…

…

…

As this voice suddenly echoed out, whether it was Lin Ming or Sheng Mei, both clearly remembered who it was.

This voice came from… Deep Child!

Lin Ming turned around, his Black Dragon Spear slanted in front of him. A towering purple-armored abyssal flew high in the air a hundred feet away, his hands clasped in front of him, looking down at Lin Ming and Sheng Mei from a commanding position.

Deep Child’s voice was soothing and magnetic, not seeming like that of an abyssal at all but instead of a modest and well-mannered gentleman from a race of the 33 Heavens. After hearing it, one even felt that this was a comfortable voice.

“Black Flood hasn’t come. Then, he was eliminated by you two?” Deep Child looked at Lin Ming and Sheng Mei, his gaze filled with meaning.

Listening to these words, Lin Ming’s complexion darkened. This Deep Child had already guessed that he and Sheng Mei had killed off the Great Flood Crown Prince!

The truth was that this wasn’t worth mentioning at all. Rather, the key point was that Deep Child was completely calm and poised as he made this guess, as if it were a trivial matter. In other words, this meant that Deep Child’s strength far outstripped that of the Great Flood Crown Prince!

At that time when they killed the Great Flood Crown Prince, it had been Lin Ming giving it his all with Sheng Mei supporting him in order to display the full might of the nine revolution red lotus. However, when facing Deep Child, Lin Ming lacked confidence that he would emerge victorious.

“Ninth Elder, could you put your spear away?”

Deep Child said with a smile. He continued, “As well as junior-apprentice Sister here, how come even you took out your sword? From what I remember, your relationship with the Ninth Elder isn’t too good. That’s right, weren’t you extremely resistant to this forced marriage? And now you’re suddenly standing on the same side as him and pointing a sword at me without hesitation. Could it be possible that you and the Ninth Elder have developed secret feelings for each other during these years in the Demon God’s Tomb, and have even dual cultivated with each other?”

Deep Child’s voice carried a light taunting tone. However, this mockery didn’t cause any ripples in Sheng Mei’s expression. Instead, she inwardly let out a light sigh of relief. From what Deep Child was saying, he didn’t seem to know of Lin Ming’s true identity.

“Could it be that… you are afraid that your senior-apprentice brother will steal away your ceremonial rites book?”

Deep Child stepped forwards, one foot at a time. He slowly reached out a hand as if he wanted to push away Sheng Mei’s sword.

Seeing Deep Child’s hand reach out, Sheng Mei swiveled her bone sword and brought it up. The sword point shined with a cold light, forcing Deep Child’s hand back. “If you want the ceremonial rites book so much then I’ll give it to you!”

From beginning to end, ever since Deep Child entered the Demon God’s Tomb he hadn’t fought for the ceremonial rites books.

Sheng Mei was well aware that Deep Child was one of the Soul Emperor’s trusted subordinates and the Soul Emperor trusted him even more than herself. If he had wanted to compete for the qualifications to bring in the ceremonial rites book, then the one who brought the Book of Evil here might not necessarily have been her.

Moreover, in the Demon God’s Tomb, besides her Book of Evil, there was also Lin Ming’s Book of Eon and the Great Flood Crown Prince’s Book of Nether.

Deep Child didn’t seem to have any interest in these two ceremonial rites books either. After he entered the Demon God’s Tomb, he seemed to have vanished without a trace, no one knowing where he went.

With all these strange clues floating around, how could Sheng Mei not suspect him?

As Sheng Mei spoke, she simply took out the Book of Evil without hesitation. Then, without even a glance, she tossed it towards Deep Child.

Woosh!

Sheng Mei poured a massive amount of energy into the ancient Book of Evil. It flew towards Deep Child like a falling star.

“Heh!”

Deep Child smiled. He reached out a hand and a highly compressed force field appeared in his palm. With a faint humming, the rapidly flying Book of Evil seemed to encounter tremendous resistance, its speed rapidly dropping. Then, it completely stopped and lightly dropped into Deep Child’s palm.

“Junior-apprentice Sister, you’re still as overbearing as usual.” Deep Child didn’t seem to care much at all. He took the Book of Evil and casually flipped open its pages, reading it like a mortal reading a novel. “This is such a precious treasure and yet Junior-apprentice Sister doesn’t seem to want it, and gave it to me so easily…”

Sheng Mei didn’t respond. She wanted to see what Deep Child would do next, and whether or not he would step onto the dark altar and accept the baptism of the abyssal ritual.

Not to mention that Sheng Mei still didn’t know if the abyssal ritual was a trap or not, she needed to ascertain whether someone needed a protector if they chose to undergo the baptism of the abyssal ritual.

Otherwise, while one was undergoing the abyssal ritual, what would happen if one suffered an attack in whatever unknown state they would be in?

They might reverse their meridians, causing the abyssal ritual to instantly fail. If that occurred, would they just immediately die?

With all of these uncertain circumstances, how could Sheng Mei and Lin Ming possibly carry on the abyssal ritual with Deep Child present?

If there really wasn’t a problem with anything, then Lin Ming still had two ceremonial rites books with him. So, losing the Book of Evil was an acceptable loss.

“It looks like Junior-apprentice Sister is extremely wary of me…”

Deep Child said. With the Book of Evil in his hands, he stepped onto the dark altar.

At this time, Lin Ming and Sheng Mei locked their sense onto every action and movement of Deep Child’s.

Deep Child stroDe into the center of the dark abyssal altar. he stretched out his hands before him and the Book of Evil slowly floated high into the air where it began spinning above his head.

The sinister and ancient Book of Evil opened, its pages flipping over one at a time. Layers of Law runes began to circle in the air, blooming with black and red lights.

Deep Child closed his eyes. His body floated high in the air, completely soaked in the light of the ancient book. His face was filled with intoxicated infatuation, as if he were enjoying the most pleasurable thing in the world.

And at this time, the ground beneath Lin Ming and Sheng Mei’s feet began to faintly shiver.

Bah!

A sudden shockwave erupted from Deep Child, blowing away towards all sides. For a time, the fog that permeated this mystic realm beneath the Emperor Bone Sea was shaken away by the shockwaves and turned into a pure power of demon gods that began converging towards the dark altar where Deep Child was.

The surroundings became clear after the fog dissipated. At this time, from the other end of the Yellow Springs River, three gray lights flew towards them. These three beams of light were like three divine bridges, crossing through the void of space and time to arrive above the dark altar.

Deep Child opened his mouth, completely swallowing up these three beams of light.

At this time, Lin Ming was able to clearly see the origin of these three beams of light. They came from three demon pagodas at the other side of the Yellow Springs River!

The light gathered at the peak of the demon pagodas, flowing down through it before finally shooting out from the mouths of the demon reliefs carved into the gates!

Lin Ming probed with his sense and discovered that the heights of these three demon pagodas were each 12 levels, 15 levels, and 15 levels…

As these lights were absorbed by Deep Child, his eyes turned ghostly purple. His voice was no longer pleasant and soothing, but now carried with it a dark and hostile tone.

“Hahaha! How comfortable! For so many years I have not been able to enjoy such strength!”

Deep Child’s words caused Lin Ming and Sheng Mei’s hearts to chill. He hadn’t enjoyed such strength for many years? Does that mean he enjoyed it before?

Pa pa pa!

Deep Child cracked his neck and his joints emitted explosive crackling sounds. In just several breaths of time, his mortal body began to steadily grow. He became taller and stronger and his muscles seemed as if they would explode with power.

“You don’t want to come up and give it a try?”

Deep Child licked his lips, his ghostly purple eyes aimed at Lin Ming and Sheng Mei.

Lin Ming frowned. “This is not the abyssal ritual! At least it isn’t the abyssal ritual described in the Demon God’s Tomb jade slip!”

According to the information in the Demon God’s Tomb jade slip, the abyssal ritual was incredibly risky, almost impossibly dangerous. Even if a peerless genius were to withstand the baptism of the abyssal ritual, they would still have nine chances of death and one chance of survival!

Although Lin Ming was confident he could pass the test, he believed that even if he underwent it, it wouldn’t be easy at all. He would even have to experience some sort of agonizing and inhuman pain.

But Deep Child seemed to be far too relaxed. Moreover, although Deep Child had activated the Book of Evil, the strength he absorbed hadn’t come from the Book of Evil. Lin Ming clearly felt that in that moment just now, Deep Child had revolved array formation runes in his body, and these array formation runes had drawn these three strengths towards him.

This caused Lin Ming to suspect that even without the Book of Evil, Deep Child could equally absorb this strength!

“Hehe, you are partially correct. This is indeed not the true abyssal ritual, but that doesn’t mean it is not related to the abyssal ritual. The so-called abyssal ritual is to step onto the altar and resist the baptism of energy from the numerous demon pagodas! Every demon pagoda has the remnant soul and corpse of an ancient demon race emperor sealed within. But… how could it be so easy to absorb the soul force and blood vitality of an ancient demon race emperor? Thus, when withstanding a baptism of energy from the demon pagodas, even a peerless genius will fail if their potential is lacking. Their foundation will break apart, their meridians will be torn to shreds, their organs and bones will all shatter and they will die!

“That is why the abyssal ritual has such a high mortality rate! But once someone passes it, they will be reborn anew, and slowly grow into one of the six great totem level abyssals!

“And whether it is the Great Flood Crown Prince or me, neither of us have the ability to withstand the abyssal ritual. The difference between us is that Black Flood is far too arrogant and prideful in himself, and lacks understanding into just how deep his skills are. He wanted to take the Book of Nether to the Emperor Bone Sea to commit suicide. But I, I know just how horrifying the abyssal ritual truly is. If I were to really undergo the abyssal ritual, then all that I would encounter is… death by explosion!

“The fate of death by explosion is to become a sacrificial offering to the Emperor Bone Sea. You will turn into strength that waters this land and space, causing the mystic realm that is the Emperor Bone Sea to become increasingly stable, and causing the 360 demon pagodas here to become that much more terrifying!

“I don’t have the ability, but you do! So come up! You will obtain the strength of a totem level abyssal! In the future you can further expand my Dark Abyss and trample over the 33 Heavens, laying waste to everyone before you! You can lift our abyssal race to become the only one in the universe, the masters of the universe!”