Chapter 1011 – Lin Ming Leaves Seclusion

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“Thank you lord and lady envoy for your help in inquiring about the standard needed for phoenix blood essence. No matter what, I will not be afraid. I have full confidence in my own abilities!” Yan Littlemoon gripped her fists together, her voice solemn. She had obtained an entire pond of Ancient Phoenix blood, so the quantity of her bloodline was already enough. However, that pool of blood hadn’t been too high in quality; she needed a drop of phoenix blood essence to round it out and put the final finishing touches on her bloodline. As long as she could obtain a drop of phoenix blood essence, the power of her bloodline would increase to another level.

Monarch Sweetyfox shook her head as she saw Yan Littlemoon. With the Yan Family’s foundation and connections, it would be impossible for the standard to be reduced by even a little bit. In other words, Yan Littlemoon would face the most harsh and difficult standard possible.

If this standard was the only one, then perhaps even Xiao Chuji, who obtained a drop of phoenix blood essence 10,000 years ago, would find it unbearable.

It had to be known that Xiao Chuji was currently one of the greatest candidates to be the next Patriarch, and he was also the most illustrious figure of the entire Xiao Family!

In any case, Monarch Sweetyfox would do as regulations required and report this message.

She took out an exquisite and delicate array disc from her spatial ring. Her 10 fingers linked together and produced thousands of seals in an instant. These seals combined together into complex runes as they poured into the array disc.

A character on the level of Monarch Sweetyfox was already able to perform the great void shift, and that made sending messages much easier. If there were some specialized supportive array formations added on, then it wasn’t difficult to send a message even past several great worlds of the Divine Realm.

Just two hours later, Monarch Sweetyfox received a reply from headquarters.

Hu –

A blazing flame lit up in front of Monarch Sweetyfox’s array disc. It turned into countless runes that sank into her mind. The sound transmission runes that the Ancient Phoenix Clan sent back were much more convenient than sending a voice message. Not only were they easier to understand, but they also prevented the message from being leaked out.

Monarch Sweetyfox’s eyebrows shot up. Although she already expected that headquarters would respond with an extremely overbearing and default standard, she still let out a light breath upon hearing what it was.

She shook her head and said to herself, “Headquarters is being a bit petty. This sort of standard is no different from saying no. But, headquarters also has their own issues. The Ancient Phoenix Clan has over 100 billion clansmen, and the resources required every year are countless. It’s difficult to maintain a balance between harvesting resources and handing them out. Especially when it comes to something like Ancient Phoenix blood essence, there are countless people that are greedily eyeing it and can’t obtain it. In particular the candidates to be the next Patriarch. Everyone wants a single drop, and in order for her to obtain a single drop and others not to, the standards must definitely be high.”

As Monarch Sweetyfox was thinking, Chu Redcloud was eagerly looking at her, waiting for her to speak.

Monarch Sweetyfox faintly smiled and said, “Headquarters passed down instructions. In order to obtain a drop of phoenix blood essence, you will need to enter the seventh level of the Hells of Flame before the Ancient Phoenix smelting trial ends! Moreover, you must fully complete the Thousand Slaughter within the Illusionary God Combat Array!”

As Monarch Sweetyfox said this, even Duke Golden Sword ruefully smiled. Headquarters was simply playing a joke on others.

In the 18 Hells of Flame, the further down one went, the more difficult it became; the difficulty grew at a nearly exponential rate. In the smelting trial for rookie disciples, only a peak talent of a branch palace was able to enter the fourth level of the Hells of Flame.

The fifth level was reserved for talents such as White Daohong and Lu Xiaoyun. During their first smelting trial here, they had both been able to enter the fifth level by the end. But, they didn’t manage to reach the 8000-9000 mile depth of the fifth level.

The sixth level was nearly a legendary domain to the branch palaces. In a smelting trial location like Fire Spirit Star, with Charming Phoenix Palace, Phoenix Cry Palace, and Praying Phoenix Palace combined together, there might not even be someone that could reach that depth in 1000 years!

But, if all 72 branch palaces of the Ancient Phoenix Clan were gathered together, along with headquarters and the three great families, it wasn’t too rare of an event. Someone that could enter the sixth level would appear once every 20-30 years.

But to travel 5000 miles into the sixth level, those people nearly didn’t exist. Even in the entire Ancient Phoenix Clan, it was still extremely rare for one or two people capable of such a feat to appear in a thousand years.

After that was the seventh level. That was simply not a domain possible for rookie disciples to reach. Even a peak late Divine Sea genius would find it extremely difficult to go that far. Most of those that trained in the seventh level were early Divine Transformation realm disciples!

For instance, White Daohong and Lu Xiaoyun both reached the eleventh level.

That was a depth that cast away all other Divine Transformation realm disciples. Most Divine Transformation realm disciples were still only capable of reaching the eighth and ninth levels.

Of course, if one had to persist in asking the Ancient Phoenix Clan if there were any junior disciples capable of reaching the seventh level in all these years, there certainly would be. For instance, Xiao Chuji from 10,000 years ago was capable of reaching the seventh level when the smelting trial ended. But, Xiao Chuji had been at the eighth stage of Life Destruction and Yan Littlemoon was only at the seventh stage of Life Destruction.

Between the eighth stage of Life Destruction and the seventh stage of Life Destruction, there was only a difference of a single stage. But to a peak talent, there was an enormous disparity between every stage of Life Destruction!

Moreover, reaching the seventh level of the Hells of Flame was only a single aspect. There was also another aspect, and that was the Illusionary God Combat Array!

The Hells of Flame trial looked at one’s comprehension of Laws. But, the Illusionary God Combat Array trial tested one’s true combat strength.

And the condition to complete the Thousand Slaughter within the Illusionary God Combat Array was far more difficult than reaching the seventh level of the Hells of Flame!

Envoy Duke Golden Sword himself was a combat freak. His comprehension of Laws was ordinary, but in terms of actual combat, his talent was terrifying. It was also because of this point that he was able to become the Disciplinary Elder successor. After all, in a true battle, what decided victory or defeat was actual combat strength. Comprehension of Laws was only an indicator of one’s future potential and accomplishments. If one had great attainments in Laws, it was still useless if they couldn’t defeat someone else.

True combat strength had always been the point of pride for Envoy Duke Golden Sword. During his own rookie smelting trial, he had gone through the Illusionary God Combat Array and had killed over 600 individuals. This result was enough to shock and awe the trial site guardian at the time!

As for completing the Thousand Slaughter, Envoy Duke Golden Sword only had two words to say – Ha. Ha.

The Illusionary God Combat Array also became increasingly difficult the further it went. This was because the enemies within would become increasingly strong, and every opponent would also be a peak talent!

After several hundred people, the enemies that would emerge would be on the same level of talent as White Daohong and Lu Xiaoyun. Of course, their ages would also be the same as the trial challengers’. In other words, one would have to face White Daohong and Lu Xiaoyun when they were in their twenties.

Facing such an opponent one on one would already be a difficult situation to win in, but facing against a crowd of them, how could one continue to fight?

No matter how one looked at it, headquarters simply didn’t want to pass down a drop of phoenix blood essence. This was because there were far too many factors involved in the growth of a talent. Even if Yan Littlemoon seemed extraordinary now, there might be some problems on her future road of martial arts. For instance, maybe she would exhaust all of her potential or all of her destiny. She might even go adventuring in a mystic realm and perish there!

Phoenix blood essence had far greater advantages the earlier it was implanted in a martial artist’s body. Even so, the only way headquarters would be willing to pass down a drop of phoenix blood essence would be if Yan Littlemoon’s talent was so extraordinary that the Elders at headquarters all had their eyeballs pop out of their heads when they heard of it. Otherwise, they would never take such a risk.

As Chu Redcloud heard Monarch Sweetyfox’s conditions, her expression of anticipation suddenly froze. Screw making things tough, this was simply playing a joke on them!

“How can anyone possibly accomplish such a request!?” Chu Redcloud directly blurted out, ignoring just how great Monarch Sweetyfox’s status was.

Although Monarch Sweetyfox agreed with Chu Redcloud, she definitely couldn’t say such words publicly. She was someone from headquarters, and thus she had to respect headquarters’ wishes. She said, “This target isn’t something that I came up with. Moreover, in the last 10,000 years, there have been some individuals that managed to reach the seventh level of the Hells of Flame, such as Xiao Chuji, Huang Yuefeng, and other such unrivalled geniuses. All of them were able to accomplish that. As for completing the Thousand Slaughter within the Illusionary God Combat Array, I suppose you would have to look further back in history, but it isn’t like no one has ever accomplished it. The standards that headquarters have set are difficult, but they are not impossible.”

“Xiao Chuji, Huang Yuefeng…” Chu Redcloud sucked in a breath of cold air. Those two people were the leaders of the Xiao Family and Huang Family. They were heroes amongst heroes!

“Great Envoy Sweetyfox, I also know that those two individuals were older than Littlemoon when they underwent their rookie smelting trial. Moreover, their cultivations were also higher. Senior Xiao Chuji was at the eighth stage of Life Destruction, and Senior Huang Yuefeng was also likely at the eighth stage of Life Destruction! They are a level apart and yet the standards are still the same. How could there be such a truth? Moreover, although Seniors Xiao Chuji and Huang Yuefeng were able to enter the seventh level of the Hells of Flame, neither of them were able to complete the Thousand Slaughter within the Illusionary God Combat Array!”

Monarch Sweetyfox faintly smiled and said, “Yes, that’s right, that’s why Senior Huang Yuegong wasn’t able to obtain a drop of phoenix blood essence. But, the reason Senior Xiao Chuji was able to obtain a drop was that the Xiao Family worked their connections in the background. For this drop of phoenix blood essence, the Xiao Family paid a tremendous amount of equivalent merit points to balance out the difference in standards. If the Yan Family has earned enough merit points, then they may also have the standards reduced by a small amount.”

Chu Redcloud’s expression stiffened and she finally shook her head. The so-called merit points were a conversion of a family’s contributions to the Ancient Phoenix Clan. The three great family clans had existed for countless tens of thousands of years, and the amount of merit points they accumulated was certainly astronomically high. But, the foundation of the Yan Family was too shallow and they didn’t have any merit points. They lacked the ability to help Yan Littlemoon lower the standards. Moreover, even if they did reduce the standards by a little, that wouldn’t make it much easier.

“Aunty, there’s no need to say anything else. There is still a year left. I won’t necessarily lose! There have been some people that have entered the seventh level of the Hells of Flame, and there have also been some people that have completed the Thousand Slaughter in the Illusionary God Combat Array. Since my predecessors were able to succeed, I don’t believe that I can’t do the same. And if I can’t, that only proves that my strength is weaker than others’ and I have no right to complain.” Yan Littlemoon said, stopped Chu Redcloud from speaking further.

“Littlemoon….” Chu Redcloud sighed.

“Aunty, since I have set my determination I will struggle as much as I can, and I also will not regret my decisions. Moreover, since these are the standards that headquarters has sent down, it’s useless for us to oppose them.”

As Yan Littlemoon spook, Chu Redcloud could only let out a long breath. She no longer tried to complain. Indeed, they didn’t have the ability to change a decision made by headquarters. “Okay, Littlemoon, try the Illusionary God Combat Array first. Let’s see how far you can go and how many opponents you can slay…”

As Chu Redcloud spoke, the protective barrier of light around Totem Tower suddenly trembled. Then, ripples appeared in the barrier as it was ripped apart by someone. A young man’s figure leisurely strolled out from Totem Tower, his long hair hanging loose against his waist. At this point, he looked disheveled, but his eyes shined like stars in the night sky, incomparably bright.

“Mm? Isn’t that Lin Ming? He actually stayed within Totem Tower for over a year before he came out?”

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