Martial World (Web Novel)

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Cardinal Sky World was one of the larger great worlds within Dreamsoul Heaven’s 3600 great worlds.

The main continent of Cardinal Sky World was an incredibly vast area, but most of the land here was covered by snow and ice at all times, similar to the Snowfall World within the Divine Realm.

Because of the snow that covered the entire world, many martial artists of Cardinal Sky World cultivated the power of ice. Of course, they were different from humans. Spiritas lived here and they communed with the Ice Laws through soul force. Moreover, their Ice Laws were used to supplement the effects of their soul attacks, making them strange and nearly impossible to defend against.

In Cardinal Sky World existed a large influence called Zenith Palace. Zenith Palace didn’t have many disciples, but they had produced extraordinary individuals since time immemorial and were a highly reputed sect.

At this time, at the outside edges of Zenith Palace, wind and snow drifted about, making the entire landscape misty. A group of Zenith Palace disciples were exploring an ice field. There were over 20 disciples; half of them were women and half were men.

The one in the lead was a white-browed old man. Beside him followed a peerless woman. She wore white clothes and her face was hooded by a veil. Her temperament was ethereal, like a blooming ice lotus.

“High Master, I don’t know if the previous intelligence was accurate… we’ve searched for several days already but haven’t found any traces of the hornless ice dragon.”

The bloodline of a hornless ice dragon was inferior to that of a True Dragon but it was still a peerless spirit beast. A hornless ice dragon was an absolutely important creature. If an influence could obtain it and raise it into their guardian God Beast, the advantages could be imagined.

The old man shook his head, “We’ve only been speculating. Several days ago, north of Zenith Palace, the power of space suddenly turned chaotic and the cold energy there increased, even affecting the land for 10,000 miles. The Palace Master has an extremely sharp sense. According to what we know, an existence that can stir the Space and Ice Laws as well as possess such momentum should likely be a hornless ice dragon…”

Seeing the woman still frowning with doubts as if this explanation didn’t seem too likely, the old man smiled and said, “This sort of lucky chance can only be found through a stroke of fate. Even if we do find the hornless ice dragon it’s not necessarily true that we can subdue it. This sort of spirit beast might not be willing to surrender itself to our sect, and if it doesn’t then that will be extremely troublesome.”

As the old man spoke, a disciple suddenly spoke up, “If we can’t subdue then we can kill it and use it for alchemy! The medicines produced from a spirit beast like a hornless ice dragon must surely be the most precious kinds!”

However, the disciple’s opinion caused the old man to maliciously glare at him, “You damned bastard idiot, do you know how much good fortune of the world has to gather and for destiny to accumulate over time for such a divine being to be bred? How could you dare think of killing it for alchemy? That will only draw disaster upon our sect!”

As the old man reprimanded, the disciple shrunk back, not saying a word.

Many martial artists possessed an incredible strength that could shake the heavens and earth, but they also held onto a firm faith of destiny, karma, and samsara. Many of these martial artists wouldn’t want to do something that could harm their own destiny.

“Look, the glacier in front of us has been destroyed again…”

The old man pointed at a glacier not too far away. This glacier had originally been massive but it had been sheared in half by something. The top had completely vanished.

This situation couldn’t be considered too amazing. The old man from Zenith Palace could easily accomplish this, but to encounter this same situation again and again for the entire surrounding 10,000 miles was out of the ordinary.

Just where would there be such a strong person that was so bored they would shear off the tops of a million glaciers for 10,000 miles just for fun? That would just be a great joke.

The veiled woman nodded. This didn’t resemble the actions of a martial artist, but a vicious beast experiencing heavenly tribulation, nirvana, or some other similar phenomena, and then leaving behind these traces during their furious struggle for survival.

As she was thinking this, not too far away a disciple cried out in alarm.

“Mm? Did you discover the trail of the hornless ice dragon?”

The sect Elder’s heart stirred. If the hornless ice dragon was present there would surely be some more movement than this. If they could just find a scale of the hornless ice dragon, that would be wonderful progress.

Everyone hurried over. All they saw was a female disciple that looked around 17-18 years old staring and pointing at a bulge in the snow. She said, “There’s someone buried there…”

“Person?”

The old man was disappointed upon hearing this. He shook his head with the peerless woman beside him. In the Great Desolate Glacier it was common to find the corpses of those who died here. It might be a mortal who had perished from the cold or starvation, or even a martial artist who fell here. Every year countless lives were lost within the Great Desolate Glacier, and many of them were forever buried beneath the snow, sealed for eternity.

“It's just a dead person. There’s no need to make such a fuss about it.”

Someone admonished the young girl who cried out in alarm.

The female disciple looked a bit aggrieved. She said, “I thought it was a corpse without any life force, but then I saw his finger move.”

“Mm? He’s still living?”

The old man was amazed. The veiled woman was also startled. She said, “Rescue him from there!”

Several disciples hastily dug out the snow, revealing a pale young man.

“It’s a young man, he looks around 20 years old and he really is alive..”

The veiled woman was astonished. The youth wasn’t breathing but his blood vitality was still running through him, and it didn’t seem weak either.

However, he seemed to have been injured by something so his state was a bit messy. It was impossible to see what his cultivation was.

“Bring him back to the spirit ship and give him some medicines. Whether or not he can continue living will depend on his good fortune.”

The veiled woman ordered. Then, she continued with the others to search for the hornless ice dragon.

Several days ago, the massive space storm that swept out for 10,000 miles had even changed the surrounding climate. In the eyes of Zenith Palace, even if it wasn’t a hornless ice dragon there should be some rare treasure being born.

Since they came here with such fanfare, they might as well return with some harvests.

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Several maids brought the freezing youth to a room. They acted according to the orders of the veiled woman and fed him medicines, attending to him with the utmost care.

“Miss and the Twelfth Elder are too kind to rescue this unknown person. Who knows if he is a good or bad person? Maybe he did something extremely evil and was only reaping the consequences of his actions.”

“That might be true, but why would our Zenith Palace fear any evil people? In the entire Cardinal Sky World there isn’t a single influence that dares to move against us…”

The two maids spoke. They were certainly annoyed at having to care for an unknown youth.

“Zenith Palace… Cardinal Sky World… this should be the Soul World…”

Lin Ming thought to himself.

The youth that Zenith Palace rescued was the recently arrived Lin Ming.

The truth was that for these last several days he had been lying in the snow and wind. Although it seemed as if he was in a coma, he knew what was happening around him with absolute clarity.

He also saw the scene of the old man and veiled woman ‘rescuing’ him.

In fact, without these people ‘rescuing’ him, he would have recovered in a few days anyways.

As Lin Ming recalled the space storms he encountered when travelling from the Divine Realm to the Soul World, he still felt a lingering sense of fear. That had been an utterly terrifying journey, one that had far surpassed anything Empyrean Divine Dream had estimated possible.

Otherwise Empyrean Divine Dream would never have allowed Lin Ming to take such a risk.

Not even Lin Ming had thought such dangers were possible.

Initially, Lin Ming was able to use his own strength to deal with the space storms; this wasn’t too difficult. Lin Ming’s cultivation of Laws was extraordinarily profound. He had already practiced using the least amount of energy possible to display the maximum effect.

However, the transmission array had decayed for far too long; it was already weakened to the point of ruin.

When Lin Ming was halfway through the transmission journey, the fallout of energy shockwaves had just happened to strike upon a weak point in the space channel.

Although these energy shockwaves weren’t too strong, them hitting a weak point caused a crack to appear in the space channel.

As this crack appeared, it was like the widening maw of a death god, leaving Lin Ming in a cold sweat.

With that, the space storms became even more crazy and fierce. This was the annihilation storm that existed in the gap between two universes. Once one was struck by it, flesh and blood would melt away and all things would be destroyed without even dust remaining.

Lin Ming had struggled with everything he had and was forced to use more and more strength. This caused the already cracked space channel to repeatedly expand!

Lin Ming hastened his speed. He had to rush out of the exit before the entire space channel collapsed.

But in the end, he hadn’t been able to make it in time. Just as Lin Ming was close to the exit, the entire space channel began to cave in on itself.

This caused Lin Ming to take desperate action. He summoned Primordius Heavenly Palace.

The summoning of Primordius Heavenly Palace meant the appearance of an Empyrean level strength. This caused the space channel to collapse even quicker. Although Lin Ming entered Primordius Heavenly Palace, the power of that horrifying space storm still gushed out from the space channel like a mighty torrent, wildly attacking the shields of Primordius Heavenly Palace and rapidly consuming its energy.

In the end, even the energy of the shields had been completely exhausted. Although Lin Ming was hidden within Primordius Heavenly Palace, he had to face the direct baptism of the space storm!

No matter how high Lin Ming’s cultivation was, having to withstand the strong astral winds that existed in the gap between two universes was impossible for him. He was swept out, receiving severe wounds that caused him to vomit blood and his meridians were also torn apart.

In the final moments, Lin Ming received the extremely damaged Primordius Heavenly Palace and then summoned Empyrean Thunder Punishment’s Temple of Marvels. Only with the Temple of Marvels’ final bastion of support was Lin Ming just barely able to make it out of the exit.

But at the end, even the Temple of Marvels had been depleted of energy and it also lost a great deal of its spirituality. It was clear from this just how terrifying the space storms that existed in the gap between two universes were.

This was a power that not even an Empyrean could contend with. Only a True Divinity could sacrifice a part of their cultivation and break through the barriers of the God Lamenting Wall.

When the energy of the Temple of Marvels was depleted, Lin Ming was heavily wounded yet again. He grit his teeth and broke into the Soul World. But when he entered the Soul World, a space storm spread out for 10,000 miles, causing destruction everywhere. A million glaciers had been blown apart and instantly evaporated. Luckily, no one had been in this part of the Great Desolate Glacier, otherwise countless lives would have been lost.

In one trip, the energy of two Empyrean spirit treasures had been used up. Without a long period of allowing them to repair and also supplying them with energy, these two Empyrean spirit treasures wouldn’t be able to be used for some time.

But this wasn’t a problem at all. These spirit treasures could be slowly nourished back to their original state. The crux of the problem here was that Lin Ming had received heavy wounds.

This left Lin Ming feeling bitter. His adventure to the Soul World hadn’t gotten off to a good start…