Chapter 726 – God Transforming Mirror

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With the help of a guide, Lin Ming arrived at the assigned dwelling.

“Sir Nuyan, this is your basic equipment.” The guide passed Lin Ming a spatial ring.

As Lin Ming sunk his consciousness within, he saw a simple 10-foot-long wooden case, a set of red clothes, and red boots.

This wooden case was...

Lin Ming’s eyes brightened. He had been using a spear for so many years that he didn’t even need to open the box to tell that there was a spear within this case!

It was purely intuition.

Lin Ming enthusiastically opened the case and a long fiery-red spear appeared under Lin Ming’s eyes. The spear edge was a foot long and it shone brightly, with a chilling cold. The spear shaft was made from an unknown metal; it was exceedingly tough, yet flexible at the same time.

All sorts of runes and lines were engraved on the barrel of the spear. These patterns undoubtedly contained the power of Fire Laws.

This was… a medium-grade heaven-step treasure?

Or was this a high-grade heaven-step treasure?

Lin Ming’s eyes shone. He had been using a heaven-step white spear acquired from a High Lord of Skysplit Tower; he didn’t even know what its name was. Beside its toughness, there was no benefit to wielding that white spear. It wasn’t like the Purple Comet Spear, able to increase the power of his thunderfire abilities. It was extremely inconvenient for him.

But now, this red spear in front of him was obviously useful for enhancing the power of fire. Moreover, it was a treasure ranked even higher!

“What rank is this treasure?” Lin Ming asked.

Up until now he only had a few rare encounters with anything above low-grade heaven-step treasures, so he didn’t have much of an understanding toward this.

The guide said, “Sir, this is a medium-grade heaven-step treasure. But in mere terms of toughness, it’s on equal standing with a high-grade heaven-step treasure. It is a standard service weapon that my Timeworn Phoenix City issues to new talents. If you don’t use the spear, then you may apply for a replacement weapon.”

Within the Ancient Phoenix Clan, because there were many people who rode Vermillion Birds in battle, long pole-type weapons were the most commonly used. This was different from the inheritance of Divine Phoenix Island. When Lin Ming was going through the qualification test for the king-level smelting trial, many of the phantom matches was facing were also using spears.

“This spear is actually only a standard service weapon…”

Lin Ming was speechless. This was a spear that every trial challenger who was participating in the king-level smelting trial would receive. It seemed that within the Realm of the Gods, heaven-step treasures were only considered common garbage.

This was also reasonable. Within the Sky Spill Continent, even a Life Destruction martial artist like Xuan Wuji was able to acquire a heaven-step treasure, much less a Divine Sea master. There was no need to even mention the Realm of the Gods. Here, powerhouses were most likely using Saint artifacts, or even higher quality weapons.

Lin Ming took the red spear in his hand and casually shook it. The spear shaft trembled with a terrifying contained strength.

“What a great spear! In terms of resources, martial artists from the lower realms are just like little babies from the slums; they are simply unable to compare with martial artists from the Realm of the Gods.”

Besides the long spear, the standard issued clothes were also top quality goods. Once worn, they felt as airy as silk. Having been woven from divine fire silk, they were actually immune to fire and water and were also extremely resistant. Even with a normal treasure one would find it difficult to slice through them. In Timeworn Phoenix City, it was light and practical - perfect for talents to use in training.

“Sir, if you please. Your room is right ahead.” The guide bowed.

Lin Ming looked up. In front of him was a door leading to a separate miniature dimension.

In Timeworn Phoenix City, every young elite’s residence was their own dimension. The advantage of this was that once the door was closed, the room would then become an absolute isolated space, so that the martial artist inside would not be interrupted during their training time.

After settling into this dimension, Lin Ming saw a bookshelf filled with all sorts of jade slips, both large and small. He casually picked one up and swept his perception through it. These were actually fire-attribute law cultivation methods, advisory letters, and ancient texts. These jade slips were mostly  high-grade cultivation method manuals collected by powerhouses of the Ancient Phoenix Clan from various regions. They were given to trial challengers, mainly for them to use as a reference in their own training.

Lin Ming looked through a few jade slips. Then, he sat down and immersed himself in perceiving insights into the Laws and Concepts he had gained earlier.

The totem symbol atop Heretical God Seed was as small as a grain of rice. However, Lin Ming could actually make out every single line and change in texture on its surface. These traces were all enlarged tens of thousands of times within Lin Ming’s vision, each and every simple mysterious pattern appearing defined in his eyes.

Meditating on the totem engraving on the Heretical God Seed was much more beneficial and much easier than meditating on the Burning Heaven Totem Stone.

Lin Ming could already faintly feel that the affinity the Heretical God Seed held towards the Concept of Fire had exceeded that of the Concept of Thunder.

Amongst the various major Concepts, ones like the Concepts of Space and Time, the Concept of Eternity, the Concept of Annihilation, and other such Concepts were much more abstract and elusive, and were somewhat more formidable than others. However, the truth was that once one thoroughly comprehended the source of a Concept, and reached the pinnacle of comprehension with it, then even with one like the Concept of Fire one could still achieve heaven-shaking results and become a king of their generation.

Hu - !

Lin Ming stretched out his palm and a fiery flame-spear appeared in his hand, its energy quickly solidifying. In the next moment, the flame spear completely condensed into a solid spear. The spear point and shaft both gleamed with a metallic luster, just as if they had been cast from red metal.

“After inscribing the flame totem, the Heretical God Seed within me has also evolved.” Lin Ming felt his heart shining with a brilliant fighting spirit. He wanted to test his strength in battle and see just how much progress his Concept of Fire had made.

At that moment, a strict voice suddenly rang out in the dimension. “Ten days have passed. Everyone gather at the Southern City Temple. The test will now begin!”

“The test is finally starting.” Lin Ming’s eyes flashed with a sharp light. The king-level smelting trial tests were extremely severe. The first test would eliminate 30-40% of the martial artists. In the future, tests would only become more and more difficult. Ultimately, only a tiny number of people would make it through the trials.

Lin Ming walked towards the Southern City Temple. Here, the red-robed Elder responsible for directing the test was already waiting.

“Come with me.”

After everyone had gathered, the red-robed Elder led everyone to a separate chamber. Here, there was a massive crystal mirror. The mirror was over 100 feet high and was hundreds of feet wide. It spread across an entire wall.

“This is the God Transforming Mirror. It is an illusory magic array used for tests. You only need to stand in front of the God Transforming Mirror and touch it in order to start the test. Within the God Transforming Mirror there are nine different shifting realms. With your current strength, lasting in the first shifting phase for a quarter of an hour will qualify as passing, and lasting for half an hour will be considered outstanding. Those who fail will need to take the transmission array and leave the smelting trial site,” the red-robed Elder indifferently said.

Hearing this, the heroic young elites became somewhat nervous. If they had a poor performance then there was the fear of being eliminated. If they had a good performance then they could only hope to make progress for even better results. For instance, Huo Wenlong, Huo Yu and the others all carried a great pressure on their backs. Their goal was not only to pass the smelting trial, but also to compete with Lin Ming and overshadow him.

“We shall start from the trial challengers of the Mortal Corridor. I will call your name to step forward and start the test. Sheng Gonglu, Chi Hu….”

The red-robed Elder continuously called out the names of four people. As these four people stood in front of the God Transforming Mirror, all of them were lurching with unease.

They followed the red-robed Elder’s instructors and reached out their hands to touch the God Transforming Mirror. In the next moment, all of them fell into a strange trance-like state, as if they were completely isolated from the outside world….