Chapter 2174 – The Dark Altar
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The various clues and traces spread throughout the Demon God’s Tomb caused Lin Ming to form all sorts of suspicions in his mind. As for whether any of his suspicions were true, he would have to see with his own eyes to find out.
But at this time, Lin Ming discovered that Sheng Mei had slowed her pace. He turned to see Sheng Mei with a strange look on her face.
“Mm? Are you alright?”
Sheng Mei’s actions left Lin Ming startled. Although this underground graveyard was filled with an emperor force field and soul pressure, with her cultivation she should be more than able to withstand it.
“Something is… strange. I thought that my spiritual sea was touched by something just now, as if something was summoning me… but as I tried to feel it more carefully, I couldn’t find anything at all…”
Sheng Mei grasped her chest, carefully spreading her sense all around her. Yet, that feeling had already disappeared.
When her spiritual sea had been touched, it was an extremely light touch. But, Sheng Mei’s soul force was already powerful to an incredible degree, so it was impossible for her to mistake this feeling. It truly had occurred.
“Something touched your spiritual sea?” Lin Ming said, surprised. He couldn’t figure out a reason either.
“It’s fine. Let’s continue onwards. If I have this feeling again, I should be able to understand more things about it.”
As Sheng Mei spoke, the fog in front of them began to gently shake. The fog separated and a dark figure slowly appeared. This was an octopus-like monster with thick six limbs, and a soft and wet body that was covered in green spots.
“Awo!”
The monster let out a thunderous roar to reveal rows of sharp and dense fangs. “More living beings! There were several that came before but I didn’t manage to catch any of them. Now, you are all mine!”
The monster spoke in the ancient abyssal language. Its grotesque green eyes stared straight at Sheng Mei as drool began leaking out of its jaws. “A woman with a pure bloodline, the best type of food, hahaha!”
The monster cackled and threw itself onto Lin Ming and Sheng Mei.
Lin Ming’s complexion turned icy cold. He took a step forwards and thrust out the Black Dragon Spear.
Peng!
Lin Ming’s strength surged and a wild explosion formed atop the tip of the Black Dragon Spear. The surrounding fog began to stir about like a storm.
The green tentacle demon cried out in pain. It was struck away by Lin Ming’s immense strength and one of its tentacles was severed!
The monster was frightened. It never thought that Lin Ming who only had an Empyrean level cultivation would actually possess such horrifying strength.
It was now afraid. Then, it turned around and fled.
But Lin Ming didn’t give it a chance to escape. He stepped forwards, his body moving like ghosts and gods as he instantly appeared in front of the demon.
Ca!
The Black Dragon Spear slashed downwards. Like a scythe, the unstoppable blood red spear light sundered the monster in half!
Puff!
Blood rained down. This blood was extremely thick and nearly pitch black in color, like the blood that was in the ancient bronze coffin after having been sealed away for countless years.
As the black blood splashed out, a wisp of remnant soul rose up, seeming to want to escape.
Lin Ming’s fist came crashing out.
The remnant soul blew apart and turned into power of demon gods that began slowly dissipating. Lin Ming waved his hand, summoning the Swallowing Laws to completely absorb the strength of this remnant soul.
In these past years, Lin Ming had absorbed a great deal of the power of demon gods. It was enough for him to reach the limits of an Empyrean.
However, having sufficient energy was only one part of the equation; he needed enough time to digest it. Lin Ming needed to go into seclusion for several dozen years in order to steadily break into the Empyrean limit.
But, he didn’t have the time.
“Perhaps that monster just now was formed from the bloody infernal energy here and the remnant soul of some ancient demon emperor.” Lin Ming put away the Black Dragon Spear and glanced at the black blood that was scattered over the ground.
Although the emperors of the ancient demon race were powerful, after having devolved into such a bizarre blood monster, their strength was only comparably to the weakest of True Divinities.
“Let’s continue. I wonder if we will meet any living True Divinities from the Flood Alliance or Deep Alliance here…”
Upon mentioning the Empyrean level abyssals of the Deep Alliance that died, Sheng Mei felt the dark clouds in her heart become thicker and heavier. Even now, she and Lin Ming still couldn’t figure out why all those abyssals had died.
As they moved forwards, they encountered several more blood monsters along the way. These monsters all possessed the remnant souls of ancient demons.
It seemed that within the Emperor Bone Sea, only the most powerful demons were sealed away in the black pagodas. The weaker ones were scattered out in all directions and some of them eventually formed these corpse devils.
Lin Ming and Sheng Mei were a union of strength upon strength; they were an irresistible force as they moved forwards.
They didn’t know how far they walked forwards, but at some time, a great muddy yellow river appeared in front of them.
The river roiled with great billowing waves, and yet it didn’t make a single sound of splashing water. With such a macabre deathly silence, this strange feeling caused Lin Ming and Sheng Mei to pause their step.
This vast deathly still river reminded Lin Ming of the fabled Yellow Springs River.
The road between the demon pagodas traversed the river, like a black and red rainbow.
Lin Ming and Sheng Mei stepped atop the river, flying beneath the rainbow. The river waters were dark yellow, and seemed as if they would dissolve any flesh and blood that fell in.
Lin Ming and Sheng Mei didn’t know how long they flew for, but eventually they passed the river to reach the opposite shore.
In the legends of the mortal worlds, the other shore of the Yellow Springs River was filled with life and vibrant colors, flowers of all hues. Yet here, the other side of the river was still barren desolateness.
“There’s something in front of us…”
Sheng Mei’s heart stirred and she sent Lin Ming a sound transmission.
Lin Ming narrowed his eyes. Through the light gray fog, he could see vague shadows at the end of his field of vision.
As he probed further with his sense, he could make out a black altar.
And not too far away from the black altar were five similar altars.
The six altars formed a six-sided star, and each altar was at the end of one of the star’s points.
And around these altars stood three demon pagodas.
The demon pagodas were arranged in a zigzagging pattern around the black altars; all extremely far from each other.
These demon pagodas were all taller than ones Lin Ming had seen before. Along the way here, the demon pagodas that Lin Ming saw had 12 levels, 15 levels, and 18 levels was already the limit.
But the demon pagodas in front of him each had 30 levels or above.
Respectively, these three pagodas had 30 levels, 33 levels, and 36 levels.
The black gates at the base of the demon pagodas were also much larger. At the same time, the gates were also engraved with demon reliefs.
Although the design of the reliefs was similar, the engravings were clearly filled with a much greater power. Just by looking at them, one felt as if their souls would be swallowed, as if the demon reliefs were all alive.
Would ancient demon emperors also be buried in these three exceedingly tall pagodas?
It should be… the Master of the Demon God’s Tomb that was buried here, right…?
If the height of a pagoda was proportional to the strength of the demon sealed within, then the taller the pagoda, the more powerful the demon was. If so, then these three demon pagodas were on a whole different level from the hundreds of demon pagodas he had seen on his way here.
To suddenly increased by over 10 levels, these new pagodas were almost twice the height of the previous ones.
If so, then was it possible that those hundreds of pagodas he saw before had entombed ancient True Divinity level demon emperors from a span of 100 billion years? And as for these three exceedingly tall pagodas, they actually contained existences Beyond Divinity?
The Dark Abyss had a history of 100 billion years. If it was said that three Beyond Divinity level abyssals were born at some time, then Lin Ming wouldn’t be surprised, and instead think that this number wasn’t high at all. After all, the primal god race had produced two Beyond Divinity level existences.
“Lin Ming…” Sheng Mei stared at these altars and the high pagodas. She said in a soft sound transmission, “When we came to these altars, I felt that summoning feeling appear again…”
“Oh?”
Lin Ming’s thoughts stirred. If it was as he thought, then these six altars were where the abyssal ritual took place. The six altars each separately represented the six ceremonial rites books!
The abyssals that flocked to the Demon God’s Tomb all dreamed that they could one day pass the abyssal ritual and become totem level abyssals.
Lin Ming’s original plan here was to carry out the abyssal ritual. But today, as he stood in front of these six altars and looked upon the dark black sacrificial blood on the altars and the enormous amount of infernal blood energy contained within, he began to hesitate.
He and Sheng Mei had brought the three ceremonial rites books to this final step; it seemed as if their decision to continue was already made for them. After all, whether it was Lin Ming or Sheng Mei, they were each confident that they could pass the abyssal ritual. If they couldn’t pass this test, then there was likely no other abyssal that could.
However, obtaining everything like this seemed far too simple. And with all the ominously foreboding scenes they saw before this, Lin Ming and Sheng Mei naturally wouldn’t recklessly rush onto an altar.
Sheng Mei’s inexplicable feeling and the beating of the Magic Cube caused Lin Ming to raise his guard.
As he sensed the Magic Cube in his inner world, he could feel it faintly vibrating. But along the way, he still hadn’t discovered any reason for why the Magic Cube could be excited and start to throb.
“We’ve come this far and yet haven’t run into another True Divinity level abyssal…”
Lin Ming said, his voice grim. Had these abyssals all died off? If so, then how had they died?
Where had Deep Child gone?
That mysterious and unfathomable abyssal had always aroused a sense of dread in Lin Ming. Even that incredibly haughty and prideful Great Flood Crown Prince was afraid of Deep Child.
Yet, this sort of abyssal had vanished upon entering the Demon God’s Tomb.
Lin Ming hadn’t seen him in the underground cavern and he didn’t even have a ceremonial rites books. So, where could he have gone?
If someone told him that Deep Child perished somewhere, Lin Ming wouldn’t believe them at all.
Lin Ming even thought that Deep Child had some connection to the Soul Emperor.
“What should we do?” Sheng Mei said, a bit unsure. The various signs they had seen in the Demon God’s Tomb indicated that everything they did was wrapped up in some terrifying plot.
But they had still come here. As the arrival of the apocalypse was descending upon them, they were pushed to this position and could no longer avoid it. They could only welcome these plots and face them head-on.
Lin Ming thought for a moment. At this time, he still couldn’t decide.
As he was lost in his thoughts, a gentle and scholarly voice echoed out from behind them. “You two have already come this far, so how come you haven’t gone up?”
Lin Ming’s mind chilled. He flipped around, the Black Dragon Spear crying as it soared out!
