Chapter 180 – The Unlucky Ancient Emperor
With great concentration, w.a.n.g Lin walked the path in the mountain. It had been seven years. Every time he broke a restriction, he would change it a little and add on a few more. If the path he took was like h.e.l.l and full of danger at every step, he would make it feel like the gra.s.s had turned to ice. Everything combined would make it feel like the heavens and earth were swallowing you.
If there was anyone unlucky enough to run into them, they would still lose a layer of skin if they didn’t die.
In these seven years, w.a.n.g Lin changed a lot in regards to his restriction technique. He had gained a lot of enlightenment. Now he could easily wield all of the restrictions broken by him as his own, and more effectively than they originally were.
This surprised w.a.n.g Lin and increased his interest even more. After all, the only way to exit this mountain was through restriction techniques.
In the past seven years of his restriction research, w.a.n.g Lin never just made simple observations; he was able to produce his own method of deducing how to get past the restrictions. This method was the result of countless trials and errors. He always worked slowly from the starting point, never missing a single detail. While he slowly he progressed, each of his steps forward were firm.
When it came to rare and difficult restrictions, he always started from the basics and slowly progressed through. Without any impatience in his heart, he slowly developed the mindset to practice restriction techniques.
There were many who could use restriction techniques; however, there are very few that have a deep understanding of them. Aside from a few old experts, no one else could match w.a.n.g Lin in restriction techniques.
Even w.a.n.g Lin himself was very confused. It seemed like his mediocre talent didn’t matter at all when practicing restriction techniques.
At this moment, w.a.n.g Lin sat cross-legged on a large rock. He was staring straight ahead at the cloud in the distance. The cloud was motionless.
As of two days ago, w.a.n.g Lin started staring at the cloud in deep meditation. He took out a jade and recorded a few words on it, then he drew on the ground.
This cloud appeared to be very subtle to w.a.n.g Lin. His restrictions were all around the mountain. If anyone wanted to get pa.s.sed them, they would have to fly through and rely on their luck to survive.
If it was seven years ago, w.a.n.g Lin would need to use small animals to experience a breakthrough in the restriction technique. However, with his now developed understanding of restrictions, especially with his soul piercing eyes, he only needed to stare at the cloud for a bit. While not fully comprehending the restriction, he was able to tell what restriction was in place. It was one that prevented flying.
In this way, the cloud restriction became even more ingenious. If there were no clouds, while the restriction would still be difficult to break, one would not be completely lost. However, the cloud covered the center of the restriction.
This increased the unknown variable within this restriction.
Even in this situation, w.a.n.g Lin’s heart didn’t become fl.u.s.tered. His eyes gleamed as he stared at the cloud. Suddenly, his hand started moving in a blur in front of him.
Afterimages of his hand started appearing until it looked like he had thousands of hands. These afterimages started to tremble, and then began to spread rapidly.
The afterimages created by w.a.n.g Lin’s hand formed a illusionary circle. He suddenly paused and thrusted his right hand forward. The illusionary circle formed by the afterimages flew toward the cloud.
After the illusionary circle entered the cloud, it started to dissipate. The illusionary caused waves to surge through the cloud. w.a.n.g Lin sat cross-legged, not even glancing at the clouds. With his eyes closed, he slowly started to frown.
This illusionary circle was a technique developed by w.a.n.g Lin to break restrictions. After seven years of research and improvement, he had mastered this technique.
He didn’t even need to look with his eyes. By examining on the wave produced by the illusionary circle, he was able to understand the structure and rules of the restriction. After a while, he opened his eyes. His right hand waved in front of him again. This time with a serious face, he moved his hand until the amount of time it takes for one incense stick to burn pa.s.sed by. Layers of the illusionary circle quickly appeared before him.
When the ten illusionary circles appeared, w.a.n.g Lin started to breath hard. He was losing control of his right hand. With the last of his strength, he thrusted his arm ten times.
The ten illusionary circles fell on the cloud one by one.
While forming the illusionary circles looked easy, it required w.a.n.g Ling to circle his hand tens of thousands of time for one circle to form.
This technique was the result of seven years of studying restriction techniques. One could say that the illusionary circle itself was a restriction technique.
The ten illusionary circles penetrated the cloud and faded away. This created endless amounts of ripples within the cloud, causing it to pulsate rapidly.
w.a.n.g Lin concealed his presence. His left hand then repeatedly drew a picture on the ground. After a long time, he opened his eyes and let out a smile. He waved his left hand and wiped away all the pictures on the rock. His eyes were s.h.i.+ning as he stood up, wiped away the pictures with his left hand, and then started rubbing it with his right hand. He looked down and calculated the time. He then suddenly moved his right hand and shot out a beam of light.
The light shot toward the cloud, causing it to tremble, then it slowly dissipated. As the cloud disappeared, what was hidden inside it was revealed.
w.a.n.g Lin took a deep breath. He took out a jade and carefully recorded its characteristics as he a.n.a.lysed the restriction. In the last seven years, whenever w.a.n.g Lin opened a restriction, he would record it so that he may use it again in the future.
After the time it takes for a full incense stick to burn pa.s.sed, he put away the jade. He stared at where the cloud was and saw a broken bridge only ten feet away from him.
This was the true face of the restriction. As w.a.n.g Lin was about to step forward, he carefully scanned the bridge. His eyes landed on a small tree growing next to the broken bridge.
With w.a.n.g Lin’s experience from breaking restrictions for the past seven years, he noticed that there was something wrong with the small tree. In all of the restrictions that w.a.n.g Lin had come across in this mountain, although very rarely, he would sometimes find two restrictions stacked on top of each other. But this restriction was very different from the precious restrictions.
This one must’ve been added by someone else. He himself had done the same thing many times in the past seven years. This little tree must have been placed here by someone else.
w.a.n.g Lin laughed coldly. He looked at the restriction on the little tree once and immediately recognized the same level of foul play he had encountered several times before. They were all created by the same person.
About four years ago, someone started to try to obstruct him with restrictions. After breaking them one by one, he had a good understanding of their restrictions.
The restrictions in the mountain normally didn’t activate unless he touched them. However, the restrictions set by this person were very different. The moment he entered their range, they immediately attacked him. If its attacks ended up being in vain, it would self-destruct and active all of the restrictions nearby, trapping the person in a prison of restrictions.
w.a.n.g Lin narrowed his eyes as he stared at the little tree. He sent out three illusionary circles. They landed on top of the little tree.
The little tree shook a little and the leaves started to fall off. The trunk quickly turned dark. After some time, it finally started to bend.
w.a.n.g Lin’s illusionary circle contained numerous restrictions. Its main role was to break restrictions. Thus, the restriction on the little tree broke, layer by layer.
A cold light flashed in w.a.n.g Lin’s eye. He quickly took the black sword out of his bag of holding and sent it towards the tree. At the same time, the bent tree trunk flew at w.a.n.g Lin.
The black sword suddenly flashed by, brus.h.i.+ng past the tree trunk and slicing it in two. When the tree trunk fell to the ground, it curled up and gradually revealed itself to be a brown centipede.
The centipede twisted a few times before turning into a cloud of black smoke. This black smoke gave off the feeling of death that would cause people to panic; however, it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
w.a.n.g Lin thought with a dignified look in his eyes. This was the first time he had seen a restriction that used a spirit beast where the spirit beast’s body created a black smoke that would cause panic. He felt very familiar with this method.
He was able to tell that this restriction and a few others before this were set up by the same person. It was really obvious that that person rarely used this kind of restriction. It wasn’t much stronger than the rest, but it was much more ingenious. If someone carelessly walked by, it would be hard to avoid death.
“Six Desire Devil Lord!” w.a.n.g Lin whispered. He knew why this felt so familiar to him. Back then, in the void, Six Desire Devil Lord wanted to use him to test his outlandish technique.
w.a.n.g Lin remembered this in his heart. The first time Six Desire Devil Lord targeted him, he decided to spare w.a.n.g Lin after a quick interaction. He used the youth he brought with him instead.
He used the body of that youth as a special material to cast spells. This time it was exactly the same, only the victim was a centipede.
At that very moment, on a rock 5000 feet from the mountain top, Six Desire Devil Lord suddenly turned around and stared at the mountain. The eyes of the youth standing at his side were no longer vacant, but filled with a deep, dull color.
“Who the h.e.l.l is it that kept breaking my restrictions in the last five years? He even broke the restriction I set to kill him in the clouds. Could it be Duanmu? No, it must be Ancient Emperor. That old bag of bones must have been studying restrictions for the past thousand years. This person will be my greatest enemy in the third test!” Six Desire Devil Lord whispered to himself.
A hint of fanaticism showed in his eyes. At the mountain top 5000 feet away, there was a giant whirlpool. That was the entrance to the third trial.
In the past seven years, Six Desire Devil Lord’s travels started out smoothly, but as he got closer to the top, the power and complexity of the restrictions grew. There were some truly stunning restrictions. It was one of those restrictions that trapped Six Desire Devil Lord for five years.
He turned away and quickly moved forward.
At that same moment, a person stepped out of the whirlpool at the foot of the mountain. This person was holding a whisk and wearing a veil covering his face with a fairy-like, gentle aura. He walked out confidently.
It was Ancient Emperor.
Although he looked calm, he wrinkled his brow. At the first trial, he went through the fire trial. It took him seven years to work his way through it.
There were many monsters within the fire trial. He killed countless numbers of them. While it would’ve been possible to break out sooner if he had used all his power, Ancient Emperor was a very patient man. He would rather waste time fighting than take a risk.
The amount of patience he had was what greatly differed him from Hunchback Meng.
Ancient Emperor was well prepared for breaking past the trial this time. Even though he ran into the fire trial, his natural weakness, he remained strong and made his way out one step at a time.
Although this took him a lot of time, his treasures were not used up, so when he tries to get past future trials, he will still have them.
However, on the road ahead, nothing could stop him. While there were many illusion restrictions, none of them were able to affect him.
After entering the second trial, Ancient Emperor let out a deep sigh. His eyes were fixed on the mountain top as he revealed a cold smile. For the past 1000 years, he’d been preparing for today.
If you wish to enter the third trial, you must learn about restriction. This was something he had learned by heart. If it wasn’t for his amazing speed that allowed him to cross the tunnel in three breaths all those years ago, even if he had killed all the people that were there that day, he would still have died.
He wasn’t like Six Desire Devil Lord, Duanmu, or Hunchback Meng. Over 1000 years ago, he was already at the mid stage of Soul Formation and was the leader of the last expedition.
Back then, Six Desire Devil Lord and the others were merely juniors in his eyes. If it wasn’t for his grave injury after escaping, how could those three still be alive today?
For the past 1000 years he had been recovering at the Sea of Devils and started developing his knowledge of restrictions so that he could attempt to enter the trial again. In those 1000 years, he was able to recover all of his cultivation, but he was unable to advance it. After careful a.n.a.lysis, he believed that the injuries from all those years ago had damaged his foundation. Unless he used some heavenly treasure, his cultivation would be forever stuck.
As a result, he became even more excited at the thought of re-entering the Land of the Ancient G.o.d. Only here would he find the treasure that could not only let him recover, but also help him advance to the Soul Transformation stage, allowing him to become an Soul Transformation expert. This would make all the hards.h.i.+ps he had suffered more than worth it.
To this end, he gave up cultivating and focused only on restriction research. He even went to many sects that were famous for their restriction techniques to study.
After 1000 years of study, he felt very confident in his ability. He even brought a few amazing surprises with him. He touched his bag of holding and widened his smile.
Without saying a word, he arrived at the first restriction at the foot of the mountain.
This was the first restriction he broke by force all those years ago. After glancing at it once, he stepped forward. He saw that there was no reason to waste time solving this restriction; it was much better to just smash it by force.
After all, this was exactly how he had pa.s.sed it all those years ago.
He recalled that the moment he had entered, the weeds turned into blades. Things turned out as he expected. The weeds around him flew up, as he expected, and it flew through the red mist that suddenly appeared. It then came back around and became a rain of swords.
Ancient Emperor acted like nothing happened and pressed forward. As the swords approached his body, they become covered in ice and instantly exploded.
The continuous popping sounds didn’t slow Ancient Emperor one bit. He easily reached the edge of the formation. He remembered that this was where a red light should appear.
Sure enough, just as he was thinking it, pillars of red light appeared around him. Ancient Emperor let out a short chant. His right hand made a fist and smashed into one of the red lights. The light immediately scattered and disappeared.
One after another, he punched the red lights. In less than two hours, all of the red lights were gone. He easily broke through this restriction.
Ancient Emperor stepped forward. He was eyeing the second restriction a few dozen feet away from him. After moving a hundred feet, his face suddenly changed. The moment he walked out of the restriction, black fog appeared all around him. This was clearly very different from the red lights and sounds of beasts that could be heard from within.
Shortly after, countless black swords and red lights appeared. They all flew towards him. Their speed was simply too fast; by the time he heard them, they were already on him.
Ancient Emperor’s face suddenly darkened. He let out a roar, and the spiritual energy that came out with the roar immediately turned into a thick wall of ice that surrounded him. Most of the attacks. .h.i.t the ice wall.
He then immediately retreated a few steps. He made a fist with this right hand and punched toward the ice wall. The ice immediately shattered into millions of pieces.
His left hand continued to shoot out spiritual energy that attached to the ice shards one by one. The ice rapidly melted and became clones of Ancient Emperor. They all sent out numerous techniques.
The restriction roared after receiving such a strong attack. It completely collapsed.
As the black fog disappeared, Ancient Emperor walked out with a gloomy face. His complexion darkened as he released a strong killing intent. “Six Desire Devil Lord, this restriction must have been laid by you!”
The surprise restriction that suddenly appeared made him not know what to do for a moment. If someone that wasn’t as strong him in that situation, even if they didn’t die, they would have been left in a sorry state.
The reason he was so sure it was Six Desire Devil Lord was because Duanmu didn’t have the temperament to learn restriction techniques. However, this didn’t exclude that brat w.a.n.g Lin.
But he firmly believed that it was Six Desire Devil Lord because he had completely forgotten about w.a.n.g Lin.
Now that he considered how evil the restriction was, he could not help but curse in his heart. He had secretly decided in his heart that no matter how simple a restriction may look, he would tread ever so carefully.
As w.a.n.g Lin slowly walked toward the mountain’s peak, he suddenly paused and looked at the foot of the mountain. He noticed that the first restriction he set had been broken.
However, w.a.n.g Lin felt no panic in his heart. As he was proceeding up the mountain in the past seven years, he had laid down countless restrictions to stop anyone behind him. Even if they managed to break through all the restrictions without dying, they would at least lose a layer of skin.
If their luck was bad, they might even cause the nearby restrictions to trigger. Even if it was someone in the Soul Formation stage, the only road for them was death.
There weren’t many super powerful restrictions behind w.a.n.g Lin. There were only three or four, on top of the restrictions that were already there. Six Desire Devil Lord had added a few layers on to them. After w.a.n.g Lin had painstakingly gotten through them, he added even more layers on top. And finally, for good measure, w.a.n.g Lin spent four weeks going back and chaining all the restrictions together so that if one gets triggered, the result would be disastrous.
w.a.n.g Lin let out a cold laugh. The people behind him didn’t matter. He continued moving forward.
The closer to the top w.a.n.g Lin got, the more he slowed down. He had to spend a lot of mental energy to understand how the restrictions functioned. He learned every detail of the restriction before he would attempt to break them.
With the restriction technique he created, he could only create up to ten illusionary circles. He couldn’t make any more than 10. Not to mention him, even someone at the Soul Formation stage couldn’t do more.
With this technique, if it was anyone else, the most they could make would be about three to five circles. The only reason w.a.n.g Lin was able to make is ten was because of the Ji Realm divine sense.
It was because of the support from this technique being drawn to the limit that w.a.n.g Lin was able to advance one time after another to the point where he could draw ten illusionary circles.
The jades he had used to record restrictions now numbered over a hundred. They were his treasures, proof of his growth.
w.a.n.g Lin’s will was definitely very strong. Many restrictions took him many days and nights to study and a.n.a.lyse, and then one day he finally had a breakthrough.
Time quickly pa.s.sed by and in the blink of an eye, three years had pa.s.sed. w.a.n.g Lin’s hair had already turned completely white. His eyes even sharper, as if they could pierce your soul.
w.a.n.g Lin had never thought he would spend ten years on a mountain top, but for him, these ten year pa.s.sed by quickly. Every moment was spent studying restrictions.
From his position, he was 6000 feet from the top of the mountain. However, starting at 3000 feet from the mountaintop floated a thick, white fog that made it impossible to reach the top.
After three years, w.a.n.g Lin didn’t have much spirit liquid left. He had to be very careful with how he expended his spiritual energy, making sure to conserve as much of it as possible.
Researching restrictions required a lot of mental energy, and as one expended mental energy, their spiritual energy would also be used up along with it.
Right now, his white hair was tied up. He sat cross-legged on a cliff surrounded by restrictions. These restrictions had all been destroyed by the illusionary circles created by this right hand.
As w.a.n.g Lin approached the top, he became more nervous, wondering if the person in front of him had already pa.s.sed the second trial. If that person didn’t pa.s.s, then he must be waiting for him up there. The restrictions up where w.a.n.g Lin was were so strong that if he randomly picked one, even someone in the Soul Formation stage would struggle to survive it.
As a result, w.a.n.g Lin couldn’t get distracted at all. His full focus must be dedicated to a.n.a.lysing the restrictions.
Regarding the person behind w.a.n.g Lin, he clearly felt his progress in the past three years. From the start, he would feel a restriction being broken every few weeks. Now it would be months before he felt one being broken. The reason why he was getting slower and slower was not only because of the increase in strength of the natural restrictions, it was also due to w.a.n.g Lin’s own growth. The restrictions he laid now were like heaven and earth compared to ones ten years ago.
w.a.n.g Lin slowly exhaled. His gaze s.h.i.+fted forward. Just like how he could detect the speed of the person behind him, the person in front also knew the speed in which w.a.n.g Lin was progressing. Maybe there would be some hidden danger that awaited further up.
w.a.n.g Lin let out a cold smile. He waved his hand and placed several restrictions. He had been sitting here for almost a year. He had to pay attention not only to what was above him, but also to what was below him. He laid countless restrictions all around this spot.w.a.n.g Lin was in no rush. He had no intention to run head long into the enemy’s trap. There must not be a single mistake at this point.
w.a.n.g Lin was waiting for the person behind him to catch up to let him pa.s.s first.
The person behind him must be at least at the Soul Formation stage. This was the reason w.a.n.g Lin stopped for a year. He had been laying down countless restriction not to attack, but to hide his presence.
After a year of laying down restrictions, w.a.n.g Lin felt confident that as long as he didn’t move, the other one will have a very hard time noticing his presence.
A few days later, w.a.n.g Lin felt a nearby restriction being broken.
His lip curled into a cold sneer as he stared back, eyes s.h.i.+ning.
Ancient Emperor’s anger had not subsided in these three years. Instead of subsiding, he felt more and more angry. In these past three years, he not only had to spend a lot of time breaking each restriction, he also had to be extra careful of the restrictions left behind by another person.
The thing that p.i.s.sed him off the most was that when he finally broke through a restriction, it would set off many other restrictions. He almost died dozens of times.
All along the way, he felt gloomy and couldn’t help but curse in his heart. Sometimes he couldn’t hold it in and would curse out loud. From his point of view, the person who added the restrictions was simply too vicious.
Sometimes, a restriction would look like it was nothing, but when he cracked it, that crack would turn out to be the activation for that restriction.
There were also restrictions that he could just walk past if he didn’t try to crack them. But if he did try to crack them, they would create an endless loop of restrictions. Step by step, even knowing the dangers ahead, he had to keep moving forward to finally escape from this h.e.l.l.
Unless he decided to give up halfway, he could only continue to climb up.
Every time he thought about it, his anger would boil. He wished he could tear apart the person that did this.
Sometimes, he would feel very strong spiritual energy and spend a long time observing, but he wouldn’t detect any restriction. After expending a great deal of spiritual energy, he would send out his treasures to test for any restriction only to find that there was no restriction, that the spiritual energy was left on on purpose to trick him.
What made him the most angry were places that looked completely normal, but if he watched carefully, a trace amount of spiritual energy could be sensed. These would be impossible to detect unless he gave them his undivided attention.
But then he would spend even more spiritual energy to check the area only to suddenly realize this was also a fake restriction.
In the past three years, Ancient Emperor had to deal with real and fake restrictions constantly. He would sometimes accidentally trigger a real restriction, causing a chain reaction.
At the first trial, he had spent more time to save his magic treasures, but now more than half of them had been used up. They were all used to defend himself when the restrictions were triggered.
His heart ached and he was full of regret. If only he had used those treasures to pa.s.s through the first trial sooner. If only if he was walking in front of that man, his path would be lot smoother.
Two years agom when he saw three different types of restrictions, he realized that Six Desire Devil Lord was only one of the people responsible for this.
He realized that there were two restriction masters in front of him. At first he was most weary of Six Desire Devil Lord, but now that crown went to the mystery man.
Cracking this person’s restrictions would leave one’s heart in dread. At first, while this person’s restrictions were very clever and detailed, they didn’t require much power. However, as he progressed, the mystery man’s skill improved leaps and bounds. The restrictions were not only smart but mind boggling complex.
At first, Ancient Emperor would easily crack the restrictions, but as time pa.s.sed, it took more and more out of him to work his way through the restrictions.
The presence of the mystery person became more important in his heart. He felt that at least in terms of knowledge of restrictions, that person was his rival. He felt that even though that person couldn’t match up to his thousand years of experience, the cleverness of the restrictions left him wordless.
What shocked him the most was that the mystery person looked like he had just started learning restriction techniques. It was very difficult to believe, but he was sure of this.
The most important part was that the layout of the restrictions were messy and large at first, but now they were very hard to find and had been refined to two special characteristics.
The very fast attack speed, method of attack, condition of the trigger, and timing made it difficult to respond in time.
In his heart, he thought highly of this person, and now even higher. He finally managed to break a restriction that took a great deal of effort. He walked out with a gloomy face.
He gazed upwards. He was still seven 7000 feet from the top. If it was like before, he could easily get there in the blink of an eye. Forget running there, even if he could fly he would still be forced to move with great care.
He clearly remembered 1000 years ago when there was a Soul Formation cultivator that was displaying his unique magic treasure with the ability to teleport him around the mountain. When he suddenly disappeared, a purple lightning bolt came cras.h.i.+ng down and interrupted his technique.
The magic treasure was being used like a toy, but it was suddenly struck by the lightning along with the entire body of the user until there was no trace remaining.
This scene left everyone in silence. To fly in the air meant attracting the purple lightning, so everyone opted to trek through the ground rather than attempting to fly.
Ancient Emperor continued for a month. The distance between him and w.a.n.g Ling had gotten smaller and smaller. This was the first time w.a.n.g Lin got to see a Soul Formation expert break through a restriction.
Today, Ancient Emperor stood only ten feet away from w.a.n.g Lin. His gaze suddenly s.h.i.+fted to where w.a.n.g Lin sat. His eyes gave off an odd light.