Chapter 924(B) – Settling the Cycle of Karma
As Lin Ming spoke, Lin Wanshan could only nod.
Lin Ming saw Lin Wanshan’s disappointment that these 18 puppets would be destroyed after they were used twice, but he wasn’t surprised. After all, a Patriarch of a mortal family had a single most important goal, and that was ensuring the prosperity of his descendants. How could his heart not ache upon learning that such divine objects that could protect his family clan would disappear after being used? It was just that with Lin Ming’s status, there was nothing he could say.
Lin Ming shook his head and said, “Even if these 18 puppets I leave behind can be used permanently, it still won’t be enough for the Lin Family to remain prosperous forever. Instead, it might cause the Lin Family’s might to rise as fast as a bubble, and also blow up as fast as a bubble. A hundred year dynasty, a thousand year sect, and a 10,000 year Holy Land; who doesn’t want to enjoy glory and prosperity forever? I also want the Lin Family to develop into a superpower that can live on for tens of thousands of years. But the Lin Family doesn’t have the foundation to do so, nor does it have the destiny. If the Lin Family is one day beaten into the sands of time and lost to the world, that is merely the cycle of samsara at work. It’s to be mourned, but it isn’t a bad thing.”
Lin Ming said these words to Lin Wanshan, but also to himself. A Holy Land like the Silent Demon Emperor City existed for only 3 to 4 thousand years, and even a Divine Kingdom would one day topple to the ground and be forgotten. The boundless universe was endless and infinite, but it was not eternal. This was the law of the Heavenly Dao.
A martial artist that chased after the peak of martial arts and wanted to live on forever in the world was defying the will of the heavens!
To step on this road meant to encounter countless dangers. Without a great destiny and valorous perseverance, one would never succeed.
Lin Wanshan knew that what Lin Ming said was the truth, and he had no words to refute him. If a small and weak family clan held a great power in their hands, that would only end in their own suffering and doom.
“Very well. After today’s matters, this can be considered as having settled the karma between me and the Lin Family. Once I leave this world, the prosperity and decline of the Lin Family will all depend on your own samsara and destiny. If you wish to resist samsara, you can only step onto the road of martial arts and resist destiny. If one day such a person were to appear within the Lin Family again, then that would be the Lin Family’s good fortune.”
If a martial artist wished to ensure that their conscience and heart were complete, then they couldn’t entangle themselves in cause and effect. They had to straighten out their karma in the world; it was impossible to cut it off.
Lin Ming’s karmic ties to this world were two. First was the Lin Family Clan, and second was Qin Xingxuan, Mu Qianyu, and his parents.
Lin Ming didn’t plan to receive the Lin Family Clan into the Divine Phoenix Clan. In the end, the Lin Family Clan was only a mortal family clan; they had very few martial talents. Even if Lin Ming were to bring them to Divine Phoenix Island, it still wouldn’t result in their family clan developing further. Rather, it would only burden Divine Phoenix Island.
If so, then it was better to let the Lin Family Clan stay in the mortal world. They could be kings, emperors, and rulers. They could achieve the ultimate glory and wealth possible to mortals.
As for Divine Phoenix Island, Mu Qianyu, Qin Xingxuan, and the others, that was another matter.
After all of this was finished, Lin Ming turned to Lan Yunyue and said, “Yunyue, come with me.”
Lin Ming moved towards the Hidden Smoke Pavilion. Lan Yunyue hesitated for a moment but silently followed him from behind. As she looked at Lin Ming’s tall and broad back, she felt a hundred different complex emotions swell up in her heart. In these last ten years, Lan Yunyue had regretted what she had done. But as her personality and mind gradually matured with adulthood, she began to see things differently, and she began to understand many things.
What was not hers was ultimately not hers. Perhaps the path she had chosen was also long ago decided by the hands of fate.
Lin Ming was a dragon amongst men, but she was not a phoenix amongst women. The great gulf that existed between them would only grow larger and larger. In other words, even if she didn’t betray Li Ming in the past, it was impossible for them to grow old together until both of them had heads full of white hair. Since this was their fate, perhaps giving all of this up was a good deed instead.
Within the luxurious and jade-inlaid Hidden Smoke Pavilion, Lin Ming randomly gestured to a chair in front. Lan Yunyue cautiously sat down in the center, her figure only occupying a third of the seat.
Lin Ming said, “Yunyue, if you never left me, then perhaps I would’ve had different experiences, and the scene now would’ve been different.”
Lin Ming obtained the Magic Cube in the kitchen of the Great Clarity Pavilion as he was deboning a gold-backed pangolin; it had come from the beast’s stomach. The reason that Lin Ming had gone to Great Clarity Pavilion was because Zhu Yan’s friend had forced him to lose his lodgings.
All of this had been set in motion by Lan Yunyue leaving Lin Ming.
Lan Yunyue gently shook her head, “Fate has no ifs or whats. These years, I believe more and more that heaven has arranged our paths for us. I’ve become used to this simple and plain life, and as I grow, I’ve learnt to slowly endure the sins brought about by the vanity and impulsiveness of my youth.”
Lan Yunyue’s voice was soft. She smoothed the hair that fell down her shoulders. Her face was still beautiful and her temperament was still pleasant and charming. Unexpectedly, there was even a faint taste of innocence to her, as if she were someone that had returned to their true state.
After ten years of trials and tribulations, as Lin Ming finally saw Lan Yunyue again, he couldn’t help but acknowledge that even though she was a mortal woman, she had an inherent beauty and elegance contained in her temperament and experience. She was like a thick, enthralling novel, leaving behind an emotional aftertaste to all who read her.
“You’re right. Fate has no ifs or whats, but that doesn’t mean that destiny cannot be changed. The past me also followed the flow of fate, but the current me has enough strength and destiny to resist that river of fate and defy the will of the heavens.
When one had a great destiny and lived the life of an Emperor, they would be able to resist fate and survive, turning bad luck into good fortune. As for this destiny, part of it was bestowed by the heavens, and another part of it was acc.u.mulated through the trials he went through. Even in the mortal world, there were similar views. For instance, the mortal who had a ‘tough life’ and wouldn’t die, the number one scholar who could divine the stars, or even historical figures that were True Dragons and sons of heaven, with the life of an emperor.
In mortal history, these so-called kings and emperors would often encounter many instances of a.s.sa.s.sination in their lives. But they would manage to avoid death every time. This was a result of their destiny. There was nearly never a case of a fierce and valiant hero who stole the hearts of the world that would be a.s.sa.s.sinated before they achieved their ambitions.
As Lin Ming spoke, he held onto Lin Yunyue’s sleeve that held her cut off hand. She was shocked and instinctively pulled back, not wanting to show off such a horrifying sight to Lin Ming. But her sleeve was tightly caught by him.
The originally slender and beautiful fingers had all been cut off, making one’s heart fill with incomparably pain. Lin Ming remained silent and began to slowly urge his energy into her body. Lan Yunyue felt a sudden flow of heat enter her, spreading through all her meridians, her limbs, her bones, and making her feel extremely comfortable.
Quickly, Lan Yunyue felt her body become increasingly hot. She began to fragrantly sweat from all over and before long her clothes were soaked wet. Faint traces of gray material came out with this sweat; these were the impurities within Lan Yunyue.
Lin Ming used his own true essence to help Lan Yunyue cleanse her being and wash her marrows. The reason he was able to do so was because after crossing Life Destruction and forming a complete spirit body, his understandings into the structures and principles of the human body had risen to a new level. If someone were to do this rashly, they would only end up ruining the other person’s meridians. After all, a mortal’s body was exceedingly fragile.
This process continued for a full hour. Lin Ming patiently and gently combed through every inch of Lan Yunyue’s meridians. At the end, her complexion was bright red and her chest was heaving up and down.
“Good,” Lin Ming said. He released another burst of energy that eliminated Lan Yunyue’s fatigue.
Lan Yunyue was surprised to find that she could clearly feel the flow of energy within her meridians. She had a faint feeling that as long as she wished to, she could clearly see throughout her own body.
“This is the Pulse Condensation realm?”
Lan Yunyue’s cultivation was only at the Altering Muscle stage. In the martial world, those that entered into the Xiantian realm would condense pre-natal energy within their bodies, returning to a fetus-like state where they breathed in energy and remained free from the pollution of the world. This could be called the time when one truly became a martial cultivator. Below the Xiantian realm, they wouldn’t be able to clear the impurities from their bodies, and remain only a mortal.
“This isn’t the Pulse Condensation realm.” Lin Ming shook his head, “Although I can help you directly increase your cultivation, that’ll only ruin your mentality and drive. It’ll affect your future progress. Now I have rid all of the postnatal air from your body, and transformed the meridians and cells of your body with energy. You shouldn’t have any problems in cultivating to the Xiantian realm.”
“Moreover, here is a pill that can help you regenerate your arm and extend your life by several hundred years. In the future I’ll also grant you further resources. If you cultivate diligently, you should be able to break into the Revolving Core realm, and live a thousand or even two thousand years. That is the limit of what I’m be able to help you to. To arrive at Life Destruction may be far too difficult for you.”
As Lin Ming spoke, he took out a medicinal pill from a jade bottle and slipped it between Lan Yunyue’s lips. He whispered, “Swallow this after chewing. This pill has mild aftereffects and shouldn’t bring you any harm.
Lan Yunyue tightened her lips and stared at Lin Ming as if she were in a daze. There was an unreadable emotion that played across her face. Eventually, she began to carefully chew the pill.
The pill was bitter. It was bitter like the last 10 years of life she had lived. As Lan Yunyue looked at the young man in front of her who was once her boyfriend, she couldn’t stop tears from forming at the corners of her eyes. She began to silently cry.
By meeting Lin Ming, she had made far too many mistakes and lost far too many things, but she had also obtained many things. He was a memory that she would never be able to forget, a figure that was eternally etched into her heart.
Lin Ming smiled, his gaze gentle and charming. He reached out a hand and wiped away her tears. “I’ll bring you somewhere. In the future, you can cultivate there. One day, I’ll leave this world, but that doesn’t mean that this will be our final farewell. If there is a chance, then I’ll return once more and we’ll walk with each other once more.”
Everything that Lin Ming did now was to resolve the worries he had left on this planet, and to prepare himself to ascend into the Divine Realm.
Although he didn’t know what Yang Yun’s plan was, the only thing he didn’t doubt was that the battle between them was inevitable.
And at this time, millions of miles away, Yang Yun was sitting cross-legged atop a mound of rocks. All around him was a bright sea of crimson red blood. Countless skeletons floated in this sea of blood. Some of these skeletons were jet black, hard like divine iron, and some resembled dark red blood, with an infernal energy that pierced through the heavens. There were even some that were crystal clear like jade, sending out a faint heavenly energy.
Without a doubt, these skeletons were all Supreme Elders during their lifetime. They were far stronger than Yang Laotian and Ouye Hua, and even far stronger than the Eightfall Thunder Emperor that had died in the 8000 Mile Black Swamp!
These skeletons were all from characters that had lived 100,000 years ago. They had once been Divine Realm powerhouses!
Waves of blood beat against the stone, causing it to splash into the air. In the far off horizon, a blue light shot towards this place. This light was a bronze ghost coffin, and atop of this coffin was a demon youth. That youth was Whitedemon.
“Demon Lord, why did you summon me back? Has something happened?” Whitedemon fell onto a rock opposite of Yang Yun and bowed in respect.