Martial World (Web Novel)

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Time passed. By this day, Lin Ming had been in the Dark Abyss for two months already.

The Dark Abyss’s 12th layer, Black Sand City –

This was a giant city situated in the midst of a desert. The reason this city had such a name was because the desert was formed from black sand.

The desert was naturally desolate, but the city itself was bustling with business. The reason for this was that the Demon Association had established their 12th layer branch division here.

Thus, this city had turned into the largest slave market in the 12th layer.

The slave trade was an extremely important business in the Dark Abyss. The slaves here were not only ancient race slaves, but also abyssals.

Low intelligence abyssals, such as the cyclopes, were often turned into slaves in the Dark Abyss. These slaves were all sold in the same way.

The Demon Association only sold high quality slaves. Slaves with poor talent and low strength didn’t have much value at all. These types of slaves were placed in the open wilderness and hunted down as prey.

For instance, when it came to the ancient race slaves, the Demon Association would often raise and cultivate them so that they reached the Divine Transformation realm and above. Not just that, but many of them had certain special bloodlines.

To the abyssals these ancient race bloodlines were highly beneficial.

These purchased slaves might be used as living furnaces or even food. There were some species of abyssal demons that only came in the male sex. These abyssals would forcefully inject their reproductive life liquid into women of other races. Then, this liquid would invade the eggs of these alien women and slowly transform their bloodlines. Slowly, these eggs would suck up the life essence of the women until a new abyssal was born.

This was an extremely tyrannical and cruel method of reproduction. Because of these reasons, female slaves always sold for prices several times that of male slaves in Black Sand City.

Black Sand City didn’t have city walls. Rather, it was covered by a massive force field.

At this time, over a thousand miles away from Black Sand City, Lin Ming stood at the summit of a high mountain and looked down upon the city. From this distance the giant Black Sand City was only the size of his palm.

This city was Lin Ming’s first all-out battle target he had decided on after entering the Dark Abyss.

For these last two months in the Dark Abyss, Lin Ming hadn’t taken any drastic actions that stood out. He only constantly gathered information to further his understanding of the Dark Abyss. He wanted to understand the level of the powerhouses, the scale of the large influences, their positions, bases, and all sorts of other key information.

Besides the Demon Association that Lin Ming had made his goal, he also had a relatively good understanding of the other totem level influences. And, he also knew that the most mysterious Demon God’s Tomb was in the lowest layer of the Dark Abyss – the 18th layer.

As for secrets related to the Demon God’s Tomb, Lin Ming hadn’t been able to find out much.

In these past two months Lin Ming had quietly hunted down over a hundred abyssals. From starting with Holy Lord level abyssals, then World King level abyssals, he then started on Great World King level abyssals.

After killing these abyssals Lin Ming would swallow up their strength. As the days passed, he became increasingly proficient in the Swallowing Laws and the energy wheel formed from the power of divinity and demons within his body continued to expand.

Currently, the power of divinity and demons had turned into the foundational energy of Lin Ming’s cultivation methods. If he strengthened his power of divinity and demons, it would help him make breakthroughs in his cultivation.

Originally, Lin Ming should have reached the peak of the middle Empyrean realm in 5000 years. But now he was taking great steps towards shattering the wall of the upper Empyrean realm. If he wanted to truly cross this bridge, he would still need a massive amount of energy.

And to use the Swallowing Laws to absorb the strength of abyssals was undoubtedly the best shortcut.

Lin Ming recalled the information he had silently collected about Empyrean level abyssals in these past days. This information seemed common and unremarkable, but it helped Lin Ming avoid crucial mistakes. Otherwise, if he were to bump into a middle True Divinity abyssal then he would be in danger.

According to the information he had, there were a total of five Empyrean level abyssals in Black Sand City.

Even within the Dark Abyss, Empyrean level abyssals couldn’t be found everywhere. They were generally Elders of large influences with prominent statuses. They often lived in important locations of their large influences and were surrounded by solemn guards and layers of traps.

If an Empyrean level abyssal was killed, it would naturally cause a stir in the surrounding region.

Lin Ming didn’t want to prematurely expose himself. He planned to quietly cut down an Empyrean level abyssal, and this Black Sand City that was far from Demon Snake City was the best choice. If he recklessly slaughtered in Black Sand City then it was unlikely he would alarm the bashe serpent. The bashe serpent was the master of Demon Snake City and mostly wouldn’t bother with matters related to the Demon Association.

The city lord of Black Sand City was an Elder of the Demon Association. If his strength was judged by human standards then he would be somewhere between an Empyrean and True Divinity. This also made him the strongest powerhouse in Black Sand City.

Moreover, there was also a peak Empyrean and two middle Empyrean abyssals in Black Sand City. Lin Ming was very much looking forwards to killing these abyssals and swallowing their strength to see how much they could benefit him.

Lin Ming waited for night to fall. The night with its howling black winds was the best time to murder others and destroy their corpses.

Lin Ming waited for another two hours. Then, his thoughts stirred. A thousand miles away, he suddenly saw infernal energy shoot into the skies.

He squinted his eyes. At the end of the black desert, faint sparks of rainbow-hued light shot into the heavens; it was clear that some people were fighting there.

“Mm?”

Lin Ming muttered to himself. He extended his sense in a straight line, probing outwards. With his current sense he could easily investigate something that was occurring a thousand miles away.

And what he saw left him startled. These were clearly ancient race martial artists battling against a group of abyssal demons.

And these ancient race martial artists all had a yellow square scarf tied to their arms. The scarves were embroidered with a hexagonal ice flower pattern.

These ancient race martial artists didn’t have poor cultivation methods and combat skills. Moreover, they worked in tandem to utilize battle formations. It was clear from a glance that these were ancient race clansmen with a high degree of intelligence and not ‘prey’ that was bred to be released into the wild.

“Rebel army!?”

Lin Ming was surprised. The yellow square scarfs on their hands reminded him of the recent slave uprisings that had enveloped the 11th through 14th layers of the Dark Abyss.

This was a revolt on a vast scale. Although the bashe serpent turned a blind eye to them and the Demon Association continued with their business as always, the truth was that in these past years this revolt had killed many abyssals and rescued a tremendous number of slaves.

These slaves joined the rebel army and the cycle continued.

Because the rebel army always tied yellow scarves around their arms, the abyssals termed them the yellow scarf bandits.

The truth was that even in Lin Ming’s eyes, this ancient race rebel army wouldn’t be able to cause any great waves. Sooner or later they would be wiped out by the abyssals; the difference in strength was just too great.

However, as Lin Ming witnessed the different combat methods and styles used by the rebel army, and as he saw their battle formations, he suddenly had a strange feeling in his mind.

Although he wasn’t too optimistic about this uprising, he couldn’t help but admit that this rebel army wasn’t as weak as he thought they were. At the very least; they wouldn’t collapse upon a single strike. Perhaps they had unearthed some ancient ruins, otherwise they shouldn’t have possessed cultivation methods of this level.

As Lin Ming was thinking this, he saw several lights rise up from Black Sand City and rapidly fly towards the location where battle had broken out.

It was clear that these were reinforcements from Black Sand City. The battlefield was so close to Black Sand City that it would be strange if there was no reaction instead. Once the reinforcements joined the battle, then in a normal situation the rebel army forces would be eliminated in a mere half incense stick of time.

Lin Ming naturally wouldn’t see these people in danger and stand idly by. His figure flickered and he rapidly flew towards the battlefield.

……..

A thousand miles away, the ancient race rebel army had fallen into a bitter battle. They were originally an outstanding squad of the rebel army, and as they were carrying out a secret mission they were discovered by troops of the Demon Association.

A battle was inevitable. The rebel army squad had occupied the advantage to begin with, but the more enemy reinforcements arrived, the weaker they became.

“Ahh!”

An ancient race green-clothed girl cried out in pain. She was struck flying backwards. The sword in her hand was knocked away, making several turns in the air before stabbing into a rock.

Letting go of one’s weapon in this environment was monumentally dangerous. Moreover, with the severe wound she suffered just then, the green-clothed girl had lost nearly all her combat strength.

“Thousand Shade!”

The eyes of several other youths turned blood red with anger and worry. However, they didn’t even have time to take care of themselves, much less save someone else.

The green-clothed girl cried out in pain once more. Her complexion paled and she shivered all over. Her arm that had held a sword suddenly started to age at a speed visible to the eyes. It withered away as the blood vitality was rapidly drained from it.

This feeling was like the decaying of a mortal body over a thousand years being compressed into several breaths instead; it was grisly and terrifying!

“Cut it off!”

A middle-aged man shouted, burning with worry. This young girl called Thousand Shade was one of the extremely talented individuals in the rebel army. She had great future potential and her bloodline was also outstanding. If anything happened to her, it would be a great loss to the rebel army.

The green-clothed girl grit her teeth. She grabbed another sword and chopped down. The arm that was wrapped in a scarf tumbled away. Although she seemed young and delicate, the truth was that she was an incomparably decisive and resolute person. Her fresh blood had already dyed the hexagonal flower-patterned scarf red!

The decaying stopped. This scene even surprised the surrounding abyssal demons. Not to mention a woman, even if a brave warrior were to chop off their arm they would furrow their eyebrows. But, this girl called Thousand Shade didn’t even hesitate and had done so cleanly and neatly.

“Hehe, you’re ruthless indeed, but too bad for you that still won’t change your ending. All of you are done for! You might as well be good little slaves and let us capture you and plant slave seals in you. Perhaps some of you might be able to be sold for a high price, hahaha!”

An abyssal cackled. And at this time, the sound of sonic booms broke through the air behind him. This was the sound of powerhouses flying, the sound of reinforcement troops from Black Sand City!

The abyssal sneered, “Reinforcements have arrived. You’re dead now!”