Chapter 2015 - The Smile of Destiny
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"What happened?"
"Bastard…"
"Prepare for combat!"
High in the skies, the saint race Heavenly Palaces had already descended into chaos.
To them, a beast tide erupting outside some nameless human city was just a minor matter not worthy of caring for. But, that terrifying Black Dragon roar brought with it a dreadful pressure that struck their fortress. They could sense just how formidable it was!
The Heavenly Palace shivered. As the spirit ships of these saint race 'pioneers' were about to reach the Heavenly Palace, they were all blown away and sent tumbling by a brutal storm.
"Motherfucker, what is going on!?"
A giant one-eyed leader of the saint pioneers shouted, incensed. Because of the shaking and tumbling ot the spirit ship just now, a number of high quality stones containing energy of the wild universe had tumbled to the floor. He thought one of his subordinates had operated the spirit ship incorrectly and had struck a meteor of some sort.
However, before he could continue cursing, he suddenly shut up. His eyes widened as he saw that in front of the bow of their spirit ship, several miles away, a giant Black Dragon head was poking out form the thick clouds.
"This… this…"
The pioneer leader was completely dazed. But at this time, he could vaguely see that standing just beside the horn of the Black Dragon was a black-clothed man.
Behind this black-clothed man were three other men in similar clothes. It was as if they were taking this man as their leader.
Woosh!
Those three men hurtled up from the dragon's head and impacted towards the saint race's Heavenly Palace.
The speed of these three men quickly reached the limit as they shot into the saint race Heavenly Palace like arrows. Compared to the giant saint race Heavenly Palace, their figures seemed as small as insects. However, just as they vanished into the Heavenly Palace's protective barriers, a giant explosion rang through the skies a short moment later!
The energy flows surging out from the explosion were not flames, but sweeping currents of chaotic black energy.
No matter what this terrifying chaotic energy struck, it would instantly evaporate into ashes!
Seeing this occur with their eyes, several saint martial artists rushed forwards, wanting to kill these three mysterious people. But they were swept up into that black energy whereupon they immediately vanished.
From head to toe, there was not a single drop of blood left over. Their bodies didn't shatter but melted away like snowflakes falling into boiling water.
This scene left the saint pioneers falling over each other in a jumble. They wanted to escape, but they saw that many other saint spirit ships also wanted to flee.
Within the armies of the saints there was a strict hierarchy. The size and color of a spirit ship represented its rank and who was riding within it. These saint pioneers helplessly watched as even a World King spirit ship started flying away, so why would they wait around?
However, just as they wanted to flee, they saw that the spirit ships rushing away from the Heavenly Palace suddenly struck an invisible force field that was several hundred miles away.
Bang!
The force field trembled and countless runes shimmered out of existence. Then, something horrifying occurred that left everyone dripping with sweat. The spirit ships that rammed into the force field all broke apart before directly exploding!
The three mysterious men blocked off the skies. A mystical energy swept out, evaporating everything!
All those riding the spirit ships, whether they were Holy Lords, World Kings, or Great World Kings, all of them were instantly killed off.
Seeing this, the saint pioneers were panic-stricken. To them, World Kings and Great World Kings were lofty characters that they would normally never see. But now they were all being killed off in droves, as if they were nothing but ants being stepped on!
It was at this time that everyone realized this planet had already been surrounded by a force field which shrouded over everyone!
No one would be able to escape…
At this time, a giant blood red centipede phantom shot up into the air from the saint race Heavenly Palace!
This blood red centipede was a thousand miles long and had two rows of brutally sharp and thick claws. As this blood centipede appeared, a dreadful pressure gushed out in waves, exciting all the saint martial artists present!
"The blood centipede astral essence totem, that is the symbol of Empyrean Blood Centipede after he undergoes his metamorphosis!"
A saint martial artist shouted out, his morale suddenly rising. The blood centipede was a rare variation bloodline amongst the saints, and Empyrean Blood Centipede who guarded the Fire God Galaxy was someone who possessed this bloodline.
But before the saint martial artists could cheer, that Black Dragon that was over a thousand miles long suddenly roared out loud and then threw itself towards that giant blood centipede phantom. Like a hawk catching a snake, it gripped its claws around that blood centipede!
And at this time, standing on the Black Dragon's back, the black-clothed man who had yet to move finally did so. His figure flashed and faded like gods and ghosts. In the next moment, a blinding spear light passed through space and pierced through the blood centipede phantom, immediately causing it to shatter and explode, its thick red blood sprinkling through space!
Empyrean Blood Centipede's pressure plummeted and the world returned to serenity once more…
Empyrean Blood Centipede had died. Even after undergoing his bloodline body metamorphosis, Lin Ming had taken less than 10 seconds to kill him off. He had been utterly rolled over!
All the saint martial artists started to tremble with fear. An Empyrean had been instantly killed like that?
Who was this person?
A demon?
From the ruins of the saint race Heavenly Palace, Lin Ming received the corpse of Empyrean Blood Centipede.
In this war against the saints, he would give no quarter, show no mercy. If he let even a single saint martial artist survive, who knew just how many humans they would go on to kill in the future?
For all those that entered the war, if they wished to obtain military exploits for benefits later, or if they desired to plunder wealth and gain fame by killing others, then they should have understood that they too could be killed off by others.
In this battle, from the point when Empyrean Blood Centipede was slain, the end result was already plain to all.
The disparity in strength was too great.
However, Lin Ming himself didn't really need to do anything. Just his three avatars was more than enough.
Now all that remained was cleaning up the battlefield.
As his avatars continued fighting, Lin Ming swept his eyes across the planet below him. His thoughts stirred and fell down from the skies.
……….
In the human city, some people looked at the brilliant fluctuations of energy in the night skies. These energy fluctuations looked like beautiful aurora borealises, but the people knew that they were actually phenomena produced from terrifying explosions.
"The saint race Heavenly Palace… has been destroyed!"
A Divine Sea martial artist could already vaguely make out the battle occurring in the high skies. The saint race Heavenly Palace had been blown apart!
A single stone had aroused a thousand waves. All the commoners in the human city were shocked speechless. That saint race Heavenly Palace had floated in the skies for the last hundred years and they were already used to its presence. They subconsciously believed that it would continue floating up there even after their death, but it had actually been blown up?
First was the eruption of the beast tide, then the Black Dragon roaring to the moon, then the retreat of the beast tide, and finally the explosion of the Heavenly Palace. Everything had occurred in a short period of time and had subverted all of their understandings. They didn't even have time to think about what this meant.
"The saints are finished!" Someone suddenly cried out.
"Our warriors have returned!"
Someone else joyously bellowed. And, these words stunned everyone.
Humanity… had returned?
This war that had such a massive difference in strength, a reversal had occurred?
Bang!!
As if to answer the questions of all mortals in the Fire God Galaxy, in the deep dark sky an even more blinding fluctuation of energy spread out once more. The saint race Heavenly Palace had been thoroughly destroyed. Faintly, one could hear the roar of a dragon echo through the world.
All of Fire God Galaxy began to bubble over with excitement.
"Our warriors have returned!!"
More and more people shouted out. This grief and dread that had existed for over a hundred years was all unleashed at this moment!
People started to sob in their happiness. Some people flew into the skies, some kissed the ground, and strangers turned to hug each other. All of them took deep breaths to calm themselves but they still couldn't contain the vivid excitement boiling up in their blood.
At this moment, their hearts seemed to beat as one!
Without undergoing hardship it was impossible to understand how precious the feeling of victory was at this moment.
In order to be free, in order to continue being free, at this time even the most cowardly individual wouldn't hesitate to rush onto the battlefield and shed their blood!
As Lin Ming walked into the streets he saw the crazy crowds all around him. He saw a young man running through the streets, waving his arms. He saw a mother with red eyes unable to stop her tears from falling. Finally, she knelt to the ground and held onto her child, breaking down in heaving sobs.
At this moment, Lin Ming finally understood that his life was already tightly connected to his own race, a connection that could never be separated… he would always belong to his people. Step by step, he had walked towards this day. He was proud to be able to fight for the continued survival of his race…
In the frenzied crowd, Lin Ming's calm behavior stood out from the rest. He quietly walked through the manic crowds and slowly headed towards a family home.
This was a family of five. In this age where the flames and chaos of war raged through the land, it was already extraordinary that they could guarantee the lives of their entire family to this point.
Song Yan and his wife hugged their children, hot tears streaming down their faces. Then, they saw a black-clothed youth step in front of their tent.
This youth clearly walked down the streets but it seemed as if he were utterly isolated from the world, as if he had walked down from the deepest end of the river of time. Song Yan was startled.
"You are...?"
Song Yan had a faint guess in his heart, but he couldn't be sure.
There were countless people like Song Yan in the Fire God Galaxy and many of them lived lives far more miserable than he did.
But, when Lin Ming used his divine sense to cover the entire Fire God Galaxy, had actually paid particular attention to Song Yan.
This was because of Song Yang's 12 year old son.
Lin Ming accidently discovered that this child had an extremely high talent in cultivating the martial path. When combined with his decisive stubbornness and firm moral character, he was simply someone born to live and breathe martial arts.
It would be a pity for such a good seedling to be wasted here.
Zhou Hui pulled Song Yan close. The sudden appearance of this black-clothed youth left her feeling restless. Although her cultivation was only at the Houtian realm, she could intuitively feel how terrifying this youth was.
"You're all good." Lin Ming turned towards Song Yan and his wife and faintly smiled. Then, he leaned over and asked Song Yang's son, "What is your name?"
The 12 year old boy looked at his father and then met Lin Ming's gaze. He replied, "Song Mo."
"Song Mo, very good. Are you willing to come with me? To see the outside world?"
Lin Ming smiled.
As this smile fell into Song Yan and Song Mo's eyes, at this moment they wouldn't understand just what it meant.
Many years later when Song Mo followed Dragon Fang and became Dragon Fang's direct disciple, it was only then that he would learn just what sort of existence this youth with the bright smile was.
This was probably a smile from the god of destiny…