Martial World (Web Novel)

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The Great Elder looked at Lin Ming and slowly said, “If you wish to enter the arena with the Book of Eon, then you must obtain approval from Deep King Road. First we will hide the news about the reappearance of the Book of Eon and wait until you obtain enough status in Deep King Road so your words have sufficient power. Only then will there be a situation where we can pay a certain price in exchange for you being able to enter the Demon God’s Tomb with the Book of Eon, and like this you will be able to live just that much longer.”

The Great Elder’s words carried with them a mocking tone, but Lin Ming didn’t care. Lin Ming gently smiled and asked, “How do I obtain sufficient status and authority? By strength?”

“It’s not just strength, but also your background. Just your background as an Elder of the Ancient Eon Sect will be meaningless to Deep King Road.

“If you can’t obtain more background and gain the approval of Deep King Road… then things will be different. And amongst the six totem level influences there has always been a custom, which is rules of marriage. The targets of these marriages are the young Elders of the various sects, the chief disciples, or even the Holy Demonesses.”

“Marriage?”

Lin Ming felt the hairs all over his body stand on end.

Marriage was a matter that didn’t bring any laughter to Lin Ming. Moreover, he already had wives. And even if he didn’t… he simply couldn’t imagine taking in a towering abyssal as his wife. That sort of image wasn’t one he wanted to imagine…

Amongst the abyssal demons, there were species of abyssals such as succubus demons that conformed to Lin Ming’s aesthetic taste and were similar to humans in appearance. But in most cases, a succubus demon had ordinary talent so it was difficult for any masters to be cultivated from their ranks. To expect someone like a succubus demon to become the Holy Demoness of Deep King Road wasn’t realistic at all.

And besides succubus demons, the vast majority of female abyssals were simply too horrifying to look at.

“What you mean is that you want me to go to Deep King Road to marry?”

Lin Ming suppressed the weird feeling surging in his heart, his complexion ugly.

“That’s right, is there a problem with it? The six great totem level influences are divided into two camps, and on one side stands our Ancient Eon Sect, Deep King Road, and Nine Nether Palace. Those that are hostile to us are on the other side. And since we are all in the same camp it’s natural for us to have methods for maintaining our relations, and one of the most commonly used methods is marriage.

“Of course, whether it is Holy Demonesses, chief disciples, or young Elders, they all have high statuses thus marriage requires both sides to agree. In the past many young Elders of Nine Nether Palace wished to marry Deep King Road’s Holy Demoness, but they were all rejected. Afterwards, because Deep King Road’s Holy Demoness thought the matter was too tiresome, she came up with a rule, and that was that anyone who wished to marry her must surpass her, otherwise it would be impossible.

“Unfortunately her talent was far too great. Many abyssals that challenged here were all heaven-gifted geniuses of their generation, but none of them were able to surpass her. For instance, even the one with the greatest potential in Nine Nether Palace, the Nine Nether Son, was defeated in a single move… But since you have the confidence to hold the Book of Eon and enter the Demon God’s Tomb with an Empyrean cultivation, then I believe you should also be confident in your strength. Moreover, I discovered that there are some aspects of you that aren’t simple at all! Whether it was when I used my True Divinity level aura to probe you or the changes you underwent after perceiving Eon’s Laws, everything allowed me to see how extraordinary you are.”

The Great Elder’s words left Lin Ming speechless. It seemed that this Holy Demoness was in high demand, but no matter how others struggled for her, he simply couldn’t accept marrying an abyssal woman.

The Great Elder’s voice remained calm and unhurried. “Deep King Road’s current Holy Demoness also has an Empyrean cultivation, one similar to your own. If you can defeat her and marry her then that will be a great deed for my Ancient Eon Sect! This is because this in the future the current Holy Demoness will have great accomplishments.”

To outsiders, the Great Elder’s words really did sound as if he truly hoped for Lin Ming to win and for him to bring a great lucky chance to the Ancient Eon Sect.

However, Lin Ming clearly lacked any interest at all.

The Great Elder smiled. “You seem opposed to this Holy Demoness, but that is only because you haven’t seen her yet. Once you see her you will change your mind. She is truly a perfect Demoness…”

The Great Elder giving such an evaluation startled Lin Ming. If this Great Elder was able to become a middle True Divinity, he naturally had his own strengths, and for someone to obtain the evaluation of ‘perfect’ from him likely wasn’t ordinary at all.

“The truth is that even if you cannot accept this marriage, all you need is the relationship of a marriage with her. Even if you manage to defeat the Holy Demoness and marry her, you likely won’t be able to truly touch her or dual cultivate with her. She is a strange demoness, one that is cold and icy to all. So, even if you don’t wish to marry her, you can rest assured that this is only a title, a marriage in name only. Moreover, if you don’t do this then it will be impossible for you to enter the Demon God’s Tomb with the Book of Eon.”

The Great Elder thoughtfully said. Lin Ming faintly felt that this Great Elder seemed to always be trying to persuade him to agree to this. There were likely other ideas at play here…

Lin Ming looked at the Great Elder and still didn’t reply. But, he believed that some of the Great Elder’s words weren’t false. That was, if he didn’t use some special methods then it truly wouldn’t be likely for him to enter the Demon God’s Tomb with the Book of Eon.

Seeing Lin Ming deep in thought, the Great Elder suddenly waved his hand and a red light appeared in his palm. He reached out towards Lin Ming.

Lin Ming took this red light in his hands; this was a scroll.

“Just take a look! This is her, a portrait of her!”

As the Great Elder’s voice fell, the portrait clattered and scrolled open. A woman appeared from the portrait and stood in the void.

This was no longer simply a portrait, but a complete projection of a woman, one that was no different from their true self.

Seeing this woman, Lin Ming was utterly shocked.

This projection of a woman was completely different from the image of an abyssal that he had in his mind. It wasn’t even a succubus demon, because this woman had no tail and no horns.

She actually… appeared like the intelligent life forms of the 33 Heavens!

She wore a black dress that flowed like water and her upper body was covered in exquisite black armor. Her profile was tall and proud, and at the ribs of her armor, there were many hollows that revealed her sparkling jade-smooth skin…

Her face was as beautiful as a bright moon. And atop her forehead covered by her long hair, there was clearly a mark formed by flower petals.

There just happened to be nine of these flower petals!

This woman, whether it was in body, appearance, or the flower petal mark on her forehead, she was completely similar to Sheng Mei!

How was this possible!?

Lin Ming was bewildered. When he first entered the Dark Abyss he had seen a crystalline skeleton, a skeleton that seemed as if it might have been left behind by Sheng Mei’s previous life from 10 billion years ago.

This had become a puzzle that Lin Ming couldn’t work out. He had no idea just how Sheng Mei from the spiritas of the 33 Heavens was related to this woman’s skeleton.

But no matter what, if he had to brute force some far-fetched explanation then things might make sense.

But now Lin Ming saw Sheng Mei in the Dark Abyss’s 17th layer once more. Moreover, she was actually the Holy Demoness of Deep King Road. This simply completely subverted all ideas that Lin Ming had of abyssals!

Just what was going on here!?

Looking at this Sheng Mei with the nine flower petals between her eyebrows, she looked completely similar to the Sheng Mei of the past. But the Sheng Mei he saw among the spiritas didn’t have such flower petals.

However, this point didn’t prove anything. Could these be flower petals that only appeared after Sheng Mei completed the ninth revolution of the Grand Reincarnation Art?

Lin Ming couldn’t confirm that Deep King Road’s Sheng Mei was the same person as the spiritas Sheng Mei.

If this were true, Lin Ming couldn’t figure out just how the spiritas’ Soul Empress could simultaneously be Deep King Road’s Holy Demoness. This was completely unreasonable.

But if this weren’t true, then there could be one explanation, and that was if the spiritas’ Sheng Mei cultivated the Laws of the 33 Heavens and the abyssal Sheng Mei cultivation the abyssal Laws, could it be that the mysterious woman from 10 billion years ago had reincarnated into the present age in two different Sheng Meis?

Lin Ming pondered this just for an explanation. However, his instinct told him that this wasn’t right, because this explanation was far too forced in too many places. For instance, how could the ancient race Sheng Mei have reincarnated into an abyssal?

As Lin Ming looked upon Sheng Mei’s projection, he was left in a daze.

And this daze was naturally seen by the several Elders of the Ancient Eon Sect.

A young abyssal Elder’s eyes flashed with obvious disdain. He was one of the three young Elders who would enter the Demon God’s Tomb.

“I originally thought that although he was a fool that wanted to commit suicide by entering the Demon God’s Tomb, he still had some ability in terms of strength. But, I never thought that he would be so mesmerized by Deep King Road’s Holy Demoness. Just by that portrait being taken out he’s already turned into an idiot. Has he never seen a beautiful demoness before?”

This Elder contemptuously said with a sound transmission. In truth, abyssal demons had an extremely strange aesthetic sense. Not only did they accept the majestic and fierce abyssal women, but they even accepted the gentle and beautiful women like those of the ancient races or succubus demons.

Sheng Mei certainly belonged to the latter.

“It’s useless no matter how much he stares. He’s nothing but a toad wanting to eat swan meat. The Great Elder is indeed wise. This fellow didn’t even know that Deep hasn’t appeared for billions of years. It seems he has no understanding of totem level influences so he naturally wouldn’t know that Deep King Road’s Holy Demoness is colder than a hundred million year old glacier and even higher and loftier than the stars in the skies. When she suggested that she would only marry someone who could exceed her in strength at the same cultivation level, she was simply digging a pit so everyone could jump in. She just wanted all those higher abyssals who wished to win her over to lose all heart at doing so.”

“There simply isn’t anyone capable of defeating her at the same boundary. Moreover… everyone knows the rules. Those that wish to defeat her, touch her, dual cultivate with her, all those higher abyssals that tried have been severely wounded by her, and some of them were nearly crippled! However, because Deep King Road is so strong no one dares to say anything. After all, those upper abyssals originally all thought that the Holy Demoness was just a woman so she would be easy to deal with.”

“Hahaha! That’s right. The reason that Holy Demoness was so ruthless in her actions was because she wanted to inform all the other higher abyssals not to bother with her unless they wanted to suffer the same fate! Now, it’s already been 300-500 years since anyone has dared to have designs on Deep King Road’s Holy Demoness. The Great Elder is truly killing someone without whetting his blade with a single drop of blood! As long as this boy is mercilessly beaten up it will be impossible for him to enter the Demon God’s Tomb.”