
“Lead the way.” Lin Ming’s voice was calm and indifferent.
The third and fourth floors of Skysplit Tower were also connected by a transmission array. In this white hazy transmission array, one needed a token to enter.
As Lin Ming reached this transmission array he stopped and began to patiently study it. As he thought, it was undoubtedly an ancient transmission array. It stemmed from the same foundation as the Realm of the Gods’ transmission arrays.
Seeing this familiar transmission array, Lin Ming was much more relieved. This way, at least he wouldn’t be trapped on the fourth floor. His fleeting Golden Roc Shattering the Void movement technique combined with this ancient transmission array meant that he was confident that even if several High Lords sieged him together, he would still be able to safely withdraw.
With a step inside, a light flashed. In the next moment, Lin Ming and the two Fey maids arrived at Skysplit Tower’s fourth floor.
The legendary Road of Emperor was also here.
As he was led through a dimly lit corridor, the maids finally brought Lin Ming before a towering and sumptuous grand temple. The gate of this temple was over 100 feet tall and there were all sorts of ancient and mysterious runes carved into it. It was unknown just what material it was formed from.
As Lin Ming arrived at this great temple, the gates opened, making grinding noises as if the structure couldn’t resist its own vast weight.
Past the gate, there were 10 people in black robes, all of them uniformly wearing black cloaks. Some were tall, some were short, and all of them were sitting at a long black table.
With the ten people gathered together, the aura they emitted could be called terrifying.
And this aura was completed aimed towards Lin Ming alone!
Lin Ming’s mind went cold. The Heavenly Demon martial intent immediately erupted, offsetting the pressure from this combined aura. His body only shook for a split second but he hadn’t taken a single step back.
Without a doubt, these 10 black-robed individuals were all High Lords of Skysplit Tower. Facing Lin Ming, they were only subconsciously emitting their aura in order to frighten him.
“Only 10 of them. Isn’t there another High Lord?”
Lin Ming was puzzled. He swept over these 10 individuals. Of these 10, there was a pretty significant gap in strength between all of them. There were even some people that were unfathomably deep. Lin Ming had to admit that he wasn’t their match at this moment.
“Heroes truly come from the young!” A black-robed man sitting in the first seat laughed, his voice deep and loud. “High Lord Evil God, is that your title?”
Lin Ming calmly said, “Titles are meaningless to me. Feel free to call me what you will.” The black-robed man speaking was without a doubt the strongest powerhouse amongst the 10 High Lords here. Lin Ming had to confess that he didn’t have the slightest chance of defeating him.
“Good! I like your straightforward attitude. I don’t want to play games with you. I’ll ask you now, are you willing to leave Skysplit Tower?”
Lin Ming frowned, “You are a ten-winged Heavenly Demon and I am ten-winged Heavenly Demon, why do you want me to leave Skysplit Tower? Is it only because I am a human? Do you think that this Skysplit Tower only belongs to you Goliaths and Giant Demons?”
“Hehe, it’s not only because you’re a human.” The black-robed man in the first seat stood up, his deep and dark eyes like stars in the night. “I allow you to leave because those have been the rules of Skysplit Tower for the last 10,000 years! Skysplit Tower does not allow the existence of twelve-winged Heavenly Demons. But you… if you are freely allowed to grow as you wish, then in another year or two we might not even be your match anymore. When that day comes, who can prevent you from obtaining 12 wings? This is a lesson that was learnt from the Eightfall War Emperor; once is already more than enough. We do not wish for any volatile factors to appear which threaten the status of Skysplit Tower.”
Lin Ming sneered, not speaking. In the end, it seemed that the current rules of Skysplit Tower had already taken the entire Blood Slaughter Steppes as their own property.
Indeed, with the ability to amass such a massive amount of resources and wealth, as well as numerous high level practice areas, who would not be moved by these?
If the Blood Slaughter Steppes didn’t contain a mystical force that killed all high level martial artists that stepped into here, then this land would have already been aimed at by the many Emperor level powerhouses and Holy Lands of the Holy Demon Continent. At that time, an unrivalled great war would erupt over the Blood Slaughter Steppes, and the Blood Slaughter Steppes would eventually by carved up by the victors.
And such a war would probably erupt every thousand years, causing the land to be redistributed again.
Now, because of all these strange and secretive rules of the Blood Slaughter Steppes forming a pattern, in a sense, the current Blood Slaughter Steppes had become a special sort of sect. As for these High Lords, they were the same as the sect Elders.
“I can leave. I had no intention of becoming a High Lord to begin with, nor do I want to stay in the Blood Slaughter Steppes for a long time. I only want to stay in the Blood Slaughter Steppes for another three months and then enter the Road of Emperor. After I come out, I will immediately leave!” Lin Ming already made deep concessions. With his current strength, coming into direct confrontation with the Blood Slaughter Steppes was not wise or rational. It had to be known that the Blood Slaughter Steppes didn’t have just the Polar Skysplit Tower, but also 11 other Skysplit Towers. There were simply masters all around.
“Hehe.” The black-robed man smiled, “I’m sorry, but it’s impossible for me to agree to your request. You can either choose to leave now, or you can choose to fight with me!”