Chapter 1860 - A Hundred Million Years
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Lin Ming's last words were calm but steadfast.
Beneath the shimmering moonlight, Sheng Mei and Lin Ming looked at each other, neither speaking for a long time.
Lin Ming didn't know just what Sheng Mei was thinking.
He even faintly felt that if he were to part ways with Sheng Mei today, if they were to meet again in the future their relationship would no longer be the same.
"Your golden pages."
Lin Ming waved his hand and four golden pages flew towards Sheng Mei.
Sheng Mei received the golden pages and turned to leave. But at this time, Lin Ming called out to her, "Wait one moment!"
Sheng Mei stopped. With her back to Lin Ming, her black hair fluttered in the night wind. Bathed in starlight, her entire body sparkled with a gentle brilliance.
"I have a question… you can choose not to answer." Lin Ming said after a moment of hesitation.
"Speak…" Sheng Mei faintly said. She knew that even if Lin Ming called out to her, he wouldn't have changed his mind.
"I want to ask… when you asked me to leave with you, was it to follow you, or follow the spiritas?"
Lin Ming always felt something was off, as if Sheng Mei had something she couldn't say. Every time she sent a sound transmission she also isolated herself from the outside so that no one could eavesdrop. Even amongst the spiritas she seemed to be wary of something. This made Lin Ming feel that the situation was a bit unusual.
Since she didn't want the spiritas to eavesdrop on her, then that meant the words she spoke must have vaguely involved some secret.
Sheng Mei indifferently said, "You have already refused, so what meaning is there in asking another question? Following me or following the spiritas, is there a difference?"
"Yes, I want to know."
Lin Ming's reply was firm. Sheng Mei suddenly turned around, her deep and silent gaze focused on Lin Ming, her pupils shining like black gems. As the two pairs of eyes met, the decisiveness in Lin Ming's eyes caused Sheng Mei's thoughts to tremble for the briefest moment.
As if in that moment, her originally frozen heart began to slowly warm, the layers of ice she formed melting away with Lin Ming's words.
"Following me…" Sheng Mei's sound transmission echoed in Lin Ming's ears. "To go somewhere with me, to not return to the Divine Realm, to not return to the Soul World, to go somewhere for a hundred million years, far away from the storm of the great calamity. To discard everything else, that is a silly proposal… isn't it? The truth is that when I asked you I already knew it was impossible…"
Sheng Mei shook her head. Even though she knew it was an impossible proposition she still asked Lin Ming to rid herself of the last wild hopes in her heart.
If she didn't give it her all and strive for everything she wanted, then there would always be regrets.
What Sheng Mei wanted was not Lin Ming's answer. What she wanted was only… to not leave behind any regrets.
"A hundred million years!?"
Lin Ming sucked in a breath of cold air.
Living for all this time, he was still only a mere 150 years old. A hundred million years was an unimaginable span of time. Even most Empyreans only lived for a hundred million years!
And if Sheng Mei proposed that they leave together for a hundred million years, that was in truth acknowledging that both she and Lin Ming would be able to break into True Divinity. And in fact, there was no need to doubt the veracity of this.
"Why?"
Lin Ming was confused. Was this 'place' somewhere in the 33 Heavens? Or was it separate from the 33 Heavens? In order for a genius to grow, they needed an ever broader stage. He didn't believe that staying in one fixed place for a hundred million years was conducive to increasing one's cultivation.
So why had Sheng Mei made this choice?
"There is no need for you to know." Sheng Mei said, without any intention of explaining herself further. "Two of these golden pages originally belong to you, but I fear you cannot bring them away yourself otherwise you will be drawing a fatal disaster upon yourself. Right now you are far too weak to protect them. This is your compensation."
Sheng Mei waved her arm and a golden jade slip flew into Lin Ming's hand.
As Lin Ming looked over this jade slip, his heart shook.
This jade slip was a compilation of the 10 golden pages!
Of course, this was only an imitation, but even an imitation was extremely precious, because in order to create an imitation of the golden pages one needed to be at least a True Divinity level character to reproduce 10-20% of the original's charm. Moreover, a massive amount of time and energy would be required.
It was impossible for an Empyrean to copy them.
For Lin Ming alone, the value of this jade slip surpassed the two golden pages. This was because Lin Ming had already looked through the golden pages and recorded their contents.
And since Lin Ming gave the golden pages to Sheng Mei, that was the same as shaking himself off from the focus of the large influences. At the very least he wouldn't be instantly chased down and hunted.
In this sort of situation, Lin Ming didn't have any more life or death blood enemies in the Soul World. Humanity wasn't hostile with the spiritas to begin with, and in the Akashic Dream Battlefield, Lin Ming had only slapped the faces of some large influences; it wasn't an irreconcilable difference. And, with everyone knowing about the connection between him and Sheng Mei yet not fully knowing how they were related, no one would risk offending Sheng Mei just to kill off Lin Ming.
In just this point, Sheng Mei had helped Lin Ming a great deal.
"Thank you." Lin Ming said from his heart. Although the reference value was lower than the original golden pages, it was still the complete book.
It was only a pity that Lin Ming didn't have the black book.
"There is no need to thank me. I received your two original golden pages and they are far more valuable than this imitation jade slip. This is simply a transaction, and since it is a fair trade there is no need for you to owe me anything."
Sheng Mei coldly said. As Lin Ming listened to her he could hear a resolute tone in it, making him feel inexplicably dispirited.
If it was said that there was a hint of friendship between him and Sheng Mei, then that friendship could be said to have been severed or even frozen away by Sheng Mei.
"You and I will meet again in the future. But, the only change is that we will be enemies. I will not hold back, but unfortunately… you are too weak, and I cannot bear to destroy you…
"Let me tell you something else. I believe you only have 20-30 years before the saints mount their full invasion against humanity. You have no capabilities of stopping them. But since you have stubbornly chosen to walk down this road filled with thorns, you should continue to stubbornly press on."
20-30 years?
Lin Ming's thoughts darkened. Perhaps it might be as Sheng Mei said and there wouldn't be anything he could do, but in any case he wouldn't run. No matter how brutal or disastrous the great calamity was, humanity would still have those that lit the incense for them in the future…
"You said that before the saints invaded humanity, they had to wage war in the Primeval Realm Ruins. So, are you saying that in another 20-30 years, the ancient races within the Primeval Realm Ruins will be thoroughly suppressed by the saints?"
"Yes. The various ancient races are descendants of the races that existed 10 billion years ago. Amongst them, the most powerful one is the primal god race. They harbor the decree of the gods and even the Good Fortune Saint Sovereign must respect them!"
"What!? Primal god race!?"
Lin Ming was bewildered!
The primal god race was the race that the goddess of the ancient grave in the Eternal Demon Abyss - Heavenly Empress Xuanqing, came from. When Empyrean Primordius established the Samsara Road in the past, a part of the reason he did so was to prop up and help the primal god race.
But afterwards, he had been defeated.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the primal god race was the most perfect race molded by the hands of heaven. Their souls, mortal bodies, and inner worlds were all formidable and they were able to triple cultivate essence, energy, and soul. They were strong as soon as they were born and possessed talent that defied the heavens. Moreover, their lifespans were ten times longer than those of humans.
This was a race that even the heavens envied. They were powerful to a ridiculous extreme, but their fertility rate was despairingly low.
No matter how powerful a race was, if they couldn't procreate and expand then they would only slowly decline. Many people believed that the primal god race was so powerful that the Heavenly Dao decided to no longer abide their existence, thus starting their trend towards annihilation.
Lin Ming wouldn't forget the benevolence of the primal god race.
In the past within the Sky Spill Continent, because of Heavenly Empress Xuanqing, there was the Forsaken God Clan that existed there which could trace their roots back to the primal god race. Of course, the bloodlines of the Forsaken God Clan had become unbelievably thin, and in truth they were closer to humans. When Lin Ming was forced into a dead end by the Asura Divine Kingdom, it was the Forsaken God Clan that had taken him in under the shelter of Shibai. Lin Ming was then able to launch his counterattack against the Asura Divine Kingdom and shock the entire continent in a great battle after reaching Life Destruction.
Afterwards, when Lin Ming was chased down by Tian Mingzi it was again Heavenly Empress Xuanqing who had saved him. In fact, it was Heavenly Empress Xuanqing's body that now housed Mo Eversnow's soul.
How could he forget all of the kindness they had shown him? Now that he heard Sheng Mei say that the primal god race would soon be exterminated by the saints, it was impossible for him to remain calm.
Yet, he was too weak to stop that from occurring.
"I… how can I go to the Primeval Realm Ruins?"
Lin Ming asked through grit teeth.
Sheng Mei looked at Lin Ming and coldly laughed. "Why do you want to go? Even though you would be walking towards your own doom you still want to help bury the primal god race?"
Sheng Mei mocked. Lin Ming clenched his fists so hard that he drew blood from his palms. He knew that everything Sheng Mei said was the truth!
Yet again, Lin Ming felt sorrow over how weak he was!
He had lived for 150 years, singing nothing but victory all this way, so how could he feel so powerless?
Zhu Yan, Xuan Wuji, Yang Yun, Tian Mingzi, all of these incomparably powerful enemies had far surpassed his boundary in the past, and yet he had defeated them one at a time. But the saints, they were an entire race!
How much time would he need before he could surpass them?
"Does the primal god race possess True Divinities?" Lin Ming took a deep breath, returning his mood to normal. He knew he needed to remain calm.
He feared he wasn't able to help the primal god race, but he couldn't sit back and watch them be destroyed. He needed to understand the specifics of the situation and analyze them for a potential breakthrough.
Perhaps there was the thinnest thread of hope.
"True Divinity? If the primal god race had a True Divinity why would their people face extermination?" Sheng Mei sighed. "The primal god race are the favored children of the world. If a True Divinity is born amongst their ranks, that True Divinity will be far more powerful than an ordinary True Divinity. In addition, because they possess the decree of the gods, even the saints don't dare to recklessly go against them. Otherwise, even if the primal god race perished it is highly possible that they would drag down two saint True Divinities with them. There are no True Divinities who are willing to be sacrificial victims in a war between two races.
"Thus, the saints decided to act only when a hundred million years passed after the last True Divinity of the primal god race died! Within the 33 Heavens, the primal god race was once the most magnificent, most glorious, largest, brightest race of the entire martial arts civilization, also possessing the deepest background. Even if the current saints and spiritas were to be added together now, they likely wouldn't even compare to half of what the primal god race was at their pinnacle. 10 billion years ago, the reason so many outstanding young elites and peerless sovereigns appeared was because the primal god race was far too talented! But what a pity, this vast and ancient race couldn't escape the samsara of life and death in the end. The curse of the Heavenly Dao has now brought them to the brink of destruction…"