Chapter 2230 – Changes

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The truth was that 10,000 years ago before the great catastrophe arrived, whether it was humans or saints, they slacked on their cultivation after reaching the Empyrean realm.

The first reason was because the Empyrean realm was far too distant from the True Divinity realm. Even if they cultivated diligently their efforts were likely to come to nothing.

The second reason was because their resources and inheritances were lacking. 10 billion years ago when the martial arts civilization of the 33 Heavens was at its most glorious and prosperous times, it was far less difficult for an Empyrean to reach True Divinity, and many True Divinity influences would help those with potential complete this final step as long as they put in their due diligence.

But afterwards, when the various races of the 33 Heavens fell into steep decline, the total number of True Divinities within the 33 Heavens could be counted on two hands and this was divided amongst the different races. In this situation, if an Empyrean wished to cultivate to True Divinity they would basically have to rely on themselves, and no matter how much effort they put in, their work wouldn’t come to fruition.

But the present was different. Around the Amethyst Heavenly Palace, there was the personal teachings of Ink and Clear. Moreover, in these past years all of the Asura Road Master’s accumulated resources, everything that the previous guardians of the Asura Road had collected, it was all taken out without reserve for the many Empyreans and True Divinities to use.

There was no need to speak of cultivation method inheritances. Not to mention the vast accumulation of inheritances gathered in the Asura Road, the various human and saint influences also put forth their own inheritances so that everyone could share and exchange.

Inheritances were indeed precious, if one’s race didn’t even exist, what was the point of defending these inheritances so fastidiously?

With all of these factors added together, the martial artists of humanity and the saints began to cultivate with an unprecedented level of heated enthusiasm. Naturally, their cultivation speed also rose by a great deal. There were even some outstanding individuals who had high hopes of breaking into True Divinity.

This was the True Divinity boundary! Once, it had been nothing but a wistful dream that that could only look on from afar, but now that they realized they could break through these shackles and attain it themselves, how could they not be excited?

As the human and saint race Empyreans put forth their full hearts and minds into cultivation, Jiu’er had already ridden the great Black Dragon into the skies above the Great Desolate.

Jiu’er held onto the Black Dragon’s neck. Facing the howling desert winds, her long black hair flew about her like strands of silk.

The blood red glow from the sun covered her skin like an intoxicating blush. But beneath that blush, her delicate face was filled with a grim and hardened determination.

“Little Black, fly into the deeps!” Jiu’er shouted out loud.

Ao - !

The Black Dragon roared. Its two wings stretched out as it cut through the skyline. One girl, one dragon, the two of them soared through the fire-red clouds, slowly blending into the crimson setting sun and disappearing from sight. All that was left over was the distant howl of the dragon, echoing into the horizon for a long time.

………

Time passed, marching forwards without pause.

Ever since Lin Ming began his seclusion, 2800 years had passed. No one knew what Lin Ming’s situation was but they didn’t dare to waste time in their cultivation.

And at this time, a great change was occurring within the spiritas. Overnight, the entire spiritas race descended into chaos. Two spiritas True Divinities led ten peak Empyreans to go to the Dark Abyss.

As this news spread out, the human and saint martial artists felt their hearts sink.

In the past the leader of the spiritas had his body seized. Then, the Demon God’s Tomb Master appeared with the identity of the Soul Emperor to rule over the spiritas. The several strongest masters of the spiritas race were controlled by the Soul Emperor, and if it wasn’t for the Soul Emperor being limited in the number of people that he could control, then he likely would have taken control of every Empyrean amongst the spiritas.

The changes occurring amongst the spiritas left a dark cloud of gloom hovering over their hearts. This was especially true for the spiritas martial artists. For instance… Empyrean Divine Mist.

Empyrean Divine Mist had awoken around the time that Lin Ming went into seclusion. Then, he began restoring his soul around the Heavenly Amethyst Palace and now his soul had become increasingly stable. He came from the Asura Road but when he learned of the changes occurring within the spiritas of the 33 Heavens, he still sighed deeply with emotion. In these chaotic times, what would the future of the spiritas be?

“Divine Mist, in these past years your soul has become stable enough with the aid of appropriate soul recovery items. At the time, Young Master had instructed us that after your soul has stabilized, we should give you an appropriate body and also help you seize it!”

After Lin Ming went into seclusion to refine two great worlds, Ink and Clear had already changed the way they called Lin Ming to Young Master.

Empyrean Divine Mist had shown graciousness to Lin Ming in the past. And since it was impossible for Lin Ming to reform Divine Mist’s mortal body, he could only help him seize a similar one.

After seizing a body there would be many drawbacks, but it was still much better than remaining a soul form.

“You have two choices. One is Soul Emperor Divine Void! And the other is the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign!”

Ink and Clear’s words caused Empyrean Divine Mist’s heart to shake. These two bodies were both at the True Divinity level, in particular the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign – he had reached the peak of True Divinity!

Soul Emperor Divine Void was Divine Mist’s enemy. A hundred years ago, Ink and Clear had captured Soul Emperor Divine Void and had sealed up his spiritual sea and cultivation.

As for the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign, there was even less to mention. After his great battle with Lin Ming he had suffered severe losses and also had his avatar of Famine and Grandmist Spirit Bead taken away. His cultivation boundary had dropped one level, and after being controlled by the Asura Road Master, his cultivation dropped even further. Now, he was somewhere between an upper and middle True Divinity.

Originally it would have been impossible for Divine Mist to seize the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign’s body. But, because the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign’s soul had been controlled, it was not possible for Divine Mist to slowly refine the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign’s spiritual sea.

After listening to Ink and Clear’s words, Divine Mist sighed. He said, “I will choose to seize the body of the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign… as for Divine Void, let him go…”

After so many years passed, the hatred in Divine Mist’s heart had already faded away, becoming a shadow of what it had been.

With the great calamity imminent, Divine Mist didn’t want to sentence a master who was on the side of the 33 Heavens to death, just because of some past enmity. In fact, this was also hard for Ink and Clear.

“Good!” Ink and Clear faintly smiled. “Then we will assist you in seizing the body. After you seize his body it will require you a great deal of time to thoroughly refine the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign’s divine soul. Even when you manage to do so, it will be impossible to further increase your boundary in the future. Do you understand all of this?”

“Mm.” Divine Mist calmly said. To be able to obtain a mortal body and also one that was so formidable, he no longer had any wild dreams. If it weren’t for him luckily meeting Lin Ming in the past within Tragic Death Valley, he feared he would have long since exhausted himself and died.

…………

Three years later, some spiritas martial artists also arrived at the Asura Sea.

Ink and Clear welcomed all of these new arrivals.

Slowly, three thousand years passed from when Lin Ming entered seclusion. From this point on, beneath the planning of Ink and Clear, the mortals and low level martial artists of the Asura Road began to evacuate.

Everything was being done in preparation for the final war that would occur once Lin Ming left seclusion. And in the Dark Abyss, Sheng Mei and Fishy were also preparing for their final stand.

Three thousand years ago the Eternal Wall had already started to break apart. Horrifying cracks appeared in the boundless black earth. These cracks were like the maws of wild beasts, capable of swallowing everything into the endless abyss.

The Soul Emperor stood above the devastated and cracked earth, his hair scattered and his filthy eyes overflowing with killing intent…