Chapter 2270 - Lin Hongchen's Tomb
The moment the Grand-Orient Sword clashed with the Cardinal Weight, Tianming's right hand burst with blood from the suppression of the cosmic impulse and order. Then, the terrifying power flooded into his organs! He grit his teeth and used his left arm to execute Unistrike Singularity. While that move wasn’t as fast as Delayed Capture, it had the power of the Fiendsky Arm and spatial suppression to support it.
"Space!" Shuntian Bohan furrowed his brows. "Watch as I shatter this wonder with a single strike!" He held his warhammer with both hands, swinging it so fast that it created afterimages to counter the spatial suppression. He indeed had the capability to shatter it with sheer brute force. The hammer came toward Tianming from all directions and smashed him straight into the ground!
Even though Meow Meow managed to catch him before he hit the ground, he was still badly battered. Not a single inch of his body was unbloodied with the exception of his left arm. All of his blood vessels had been damaged as a result of an astral god's order. Then, Falling Mass Impulse flooded into his body, wrecking it from within like a wild beast.
"Do we still fight?" Meow Meow asked.
"No way!" Tianming wasn't an inflexible fool. He was fully aware that he wouldn't be able to cross seven levels to fight an astral god from the exchange just now. The divide between a god and an astral god was far too wide, and he had finally confirmed it. There was no chance he could win this fight, and if he insisted on stubbornly trying, he would even lose his chance to escape.
Shuntian Bohan had no intention of letting him off at all and came smashing with his hammer once more. The massive weapon shone with a piercing black-and-red glow. All of a sudden, billions of Yin Chens came flying out from beneath Tianming and slammed into Shuntian Bohan.
"What’s this?!" Too many silver bugs had appeared all of a sudden, taking him aback. With every swing, he wiped out a large number of Yin Chens.
"He's trying to escape!" the ants told him.
"Does he think he can run?" Right as he said that, he was swarmed by countless silver insects that completely enveloped him. There was no end to them! His rampage eliminated hundreds of millions of Yin Chens in a short time, but by the time he got out, Tianming was nowhere to be seen. Even though the shuntian ants were giving chase, they definitely wouldn't be able to catch up—Tianming had already taken their speed into account. He wouldn't have taken the risk if he wasn't certain he could escape.
"Stop chasing!" Shuntian Bohan said when the ants told him they had lost Tianming. He waited for them to return, keeping his eyes glued in the direction Tianming had escaped in. "Not bad, Lin Feng. Rumors say you’re a hundred-year-old trash that’s just a solarian, but you were able to take a few blows from me. Why would the Swordgod Lin Clan berate your talent if you’re that capable?"
That was surely no solarian. "He probably didn't even use all his lifebound beasts. He must've intended to run from the very beginning. That means he used me to test out his combat capabilities! How daring of him to underestimate me like that." Upon that thought, his expression turned cold. "Based on that, his combat prowess must be unrivaled among stellaminors, right?"
He had indeed felt that Tianming posed some threat to him during the duel before, and that was already something noteworthy. Almost every single time a normal god went up against an astral god, the fight would be one sided. Since ancient times, not even the most talented of geniuses who were stellaminors would even stand a chance against an untalented orderan, and those who managed to cross that divide to rival astral gods were vanishingly small in number. Not to mention, Shuntian Bohan wasn’t untalented by any means, ranking in the eight hundreds in the minor reges mundi ranking, which explained his shock.
"The key is the power of order that I felt just now. What in the world was that?" That was something nobody could explain, and Shuntian Bohan didn't waste too much time grasping at straws. "Very well! Using me to gauge your abilities, huh? Don't let me run into you again. I'll be prepared next time, and you won't be able to escape."
......
"Phew!" Tianming laid flat on Meow Meow's back as he healed up using the Greenspark Tower. While he was hurt all over, the injuries weren't severe and were still within his expectations. As for the cosmic impulse that managed to find its way into his body, that would take a few days to dissipate. Before that, his body and organs would constantly be in an injured state.
"An orderan is a truly fearsome foe. At the end of the day, it’ll be really hard to see where I stand unless I go against them when they're serious about fighting." That fight had been quite risky.
"I got the answer I wanted. Looks like I'm still no match for astral gods, but..." Confidence flashed across his eyes, "I have a feeling that I would've been able to wound him. Even though I'd still be suppressed, if I break through one more time, I think I could possibly cross that divide and defeat astral gods!"
The sixth level still wasn't enough, so he would just go for the seventh! His loss hadn’t shaken his will at all; instead, it only further honed his desire to improve.
"I've made great strides since way back when I couldn't move the slightest bit before Lin Jianxing. Now, I can just barely put up a fight against astral gods." Lin Jianxing was stronger than Shuntian Bohan, but not by much. "Soon. Soon, the day will come. This is urgent! I have to make the best use of my time to get stronger! I won't be able to make great leaps by normal cultivation. I shouldn't care about stability at this point. I'm just a step away! I don't have a choice."
The three skeletons he had contained more than enough caeli for him to use, but it was clear that it would take at least a year for him to make a breakthrough if he did it the proper way. That was a lot of time, in which many things could happen. He couldn't wait that long to cross that huge divide.
"That's right. I wonder what's happening in the tomb Lin Hongchen discovered?" Perhaps there would be an opportunity there. There weren't any other places in the Oldgod Domain that stood out to him.
"He is... still inspecting... no results... for now," Yin Chen said.
"Alright, I'll go look for him!" Tianming knew what kind of person Lin Hongchen was, thanks to Yin Chen. Unlike Lin Jianxing, who was polite, or rather absolutely enamored with the ebons—much like many other disciples of the Lin Clan— but with Lin Hongchen, that didn't seem to be the case. He had refused Guchi Xiaoyin without holding back. Yin Chen had also said that his attitude toward the ebons was rather cold, and he seemed to care for other Lin Clan disciples. He had been a solo participant since the very beginning of the competition and hadn't teamed up with anyone.
"Lin Hongchen's father is Ku's illegitimate son, but due to disagreements, he became a key figure among the reformists. However, Lin Hongchen isn't like his dad, right?" If he was the same as his father, he would no doubt hate Tianming. "Whatever. I'll go take a look."
Three days later, Tianming reached his destination.
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