Chapter 2183 – World Spirit
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The meeting between Immortal Sovereign and Sheng Mei greatly touched Lin Ming.
10 billion years ago, the ancient races had been inferior to the abyssals in strength, and yet they managed to survive and continue onwards.
When a race approached extinction, the hot-blooded bravery and faith that erupted from within them could be extremely terrifying, just like on New Ming Planet when Lin Ming saw 100 thousand starving citizens not reaching for food if it meant giving up their pride.
When a people were desperate and unafraid of death, their feelings would infect others much more easily. And once the hearts of trillions and quadrillions of martial artists gathered together, then even if facing an enemy ten times greater than they were, they could still fight!
Thinking of this, Lin Ming let out a heavy breath. For these past years he had felt a great pressure on his shoulders. Yet, he didn’t fight alone; he never had. The great calamity had arrived too quickly. Although he had yet to grow, he didn’t need to face the secret master of the Demon God’s Tomb alone.
He had comrades, friends, seniors, and countless similar martial artists who also fought to survive.
Looking at the expression on Lin Ming’s face and the faith and belief that lit up his eyes, Immortal Sovereign faintly smiled. He said, “Come with me.”
As Immortal Sovereign spoke, he turned to move towards the dark altars.
Lin Ming and Sheng Mei followed behind without question.
Immortal Sovereign stepped onto a dark altar, and Lin Ming and Sheng Mei followed onto it.
As Lin Ming stood atop this massive altar for the first time, he could see motley brown marks scattered over the top, the blood of countless beings that had sprinkled to the ground over the immeasurably long years.
Atop the altar was also that seemingly eternally unchanging demon relief. The exposed demon patterns and demon’s body also seemed particularly ferocious.
Immortal Sovereign arrived at the center of the dark altar before stopping.
“Senior, you are…?” Lin Ming asked, a bit perplexed. He had always been vigilant against this altar. He could feel a rich and deep infernal energy from it; countless heaven-gifted elites had died here over the years!
Immortal Sovereign turned around and looked at Lin Ming and Sheng Mei. A kind smile appeared on his face. “The original reason you came to the Demon God’s Tomb was for this abyssal ritual, wasn’t it? Since you’ve come this far, of course you shouldn’t miss out.”
“Senior, what do you mean?”
Lin Ming was surprised. The abyssal ritual was supposedly nothing but a great trap. Could Immortal Sovereign have a way of avoiding the dangers of the trap?
Immortal Sovereign said, “With me managing the abyssal ritual, there is nothing for you to worry about. I will erase that old fellow’s divine sense for you!”
Listening to Immortal Sovereign’s words, Lin Ming was bewildered. Even after having been dead for so many years, Immortal Sovereign still possessed such abilities?
Immortal Sovereign was able to see through Lin Ming’s thoughts. He chuckled. “There is no need for you to be so surprised. The strength of the world that is in the Emperor Bone Sea was left behind by me as well as the countless ancient powerhouses that perished here. The strength of this world is originally our strength, and the reason that old freak is able to control the strength of this world is because he uses an array formation as well as these 363 demon pagodas! During my 10 billion year stay here, I managed to perceive some of the Laws, so it’s normal for me to take control of this strength that belonged to me to begin with…
“In truth, that old dog has never been able to fully control the Emperor Bone Sea. Besides me that died here, there are also elites of the 33 Heavens and ancient demon race demon emperors. None of these people were weak before their deaths, and even the weakest amongst them was at the upper True Divinity level. So, how could these existences ever willingly resign themselves to being imprisoned here and becoming nourishment for the Demon God’s Tomb? If that old freak ever manages to somehow grasp complete control over the Emperor Bone Sea, then perhaps he will truly fulfill his ambitions of becoming immortal and everlasting.”
Listening to Immortal Sovereign’s words, Lin Ming became aware of what was occurring. That’s right, the hidden manipulator of the Demon God’s Tomb had plotted and schemed for the last 100 billion years, committing countless sins to conceal the true goal of the Demon God’s Tomb. This secret manipulator had concocted all sorts of lies and rumors to imprison hundreds of ancient great emperors in the demon pagodas.
How could these great emperors willingly allow themselves to be used by others?
If these hundreds of peerless characters joined forces, then even if the secret manipulator of the Demon God’s Tomb had all sorts of array formations and magic tools at his disposal, wanting to fully control this Emperor Bone Sea still wouldn’t be easy!
Lin Ming recalled when he first entered the Emperor Bone Sea. He remembered those manic voices and the remnant demon souls wildly hurling themselves against the front gates of the demon pagodas, causing them to violently tremble.
It was clear that every day was agonizingly painful for these remnant souls!
In truth, this also made sense. Due to the functions of the special Laws that existed here, these ancient great emperors remained alive in perpetuity within the demon pagodas, and could even continue onwards for at least dozens upon dozens of billions of years if not longer. Yet, for all this time they were imprisoned in the demon pagodas that were nothing but tiny cages. No matter how firm their will was and no matter how determined they were, it was also difficult for them to withstand this endless loneliness that seemed as if it would never end.
Such long suffering could make one go crazy!
Lin Ming asked, “The ‘old fellow’ that Senior speaks of… is that the creator of the Demon God’s Tomb, the Demon God?”
Lin Ming long since had this guess in his mind. Now, it seems that the Soul Emperor was the secret manipulator behind the Demon God’s Tomb. This was the most reasonable guess and the guess that made the most sense.
But whether or not the Soul Emperor was the Demon God who created the Demon God’s Tomb in the past was still an unknown.
If the Soul Emperor was the Demon God, then that was truly terrifying. If so, then when the Soul Emperor created the Demon God’s Tomb in the past, he already had the ambition of fulfilling his goal of immortal life!
The Demon God’s Tomb had not only helped the ancient demon race survive the great Shattering, but it was also used for the Demon God to realize his ambitions of immortality. If so, then this plot that was laid out for at least 150 billion years was truly a great conspiracy. Just thinking about it left one shuddering.
However, facing this question, Immortal Sovereign actually lightly shook his head. “You ask me this, but even I do not know…
“For all these years, with my understanding of the Demon God’s Tomb, what I feel is the most likely truth is that when the Demon God’s Tomb was first established, its true and original goal was to withstand the Shattering. But afterwards, the nature of the Demon God’s Tomb changed. As for the secret manipulator that made use of the Demon God’s Tomb, it could be the Demon God, a descendant of the Demon God, or even some incredibly fierce and ambitious existence that appeared after some time in the Dark Abyss…
“As for the greatest possibility, I believe that the so-called ‘secret manipulator’ is actually a spiritual wisdom birthed from the infinite years of evolution of the Demon God’s Tomb…”
As the Immortal Sovereign said this final possibility, Lin Ming’s heart chilled.
A world had evolved its own spiritual wisdom, and this spiritual wisdom wanted to exist forever, to become the ruler of the universe, to have all life forms in existence become its slaves?
This sounded unbelievable, but upon further thinking about it, there was such a possibility!
The Demon God’s Tomb was a special world designed to survive the great Shattering of the universe. This was originally something that violated the Heavenly Dao.
So, if everything defied the Heavenly Dao to begin with, what was strange about a world producing its own spiritual wisdom and wanting to enslave all of creation?
If this were true, then the evil bone that he found from the underground mystic realm could be explained. Lin Ming’s original assumption was that this evil bone was kept by the Soul Emperor in order to revive his mortal body. If so, this bone was incredibly important and it wouldn’t make sense for him to somehow stumble his way into obtaining it.
Now, it seemed that this bone was left behind by some ancient Beyond Divinity existence.
This evil bone was nourished in the Demon God’s Tomb array formation, and likely used to stabilize the array formation or to provide energy to the world of the Demon God’s Tomb.
Most of the arrangements and rules in the Demon God’s Tomb were to nourish the world itself, because the Soul Emperor was likely the spirit of the world!
“No wonder the Soul Emperor wanted to obtain my Eternal Soul… because he is a soul form to begin with, and the Eternal Soul might be able to help him consolidate his soul form until he reaches immortality. Like this, his control of the remnant souls of the ancient emperors in the Demon God’s Tomb will become that much greater over time!”
Lin Ming felt his thoughts become increasingly clear. But, understanding these things didn’t have much meaning. In fact, even knowing the origin of the Soul Emperor wasn’t too significant.
All he needed to know was that… only by defeating this old freak could the races of the 33 Heavens, as well as himself and everyone he knew of, possibly survive!
Lin Ming said, “Senior might not know, but that old freak has already seized the body of the 33 Heavens’ Soul Emperor, and is now the leader of the spiritas. And, the spiritas are one of the largest races in the 33 Heavens. That old fellow has already infiltrated his way into the 33 Heavens and has even trained many minions for his own use. Even that Deep Child that Senior killed just now was one of them. And, junior feels deeply ashamed, but even when facing a mere dog that was raised, I still didn’t have the strength to fight back…”
Immortal Sovereign thought little of it. “The abyssal I killed just now had used some sort of contract to borrow that old fellow’s ability to control the strength of the world here. For you to lose to him in this world is reasonable.
“And, my ability to control the strength of this world is superior to that abyssal’s, so killing him was easy for me.
“This is why you must remember that in the future, never fight that old fellow in the Demon God’s Tomb! Here, he is no different from a divine god. Only by us several hundred ancient remnant souls combining can we contend with him for a brief moment! The only exception is… if you possess the ability to rip apart the world of the Demon God’s Tomb. If so, you can break the foundation of that old fellow’s strength!”
Rip apart the world of the Demon God’s Tomb?
Lin Ming was dazed. This was a world that even the great Shattering was unable to destroy. Wasn’t wanting to rip it apart easier said than done?