Chapter 2152 – Unyielding
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Why would Lin Ming’s memories appear in her dream?
Or, how could the Demon God’s Tomb have Lin Ming’s memories?
Thinking of this, Sheng Mei was left confused.
She couldn’t understand why. But all she could do now was quietly look on at Lin Ming’s life.
Her heart trembled all the while.
She felt anticipation because she wanted to know of Lin Ming’s life.
But what she felt more… was fear, fear that Lin Ming would die alone...
After she watched Lin Ming awaken, he bid farewell to the swordsmen and left that Sword Mountain.
She saw Lin Ming head up north, his body worsening with every day.
His cultivation fell at a dreadful speed; he had already become crippled.
Each day, each night, Sheng Mei would follow Lin Ming. Although his back was straight, it was actually filled with infinite desolateness and sorrow. She felt as if her heart was being shorn apart by a saber.
In the past when she left Lin Ming, she thought that he would face a bitter future. But as she truly experienced all of this following behind him, that feeling was completely different.
She was almost completely immersed, feeling for herself the mood of someone who had once stood at the peak of the 33 Heavens, a peerless genius who had saved humanity, but who had then been knocked off into the dust by a single move. Now, he only had several dozen years of life remaining…
Even though Lin Ming’s will was firm and steady, he still couldn’t resist such an attack.
Sheng Mei followed Lin Ming to Green Mulberry City.
She saw street vendors, fortune tellers, mortal martial arts masters, beggars, scholarly students, woodcutter, all sorts of mortals that she had never seen before.
Then, she saw a friendly aunt who gave Lin Ming sesame cake. As Lin Ming savored this sesame cake that was filled with the flavor of mortality, without knowing it, Sheng Mei’s gaze had turned hazy…
She couldn’t imagine how, when humanity was already close to despair, just how much Lin Ming withstood when he lost everything.
Perhaps… this was a fate crueler than allowing the Soul Emperor to freely kill him…
In Green Mulberry City, in the areas of his childhood, Lin Ming slowly visited each place.
Then Lin Ming continued north.
The northern desert was covered in fluttering snow. At some unknown time, Lin Ming’s face had turned pale and bloodless, and he shivered all over as he coughed up blood.
Time and time again.
Sheng Mei knew that what Lin Ming coughed up was his blood essence.
Although his divine soul was weak, his mortal body was still incredibly powerful and could regenerate blood. However, it was impossible for such a weak soul to control such a formidable mortal body; it simply couldn’t resist the exuberant blood vitality. Thus, his body tried to protect itself by coughing up all this blood.
If this continued then he would slowly die as his blood essence left him.
To Sheng Mei, every drop of crimson blood was blinding to the eyes.
She saw Lin Ming run into an old friend. Or, perhaps he had used his sense to find this person on his own initiative.
This was an old man, a man who had experienced the hardships of life to the fullest, and whose body was covered in hidden wounds.
She saw Lin Ming save a little girl.
This little girl’s eyes were pure and wide. Even in the chaotic age of war, when Lin Ming had become incomparably weak and fallen to the ground, only this little girl dared to give water to him.
She saw Lin Ming deal with several mortals. But because his body was wounded, blood continued to flow out…
A once incomparably talented individual had now become so thin and weak.
She saw Lin Ming bid farewell to these people, finally leaving by himself. His body had fallen to a horrendous state, and he limped with every step.
Sometimes, he would even tumble down as he walked.
His clothing was ruined, his hair was untamed and his face was dirty; he looked no different from a mortal beggar.
He wanted to enter a city, but in that wild age of war, a guard believed him to be a refugee and turned him away.
Lin Ming didn’t say anything nor did he do anything to that guard.
He quietly drew backwards and left. Beneath the setting sun, his thin and haggard figure became a needle that dug into Sheng Mei’s heart…
Vaguely, Sheng Mei’s surroundings seemed to blur. She remembered the words that Lin Ming had once said to her in the Soul World, before the great calamity of humanity had truly erupted…
“I remember… that when I was a mortal, an old friend of mine warned me not to be stubborn and practice martial arts. She didn’t want me to spend the rest of my days disabled on a bed. But, my answer was…
“The path of the martial artist is like a flame. Practicing the martial arts will only causepain. The dangers are countless and the road is filled with obstacles. Everyonewho walks down it will eventually turn to ash, but the true martial artist willbe reborn from these ashes. Even if I am only a small and weak moth, I willwalk into the flames without hesitation. I will fight my destiny for a one in amillion chance that I will experience my own samsara and be reborn as a flamingphoenix. And even now, I am no longer a moth…”
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I am not Empyrean Divine Seal. My road is one I will walk down myself. And the choices I make, I will not regret them in the future!
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If only life stayed like the first time we met. Suddenly, looking back through the rivers of time, nothing fills the eyes but mist.
I must struggle in the dust and chaos. Even if I am only asmall wave, I will still bravely move forwards…
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Sheng Mei was deeply aware just how persistent Lin Ming’s heart of martial arts was, just how unyielding it was.
In the past she had once urged him to give up all thoughts of saving humanity. At that time, Lin Ming had only been at the Holy Lord realm. No matter how one looked at it, he was completely unworthy of mention compared to the great tide of destruction that would sweep over the world; he wouldn’t even be able to cause a stir.
Once humanity perished, the small and weak Lin Ming would lose his protection. He would be swept up in the endless storm and likely destroyed.
But Lin Ming didn’t give up. He arrived by himself in the Soul World, searching out an impossible alliance with the spiritas.
Then he fought in the primal god realm. For a ray of hope, he went to the primal god realm to search out a path of salvation…
But now, Sheng Mei could only watch the back of such a person as well as the red blood that dripped from him…
Just what kind of change was this…?
Sheng Mei’s heart quaked.
Without following Lin Ming and experiencing all this for herself, she never realized just how bitter his struggle must have become.
“So many years have passed, he must have died already…”
Currently, everything that happened was from over 7000 years ago. And in any case, looking at Lin Ming’s physical state, he wouldn’t be able to last much longer.
But even so, Sheng Mei continued to follow him to confirm with her own eyes.
She saw Lin Ming go into a mountain valley to enter seclusion.
Sheng Mei saw with surprise that as Lin Ming’s life reached the precipice of despair, he began to disperse his martial arts. His weak soul was unable to withstand the strength of his blood vitality and his cultivation. Thus, he simply chose to drop down his cultivation to a level that his soul force could withstand!
Without a doubt, this would rapidly reduce his remaining life, and even make his final years much more painful.
But he continued forwards without turning back.
As if he wanted to break himself apart and rebuild from scratch, as if he were a butterfly that wanted to break free from its cocoon!
How was this possible!?
Sheng Mei shook her head in disbelief. His soul was so weak and the fires of his life were like a candle in the wind. If he dispersed his cultivation here, then he might simply die where he was!
This was the end. Perhaps the phantoms she saw could last a few more years, and this valley was Lin Ming’s final tomb.
All of this proved that the faint hope she had left within Lin Ming was something she did only to psychologically comfort herself for her own actions. Miracles could appear on Lin Ming’s body, yet what she envisioned would occur to Lin Ming was not a miracle, but an impossibility.
She watched as Lin Ming dispersed his cultivation. Blue veins stuck out from his forehead and he began to scatter blood essence from his pores.
The pain of this could be imagined.
Even so, Lin Ming didn’t cry out in pain once. His expression remained as firm as iron, without the least bit of pain or distortion.
He withstood such pain by himself, because he – would not yield!
Even if he had been pushed to a dead end!
Sheng Mei wasn’t cruel enough to watch. She could already foresee the following result.
Time passed. Through endless pain, Lin Ming grit his teeth and forced himself through it.
One year, two years…
With a completely ruined body, Lin Ming clenched his teeth and continued onwards. A normal martial artist would have died from the pain already.
But Lin Ming’s will was too formidable.
In these two years, the blood essence that overflowed from his body had already dyed the entire cave red. One could see the coagulated blood on the rocks.
Sheng Mei didn’t know how many times she saw Lin Ming fall onto the floor in dry heaves, how many times his forehead dripped with beads of blood, how many times he broke through his lips by biting them, how deep his toes and fingers dug into the rocky soil as it mixed with his blood.
However, he still didn’t give up. The unyielding will in his bones pushed him to give this his all!
Sheng Mei gently sighed, her eyes already becoming blurry…