Chapter 2271 - Don't Kill Me
Lin Hongchen was located beneath all the other participants in the dangerous area the Mundus Enforcers had warned everyone about. The minor reges mundi ranking event focused on confrontations between participants, so usually there would be no need for anyone to go that deep down. Few orderan seniors would even dare to approach the middle layer of the Oldgod Domain. That place wasn't just populated with powerful nova wildbeasts, but there had also been many past incidents near that area of incredibly mysterious nature that never had any rhyme or reason.
Actually, the participants were only hanging around the 'top skin' of the Oldgod Domain.
Yin Chen's surveillance range was much larger than any other participant could take in. Quite a few of its bodies had made their way to the middle layers, though many of them were destroyed by the underground divine hazards. It had no choice but to slowly spread its reach and replenish the bodies it lost to sustain ten billion of itself as best it could.
It had passed through the area Lin Hongchen was currently located long before, but it wasn't able to enter it due to the complicated formation that blocked it off. Tianming finally made his way there. The underground world was incredibly messy, making it hard to see far ahead. He could only continue going deeper until he reached his destination.
Using his Sky Plundering Eye to look past the dark formation, he spotted Lin Hongchen, as well as the tomb he was earnestly studying. "Is that the tomb?"
The tomb was actually a black spherical rock that had a diameter of roughly twenty meters. It also had an incredibly glossy surface, though Yin Chen said that it hadn’t initially looked like that. Originally, there had been a large vein of divine ores there. Lin Hongchen seemed to have detected the energy coming from the formation within, so he destroyed the ores near the outside and uncovered the smooth sphere that was devoid of any carving or scratch. However, the divine celestial patterns that adorned it were clearly moving about, forming an incredibly stable structure. Even with Lin Hongchen's impressive cosmic artifact and rank twenty-nine strength, he wasn't able to do any damage to the tomb whatsoever.
Yin Chen wasn't the one who started calling it a tomb; it was Lin Hongchen himself, which showed he had some sort of understanding regarding its true nature. He’d spent quite a bit of time studying it, while Tianming had remained hidden in the darkness to observe without daring to make a direct approach.
"Is it something like the ancestral guidance steles? Does it require a key?" He felt that was indeed possible. At least, his sky plunderer instincts were pointing him in that direction. However, he didn't make an approach yet, as he couldn't trust Lin Hongchen enough to be sure that he wouldn't be harmed or hindered.
"Shuntian Bohan was ranked around eight hundred, and I wasn't his match. There's no doubt that the number-one participant of the Lin Clan, who's ranked twenty-ninth, would be able to casually disqualify me." Tianming still had some measure of self-awareness, at least. He was gambling on Lin Hongchen being unable to open the tomb. From his initial observations, he gathered that the lock on the sphere was no doubt more complicated than those on the skeletons.
"Since there isn't anyone else around, I might as well wait. If he's unable to deal with it, he'll no doubt turn to other methods." The tomb wasn't large, but it was completely impossible to put it within his spatial ring.
An entire day passed as Tianming watched Lin Hongchen use all kinds of tricks to unlock it. He even resorted to using his swordbeasts to attack it, only to fail to so much as scratch it. He seemed somewhat desperate, too. However, he was patient enough to keep trying to find the slim strand of hope, like a fly that wasn't able to find a way into the pristine and uncracked egg before it but continued attempting to nonetheless.
"He can't be faulted for this. I bet not even his seniors would be able to do anything about it." Tianming continued waiting. Right as he focused, Lin Hongchen suddenly stopped pacing around the room and turned to look in his direction.
"Huh?" Tianming started in surprise. He had to be really close to be able to see anything, as his field of vision in the Oldgod Domain was really bad, so he actually wasn’t far away from Lin Hongchen. Perhaps he had given himself away due to a bout of carelessness. Lin Hongchen had picked up on the small motions he’d failed to conceal.
"Who’s there?" Lin Hongchen narrowed his eyes, then drew his thin, white sword and crossed an insurmountable distance to reach Tianming in a flash. The power of his order came pouring down like a waterfall and Tianming felt as if every single albus in his body was being held at the point of Lin Hongchen's sword.
"Don't kill me! It's Lin Feng!" he barked in a desperate attempt.
His identity did turn out to be special enough to be useful after all. After hearing his name, the white cosmic artifact stopped right in front of Tianming's eyes. There was a white cosmic impulse pulsing from the blade that pierced a small hole into his face, and that was after Lin Hongchen had stopped the attack.
As for the reason he had stopped, it was no doubt because he didn't want to disqualify a clan member in front of an audience. All of the people in the clan were watching him. Tianming was Lin Mu's son, sure, but he was no longer considered trash and had earned some respect for his capabilities. Lin Hongchen, on the other hand, had cultivated a just and righteous persona. Unlike Lin Jianxing, he had no grudges with 'Lin Feng' at all.
The white sword flew back and a youth of unparalleled handsomeness appeared in front of Tianming, his eyes completely white as he coldly glared at Tianming. "Why’d you show up here?"
Though Lin Hongchen was a handsome, and some may say, beautiful, young man, his voice was incredibly deep and masculine, almost hoarse. His single attack had already proven to Tianming how powerful he was.
Tianming recalled the threat he had felt and was incredibly relieved. As expected of the top contender of the Lin Clan, as well as Ku's grandson. Yet despite facing that immense pressure, he curled his lips into a relaxed smile. The wounds on his face quickly healed, thanks to the Greenspark Tower. Even the blood he’d spilled had been reabsorbed.
"I saw all that, but it's fine. Just like you, I've put my Oldgod Ring away. In other words, nobody apart from us saw what you were researching." Tianming left one fact unspoken: there were no Mundus Enforcers in the area around them! Even they weren't able to see the tomb.
The participants had been warned about the life-threatening risk of removing one's Oldgod Ring, the main one being the loss of the Mundus Enforcers’ ability to track the participants. If they died as a result of their choice, they would be solely responsible for it.
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