Martial World

Chapter 2080 – Goal: Dark Abyss

...

...

...

There were naturally calendars in the Asura Road. But, these calendars didn’t start from the day the Asura Road was created.

In fact, a calendar that counted a mind-boggling number like billions of years was a nearly impossible matter.

Different areas in the Asura Road had different calendars. Moreover, in history, when a large influence unified a massive territory within the Asura Road, they would often create their own calendar and set the first year as the day they were established.

For instance, Divine Void Divine Kingdom and Heaven Union Divine Kingdom both used different calendars.

As for the Great Desolate, it used the Great Desolate Calendar. This calendar had already been in use for several million years.

As the middle-aged man suddenly said the number 1768, Lin Ming thought for a moment and asked, “Do you mean Year 121,768?”

Lin Ming added in two more digits, leaving the middle-aged man startled.

The middle-aged man immediately guessed that this young man in front of him hadn’t come out into the world for a long time, at least several thousand years, thus he asked them to confirm the calendar year for him.

Just who was this person? Why would so many evil beings be awed by him and submit to him?

These methods were something that not even an Empyrean would possess, right?

Had they managed to bump into some hundred million year old monster that had been in seclusion all this time?

Thinking of this, everyone felt a cold chill crawl down their backs. In particular, that black beam of light just then had clearly emerged from Tragic Death Valley. Could it be that... this man had come from Tragic Death Valley?

Realizing this possibility, the group was left speechless.

The middle-aged man still managed to keep his wits about him. He respectfully replied to Lin Ming, “Yes, Senior.”

He used the honorific of senior to refer to Lin Ming, and in truth this honorific wasn’t wrong. The only difference was that Lin Ming’s age was far from being as high as he imagined.

“Great Calendar Year 121,768. If so, then... this period of seclusion has already gone on for more than 5000 years. I thought that I broke into the Empyrean realm one or two thousand years ago, but perhaps it might have been even longer than that. It’s just that because I fused the 33 Heavenly Dao Laws together, time passed too quickly and in my entranced state I wasn’t able to clearly tell how much time I spent in there.”

5000 some years within Tragic Death Valley corresponded to 500 some years in the outside world.

According to the information provided by the Good Fortune Saint Son, over 500 years shouldn’t be enough time for the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign to finish his seclusion. But, the moment was rapidly approaching.

The truth was that even if the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign left seclusion, Lin Ming wasn’t afraid. He had Divine Dream helping him. Although Divine Dream couldn’t defeat the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign, it shouldn’t be a problem for her to protect them and hide them away somewhere.

Currently, the Divine Realm was open and connected to other universes. With the wild universe and its convoluted terrain as well as a third universe, humanity had three universes they could hide in. To use the phrase that a crafty rabbit has more than three burrows and a cunning man has more than one backup plan was about right for this situation.

Like this, if the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign wanted to dig out human elites and kill them then this wouldn’t be easy. But, Lin Ming had to make haste. He didn’t want to leave his destiny to the heavens.

“Thank you.”

Lin Ming faintly smiled. He passed through the crowd of martial artists and continued walking out of God Burying Ridge.

He seemed to walk at a slow pace, as if he were casually idling his way through fog. But in the blink of an eye he had vanished from sight.

As for the evil beings of God Burying Ridge, they still lay sprawled out on the ground.

Seeing the motionless evil beings all around them, the squad of trial challengers had cold sweat dripping down their palms. They nervously said, “Let’s hurry and leave!”

They wanted to take this chance to quickly leave God Burying Ridge. But even though they were scared and apprehensive the entire way, they weren’t attacked by any evil beings as they left.

It was only when this squad emerged that they learned that what occurred around Tragic Death Valley happened in a much wider range than they thought.

This marvelous sight within God Burying Ridge was spread in numerous tales and exaggerated in different ways.

However, because there were too many guesses and too many versions of the story, even if some people had stories close to the truth, no one believed them. After all, their stories were far too unbelievable, and since they were only a minority, they didn’t have much persuasive power.

Slowly, what occurred in Tragic Death Valley morphed into a pure legend...

..........

Asura Sea, final trial –

Lin Ming stood in a broad starry space. Two old men were in front of him; they were the guardians of the final trial and also the servants who had served the Asura Road Master for generations – Clear and Ink.

“You want to go to the Dark Abyss?”

Hearing Lin Ming’s decision, Clear was bewildered. The Dark Abyss was simply far too dangerous.

“Two Seniors, I have decided that I must go to the Dark Abyss and this is a decision that came after a long period of deliberation. Since I dare to go, I naturally have methods to protect myself and no one should be able to recognize me. The reason I came here today was in truth to confirm something, a secret related to the Dark Abyss and the abyssal demons...”

As Lin Ming spoke, the two old men fell silent, not speaking for a long time.

Lin Ming continued, “I originally thought that the Dark Abyss and Primeval Realm Ruins might be entrances to a whole different world and that the 33 Heavens weren’t the only world there is. But afterwards, I obtained some information. It seems that the Dark Abyss comes from an ancient era of ancient eras. That it could be a place which existed a hundred billion years ago or even further back than that? I wonder if this is right?”

Hearing Lin Ming’s question, the expressions of the two old men changed. They glanced at each other, then Clear said, “Concerning the Dark Abyss, we only know some speculations and these are descriptions that the High Lord left in his letters in the past. Indeed, the Dark Abyss might have already existed for a hundred billion years...”

“Mm... so it really was like that. And, the great calamity of the universe 10 billion years ago was the ancient races fighting with the abyssals?”

Lin Ming asked. But concerning this assumption, many clues already confirmed that it was correct, and it wasn’t too difficult to guess anyways. Moreover, Famine’s memories proved this.

“That’s right. In the great war 10 billion years ago, countless God Kings perished and innumerable races were wiped from existence. Some universes were even left in tatters and devolved into wilderness. Compared to the great calamity of 10 billion years ago, the war between humanity and the saints isn’t anything at all.”

“I see... then, it seems that 100 billion years ago, an even greater calamity erupted in this universe? Compared to it, even the great war 10 billion years ago between the abyssals and the intelligent life forms of the 33 Heavens seems to be a minor matter?” Lin Ming suddenly said after a period of contemplation. This was only something he extrapolated from Famine’s memories.

But because he couldn’t be absolutely sure, he asked these two old men.

The two old men were stunned, seeming as if they didn’t expect Lin Ming to ask such a question.

They looked at each other. Then, Clear said, “The events of 100 billion years ago are far too distant, so distant that it is horrifying and nearly impossible to discover. The High Lord also managed to extrapolate some speculations. He believed that the Primeval Realm Ruins and the Dark Abyss were formed in that great calamity... the High Lord called this great calamity – the Shattering!”

“The Shattering...” Lin Ming sucked in a deep breath.

In truth, he had already heard the arguments people made against eternal life. To them, eternal life went against the Heavenly Dao Laws, and the reason for this was that all things in existence had to be born and had to die. Mountains could collapse, rivers could dry up, stars could fall, and even a boundless world would collapse and be destroyed.

There was nothing that could withstand the erosion of time.

Then what about the 33 Heavens?

Would there be a day when this world was destroyed?

If this were really to occur, then this would be the true horrifyingly great calamity.

All order, all rules, all life, nothing would exist anymore.

Lin Ming knew that the three divine treasures of the Magic Cube, Purple Card, and Grandmist Spirit Bead were possibly seeds of universes.

Since a universe could have such a seed, then that implied a universe could be born.

And with birth naturally came death. This was cause and effect, the cycle of samsara.

At this time, Ink said, “The High Lord suspected that the Dark Abyss and Primeval Realm Ruins are a piece of the world left behind after the previous 33 Heavens underwent the Shattering. As for why this part of that world wasn’t destroyed along with everything else, that is an unknown.

“And the abyssal demons are life forms that might have existed 100 billion years ago. They always lived in the Dark Abyss, and the Dark Abyss was originally isolated from the 33 Heavens. But because of some unknown reason, the two worlds connected, thus the great calamity of 10 billion years ago erupted.

“Of course, all of these things are merely guesses that the High Lord made...” Ink quietly said.

In fact, regardless of what the origins of the abyssals were, there was one thing that no one needed to doubt.

That was that the abyssal demons were the mortal enemies of all intelligent life in the 33 Heavens.