Chapter 1322 – Awakening And Exiting
Empyrean Divine Dream gently nodded, saying, “When Lin Ming climbed up the Divine Seal Altar’s 33 steps, he withstood the baptism of the ancient Concept of the 33 Layered Heavens contained within it. This baptism greatly affected him, but because the time was too short, the influence from the Concept of the 33 Layered Heavens had to manifest. As time passed, this advantage will become increasingly obvious.”
Empyrean Vast Universe shook his head as he heard Divine Dream’s confirmation. He said, “This is the flow of destiny. I am far from being able to compare to Lin Ming. Although I have luck, I lack destiny. The result is that my work was given as a gift to this junior Lin Ming…”
As Empyrean Vast Universe spoke of the Concept of the 33 Layered Heavens, he couldn’t help but deeply sigh. At the start, he really had been able to obtain a fragment of the ancient Divine Seal Altar. In terms of luck, Empyrean Vast Universe was not bad at all.
However, even though Empyrean Vast Universe meditated on the Divine Seal Altar fragment for many years afterwards, he was only able to touch upon the threshold of the 33 Layered Heavens’ Laws, and wasn’t able to transform that into his own strength. As for the Divine Seal Altar fragment, he had later taken that as a foundation to create an Empyrean spirit treasure.
This harvest was not worthy of mentioning in comparison to Lin Ming.
If one entered a treasure mountain and returned empty-handed, that was not because one’s luck was bad but because one’s destiny was lacking.
Luck was only a part of destiny. Talent, will, perception, mentality, soul – all of those were equally important parts of destiny.
Luck only provided opportunities. Whether one could grasp those opportunities depended on themselves.
Empyrean Divine Dream slowly said, “Lin Ming’s destiny is truly amazing. If this was in the past, then Lin Ming would eventually develop into a leader amongst Empyreans. And now, in this great world, Lin Ming even has the smallest of chances of surpassing the boundary of an Empyrean and becoming a True Divinity!”
“True Divinity!? That’s too exaggerated!”
Empyrean Vast Universe had a great response as he heard this. Although he knew that Lin Ming possessed heaven-defying talent, the realm of True Divinity was something that existed only in myths. Empyrean Vast Universe didn’t even believe that someone like Xiao Moxian had the chance of becoming a True Divinity in the future.
Even if Empyrean Divine Dream said ‘smallest of chances’, Empyrean Vast Universe still couldn’t accept this. Was becoming a True Divinity really that easy?
“Throughout the endless epochs, how many Empyreans have failed to become a True Divinity? Divine Dream, even you, someone who has achieved the peak in every aspect, aren’t you also unable to take that final step into True Divinity? Your praise of Lin Ming seems rather too high. Even for someone as talented as Lin Ming, I do not believe that in the past billion years, amongst the infinite lives born in the Divine Realm and the lower realms, there hasn’t been someone similar to him. Aren’t Xiao Moxian and Frost Dream also similar in comparison?
“Let alone the last billion years, even for the last 3 billion years there has never been a True Divinity supreme being that has appeared. There have only been stories, and these stories are far too exaggerated, without any credibility at all.”
Empyrean Vast Universe was clearly very sensitive to the term True Divinity. This was also reasonable. In the legends, it was said that those that stepped into True Divinity could refine stars, crush planets, and there were even fables that said that True Divinities could live as one with the world, living in everlasting immortality!
The former wasn’t considered much. Although the increase in strength seemed wonderful, it was still within the realm of acceptability. After all, a powerful Empyrean could already crush planets. Of course, that was only crushing planets. If they wanted to crush suns that were tens of thousands of times larger than a planet, even an Empyrean was far lacking.
To chase after a stronger strength was the wish and drive of all martial artists. But, what truly enticed an Empyrean was the promise that they could live in perpetuity!
This attraction was simply too great to an Empyrean.
When one cultivated to the realm of an Empyrean, they truly held control of a world and dominated the lives of trillions upon trillions of people. With all of these before them, how could they willingly accept the end of their own mortality and turn into dust?
The path of martial arts was to struggle with the heavens. Every time one made a breakthrough, their lifespan would increase several times over. This was a tremendous lure to many martial artists, driving them to painstakingly cultivate and also one of the greatest motivations that caused them to constantly risk their lives in the most dire of dangers.
Divine Dream said, “In the past, there indeed might not have been this possibility. But now, in this universe, there truly exists this hope. Not only does Lin Ming have this hope, but so does Xiao Moxian; one could even say her hopes are much greater.”
As Divine Dream spoke like this, Empyrean Vast Universe seemed as if he wanted to say something, but eventually didn’t. Even though he was an Empyrean, he always felt that speaking in terms of the universe seemed far too remote. A True Divinity… was that something that could truly be reached in this world?
Empyrean Vast Universe was silent for some time before saying, “According to what you say, do you happen to think that Lin Ming might be able to defeat Frost Dream?”
Empyrean Vast Universe also felt the mysterious and exceptional presence around Frost Dream. To every heroic young elite, defeating Frost Dream was a near-impossibility.
Divine Dream slowly said, “Frost Dream surpasses the younger generation by far too much. To compare Lin Ming to Frost Dream is unfair to begin with…”
She only spoke to here before not speaking again. Frost Dream was personally raised by Divine Dream. As for what Frost Dream’s limits were, only Divine Dream would know.
Frost Dream had already surpassed the concept of ‘young elites’.
At this time, on the ruined stone bed, Lin Ming violently coughed. Every cough was followed by fresh blood.
Divine Dream glanced at Lin Ming and flicked a finger, tossing out a crystalline pill. This pill was glittering and transparent, exuding a cold air that made it seem as if it were carved from ice.
The pill slowly flew in front of the four young jade bunny girls. Without any emotion in her voice, Divine Dream said, “Feed this pill to Lin Ming. Tell him that two hours from now, his match with Frost Dream will officially begin.
“Remember, he only has two hours.” As Divine Dream spoke, she floated away. Empyrean Vast Universe also stepped forwards and disappeared.
At this time, Lin Ming slowly opened his eyes. The first image to enter his eyes was those four curious jade bunny girls…
During his 500 days of sleep, Lin Ming had a hazy understanding of what was happening outside. He hadn’t fallen into the 100 Cycles of Samsara without being able to extract himself. Although Lin Ming hadn’t been able to compare with Hang Chi, the difference hadn’t been too great. He had the ability to resist the Wheel of Samsara, and although he had fallen unconscious, the truth was that he had voluntarily allowed himself to fall into such a state. Thus, Lin Ming knew that these four young girls had looked after him for these past 500 days.
“Thank you.”
Lin Ming softly said. Young girls of the jade bunny race were docile and gentle, with a timid personality. As Lin Ming spoke to them, they were a bit nervous. What sort of character was Lin Ming? The difference between them was like the heavens and earth!
They simply weren’t able to accept this thanks.
“S-senior-apprentice Brother Lin, please don’t say that, you will scare us to death.” A young jade bunny girl said, flustered, “Yes… yes, that’s right, Senior Divine Dream left you a message just now… you need to swallow this pill and… two hours from now… you must go to the arena stage and fight with Senior-apprentice Sister Frost Dream!”
“Fight with Frost Dream…”
Lin Ming rubbed his forehead. During that long dream, he felt as if he had lived a lifetime of tens of thousands of years. As he recalled it, even the First Martial Meeting seemed a bit distant in his mind.
“Mm… that’s right. I still haven’t fought with Frost Dream yet…”
Lin Ming clenched his fists together. He could feel that his own fists were wet with his sweat and blood, sticky and viscous. He could also feel that he had never been as strong as he was now!
…….
When Lin Ming woke up, a considerable amount of time had already passed since the conclusion of Frost Dream and Hang Chi’s battle. Over 90% of the audience was still there, not yet having left Vast Universe Heavenly Palace. However, just under 10% of the audience had begun to leave, either having ridden their spirit ships or were preparing to leave Vast Universe World.
And at this time, Vast Universe Heavenly Palace sent out news of Frost Dream’s upcoming match…
“What!? Frost Dream is coming on stage to compete once more?”
On a spirit ship that had taken off, some people heard this message passed down from Vast Universe Heavenly Palace.
“That’s too great! Let’s return and watch the match before we leave.”
Many of Frost Dream’s fans were crazily excited as they heard that Frost Dream was about to come back on stage. After Frost Dream and Hang Chi’s battle, she had entered the palace and had yet to emerge. This left many of her fans that were crowding around the contestant palaces disappointed. But now that they learned they had the chance to see her again, they were definitely delighted.
“Who is she fighting?” A middle-aged man lazily asked. He was the Elder leading these young disciples.
“She’s fighting against Lin Ming!” The young elite from before said.
“Lin Ming? He’s finally woken up? I heard that he’s been in a deep sleep for over a year. If he wakes up now, then it won’t be easy…” The middle-aged man said, a joking tone in his voice.
No one doubted Lin Ming’s talent. But in joining the First Martial Meeting, he had damaged his soul because he was trying to show off. He had been unconscious for over a year now and almost didn’t wake up. This caused everyone to feel that it was quite funny.
If one were to describe this behavior in a pleasant manner, then they would say he didn’t fear the strong and never gave up.
If one were to describe this behavior in a coarse manner, then that would be forced to the edge by their own behavior and lacking in foresight.
He had nearly died in a martial arts contest; was there any genius so stupid? Luckily he hadn’t died, otherwise that would really have been the greatest joke of all.
Although Lin Ming had woken up, many people guessed that there were still some hidden wounds left over. Even with all the precious soul recovery medicines available at an Empyrean Heavenly Palace, Lin Ming had still slept for over a year. How could his soul wounds be light?
“He’s just an impulsive little baby boy, and he also just started recovering from a severe injury. I think that Frost Dream should fight with someone from the older generation instead. If that happened… that might be worth watching.”
Hang Chi was much stronger than Lin Ming but he had still lost to Frost Dream. He hadn’t even been able to last until the end of Frost Dream’s Dreamsoul Immortal Melody before admitting defeat, let alone someone like Lin Ming. Lin Ming likely wouldn’t even be able to block a few moves from Frost Dream in his peak state, and he was wounded now too.
In the eyes of most people present, this battle would likely end before it started. This caused many of them to lose interest in seeing this fight. As for Frost Dream’s fans, they went to see her, not the fight itself.
The youth laughed, saying, “In any case, I’m going to look at Frost Dream, not her match. Then again, whoever Frost Dream competes with, it will still be the same. Who can possibly defeat her? I must say that I should thank Lin Ming. If he didn’t wake up on time then we wouldn’t be able to see her fight again!”