Martial World (Web Novel)

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“Spine?”

Lin Ming’s words left Sheng Mei stunned. This spine was simply too hideously fierce. Moreover, its texture didn’t seem like bone at all but like some kind of metal, and the icy cold feeling it gave off was like that of a peerless weapon.

Lin Ming grasped the 13 foot spine and slowly flew up. As he flew above the cliff, the spine dangled below. If the spine itself was so long then if the master of the spine was still living, they might have been 30 feet tall at least.

Moreover, this spine emitted such an evil and ominous aura that a frightening thought suddenly appeared in Sheng Mei’s heart. “This shouldn’t be… the spine left behind from the Demon God that died 100 billion years ago!?”

As Sheng Mei uttered these thoughts, her eyes as she looked at this spine changed. To the abyssal race, the ancient Demon God of 100 billion years past was a spiritual god that ruled over them all. The Demon God’s spine… just what sort of concept was that?

Lin Ming carefully rubbed one of the spine’s sharp bone spikes, feeling the energy fluctuations and vast strength of blood vitality that it emitted. He shook his head and said, “I don’t know. I can only confirm that this was left behind by some extraordinary ancient demon.”

Speaking to here, Lin Ming suddenly said, “Don’t you find it strange that this underground mystic realm, this bronze coffin, and even the blood in the coffin is also a bit strange?”

Lin Ming’s words left Sheng Mei startled. “You are saying…”

Lin Ming pondered for a moment. He slowly laid down the spine and said, “I’ve always felt that this Demon God’s Tomb was somewhat ghostly. Many places are filled with horrifying dangers. I’ve gone to many mystic realms before, but the most perilous mystic realms I’ve experienced aren’t even a tenth as dangerous as the Demon God’s Tomb. True Divinities have a chance to perish here, and for Empyreans it’s even easier.

“I think that for any race, developing an Empyrean isn’t easy at all. As for True Divinites, they are even rarer. In a war between races a True Divinity can display a strength that can be enough to affect the entire war situation.

“Even if it’s the incomparably powerful abyssal race, they likely have over a hundred True Divinities. This quantity is over ten times that of the 33 Heavens. However, even they cannot afford to lose so many like this!”

Upon entering the Demon God’s Tomb, then if one didn’t consider Lin Ming and Sheng Mei, then the number of True Divinity level abyssals that entered from the Deep Alliance and Flood Alliance were 23 in total. And five of the ones Lin Ming knew had already died!

Outside this cavern, for the next hundred years in the Demon God’s Tomb, it was inevitable that there would be more True Divinity level abyssals that perished. Of the 23 original True Divinity level abyssals, ultimately over half of them would die.

Many True Divinities would be lost, and many of these True Divinities still had a great deal of potential left remaining. As for Empyreans, the number that died would seem a bit exaggerated.

Although it could be said that the Demon God’s Tomb might only open every several hundred million years, such a pace of death would still cause great damage to the overall strength of the Dark Abyss.

The brutal and tragic method of competition would hasten the birth of powerhouses. But, no matter how brutal a competition, there should still be a limit. If low level abyssals died then it wouldn’t be a problem, but higher level abyssals were created from massive piles of resources.

Listening to Lin Ming’s question, Sheng Mei faintly frowned. She thought about it for a moment and then said, “In the Dark Abyss, it has always been the strong eating the weak. The most suitable description is that we follow the most basic and most barbaric of the laws of the jungle. In the Demon God’s Tomb, although many strong higher abyssals die, those remaining still obtain incredible benefits. The reason the Dark Abyss has so many True Divinities is in great part due to the Demon God’s Tomb.

“Moreover, the truth is that many abyssals in the Demon God’s Tomb die to the hands of enemy forces. For instance, the conflict between the Flood Alliance and Deep Alliance has caused more and more abyssals to die. With resources and lucky chances before them, it is far too difficult to restrain the wishes and desires of these abyssals who have the law of the jungle engraved in their hearts.”

Sheng Mei’s explanation left Lin Ming shaking his head. “I’ve always felt that this Demon God’s Tomb is too evil.

“As the land of greatest lucky chances in the Dark Abyss, in the last hundred billion years the abyssals should have found some way to explore the Demon God’s Tomb while reducing casualties. However, the fact is that the casualties in the Demon God’s Tomb have always remained at a terrifyingly high level. You have likely discovered already that when an abyssal dies in the Demon God’s Tomb, they will quickly turn to bones and the strength of the blood vitality in their corpse will be absorbed by the world…”

As Lin Ming spoke to here, Sheng Mei felt a chill cross her heart. She also noticed this.

The world of the Demon God’s Tomb had a bizarre characteristic of absorbing the strength of blood vitality from those that died. Originally Sheng Mei thought this was normal. After all, every time the Demon God’s Tomb opened, a massive number of abyssals would come in and absorb the power of demon gods.

The energy in this universe followed the laws of conservation. If the power of demon gods was sucked away then it naturally had to be refilled with new energy. Sheng Mei thought that the energy from the abyssals that died in the Demon God’s Tomb wasn’t wasted at all. Rather, their corpses were turned into pure energy to supplement this world, where it would evolve into the power of demon gods billions of years later.

But hearing Lin Ming’s words, a light lit up in Sheng Mei’s eyes. She looked at the ancient bronze coffin below the cliff. The ancient coffin was still filled with thick and viscous blood, looking evil to the extreme.

And though this blood seemed evil, Sheng Mei was well aware just what sort of terrifying blood vitality was contained within. Certain abyssal alchemists could use this blood as material to refine the purest of blood pills that would be greatly beneficial to one’s cultivation!

“You’re saying that… the blood in that ancient bronze coffin comes from the blood vitality that is absorbed by the Demon God’s Tomb? The blood vitality of the corpses here seeps into the ground and slowly gathers here!?”

Realizing Lin Ming’s speculations, Sheng Mei gasped in surprise.

A spine was soaked in an ancient coffin filled with the blood of abyssals, and around this coffin was a demon relief with all sorts of complex and diverse demon array diagrams carved into the walls.

And all of this had been constructed deep below ground in the Demon God’s Tomb. Over the last 100 billion years, countless abyssals had died in the Demon God’s Tomb, and these abyssals all had a cultivation at least at the Empyrean level. Moreover, they were all outstanding elites of their generation. With so many proud children of heaven dying here and having their blood vitality sucked out by the array formation and gathered here, it was all used to nourish a single spine…

Moreover, who could confirm whether or not there was only such a single evil array formation beneath the Demon God’s Tomb?

Perhaps there were a dozen or even dozens of such similar array formations scattered throughout the Demon God’s Tomb. However, the only difference was that the bones they nourished might not be the spine, but rather other bones like the skull, ribs, femur, arm bones…

Thinking of this, Sheng Mei felt a chill creep up her back.

This sort of great array formation was like an ancient ritual, the most evil and diabolical of rites…

“Are you saying that there is some ancient demon in the Dark Abyss that is using the Demon God’s Tomb to nourish its own skeleton to eventually resurrect itself?”

To absorb the blood vitality and energy of future generations to nourish their own skeleton, reforge their flesh and blood body and finally resurrect themselves into the world, this was Sheng Mei’s first thought!

If this were true, then the shock brought by this guess was simply far too great!

To be able to change and invoke the rules of the Demon God’s Tomb for their own use, then perhaps this demon must be… the creator of the Demon God’s Tomb – the Demon God!

Could the Demon God have created the Demon God’s Tomb not just to help his race overcome the Shattering, but also to resurrect himself in the future? He buried himself here in eventual hopes for his future return?

Sheng Mei found this all unbelievable.

Lin Ming said, “I don’t know whether it is the Demon God or not. All I know that if there is such mystic realms like this cave beneath the Demon God’s Tomb, then there must be a scheme behind it. Moreover, once its purpose is achieved, it will surely bring out terrifying changes to the world…”

“Then this spine…”

Sheng Mei’s complexion was cloudy and unsure. Although Lin Ming’s conjectures were reasonable, something still felt off.

It wasn’t just Sheng Mei who thought this, but also Lin Ming.

That was…

If these speculations were indeed true and this was a terrifying scheme planned out over 100 billion years ago, then how could they have taken out this bone from the ancient bronze coffin?

Shouldn’t such a great array have a protective array formation surrounding it? At the very least, this ancient bronze coffin should be sealed so that others couldn’t open it.

After all, this was something that occurred 100 billion years ago. There were sure to be abyssals that managed to stumble their way down to these cavernous mystic realms during such a long time period. If these bones were taken away, wouldn’t that disturb this mysterious being’s plans for resurrection?