Chapter 680 – Subdue

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“Let’s attack together!”

An Elder loudly shouted as he faced the Giant Leviathan’s tentacles, extracting a ruler from his spatial ring at the same time.

The other Elder took out a heavy sword. The two of them began revolving their true essence to the limit, using their ultimate abilities!

Two storms of black true essence erupted. Under the minute control of the two Elders, the two attacks fused as one, heavily smashing into the net of tentacles.

Bang!

Flames exploded. Several shining tentacles that bore the brunt of the attack dimmed down, rapidly shrinking back. However, more and more tentacles rushed forth to take their place, leaving no room for the two Elders to run as before.

“This is bad!”

Seeing the tentacles that were filled with energy rush towards them, the two great Elders’ eyes turned blood red. With their insignificant first stage Life Destruction strength, resisting this net made of the Giant Leviathan’s tentacles was impossible.

“I’ll use up my life!”

The two Elders thought of this idea at the same time. However, something happened that shocked them. As the great tentacles rushed towards them, they actually began to slow down, wrapping around them without even the slightest intent of piercing through their bodies.

Ka ka ka!

The two Elders felt as if their bodies were being constricted by several large pythons. Their organs ached with an agonizing pain, and their bones almost broke.

“This damn beast!”

The two great Elders dripped with sweat from the pain. They had lost any and all strength to resist.

At the same time as their hearts filled with grief and despair, they also realized something. This Giant Leviathan must have been controlled by someone, otherwise it would have killed them and  not surrounded them like this.

As for the one who could control the Giant Leviathan, they could only think of one person.

That was… Lin Ming!

The two Elders could scarcely believe this. When Xuan Wuji had laid down his control onto the Giant Leviathan, he had made a massive array formation, used a secret skill to stimulate his soul potential, and had even gathered countless masters to support him. Even then, he had just barely managed to succeed.

But Lin Ming, with just his strength alone, how was he able to simultaneously fend off and counter the attack of four Elders, forcefully wipe off the soul mark that Xuan Wuji had left behind, and then even plant his own soul mark in such a short time?

Thinking of this, the two Elders began to have a deep sense of fear swell from within them. They no longer regarded Lin Ming as a 20 year old youth. To them he was now a monstrous genius, a terrifying and mysterious existence beyond their comprehension.

Woosh!

The two Elders felt their bodies tighten. The Giant Leviathan’s tentacles rapidly returned as the beast opened its great maw and swallowed both Elders. The two Elders saw pitch black for a brief moment, and in the next instant they had arrived in a light red dimension.

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10 miles away, as Feng Shen, Duanmu Qun, and Lan Xin saw this, they were all shocked speechless.

After Lin Ming had drilled his way into the Giant Leviathan’s body, he had used some unknown method to cause the Giant Leviathan to roar out in pain for an entire quarter of an hour. Then, something surprising happened. All of the South Sea Demon Region Elders began to escape separately. The two in front were fortunately able to escape safely, but the two behind them were far too slow. They had been caught by the Giant Leviathan!

What was going on?

“It’s like… this Giant Leviathan has been subdued by Lin Ming?” Feng Shen couldn’t believe his own words as they came out of his mouth, but this was the only plausible explanation.

Duanmu Qun also praised, “Incredible. Although this Giant Leviathan is not too great in one-on-one combat, it can display a massive destructive force in a large-scale battlefield. This is a great war beast that even a Holy Land would be jealous of. I have no idea what Lin Ming did; his every action is a riddle to us.”

Duanmu Qun sighed. At this time he no longer thought about competing with Lin Ming. As long as he could remain on good terms with Lin Ming, then that would allow the future of his Divine Wood Holy Land to see a broader and higher road.

At this time, in the Giant Leviathan’s inner dimension Lin Ming wore black clothes as he stood tall, his hands crossed behind his back. He was calmly staring at the two Elders. Although his gaze was peaceful, there was also a faint edge to it that caused one’s heartbeat to skip a beat.

“Lin Ming…”

An Elder gulped. When a bounty was placed on Lin Ming throughout the entire South Sea, he had seen Lin Ming’s portrait. This youth in front of him seemed similar, but there was a very great difference in his temperament. The Lin Ming in the portraits was a handsome and delicate youth, but the Lin Ming in front of them was like a king that commanded life and death!

“You… just who are you?”

An Elder couldn’t help but ask. He couldn’t imagine that this terrifying existence in front of him was just a 20 year old youth.

When this Elder was young, he too had been a Saint level talent. When he was 20 years old, he had been a late Houtian martial artist. Because of his superb talent, he was just able to fight the worst of Xiantian level masters. This was already a very stunning achievement. But compared to Lin Ming, even describing this difference as cloud and mud wasn’t enough to do it justice.

“I am who I am. As for my Lin Ming’s name, I think that you already know!” Lin Ming indifferently flourished his white spear and pointed it towards the two Elders. “I will now give you a choice. Surrender to me and allow me to freely plant a slave seal in you for 50 years. After 50 years, I shall free you! Otherwise, your only other choice is death!”

Lin Ming had originally wanted to kill these two Elders, but after deliberating upon it some more, a first stage Life Destruction master did have a very good combat strength. It had to be known that Mu Fengxian herself was also a first stage Life Destruction master.

Waging war against a sect was not a matter of a single person, much less when Lin Ming’s own individual strength wasn’t actually that strong.

Facing the powerful Xuan Wuji, Lin Ming had to grab as many advantages as he could. Xuan Wuji would soon exit his seclusion. At that time, even if Lin Ming was weaker than Xuan Wuji, he still had to have the qualifications to content with him.

“Humph, I would rather die than have a slave seal planted in me!” An Elder spat out between clenched teeth. To a proud martial artist, a slave seal was simply the highest form of insult. Once a slave seal was planted he would be nothing but a mindless slave; he would never be able to have his own thoughts.

“Then let me help you!” Lin Ming said without hesitation. He lifted his spear, about to kill them, when at this moment the other Elder shouted out, “Wait!”

Lin Ming’s hand stopped. He asked, “What else do you have to say?”

The other Elder’s mind raced. He grit his teeth and said, “You said that this slave seal will only be for 50 years, why should I believe you?”

After a slave seal was planted, the slave would have to obey every single order from their master, unable to even commit suicide. If Lin Ming didn’t release this slave seal 50 years from now, then that was truly a life worse than death.

Lin Ming sneered, “I can control at most 10 people with my slave seals. Thus, you two simply do not have the qualifications to be my servants for 50 years. Does this explanation satisfy you?”

Lin Ming’s words could be described as excessively arrogant and unrestrained. After the Elder heard this, he was greatly uncomfortable in his heart. But even so, he still couldn’t help but acknowledge that Lin Ming had the capital to speak his words. 50 years later, Lin Ming would have already become a Peerless Emperor, possibly even standing at the pinnacle of all Emperor level powerhouses. How could he possibly waste two slots of his slave seals to raise up two first stage Life Destruction slaves?

The Elder bit out, “Alright, I agree!”

“Elder Sun, you…” The Elder that said he would rather die than submit saw this other Elder compromise and began to panic. “You would rather throw away your dignity and ruin your heart of martial arts just so you can live on in such dishonor? Do you know that after being controlled, Lin Ming will make us kill our own descendants!”

“Elder Zhou, you’re still thinking about that at a time like this?” Elder Sun gloomily lifted his eyes, listlessly looking at the other old man. “Us demonic path martial artists have always cared about ourselves first and foremost, taking ourselves as the center of all decisions. So who cares if we’re forced to betray and kill those from the South Sea Demon Region? As for my heart of martial arts, who cares? Our cultivations have reached reached the limit that we can attain. In our lives, there is no hope for us to ever reach the second stage of Life Destruction, so why would I care if my heart of martial arts is ruined? If you want to die then I won’t stop you, but I don’t want to die, I haven’t lived my life yet. In the first half of my life I desperately struggled for all lucky chances like a madman, closing up to practice, and now after great difficulty I can finally enjoy the fruits of my labors. I also want to enjoy my next several hundred years of life. I do not want to die here!”

Some martial artists, such as Lin Ming, practiced martial artists to reach the pinnacle of martial arts.

Some martial artists who practiced martial artists did so in order to gain more power, have a higher status, and enjoy all the beauties and mortal sins of the world.

Elder Sun was one of these latter martial artists. He was too nostalgic and reluctant to part with his life, he simply hadn’t enjoyed it enough. If a Life Destruction powerhouse didn’t participate in the wars of a sect and didn’t try to find lucky chances to break through to higher realms, then they could casually go to any smaller land and enjoy life like a living god.

Hearing Elder Sun say this, Elder Zhou also hesitated.

If one could live, who would want to die?

……………

1,000,000 miles away, Profound Province –

The southernmost side of the Sky Spill Continent had a total of ten domains and nine provinces. Among these, a ‘province’ was slightly smaller than a domain. For instance, the surrounding territory of Divine Phoenix Island was considered the Divine Phoenix Province.

The Divine Phoenix Province was subordinate to another greater domain, but there were also some provinces that were independent. For instance, the Profound Province was like this.

The Profound Province was located in between the Five Element Region and the Judge Mountain Province. It was one million miles away from the South Horizon Region.

The number one sect of Profound Province was the Yin Yang Profound Palace, a newly promoted fifth-grade sect.

Yin Yang Profound Palace’s cultivation methods focused particularly on double cultivating as a complementary ability. Here, double cultivation benefited both man and woman. It was different from the violent sucking of energy style that the South Sea Demon Region practiced. Thus, the Yin Yang Profound Palace could be barely considered an orthodox sect.

Because of the special characteristics of this cultivation method, many disciples of the Yin Yang Profound Palace were married couples that cultivated together.

Even the Palace Masters of Yin Yang Profound Palace were a couple. The man was named Xing Ji and the woman was named Xing Can; they were renowned as the double Yin and Yang stars.

The Xing couple’s cultivations were both at the extreme second stage Life Destruction. Because of their Yin Yang cultivation method, they were especially well suited to combining their attacks. If the two of them joined forces, they were actually just able to deal with a third stage Life Destruction powerhouse.

The Xing couple had one son. His name was Xing Yang and he was an Emperor level talent.

As long as an Emperor level talent didn’t die, they would have a slim chance of becoming a true Emperor level powerhouse.

The Xing couple had placed very high expectations on Xing Yang. They hoped that he could become an Emperor level powerhouse in the future and lead their Yin Yang Profound Palace to become a true Holy Land.

At this time, within an elegant courtyard at the eastern section of Yin Yang Profound Palace…

A great millennium old tree stretched out its lush leaves and branches, covering the entire courtyard. Underneath this great tree, there was a simple stone table, and on this stone table was a tea set. Sitting around this stone table were three people.

The one in charge at this table was an elderly woman wearing a robe. Her silver hair was nobly coiffed upwards, bound with an exquisite phoenix hairpin.

This person was the Highest Elder of Divine Phoenix Island, Mu Fengxian!